Hello from Tasmania!

Heeellllooooooo!!!!

 

Sorry about the lack of letter last week! We went to the city for Pday last week and it was a public holiday so the library wasn't open. And the state library was entirely full. But we popped into the branch for a bit and saw some of my favorite people! It was amazing! It felt kind of different to be there and not be assigned as a missionary there. When I served in the city, I felt a responsibility, or a stewardship if you will, for the people there. I felt so compelled to talk to everyone because it was my job to take care of them. But since it wasn't my area anymore, it felt a little different. I can't quite explain it. 

 

 

But this Pday I am writing to you all from the wonderful city of Launcestion, Tasmania!!!! Sister Hatch and I are the sister training leaders for the sisters down here, so we get to come down for a couple of days for exchanges. And seriously, this is the most amazing place. It's a lot of country and even the city itself feels a bit small town-y. I adore it. And today we went to this wildlife preserve called Trawunna where I got to fulfill my lifelong dream (well, maybe not lifelong...but I've had it since I got my mission call anyway) of holding a wombat!!!! It was seriously the most amazing thing ever. Her name was Georgie and she was so cute and snuggly and aaaahh. I can't even. Aaand I'm really super sorry I don't have any photos because I forgot my card reader for my camera. Next week though! Promise!

 

 

Life in Dandenong is also pretty good. We're kind of struggling to find solid investigators at the moment, and we've been super busy with exchanges and giving trainings at various meetings and such. And we spent this weekend watching conference! We had one investigator come. His name is Juma and he's from Afghanistan. He doesn't speak much English but was plenty happy to introduce himself to people. He even found his own seat and sat down to listen happily to the talks. Not sure how much he understood...but he's always happy to come. He's great.

 

 

Life as a missionary is crazy! But so, so worth it. I love Australia and I love teaching people the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and I love seeing the atonement of Jesus Christ change people, whether they be investigators or fellow missionaries. The Church is true!

 

 

Love you all!!

xo Sister Larsen

 

Transfer Ten

G'day!

 

 

Sorry for the late letter! We only had thirty minutes to email on Monday because it was sisters p-day for all the sisters in the mission! We were running around like crazy making sure everything was organized and everyone had a ride and a place to stay for the night and wow. Just craziness. Today was sisters conference and it was wonderful! We had a lot of great trainings from various sisters, all centered on the theme "Be Loyal to the Royal Within." We talked about taking charge of your physical well-being (a la Elder Klebingat) by taking care of your flat, your physical fitness, and your eating habits. We had some other good trainings about dealing with anti-Mormon literature and overcoming feelings of inadequacy. Some interesting and maybe unconventional missionary topics, but we all left really uplifted. Least of all because it was great to see all the sisters. :)

 

 

We said goodbye to Sister Vermeulen last Tuesday! She's landed safely in South Africa, as some of the members who have talked to her on Facebook have let me know. And I got my new companion, Sister Hatch! She's from Arizona and is the bomb.com. She just came from serving in the city so we talk about the city branch all the time and all our favourite people, like Masaru. She has all these videos of him doing funny things and we just watch them and laugh.

 

 

We've started teaching this guy from Dubai named Adeel. We met him when I was with Sister Vermeulen and Sister Vakalahi still. We tracted into him and he invited us in and we had the most amazing lesson. He is so sincerely wanting to change his life and be a better person. We taught him at the chapel this week with Sister Hatch and invited him to be baptized! He said yes! We're aiming for April 25, but he works from 5am to 5pm every Sunday, so we'll see if that date works out. But he is so cool. I'm really excited to teach him, and to introduce him to Jorge. I think they will be great friends and Jorge will help him a lot to find the truth he is seeking.

 

 

On a random note, we had a crazy experience with this freaky super loud breathing noise that we heard outside our bathroom window in the middle of the night. We heard it on three separate occasions and we were super scared. Well, I was super scared. Sister Hatch is tougher than me. The third time we heard it we called the APs even though it was definitely past our bedtime and because they're the best APs ever they came and looked in our backyard. There was nothing. Then they said there's a possum that lives in the tree. So most likely it was just a possum and I freaked out for nothing. Now Elder Woodruff teases me about possums. It's fine.

 

 

And that's our adventures in Dandenong for this week. All is well in the land down under.

 

 

xo Sister Larsen