Week 29 – June 1, 2015

Holy Moly, how in the heck is it already JUNE?!?! This year is just flying by! This past week has sort of felt backwards and upside down because we switched up our P-Day, which really threw everything else off. Speaking of P-Days... starting this week our P-Days are going to be changing over to Saturdays—so you can plan on hearing from me then, NOT MONDAYS. Since we work here on campus most of the time our prime time to work is very different than most other areas. Weekdays are our busy contacting time and weekends and evenings are our slower times. It's so opposite of everywhere else, but hey that's Dinkytown for ya! 

As far as my backward week goes... last Monday we decided not to take our P-Day so we spent the afternoon getting things done in the office and going out contacting around campus. That evening the ward had a bean bag tossing tournament for FHE, but Sister S. and I stole one of our investigators away for a minute so we could have a lesson with her since it has been impossible to meet with her lately. Her name is Krista and she is all for getting baptized. In fact, most people in the ward think she is a member. The problem is Krista doesn't understand the importance of baptism and she will NOT keep commitments for the life of her! So tonight we had to lay it out on the table for her and explain our purpose as missionaries is to TEACH. She has been coming to church and activities for months now but has only had maybe three lessons from the missionaries so we expressed how we really need to be meeting so we can TEACH her! Our lesson seemed to go great! I was feeling pretty pumped by the end of it. We even got Krista to pinky promise that we would call us tomorrow, after looking at her schedule and let us know a time she could meet this week. Now fast forward... sadly, the entire week we tried to contact Krista with zero luck in hearing back from her. We called, we text, we even hunted down her address and went to her house (yep—that's what we do—we are totally stalkers) ;) Then when Sunday rolled around, Krista was there at church as usual. It is so strange! Sadly, we have decided we need to drop her until she is ready to LEARN and take the lessons. She loves the missionaries and she loves church so now we just need to wait until she is ready to move forward. We all have different timetables and Krista isn't quite there... yet, but she will get there!

Tuesday, May 26th, we had a mission wide conference. Elder Clark (from the seventy) came to speak to us. So the newest thing that is happening out here in our mission is the fact that all of us missionaries are going to be getting I-Pads to help us further the work. I think most of the mission is getting theirs in about a month, however, since our area is a sort of a different situation than most we are getting ours TOMORROW! Anyway, Elder Clark had some awesome things we went over with us during our training. Here are a few point from Elder Clark:
-Tell your face to be happy!
- People need to see couples who are in love kiss!
-The thing that will make the biggest difference in someone's life is HOW they spend their Sabbath day.
-It's not about how SMART we are, it's about how DILIGENT we are!
-TODAY is about ETERNITY!
-Don't let DUMB stuff determine your eternity!
-Keep the romance alive. Go on weekly dates! (Did you hear that Mom and Dad?) ;)
-Don't let desires become needs.
-Don't fear—only prepare!
-Account with Christ every night and tell him how you wore his name today.

It was a great training and it was so awesome to have ALL of the missionaries from our mission all together. That hardly ever happens so that was kinda cool. We filled up an entire stake center chapel. Since everyone from the mission was there that meant that our whole MTC district that came out here was all there, so of course we had to get some pictures together. Oh man do I love that little MTC family of ours. I sure miss those other elders that went to Texas. One day we will have a grand reunion with all of us!

MY MTC Fam.

All the Sisters in the mission.

That evening, we went to go and see Jenna. We took the new senior missionary couple with us. The last couple just left right before I got here. Now we have the Higbee's here to help us work with the young singles adults. They are total country folk and they talk way country—it is super cute! Anyway, we had a great lesson with Jenna. She has been doing a wonderful job working on her goals. She told us that she has felt like she has needed to tell her Mom that she is a member of the church. She got baptized a year ago and still hasn't told her Mom, but through prayer and the spirit she feels like it is the right time to share that with her Mom. It is so neat to see her grow, learn to listen and follow the promptings of the spirit. Before we left Elder Higbee gave her a priesthood blessing and wow it was amazing! Some of the promises in this blessings were just incredible!

The next day, Wednesday the 27th, we had a BLITZ with the STL's (Sister Training Leaders). A Blitz is when they come to our area and the four of us go out and work in the same area so we can get twice the work done in the same amount of time. I went out with Sister Cox and Sister Steadman went out with Sister Huang. We went on campus to contact. Sister Cox and I tried a new approach, where we would go up to people with a picture of the first vision and ask them if they had ever seen it before? Most of them would say no—okay all of them said no but that gave us the opportunity to start telling them about Joseph Smith and how Christ's Church has been restored on the earth today. It actually worked quite well. By the end of our blitz the four of us had contacted into several different people.

That evening Sis. S and I went to "People Serving People" where we get to go and serve meals at a homeless shelter downtown. It was so cool! Being able to help there sure humbles you and helps you remember how many blessings we have in our lives! Speaking of blessings, have I told you lately how awesome our elders are here? Tonight when we dropped off the car at the institute building (we usually park it there at night) we went inside to hang up the car key in the office and the elders had surprised us with a box of cookies they got us. Apparently, they saw a cute cookie-stand outside somewhere and thought they should get us some cookies. How sweet is that?! Now that is something that would have NEVER happened in Minnetonka. Thanks Elder Evans and Elder Chou! You're the best!!!

Thursday, May 28th, we met Arlyne. She is the girl we helped move a couple weeks back. Arlyne is a member but hasn't been active for most of her life. We met outside and about halfway through our lesson I could tell she was crying behind her BIG DARK sunglasses. It was clear that she needed this lesson. Eventually, she opened up to us and told us that she has been struggling and that she wanted to reach out to God for help. We talked about prayer and how powerful it is. She was out of town this last weekend so she couldn't come to church, but hopefully next week she will be there. A few months back, she was struggling and she said when she came to church it really seemed to help her so we are hoping she can see that God is ALWAYS there in the good times and in the bad times and that we should ALWAYS be reaching out to Him, not just when times get tough.

Today, Karem asked if we could come and visit her. Karem got baptized almost two years ago. That little lady is just the cutest thing! She is so happy and positive and full of life. Everyone just loves Karem! So tonight she simply wanted to talk and ask us some questions that she has been thinking about. One of her questions was, "What does it mean to apply the Atonement in my life?" and "How can I do that?" What good questions! We were able to have a wonderful discussion about what the Atonement is and how we can use it personally. Maybe take a minute this week to think about those questions yourself. What does the atonement mean to you? How do you personally use the atonement on a daily basis? I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on this!

The next day was Friday the 29th, which we used as our P-Day. Sister Steadman had been planning this P-Day for awhile now and of course today when we woke up it was raining but we still didn't let that get in our way! We decided we wanted to ROAD TRIP IT!!! Yep, that's right, we were going on a little road trip all the way over to WISCONSIN!!! Oh yeah, you heard me right! We were going to cross the state line... this was a big deal. Okay, it actually isn't really that far. In fact, Wisconsin is still in our area and we have lots of people who come to our ward that live in Wisconsin, but I had never been there so it was A BIG DEAL! ;)

Our first stop on our mini day trip was to Still Water, MN. It is the cute little town with a main street that runs right down it with lots of tiny fun little shops (that are crazy expensive cause they can do that). We walked up and down the main street and enjoyed doing some window shopping. Then it was time to cross the Mississippi River and hit up Hudson, Wisconsin. Since we had driven all that way (a whole 45 minutes—which we do all the time to get to people's houses) we figured we might as well try and hunt down some less active members that we haven't been able to get a hold of. So that's what we did. We weren't having very good success and we were starting to get pretty hungry. Now the problem was, we were out of money for the rest of the month and our cupboards at the apartment were pretty bare so we didn't really bring any food with us, so there really wasn't much we could be besides just tough it out and be hungry. Our next stop was to go and find this guy Kevin. When we pulled up to the house, we said a prayer and then on our way up the driveway I turned to Sis. S. and said I'm just hoping that these kind people invite us in and feed us dinner. We had no idea who these people were. We knew nothing about Kevin! We didn't know if he was active, if his family were members, or if he even actually lived at this address. Right as we were walking up to the front door, before we even had a chance to knock, the door opened wide and we were greeted by a woman who gave us both a big hug and welcomed us in before we even had a chance to get a word out. Turns out they were members. Kevin didn't live there, but they mentioned their son was going to the YSA ward. The next thing we knew, Paul came walking up the stairs. We totally know Paul! Oh my goodness, crazy how this all happened, but then not even a minute later they invited us to come in and have some dinner. They had already ate, but asked if we were hungry and soon they were making each of us our very own personal pizza. Talk about a tender mercy! Not only did they feed our bellies but they gave us about 30 names of young singles in the area we could try contacting about getting them to come to the ward. Coming to that house was nothing short of a miracle! Heavenly Father thanks for always watching out for us! We sure are blessed!

Yup, that's who we are. We're the FUN SISTERS!

Welcome to Wisconsin baby!

A view of Still Water.

On the way home, we decided to stop by one of the people on the list they gave us. We were going to visit an AJ. Turns out, AJ had moved but we met his ex-girlfriend Gina who happens to be amazing! Once again we were led to that house for a reason maybe not for AJ but we will definitely be going back to see Gina.

I have to say one of the very best things about our little trip was the simple fact that we were able to leave the city and get out to some REAL country! Oh it felt so good! You could breathe! It was truly breathtaking out there! I'm already looking forward to our next time to go out there!

Saturday, May 30th, we were able to go and teach Iris the second half of the plan of salvation. Early in the week we came by and gave her a BOM and then today we brought her one in Chinese, hoping it might help her comprehend what she is reading. Iris is amazing! I love teaching her. It is very different to be able to teach someone who comes from having zero background of who God and Jesus Christ are. But she is learning quickly! My favorite is being able to hear her pray to Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ. It's so neat to be apart of this process with someone.

That evening our district leaders had a baptism for one of their converts (a 14 year old boy by the name of Oustin). We invited Ranelle from our ward and her non-member boyfriend Jordan. We figured it would be a neat experience for Jordan to be able to see a baptism. It was a wonderful service and Jordan seemed to really enjoy being able to be there.

The baptism was right by the temple so we to enjoyed an evening walk around it.

After, the four of us went out to dinner and were able to talk with Jordan some more about the baptism and the church in general. Ranelle has done a great job teaching him. He comes to church most Sundays and they even read the BOM together. How cool is that?! It is looking like Jordan is ready to start meeting with us which is super exciting! So next week will be our first official lesson with him.

Yesterday, was another good Sunday at church. We had a lesson on the Sabbath day and how we should try and remember to be reverent while we are at church. Later we went out with the Higbees to try and find one of our members by the name of Hope. We were able to find her house. She wasn't home but her sister Ann, who just got here from Kenya, was there and we were able to set up an appointment to come today and visit them. We are so excited to be able to meet with them! Yay for new investigators!

Then we finished the night off with our weekly planning. I have so say, Sister S. and I did dang good this last week with our goals so here is to another awesome week!

Goals baby!

Scripture of the week- Mosiah 4:9-10
Love you- Sister Larson

PS- Theo and Uffda made it official and tied the knot this week. Aren't they just the cutest?! This next week they will be heading off to their honeymoon. Stay tuned for pictures ;)

Theo and Uffda!

You may kiss the Bride.

Thanks Bree Bree! I ALWAYS love getting surprises in the mail!

Hanging out with Bob the Bear.

I sure miss that girl.

Week 28 – May 25, 2015

Thank you everyone for all of the birthday wishes, packages, and cards that you sent (I think there are still some on the way too). You all sure knew how to make a missionary's birthday special!

This area is quite different from Minnetonka and this last week there was no school because it was a break between semesters so it was very dead around campus so we really didn't do much contacting.

Monday 5/18
Last P-Day was a day full of all sorts of hick-ups, but we tried to make the best of it and get as much done as possible. That night the ward had FHE, but we ended up just staying for the spiritual thought.

Tuesday 5/19
Today we had our first district meeting with our new district in this area and again it was very different than what I have been used to, but I am open to change, it is just going to take some getting used to. Our district here is much bigger and then today we happened to also have the zone leaders, APs and STLs there were like 20 of us. But we had a really good training on leadership.

We did spent a little time this afternoon down in Dinky Town doing some contacting down by the restaurants and let me tell you we sure met some interesting people. But the cool thing is, as different as we all are, we are ALL still sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father and each one of us needs our Savior Jesus Christ.

That night we met up with Hilary to say goodbye. She has been working with the missionaries here since the fall and is pretty darn close to getting baptized, but unfortunately, she just graduated so she is moving away. But on a happy note, we were able to contact the Bishop and the elders where she will be moving to make sure she won't be forgotten about. She will be welcomed with lots of open arms! Oh, man I just love how the church works the same ALL OVER THE WORLD. How blessed are we?!

Saying goodbye to Hilary.

And we finished the night off by going over to visit Jenna. We had a lesson on our individual worth and on self improvement. Then after we all spent time coming up with some goals we wanted to work on in these five areas: PHYSICAL, SPIRITUAL, EMOTIONAL, SOCIAL, and MENTAL, we talked about how there is a balance in all things and how God wants each of His children to take care of themselves in ALL five areas of their lives. If you haven't sat down recently and thought about where you are right now and where you want to go, I would suggest maybe taking some time to think about these five different areas of your life and possibly set some goals for yourself. Maybe just pick one or two things you want to work on so you don't get overwhelmed. After you master those things then you can start working on a couple other goals you want to work on. Remember, Mosiah 4:27 (thanks for that scripture this week Andrew).

Wednesday 5/20
Today we attempted to go contacting on campus, but that was a complete failure considering there were literally ZERO people on campus, but hey at least we tried, right?! We had our weekly meeting with our Bishop and then we went out to dinner with a couple of the sisters from the ward. Opal and Allison took Sister Steadman and I out to Potbelly's for dinner. It was fun to go out with some other young ladies our age (just another perk of working in a singles ward).

Then that evening we went to help out Ranelle (from our ward) with a recital she was putting on for her music students with special needs. Oh my goodness, it was so neat to be able to be apart of that! These children were so sweet! You could just feel their sweet and innocent spirits. Her students had all sorts of different kinds of handicaps, but they were able to use music therapy to help them. I loved being able to simply watch how enthusiastic they were to get up on stage and show off their talents. Being around these children helped me remember what is truly important in this life. So often I get caught up in little silly things that mean absolutely nothing when you step back and look at the big picture. It simply comes down to loving one another and following Christ's example- NOTHING ELSE MATTERS! I hope and pray I can become more like these children who helped open my eyes.

Thursday 5/21
This afternoon President Forbes and Sister Forbes came to the institute to meet with us and let us know that we are going to be getting a new senior missionary couple this weekend who will be working in our area with us. That will be another first for me, but I hear working with the senior couples is awesome so I am looking forward to that.

Sis. Steadman, Sis. Forbes and me.

We went to visit a girl by the name of Zoua (a less active member). She was so cool, but gosh dang it she just graduated too and is moving so that was my first and last time getting to visit her :(

Then we went to see another less active member, Eva, but guess what she is STAYING! She is also pretty cool so I look forward to working some more with her. Then we saw Brei one last time before she left for the summer. Hopefully, we will be hearing about her mission call next week and where she will be going! Ahh- so exciting!


Friday 5/22 (MY BIRTHDAY)
This morning I heard the alarm go off extra early and saw Sister Steadman sneak out of bed... And then when our actual alarm went off at 6:30 and I got up I realized she had gotten up to decorate the house! I know, I have the best companion EVER! Thanks Sister! I think my favorite part was when I went into the bathroom to discover our full length mirror covered with 28 different things she loves about ME! How sweet is that?! I also was spoiled with lots of love sent to me from back home! Here is a BIG THANKS to everyone who sent me love and made my birthday so special!

Birthday love from Sis. Steadman.

We kick started my birthday off by actually going over to Jenna's to celebrate her birthday (it was the day before and apparently it wasn't that great so we wanted to have a re-do for her). So we went over to her apartment and made a big birthday breakfast. We made pancakes or I should say we "tried" to make pancakes. They turned out absolutely HORRIBLE! I think Jenna's were ok, but mine were totally doughy on the inside so we had to pull them apart and try to cook their guts which helped cook them, but they were still quite nasty and dry, but at least we had a good laugh and made a good memory.

Our nasty Birthday pancakes.

Sister Steadman ended up going back to our place to make some normal food which consisted of tuna sandwiches and potato chips—I would say a pretty good birthday lunch. And then it was off to go serve with the St. Paul Zone. We went to Feed My Starving Children, but it was a new location so that was fun to mix things up a bit. Oh and here is the coolest part, if you go there on your birthday, they give you a FREE t-shirt since it's your birthday and they have cool shirts so I was pretty stoked. Plus—we all know how I am about getting FREE stuff. Just another thing to go with my collection now ;)

FMSC with the Zone!

Saving the world one meal at a time.

For dinner, Monique from the ward made me a birthday dinner and let me request what I wanted. I had heard about her famous crepes so that is what I went with and let me tell you they were quite good! Pretty much we ate dessert from dinner, but it was my birthday so why not, right?! Oh, and then she topped it off by sending us home with ice cream cupcakes from Cold Stone because I told her it was a family tradition to have ice cream cake on our birthdays—I know I was so spoiled!

Ice cream cake on our faces?! I'm not sure how that happened. 

Friday evening at the ward activity, we ended up having a chalk drawing contest out in the institute parking lot. The elders and us made a team and let me tell you our parking spot looked pretty dang good and it even had a spiritual theme. Ours was totally the best, however, the judges gave us third place cause they didn't want everyone else to feel bad ;) JK Oh and after, somehow, my body started getting traced and a crime scene was drawn around me—it was not a pretty picture, good thing, my guts where only chalk guts ;)

Chalking it up Missionary style!

Saturday 5/23
Today, we took Becca from the ward with us to go and hunt down a sister she visit teaches who actually happens to live in Hopkins. Sadly, she wasn't home, but since we were already in Hopkins I figured we should probably swing by and see how Kathy was doing and sure enough she was better than ever just soaking up as much of the gospel as ever. Turns out she is actually going to be speaking at the President's Fireside next month—isn't that awesome? Go Kathy! I can't wait to go and hear her speak—oh man that lady is one of a kind! I'm so happy I was able to sneak in a quick visit with her. Her grandson lives by the University so we gave her our information so she could pass it along to him. Hopefully, he will contact us. If he is anything like his grandma I already know we will like him!

Then tonight we had our weekly planning session at the house... and yes there may have been kettle corn involved ;)

Sunday 5/24
Church was awesome today—there was a special feeling of reverence there. I love how quiet it is during the sacrament service at a singles ward because there are no children making noise. It really does give you the time to check in with God and think about all that our Savior has done for us. I am so grateful for the sacrament and for the beautiful gift of forgiveness the Savior has provided for each one of us. We are truly eternally indebted to Him!

This afternoon, we met with Iris (a student Sister Steadman had taught once before). We went over the plan of salvation. It was such an awesome lesson! She grew up in China and doesn't have a very good understanding of God or Jesus Christ so it is so neat to be able to teach her about them. She LOVED learning about God's plan for us and is excited for us to meet with her again. We didn't have a BOM (Book of Mormon) on us, but she is EXCITED and looking forward to getting one soon! Iris is serious amazing! I am looking forward to continuing to teach her and help answer her questions.

Tonight we had dinner with some of the summer sales people who are out here selling for the summer. We have about 60 new people in the ward who have come in these last two weeks, it's insane! We are hoping to go around and meet all of them. We all know how hard summer selling can be so we just want to make sure they are getting the support they need from the ward because this summer is going to be rough and heaven knows they need all the support they can get.

And then we finished the night off by heart attacking our elders here. They are so good to us and we just wanted to show them how much we appreciate all they do for us. Oh I forgot to mention that even the elders went out and got me presents and wrote me the sweetest letters for my birthday. What awesome guys! Our relationship with these elders is quite different than my last area. I love them both we just show our love differently here in Dinky Town :)

Love you all, Sister Larson
Scripture for the week: D&C 24: 8


PS- The "Spiritual Summer Workout" started today MAY 25th and goes through AUGUST 22nd. Sister Steadman and I have already done our spiritual workout for the day. Have you?

LINK TO THE

SPIRITUAL SUMMER WORKOUT

Yeah... I live here!

BRR... it's COLD again! I sweat the weather here is bipolar!

Theo and Uffda's second date!

How cute are they!

Theo and Uffda celebrate with me!

Week 27 – May 18, 2015

Oh my, my, my... I just want to start off by saying that I am going to be turning 28 years old this week and, well, I still CAN'T parallel park! Shoot that is just embarrassing! Being here in the city is sure different. I honestly can't say I have had to parallel park since I was 15 when I had to do it in drivers ed. About 20 minutes ago I was able to give some people some pretty good free entertainment by simply letting them watch me TRY and parallel park. Sadly, I eventually gave up and drove away. Sister Steadman was laughing so hard we could hardly breathe! Good times! Speaking of being with Sister Steadman, it is AMAZING!!! We truly are the DREAM TEAM!!! I can't even begin to tell you how good it feels to be back with her! But don't get me wrong I sure as heck miss my Sister Parke! Last Monday feels like it was FOREVER ago with all of the changes that have been going on, but lets see what all I can cover.

Last Monday, May 11th, when we were at the library e-mailing home when the elders finally attacked our car. Sadly, they were very creative! They copied us and had gotten a car marker and written on our back window, "WE LOVE MORMON BOYS!- Please Honk". Come on guys you can do better than that! But I guess that's the best they could come up with. Well, you know how Sister Parke and I are... WE NEVER LOSE. So later that day we found their car and got them back! And we figured we should just do the SAME thing back to them. So we wrote on their car, "WE LOVE MORMON BOYS!" Ha! Oh man- we were dying laughing when we drove away. Apparently when they saw it, they couldn't believe it. Once again, the sisters had won!

Serious Elders that's the best you can do?!

Gotcha!!! Bahahaha!

That afternoon we went to see Bob. I was so happy we were able to see him one more time before I left. He was the only one home so we had to meet outside on his deck. Sadly, it was pretty cold and it had started to sprinkle. I wanted so badly to have this lesson with Bob! We both said a silent prayer and asked God to help us and to hold off on the rain, just until we were done meeting with Bob and guess what?! That is exactly what happened! Heavenly Father heard our prayers and the rain held off just until we got into our car. The best part about that was the fact that we had an incredible lesson with Bob. We read about the tree of life and talked to Bob about where he was and where he wanted to be and how he was going to get there. I think Bob had a bit of a wake up call. Oh and then before we left I asked Bob if he would say a sincere prayer with us. Normally, he jokes through his prayers and this time I asked him to be sincere with his Father in Heaven and TODAY was the first time Bob actually said a sincere and real heart felt prayer. It was so cool! It made sitting outside in the cold weather so worth it!

That night we went over to Sister Larson's for dinner and then headed over to visit my favorite Mussers! We had a great time just chatting with Sister Musser and her sister Lisa for a while while we bundled up in blankets trying to get warm from being out in the cold for so long this afternoon. Then we watched the Restoration. Such a good video! If you haven't watched it in this last year... WATCH IT! It is just a great reminder of the restoration of the church and how powerful it is! And then our last stop for the night was to go and see Sister Harman and Sister Sangrin. Months ago, I had given Sister Sangrin a picture of "my tree" (it's MY place—where I have spent many hours sitting and talking with God). Anyway, she surprised me tonight with the sweetest gift! She had painted me a picture of "my tree". It meant so much to me. That woman is in so much pain and has very bad vision, but she did that for me! I will cherish that painting forever! Thank you Sister Sangrin!

Tuesday, May 12th, I hit my 6th MONTH MARK!!! It's official I am 1/3 of the way through my mission. Wow—I can't believe it! Today was also my last day in Minnetonka so it was full of many goodbyes. First we stopped to visit Sister Kucera. She has been so down ever since her dear husband passed away, but I wasn't leaving without seeing her! She is an angel! I had my very first teaching evaluation with the Kuceras and they just have always had a special place in my heart and always will!

Next we swung by to see Sister Yule at work and to let her know I would be leaving. Then, since it was my last day, I had to go to SNUFFY'S of course with Brother Longstreet. I enjoyed my last California burger. Now, normally we get a malt every week, but this week we switched things up and went for a sundae. The thing was absolutely HUGE, but don't you worry Sister Parke and I were able to pound that whole thing down. We don't mess around when it comes to Snuffy's ;)

Lunch at Snuffy's with Brother Longstreet. Sure going to miss it!

Then it was time to go and see Angie. Oh man, I am going to miss that woman! She is so stinking stubborn, but I love her! I hate the idea of leaving and knowing that I no longer will be around to help these people, but I have complete faith in Sister Parke so at least I know I am leaving them in good hands. While we were there, Sister Parke threw out the baptismal date of June 20th—Go Parke! Come on Angie you CAN DO THIS!!! And get this, before we left, Angie gave me a HUG! That was my first and last hug from her. I had tried to hug her in the past and learned that was a no no, but since I was leaving she HUGGED ME!!! Yeah—now I know I really did get through to Angie. She loves me even if she has a hard time showing it—I know it ;)

After that, we drove to Hopkins where we went to see my two new Minnesotan Grandmas, Sister Erlendsson and Kathy. First we went to see Sister Erlendsson. Now hands down she is going to be the very hardest person for me to leave! She truly has become MY Grandma! I love that woman and would adopt her if I could! We played a few last rounds of Hi-Q (our favorite game—but we've added a gratitude twist to it). And then we were actually able to talk Sister Erlendsson into coming downstairs to meet Kathy. My dream is that those two become best friends and can just help each other out! They hit it off quite well so I would say they are definitely on their way to becoming besties ;) Kathy informed me that she had already looked up where my new ward meets so she could come and find me if she needed to. Ha—oh Kathy—I just love her!

My two Minnesotan Grandmas.

That night for dinner I requested to have dinner with Steve and Keri (since it was my last night and all). We ate out in the backyard even though it was a bit chilly and shared the good memories we have shared over the last several months. Bishop Patterson came over to the house that night and he gave me the sweetest beanie from Peru (where his son is serving his mission right now). I had seen it over at his house before and mentioned how much I loved it. I couldn't believe he actually was giving it to me as a gift! He explained to me that I was like this hat. I didn't need to try and be a boring gray hat when I was a bright fun colorful hat. I liked that! Bishop is always giving me wise counsel. Thanks Bishop—you and your words of wisdom will be missed!

Theo wearing the awesome hat Bishop Patterson gave me.

Then it was back out for a couple more last goodbyes. I had to go say goodbye to Rahel, Heaven, and Coco of course. And then we stopped by Jennifer's too so I could give her a hug bye.

We ended the night off with Steve and Keri by having an ultimate bubble gum blowing contest! I found out last week that Steve absolutely HATES gum so it was only right to go out and buy some DOUBLE BUBBLE to celebrate my last night together. Steve was dying just at the idea of having to put that stuff in his mouth, but he was a good sport. Turns out Steve actually never even learned how to blow a bubble before. Trying to teach him was absolutely hilarious! I was laughing so stinkin' hard! Keri showed off her skills by doing double bubbles. You will be happen to know Steve was able to get a couple little baby bubbles before he finally had had enough and spit his gum out. Thanks for having fun with it Steve! It is kinda funny though—this guy can do iron man races, but he can't blow bubbles! Before going off to bed we had "family" prayer together. I honestly can't even begin to express the love I have for Steve and Keri. They are going to be missed tremendously!

Wednesday, May 12th, was the big day. Transfers had finally come. Before we left I made sure to get one last moment in my hammock, out on the dock and I even had a moment with God in the sauna (that was my special little place through the winter—where I would go to talk with Heavenly Father). And I honestly don't know what has happened but even on my way out the door, Jack (their dog) got a kiss goodbye from me. I'm even going to miss my little Jack Jack. Oh man, this place truly has become my home. When we drove out the drive way and down the road tears slowly streamed down my face at the simple fact that I knew I wouldn't be coming "HOME" tonight. But I know change is good so after a minute of tears I cheered up and looked forward to the future!

A TON of missionaries were at the transfer meeting. Sister Steadman actually wasn't there, because she was on an exchange, so I had to wait just a little longer to meet up with my new companion. But my new Zone (the St. Paul Zone) went out to lunch together. They seem like a pretty cool group of missionaries. I'm looking forward to working with new people! I really do like change so this will be fun and exciting!

Finally, it was time... I was in "DINKY TOWN" (my new area- where I live). We pulled up to my apartment building and I saw Sister Steadman. We instantly just ran up to each other and gave each other the BIGGEST hug ever!!! We couldn't hold back our excitement! WE WERE COMPANIONS!!! This was actually happening! We couldn't help but scream with excitement. We got my stuff moved in and got me all unpack.

Welcome to DINKY TOWN... My new home!

That afternoon we had a meeting with the Bishop here and I was able to meet the elders in our ward—Elder Evans and Elder Chou. We work with the elders a ton here in this area and they are both super cool so that will be good!

Thursday, May 14th, we got a ride to Bloomington so we could get a car. There was a minute there where this area didn't have a car (because well Sister Steadman totaled it—but shhh don't tell her I told you). Thankfully, the mission was nice enough to get us another one, but now I have to drive it ALL the time (which means I better get the whole parallel parking thing down and quick). We helped in the mission office for a bit and then Elder Thompson (one of the senior missionaries) totally hooked us up by taking us to what they call the "Celestial Kingdom". This is the storage unit for all of the extra stuff old missionaries aren't using. Oh my goodness—it truly was like walking into heaven! Our apartment was lacking to say the least. We were in desperate need of some things, not to mention some major TLC! But Elder Thompson told us to take whatever we could use so that is exactly what we did! We so got hooked up!

Later that day I was able to go and meet Dona and teach her about God—we shared Alma 22 with her! It was a good lesson. And then we stopped by to see Brei. She is getting ready to go on a mission so we just talked to her about things she could do now to help her prepare herself now. The sad part is they're both leaving—in fact most of the people I taught this week here are leaving now for the summer since this was the last week of the semester so that's kinda stinking. Looks like we are going to be doing a lot of contacting and less active work!

Brei and us outside of the church.

Our last visit for the night was to go and see Jenna (she is less active). She was awesome! We had a great lesson and then were able to do some handy work by putting a broken bookshelf back together. Sister Steadman and I felt like quite the little handy-mans.

Oh and then on our drive home tonight I did the worst thing ever... by total accident of course. Oh my goodness, I can't even believe I am telling you this... So it was crazy raining out and there were lots of puddles and there was this one road with some construction on it which had a big-o pot hole with tons of muddy water. Anyways, it was dark, it was raining, I couldn't see very well and I totally ran right over the pot hole- not a big deal right?! WRONG! The next thing I heard was a high pitch scream! And then I saw what I had just done! There was girl walking down the road in a little white jacket with her boyfriend who was holding the umbrella for her when BAM! I hit the hot hole and a wave of nice muddy water came flying through the air drenching this girl. She screamed, her boyfriend busted up laughing, and I drove away fast feeling like the biggest meany ever! I swear it was an accident. But I am telling you what happened I thought only happened in the movies, but nope tonight I made that little scene a reality. Poor girl—please forgive me!!!

Friday, May 15th, Sister Steadman and I worked on a huge project! We made a "Spiritual Summer Workout" for those of our investigators who will be going home for the summer. But then we got to thinking we should do it with them and even give it to members of the ward and then we thought shoot why not give it to our family and friends back home to do it will us as well. It starts this coming up Monday, May 25th, and goes for 13 weeks. Okay—so if you are up for the challenge and want to bulk up SPIRITUALLY then this is for you! There is a scripture, video, or talk to read or watch Monday through Saturday. It's going to be AWESOME! I totally challenge you to do it!!! Please let me know once you have started :)

This afternoon we helped Arlyne move, had dinner with Jaren, stopped in to the Friday night ward activity to see Hilary (one of our investigators who is graduating),and then it was back to finishing up our little summer study guide project.

Saturday, May 16th, we had to say goodbye to Dona, but she was so excited about her summer workout we gave her. I'm going to cross my fingers that I am still here in the fall when she gets back so I can continue to work with her.

This afternoon we had a meeting with our ward mission leader. We went to visit Naye (a less active member who is also graduating and moving). And then we did some campus shopping! HOLY COW!!! You would never believe how awesome Sister Steadman and I did! Okay, so tons of people are moving away right now and in every dorm building they have huge boxes of things people are getting ride of like clothes, electronics, food, etc. Remember how I mentioned that our little apartment was in some need! Well, we figured we needed to take advantage of our resources so that is exactly what we did! We did what I like to call upper class dumpster diving! Heavenly Father was truly watching out for us because we were able to get hundreds of dollars or worth of stuff for ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!! Oh man, Aunt Trish you would have been so proud of your little Niece Jessi Bob! I got 'er done!!!

Oh yeah! We rock at this dorm shipping thing! 

But dragging this stuff across campus just able killed us in the process!

Dumpster diving at its best!

Check out ALL OUR FINDS! We did dang good! 

By the end of the day we were so totally pooped we went home and enjoyed making a nice dinner out of our free finds! What a glorious ending to a fantastic day!

Sunday, May 17th, I got to go check out my new ward for the first time and it's good! I have a feeling I'm going to really like it here! Proselyting hours here are quite the opposite of everywhere else—nights and weekends are our dead time and day time is the time to be out on campus getting work done. So tonight we did our weekly planning. While we were planning, we enjoyed some popcorn and needed a little break at one point to bake some chocolate cookies (don't worry we shared them with the elders) ;) We also set some awesome goals for this up coming transfer. I have to say I am so looking forward to these next six weeks working with Sister Steadman. We have already decided that this is going to be THE BEST TRANSFER EVER!!!

Making our new planners and having way too much fun!
 

Love you all!
-Sister Larson
Scripture for the week: 1 Corinthians 9:24 Look it up!

Home sweet home.

Sister Steadman does such a good job at welcoming me! Gosh I love her!
 

You think we have enough glasses? What if I told you we had more?!

Theo found himself a little lady! Her name is Uffea. And let me tell you it was love at first sight! Sorry he is in his whitey tighties... he got caught sunbathing in his undies—don't tell. It's a dang good thing Uffea takes him as he is. Stay tuned to see how their relationship unfolds... ;)

*** Note from Trevor***

I will be traveling next week and thus, Jessic.... Sis. Larson's blog will be updated one day late, on Tuesday. Sorry for the inconvenience.