This past week has been very fun and adventurous, can't believe another whole week has flown by!
Monday we had a member come out teaching with us and everything fell through. But we were able to go visit his home teaching family (the recent convert family) which was really cool :)
Tuesday morning we had a lesson with one of our less-active members. In my studies that morning, I was led to Elder Bednar's most recent conference address about retaining a remission of our sins. So we talked about how only through the sacrament can we truly repent and receive forgiveness of our sins. Apparently she thought that all she had to do was pray to God and say sorry and she was good. So hopefully now she'll be able to make it church more often :) Funny side note: while we were having the lesson on her back porch, some random guy (who apparently tried to rob the less-active a while back) came by and tried to sell us expired Banana flavored twinkies. LOL We told him we didn't have any money so he ended up just giving us a box for free even though we didn't really want any to begin with. Afterwards we were able to teach a lesson to one of our potentials and pick up a new investigator :) Afternoon was pretty slow, we stopped by the brother in law of one of our crazy recent converts and we were actually able to talk to him a little bit. He didn't realize that his Brother in law had given us his address so when he found out that we knew his brother in law he got really excited and we set up a return appointment for Saturday. In the evening we taught Cori and Kelsey (the part member family we taught the restoration last Monday) the plan of salvation which was interesting. She really struggled with the concept of the degrees of glory instead of just heaven or hell. But she's very open minded and she said she would pray about it so hopefully they keep on progressing.
Wednesday was a fun day :) Everything fell through except for ward choir practice #GotToLoveIt Lots of biking and sweating in the morning and afternoon. After a fair amount of tracting, we went to go do service at an assisted living home before dinner. When we showed up, the lady in charge of the volunteer work there said the activity for that day was cancelled because she was going home early sick. So she told us to, "Go around and knock on people's doors and say hi to them." Yay for more tracting! We had a cool miracle though, we found a guy who let us in and talked to us for a while. He accepted a Restoration pamplet and said we could come back again next week :)
Thursday we had weekly planning in the morning and ended up talking to a less-active in the afternoon. After dinner we biked out to visit Marilyn but she wasn't home. So we followed through with the plans we made earlier in the day to try and call her husband/boyfriend Martin. We talked to him on the phone briefly and right before he hung up, they pulled up to their house #Awkard Long story short, we were able to talk to Marilyn for a minute and figure out why she wasn't at church. She said she tried to get Martin to go with her but he didn't want to go and she felt weird going by herself. So she is still interested and still wants to go to church! So glad she is still solid.
Friday afternoon we had to drop one of our investigators which was no fun. We went and taught a catholic lady again which was interesting. Our appointments after dinner cancelled on us.
Saturday morning we helped some members move which was fun. In the afternoon we had our crazy recent convert Brother Black came teaching with us. We went to his Brother in law's and taught him an awesome restoration lesson. He was super interested and thought the first vision was "just beautiful man". So when he gets back in town in 2 weeks we will hopefully be able to teach him more :) In the evening before the adult session of Stake Conference, we went with the recent convert Smith family to a good 'ol southern restaurant named Kendall's. Elder Vincent tried to do the food challenge they have there because the recent convert thought he could do it. You have 1 hour to eat 3 ginormous chicken fried steaks, a salad, 2 sides of mashed potatoes, 2 sides of green beans, and 2 cinnamon rolls. So that was really fun to watch and I got to eat the leftovers :)
Sunday was stake conference and we sung in the choir so that was fun. President and Sister Walkenhorst were there to give their departing testimonies. Weird to think we're getting a new mission president soon...
I heard a really cool quote from President Marion G. Romney this week. It reads,
“Service is not something we endure on this earth so we can earn the right to live in the celestial kingdom. Service is the very fiber of which an exalted life in the celestial kingdom is made. Knowing that service is what gives our Father in Heaven fulfillment, and knowing that we want to be where He is and as He is, why must we be commanded to serve one another? … Service is what Godhood is all about.” (Ensign, Nov. 1982, p. 93.)
“Service is not something we endure on this earth so we can earn the right to live in the celestial kingdom. Service is the very fiber of which an exalted life in the celestial kingdom is made. Knowing that service is what gives our Father in Heaven fulfillment, and knowing that we want to be where He is and as He is, why must we be commanded to serve one another? … Service is what Godhood is all about.” (Ensign, Nov. 1982, p. 93.)
If service to others seems like a burden then we need to change our mindsets. Some of the greatest joy we experience in this life comes from selflessly serving all those around us. “True happiness comes only from making others happy.”—President David O. McKay
Hope y'all have another wonderful week of summer! Thank you for all your love and support, I really do appreciate it :)
Love, Elder Larsen
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