That's a Wrap!!

Can you believe it's already been a year and a half??? Where has the time gone?!? This week has been a really challenging week because I love being a missionary and I love helping people but I also know that I have to go home sometime!! 

We had a lot of fun events that happened this week that made my last couple days in PR special! On Friday we had a combined zone conference with the Ponce and Mayaguez zones and Hna. Josie and I had the chance to teach the two zones about how miracles occur. We shared the scripture in Ether 12:12 that says that God cannot work miracles until we put forth the effort and exercise our Faith. It was a great conference and I learned a lot from the other leaders from the mission. 

Saturday there was a huge Agua Sero (rainstorm) which resulted in flooded streets. It felt like I had to walk through a lake to get anywhere!! ( see picture below). Before my mission I would not be caught dead saying this but I was really grateful for crocks that day!!! Walking through knee-high water would not have been fun in normal church shoes!!

Sunday was a great day as well! One of our recent converts was given the priesthood last week and this week was his first time passing the sacrament!!! It was soooo cool and I was really proud of him!! We also had the baptism of Elinette after church and I have seen a great change in her and I feel honored that I have been able to help her make changes in her life that have allowed her to find more happiness. 

Well that was my week this week and I wish that I could list all of the things that I have learned since my mission but it would result in novel. I think the most important thing that I have learned is that God really does have a plan for each one of us. He loves us and He wants us to be happy. He gave us this gospel as a way to help us to return to Him and He wants, more than anything, that we have eternal happiness and that we follow this perfect plan that He created. I'm so grateful for the chance that I was given to be a missionary in the San Juan, Puerto Rico mission and I am really excited to apply everything that I have learned here in my life at home. 

I love you guys and I will see you soon!!

Hermana Larsen

Let's see a week of miracles

Well this is my last full week as a missionary so do you know what that means? Baptisms! I feel so motivated to share the gospel and to help the Lord build his kingdom in Puerto Rico. I will never be able to get the chance to preach the gospel like this ever again! With that being said, we are really excited to see at least two baptisms this week. One of those will be with Elinet, a reference from the online system. Two sister missionaries contacted her while she was living in Colorado, but at that point she was already in the process of moving back to PR. They wrote down her address and sent it to us and we were able to get in contact with her the week that she returned to PR. She has seen a lot of trials in her life lately but the gospel has been able to help her deal with many of her hardships and she is excited for her baptism this Sunday!

This week I had my last District meeting and companion exchange! Yeah it still feels unreal. We took a district picture and yes, that is me being lifted up on the chair! I also really enjoyed my intercambio with the beautiful Hna. Santos from Chile. She really is so patient and loving and she and her companion have seen a lot of miracles in their area this transfer. I'm so grateful that I have been given the chance to serve as a STL and to learn from the other sisters in my zone. They are all so amazing and I can't wait to hear about their upcoming success!

Here's the pictures of the week! (last district meeting, my time in San German with Hna Santos, my pictures with Hna. Keller and Hna, Guevara, and then our ward selfie to celebrate the month mark of the baby of the Perez family).

A Week of Final Testimonies

This week was a great week!! I was able to go on exchanges with Hna Antonio from the Dominican Republic and I learned more about what it means to have gratitude for the work and have gratitude for the little things that happen each day. 

I had to give my finally testimony in two different settings this week and it was really hard! I had my final MLC meeting and I was super emotional throughout the whole thing! The spirit was so strong and at the end the 5 of us that are leaving in May, got up and gave our testimonies. It just made me realize even more how grateful I am for my mission and that the Lord has called me to serve in Puerto Rico. Yesterday was my last fast and testimony meeting as a missionary so I aprovechared (a spanglish word) and I gave my testimony. Again, I just really love my mission and the people that I get to serve each day.

Well I hope that you guys are having a great week and that you enjoy your Easter!! 

p.s.  Go look up and share the church's video that they just released for Easter.

Love,

Hna Larsen

Conference Weekend!

This conference weekend was especially meaningful to me. It was my last one!! Can you believe that? I felt like every speaker was speaking directly to me and something in each talk touched my heart. One of my favorite talks was from Elder Rasband who spoke on understanding the language of the Spirit and acting upon the first promptings that we receive. During my mission I feel like I have learned two new languages, Spanish (of course) and the language of the Gospel or the Holy Ghost. I think understanding how the Spirit speaks to you and acting upon those prompting is the most valuable skills that we can obtain is this life, it is truly blessing my life!

A cool experience that happened this week:

My companion and I were contacting on an especially hot day. We both were soooo thirsty but had long run out of water. We decided that we would just ask the next person we contacted to give us water, but of course know one would open the door to us. Hna. Josie reminded me of something that she had heard from one of my old companions from my first area. She had heard that whenever I was hungry or thirsty  while I was out working I would pray specifically to be fed dinner or be given a glass of water and within minutes someone would offer me exactly what I had prayed for. I had completely forgotten about those moments from the beginning of my mission but I decided to pray that someone would give us two cold bottles of water. Well lo and behold, at the next house that we yelled at (they don't knock on doors here) a little old man came out and in English asked if we needed anything. We asked if we could have some water and when he came out of the house he had two cold bottles of water!! I know that Heavenly Father really loves me and he really does hear my prayers!

Well I hope you guys have a great week and that you enjoy you Monday!

Les Quiero!

Hna Larsen

Here's some pictures of my conference weekend!

The Blonde Epidemic!

So Puerto Ricans really love baseball right? Well apparently there is a player on PR baseball team that bleached his hair blonde or the whole team bleached their hair blonde..... something like that! And to show their pride for the PR team all of the men in PR have been bleaching their hair blonde!! One day Hna. Josie and I were walking down the street and we saw someone with fake blonde hair and we kinda of laughed at it... then 10 minutes later we saw another person..then another... then yet another!!! It felt like we were back in Utah because everyone here is blonde now!!! Haha it has become the new "thing" here and I have to say it's my favorite trend that I have seen here so far, it makes me feel normal haha.

Besides that this week has been fairly normal. We've been finding a lot of great people with potential and we've been focusing on inviting our investigators to be baptized early on... we try to mention baptism in the first contacts so that the people we talk to know that we are here to bring people to Christ and not to just talk about their favorite verse of scripture in Psalms (that's the only book of the bible that people usually read). So far it's been going really well and we're looking forward to have a lot of success with our companionship and our zone this transfer!

On Friday we had a ward missionary activity where we held a talent show at the church and had members participate and bring their family and friends. It was so fun! The four of us did a "synchronized Swimming" routine and we used a Blue bed sheet for water. It turned out pretty well for only being practiced a couple times! Who would have known that I would be able to put all those years of swimming to use on the mission? ;)

Today we had a zone activity where we focused on companionship unity by playing water balloon volleyball and we ended it by coming up with our zone goal for baptisms for the month of April. It was really fun and everyone really enjoyed it!!

Well I hope y'all have a great week and here's some of my pictures from the week!

Hna Larsen

pics:

Transfer day, Hna. Guevara and her new comp Hna. Keller, and our zone activity!  

March 20, 2017

Happy Monday!!!

I hope everyone has enjoyed the cold in Utah, hope it starts warming up soon!!

Here are some of the high lights of the week!!!

We had another baptism!!! His name is Alejandro and he's actually the boyfriend of member here!! He had heard about the church through her and has been really interested in joining for the past year now!! It has caused him a lot trials, especially among his family, but he shared a very spiritual testimony with us saying that he knew that this was the ONLY true church and that he knew that he was making this decision for the right reasons. It was awesome and the ward was really supportive!!

Oh yeah, and we had a conference with Elder Anderson!!!! I have never been in the same room as a member of the 12 but it was really amazing!! Haha oh and funny story. I sit down in the conference and the services start, one of the zone leaders from Mayaguez was asked to say the prayer, and at that moment I thought "Wow, how scary would that be to have to say a pray with a bunch of general authorities in the room? Poor Elder!". Well PT Boucher gets up to announce the schedule of the meeting and at the end he adds "And the closing prayer will be offered by Hna Larsen".....I almost died!!! So yes, I got the chance to say a prayer, in Spanish, with multiple general authorities in the room! It was okay because it meant that I could shake Elder Anderson's hand twice, so it was worth it!

One thing that really stood out to me from the conference with Elder Anderson was his thoughts on faith. He said that when the Presidency of the church wants to see an increase of miracles in an area, they start with the missionaries! Why? Because missionaries have more faith that miracles can happen!!! How cool is that? Just think about what could happen to an area if everyone, including the local leaders, had missionary-like faith???? It would have an amazing amount of miracles!! I just love that thought and I want to help others increase their faith as well so that we can keep seeing miracles!

Here are some of the pictures from the conference, our trip back to Mayaguez, and the Baptism! Have a great week!!