Week 2

Hello from the MTC!

Things are going a lot better than the first week I was here. I'm glad to hear the the fundraiser for the musical went well. Way to go ShaRee! I was also excited to hear the the Greenhalgh's are going to be here in October. My service assignments are in the Senior missionary residence hall every Wednesday morning so it's very likely that I'll see them! I'm excited to be ablt to practice bearing my testimony to them in Spanish.

Elder Holland was the speaker for devotional. We were singing hymns before he came in and we were in the middle of "Hope of Israel" when we had to stand up for his entrance. It just happened to be the line that said, "Hope of Israel rise in might." Wow! I am part of the hope of Israel. It's so cool to be a missionary! Anyway, the talk was so good that I took 5 pages of notes. A couple of my favorite parts were:

1. "The only path to salvation goes through Gethsemane." If we are going to be disciples of Christ, we have to suffer at least part of what He did. It's the only way.

2, "Missionaries are taking part in the same work as the apostles." From the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed, you are trying to figure out how you can help the Kingdom of God grow. Welcome to the work!

For those of you who will be learning foreign languages in the MTC, just make it until that first Sunday and you'll be fine. I remember wanting so badly to take off running down 9th East to escape on my second day, but I decided that I would never forgive myself if I gave up. I'm so glad I stayed! This is, hands down, one of the best experiences that I've ever had , and I'm not even two weeks into it. I highly recommend going on a mission. It rocks!

We had a little change in companionships this week. One of the sisters in our district got transferred to an intermediate district, so they put her companion with us. We are now a trio! It's not very easy to try and be on the same page with two other people when you are teaching a lesson. We figured that out this week when we taught our first lesson to an "investigator."(Pretty sure she served a mission in Spain, and she was not making life easy for us. So many questions!) Anyway, we had a rocky 30 minutes after that. I think it was because we were so frustrated. We didn't really talk to each other, and it felt like we were all mad at one another. But I'm pretty sure that we were all just discouraged. We get along really well, and we laugh every day. Hermana Gwynn is the original companion, and she is from Logan. I actually found out today that I was in a lot of classes with her brother, Scott, when we were in the art program at Snow. Small world! She is going to the same mission as I, and we both leave on Nov. 11. The second companion is Hermana Tucker from South Ogden. She is going to Oklahoma City, and she leaves Nov. 9. I am blessed with wonderful companions, and they teach me a lot!

So far we are the only 3 sisters in the zone. All of the elders make sure to stand up for us when we sit down at mealtimes, and they are very good to open doors and make sure we have everything we need. Sometimes they need a little reminding, but the Branch President told us that we needed to help train them to be gentlemen. We do what we can.

Thanks for all of your prayers. I felt them this week, and they were much needed. Being a misssionary is hard work, but I am loving every minute of it! I love all of you!

Herman Larsen

Food for thought..."The shrimp who falls asleep gets carried away in the current." (That's the Spanish version of "You snooze, you lose." We thought it was pretty funny.)