Proverbs 28:25

Dear Family and Friends,

This past week was a slow one for various reasons. Mostly because we didn't have as much time to proselyte with General Conference and Zone Conference. Let's just say I'm feeling a little spiritually obese (Proverbs 28:25) after this past week ;)

Monday evening we had a good, down to earth talk with a less-active member who was baptized 2 years ago. He and his wife have been lacking in faith recently and they know it. But they're taking steps to get back to church and eventually go to the temple and be sealed so that's exciting! We watched the Sunday Afternoon Session of Conference with them yesterday which was awesome.

Tuesday I got to go to my very first Zone Conference. It was so cool! I learned so much from President and Sister Walkenhorst, the APs, and our stake president. It was also cool to hear missionaries departing testimonies. I hope by the end of my mission I will have become a consecrated missionary. One phrase that I have been focusing on recently is "Forget yourself and go to work." I'm trying to do better at simply focusing on loving and helping people come unto Christ instead of focusing so much on my weaknesses.

Wednesday we drove the 60 miles to Watonga with our housing coordinators to visit a referral from some Spanish speaking sister missionaries. The lady's name is Mae and she is like 90% blind. She's super nice and super interested in the gospel, the problem now is getting the resources we need to get back out to Watonga as well as getting her access to the Book of Mormon. Apparently the Church distribution services no longer makes the BoM on CD because "you can just download it". Unless you're in the middle of nowhere with a blind 82 year old woman who doesn't have internet. So we've got to find some way to get her a BoM she can actually use. We got our first new investigator in forever though so that's awesome! :) (We also saw the Google Street View Camera Car thing which was also awesome!)

Thursday we made one last chance to reach out to Freedom Sinclair. She ignored us so all we can do now is pray and wait and hope.

Friday we had a great district meeting about pride. Definitely something I need to work on. We also went with the El Reno Elders to do service for this lady named Linda. Her backyard is basically a jungle so we spent hours destroying plants which was fun. 

Saturday and Sunday were so much fun. In between the morning and afternoon sessions, both days, we got fed lunch by members and got to have fun as missionaries (as evidenced by the attached pictures ;)) Conference was so awesome and I got more out of it than I ever have in my whole life because I was able to put so much effort into it. So cool to see the 3 new apostles and hear their humble testimonies. President Monson is a trooper for making it through his entire talk. It will be interesting to see if he stands up in conference again or starts doing what Packer did. If I had to pick a favorite talk I would either pick the one by Larry R. Lawrence about asking "What lack I yet?" or the one by Neill F. Marriott about "It will all work out". So many awesome talks, it's almost overwhelming. 

Anyways, we had 3 lessons fall through this week so we weren't able to meet with Helen and some of our potentials. Taryn and Jonalea were busy this week. We were able to meet with the less-active and his girlfriend for the first time in weeks which was good. They haven't been doing too hot with their commitments though because life has been crazy for them.  The 5 kids baptismal permission is basically out of our hands now. We've done all that we can so now we get to be patient and wait for Bishop to do his thing. Just have to keep on preparing them for baptism so that when the glorious day finally comes they'll be ready. 

Before I give the weekly miracle, I need to repent of unconsciously stopping my practice of including the weekly miracle. Randomly, during Zone Conference, I realized that I'd stopped giving a miracle each week in my emails home. So, sorry for not showing enough gratitude for the many miracles I've been blessed with. The miracle this week was going out with Brother Judd. He volunteered in church last Sunday to come out with us Tuesday night. We were kind of scared because Bro Judd is a little bit crazy but he did awesome and I think he had a good experience which was a miracle :)

Tomorrow we are moving into our new apartment which will be super nice because it puts us in a much better location geographically. I will send you all my new address as soon as I get it. I hope you all have a wonderful week! Make plans to continually treasure up the many words of inspired counsel we just received from conference!

Love, Elder Larsen

D&C 123:17

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was a lot better than last week as far as teaching lessons goes. As far as handing out Book of Mormons is concerned, we weren't able to hand out single one all week. I wish I could say that the work is hastening in the OKC 7th ward but until the members are able to invite their friends to receive the restored gospel, we can only do so much. Preach My Gospel makes it clear that the ideal teaching situation is when members invite their friends to receive the gospel. Before I got to the Oklahoma City Mission, a general authority gave a training on the 3 phases of missionary work (which I may or may not of already told you guys about). 

Phase 1: Missionaries doing missionary work - 5 baptisms

Phase 2: Members helping missionaries do missionary work - 10 baptisms

Phase 3: Missionaries helping members do missionary work - 100 baptisms

Our vision for this area is to help it become a phase 3 area so we're doing a lot of work with the members. #PHASE3!

On Tuesday we got to do some service with some other missionaries which was a blast! Also, we had a really good lesson with Taryn and Jonalea (who moved back in with Taryn) but they didn't make it to church on Sunday so we'll see how this week goes.

Wednesday we had a ward party to celebrate the completion of the ward's Book of Mormon challenge. Hopefully the ward members will now be better able to give BoMs to their friends.

Thursday the preacher called us and left a voicemail saying that he wants 5-10 physical evidences of the Book of Mormon. We don't know what part of "The only way you can know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God is by reading and praying about it with real intent" he doesn't seem to grasp. It's so tempting to bash with him. "And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." (Matthew 16:17) "Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord." (Jeremiah 17:5) God is the source of all truth and knowledge, and trusting in the arm of the flesh and the philosophies of men is not good. Relying of physical evidence in NOT faith. Anyways, we gave Bro Judd a "jail" blessing because he was going to court and seemed to think that he was going to end up going to jail for contempt of court. But by some miracle he managed to keep his cool and not go to jail so that's a relief :) 

Friday we had a good lesson with Helen about the Word of Wisdom. We had a down to earth talk with her husband, Don, and hopefully he'll read the Book of Mormon now. Helen is such a miracle!

Saturday was one of those days when all you can do is follow the counsel given in D&C 123:17. "Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed." We did all we could and we tried to keep smiles on our faces even though we pulled straight 0's that day.

Sunday we had a less-active member who showed up to church for the first time in 20 years. The guy isn't even on our records anymore but we ran into him a couple of weeks ago and he seemed pretty open to the idea of coming to church with us. Since he came to our church though, we can go check out his church now. He goes to something called "LifeChurch.tv" and from what we've heard it's more of a rock concert than anything else. It's interesting what some people will label as "church" these days. #TheApostasyIsReal  Last night we went out to watch the Blood Moon and the Jesus dude who lives below us was out watching it as well. The guy actually preaches pretty solid doctrine and he's a good guy. He's just been a little deceived by false revelation. For example, one night in a dream Jesus told him to build an ark of the covenant so when he woke up at 3 AM he started building one. He showed it to us and it looked pretty cool. He made it out of Cyprus wood and a metallic gold spray. Pretty impressive if you ask me ;) We're going to try one last time before we move to give him a Book of Mormon or at least a Family Proclamation. 

The 5 kids all still need permission but we're still making slow but sure progress. The less-active and his girlfriend have been really busy lately but we're meeting with them this week so that will be awesome. We met with Freedom Sinclair for the first time in more than a month and set a baptismal date with her so things were looking really good until she texted us literally right now and said she's done with the Mormon church. Sometimes I feel like my calling is to pass through sorrow so that I can better appreciate the atonement. The hard part is glorying in tribulation like Joseph Smith did. "And as for the perils which I am called to pass through, they seem but a small thing to me, as the envy and wrath of man have been my common lot all the days of my life; and for what cause it seems mysterious, unless I was ordained from before the foundation of the world for some good end, or bad, as you may choose to call it. Judge ye for yourselves. God knoweth all these things, whether it be good or bad. But nevertheless, deep water is what I am wont to swim in. It all has become a second nature to me; and I feel, like Paul, to glory in tribulation; for to this day has the God of my fathers delivered me out of them all, and will deliver me from henceforth; for behold, and lo, I shall triumph over all my enemies, for the Lord God hath spoken it." (D&C 127:2) Sometimes all you can do is smile and do everything in your power to help others. God's ways are higher than our ways; this is his work, not ours. Missions aren't easy but they're worth it :)

Well I hope you all have a wonderful week! Prepare for conference so you can get more out of it. General Conference is like Christmas for missionaries so I've never been more excited for Conference in my life. It's going to be so awesome!! :) #Prophets #WatchConference

Love, Elder Larsen 

Wyatt's Birthday and Questions Answered

I had written Tyler and asked a few questions. Mainly if he got along with his companion since he hasn't said much about him. Here is his response. Later in the day I got a great little surprise...pictures of him releasing a Wyatt balloon for his birthday. Such a tender mercy for mom!!

"We do a fair amount of biking and walking around but we still have to do a lot of driving because our area is so huge. I love my companion and we're getting along great. We're working hard and doing our best. I'll probably be with him until he goes home in December. Thank you so much for the letters and pictures. I love seeing what you guys are doing and I'm glad you are doing well. I'm learning so much and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I'm going to try and blow up the balloon you sent me and if I'm able to release it I'll take pictures and send them to you. I love and miss you guys so much! Keep on being the best family ever! :)"

Love, Elder Larsen

If you look close enough you can see the balloon in the air. 

The Sabbath is a Delight

Dear Family and Friends,

Statistically speaking, this past week has been the worst of my mission thus far. Basically all of our appointments fell through and we weren't able to contact very many people. But it was still a successful week because we succeed when we invite and when we consecrate all our efforts to serving the Lord :)

Monday I got sick of having my hair so long so I cut it as short as is allowable. Every time I look in the mirror it's weird because I've never had my hair this short before. We visited a less-active last night for the second time and he thought I was a different missionary ;) Monday night we tried some potentials and one of the Jimmys totally ignored us so we had to drop him. We visited the other Jimmy yesterday afternoon and he wouldn't talk to us because a Football game was going on.

Tuesday we tried to meet with the 2 grandkids while they were staying with their mother but they weren't home. We weren't able to make much progress in getting baptismal permission for the 5 kids this week so hopefully this next week will go better. We went to go teach Brother Judd another recent convert lesson but he insisted that we first "make ourselves useful" by picking up some cherries that had fallen to ground by his Chinese tree. According to Bro. Judd, these cherries cure arthritis and cancer. You got to love missionary work ;)

Wednesday I went on exchanges with Elder Ovaitt which was good. We managed to hand out a Book of Mormon after a long day of walking and riding bikes everywhere.

Thursday we had an appointment with Freedom Sinclair which fell through. So instead we went with the member who came out with us that night and tried to visit a bunch of people but literally no one was home.

Friday we had an appointment set up with some potential investigators but when we got to their house they weren't home. So we tried every backup we could think of but once again, no one was home or they ignored us. It's hard not to feel bad when you take a member out with you and nothing happens. We also bashed with the preacher again. He utterly refused to read the Book of Mormon and showed us some anti-Mormon material. We basically told him that we don't need physical evidence of the Book of Mormon because God has told us that it is true. He thought that was "scary" and so we definitely won't be meeting with him again. Some people refuse to exercise faith and experiment upon the word, and it breaks my heart.

Saturday we walked around and tried to talk to people and through the hand of God we were able to hand out a Book of Mormon :)

Sunday we had an awesome stake training in ward council about keeping the Sabbath day holy. The Sabbath is a sign between us and God (Exodus 31:17, Ezekiel 20:12) and can be a great blessing in our lives. I don't know what I would do without the Sabbath. I need the sacrament like never before in my life because some weeks are so spiritually trying. Sacrament meeting allows me to recharge my spiritual batteries and get the strength I need to make it through the next week. Those who think that church doesn't really matter don't understand how the Sabbath can be a delight. Sunday is my favorite day of the week and I love it! :)

Helen has had a very hard week and we weren't able to meet with her. It sounds like she had a rough time arguing with her husband and his Church of Christ pastor. We're going to meet with her this week and see what happened. Through all her trials though she's been able to stay strong and I can't wait to see her get baptized! She has such a sweet heart and she called us her "guides and surrogate grandchildren". Helen is so awesome!

We were able to reestablish contact with Taryn and we have an appointment with her tomorrow night. The less-active and his girlfriend were out of town last week so hopefully we'll be able to meet with them this week. We've got a lot more potentials now so hopefully this week we'll be able to end the New Investigator drought we've been having lately.

This new transfer is going to be so awesome! We're going to focus a lot more on member missionary work and keep on sowing seeds everywhere. I don't know if I'll be in this area long enough to reap success but in the mean time we're going to keep on laboring with our might to sow seeds for future missionaries to reap :)

It's crazy to think that Wyatt would be 8 years old today. I can still remember holding him for the first time at the St. George hospital. A lot has changed since then but I know that I will see him again. Families are eternal and I feel so grateful for the opportunity I have to labor everyday so that others can come to that same knowledge! I love my savior and I owe everything to him. I know that Wyatt is working hard on the other side and I'm going to keep on working hard in good 'ol Oklahoma :) I love my family, I love my friends, and I love the people of Oklahoma! Hope you all have a wonderful week filled with the spirit!

Love, Elder Larsen

End of First Transfer

Dear Family and Friends,

This past week has been pretty good. A lot of things didn't really work out like we hoped they would but we're still making progress :)

Tuesday we had a church tour with Helen set up for 2:00. Literally 15 minutes before the appointment, the member who was supposed to come with us cancelled on us. So then we were stressed out trying to find another member because we needed a third male and we couldn't just walk around the temple and church because it was super hot outside and Helen said she couldn't be out in the heat. So while we're frantically calling anybody and everybody who might possibly be available on a Tuesday afternoon, Helen calls us and tells us that she is at the stake center (even though we made it clear that we were meeting at the building by the temple). So we went to the stake center even though we didn't have a member who could meet us there and by some miracle there were some missionaries who were chilling at the stake center for some leadership meetings. So in the end, everything worked out and we were able to borrow another missionary for our church tour with Helen. #miracle

Wednesday I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with our other Zone leader, Elder Quist. I got to go to their area (Yukon) and learn how they do missionary work there. It's a much more humble area and we were able to hand out a couple of Book of Mormons with ease. Elder Quist is so awesome and he taught me so much about how to talk with everyone, set up appointments, ask for referrals, and lots of other good missionary skills. Sometimes I wish my area was a lot more like Yukon. There's a lot more people on the streets and they seem more open to receiving the gospel.

Thursday I ran into my first preacher. It was an interesting experience. We talked to him for a lot longer than we should have and it caused us to miss an important appointment. I felt terrible about it. Never again will I waste the Lord's time discussing the gospel with someone who won't even accept a Book of Mormon. Trying to prove the gospel won't get you anywhere. If we meet with this guy again this next week we're basically going to tell him again that the only way he can find out is through reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. We would love to spend time discussing things with him but if he's not willing to read the Book of Mormon then we can't really help him increase his faith in Christ.  

Friday was the only day we managed to hand out a Book of Mormon. We talked to this sweet lady who used to live in Africa and doesn't speak very good English. She said she would read it and then "I call you in 7 weeks, okay?" so we'll see if that ends up going anywhere. We also had the opportunity to talk with a member who recently lost her niece in a freak accident. We were able to share our experiences with death with her which was really neat. 

Saturday we spent a lot of time with members and less-actives. We followed up on a Book of Mormon we handed out last week but the family didn't want to meet with us till they had a month to read the Book of Mormon. It's so frustrating when people think they need more time to read the BoM. 

Sunday we met with Helen for a little bit and also got to spend some time talking to her husband Don and trying to make him more comfortable with us and our message. Hopefully we can address his concerns and soften his heart this week so that Helen will commit to being baptized.

We've been trying to set up appointments with all our potential investigators but it seems like no one wants to meet with us. The less-active and his girlfriend are continuing to progress slowly but surely. Freedom Sinclair isn't returning our calls or answering our texts so we don't know what's up with her. Jonalea moved into the city for some reason so we won't be able to teach her again and Taryn isn't responding to our attempts to contact her and set up an appointment. The 3 foster kids and 2 grandkids all have a baptismal date for the 26th of September. If things go as planned the next couple of weeks they all should be able to be ready for baptism and have permission from their mothers. These kids deserve to be baptized and we're doing everything we can so that they can get baptized. Things are looking good and it's so exciting!

The weather was pretty hot this past week but it's nice and cool today so hopefully it stays that way for the rest of the week :) Sometimes I still feel like I'm in St. George because I'm used to the humidity now and it's been so hot outside. And the dirt is red. But once winter hits I'm sure I won't think I'm in St. George anymore ;) Anyways, I'm still doing great and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I love these people even if they ignore us or won't accept a BoM. The Lord is preparing people (Alma 13:24) and he will continue to lead us to them and place them in our path.  Member missionary work is where it's at! We can only do so much without the help of members. I can't believe I've already been out in the mission field for 1 transfer. In some ways it only feels like a couple of weeks. I'm staying in the same area with the same companion so it looks like I'll be with Elder Holbrook until he leaves in December. This area can be very discouraging but if we exercise enough faith we won't get discouraged. We will continue to experience sorrow but if we rely on Christ it will all work out in the end. I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love, Elder Larsen

Oklahoma sunsets are the best. 

I decided to save some money by buying a couple months worth (6 pounds) of mustard ;)

Faith

Dear Family and Friends,

This past week has been amazing and I'm even more excited for this next week. This week we increased our efforts to hand out Book of Mormons and so I realized that 2 Nephi 29 basically describes my mission pretty well ;)

Monday while we were running errands, we stopped at the post office to buy some stamps. This guy saw us and told us that the management at the apartment complex we were trying to move into had changed and that they were members of the church now. This apartment complex is actually in our area and is in a really good location but a couple of months ago when we tried to get an apartment there they wouldn't let us because the church does corporate leases and so they wanted us to get a corporate apartment that is out of our budget. So because we ran into this guy, we went to apartments on Tuesday with the housing coordinators and things went really well so hopefully we'll be able to move in next month! 

Tuesday night we got a miracle new investigator. We showed up to teach Taryn the plan of salvation but her friend, Jonalea, also showed up. Apparently they are best friends and now Jonalea is living with Taryn. So we were able to give Jonalea a Book of Mormon and teach her about the restoration. She is super interested and started reading the BoM as soon as she got home from meeting with us. It's so awesome because now they can work together to read the BoM and to keep their other commitments. This week we're going to commit them to baptism and make sure they come to church. It's going to be so awesome!

On Wednesday we met with Helen and managed to keep the appointment to an hour and a half instead of 3 hours which was really good. We're still working towards 45 minute lessons so we'll continue to make progress in that regard this week. Helen is totally ready to be baptized and she knows that the church is true but her husband is not supportive at all. It's a really hard situation because we can't just tell her to join the church and get a divorce. She doesn't know what to do and so we're doing all we can to help her find out what God's will is for her. We're praying to find a way to soften her husband's heart and to help Helen know what to do. So we'll see what ends up happening there. That night we met with the less-active member and his girlfriend. They're opening up to us more and asking questions which is so great. They're feeding us dinner tomorrow night which will be awesome. 

Thursday we met with the foster kids. We're waiting on Bishop to set up an appointment with their Mom so we can go and talk with her and discuss any concerns she might have. I finally found someone who is interested in golf which was pretty cool ;)

District Meeting on Friday we talked about the faith and doubt cycles, and what we can do to stay encouraged, increase our faith, higher our expectations, increase our effectiveness, increase our desire, and ultimately have a stronger connection with the spirit. Maintaining strong faith throughout the day is so important. As soon as we start following the doubt cycle we become discouraged, our faith decreases, our expectations lower, our effectiveness decreases, our desire weakens, and we ultimately have difficulty following the spirit. This week has been so much better than last week not because we've had a little more success but because we've stayed more faithful and encouraged. In the afternoon I went on exchanges with Elder Oviatt (Elder Yamane's Companion). We visited a less-active family and the father refused to commit to read the BoM which was interesting and frustrating. That night we were biking around and we started talking to this young couple in their garage about the restoration and we gave them a Book of Mormon. They seemed pretty interested and open, and they were super nice to us so hopefully we can follow up with them this week.

Saturday was long hot day of biking and sweating. It seemed like no one was home and no one wanted to talk with us. Although we did have one person who said that we could come back sometime so that made it all worth it :) I was able to stay pretty positive and encouraged even though we weren't having much success so I guess I am making some progress which is a relief. I also think it's amazing how almost every night we don't have a dinner appointment someone ends up feeding us. The relief society president saw us walking around a neighborhood and stopped to give us a slice of pizza which was super nice of her and greatly appreciated. The OKC 7th ward is seriously the best :)

Sunday not many people came to church because it was labor day weekend. Brother Judd gave a 20 minute testimony during fast and testimony meeting (My comp. says he does that every month). The ironic thing about his testimony was that he was telling us that we're all obligated to tell him if he's doing something wrong in the church. He thinks that because he's a convert he doesn't know anything about church culture which is somewhat true but he knows more than he says he does. So there he was, breaking the guidelines for sharing a testimony in sacrament meeting as he asked us to stop him if he ever breaks any guidelines. (He also talked about the lost pages and he unfortunately still doesn't have any news). It was awesome ;)

Monday we had the option of going to a baseball game but we decided against it (thankfully) and did some fun stuff with Elder Yamane and Oviatt.

Freedom Sinclair set up about 5 appointments 5 days in a row and they all fell through one way or the other. She said she was coming to church but then she never showed up and right now she isn't responding to us. We still have no idea what's going on which is quite frustrating.

We went to visit a potential investigator Wednesday evening. We've knocked on his door multiple times but this time he was out in his front yard watering plants. As soon as he saw us he dropped the hose, quickly went into his house, and then didn't answer the door when we knocked. Some people. "It's the Mormon Missionaries! They might actually talk to me, run for your life!" Some people think that and it's crazy. Needless to say, he's not a potential investigator anymore ;)

Last week was super awesome and I'm so pumped for this week!

Love, Elder Larsen

(P.S. How do you guys like the gas prices in Oklahoma?)

Note from one of Tyler's Zone Leaders

What a fun surprise for us to get this note in the mail today. What a thoughtful missionary!