Merry Christmas

Dear Family and Friends,

So I've got some pretty big news. On Tuesday this last week at Christmas Zone Conference, President Mansell announced some big changes to our mission boundaries. The boundaries are expanding and Tulsa Oklahoma and the surrounding area are now a part of the Oklahoma, Oklahoma City Mission!! So what does this mean? No longer will Oklahoma have multiple sets of missionaries in the same ward. Currently, the mission that covers Eastern Oklahoma (The Bentonville, Arkansas Mission) doesn't have enough missionaries to cover all the wards and branches in Tulsa while our mission has more than enough missionaries to cover our wards and branches. This change will allow almost all the wards and branches in Oklahoma to have at least 1 set of missionaries.

So guess what? Elder Hanks and I are still companions and we're getting transferred on Wednesday to Tahlequah, Oklahoma!! :D Tahlequah is East of Tulsa and is near the Oklahoma - Arkansas border. We are SO excited!! We're going to miss Ardmore but we know that the Sister missionaries will take good care of our investigators. Best Christmas Present Ever!! :)

Tuesday we had our Christmas Zone Conference up in Norman so that lasted all day and it was so fun! I love Christmas time :)

Wednesday morning we biked around and ended up doing some tracting. In the afternoon we had a lesson with a less-active and got to teach a media referral from a couple weeks ago. He's a new investigator now so that's sweet! After dinner we went with a member to teach Justin and Kadie about the Doctrine of Christ. It was pretty good lesson. They're planning on coming to church and they are praying about baptism :) After that we got transfer doctrine and found out that we're heading off to Tahlequah even though we just got here to Ardmore this transfer.

Thursday we did weekly planning, tried to hand some of our investigators off to the sister missionaries but the appointments fell through. Since the Sisters are moving into our apartment, we spent the afternoon deep cleaning it for their arrival. After dinner we went caroling to some of the members in the ward which was fun :)

Friday morning we met with the Sisters and told them everything they need to know about our investigators and members. After lunch we biked around in the rain and got to teach some lessons. Our lesson with Renae (a 50 something year old African american woman) was way cool. She got off topic and started talking about Sodom and Gomorrah and how she's always wondered why God would kill all the innocent children that were in the city. So we read Alma 14:1-13 with her and it answered her question. I love the power of the spirit and the Book of Mormon! It was a pretty humbling experience because we could've sat there and listed off a bunch of reasons but it wouldn't have helped her to understand. The Spirit truly is the true teacher :)

Today we're emailing at the church since all the libraries are closed. But there's only 2 computers so we're taking turns with the Sisters and I'm enjoying some basketball and piano :) Tonight we have dinner with a family who just sent a missionary off to Mexico so hopefully we can cheer them up a little bit.

I'm so grateful for this wonderful Christmas season and the opportunity it gives us to celebrate the birth of our savior Jesus Christ. And now after the many testimonies which have been given of him this is the testimony last of all, which I give of him: That he lives! He lives! I know that he suffered and died for us so that through his mercy and grace, we can become clean from sin and progress towards perfection. Let us give him the gift of love this Christmas. Love for him and love for our fellowman.

Thank y'all so much for your love, support, and prayers. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love, Elder Larsen

D&C 76:22-24

1. Elder Hanks and I watching the district videos :)