Staying in Yukon!

Dear Family and Friends,

Another awesome week has flown by here in Yukon, this ward is so awesome and I'm excited to get to spend another transfer here with Elder May! :)

Monday for P-day we got to go to TopGolf and it was so much fun! In the evening after dinner we did some tracting.

Tuesday we visited the Edwards family, gave some BoM audio CDs to an investigator, and did a lot of biking around trying to visit people :)

Wednesday morning we went with a member to go visit a former investigator named Joseph and we were able to have a pretty good discussion with him. We got to know him and hopefully we'll be able to go back and teach him so more this next week. After lunch we visited our investigator, Danny, and he let us in for a little bit. He's going through a lot of stuff right now but we were able to read a little of the BoM with him and he said he wants to go to church soon. He still seems pretty promising. After dinner we went out teaching with a member and everything fell through.

Thursday morning we weekly planned and in the afternoon we tracted, tried potential investigators and less-actives, tracted, tried more potential investigators and less-actives, tracted, tried some investigators and members, and tracted. It was a great day and we got to sew lots of seeds for future missionaries! :)

Friday was amazing. We had a good lesson with a less-active, taught the Restoration to an active family and set a date for them to share the gospel, and had a great visit with a LA/PM family. It was so much fun :)

Saturday morning we had correlation. In the afternoon we had a 2 hour discussion with an inactive member who is a member of the Hebrew Roots movement. It was a fun discussion, pretty interesting how he's a Christian and a Jew at the same time...

Sunday was good. Haha I got asked to give the closing prayer in sacrament meeting and I totally forgot about it until we were done singing the closing hymn and my comp reminded me. It was a long walk from the back of the chapel ;) After church we had a couple of recent-convert lessons, tried some less-actives, and did some tracting and got to share the Because He Lives video with a really sweet old couple. Awesome day!

One of my all-time favorite Mormon Messages is one for the youth titled, "Staying Spiritually Fit". If you haven't seen it, you should definitely watch it.

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2016-01-006-staying-spiritually-fit?lang=eng

Here's a cool quote from the church's Addiction Recovery Program I found this last week under Step 10:Daily Accountability

"To retain what you have gained, you must stay in fit spiritual condition. You do this by asking the kind of searching questions that Alma suggested about your feelings, thoughts, motives, and conduct. Through daily self-evaluation, you will keep from slipping into denial and complacency."

I think this ties in well with 2 Nephi 28:29-30

"29 Wo be unto him that shall say: We have received the word of God, and we need no more of the word of God, for we have enough!

30 For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have."

Daily accountability is key to good spiritual health because if you're not going forwards, you're going backwards. God cares a lot more about the direction we're heading than the speed we're traveling at. The most important thing is to make sure we're always headed in the right direction :)

Thank y'all for all your love and support, I hope y'all have a simply wonderful and revelation-filled conference weekend!

Love, Elder Larsen

D&C 68:4

 

Spring is here!

Dear Family and Friends,

Spring and summer are upon us and I couldn't be more excited! I can now say I've survived 2 winters here in Oklahoma :) It's supposed to be 92 degrees today. Crazy!

Monday evening we did some tracting before dinner and had a cool miracle! So there's this really old guy in our ward who lives at an assisted living home and when we visited him a few week ago he told us about how one of the nurses who comes and cares for him has a wife who is a member of the church. He also told us that they were thinking about having their daughter blessed at the church. So we encouraged him to keep talking with him about the church and see if he's interested. Well Monday evening we were out knocking on doors and we talked to this guy who let us in and agreed to have us say a prayer for him and his family. After we said the prayer we talked with them for a while and he eventually mentioned how one of his patients is really old and a member of our church. At that moment I made the connection that this was the family that the old member was talking about. So tracting into them was certainly a miracle, I don't know how else we would've figured out where they live. Not sure how interested they are but we'll probably stop back by in a few weeks and see if we can read the Book of Mormon with them. After that we had dinner with Tim (his wife and kids were all gone for spring break) and tried to get him to let us help him quit smoking.

Tuesday we ended up doing some tracting. We also stopped by Tim's and he basically decided that he was going to stop smoking without our help. So that was slightly frustrating since he failed to quit on his own again. Hopefully in a couple of weeks he'll be willing to accept our help.

Wednesday we had Greenie graduation for Elder May. It was really fun and we all got some good advice on how we can become better teachers. After dinner we had an eternitgator who was supposed to come out teaching with us but he cancelled so we ended up tracting. The 2nd house we knocked on this lady named Gail invited us in #miracle We started talking with her and found out that her husband died back in August. We then got to teach the plan of salvation and bear testimony of eternal families and temples. It was a super cool lesson and afterwards she said that we answered some questions that she had had for a long time. We're really excited to hopefully start teaching her :)

Thursday we did weekly planning, did a little service, went out teaching with one of the youth in the ward, and went out teaching with the eternigator after dinner.

Friday we had interviews with President Mansell. While we were waiting to be interviewed we got to practice door approaches and also responding to people's concerns about polygamy and our potential to become like God. It was fun :) In the afternoon we had some lessons with some less-actives and then we got to have dinner with a cool part-member family. 

Saturday morning we had correlation and then right afterwards we went out teaching with a member to visit a potential. She wasn't home so we called her and she hung up on us so that was unfortunate... #Dropped But we had some success with our backups so that was awesome! In the afternoon we were biking around when a car pulled up and some high school kids got out and walked over to us and asked, "Hey, are y'all Mormons?" Apparently, someone gave them a Book of Mormon as a gift and they were wanting to know more about it and what makes us different from all the other churches in Oklahoma. Talk about a perfect opportunity to teach a simple, powerful restoration lesson. It was so cool! Hopefully they end up reading it and having more questions for us. After dinner we had a "temple tour" at the church/temple. A member of the bishopric was there to teach a little about the temple and to walk around the grounds and answer questions. We and the Sisters in El Reno invited all our investigators and less-actives to attend. The Sisters had a couple investigators who came and we had our recent convert family who showed up. It was a cool experience :)

Sunday was good. Nothing too exciting at church. Our lunch/teaching appointment in the afternoon with the part-member family we tracted into 2 weeks ago fell through... But we got to go to a stake general priesthood meeting in the evening which was awesome! :)

Serving here in Yukon has reminded me just how important member missionary work is. We're having a hard time finding solid investigators through our own finding efforts so we're shifting our focus over to the members of the ward. There's an excellent Ensign article by Clayton M. Christensen in the February 2005 volume titled, "Seven Lessons on Sharing the Gospel". I would encourage all of y'all to read through it and see what you can do to better share the gospel with those around you. We can all succeed as missionaries if we'll simply just invite those around us to come closer to Christ :)

Thank y'all so much for all your love and support! Hope you have a wonderful week and happy spring!

Love, Elder Larsen

D&C 24:12

Families are the Gospel

Dear Family and Friends,

Another week here in Yukon has flown by. I'm having so much fun and I love it here :) It's not always easy to bike in freezing rain but it can be really rewarding!

Monday evening we had dinner and a lesson with the Edwards family, Tim is making some good progress and hopefully will be able to quit smoking this next week :)

Tuesday the weather was perfect. In the morning we did some last minute service for some members who were moving some furniture and in the afternoon we did some service for a lady in the ward. Before dinner we did some tracting and tried to visit some less-actives. After dinner, we had a lesson with one of our less-active recent converts who got baptized back in November and she made it to church yesterday so that was awesome :)

Wednesday was great. We started planning a baptism for a kid whose parents are less-active and whose 9th birthday is today. Long story short, we got him baptized last night while he was still 8 years old because he was adamant about doing the right thing and getting baptized when he was 8 years old. It was pretty cool and hopefully it helps the whole family to become active again :) Anyways, we dropped one of our investigators because she refused to read the Book of Mormon. We did some tracting and ran into a Jew who tried to bash us not with Joseph Smith or the Book of Mormon or Brigham Young but with the king james version of the bible. It was pretty great. The whole time I was thinking "Where is he trying to go with this? We believe the bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly..." Some people are crazy. Cool random miracle though: we stopped by one of our investigators who has been feeling sick for a couple of weeks now but is starting to feel a little better. As we were talking in his garage, he offered to give us a small guitar without strings on it. Elder May accepted it and we biked off to our next appointment with some members. As we were meeting with them, one of them spotted the guitar sticking out of Elder May's backpack and asked him about it. She then took the guitar, found some guitar strings in her garage, and strung the guitar for him. Turns out she used to own a music shop and was glad to have an opportunity to work on a guitar again. So I guess the Lord really wants my companion to learn how to play the guitar ;)

Thursday we did weekly planning and did a lot of tracting and sewing seeds :)

Friday after district meeting we had a good lesson with a less-active. Then we got to teach a little review lesson to the kid who got baptized yesterday. He's such a smart kid. Then we did some tracting before dinner. And guess who we ran into? The head pastor of Grit Church of all people. #GotToLoveIt The conversation started out pretty chill but then he started asking us what we believe and the next thing we know, he's showing us an anti Joseph Smith book and telling us we should look into it. It just makes me so sad to how Satan has managed to deceive so many people. But it makes me more and more grateful for the Book of Mormon because it is the convincing evidence, one of the fruits of by which we can know truth.

Saturday morning we had correlation with our ward mission leader and then in the afternoon we had a lesson with some less-actives and did a lot of tracting. Miracle/highlight of the day was tracting into this guy wearing a shirt that said, "NOPE: Not Today" who was really happy to see us, said that we made his day, was willing to say a prayer with us, and then gave us some bro hugs. It was awesome :)

Sunday was good and busy. After church we had a lesson with a family who the Mom got baptized in November. She has a temple recommend and wants to go do baptisms for the dead. So we were able to set a goal with them for them to go to the temple as a family next month and do baptisms together. So excited for them, they're an amazing family :) After that we went to the baptism of Lyric and it was so cool to see his enthusiasm and excitement about being able to get baptized while he's still 8. After that we got to deliver the sacrament to some people which was cool :)

Throughout my mission there have been times when I've asked myself or when I've been asked, "Why are you a Mormon? Why do you have faith in God?" And as I've thought about it, my mind usually comes back to a verse of scripture found in Ether 12:4.

"4 Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God."

It is the hope of there being something after this life that keeps me anchored to faith in God. To me, it comes down to the choice between having hope of a better world to come or having no hope in there being something after this life therefore making life meaningless and everything temporary.

As today is my brother Wyatt's angel day, 9 years from his passing away, I wish to declare my witness that God is real. We are literally his children. He sends us here to Earth in families because families are the gospel. They aren't just a part of the gospel. It all comes back to families and love. Jesus Christ lives and because he lives the bands of death have been broken, the sting of death is swallowed up, and families can be together forever. There is hope of eternal life and it's that hope that keep me moving each and every day. I love and I miss Wyatt and I know he's with me, probably more than I realize. I love the words of the Prophet Joseph Smith,

"We have again the warning voice sounded in our midst, which shows the uncertainty of human life; and in my leisure moments I have meditated upon the subject, and asked the question, why it is that infants, innocent children, are taken away from us, especially those that seem to be the most intelligent and interesting. The strongest reasons that present themselves to my mind are these: This world is a very wicked world; and it … grows more wicked and corrupt. … The Lord takes many away, even in infancy, that they may escape the envy of man, and the sorrows and evils of this present world; they were too pure, too lovely, to live on earth; therefore, if rightly considered, instead of mourning we have reason to rejoice as they are delivered from evil, and we shall soon have them again."

My heart is full of gratitude and love for my savior, and I feel to rejoice daily in the great plan of happiness! I hope y'all have a blessed week :)

Love, Elder Larsen

D&C 137:10

Dear Family and Friends,

This past week has totally flown by, I feel like I emailed y'all a couple of days ago. It's craziness but it's great and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else!

Monday after we emailed, we helped some members move a fridge and then went and got ice cream so that was fun :) We had dinner with Bishop and then one of our potential investigators dropped us but it was still a great day.

Tuesday we had an appointment at 10 in the morning but it fell through so we tracted until our return appointment with Danny at 11. He was there and we had an amazing restoration lesson with him. The spirit was really strong and he seems really committed to reading the Book of Mormon. The only issue is that his wife doesn't seem too happy with us because she probably has some misconceptions. So hopefully we'll be able to to meet her this next week and clear some of those up. After lunch we tried to visit some people and ended up tracting before dinner. After dinner we had a lesson with the Edwards family and we ended up sharing D&C 122 with them since they're going through a lot of stuff right now.

Funny story from tracting in the morning: We knock on this door and this older lady comes out and starts telling us about all her health problems. In the mind I was thinking "What is she talking about? Why is she telling us all this?" Then she said something about her blood pressure and asked us to check it for her. I said, "We're just missionaries from our church." and then she said, "Oh, I thought y'all were EMTs, sorry about that. Man, I always make a fool of myself in front of cute guys." Haha #Awkward It was pretty funny :)

Wednesday we did weekly planning because of exchanges on Thursday and Friday. After lunch we did some service at a community center. After that we met up with Brandon at a park and we realized that we probably needed to drop him since he's still struggling with a lot of stuff that might end him up back in jail... Hopefully we planted a seed though. After dinner we did some tracting and then when it got dark we went to Walmart and tried to talk to people there which was interesting.

Thursday we did exchanges with the Elders in the 7th ward and I was in Yukon with Elder Norton. This was our 3rd or 4th time on exchanges together so we had a pretty fun time :) All of our appointments fell through but we did have a lesson with one of our investigators in the afternoon named Tina. Also, cool tracting miracle: We met this lady named Sarah. She has a son and a daughter. We asked her if she had a church family that she belongs to and she said, "We've been to life church (the crazy church I went to in my first area that resembles chuckie cheeses) a few times but I don't like how it's all about the rock wall and the slides. I want my kids to learn more about Jesus." We then told her about our church services and she said that it's sounds great and she wants to come try it out sometime. We're going to go back and teach her more tomorrow so we're pretty excited about that :)

Friday we had district meeting and afterwards we did exchanges with the zone leaders. I got to go with Elder Yamane and we had a blast! It's been over a year since we've been on exchanges together so it was cool to see how we've both changed over the course of our missions. We ended up doing a lot of tracting and we found a couple of good potentials.

Saturday morning we had our correlation meeting with our ward mission leader which was fun :) In the afternoon we biked out to the far reaches of our area and tried some less-actives. We actually found one who wants us to come back so that's pretty cool :) We also did some tracting in an apartment complex and a lot of people must of ignored us because no almost one answered but there were plenty of cars in the parking lot. But truth goeth onward! We had dinner with the Edwards family and they're doing a lot better so that's good.

Sunday was good. We had the usual investigators at church, no one new. After church we got to go deliver the sacrament to this super nice old couple that lives in El Reno. Before dinner we tried a less-active and then did some tracting and ran into a less-active part-member family who's not on the roster and wants us to come back for a meal and lesson! #miracle All in all, it was a simply fantastic week :)

As I was studying step 6 of the Addiction Recovery Program this last week, I came across a scripture that I really like. It's Ezekiel 36:26-27, 31

"26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

31 Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations."

I especially love verse 31 because it gives us the key as to how we can know if we've truly experienced a mighty change of heart like it talks about in the scriptures. If we remember back to how we used to be, and we've truly experienced a change of heart, we will, to a certain extent, lothe our old selves. We will think something along the lines of, "Wow, I can't believe I used to be like that. I was kind of a fool back then." When I look back at who I was before serving a mission, I wasn't a bad person. But I do despise my old self to a certain extent because of how my mind has been enlightened and how my perspective has changed since then. And I'm sure that someday in the future I'll look back at who I am right now and think the same things. But improving, changing, and becoming better is where the true fulfillment and accomplishment in life comes. A change of heart is a gift from God and I'm so thankful for the joy it brings to me :)

Anyways, I hope y'all have a simply wonderful week!

Love, Elder Larsen

Alma 5:7