Trials

These last couple weeks my companion and I have been studying the attributes of Christ. We decided that in the transfer we want to strengthen the attributes of Obedience and Diligence, not because we're disobedient but because we know that blessings always come after we demonstrate our obedience. Lately, it seems like every time we start to have success something happens and our diligence and obedience is put to the test. Sometimes the Lord allows us to be tried so that we can become stronger more refined.

This week we saw a miracle! This man that we had contact last Friday accepted a baptismal date for the 8th of October! We have a lot of work on our hands but he really loves the gospel and he's willing to change his life.

We also had Stake conference and my comp and I took a couple selfies ;) It's not really a mission meeting if you don't take at least one picture haha.

The foolish man built his house upon the sand... or forgot her umbrella at home!

This week we have been working on trying to find new investigators and working with the members. People are more receptive to the gospel when they are hearing it from their friends and family and so that has been my main focus in this week, helping the members share the gospel. I never really understood how important members are in missionary work before I left and now I see that they are EVERYTHING.

Also yesterday we left in a hurry and accidently left our umbrellas at home. Well it rained, and rained, and rained and we got soaked!! Luckily we were able to run to the house of our mission leader and help his wife with her family history. It was a great experience and we ended up having a really nice lesson with them. But I learned a great lesson!! I will never again leave the house without my umbrella!!

Also here are some pictures from a mission meeting that we had last week! I was able to run into to some of my other companions and take a 3 generation picture with my trainer and my "daughter".

Well yep that about sums it up!! I hope you all have a great Monday!!

Hna Larsen

Crickets...

Quote from Mary's brief email "This week was pretty normal and I don't have anything too profound to share haha."

WE'RE BASICALLY TWINS!!

So yes I received my "daughter" on Tuesday and we look so much alike...if I was a 4'7 Guatemalan!! My new companion is Hna Tirado and I have the pleasure of training her. Luckily she knows a little bit on how to be a missionary already because she served in Guatemala for two transfers while she was waiting on her Visa. She did tell me that she doesn't understand the people/language her which is funny because she's the native Spanish speaker in this companionship. Well it's a good thing that I speak the native language of PR, Spanglish!!

She's super little and I feel like a giant next to her. I've never really felt like I was super tall before, I kind of like it!! A little girl asked me if she was my "nena"... technically yes because I am her trainer!! She's so excited to get out and work, her attitude is contagious. She speaks absolutely no English but I know that my Spanish will improve a lot because of my time with her.

Haha some examples of Puerto Rican Spanish:

if anything ends in "ado" they pronounce it "ow". So if someone is busy they say that they are "ocup'ow". If a word has a double "R" in it they pronounce it like "ho" so if someone is talking about their car, they're talking about their "ca'ho". It's great fun.

This week was really stressful but so far we've had a lot of fun and I'm excited to see what these next 11 weeks of training have to bring!!

Les amo!!

Hermana Larsen

I AM GOING TO BE A MOM!!

We got transfer calls yesterday...I'm going to train!! For those of you who don't know, we call our trainers "mom" so hence the subject line. I'm so excited and so nervous but it will be ok. There's only two new sisters coming into the mission, one American and one Latina. I still don't know which one will be my "hija" but I'll find out tomorrow. My companion was called to be a sister trainer leader in San Juan with my trainer so I'm really excited for her and I know they'll both do great!!

This week it was really hot...like REALLY, REALLY, HOT. I thought that August was the only super hot month and then a member informed me that September is just as intense but then it gets better in October. I can make it that long, right?

We took our district picture this week and I also took pictures with some of the member and investigators that we have here.

I hope everyone is doing great and that you guys are enjoying the air conditioning!!

Les amo,

Hna Larsen

August 15 2016

Last week I sent a story about a lady that we have been teaching, right? Well after we were done writing, my comp and I decided that we were going to work  on being domestic and that we would attempt to bake/cook. Yeahh I still don't know what possessed us but we just really wanted to make lemon cupcakes and chocolate peanut butter fudge... so we did! With just the two of us in the house we figured that it would be a terrible idea if  we ate 20 cupcakes and a whole pan of fudge all by ourselves so we decided to take some of it to our investigator Sylvia (the lady from the story last week). We didn't catch her in the house but we did give leave our plate of goodies with her daughter. Well later that night we got a text from Sylvia saying that she was so touched by our generosity and that she will be coming to church with us on the 21!! We went to see her again yesterday and after the lesson she accepted to be baptized!!! Cupcakes=Baptisms.

This week has been fantastic and I can't believe how fast my time here is going by!! I hope everyone has a great week and here's some pictures of me and my comp from zone conference!

Hump Day!!

Thursday was my Hump day and to celebrate I got to wait in Doctor's and Dentist's offices all day!! It wasn't all bad because I did run into my trainer while I was in the mission home and I just love her. At the end of the day we found out that I have TMJ dysfunction which has been causing a bunch of random, seemingly unrelated, problems.

Something that really touched me this week was how much of an impact charity can have on people. On Friday I was visiting an investigator who has been having a really hard time and I grabbed her hand and told her that I loved her. She broke down and started crying. She told me that she couldn't remember the last time someone had told her that they loved her. It really touched me what an impact 3 little words can have on a person.

I love the people here and I'm really sad that I only have 9 months left with them!! I hope you all have a wonderful week and that you remember to say "I love you" more often!!

Here is an email that Hermana Larsen received from a friend that returned from serving in her mission in January:

Hola Mija!!

I want to share with you an experience that has happened to my mom the other week and I bet your probably just like why is she about to tell me this..

You will know why in just a few minutes

So my mom and dad took some family friends out to dinner and when my mom went to go pay, she pulled our her debit card to pay, the restaurant only excepted cash and checks! my mom was so furious and she left her check book at home...As my mom was trying to think of ways to come up with cash in her purse, and old man behind her politely said I will pay for it..The awesome Man payed. My mom decided to get the mans information so that she can be able to send him a money to pay him back, so when my mom was going so, the man called my mom and said thank you, and that he didn't think she would really pay him back.  Then they started to get to know each other. My mom mentioned me and that i served a mission and the nice man said where did she serve, and my mom said PUERTO RICO...my mom told me that over the phone he heard the nice man had a change of tone in his voice as if he was trying to hold back on something, and he asked when did i return and my mom said in January, and the man said My grand daughter is serving there right now she left in november, and so your gramps called out to your grandma and told her about it!!  

hermana Larsen! the world is getting smaller! and i just bursted out in tears when my mom told me the story and had told me his granddaughter is hermana larsen! i told my mom i was there when you started your mission! I miss you and i am forever grateful for you and your family!! always looking out for us. haha