#LDSGenConf

Dear Family and Friends,

I had a wonderful general conference weekend here in Yukon and I hope y'all had a wonderful weekend as well receiving revelation from prophets, seers, and revelators! :)

Monday we got to do some service helping a member fix his power chair :)

Tuesday some less-actives took us out to lunch so that was awesome! Not too much happened in the afternoon, in the evening we had dinner with some members and got rebuked by the Dad for looking tired and not being excited enough so that was interesting...

Wednesday morning our lesson with Joseph fell through, we did some service in the afternoon at the community center, and we had an awesome miracle! So about a month and a half ago we tracted into this guy named Vince who said he had a cousin who's Mormon and that his cousin was going to come visit him soon and give him a Book of Mormon. He didn't seem too interested in meeting with us at the time but we wrote down his info with the intent to try him at some point in the future. Well Wednesday I felt prompted to go try him so we went to his house and he was there! He said we were lucky to catch him at home and that his cousin wasn't able to come visit. So we offered him a Book of Mormon and he accepted it and talked to us for a while. I'm excited to go back and teach him :) In the evening we visited a single lady who has been less-active for a couple years because she works on Sundays. But between the day we set up the appointment and the actual day of the appointment, she talked with her boss and got Sunday mornings off so she can come to church now. So cool!

Thursday morning we planned and in the afternoon we tracted. Our appointment with Danny fell through but we spotted some people who were moving out of their house so we walked over to them. As we approached, one of them said, "Unless you're hear to help, we're not interested". We replied, "Well that's why we're here, to help y'all out." And what did they say? "Oh, we don't need any help, we've got it under control." Some people... After dinner we went with the Elders Quorum President out to El Reno to give someone a blessing :)

Friday morning we had district meeting and discussed the church's Easter Initiative for this year, "Prince of Peace". If you haven't seen the video yet, you need to. It's amazing! www.mormon.org After district meeting we did a lot of biking, tracting, and giving pass-along cards to members :) We had to drop one of our investigators because he doesn't have much desire unfortunately. After dinner we visited the Edwards family and showed them the new Easter video :)

Saturday we spent basically the whole day at the stake center watching conference with some other missionaries. It was basically Christmas for me :)

Sunday morning we watched conference and ate lunch with a less-active family and then we watched the afternoon session with our neighbor members, the Baileys. Then we had dinner with the Edwards family and had a lesson with a recent convert family. It was an amazing day :)

One of the themes that really struck me during General Conference was the idea of viewing others through God's eyes. Having the ability to see others for their divine identity as children of God instead of for their sins or weaknesses. It's so easy to judge others and I all too frequently find myself making that mistake. God cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance (D&C 1:31) but he doesn't recoil from us because he's able to separate the sin from the sinner. He views us a spiritually sick and harmed and therefore in need of love and attention. Let us all behold others for who they are, and give them the love and the care that they need. Charity is truly the greatest of all :)

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

Love, Elder Larsen

D&C 98:3

1. Oil rig

2. Conference cinamon rolls

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

What's your level of Grit?

Dear Family and Friends,

It's been another amazing week here in Yukon and I can't wait to tell y'all all about it!

Monday evening we were supposed to have dinner and a lesson with a family that has a 9 year old unbaptized daughter but some things happened and it didn't end up working out :( But we were able to talk to a random person on the street named Andrea and we said a prayer with her :)

Tuesday was a long and exhausting full of biking and tracting, and one of our appointments fell through but we were able to have dinner and a lesson with the Edwards family. We also found a new investigator while tracting named Brad. #Miracle We were finishing up the same street where we found Brandon a couple weeks ago. Brad answered the door and said he was having a bad day. We discovered that his dad had just died and he'd gotten into some fights. We got to say a prayer with him and give him a Plan of Salvation pamphlet. We wasn't there for the return appointment on Thursday but hopefully we'll be able to teach him this next week :)

Wednesday morning and early afternoon we had zone conference in the city. It started at 8 (an hour earlier than usual) and got done around 2:00 making it the shortest zone conference of my mission. We got some awesome trainings on the addiction recovery program, our potential to become like God, and grace. So cool how those 3 topics fit together so well :) After zone conference I had a 42 minute phone call with one of our investigators. It was mostly just me listening to her talk and she ended up dropping us but she said she would still read the Book of Mormon. When we got back to Yukon we had a sweet Plan of Salvation lesson with Brandon. He seemed to really enjoy it and he committed to coming to church on Sunday until he remembered that he has to go spend some time in jail the next 2 weekends. But hopefully he'll keep on progressing and making some positive changes in his life. After the lesson with Brandon, we biked past this guy who was under the hood of his car and started talking to him. His name is Mike and he accepted a restoration pamphlet and a Book of Mormon and said he wants to come try out our church sometime. He said we could stop by whenever so hopefully we'll be able to have a lesson with him this next week. Towards the end of the conversation we asked him if he knew anyone in the area who was going through a rough time and could use a prayer and he said, "You know, I think you found the right place. I've been going through a transitional time in my life and I think God led you to me for a reason" #Miracle I love missionary work :) 

Thursday we did weekly planning and then in the afternoon/evening we tried some LAs and did some tracting. Haha we tracted into this guy who started bashing us and telling us that we were trying to earn our way into heaven and that we didn't believe in grace. I thought it was pretty funny since we had a whole training on grace the day before at zone conference. But this guy wasn't an honest seeker of truth so we didn't waste much time with him. But if I wasn't a missionary, I would've totally confounded the guy ;)

Friday we didn't have district meeting because of zone conference so we had a full day of trying LAs and tracting :) We did get to do some service in the afternoon and after dinner we went to El Reno to give someone a blessing. Fun and exhausting day :)

Saturday morning we had correlation with our amazing ward mission leader, Brother George. In the afternoon we started tracting a street that we had prayed about and talked to a guy named Danny who was working on his car. He talked about how he was wanting to get back into church because of some recent life events and because he wants his 4 year old son to be in church as well. We invited him to come to our church and also talked a little bit about the temple since that's usually how people know where our building is at (next to the big white building with the statue on top). It was super cool though and we're going to go back and teach him more tomorrow :) #Miracle Before dinner we stopped by one of our investigators named Candy (it was my first time meeting her). While we were talking to her, she said that her friend, Andrea, was walking down main street earlier in the week and 2 guys dressed in black stopped and talked to her and said a prayer with her. She said it was a little weird but that it really helped her out a lot. So that was kind of cool to hear and it strengthened my testimony that no effort is wasted and that it's equally important to sew as it is to reap :)

Sunday was good. The Edwards family came to church which was great :) President Mansell showed up for our sacrament meeting which was really random but cool :) After church we went and gave someone a blessing and after dinner we met with a active/less-active family and a couple of families with recent converts. Awesome day :)

So the Edwards family. The Mom, Zericka, is a convert of 3 years. The dad, Tim, is not a member but has decided to be baptized. He has some things he needs to do before he can get baptized (such as getting married in July) but he's making some good progress. They have 3 sons all together, the youngest 2 are Zericka's and the one who is over 8 years old is baptized. Their oldest son, Justin, is Tim's and he is working towards baptism as well. They're such a fun family and they feed us at least once, usually twice a week.

Learning more about grace has been really enlightening. I feel like a lot of us in the church don't fully understand grace simply because it takes both grace and effort (or works) on our part to qualify for celestial glory. But the key difference is the purpose behind the works. We don't keep the commandments to repay Christ or to fill gaps or to earn our way to heaven. We follow Christ's example in order to show appreciation for his gift and to use his gift for it's intended to purpose: helping us progress towards exaltation and godhood. Brad Wilcox's talk titled, "His Grace is Sufficient" is so good at explaining how it all works. I especially enjoy the analogy he uses with learning to play the piano. At one point he poses the question, "Why is this perspective so easy to see in the context of learning piano but so hard to see in the context of learning heaven?" Understanding grace is so vital for true repentance and change. And with that comes true peace and happiness.

Thank y'all so much for all your love and support, I feel so blessed to have such awesome friends and family :)

Love, Elder Larsen

D&C 78:7; 88:22

1. The Famous Yukon Flour Mill

2. Nothing like hot chocolate after freezing all day :)

3-6. Buffalos at the park

7-8. Found this flyer for Grit.Church. Thought it was pretty cool ;)

ARP

Dear Family and Friends,

It's been another awesome week here in the great state of Oklahoma and biking all around Yukon every day is a blast!

Monday we got to go to the stake center and play basketball with the other missionaries which was really fun. In the evening we did some tracting before dinner and got soaked. It was great :)

Tuesday I had a Missionary Leadership Council meeting in Edmond which was fun :)

Wednesday all of our appointments fell through and we did a lot of tracting that didn't yield much fruit. But we got to do some service in the afternoon and we had a good lesson with an investigator named Neil who was about to drop us.

Thursday we did weekly planning in the morning and then in the afternoon we had a lesson with an investigator named Tina. We ended up dropping her because she doesn't let us talk very much and she can't get over Joseph Smith. After that we had a lesson with a less-active and it went pretty well. He doesn't have desire to come back to church but he said he would start reading and praying again. Before dinner we met a less-active who talked our ear off and gave us a random history lesson on the civil war. After dinner we tried some less-actives and potential investigators for the rest of the night without much success.

Friday after district meeting I got to go the OKC 7th ward (My very first area on the mission) on exchanges. It was so much fun :) I got to see a couple of members which was great and it was cool to be back where I started my mission. In the afternoon we helped this non-member family move into their new home. They're such nice people and they invited to come back in the evening for a cookout in their new home. Hopefully they'll be able to go back and teach them this next week. We also did some tracting and it reminded me why my trainer was always so against it ;) Not too many humble people in the 7th ward...

Saturday morning we exchanged back and in the afternoon we did a lot of biking and tracting. No one was very interested but it was a beautiful day :)

Sunday we had ward conference and it was great! The stake president did a cool meeting before sacrament meeting with new, returning, and non yet members. The Edwards family came and seemed to really enjoy it. Tim (the dad) has decided to get baptized and hopefully we'll be able to set a date with him this next week :) After lunch we biked out, tried some less-actives, our appointment at 4 fell through, and so we tracted until dinner. After dinner we had a doorstep lesson with the investigator, Brandon, that we miraculously found last Sunday. He said that the prayer we said with him last week really helped him out a lot and that he's been loving the scriptures we've been texting him each day. He has a really strong desire to change his life for the better and to stop doing bad things. We discussed a little bit of the plan of salvation with him and shared a scripture from the Book of Mormon that really spoke to him and answered a question that he had. It was a neat lesson, I'm so grateful for the guidance and power of the spirit :) After that we had a good lesson on the priesthood with a recent convert family, the Huerta's. Amazing Sunday :)

Last week President Mansell ordered 210 copies of the church's Addiction recovery program so that we can study it as a mission. He relabeled it as "The guide to changing your nature". So I've been going through the 12 step process with the goal of overcoming my addiction to pride and it has been so amazing. One of every missionaries greatest fears is going home the same person they were when they left. The 12 step process really does help with changing nature and not just behavior. Even if you aren't struggling with major addictions like drugs it's still a great way to overcome weakness and character flaws. It is such an inspired program and I'm pumped to study it throughout this next transfer :)

Hope y'all have a wonderful week!

Love, Elder Larsen

Alma 5:13