Reply Heather Larsen to me show details Jun 23 (1 day ago)
Yesterday, we had an amazing experience. It was actually a horrible day, which I suppose is what made what happened that much better. We can't know the sweet without first tasting the bitter, right? I guess I shouldn't exaggerate, though. The day actually started out pretty well. We had a good lesson with one of our new investigators. After that, though, things just went downhill. The other appointment that we had fell through, and no one else would open their doors for us. Finally, we arrived at the hour to go do some service. It's one of my favorite parts of the week. It made me feel a lot better, until the end. We were getting ready to go to a great appointment that we had set up with one of our investigators in the house of a member. We had a great lesson planned that was focused specifically on helping our investigator receive an answer about whether or not Joseph Smith was a prophet. That's the only thing that is keeping him from being baptized. He already wants to be baptized, but we won't let him until he has that testimony. Well, we received a call from him just before we left service saying that he wouldn't be able to come to the appointment. He couldn't meet with us last week either because he was grounded. Apparently, the punishment was extended. We were SO disappointed. We still went to the member's house to eat dinner, though.
We ate dinner, which was delicious, but I think I had made myself sick to my stomach from worrying about how we were going to help our investigator progress. So I couldn't eat much. We all know that I was taught never to leave food on my plate, but I couldn't even finish the first serving that he gave me. I think he thought that I didn't like the food, even though I explained that I wasn't feeling well. Anyway...we finished the meal and I was still so sad that I didn't even want to think about trying to give a lesson. Luckily, earlier that day we had invited Oliver (the member) to prepare to share his testimony with our investigator about how he came to know that Joseph Smith was a prophet. We were about to start into a different lesson when he asked if he could still share his testimony with us. We were happy to agree and he pulled out 4 pages of thoughts that he had written down that day. He explained to us that he had written a letter to his future children to prepare for the time when they would ask him about how he knew. He then shared one of the most powerful testimonies about the restoration that I have ever heard. When he finished, we all just sat there in silence for about 15 seconds. I couldn't even talk because I was trying to hold back the tears that were starting to well up in my eyes.
After his testimony, we watched Elder Holland's talk, "Safety for the Soul" and Sister Henderson and I shared our testimonies as well. It was such a powerful lesson. I thought about it all night before I fell asleep and then was thinking about it again when I woke up this morning. So in personal studies, I decided to write down my testimony as well. I realized that I don't do that enough. It is so wonderful to be able to ponder on the life of Joseph Smith and the Restoration and organize all of your thoughts. I have never received so much revelation in my life as I did this morning. The spirit filled my heart with happiness as I thought of how much God loves us. He has given us a book that has all of the answers that we will ever need and has given us a living prophet who guides us every day.
I know that Joseph Smith was called by God to restore the gospel in its fullness on this earth. I know that he translated the Book of Mormon by the power of God. I know that if we read the Book of Mormon every day, we will never wonder what we need to do and we will ALWAYS have the strength to face our trials. This church is true and Thomas S. Monson is the prophet today. I know that all of you can come to that same knowledge, but we have to work for it. I'm grateful for the examples that I have here in the mission that teach me so much and that we have the spirit to testify to us and guide us always. I love the gospel!
Hermana Larsen

So this week we had Elder Richard Hinckley come and tour our mission. Yes, it's Gordon B. Hinckley's son. Yes, it's the brother of Tani's mission president. And yes, he just got back from touring Tani's mission:) I was thinking about that as I was shaking his hand. "Hmm...this hand shook Tani's hand not too long ago...so it's like I'm shaking her hand:)" Haha! Pretty funny. We ate lunch after the conference that we had and as I was looking for a table where I and my companion could sit Sister Albright (our mission mom) said, "Hermana Larsen! There's still room for two more next to Elder Hinckley and his wife. You should go sit with them." I thought, "Yeah, right. We want him to sit with missionaries that will give him a good impression." I looked over at his table and only saw one seat left so I tried to get out of it. She kept insisting, though, "There's one on his side and another on the other side of his wife. Go sit by them! He said he wanted to sit with some missionaries!" I was feeling super intimidated, but how am I going to tell our mission mom that I don't want to sit next to an apostle? So, I ate lunch with Elder and Sister Hinckley. They're really nice. It was kind of awkward because we didn't really have any conversational questions for them. There were also four other elders on the table with us. We all know how awful I am with conversational skills, but don't worry, by the time we got to the end we got talking about the mission and what they do too. How they adjusted at first and everything. It was pretty fun. I'm pretty sure there will be a picture on the blog that Sister Albright does. She's a little camera crazy:)
After lunch we met with Sisters Hinckley and Albright and all the sisters in the zones that were at that particular conference. We've been having a lot of problems with all the sisters in the mission having depression. We were bouncing around ideas about what we do to get over the bouts of depression that we get. Sister Hinckley shared about President Hinckley in the last two years of his life. He was having chemotherapy treatments every other week and he didn't have the option of saying, "I don't feel good. I don't think I'll go work today." She said that it was SO difficult for him and he didn't always want to get out of bed and go into the office, but by sheer GRIT he forced himself to get up because he knew he had a duty to fulfill. It was so touching to hear such an intimate story about our former prophet and the hardships that he faced. I'm sure we have no idea about the burden that the prophet has to carry. And still he does so much. It made me realize how much harder I can work, even when things get tough. I'm grateful she shared that with us.

I love you all and hope everything is well. Hope to hear from you soon!

Love Herman Larsen

So my companion is Hermana Henderson. She arrived from the MTC last Wednesday. She is waiting for her Visa to Spain. The Bilbao mission, which is the mission that will be dissolved in July. So she's thinking that she will be in the Barcelona Mission. Pretty exciting! How's that, Tani? I'm making my mark in your mission too:) Anyway, she is a wonderful missionary. She is way more willing to talk than I was when I first came. Unfortunately, she's figured out who understands english and who doesn't, so when she feels like she can't say something in spanish she just starts talking to them in english. We're going to work on that one. I have to tell you about a huge miracle that happened. So there is this family in the ward and the dad isn't a member, but he goes to church every Sunday and even leads the music in sacrament meeting. We scheduled a Family Home Evening with them on Monday and when we got there, his mother was also there. They had asked us a few weeks earlier if we could teach the plan of salvation to her because her husband just died and she has been afraid lately of spirits and weird stuff. It was good she was there, because I couldn't decide between teaching about the Restoration or the Plan of Salvation even when we were walking up to the door. So when I saw her sitting on the couch I took that as my decision. We started into the plan and I had all of the drawings laid out that I had made and everything was going well. We almost got to the end and then the lesson got really hard. Everyone started asking all of those deep questions that you don't want to have to deal with. The miracle was that, as they were asking the questions there were a bunch of scriptures that were coming to my mind. My favorite about it, though, was that it wasn't just random references that the spirit was telling me. It was all of the scriptures that I have learned since I've come on my mission. I'm pretty sure that the Lord used all of the experiences that I had had before to prepare me for the questions they were asking. I've never been good for remembering where to find scriptures, but the spirit was definitely bringing things to my remembrance. AMAZING! Then, the man starting saying that he didn't think it was fair that you had to be a mormon to get into the Celestial Kingdom. Normally, I would have started explaining about God as a just God and a little bit about the mercy that we get, but I felt like I should start talking about humility. Interesting... So we shared the scripture in Mosiah 3:19 about how we have to be willing to accept the will of our Father because He knows what is best for us. It totally changed the mood of the lesson and this man started opening up completely. He told me that he wasn't mormon and I replied by saying, "I know." He just smiled. We had a very good conversation and more scriptures were shared and then I invited him to read the Book of Mormon with the intent of knowing if Joseph Smith was a prophet. He told me that he had already read the book, but just as another book and not with real intent. Long story short, HE'S GOING TO READ IT AGAIN! With real intent this time. I could tell how excited the rest of his family was. It was the hardest, but most rewarding lesson, ever. I know that the Lord helped us and He continues to direct this work. I love being a missionary! Pray for the next lesson that we have with him. After we had finished he thanked us for teaching him and I told him that it was fun and that he had really good questions. He said, "Oh, don't worry, I have lots of those." Oh no... So I told him that I would do my best to answer them for him, but that I wasn't a very smart missionary so I might have to write his questions down and study them to be able to answer most of them. Luckily, he said, "Don't worry. I know that not everyone can answer every question." Whew! Then he told me that I was very intelligent. Nice! That made me really happy. I know it's not true, but it tells me that he appreciated the answers that he got.

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Love,
Hermana Larsen