The Ants go Marching One by One...

Well ok so this week there was a disaster!! On Tuesday night I had a nightmare that there were ants in my bed. I woke up and made sure that my bed was ant free, and then went back to sleep. Well Wednesday night I was telling my companion about my nightmare as we were getting ready for bed when I noticed there was one little ant on my bed. I laughed about how ironic it was but then I saw another, and then another , and then another. So at this point I saw like 4-5 on my bed and I was freaking out. I pull back the covers and my bed is INFESTED with ants....like infested infested!! I was hysterical!! My comp and I pulled off all of the sheets from my mattress and threw everything into the washer. As we were doing so we quickly found that they were the ants that bite and leave huge welts. I sprayed every inch of my mattress and the circumference of our room with ant spray and my companion taped up the hole in the wall that they were flooding in from. I'm still really confused as to why they chose to attack my bed, I had no food or anything. But anyway, that night I had to sleep on a handy-me-down sheet on my mattress with a super sketchy blanket and a really uncomfortable pillow....oh the joys of serving in a tropical island!!!

I really do love my area and my companion though. She and I are like the same person and it's great! We go running and exercise and we get fat together. I think we've only had to cook like 3 times since I've been here. Everyone gives us food here and it's great!! I think I'll finally get chubby here and I'm so excited!!! 

The amount of food that one member made for the 4 sisters that are in Caguas... the cooker is the size of a small child! Basically, yesterday I was fed a massive amount of delicious food haha!

Wow! So Hot!

Yes well this week has been super hot!!! It's also been really good and my companion and I are really hoping that we can start setting some baptism dates with our investigators. Oh, haha someone asked me if I was white the other day. When I said yes they responded with "yeahh I can tell". Well, I mean, anyone with eyes can see that I'm obviously white haha. It made me laugh though.

Cool story for the week:

We were contacting a woman and she didn't seem very interested until we started asking her about the church she attended. She stopped in the middle of her answer and asked us "If Christ established one  church, why are there so many churches on the Earth today?'. My comp and I just looked at each other like "is this real life?" and then we whipped our restoration pamphlets and shared a message with her and her family. It was great and it helped me realize that the Lord is preparing the hearts of the people that we're teaching.

Have a great week and here's some pics of my view yesterday!

-Hermana Larsen

Caguas!!!

This week was really fun but really crazy!! We had transfers on Tuesday and I had to say goodbye to my cute companion in Toa Baja which was really sad!! She was on crutches because she fell out of bed while sleeping and sprained her foot.

I was in a trio for a couple days while we were waiting for Hermana Galan's companion to fly in from Mexico and that was interesting but I'm glad that I'm back to just a regular companionship! My new companion's name is Hermana Beutler and she is a doll! We have a lot in common and we work well together!

The ward here is great and they love helping the missionaries! I miss Toa Baja because I spent a lot of time there and I feel like left a lot of people that are like family to me there, but I'm ready to work in Caguas!

ME VOY PARA CAGUAS!!!

This week was a really good/sad week!! Yesterday we received transfer calls and I'm going to Caguas!! I'm really excited to finally be leaving my area but I'm also really sad because I love my cute companion and I have a lot of members here who are like family to me. I'm going to be in a trio a north american and a latina companion. I hear we get fed a lot in that area so I feel like I'll enjoy it ;)

A funny story for this week:

During a lesson with an elderly woman we were offered orange juice. I love orange juice and so of course I accepted. Well she grabbed a super dirty cup from her sink, filled it with juice, and gave it to me. It had what looked like week old coffee floating around in it!! Luckily I had an empty water bottle with me so my companion would ask her about the painting that were hanging up behind her head while I would hurry and dump the nasty orange mixture into my water bottle. 

We also finally had a meeting about the dress code changes and it's official....I can wear pants!! I can also use hats and sunglasses but I'm just really excited about using pants!!!

I hope you all have a great week and enjoy your memorial day!

Hna Larsen

Bautismo ... Por Fin!!!

This week we finally had the baptism for Betzaida and it was great!!! She loves the church and she loves the gospel so it was great to finally see her in the font! We had a member in the ward who is leaving for his mission in a couple weeks, do the actually ordinance to help give in practice and he did awesome!! 

The weather here has been super hot and I'm not excited for June and July here but oh well! Transfers are next week and I'll probably get moved out of this area. Yeah I've only been here for 6 months (sarcasm)! Haha I honestly love the members here and I'll be sad to leave them and my companion if I do get transferred but we'll see what happens on Sunday when we get transfer calls!!

Here's the pics from Betzaida's baptism.

 and here's one with my Puerto Rican mom, Carmen 

Lesson Learned, Price Paid

This week I learned a really difficult lesson about acting upon the promptings of the spirit. Last Sunday I was feeling uneasy about the baptism that we had scheduled for the 14th. My companion and I decided to fast and pray about what we should do and we both felt really strongly like we should postpone the baptism date a week or two until we felt like our investigator recognized that she had a testimony. We felt peace and reassurance but we were eventually talked into keeping the baptismal date for the 14th. While planning the baptism we felt very nervous and unsure and it seemed like we encountered problem after problem. We had to change the service to the 15th (yesterday) because of a funeral that was taking place. My companion and I couldn't sleep Saturday because we just really felt like our investigator wasn't ready. 

Yesterday, one hour before her baptism, our investigator told us that she doesn't know how to recognize that she has a testimony and she doesn't quite understand what faith really is. This reaffirmed the answer that my companion and I had received that she wasn't ready for her baptism. We had to cancel everything and it was really embarrassing. I learned that I need to support the promptings that I receive and I hope that I never have to learn this lesson again.

We will hopefully have her baptism next week, depending on if she is ready :)

6 Months Down!

This week was really good! I hit my 6 month mark and I can't believe how fast my time here is going. My cute companion made me pancakes in the shape of a 6 and we tried to find a 6KM sign but a 0.6KM was the best we could do!

We had zone conference on Thursday and I had the opportunity to be interviewed by Elder Martinez for the quorum of the 70. It was an amazing experience and I'm grateful for his support and advice. At zone conference I learned the importance of teaching according to the needs of each of my investigators. I can't wait to be able to apply what I learned!

This Saturday I should be having another baptism! We're really hoping that everything goes as planned so please pray for the success of my investigator, Betzaida!

As you all know, Sunday was Mother's Day and I got to see my cute family! I love them so much and I can't wait to see them again for my Christmas Skype!

Here's the pictures of my week!