Como Estas? & Do you want to be my wife?? Yikes!

1/14/13

Welcome to Beaver... Where frostbite is a nightly scare!‏    

Hola Familia….

 Como Estas? …. Mi a bien!

As you can see …am getting there! I am learning about 5-10 new words a day and Sister Bo pretty much only talks to me in Spanish now. Which isssss harrrrd! I make her make her break a lot and tell me what she’s saying hahaha …. I am learning to pray still and learning the First Vision in Spanish. I am understanding more and more what people are saying but I still get lost a lot too. It’s amazing how much the spirit helps though. There have been a couple of times… we had a lady that just started crying… she said “She doesn’t even say anything…but I know what she wants to say is good” … Uhhh … Yeah we all started crying. The spirit is amazing!

Mom…did you get my card? I sent you a card saying I got the box! Loooooooooooooooved it!!!!!! Good grief! Thank you thank you…and I just got the head band! Looooved it toooo! That is what I was trying to get you to find in my closet… so it’s perfect. My Ears reaaaaaly love you today. Its beeeen freezing! We have been in the negatives for the past week and the nights are killer! My feet just die :( … I almost got frost bite the other night but I made Sister Bo let me go home and put them in a warm bath :( yeeeah its crazy here right now. I love the snow but this is bitter. We get canyon wind and it just goes to the bone.

Mom…thanks for sharing about “Mount Moriah”… I was teaching a family about that the other night… they were member’s lol….

I needed that reminder. Even though things in Beaver have been really good, for some reason I have been feeling down. I think it’s because I haven’t been sleeping…not sure though. Speaking of being mighty… I got told this week that I was a “Bulldog”…apparently I am really bold and to the point…well I knew that haha… I guess I should work on that…?

This week was interesting. Transfers came and we are both staying in Beaver.

Sister Bo and I were asked by a Member whose gone Anti- … to join him in polygamy and be his wives… hahah we just laughed and then awkwardly played it off.

Theeeen we went to dinner and the son of the lady we were eating at asked me “Welll I’m looking for a wife… want to be mine?” ….uhhhh all I could do was laugh…I’m pretty sure my face was purple. He was totally serious. Then the mom says well I’ve heard of sisters going home early to get married.  He was 21… I asked him if he served a mission he said no... I asked him if he was going to school...he said no… I asked him if he had a job...he said no… I said then you’re not doing much are ya.. sorry. Sister Bo just laaaaughed and laaaaughed! It was crazy.

We finally went to the cheese factory and looked around… wasn’t too exciting of a place but we got free samples.

Last night we were talking to an old lady and it was freezing… she didn’t have much and her hands were old and cold…so I gave her my gloves. They were big thick ones I got for Christmas from a member. She didn’t want to take them but I put them on her and she got so happy. I said now that you have them on me can’t take them back…they’re yours… enjoy. It made me feel good. I’ll find more gloves somewhere else.

Today you should see what I am wearing…. It’s ridiculous! I have an undershirt, a modbod and a sweater, TWO pairs of tights on… They are so tight! :P … and socks and my shoes and a scarf and my jacket and now my head band! Its -8 right now WITH the snow :P

Beaver is still growing and we are trying to find more and more people each day. We are trying to have 2 baptisms this month and we already have one. We are really praying we find someone else to teach.

I have been reflecting a lot on life this week and how things have been for me. We were at a member’s house for dinner and they asked me how I got on my mission and why I was here. I told them my story and what happened to me. I haven’t talked about it for a long time and as I was talking about it..I realized… wow! I am so glad I listened. I am glad to be here learning about the gospel and sharing my experiences. I am soooo glad to be in a bubble right now and not have to worry about things. I still worry about school and stuff from time to time but I know that once I give it all up and let the Lord direct me in His work, everything will work out the way it’s supposed to.

I know that the Lord puts us in places right where we need to be right at the time we need to be there. I know that He is in charge of everything. What a glorious plan this life is!

Welp…still in Beaver…still learning Spanish!

I’m loving it!

Thank you for everything you have given me! Thank you for being who you are.

DON’T FORGET… YOU DON’T NEED A NAMETAG TO BE A MISSIONARY!

xoxoxoxoxoxox

 Mom I love you like my ears love my new headband.... and THATS A TOOOOOON!!!!! :D

Pink Fluff & Other Jell-O stuff!

Welcome to Beaver... Where no house has a number!‏                                                    January 7, 2013

Dear Familia!

Mom….have you ever had Pink Fluff?? It’s like the jello fluffy stuff with stuff in it?? Everyone makes it different and different colors…. Like Frog Eye Salad…. UUUUGHHHHH! We have it EVERYDAY!!!! People here loooove it…. If I have to eat it ONE more time! I am going to throw up hahahaha

This week was a long but fun one!  Saturday we had a BAPTISM!!! Wooohooo Tyler finally got baptized and he was sooooo excited! I had the wonderful opportunity to talk on “baptism” at his program and it was such a neat experience for me. I was talking but I didn’t feel like it was coming from me. There came a point where I wasn’t even really sure what I was saying but I was talking and then all of the sudden I said amen and I looked us and everyone was crying! It was crazy. The spirit must have said some great things because even the next day someone came up to and made a comment about my talk. Mom, its crazy how the spirit works. I was soooo scared to talk and I think he knew that so he spoke for me!

 The spirit filled the room for the whole hour. All throughout the program his parents were teary eyed and could definitely feel the spirit! It was awesome! We are now working on getting them back to church! : ) This family has huge potential and in a matter of time, will get to experience the full blessings of the gospel again. Tyler is so great! Usually he is a shy kid and doesn’t say much… but yesterday he got up and bore his testimony! Whaaaat!? I was soooo smiley. He was the very last one to talk and we were already over time but he just marched right up there and said what he needed to and walked back down… Bishop got up and was teary eyed trying to end the meeting. It was great! Oh and Tyler is only 11! ;) He was so confident up there and didn’t seem scared at all. He was so “proud” to be baptized. It was a really neat experience for me to be part of his story. I can’t wait to see him excel in the gospel and soon receive the priesthood It’s moments like this that make me love teaching the gospel.

This week Sis. Bojorquez and I found 2 new solid people to teach. One of them was a referral that we had been trying to contact for about 2 weeks… we finally caught her home and she welcomed us in her home and we started teaching her. She is so excited to learn and is trying to find a way to get to church instead of working. She wants her kids to go and go to all the scouts/YW they possibly can. Sooo prepared. The other lady we found… we were out late and we were walking down this particular road knocking doors. We weren’t really sure where to go next and we were freeeezing. Sister Bojorquez said lets go to that house… I said okay… We knocked on the door and this Hispanic lady welcomed us in… we ended up talking to her for about an hour. We went from tears to joy back to tears…to come back! She said she has never let “us people” in her home but she felt like she needed our help. When we were leaving she said I feel like I have known you for a long time. How could that be? Why did you come here? Please don’t leave! It was really cool. For most of the lesson I had noooo idea what they were talking about but I knew I could feel the spirit and that’s all that mattered.

Both of these ladies only speak Spanish. I am having a hard time keeping up with them. It’s tough to just sit there and not do anything when you want to say something so badly. It’s like people automatically know I don’t speak their language, so they don’t even talk to me or ask me questions. It’s tough. I have really been struggling with it this week, but I know it will get better, I hope. Sis Bojorquez is trying to keep me in the loop but sometimes she forgets and gets caught up in the conversation and I have to wait till after the lesson to find out what they talked about. I have found that it makes planning difficult for me. I have no idea what happened previously and I can’t read their needs, so when we go to plan for these people... I don’t know what to do/say. I feel like I kind of leave it up to Sister Bojorquez and give up. I am learning more and more words each day but it still makes it hard.

(This is the story of the lady) Last night we had a miracle! We were trying to find this house number and it was pitch-dark! We decided to pull over and walk the street. All the house lights were on so I said why don’t we just knock all the doors and talk to people. So we started and talked to each house. We got the third house… we knocked and this lady opened the door… she said come on in! Sit down! So we did… we said maybe two words and all of the sudden she burst into tears! She told us a little of her life story and then couldn’t stop crying. We asked her why she was crying and all she could say was the she loved her Heavenly Father and Savior. We said yes us to. She said 5 minutes ago I just said a prayer asking my Father for help and asking him what I should do… then you knock on my door! I think you just gave me my answer! Sis Bojorquez and I shared some scriptures with her and talked to her for a little bit. All she could say was thank you! Thank you! She asked us if we would say a prayer with her… she wanted us to thank Heavenly Father for coming to her house… instead we said we think you should say it… this your prayer to thank Him for what he has done for you… it was just a powerful prayer! She was just talking to Heavenly Father and thanking him for all things she had been given. Well Sister and I ended up leaving in tears along with her. It was so cool to think… how would that have been different if we went directly there first instead of going to the other two houses before. Would she have said her prayer yet…would she have been in the same spirit as she was when we found her? I am not sure…. But I know that Heavenly Father makes things happen for a reason. He makes things line up right then they need to be. This lady yes may have been a member, but we helped answer her prayers and lifted up another. It was pretty amazing and something I needed right then too. I think in a roundabout way…it was an answer to my prayer as well.

The past two weeks I have been having some looong nights. I feel like I haven’t slept in two full weeks. More than ever I have been teaching in my sleep and getting up and doing silly things in the middle of the night. I wake up just dead and have to fight my way through studies because I am falling asleep :/ it’s annoying! My brain doesn’t shut off.

        Tyler & Sister Larsen

 

Well that’s Beaver in a nut shell.

 Mom…. I love you like all the new Spanish words I am trying to learn….and that’s a looooot!

Xoxoxoxoxoxox

 You’re the best!

Sister Larsen

 

 

Pictures from Beaver, Utah

Baptism in Beaver! :)

Welcome to Beaver...WE HAVE A BAPTISM!!!                      12/31/12          

 ‏                                                                     

Holaaaa Familia!!

 Como Estas? Ready for the New Year? I can’t believe it is already 2013! It will be a year in Feb. that I made my decision to go on a mission. I feel like I should still be back in that time. These past several months have been so surreal for me. I can’t imagine what my life would be like if I were still at home trying to go to school. I would have missed out on a lot of amazing opportunities. I know that I am here in Utah for a reason… I haven’t quite figured it all out yet, but I know in due time I’ll see.

Christmas was a nice treat to “talk” to the family : ) Mom I would love to have you all to ourselves on Mother’s day. I was sad I didn’t get to talk to you much but I loooove being able to email you each week and share with you my love.

Glad to hear things went well with dad and that he is home. I’m still not sure what they did to him….???

 I hope he’s not in too much pain!

Sorrrrry to hear about grandma! That sounds sooo painful! Glad she got home safe!

Glad Christmas was a great day… Glad it was low key…that makes it nice!!

That sleep over sounded like a blast!!! Lucky giiiirls! I think about the fact you are a grandma almost every day because we talk to a lot of grandmas… and it just makes me happy! You are sooo good to and for those girls. They are lucky to have you in their life. Mom… I think you are a very special person! You do so much for all of us around you. I am so grateful to call you mom, Please don’t cry!

As far as BEAVER… Christmas made it tough for us this year. Sister Bojorquez and I missed out on about 3 days of teaching time because all of our investigators are still out of town and when we try and knock doors people are still busy from the “holidays”. People here celebrate Christmas till the New Year it’s pretty crazy!! We are hoping that once New Year’s passes us all our teaching opportunities will return and we get to start teaching more. On Christmas we went over to this lady’s house who we have been told about several times but never could find her house…we finally found it! It was in the woods hiding! We talked to her for about 30 min and ended up teaching her about the Plan of Salvation. She attends the Catholic Church on Saturday and the Baptist on Sunday! Haha We asked her if she would attend ours on Sunday instead and she said she would have to think about it. She wants to continue to meet with us and learn more about Jesus Christ and our beliefs. We have met with her twice now and this last time we asked her to pray… She has amazing prayers! She asked for guidance and help to know the truth :) soooo cool! Heeeelllllo! We are right in front of you We taught her about the Degrees of Glory and she said well that’s not in the Bible…the Bible only talks about Heaven and Hell- well I proved her wrong and pulled out my Bible in Cor. where it talks about the degrees and she said, “ well I will have to talk to my pastor about that one…I’ll get back to you” hahaha we said okay! We are excited to keep teaching her. Miracle on Christmas! 

Malinda is a less active friend we have been working with… She made her goal of stop smoking on Christmas :) We went over there and talked to her on Christmas and asked her for allll of her cigarettes- She told us she got rid of all of them and doesn’t have anymore! Woooohooo! We were so proud of her! 

We have two more ladies’ we are working with and just starting out to teach them this next week that we are really excited about. The work in Beaver is picking up and we are getting busier and busier :) This last Sunday we got the opportunity to teach the primary about Joseph Smith. It was really fun and the wards really trusts us. It’s amazing how much help we get when people know us and see that we are here to work. We have come across many people who were just “friends” with the Elders but never wanted to be taught… maybe someday they will want to know more.

This Saturday WE HAVE A BAPTISM!!!!!!! Wooohoooo!! We are really excited for Tyler to finally move forward in the Gospel.

We found a gym here…wooohooo We are going to try it out this next week

Please tell others…if they plan to send things pleeeease no more goodies! I am goodied out! We have so much food and junk around us… we have switched to eating only Carrots ;)

This week I really realized my blessing in life and how much I have/had growing up. We have gone in many houses that have not been kept up and it just makes me sad to see people live in places like that. We talked to this young lady last night. She is 19 and lives with her mom. Their house is a messs…we felt bad for them. We got to talking to her and she was showing us all her collections and what not and all of the sudden she started talking about how she is trying to adopt a child. I asked her why she wanted to do that being only 19… she said welp, I am sick of waiting for a boyfriend and I need something to do!

Hahaha I had to keep myself from lauuuughing. It was crazy! I wished her luck ;) I told her I wasn’t even ready for that kind of thing…but if she was then, more power to her. Can you imagine….needing something to do so you adopt a child?! Hahaha Beaver is a one of a kind place!

Family, I hope you have a great start to the New Year!! Don’t goooo too crazy!!!! ;)

 Mom…I love you like all the carrots I have started to eat….and that’s a loooot!  J

Xoxoxoxox

Looooove,

Sister Larsen

 Ps… go look up hymn 215 “ringing wild bells” or something like that… Think about the words. I hope this New Year we can apply this song and bring in all the good we can!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas from Beaver, Utah!

Welcome to Beaver...where it’s Christmas Eve??? Holy Cow!‏                                               12/24/12

Dear Family!

 Sis B. does speak English! Hahaha She is bilingual…mom don’t you know Spanish???….try writing her in Spanish! Hahaha

I will be SKYPING at 10 am. We are going to Stake President's house and he won’t be home till 10. I hope that works and I get to see you all!!! I ammmmm sooooo excited! It seems we can’t talk to the members much because that’s all they want to talk about is how we get to talk to our families- it kills our focus.

Okay so I will probably just use one of theirs that is set up on their IPad…I don’t remember my log in stuff so I will just add your name …. Keep a look out for me!!!!

This week was crazy! We met a ton of new people and taught all about the true meaning of Christmas.

Sis B and I joked last night… every night we came home smelling like a bar.. smoke and alcohol… everyone we talked to was smoking…so now alllll my stuff smells like it and my jackets reeeek! We are buying Fabreeze today haha ….the great thing about all these people we talked to they are all wanting to stop smoking and have a better life. They want to either get back into church or start coming- it’s amazing!!!!

We found 2 new investigators this week and we are teaching a family of 5!!! They are Spanish speaking so teaching them is a blast/a chore. Sister B has to translate everything I say and everything they say haha we just leave laughing because sometimes it makes the lesson crazy. It also makes them a little longer than usual too. That’s okay though. They family has great questions and is learning great things….they have been taught false doctrine in the past by missionaries and so we are trying to fix that and help them to learn the truth.

This week I almost got eaten by a dog!!!! We walked into this yard and I went through the gate first and Sister B was behind me and all of the sudden this BIG dog bolts out of nowhere and jumps up to my face….. Luckily I was in a flowy skirt… I kicked it in the face and made it go away ;) hahaha It was scary but we still knocked on the door and tried to talk to the lady that lived there….she wasn’t home : ( …. We went back another day! Haha

This Sunday we had all our Christmas programs. We had to attend allll of them…that’s 7! Hahaha we obviously missed some of them… but we went to the morning one and they had each auxiliary sing a song and because we showed up they made us last minute sing a song…. It was awful! Hahaha Sister B and I didn’t know what to do. It was kinda crazy…. Ooooh and remember how I hate to sing! Hahaha

GUESS WHAT??....we found a little dinky thing that will print our pictures!!!! Wooohoooo I will send you them so you can see Sister and my Onsies : ) we had fun taking pictures!!

Thanks for sending me tree pics! Sad I can’t see it in person but I will be there in spirit! I hope you are having a great Christmas this year. Everyone looks so great and happy!!! I can’t believe how much Buddy’s family has grown! CRAZYYYY!!!!

Mom and Dad…read 3 Nephi 1 with the family. It’s about the first Christmas and what it really means! As you read it… try and feel what they felt. Think about what this day really meant for them as generations of believers. I hope you can see what Christ’s birth did for them and eventually for us. I wish we all lived as if Christmas was tomorrow. If this special spirit was around all year along we would have a changed nation! Christmas is not about the gifts… it’s about the family and serving others. Christ showed us the perfect way to live… let us try and live like Him. Dare to stand alone and stand out!

Loooooove you family!!! GUESS WHAT??? Sister Larsen is having a Whiiiiiite Christmas!!!! We are getting hit hard right now :0 wooohooo!

Well, Mom, I love you….I love you as much as Sister B and I Love teaching about the TRUE meaning of Christmas to the people here in Beaver!

MERRY CHIRSTMAS TO YOU ALL…. I LOOOOVE YOU LOTS! I hope you are having a wonderful time of the year!

 Don’t forget you don’t need a nametag to be a missionary!  : )

 MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 

Best Water in Beaver!

Welcome to Beaver...where we have the best water!                                              12/17/12

Dear Family :)

Yesssss it’s been snowwwwing :) I love it! It’s not like Flagstaff though… it snows and then it all melts away pretty fast. Glad you have been getting rain… this land needs it.

Glad you got your shopping done. Thaaaaank you for the special things and I will looove the stamps!! I can’t believe they are going up again! That’s okay about the music… we are trying to get some from members… but I don’t care…anything church. We have a CD in our car and apt. don’t worry about it though… we’ll keep working on the members hahaha Granny gave a Tab-Choir CD – I opened it early hahah we were desperate. We love listening to it...it’s better than what we come up with ;)

So I should already be on your Skype system. I would just need to call you. I might have to create a new one but I’ll just find you…idk it’s not too tough. Our Stake President is letting us use his i Pads and we get to spend the day with their family. It’s pretty cool…I guess if Skype doesn’t work out…I can always just call :D …no matter what I just want to spend the holiday with my family! I can’t wait to hear you all and see how you are all doing! I miss you all like crazy. I have been thinking about everyone a lot this week for some reason and thinking about how lucky I am to have to you all. I am soooo soooo blessed. Mom, I always thought your letters were normal and everyone got them from their family… my companion doesn’t ever get anything from her family :/ It makes me sad… I feel bad now showing her my letters and things because she doesn’t get the same. You should send her a letter. Her name is Hermana Bojorquez :D

Grandma sent her a whole X-mas package :) so nice if her!! Tell gramps I just got his letter and card :) THANK YOU!!!!

We have only been getting little bits of the story in CT… thank for sharing that little story! Made me cry! I hope everyone there is doing well and I know this is going to be a tough Christmas for them this year. But I hope if anything they rely on the Savior and reach toward him for comfort.

Soooo Beaver! Oh man! This has been a week! I am exhausted!

Last P-day we spent allll day trying to find food hahaha we finally got everything we needed and then went home for an hour and fell sleep! We spent the night teaching lessons and also trying to find our referrals people are giving us. This week in the last 4 days…we got 30 referrals. We don’t know what to do with ourselves! Everyone expects us to contact them right away too so we had to tell our Ward Mission Leaders to cool their jets! We are finally done eating at the Christmas parties for dinner which is nice- so now we are going to members houses. Here in Beaver we cover 3 trailer parks… and lots of houses/fields. We officially have 3 progressing investigators who we are teaching and hopefully one of them will be baptized this Saturday! He is an 11 year old boy. He looooves coming to church and loves reading his BOM. He can read it better than I can! Our other investigators will be in the next month.

We are working with this lady right now who was excommunicated from the church and got into smoking and other things :/ but we are helping her quit smoking. When we got to her she was smoking a pack a day and now she is down to 2 a day. We are hoping she decides to completely stop by Christmas. Wouldn’t that be a great gift to her family? She wants to go back to the temple and be on the right path again… I hope to see her get there!

Sis B and I are the only ones here in Beaver…. Alone haha …when we have meetings we have to travels about 2 hours to get to other missionaries. Sis B and I are the only Sisters around which is a huuuuge change! We have about 5 Elder companionships in our district. And guess who is in the area next to mine?!?!? ELDER CAPTIAN!!! Hahaha small world. He is a great elder and picking up his Spanish really well. My Spanish however…..ahhhh…. its soooo hard and confusing! I think the Lord is helping me understand it because I get what they are saying but I can’t speak back to them! I am learning convo words and a prayer right now. One of our investigators made me say a prayer the other night and I was soooo nervous. It was bi-ling! Hahah I looove it here in Beaver… It’s a whole new kind of missionary work around here. I actually get to be part of my community and I get to know all the people around me. Everyone knows where we live because that’s the “missionary house” Its soooo different than St.George. We have spider friends and lots of other friends we don’t like haha it’s a very old building – but I love it! It keeps us warm! All the people here in Beaver are soooo excited to preach the Gospel – it’s a little crazy! We had a man who went up to someone and told him ‘I’ll be back in 2 weeks to baptize you!” … aaaaah what!? It doesn’t work like that! We had to have a training yesterday for our ward missionaries on how to talk to people and how to share the gospel without scaring the person. It’s kind of funny and all we can do is laugh about it…but really it’s making it a little difficult to talk to people. I hope soon my Spanish might kick in…even though I’ve never spoken it before :/ hahha its fun though!

Well family I hope everyone is doing well and loving the season. I hope you all get to spend time together. Don’t take it for granted!

I was reading in the bible the other day (Romans 12:3)  For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

…this world is a crazy place these days! Everyone is starting to only think of themselves. Now more than ever we must think soberly of our selves… become humble and meek like little children and be an example to all those around us. In the New Ensign this month… there is a talk that Elder Perry gave in there he says…. If we are living next to our neighbors and living a life that doesn’t make them question or be curious… then we are not doing what we are suppose. Many people here in Utah don’t like looking at the church because people think too highly of themselves or they are hypocrites. It’s sad really. For those of you who hold a Temple Recommend… don’t be afraid to live it worthily! Don’t be a afraid to be different! Live a life that makes people question why you are happy? Why you are different? Why you are a good person. Be that example so many people need!

Love you like the Nephites (people of 3 Nephi) loved seeing the signs of Jesus Birth… It saved their life! And that’s HUGE! :D

xoxoxoxoxooxoxox