White (almost) Christmas

G-day! Merry Christmas mates!

Christmas is upon us! Being in the bubble of missionary life seems to have eliminated a good deal of the hustle and bustle that usually accompany this time of year. People have started giving us cards and small gifts and I realized that I completely hadn't thought about getting Christmas gifts for anyone at all. As one of my favorite Sudanese investigators would say, "too biz!"

Our darling Kitty was baptized this weekend!! After six months of patience and love, her husband was able to baptize her! :) As soon as she came out of the water, she shot up a fist pump followed by two peace signs! It was probably the most excited I've seen her ever. She and Ed just glowed afterwards. :) They're headed off to Malaysia for about two months on the 23rd, so we had to say goodbye on Sunday. Kitty blew us two kisses and left with a big smile on her face. In a year, they can be sealed in the temple! What a blessing it is to unite families in the gospel!

In other news, Chirag was finally able to come to church!!! His boss rearranged his schedule so that he can make it to sacrament meeting now. It's the greatest!!! He manages this really nice restaurant in the city, and he invited us to come have lunch there last Saturday! It was divine. And free. Remind me to teach more investigators who can get me free food. :)

I love you all! Have a merry merry Christmas!!

xoxo Sister Larsen

christmas.mormon.org

#SharetheGift

The City District!

Sister Pastor and me at the mission home. It feels like Christmas there! :)

Families are Forever!

G'day mates!

We had our mission Christmas party this week! The highlight: We got to watch How to Train Your Dragon 2. It was so good. I almost cried four times.


This week has largely been focused on Kitty, the wife of one of our recent converts. She has been taught by missionaries for about six months and has dutifully come to sacrament meeting ever since her husband, Ed, was baptized. She has had a fair few baptismal dates but hasn't made any of them...yet. About a month ago she suddenly decided that she really wanted to get baptized! She had been learning how to pray and communicate with God, and she finally got her answer that it was time for her to be baptized! About three weeks ago she agreed to meet with us daily to prepare for her baptism! She has such an interesting mind and always compares gospel things to objects to help her understand everything. Her favorite analogy right now is the strait and narrow path as a water pipe. You need to be baptized to enter the water pipe, but once you're in you need to have strong faith and God will give you blessings as you flow towards eternal life. She's really excited about temple marriage and she can't wait to be sealed to Ed for time and eternity! Her baptism will be December 20th. Ed is so excited to be able to baptize his wife. :)

Adventures down under:
1) We dropped our phone down the gutter while we were on exchanges! :( Luckily the zone leaders drove by and big strong Elder Seuli pulled off the drain cover so we could pull it out.

2) Our mission Christmas party also included and excellent variety show! Some of our talented elders sang, played instruments, and danced!

First photo on the new camera! A very nice man named George spent a very long time telling me how to set it up, and very graciously took our first photo. :)

The branch relief society Christmas party! Some serious card making was happening, accompanied by lots of Vietnamese chatter. The darling girl smiling at the camera is Nalin. She and her husband Eljay are from New Zealand. They are two of the few lifelong members in our branch full of new converts!

Happy Australian Christmas!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas down under! Well, in the Aussie way. Which means barbeques and summer clothes and fluoro colors. A bit different, but still merry!

This morning a few missionaries went to the Epping hospital and played some Christmas carols in the outpatient ward. I got to borrow a flute from a member in the stake! It was so exciting! I've also been able to play with a small orchestra that will play with our stake's Christmas devotional. It's been so thrilling to be able to make music again! I didn't realize how much I missed it.

We've been taking as full advantage as we can of the #SharetheGift initiative. I hope all of you have seen the video on christmas.mormon.org! It is so pure and beautiful! We've been handing out He is the Gift cards to everyone and spreading Christmas cheer...the true kind of Christmas cheer. :)

We shared the video with Chirag this week. We've been working with him for a while now, and he is an absolute dream. His only problem is that he works so much and it's hard for him to make it to sacrament meeting. But we showed him the video and asked him what he can give to Jesus Christ for Christmas. He said that he wants to be baptized...on Christmas day!!! Here's to hoping and praying for the best kind of white Christmas! <3

Love you all!!
xoxo Sister Larsen

Now a trio

I am rapidly learning and re-learning that there is no such thing as a typical week when it comes to missionary work!!

Monday: We packed up and moved to a new flat in preparation for Sister Pastor's arrival! Our old flat was not big enough for three beds. :( Then one of our recent converts did our nails at the salon she works at. We got super nice shellac. It's really exciting because it still looks nice. I haven't had nice nails my whole mission!

Tuesday: Transfer Meeting! Said goodbye to a lot of excellent missionaries and good friends. It's always sad to see people go. Their final testimonies always make me cry.

Wednesday: We picked up Sister Pastor from the mission home! She is about 4'10" and absolutely adorable. She speaks excellent English, and she visa waited in the Philippines Manila mission for two months, so she came to us pre-trained! That evening, we taught a lesson to Kitty, the wife of one of our recent converts, and solidified her commitment to be baptized! Here's to looking at December 6th for completing a family in the gospel! <3

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday: Sister Stevenson got the flu! :( She was too sick to work (much to her dismay and frustration) so we did some finagling and managed to get some work done anyway. I spent a couple days in the city being companions with Sister McFadden, some of the Chinese sisters, and one of our amazing members so that Sister Pastor could stay home with Sister Stevenson and we didn't have to cancel all our lessons. It was really odd to not be with my companion for that long! It was also interesting to be fully in charge of our day, not totally splitting our efforts 50/50. Or now, since we're in a trio, 33/33/33. :) I'll be glad when I can have my companions back!

Sorry about the dearth of pictures lately... My camera is still out of commission. At my mother's urging, I will buy a new camera ASAP. :)

I love you all!


xo Sister Larsen

Weekly update

Hello everybody!

 

 

This week we've worked a lot with our Korean investigator, Yusong. He came to Melbourne to study English, was a rescue diver in Korea, and he is one day older than I am. He's pretty cool. Right now we're helping him prepare for baptism in November, and our current hurdle is the Word of Wisdom. Yusong loves to go to parties and drink beer. He does it almost every night. We talked with him about how we can't hear God talk to us if we are letting other substances control us. We gave him an "experiment" of not drinking beer for seven days to see how he feels. We also bribed him with an ice cream party if he succeeds. He loves ice cream a whole lot. :)

 

 

I love you all! Sorry for the short note this week! Next week I will manage my time better. :)

 

 

xo Sister Larsen

Another Week in the AMM!

Dearest family and friends,


Every time P-day rolls around, I forget what I did during the rest of the week. Thank goodness for daily planners.


We have been teaching a family (that's right! A family in the city! That itself is a miracle!) for the past couple of weeks. The mother, Esperanza (Espy for short) is from El Salvador and she is absolutely gorgeous. The father is out of the picture, but her two children, Matilda (10) and Johnny (4), are wonderful. Espy so desperately wants her children to have a solid foundation to grow up with, unlike what she had. She needs the Spirit in her home so badly and she drinks in any opportunity to help her children learn about Jesus Christ. They will go to the family ward next door to the city starting next week, and we can't wait for Espy to meet some other moms and for Matilda and Johnny to go to primary!


We found out that our miracle Persian investigators don't live in our area so we have to hand them over to the elders in the next area. We're sad that we don't get to teach them anymore, but we're sure they will be in good hands. We got to teach a transition lesson with the elders, which was really cool. The elders were excited to work with investigators who have such real intent! They are honestly a miracle. As long as they get baptized, that's all that matters. :)


Yesterday was Masaru's 25th birthday! He absolutely does not look 25 years old. Probably closer to 17. But he's excellent. We sang happy birthday to him after church and he sang along with the biggest grin on his face. Then our Korean investigator, Yusong, gave him a hug. I don't think I've ever seen two Asian men hug each other before. It was pretty delightful.


Time is starting to really fly by. I've almost been out eight months! When the heck did that happen?! I never, ever want this to end! But I know that it will, and I hope that when it does I can remain a full-time disciple of Jesus Christ, even if I am no longer a full-time missionary. I love this work!!


Thank you for all your love and prayers!!


xoxo Sister Larsen

An Apple Seed

Dearest friends and family,


General Conference was amazing. I loved every single talk. We are so blessed to have a living prophet for our day and to be able to receive guidance and revelation from God through him. To borrow a word from my friend Sister Jowers, I exhort you to watch it if you haven't!! I promise that something one of the Apostles or other leaders says will speak to you. Heavenly Father is so aware of us and He speaks through His servants! I testify that that is true!


I just wanted to share one miracle from this week. Sister Stevenson and I met the most amazing man named Christopher. He is from Bosnia. We met him just as we left the church to go GQ. He was literally the first person we said hello to! We invited him to see the church right then and he agreed! He is the meekest, most humble, gentle man. He spoke of the energy he felt walking into the church and how he felt a connection with Sister Steveson the moment she opened her mouth. We talked about the Atonement and the healing power of Christ and baptism. The whole time, Christopher kept saying how special he felt to be there. He told us about his grandmother who was very religious and had walked to Jerusalem twice in her life. When we invited him to pray, he paused for a few minutes to remember how his grandmother used to pray. Just before we left, he pulled a tiny apple seed out of his pocket. He had found it at a park earlier that day and picked it up to save it. It had the smallest little green sprout growing out of the top. He kept it because he hoped it would grow into a great tree one day.


Christopher came to General Conference and loved it. He said that he wants to join the church so he can feel that special feeling all the time! He will be taught by the elders in his area and attend a different ward, but hopefully we will be able to see him again. Meeting him was truly a blessing and a miracle!


The day of miracles has not ceased! God still speaks to His children through prophets who hold His authority! Of those truths I testify.


Much love to all of you,


Sister Larsen