ARP

Dear Family and Friends,

It's been another awesome week here in the great state of Oklahoma and biking all around Yukon every day is a blast!

Monday we got to go to the stake center and play basketball with the other missionaries which was really fun. In the evening we did some tracting before dinner and got soaked. It was great :)

Tuesday I had a Missionary Leadership Council meeting in Edmond which was fun :)

Wednesday all of our appointments fell through and we did a lot of tracting that didn't yield much fruit. But we got to do some service in the afternoon and we had a good lesson with an investigator named Neil who was about to drop us.

Thursday we did weekly planning in the morning and then in the afternoon we had a lesson with an investigator named Tina. We ended up dropping her because she doesn't let us talk very much and she can't get over Joseph Smith. After that we had a lesson with a less-active and it went pretty well. He doesn't have desire to come back to church but he said he would start reading and praying again. Before dinner we met a less-active who talked our ear off and gave us a random history lesson on the civil war. After dinner we tried some less-actives and potential investigators for the rest of the night without much success.

Friday after district meeting I got to go the OKC 7th ward (My very first area on the mission) on exchanges. It was so much fun :) I got to see a couple of members which was great and it was cool to be back where I started my mission. In the afternoon we helped this non-member family move into their new home. They're such nice people and they invited to come back in the evening for a cookout in their new home. Hopefully they'll be able to go back and teach them this next week. We also did some tracting and it reminded me why my trainer was always so against it ;) Not too many humble people in the 7th ward...

Saturday morning we exchanged back and in the afternoon we did a lot of biking and tracting. No one was very interested but it was a beautiful day :)

Sunday we had ward conference and it was great! The stake president did a cool meeting before sacrament meeting with new, returning, and non yet members. The Edwards family came and seemed to really enjoy it. Tim (the dad) has decided to get baptized and hopefully we'll be able to set a date with him this next week :) After lunch we biked out, tried some less-actives, our appointment at 4 fell through, and so we tracted until dinner. After dinner we had a doorstep lesson with the investigator, Brandon, that we miraculously found last Sunday. He said that the prayer we said with him last week really helped him out a lot and that he's been loving the scriptures we've been texting him each day. He has a really strong desire to change his life for the better and to stop doing bad things. We discussed a little bit of the plan of salvation with him and shared a scripture from the Book of Mormon that really spoke to him and answered a question that he had. It was a neat lesson, I'm so grateful for the guidance and power of the spirit :) After that we had a good lesson on the priesthood with a recent convert family, the Huerta's. Amazing Sunday :)

Last week President Mansell ordered 210 copies of the church's Addiction recovery program so that we can study it as a mission. He relabeled it as "The guide to changing your nature". So I've been going through the 12 step process with the goal of overcoming my addiction to pride and it has been so amazing. One of every missionaries greatest fears is going home the same person they were when they left. The 12 step process really does help with changing nature and not just behavior. Even if you aren't struggling with major addictions like drugs it's still a great way to overcome weakness and character flaws. It is such an inspired program and I'm pumped to study it throughout this next transfer :)

Hope y'all have a wonderful week!

Love, Elder Larsen

Alma 5:13