Welcome to Beaver...
6/03/13
Dear Family,
Eyes are better...
Thanks for your email. Good to hear about all the crazy
things that are happening. Hope everyone is starting to feel better there. Mom,
I am so happy you were able to make it to the temple :) We wish we could go
every week! I am glad you got the time to think about your “blessings”... It’s
amazing to think about. Each day we reflect on the things that happened and we
talk about our miracles. Trying doing that each day as you go to bed and talk
to Heavenly Father about them. When you talk to Him about them, he is more
incline to give you more :) Blessings go from large things to small things like
you have seen. I am so glad that you weren't in your car when all that
happened. I pray each day my family is protected and taken care of. That is a
blessing for me to see :)
Well this week has been the best, worst, greatest week of
my mission. I have had to rely on the Lord more and more this week as the days
have gone on. To start... Sunday we had 2 of our 12 investigators show up to
church :/ even when their fellow shippers came to get them. Then we also found
out that a lady that I have worked with since Dec....She helps take care of us
with different things... she was trying to go on a mission and she was at the
doctor and they found out she has Breast Cancer. :(
Then Monday was Memorial Day and luckily it was a P-Day I
have never taken a nap on pday before and I fell asleep for about or even over
2 hours. I felt bad for my companion, but when I woke up I felt a ton better. Then
when it was time to go out and teach we just kept praying that someone would be
home for us to talk to. Sadly we didn’t see anyone. Monday night we heard sirens
for the first time around town, but never heard where they went. We didn’t
think much about it until we heard it closer to our house. After spending a day
in the woods riding 4wheelers and swimming and having a great day with
family...our neighbor across the street came home and fell on the floor and
died. It broke my heart. I had just talked to him last Friday and didn’t even
realize that would be the last time I would ever talk to him. I have worked
really close with this couple and his wife is actually our RS president. I
couldn’t help but to hug her and cry. 16 years ago they lost a daughter in an
accident and almost on the exact date she lost her husband. That was shock to
the community. It took me a while to realize that I needed to change. I need to
cherish the moments I have with people more instead of just brushing it off and
thinking it another day. We never know when things will change and when a life
may be cut short. I think now how I can better cherish the moments I have with
people.
THEN Thursday night.... the MOST AMAZING thing
happened!!!! My investigators I have been working with since DECEMBER FINALLY
GOT BAPTIZED!!!!! Robert has been an interesting character to work with. Did I
ever tell you about him? He asked us one day...Okay well if God is Jesus'
dad...then who is God’s dad? We got many questions like that one. Most of them
we didn’t know how to answer and when we would tell him to pray about it... he
freaked out. He didn’t like that answer. Robert went from not believing in God
to believing in God and believing that He could help him. Robert is also the
same man that didn’t show up to his baptism last time...remember me telling you
about that? Yeah...We kept working with him and tried really hard to get him to
reach baptism and HE DID IT! He finally got baptized! I got to speak at his
baptism and wow! Roberts’s baptism was the most spiritual and happiest baptism
I have had so far. The spirit was so strong and Roberts’s whole demeanor has
changed. The moment he came out of the water he was a changed man. My heart has
never felt so much joy. I thought it was going to jump out of my chest! Elder
Captain was able to join the baptism since he helped teach him at one point. We
both couldn’t stop smiling. He was also able to be confirmed at his baptism and
Elder Captain got to be part of that as well. It was way cool! Robert also got
ordained to be a priest on Sunday. This is an event I will never forget!
Thursday during our baptism our bishop got a phone call.
He decided to decline it and said he would call later. Our bishop is an
attorney and works with the police dept. here in Beaver... We later found out
that that phone call was one no one wanted to hear. We found out that another
one of our bishops (we have 6) another bishop I have worked really close with
and know very well... His son was out with friends having a good time and
drowned in the nearby reservoir. Talk about the best worst day ever. To top it
off...their daughter was getting married the next day. Talk about the worst
best day of your life. Wow!! THAT was a shock to the community! He had
graduated high school just a week earlier. Again, cherishing the moments you
spend with people because you never know what will happen next. I have thought
a lot this week about Our Saviors Plan. It’s been comforting for those closely
involved to lean on that plan and understand we see our loved ones again. It’s
been amazing to see the strength these people have to work on moving forward
and know that our loved ones are in good places and one day we get to go there
too.
I am grateful for the gospel and the love and comfort it
brings to our lives. I am grateful we get to talk to our Heavenly Father and
ask for strength to keep going- we don’t have to feel like we are talking to
the wall. We get to actually talk to Him and he is there to help us.
I love being able to teach prayer to our investigators because
I get to see the power it has in their lives and how it slowly but surely
changes them.
This week we also had a lady call us and ask us to come
over and teach her....miracle! She had only been in town for two weeks and ran
into someone who had our number and gave it to her... we are now teaching her.
Heavenly Father loves us!
Even through hard times or difficult times...our Heavenly
Father is always looking out for us. He knows what we need and he knows what
will help strengthen us.
t’s been weird to be in Beaver for so long, but I truly
love this place. President asked me the other day how I felt about it and I
just sat there smiling. One of our bishops asked me the other day “Sister...I
think your time is almost up here, huh? When do you think you’ll go?” I started
crying. I’m not sure why I started crying but I did. I have never loved a
people so much in my life. I’ve been praying a lot about asking for help to
truly love these people like the Savior would and I realized right then,
Heavenly Father has been helping me to love these people one day at a time.
I am so grateful I chose to come on a mission. I’ve been reading my Patriarchal Blessing as well and in there it says that I will help those I go and serve but I will also help people if I stay. I am glad I have been having these experiences here.
I’m sorry if this is all over the place and kind of a sad
email this week. It’s been an interesting week for us. We continue to look for
the goods things though.
Family I love you lots! I hope each of you feel my
prayers and know that I love you!
Mom I love you like …. I loved seeing Robert FINALLY get
baptized! :D
xoxoxoxoSister Larsen
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