Pictures from Beaver, Utah

Baptism in Beaver! :)

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

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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

"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 :)