"Pit-Stop" town & one stop light...loving it!

Welcome to BEAVER... where there is one stop light, one grocery store and miiiiiles of farms :) ‏      12/10/12

Hello Family,

Yes I am in a "pit-stop" town. We have one stop light and one grocery store and A DOLLAR STORE :) woooohooo! We bought most of our stuff there today :) I have never seen so many horses and CATS in my life!!! We have a cat that lives on our car. So Sis Bojorquez and I got a brand new car with 100 miles on it- crazy! WE drove it up here and the other night we came out and the whoooole hood of our car had been clawed by this cat. We called our Car Director and he said SHOOT IT! hahaha we could not stop laughing. So our poor car is all sad looking now.

Wed. was our official first day in the area... and allll of our dinner appts have been the Christmas dinners :0 ooooh my! Not only do we eat the food but then they send us home with days’ worth. We had no need for grocery shopping this week. We have been full on meat and tators. Which by the way, is the only thing they eat around here. Groceries here are like shopping in Hawaii... it was a little depressing today trying to buy milk and bread and peanut butter. Milk is 4.99 and bread is 3.99 and PB is 5 something. You would think we were overseas!

 I have had squeaky cheese before...not here yet... and ice cream is everyone’s favorite around here so in the past 4 days I'm pretty sure I have gained 12lbs just from ice cream! Yesterday it was 19 and wind all day with flurries... it was COLD! I have one fleece blanket that I used in St George but here I think I’m going to need another one ;) I have to try and find a place first haha

Tell gramps and granny THANK YOU! I will try and write them too.

So Christmas.... I can call OR SKYPE! I would like to skype so I can see you all but if a call is all you can figure out ;) I am okay with that as well. Tell me when a good time would be for you and the family. I am on your time now with day lights savings. Let me know what you want to do. We have members here who are willing to help us out and are allowing us to use their phones and such :)

Mom, if you are sending stuff in a box like you usually do... can you throw in there my purple sweat pants that are in my closet. And if you can...in the mesh bag on top of closet.... in there is my good gloves and my head bands. We are told that everything is moving in the 15th and we just might get slammed for the month. I found boots on sale for $19 at Wal-Mart before I left St George soooo that is way good. I have been wearing them everywhere :) I think I am okay with the jackets that I have my suitcase is sooooo full so  I don’t think I can have any more clothes to try and transfer around.

Sooooo about my Christmas picture... there is NO place to plug in to even email one to you and the grocery store doesn’t even know what I’m talking about.
I will try and get that to you when I can. I was DEF spoiled in St George... I love it out here though, brings me back to what’s important instead of boats and cars.

Sis Bojorquez is my new companion. She is from Salt Lake and is teaching in Spanish. It’s amazing though... I can understand aloooot of things they say but I just can’t talk with them. I can have a small convo of how are you and such, but that doesn’t get me very far. I wish I would have learned it when I was in school. I pray that I get to stay out here up North for the majority of my mission. I love being able to do missionary work alll day. I loved the Visitor’s Center, but I love it out here more!

We have been trying to talk to everyone we possibly can since we are starting the area over and Sis. Bojorquez and I have officially found TWO new investigators that are ready to get baptized this month. WOOO HOOOO!

Well, more next week about Beaver :) Thank you for all that you do and that you do for me :D I loooove you all.

Mom, I love you like the people here love their new stop light ;) and that’s a looooot!

I hope next week we have more adventurous stories for you and maybe some baptism stories :)

Don’t forget what this season is really all about... it’s not about the gifts and toys.... it’s about families and being loved. You all our loved by your Heavenly Father and he wants you to be the happiest you can be. This is a time of service and love...think of those around you!

Xoxoxoxoox

Sister Larsen

Beaver, Utah... cows, ice cream, cheese & Spanish

Welcome to Utah... Where Sister Larsen has to learn SPANISH...FOR REAL THIS TIME! :)‏

12/03/12
Heeeelllllloooo!

 BIG changes around here... Sister Larsen will no longer be at the Visitor's Center in St. George!I have been transferred to BEAVER Utah. Where I will be "Pink-washing" and have to learn Spanish! I will be in a bi-Lingual area :) My comp is Spanish too. Her name is Sis Baroques(?) I think that is how you spell it :)  I will have a white Christmas!!!! :) woooohooooo! Just so you know... I will need to find boots today ;) .I’m am soooooo excited for a new adventure!!! Sooooo I WILL NOT be at the VC anymore as of now. I just wanted to call you and tell you :) ...but I have to wait. It will be a nice change ;)  It will be my companion and I and that’s it! :) ... apparently there is A LOT of pigs and Cows to teach ;) .... and a cheese factory with yummmy ice cream :) I’m going to be fat... Mexican food and Ice Cream :) hahaha I am not sure how long I will be out there, but nothing will change as far as mail :)

Sadly.... Sister Anderson and I have 6 new SOLID investigators that I have been dying to teach allll transfer. Sister A and I fasted for two particular people this past Sunday and then this morning... they called us separately and said they are ready to meet with us :D The power of the Lord is amazing!! But Sister A will have a great time teaching them. I hope that everything goes well for them :) ... it was reaaaaly sad to say goodbye to everyone :( I have been here so long I have made some pretty awesome friends! All the Ward Mission Leaders and Bishops were upset to see me go. It was a good feeling to know that they saw me as a worker and dedicated. The "Fields" now has a pretty high standard for missionaries. J

Other big News.... This past Friday we had a miracle baptism. We made our monthly goal of ONE by 4 hours :) ... We ran into this family and the dad said....where have you been?!? I have been waiting for you for two weeks! When are you going to baptize my daughter??? Sister A and I had no idea what to say we were stunned. We said well we would love to help with that, when can we start?  We Sat down right then and there and started teaching his daughter... we put her "on date" that night and then started to teach her every day after that. We had one week with her and she was baptized! It was soooo cool! JoDee is her name, she is sooo smart and always kept us on our toes. She asked us questions like " So Heavenly Father is our spirit dad...Who is Heavenly Fathers Father?" Or " ooookay so after we are resurrected and become perfect... What if in Heaven, My dad and I are out hunting and someone accidently shoots me... will I forever have that hole in my body?" haha It was sooo funny to hear her thoughts and see how her mind works. Every day we would go back...she would re-teach us what we taught her the day before. We teach adults that can’t even do that.

Heavenly Father has so many miracles up his sleeve. It’s amazing! This transfer has been a tough one for me learning how to find people and right when I leave... They all come... Lesson of patience? I think so.

I love missionary work!!! <3 <3

Sorry this is short... I don’t have much else to say... time to go pack J

I can’t wait to tell you all about my new adventures :)  I hope it lasts for a good while.

Mom and family... I love youuuuu like the Organic Peppermint Oreos from Trader Joes we got :) They were goooooood :)

 

Meeting President Uchtdorf!

Welcome to Utah... Where you just might see anyone!                    ‏                                             11/26/12

hiiiiiiiiii

 Got to spend the day at the temple today for P-Day :)

 Wellll it’s that time again…transfers are this upcoming week. When I said fields… That my area… I won’t be in Washington Fields anymore… sorry if that was confusing. I asked to be pulled out of my area and transfer me to another one. I have been in my area for a while and we have no one else we can talk to because they have all told me “no”. I am trying to leave my area to Sister Anderson and she can start the work all over again. I have been asking for a while now, but I’m not sure if it’s going to happen, I might go “full pros” which means that I wouldn’t be at THE VC anymore….well see what happens.

Mom, Sounds like you and grandma had waaaay too much fun together.

 Loooooooved the notes from everyone! It was so fun to read. Please thank everyone for me.
 I did get Paula’s card. Sooo fun to read. THANKS!

This week has been a roller-coaster… Siters Anderson and I have been spending way too much time together :/

 We both are stressed because we don’t have people to teach so we tend to argue a lot recently. I hate the feeling of being a good friend to someone and then all of the sudden it changing. I hope that once transfers come around that will help us both.

So Thanksgiving wasn’t as bad as we thought it was going to be. We had a “healthy” Mexican breakfast. It was prepared by a personal trainer… hahaha. One of our members is on a “diet” …It was sooooo good.

Than we had our VC party and ate lots of food and watched BRAVE… it was kind of cute…but I fell asleep. Then we had a “district” activity and went to the member’s house, the one you got the pic from and we played games sat by a fire, etc… NO food involved! Hahaha we were all STUFFED! Even the Elders didn’t want food haha …most of them had to eat Mexican food all day so they didn’t want anything!

 It was probably the best Thanksgiving I’ve had in a while… since I’ve been away at school.

Wellllll Thursday was a good and bad day…. I don’t know what is in me… but ever since Thurs. I have been siiiick! I didn’t feel good at all but I kept working.

COOL STORY FOR THE YEAR!

 So Saturday since I was sick… I didn’t go to Brigham Young’s home to do tours, I stayed at the VC. Well we got word the President Uchtdorf was at the Temple. We all waited around to see what would happen. Well I went to the back of the VC and I ran into one of the security guards, we are good friends. He said hey Sister Larsen I want to introduce you to someone. It happened to be President’s grand-son. I got to be the one to take him around and show him the VC, he speaks English and German! As we were going around the VC we noticed there was a lot of people around…we realized it was a German bus. The only person in the building that knew German was him. So I asked him if he would help me and interpret for me… oh and he is 12! ;) So we went around and talked to the people. He was a rock star and answered all their questions and bore his testimony to them. He also gave out two Book of Mormons! He then had to go because his family was done at the temple…

About an hour later…. He walked back in with his mom! His mom was soooo happy and gave me a hug. She then asked me if I would go out and take their family photos for them …. Soooo guess who I got to meet?! Hugged Sister Uchtdorf, hugged some relatives aaaaand then I got to talk to President Uchtdorf! He personally thanked me for taking care of his grandson and allowing him to help me. He asked me where I was from and then thanked me for serving. WOW!!!! Talk about cool! It was so cool to see such a wonderful man of God. His whole family is juuuust wonderful and so pleasant. Some of the Sisters were acting as if he was a celebrity… which is toooootally NOT what he wants! I never felt like that towards him. I just couldn’t believe I was actually talking to him. It was such a peaceful and powerful moment.

I have thought about this experience a lot…. I’m not sure if I was cursed with being sick or blessed because I got to spend the day with such an amazing kid with such a powerful testimony! :) .... This story is better told in my journal so I will be sure to send it to you :) JUST THOUGHT YOUD LIKE TO KNOW :)

Not much else is going on around here in St George.

 Love you all like I loved seeing President Uchtdorf :)