Zone Conference

This Wednesday we had the opportunity to have a zone conference with Elder Hamula, the area president for the Pacific area. We got to listen to him speak for two hours and it was so inspiring! He is so full of wisdom and is such an impressive scriptorian. He taught us so much about how the Book of Mormon can strengthen our (and our investigators') faith in Jesus Christ, and how it contains power unto the convincing of men that Jesus is the Christ. He counseled us about personal obedience as well, and how we gain intelligence, light, and truth through obedience to the laws of God. As missionaries, we have so many rules that we have to obey, but if we change our perspective of obedience from grudgingly following rules to gaining the blessings of heaven through obedience to divinely inspired laws, we can gain so many blessings. Probably my favorite thing he taught us was the three steps to defeat the adversary:

1. Put a smile on your face.

2. Love sincerely.

3. Walk in obedience.

If we do those three things, the adversary cannot have hold on us. If we stay positive, replace negative feelings with acts of love, and obey the laws of God, we cannot fall into temptation. I've been repeating those three things to myself since Wednesday. Smile, love, obey!!

What was extra cool about the conference was that every question I've been thinking about for the past couple of weeks was answered in something Elder Hamula said. He is definitely an inspired man of God, and our Heavenly Father is definitely aware of us and our needs.

I also had the opportunity to be one of the few missionaries interviewed by Elder Hamula himself! He just asked about myself and my area, kind of to get a cross section of how the AMM is doing. But I got some one-on-one time with a real live general authority. So cool. 

The Point Cook missionaries started planning a musical fireside this week, and we're going to pull it off this coming Sunday! We wanted to have an activity to bring the ward together to feel the Spirit together, and thankfully our idea is taking off. We've had so much support from our members to help us with musical numbers and flyers and such. I'm singing a solo (yikes) because apparently if you're a missionary with a decently good voice you get to sing all the time. So we'll see how that goes. But overall I think it's going to be really, really great!

Yesterday I had an incredible opportunity to be an instrument in the Lord's hands. We were driving around a neighborhood trying to find a member's home, but we couldn't remember where the street was, so we stopped to get our map out of the trunk. I noticed that we had stopped right in front of the home of Elizabeth, one of the former investigators we had been trying to contact for weeks but haven't had any luck with. I felt the Spirit nudging me to knock on her door, and at first I didn't really want to because she was never home. But we decided to knock anyway, and for once she was home! She told us that she had lost our number and was really glad that we had come over because she needed prayers. She told us how her mother and brother, who live in their native country of Sudan, are in trouble because two people died in their well. It was an accident, but the families of those who died are angry and unforgiving. In Sudan, it doesn't matter if the law says you are innocent if the people don't forgive, and Elizabeth is really worried for the safety of her family. We got to offer words of comfort and pray for her family with her. I know the words that I said did not come from me, but rather from our Father in Heaven through me. She was so grateful that we had come at that time when she needed her Heavenly Father most. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father gave me the opportunity to be there for one of His children and to impart His Spirit to her through me. It's things like this that make missionary work so, so worth it.

I love you all, and so does your Heavenly Father! Thank you for your prayers!

xoxo Sister Larsen