Happy Father's Day!!

Dear Family and Friends,

So first off, we got transfer doctrine last night and I will be staying in Seminole for my last transfer and my new companion will be Elder Shira! I couldn't be more excited, this is going to be the best transfer yet!

Monday we biked around, tried some people, did some finding, and visited a less-active :)

Tuesday we had exchanges with the Shawnee Elders so I was with Elder Russell in Shawnee for the day. We had lots of fun together :) Miracle of the day was finding a less-active who was really receptive and ready to come back to church and to bring her daughter and granddaughter with her as well.

Wednesday after we exchanged back, we had our mission's annual apartment cleaning day! So we spent most of the day scrubbing our apartment. In the evening we visited Margaret and wished her a happy 80th birthday. She seriously is one of the sweetest ladies I've ever met. We also had dinner/FHE with a family in the ward :)

Thursday morning we did weekly planning and in the afternoon we visited Donna. She read 1 Nephi 1-4 and seemed to enjoy it. Hopefully we'll be able to eventually find a way for her to come to church. After that we tried a bunch of other people but no luck. We felt prompted to go try a former investigator named Chuy and he invited us right in. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he's excited to learn more and come to church again #Miracle After our lesson with him, we biked over to do some finding on a street that we had selected but it turns out that no one actually lives on the street. But it was definitely inspired because on our way down their, a guy stepped outside of his wife's real estate office and invited to us to come in, cool off, and drink some water. We had a good conversation with him and it turns out he's next door neighbors to one of the members in the ward. So that was awesome! In the evening we had dinner and followed up on some members' family mission plans.

Friday was Elder Tureson's 19th birthday!! We celebrated by having a pizza party after district meeting :) In the afternoon we taught 3 lessons and for dinner we got to go out the Welsh's. They live out in the middle of nowhere but they're the nicest couple. It was a fun birthday for Elder Tureson :)

Saturday morning we had a belated birthday breakfast at Bishop's house and then after that Bishop drove us to a lesson with Rose out in Holdenville. On the way there, we stopped to visit a member in Wewoka, Lorna. Her brother and parents were visiting for Father's day, and her brother was really interested in our mission trips. We taught him a little bit and he happily accepted a Book of Mormon #Miracle After that, we talked with Rose in her yard for a little bit. We weren't able to do a lesson because she was busy with some things but we'll hopefully be able to go and do some yard work and have a lesson with her this next week. When we got back to Seminole and had lunch, Elder Tureson wasn't feeling too well. So he rested and I studied until our lesson with Chris Camp. We had a great lesson with him and he seems a lot more interested now that we've answered his questions and read 3 Nephi 11 with him. Hopefully we can get him to church this next week.

Sunday was good. Elder Tureson was still recovering from his sickness but we were able to go to Maud and have a great lesson with Wesley. He read the chapter we gave him to read and he also read a few extra chapters because he enjoyed it so much. He told us about how studying with us has made a positive difference in his life and helped him to have more peace. We taught him the plan of salvation and he accepted it all. We had one of the priests in the ward come out with us to the lesson and he did a great job of bearing testimony and sharing his conversion story. At the end of the lesson, we felt prompted to invite Wesley to baptism and he said yes! #Miracle #SpiritPower His only concern is that he wants to understand everything a little more before he jumps all in but he's on the right track and he really wants to come to church this next week. So excited for him!

One of my favorite parts about Father's day is not only paying tribute to my earthly father (the best awesomest dad in the world :)) but also to my Heavenly Father. He is not merely our creator, he is our literal father. The first great truth of eternity is that he loves us with all his heart, might, mind, and strength. It is not by the chance that the first principle we teach people as missionaries is that God is our loving Father in Heaven. If there's one truth that we should always remember, it's this. I love this quote from Elder Hallstrom:

"In real life, we face actual, not imagined, hardships. There is pain—physical, emotional, and spiritual. There are heartbreaks when circumstances are very different from what we had anticipated. There is injustice when we do not seem to deserve our situation. There are disappointments when someone we trusted failed us. There are health and financial setbacks that can be disorienting. There may be times of question when a matter of doctrine or history is beyond our current understanding.

When difficult things occur in our lives, what is our immediate response? Is it confusion or doubt or spiritual withdrawal? Is it a blow to our faith? Do we blame God or others for our circumstances? Or is our first response to remember who we are—that we are children of a loving God? Is that coupled with an absolute trust that He allows some earthly suffering because He knows it will bless us, like a refiner’s fire, to become like Him and to gain our eternal inheritance?

Recently, I was in a meeting with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. In teaching the principle that mortal life can be agonizing but our hardships have eternal purpose—even if we do not understand it at the time—Elder Holland said, “You can have what you want, or you can have something better.”"

I hope y'all had a wonderful Father's Day and I hope y'all have a wonderful week!

Love, Elder Larsen

Romans 8:16-17

1. Elder Tureson and I riding with Bishop to Holdenville

2. Elder Tureson and I with Margaret