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!!

Road Trip!!

This week was full of many adventures and much time spent in the car! We had to be in the San Juan area three times!! Haha SJ is 2-2.5 hours from Mayaguez so Hermana Josie and I had some extra bonding time... Benditio! It was great though, We had mission leadership council on Wednesday and then a special Sister's conference on Friday. During our Friday conference we learned about managing stress and what causes anxiety.....I definitely ha ha don't have either of those things ha ha ( says with much sarcasm) . It really helped me understand how to deal with stress. during our second speaker I learned more about "self-talk" and how as women of the church we need to learn  how to speak well of ourselves and help motivate other. 

So basically this week was just really great!  

Here is my spiritual thought for the day:  Look up prayer in the bible dictionary. Prayer=work

Just a Couple Blondes in a Very Puerto Rican World

So this week was great, I feel like I always say this but it's because it's true!!! Hna Josie and I had two baptisms yesterday of people that we found at the beginning of the transfer! Delfin (which translated to English means Dolphin) has been a joy to teach!! He's 42 and actually studied to be a preacher. He has completely fallen in love with the gospel and the Book of Mormon and always has great insights about what he has learned from our lessons. Oh! And Omar was also baptized and his story is INCREDIBLE!  We actually found him on the 18th because he was an old investigator of the elders that use to be here. He had received all of the lessons and had come to church a couple times but then lost contact with the missionaries. The day we found him he told us that he had really want to be baptized in our church but had lost hope when the missionaries stopped passing by. He accepted our invitation to be baptized on the 26th with a lot of excitement and is now looking forward to getting involved in institute!

I just feel so blessed to be on a mission and I cannot image my life without this experience. The church is true!! I know people say that all the time but I really mean it!! There is no way that it couldn't be!!

I hope y'all have a great week and that you enjoy the rest of your Monday!!

Les amo!!

Hna Larsen

My exchange with Hermana Pichule

Baptism of Omar

Baptism of Omar

Baptism of Omar and Delfin

Baptism Delfin

Pictures from February 21, 2017

West Side Best Side

Last week we had transfers and I got moved to an area called Mayaguez to be with Hna. Josie!!! It's on the opposite side of the Island than all my other areas and I kind of feel like I'm in a completely different mission here! But on the bright side, I'm right by the coast and this side of the island is known for its amazing beaches... well I guess that doesn't really matter because I can't actually visit the beach but it's still fun to know.

It was really sad saying goodbye to my other comp, Hermana Anderson!  She and I got along really well. Last Monday we decided that we wanted to do something crazy before we split up so we decided to dye my hair white-blonde! I was already really blonde but from the mixture of metallic water and long days in the sun, it was starting to turn a little yellow. So yes, I am now very, very blonde.

Anyway, I now live in a house with 4 sisters, 3 of us are blonde and come from Utah and Hermana Guevara is our cute Latina. We all get along great which is good because the house is tiny! But I love them and I'm so excited to be a Sister Trainer Leader in the Mayaguez zone!

I hope you have a great week and that you stay warm in Utah!!

Hna Larsen

Here's some pics from my last couple days with Hna. Anderson and my adventure in Mayaguez