Tender Mercies :)

Dear Family and Friends,

It has truly been a miraculous week full of tender mercies and I can't wait to tell y'all about it!

Monday evening we had dinner/lesson with the Edwards family. They aren't really progressing right now so we probably won't be able to spend as much time with them anymore unfortunately...

Tuesday morning we had a lesson with a returning less-active. She's super sweet and the spirit was strong :) After lunch we did some service for Ms. Murphy picking up fallen branches in her yard which was good. We ended up doing a lot of tracting before dinner. After dinner we went out teaching with a member and we stopped by try and teach Vince. We caught him in his garage and he talked to us for like 45 minutes telling us some random stories. Then his wife walked outside and I thought, "Oh great, she's going to tell us again that she's not really interested again" but instead she invited us to come inside and sit down. We had a good discussion with them and Vince is still really interested in reading the Book of Mormon and learning more. During part of the lesson we were explaining baptisms for the dead to Vince's wife, Sylvia. She tried to explain what her church believes about those who aren't able to learn about Christ during this life and she couldn't really do it. So hopefully we got her thinking a little bit :)

Wednesday morning we tried talking to people at Walmart again by offering to put their carts away. But this time we tried offering free genealogical services. And still no one was really interested. Not sure what else to try with these people... In the afternoon we redid our whiteboards and had a quick but solid lesson with Danny before dinner. He said he really wants to find more peace in his life :) After our dinner appointment, we went with the sister missionaries to El Reno to bless their apartment. Then we got to go and give a blessing to one of their investigators. It was an awesome experience :)

Thursday we got to go out to lunch with the elderly less-active couple in the ward, the Page's. They're super nice people and we got to read parts of 1 Nephi 8 with them and they really enjoyed it :) After that we did our weekly planning and then ended up tracting before dinner. After dinner we went to an apartment complex to try and visit Justin and Freddie. We locked up our bikes and walked by a lady planting flowers. After we walked by her, I decided to go back and talk to her but before we got to her, another lady was walking towards us and flagging us down. She said, "Hey is there any way I can get one of y'all's books?". We asked if she was talking about the Book of Mormon and she said she was and that she had always wanted to read it for herself. We gladly gave her a copy and shared our testimony of it. She doesn't want to talk with us at the moment but she has our phone number and hopefully we'll see her around the apartment complex. She was very thankful for the book and for the service we render. Her curiosity was sparked by simply seeing missionaries walking around a lot in the past. So cool so see how the Lord is able to nurture the seeds that we plant :)

Friday morning there was a huge thunderstorm with hail. It was intense :) We got to go with the sister missionaries to Yukon hospital before district meeting to give a new born baby a blessing. It was a neat and humbling experience. Also kind of interesting because the baby didn't have a name yet... After district meeting we went on splits with the Clinton elders. We had a lesson with Ms Murphy and got to teach parts of the plan of salvation which was awesome. Our appointment with Danny fell through so we ended up tracting before dinner.

Funny moment: So almost every house in Oklahoma has a storm door of some sort. A lot of people (especially here in Yukon) don't bother to open the storm door when they tell us they aren't interested (a lot of times we can't hear what they're saying which makes things interesting). But anyways, this one lady answered the door "What do y'all want!?" "We're represenatives of Jesus Chr" (cuts us off) "I'm not interested" She then closed the door on us without realizing that her tiny dog had gotten between the door and the storm door. So the poor thing got squeezed in-between the 2 doors. It was sad but really funny at the same time.

After dinner we biked out to the outskirts of our area to try a potential but she "already has a home church". (Haha wish she would've told us that the first time...) But we were able to a have an active member visit before the night was over so that was good :)

Saturday morning we tracted Utah Ave. and found some sweet potential investigators! We also tracted into some good friends of some members in our ward and they were really nice to us :) In the afternoon we had a lesson with the Pastor of good 'ol Grit Church. He's actually one of the nicest and most respectful preachers I've ever met. He didn't throw any anti at us and we can understand each other a lot better now. It was good :) Before dinner we tracted and after dinner we visited some members.

Sunday we had one of the coolest miracles of my mission! 30 minutes before our church started we got a random text from someone named Tyler asking for Elders Thomas and Burrows (missionaries that were here in Yukon over 6 months ago). We'd never seen a teaching record or anything for him since he was just a potential investigator. We replied that we were the missionaries in Yukon and he wanted to know if we had services today. So we invited him to come and join us and he did! He made it for half of sacrament meeting and all of gospel principles. He really enjoyed it and asked for materials to study so we gave him a pamphlet, Book of Mormon, and articles of faith card. He wasn't able to stay for priesthood but he texted us after church asking how priesthood meeting went and saying that he wants to stay for it next time. We're super excited to go and teach him this Wednesday. The Lord's hand is definitely in this work and I'm so grateful for the diligence and faith of the missionaries who came before us. I feel like the Jaredites in Ether 6:12 "They bowed themselves down upon the face of the land, and did humble themselves before the Lord, and did shed tears of joy before the Lord, because of the multitude of his tender mercies over them."

As a mission we've been studying a talk from Elder Bednar titled, "Becoming a Preach My Gospel Missionary". One of the points he talks about is treasuring up the word of God. I love this quote:

"I invite you to “treasure up in your minds continually the words of life” (D&C 84:85). Treasuring up the words of eternal life is more than merely studying or memorizing, just as “feasting upon the word[s] of Christ” (2 Nephi 31:20; see also 2 Nephi 32:3) is more than simply sampling or snacking. Treasuring up suggests to me focusing and working, exploring and absorbing, pondering and praying, applying and learning, valuing and appreciating, and enjoying and relishing."

Daily scripture study is something that is easy for me to merely go through the motions of. But I've been able to notice how much more enjoyable and helpful my studies are when I'm truly treasuring up the word of God and hungering and thirsting after righteousness. It makes such a big difference :)

Thank y'all so much for all your love and support! Have a great week!

Love, Elder Larsen

Judges 9:50-55

P.S. Just FYI I return home on August 3rd and my homecoming will be on August 13th. Crazy to think about....