Lost in translation

Dearest, darlingest, friends and family,

 

I am so happy to say that I am still serving in the CITY!! It's the best place to be and I wouldn't rather be anywhere else. Saying goodbye to Sister Vuta was hard, but I'm super excited for this next transfer which makes everything better. I'm serving with Sister Stevenson, who is from Texas and is a ray of sunshine. We've talked and made a lot of plans to raise our vision for this next transfer and have (hopefully) more success thane ever before! We're excited to be completely exactly obedient and take daily leaps of faith! Also last night we spent a good half hour quoting Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre, so I have a feeling this is going to be a great companionship. :)

 

I've been assigned to be a sister training leader this transfer, so I had the privilege of going to the mission leaders conference on Friday. We discussed a lot about obedience and conversion. I'm excited to be a part of the driving force for change in our mission and to have the opportunity to serve and uplift the sisters in our area.

 

We have been teaching a Japanese boy named Masaru for the last week or so. His English is quite honestly pretty terrible, so teaching him has been an interesting experience. I think he initially came to church to learn English, but we taught him about God and prayer anyway. Our first lesson was pretty awkward with trying to explain what prayer is and how to pray. We asked Masaru if he had ever prayed before, and he said, "Yes! I pray tennis, I pray ping pong..." and Sister Stevenson and I had to try really hard not to giggle. But he agreed to come back for another lesson! He came a couple days later for English class and stayed at the branch literally all day, and then went to a fireside with the members in the evening. He is, as Sister Stevenson has coined, a branch enthusiast. He's seriously at the church all the time. The members have just taken him under their wing, even with their limited ability to communicate with each other. Masaru is going to be baptized on September 27 and he can't wait! He went to the baptism of a Vietnamese girl and an Iranian man (who is such a miracle in and of himself) and asked three times if he could be baptized with them. Just goes to show how the Spirit is the true teacher. Also major props to the Church for having "The Restoration" and "Finding Faith in Christ" DVDs in Japanese. The gospel is so worldwide! It's beautiful!

Much love to everyone!!


xoxo Sister Larsen

PS: If any of you ever get to try Vietnamese rice paper rolls, I highly recommend it.