Coolest Lightening Storm Ever!!

Dear Family and Friends,

It's been another wonderful week here in Seminole and the Lord is blessing us in so many ways!

Monday evening we had dinner with some awesome members that live out in the middle of nowhere :) After dinner, we went with the father to visit a LA/PM family and got attacked by dogs! It's was an adventure for sure but they came to church on Sunday so that was cool :)

Tuesday morning we had to run to walmart to get some slime for my bike tire, thank goodness it fixed the problem :) At 1 we went to the church to have a lesson with a less-active but they didn't show up. It all worked out though because Bishop was there randomly and so we got to talk with him and get some updated lists of people to go try and visit. At 2 we had a lesson with Allen. He's met with missionaries on and off for years now and he reads the Book of Mormon on a pretty consistent basis but he doesn't come to church and doesn't really want to get baptized. So we started off the lesson by asking what he was wanting to get out of meeting with us and he said he wanted to be more spiritual. From there, the spirit guided the whole lesson and he ended up committing himself to praying for humility. It was such a neat lesson, I love how powerful the spirit is in softening people's hearts :) After that we had a member drive us to an outlying town called Prague so we could deliver a bible to a referral named Pamela. Pamela has a brother who lives in Utah and is super awesome and active in the church. We gave her a Book of Mormon as well and she seems really interested in learning more and coming to church sometime. So excited to teach her! When we got back to Seminole we had coorelation meeting with the assistant ward mission leader, had dinner, and then had a super amazing lesson with Mack. He accepted a Book of Mormon and seems really open to reading it and learning more :)

Wednesday morning we had a member drive us out to Holdenville. Our appointment with Rose fell through since she was out of town but her daughter was there and she accepted a Book of Mormon :) We ended up having a good visit with a less-active and making contact with a potential investigator named Steve. When we got back to Seminole the member fed us lunch so that was nice :) In the afternoon we visited an awesome recent convert named Margaret who is working on going to the temple to receive her endowment. So excited for her! After having dinner with some members outside of town, I got to meet up with Ronny and Amanda Smith from the Norman 2nd ward! It was so much fun to get to see them for a few minutes and I'm glad they're doing well :) 

Thursday morning we did weekly planning and then in the afternoon we drove out to Maud and biked around for a while. A lot people weren't home but we tried to visit a less-active we found on the roster and she was really receptive. She hasn't had any contact with the church since she moved here but she still watches General conference and she seems to have some desire to come back to church so that was a sweet miracle! After dinner we stopped by to see Mack again and gave him a specific chapter in the Book of Mormon to read to try and spark more of his interest so hopefully he's read a little by the time we go and visit him tonight.

Friday we had district meeting in Shawnee and finally got our car tire fixed #Hallelujah When we got back to Seminole we visited some less-actives, had dinner at a delicious Italian restaurant, visited a recent convert, an investigator named Ron, and a sweet old lady in the ward :)

Saturday morning we went by Allen's place to remind him about church (he didn't end up making it unfortunately). After lunch we drove out to Wewoka and biked around in the heat and humidity for 5 hours which was awesome! We had our first lesson with Chris (the miracle investigator from last week) and it was a great lesson on the Book of Mormon. And instead of us asking him when we could come back, he asked us when we were coming back :) #Solid After dinner in Seminole we tried a less-active and made contact with him so that was good. When we got back to our apartment there was sweet lightning storm going on. I love Oklahoma storms so much, they're so cool!

Sunday we didn't have any investigators make to church :( But there's always next week. We ended up doing a lot of finding the rest of the day and we found a pretty solid potential named Chris #Miracle

I listened to a BYU devotional this last week from Elder Bednar titled, "Learning to Love Learning" and it was awesome! He talks about

1. Leanring to Love Learning is Central to the Gospel of Jesus Christ

2. Leanring to Love Learning is Vital to our Ongoing Spiritual and Personal Development

3. Leanring to Love Learning is an Absolute Necessity in the World in which do now and will yet live, serve, and work.

I love these statements from Brigham Young:

Statement 1. “The religion embraced by the Latter-day Saints, if only slightly understood, prompts them to search diligently after knowledge. There is no other people in existence more eager to see, hear, learn, and understand truth” (JD 8:6).

Statement 2. “Put forth your ability to learn as fast as you can, and gather all the strength of mind and principle of faith you possibly can, and then distribute your knowledge to the people” (JD 8:146).

Statement 3. “This work is a progressive work, this doctrine that is taught the Latter-day Saints in its nature is exalting, increasing, expanding and extending broader and broader until we can know as we are known, see as we are seen” (JD 16:165).

I've learned so many things while serving on my mission but I think one of the principles that I'm most grateful to have learned is learning to love learning. It makes life so much more enjoyable and interesting, and it helps the gospel change us in ways we never thought possible. Let's all learn to love learning!

Happy Memorial Day!!

Love, Elder Larsen

D&C 46:30

1. Me, Ronny, and Amanda

2. The district with 2 trios

3. Elder Tureson with a kitty in Wewoka

4-8. Pics of the lightning storm

Miracles!:)

Dear Family and Friends,

This past week has been miraculous! The Lord is blessing us in so many ways and the work is hastening here in the Seminole ward :)

Monday evening we had an appointment with Jacquilin but it fell through and we haven't had any contact with her since. So hopefully she's doing ok... After that we ended up doing some tracting on one of the streets that we prayed about. We knocked one side of the street and a couple of houses on the other side. No one was really interested although we did talk to a really nice former investigator who almost got baptized but then got antied. After that we went to go try a potential investigator on the street over but she wasn't feeling well. So after that we didn't really know what to do. We biked around and said a prayer and eventually felt like we needed to go back to the street that we started tracting. Elder Tureson felt impressed to knock on one door and I felt impressed to knock on another. Both answered and both became new investigators! #Miracle Definitely an answer to prayer :)

Tuesday morning we drove to Holdenville to deliver a bible to a lady named Rose. She was really nice and we were able to have a great conversation with her. We shared a verse from the Book of Mormon, left her a copy, and we're going to go back on Wednesday this week to teach her more. She said she's really open to new ideas, I'm excited to go teach her! #Miracle #NewInvestigator When we got back to Seminole, a member fed us lunch and then we had a lesson with Alan. The member we took out teaching with us dominated the lesson and was pretty bold with Alan. At the end of the lesson, Alan's girlfriend pulled up and her car was smoking and she was freaking out. So we took a look at it and it was just the radiator. But out of it all, we discovered that his girlfriend is what is holding him back from coming to church and getting baptized so it worked out in the end. We visited a recent convert before dinner and our appointment after dinner fell through so we visited another recent convert.

Wednesday morning we visited a less-active and then after lunch we got a ride out to Wewoka for the afternoon. While in Wewoka we visited a less-active, tried some potential investigators, and ended up trying to visit a less-active we found in the area book. They weren't home but as we were leaving someone behind us said, "Hey are y'all Elders?" We turned around and saw that the guy who lived across the street had come outside and was calling us over. So we went over and introduced ourselves. His name is Chris and he's an older native American who moved to Wewoka 4 months ago from Yukon. He said he met with missionaries there, went to church a couple of times, saw the OKC temple, and is still interested in learning more. We're so excited to go and teach him this next week! #Miracle In the evening we had ward council and then all of our appointments fell through but it was still a great day :)

Thursday we did weekly planning in the morning, had lunch with a member, went to go teach a new investigator but they weren't home, and then drove out to the town of Maud. We visited some members, got a potential, and had dinner with the newly called Elders Quorum president. I love having so many small towns that we get to go visit each week :) When we got back to Seminole we did correlation and then went on splits with the Elders in Shawnee. Elder Richey and I did some tracting in the rain and it was a blast!

Friday morning we had district meeting in Ada. After district meeting we drove to Holdenville to try and deliver another bible and to do some finding. We found a solid potential which was cool :) After that we went back to Seminole and the Shawnee Elders went back to Shawnee. It was raining pretty bad and our dinner appointment was about an hour drive away but we decided to go anyways. It really started down pouring on our way home but the Lord kept us safe and we had a wonderful evening. I love the rain :)

Saturday morning we biked around and visited some people. After lunch we took our car to Walmart since one of our tires has been leaking air. While they were working on our car, we biked down to a place where a member works and did some service there which was fun :) Biked back to Walmart and found out that our tire isn't patch-able and so we'll have to get a new one sometime this next week.

Sunday was great! The stake president (who was in my ward when I served in Norman) visited our ward to set apart the new elders quorum president so it was fun to say hi and talk to him again :) After church we did some visits with Bishop Choate, had lunch, and then our church tour with Ron and Mary fell through. So we did some finding before dinner/FHE with the Lay family. It was a great day :)

One of the guest speakers who spoke in sacrament meeting yesterday works at Oklahoma University as a computer technician. He shared this as a joke and I thought it was pretty funny. He read Matthew 5:37

"But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil."

This verse proves that computer and technology are divinely inspired because computers function off of 1's and 0's, Yes's and No's, Yea's and Nay's. I love technology :) (Haha that's probably why the Lord sent me to one of the 4 missions in the US that don't have tablets ;))

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

Love, Elder Larsen

D&C 108:7

P.S. My new address is:

1449 W. Wrangler Blvd

Seminole, OK 74868

Transfers

Dear Family and Friends,

First off, thanks for the wonderful Skype session last night fam! Y'all are the best and Happy Mother's Day again to y'all!

This past week has been fantastic! I love Seminole, I love the people here, and I love my new companion Elder Tureson :) Seminole is about the same size as Clinton, maybe slightly bigger. The ward is about the same size though. It's so much fun to be in a small town again, there's lots of people to talk to. It's going to be a great transfer and the Lord is already blessing us beyond measure!

My last P-day in Yukon, the members who live across the street did what they call "giant sandwich day". So for lunch I did the giant sandwich challenge and ate a ginormous sandwich that only like 15 missionaries over the past 10 years have been able to eat #Legend So that was fun :) In the evening we said goodbye to the Apetors, the Edwards family, and the George family. It was hard to say goodbye, I'm going to miss them so much.

Tuesday was spent cleaning, packing, organizing, paperwork updating, notetaking, and saying some more goodbyes. Long crazy fun day :)

Wednesday was transfers in Edmond and it was a blast as always to see old friends and companions :) Elder Tureson just got done being trained and his trainer went home so I'm breaking a new missionary for the 5th time. We drove to Seminole which took about an hour and a half, did a little unpacking, biked around in the rain and met lots of people, and had an FHE with a family in the evening. Great first day in Seminole :)

Thursday we did our weekly planning in the morning and in the afternoon we biked around and met some more people. We taught one of our investigators, Chelsey, and picked up her Mom as a new investigator #Miracle We get to go teach them again tomorrow :) Before dinner we had a lesson with another investigator, Jacquilin. She's super cool! We read the first half of 3 Nephi 11 and she really enjoyed it. After dinner we visited a family that is returning to activity. Solid day :)

Friday morning I got to meet Bishop Choate. He's a really great guy and I'm excited to work with him and the rest of the ward :) Before lunch we tried some to visit some people and in the afternoon we did some finding. After dinner we visited some less-actives which was good :)

Saturday we had district meeting (some of the missionaries couldn't make it on Friday so we did it on Saturday instead) which was lots of fun :) After that we drove out to a neighboring town called Wewoka (it's nicknamed little Chicago). We ended up walking around all afternoon since Elder Tureson forgot his bike helmet but it worked out and we made good contact with a part-member family :) We had dinner with a member family who lives there and then drove back to Seminole and tried a potential named Mack. We had a great conversation with him and he's a new investigator now :)

Sunday we didn't have any investigators make it to church but we're hoping to change that this next week. We fasted for new investigators and we found a solid potential while we were out finding in the afternoon #Miracle Skyped and got fed dinner in the evening. Wonderful Mother's day :)

We recently had Elder Lynn G. Robbins of the seventy come visit our mission. He gave the leadership a training on Agency, Responsibility, and Accountability and we got to discuss and learn from it at district meeting this last week.

"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." - John 8:32

"We are free not because we can choose, but because we have chosen well." - David Hart

When we are able to take full responsibility for our actions and not make excuses, we increase in agency and freedom. It's easy sometimes to be lazy or to blame others or to ignore or to have self-pity but excuses do not equal results and do not correct mistakes. These things are a form of self-deception and take away from our freedom to choose. There are numerous examples in the scriptures of those who take responsibility and those who don't. Jacob and Joseph are great examples of taking full responsibility.

"And we did magnify our office unto the Lord, taking upon us the responsibility, answering the sins of the people upon our own heads if we did not teach them the word of God with all diligence; wherefore, by laboring with our might their blood might not come upon our garments; otherwise their blood would come upon our garments, and we would not be found spotless at the last day." - Jacob 1:19

Let us not make excuses but rather be honest and take full responsibility for our actions so that we might follow Christ and become free :)

Thank y'all so much for all your love and support, I wouldn't be where I am today without your love and your examples. Keep up the great work and have a wonderful week!

Love, Elder Larsen

D&C 38:22

1. Clinton District at Transfers

2. First half of the sandwich

3. Second half of the sandwich

4. Victory!!

5. The Page's

6. The Edwards family

7. The George family

8. Elder Tureson and I

Off to Seminole

Dear Family and Friends,

We got transfer calls last night and to my greatest surprise/shock I'm leaving Yukon and going to my 7th area, Seminole, Oklahoma. Elder May is going to Tulsa and we're getting replaced by 2 Elders that both came out on the same airplane as me. I'm excited to go to Seminole :) but my heart breaks at the thought of leaving Yukon. I love the people here so much. But the Lord always has a plan and it brings me peace that passeth all undestanding.

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." - Proberbs 3:5-6

Highlights from the week:

We did some yard work for Ms Murphy and gave her a giant Book of Mormon :)

We had a temple walk that we invited 30+ people to and no one ended up showing up.

Lots of appointments fell through. Haha what else is new? :)

It was a lot warmer this week and we got to do a ton of biking :)

Miracle:

We fasted for new investigators yesterday. After church we ended up doing a lot of tracting. Elder May's bike got a flat tire so we got stranded for a while. But we tracted into a girl named Madison and she is so awesome! We told her about our missions and the Book of Mormon and she was blown away by it. She wants us to come back and teach her more :) #AnswerToPrayer #FastingWorks

Hope y'all have a wonderful week!

Love, Elder Larsen

Isaiah 55:8-9

1. Walking the bikes #FlatTire

2. Recent convert Huerta family. They're so awesome!

3. Service for Ms Murphy with one of the priests in the ward

4-6. Temple pics!

Winter Returns

Dear Family and Friends,

Another awesome week has flown by here in Yukon! Fun fact about Oklahoma: The weather is straight nuts. It was summer on Tuesday, winter on Wednesday, Spring on Thursday and Friday, and back to Winter on Saturday and Sunday. It changes so fast!

Monday for P-day we went to downtown OKC which was fun :) I took a ton of pictures so Happy Birthday Mom! :) In the evening we did a lot of tracting.

Tuesday was a longer day. We tracted for hour after hour after hour. Got a couple of potentials. Had dinner with the Edwards family which was slightly chaotic as usual, this time because their drains were backed up and house smelled a little like sewage. Got to love it :)

Wednesday morning we went with a member to go meet a non-member who's receiving some financial help from the church. Bishop sent us because he felt like it might be a good missionary opportunity and it was. She seems pretty open and hopefully we'll be able to go back and teach her sometime soon :) In the afternoon, our appointment with Justin fell through so we went to the library and talked to them about doing a presentation on family history for the community. They seem to like the idea so we're excited to get that ball rolling. Hopefully family history will be a better finding tool than tracting :) After that we taught a quick restoration to Jeff and Emily and they are new investigators now! #Miracle Then we had dinner and watched meet the mormons with some of the sisters investigators in El Reno :)

Thursday morning we went to go teach Joseph but he wasn't there. Again. So he's dropped as an investigator for now. But as a backup we went and saw Ms Murphy and taught her the rest of the plan of salvation and she accepted it really well :) In the afternoon we did our weekly planning and stopped by a couple of peeps before dinner. After dinner we went with a member and had a great lesson with Gayle. We read 2 Nephi 32 and recommitted her to reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. We also invited her to the pancake breakfast on Saturday morning and she said she just might surprise us and show up.

Friday we had district meeting. In the afternoon we tried some people and ended up tracting before dinner. After dinner we tried more potentials, did some more tracting, and talked with Freddie briefly (he has 2 jobs now and so he doesn't have much time unfortunately).

Saturday morning we had a pancake breakfast fundraiser for the youth at the church. Gayle showed up for it which surprised us since it stormed all night and the weather was still pretty bad. She got to meet some people and she said the temple was beautiful. So that was awesome! #Miracle After that we did coordination meeting with our amazing ward mission leader. Then we went home, had lunch, did some planning, tracted, had dinner and a lesson with the Edwards, and then our 8:00 appointment fell through. Cold rainy day :)

Sunday was good. It felt like winter outside and it was super windy so that made tracting really fun :) But we were able to have a lesson with a less-active family and visit our recent converts so that was a tender mercy.

One of my favorite stories from conference was this one from Elder Sabin's talk:

"Many years ago, I took the Scouts on a campout in the desert. The boys slept by a large fire they had made, and like every good Scout leader, I slept in the back of my truck. In the morning when I sat up and looked at the campsite, I saw one Scout, whom I will call Paul, who looked particularly rough around the edges. I asked how he had slept, and he replied, “Not very well.”
When I asked why, he said, “I was cold; the fire went out.”I answered, “Well, fires do that. Wasn’t your sleeping bag warm enough?”
No answer.
Then one of the other Scouts loudly volunteered, “He didn’t use his sleeping bag.”
I asked in disbelief, “Why not, Paul?”
Silence—then finally the sheepish reply: “Well, I thought if I didn’t unroll my sleeping bag, I wouldn’t have to roll it up again.”
True story: he froze for hours because he was trying to save five minutes of work. We may think, “How foolish! Who would ever do that?” Well, we do it all the time in much more dangerous ways. We are, in effect, refusing to unroll our spiritual sleeping bags when we don’t take the time to sincerely pray, study, and earnestly live the gospel each day; not only will the fire go out, but we will be unprotected and grow spiritually cold.
When we are complacent with our covenants, we are complicit with the consequences. The Lord has counseled us “to beware concerning yourselves, to give diligent heed to the words of eternal life.” And He further declared, “My blood shall not cleanse them if they hear me not.”
In reality, it is much easier to be “all in” than partially in. When we are partially in or not in at all, there is, in the Star Wars vernacular, “a disturbance in the force.” We are out of sync with God’s will and therefore out of sync with the nature of happiness."

I love this story because it illustrates how important it is to be all in and to put God first in our lives. It may be hard at first but in the end, it's really the easiest and the happiest way to live :)

Thank y'all for your love and support! Transfers are coming up on May 10th so if you're sending me something, the safe place to send it is

1967 W 33rd Street
Ste. 100
Edmond OK 73013

Love, Elder Larsen

D&C 130:18-19

P.S. Just wanted to make a shoutout to my cousin Sarah who had been called to serve a mission and assigned to labor in the new hampshire maine mission! Congrats cousin, I'm so excited for you!