Tender Mercies :)

Dear Family and Friends,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love, Elder Larsen

Judges 9:50-55

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

Dear Family and Friends,

It's been another amazing week here in Yukon! Progress is a little slow but it's better than no progress at all :)

Monday evening we got to do a little family night with the recent convert family in our area and they had one of their friends over which was super cool! She was pretty shy but she said she enjoyed it. Then we had dinner with the Edwards family and visited another recent convert.

Tuesday we got fed lunch by a really nice older couple in the ward :) After that we went to go help someone lift a fridge into a dumpster but they ended up not needing our help. Our appointment with Danny didn't work out because he was preoccupied so we did some tracting. We ran into an Okie talker and by the end of it I'm pretty sure I was sleeping while standing up with my eyes open. In the evening we got to go out teaching with one of the youth in the ward and we ended up having an awesome lesson with Gayle. We read 3 Nephi 11 with her and recommitted her to reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. She doesn't feel comfortable coming to church yet but she is open to do a church/temple tour this next week. We also watched the Prince of Peace video with her and she liked it so much she posted it on facebook. It was fantastic!

Wednesday morning we went out teaching with a member. First we tried a former investigator, Joseph, that we've been trying to pick back up. He was busy when we stopped by but he told us to come back in 30 minutes. So in the meantime we tried a potential investigator named Ms. Murphy that we found through tracting. She's an elderly lady, she invited us in and we watched the Prince of Peace video with her. She enjoyed it and told us to come back on Friday :) Then we went back over to Joseph and had a good lesson with him on faith. He's been going through a lot but seems to be doing better so hopefully we can start teaching him on a regular basis. After lunch we did some tracting and then we had a lesson with some new investigators we found last week, Justin and Freddie. They're super chill and Freddie especially has some good questions and seems pretty interested. After that we went out with a member teaching. We had an appointment with our miracle from last week, Jennifer, but she dropped us over text which was really sad :(

Thursday we had zone conference in the city and it was amazing as always! We talked about becoming preach my gospel missionaries, prayer, and the trinity vs. the Godhead. My favorite part of zone conference (besides free lunch of course ;)) was that in attempting to explain what the Trinity is, the APs shared this quote from Wikipedia:

"Scripture contains neither the word Trinity,[13] nor an expressly formulated doctrine of the Trinity. Rather, according to the Christian theology, it "bears witness to" the activity of a God who can only be understood in Trinitarian terms.[14] The doctrine did not take its definitive shape until late in the fourth century.[15] During the intervening period, various tentative solutions, some more and some less satisfactory, were proposed.[16] Trinitarianism contrasts with nontrinitarian positions which include Binitarianism (one deity in two persons, or two deities), Unitarianism (one deity in one person, analogous to Jewish interpretation of the Shema and Muslim belief in Tawhid), Oneness Pentecostalism or Modalism (one deity manifested in three separate aspects). Additionally, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believes the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are three separate deities, two of which possess separate bodies of flesh and bones, while the Holy Ghost has only a body of spirit; and that their unity is not physical, but in purpose. [17]"

The doctrine of the Godhead is so simple, pure, and easy to understand. It just makes sense! In the evening we biked around in the rain, visited some members, and got soaked :)

Friday we did our weekly planning in the morning and in the afternoon we ended up tracting. Before dinner we went with a member to visit Ms. Murphy and we had a great get to know you lesson. She said she wanted to come to church and hear our Bishop speak but she didn't show up yesterday unfortunately. But we're going to go back and do some service for her this next week so that's exciting :) After dinner we visited a less-active and got to give someone a priesthood blessing on our way home.

Saturday morning we had an experience that was really sad. We showed up to our coordination meeting with our ward mission leader and he presented the brilliant idea of going with him and his family to a community Easter egg hunt at the high school sponsored by a local church. We figured it would be a great opportunity to meet some people in the community. So we went and took some #PRINCEofPEACE cards with us to spread the Easter cheer. First, we ran into a crazy former investigator that we dropped a couple months ago. Second, after being there for only a couple minutes, we were approached by a guy who was walking really fast and didn't seem too happy. He came up close to us and told us he was the head pastor for the church and he then told us to leave in a very disrespectful manner. We responded that we were just there with a family but he said he didn't care and that he would call the cops if we didn't leave. It was a community event on public land and so they couldn't actually make us leave. But rather than cause contention, we left. I was a little angry at what he said to us but mostly just sad that people misunderstand us so much. Anyways, after our coordination meeting we tried to meet up with Tray in the park to play some ball and do a little bible study but he didn't show up. The rest of the afternoon we biked around, knocked on some doors, and helped some members break into their house because they locked their keys and baby inside the house. So grateful that God placed us in the right place at the right time to help them out. After dinner we tried a potential named Jackie and we met her husband named Grant and he seems pretty interested. He asked us if we have a new-member orientation program or something at our church and we told him that we were that program :)

Easter Sunday was great! We missionaries got asked to participate in a special musical number last minute so we sang "I Believe in Christ" with about 5 other members. After church, we visited an elderly member of the ward. We were asked by our mission president not to go tracting or stop by on members so it was hard to find stuff to do. Our lesson with Justin and Freddie fell through. But we had dinner and a lesson with an active part-member family from Ghana. It was awesome! They prepared a feast with some delicious African food. It was a fun Easter :)

Last week someone in Gospel principles shared something about the atonement that really stuck with me. They referenced one of the phrases said by the Savior while he was hanging on the cross.

"It is finished." - John 19:30

No matter what trial, heartache, affliction, or trouble we are facing, it is finished. The price has been paid, the battle has been won by Christ. If we turn to Christ in our moments of need, he will always give us the victory. Because it is finished. The infinite atonement was completed.

"Father, it is finished, thy will is done." - Matthew 27:50 JST

I hope y'all had a fun Easter weekend and that this next week is good as well!

Love, Elder Larsen

Moses 4:2

Happy Easter!

Dear Family and Friends,

This past week has been totally awesome and I can't wait to tell y'all about it!

Monday we had dinner with our ward mission leader and his family which was fun :) After that we did some tracting and ran into a crazy lady. We also talked with another lady who was really nice and gave us some banana bread :)

Tuesday we did a lot of biking and little bit of tracting. We had an appointment with a less-active in the afternoon but we got there and she wasn't there. So we called her and she let us know she was running 30 minutes late. We walked around the apartment complex and ran into a guy named Justin. He's a cool guy and first person who let us watch the Prince of Peace video with him. #Miracle After we watched that and discussed it with him, he showed us part of this other video about some "sleeping prophet" from the 1900s which was slightly creepy and weird. But we got his phone number and he said we could come back whenever. After dinner, we visited some members and watched the Easter video with them and gave them pass-along cards to give to their friends.

Wednesday I had a sore throat which made biking in the wind and talking with people a challenge but the Lord helped me out so much. In the morning we went to the walmart parking lot for a little bit and offered to serve people by taking their shopping carts and putting them away for them. Most of those we helped accepted a card for the Prince of Peace video so that was cool :) After lunch, we dropped some pass-along cards off with some members, tried to visit some potential investigators, and got to watch the Easter video with a couple of them which was really neat. We also found a LA/PM family that's not on the records so #Miracle After dinner we went out teaching with a member and the first person we tried either wasn't home or they ignored us. So we decided to try a potential who lived down the street one last time. Her name is Jennifer and when she answered the door she said, "Hey guys, do you want to come in?" and we were like, "Yes please!". So we went in and sat down and started talking with her. She opened up about how she's hit rock bottom and that she's trying to get right with God again. Apparently she saw us a couple weeks ago riding our bikes in the middle of nowhere and said to herself, "The next time those guys come by I'm going to let them in." It was such an awesome and spiritual lesson! The member connected well with her and bore testimony about his own conversion and mission experience. It was probably the best lesson I've had so far here in Yukon, definitely a tender mercy :)

Thursday we did our planning and in the afternoon we did a lot of biking and giving #PRINCEofPEACE cards to members. We talked to quite a few people, knocked on some doors, and picked up some potentials. Solid Thursday!

Friday we had district meeting which was fun. President Mansell showed up randomly :) (I'm not a district leader anymore and it's been nice to not have as much stress :)) After that we went on splits in Yukon with Elders Fulmer and Burton who are serving out in Clinton. It was so much fun! Lots of stuff fell through for me and Elder Burton but Elder May and Fulmer found some new investigators so that was awesome :)

Saturday morning we finished splits, tried some potentials in the afternoon and did some service for Tim. After service, we went to the park in Yukon to try and talk to some people. There were some teenagers playing basketball so we went up to them and asked if we could play with them and were happy to let us join. Cool miracle: When we first walked up, they were all walking around looking at the ground trying to find a mini gold cross that fell off one of their necklaces. The guy who lost the cross is named Tray. We talked with him a little bit and I felt impressed to offer to say a prayer to help find the cross (at this point they were about to give up looking since it fell in the grass by the court). Tray is super chill and so he was happy to pray with us. A couple minutes after the prayer, Tray spotted his cross in the grass #Miracle It was a really cool experience :) Never underestimate the power of prayer! So we balled it up with them, I scored the winning 3 point shot ;), and Tray gave us his phone number so we could meet up with him again. After dinner our 7:00 fell through but at 8 we visited a PM couple which was good :)

Sunday was good, we had our usual eternigators at church. Some members fed us lunch after church and then we went to go meet with Justin and his brother, Freddie, but they weren't there :( So we tracted and found a sweet potential! After dinner we had a couple recent convert lessons. Fun Sunday :)

My favorite Easter scripture in the Book of Mormon about the resurrection is Mosiah 16:7-9

"7 And if Christ had not risen from the dead, or have broken the bands of death that the grave should have no victory, and that death should have no sting, there could have been no resurrection.
8 But there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ.
9 He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death."

Easter is probably my favorite holiday :) Apostles have called it the most holy day of year. The hope, peace, and rejoicing that come from Christ's victory over death and sin is indescribable. I was thinking the other day though, "Why do I not celebrate the resurrection every day? Why not celebrate Easter every day of the year? It's the greatest victory that's ever been one and it changes my life in more ways than I can count" So I've decided to try and do a better job of remembering Christ and his resurrection every day. I know that as we look unto Christ in every thought, (D&C 6:36) however hard it may be, we can always have peace in our hearts. He truly is the Prince of Peace!

Thank y'all so much for your love and support! And thanks for the Easter package mom! Happy Easter!

Love, Elder Larsen

1 Corinthians 15:55-57

P.S. Our mission office has moved to Edmond and so here is the new address if you ever want to send me anything.

Oklahoma Oklahoma Mission office
1967 W 33rd Street #100
Edmond, Oklahoma 73013

My current address here in Yukon is:
1006 Summerton Place
Yukon, OK 73099

1. Selfie SWAG while biking :)

2. A wild turkey chilling on some guy's truck in the middle of Yukon

#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