We got this picture in the mail today.
This past week has been another super solid one! The Lord is blessing us beyond measure and it's so exciting to see our investigators come closer to Christ :)
Monday evening we had dinner at a member's house with Bradley and Shyanne which was super cool! We taught them about tithes and offerings and they were already discussing the night before how they wanted to contribute to the church so that was awesome.
Tuesday we taught 5 lessons which was probably the most I've ever had in one day. We gave Bradley and Shyanne a picture of the Oklahoma City Temple and a picture of Christ Monday night and when we visited them Tuesday night they had already framed them on their wall. They are such dry Mormons, it's crazy. Never seen someone so prepared to receive this gospel.
Wednesday we taught Laura's daughter, Ruby, the restoration which went well :) Then we visited a part-member family and set a baptismal date with the husband, Travis!
Thursday we had a classic missionary miracle. Basically everything fell through and so did ALL of our backups. (We were able to visit with one less-active. He told us he didn't need the sacrament because he hadn't sinned in 23 years. And then he asked why we had weird looks on our faces and we were like, "Bro, you just said you hadn't sinned in 23 years.") We had a member coming out with us in the evening and we had no idea what we were going to do with him. We ended up driving south of Clinton down to a town called Cordell where we only have 1 active member. So we tried to visit the less-actives on the list but with no success (Haha one guy told us, "I'm excommunicated and proud of it!"). So at 8:40 we had one more person to try. We knocked on the door and she wasn't home but her mom was. She's super nice and she let us in. We were able to quickly give her a Book of Mormon and talk about her religious background. She talked about how she grew up baptist but didn't like how there was so much fear of God. She told us her concept of God and it was basically the exact same thing it says in the pamphlets so that was really cool :) We're going to visit her again this week so hopefully she finds some time to read and pray about the Book of Mormon.
Friday after District Meeting we had exchanges with the Weatherford Elders. Elder Burt (his Dad also served in Las Vegas. Do you remember an Elder Burt from your mission dad?) and I fixed a bike, taught Bessie a lesson with Bishop, and talked with Laura and Ruby :)
Saturday was pretty slow and our 2 appointments fell through but we got fed dinner so that was a plus :)
Sunday we had Bradley, Shyanne, and Travis at Church which was good :) Right after Church Elder Knight and I had to drive back to Elder Knight's old area (Shawnee) for a baptism. Yay for 4 hours in the car! :) The baptism went well and we had Sunday dinner with the Wolfe's.
Carl smoked 1 cigarette last Sunday and Monday, a half a cigarette on Tuesday and Wednesday, none on Thursday, 2 on Friday, and none since then. He still needs to give up coffee this week but as far as we know, he's done smoking now! Hopefully he'll be ready for baptism on February 27th. So exciting! Thank y'all so much for the prayers in his behalf, they've definitely been helping a lot :)
This week I've been thinking a lot about the simplicity of the Gospel and how vital it is to have a testimony of the reality of God. If we don't know that God is really there, then nothing else is going to matter. There's a reason that the first interview question for Baptism or the Temple is "Do you believe that God is our Eternal father?" As soon as we accept this reality, any honest seeker of truth will also come to know that Jesus is the Christ, that Jospeh Smith was a prophet of God, and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. But it all starts with a testimony of God. One of my favorite scriptures in the Book of Mormon is in Alma 30:44 "But Alma said unto him: Thou hast had signs enough;will ye tempt your God? Will ye say, Show unto me a sign,when ye have the testimony of all these thy brethren, and also all the holy prophets? The scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea,and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator." I know that God is real, that we are all his children, and that he loves us more than we can comprehend :)
Well, things are going fantastic here in Clinton, Oklahoma and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else! Thank you all for your love and support. I have the best family and friends ever! Happy President's Day and I hope y'all have a wonderful week!
Love, Elder Larsen
Alma 30:44
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