Well, Hermana Henderson finally got her visa! She will be leaving to Spain in a couple of weeks. I'm super sad to have to say goodbye to her. She's been one of the best companions I've had. We got really close. I told her that I feel like a mom sending her daughter off to college. Sad to see her leave, but at the same time I'm so excited for her that she actually gets to be in her mission. The day that she found out was an interesting day. I had been thinking about transfers that morning (they're coming up next wednesday) and had decided that they were going to take me out of the area and leave Hna. Henderson here. I have, after all, been here for 8 months. My beliefs were somewhat confirmed when we had interviews with our zone leaders and he told me that he thought that it was about time for me to leave and that I had done all I needed to do in Bella Vista. I thought I was going to cry, but I just nodded my head. I had started coming to terms with it and then we got to a BBQ at the mission home (it was a reward for being the first zone to get all of our 72 hour kits put together) and President came and sat next to Hna. Henderson to tell her the good news. Now I have no idea what is going to happen. I guess there is a slight chance that they'll leave Hna. Trepanier in the area and send a senior companion to her, but I have no idea. I guess I'll be letting you know next week. We have a baptism scheduled for Sept. 5! Her name is Mayra. She's from Honduras. Pray that everything goes according to plan! By the way, she's going to be feeding us soup tomorrow. I'm pretty sure that it's the kind that has little octopi in it. If you don't mind, I could use LOTS of prayers for that too. We're going to see how it goes... I'll be eating at 11:30, so do me a favor and take a moment or two at that exact moment to ask for divine help! By the way, thanks for all the birthday stuff last week! I feel like I'm rich. I used some of the birthday money to take my companions and our member exchange out to lunch. We went to Chipotle:) It was on a different day than my birthday. On the actual day we went out to eat with Yanet at Bangkok 54. It's a really good Thai restaurant. Later on we went to an appointment with Grover and Oliver. The night before, Oliver had asked me what I wanted to eat for dinner. I couldn't think of anything so he said, "What's something that your mom used to cook for you at home?" I still had to think about it because it's been so long. Finally I remembered Swiss Chicken Casserole. Mmmm.... I didn't think he was going to figure out how to make it and was expecting a different meal, but when we got there he had it all laid out complet with rice. It was DELICIOUS! So don't worry Mom, I got my home cooked birthday meal. For dessert, I took some peach dessert that I had made the day before. It was AMAZING. I'm going to make it again this week. I also got a cake from the coordinating sister and her companion (my comp. from the MTC.) The Elders in our district also made a Skor bar cake for us. I've never eaten so much on my birthday before. But it was all SO good. So the work continues to move forward, despite our shortcomings and weaknesses. Which is more proof that this really is the Lord's work and He will accomplish it no matter what. I'm just happy that I get to take part in it. Thanks for all of your prayers and support. I pray for all of you as well and hope that everything will continue to go well for you. Love you!

So I feel like I haven't had any good stories for you lately. Sorry about that. There are a couple of kind of good ones, I guess. One was one of those great "greenie on the phone" moments. Ha! I was driving so I wanted Hermana Henderson to call one of the members to see if he was going to have a female there so that we could have the appointment with our recent convert in his house. Hermana Henderson really did not want to do it. I was in the middle of trying to convince her that it would be fine and Hermana Trepanier said, "I can try." I just grinned and said, "Ok." So she called Oliver. When he answered they did the normal greetings and then Hermana Trepanier dove in with the conversation. I'm pretty sure that what she said would translate into, "You have women? So come Grover?" and some other words and sentences that don't really have a translation. When she finished talking I'm pretty sure we could hear some crickets singing on the other end of the line. Haha! I was laughing so hard. So I took the phone from her and said, "Hello Oliver." He immediately said, "I didn't understand ANYTHING. Just 'women' and 'Grover'." It was great. When I told Hermana Trepanier what he said, she told me, "That's funny. That's all I understand when he speaks to me." It's a good thing she has such a good attitude and that we could all laugh so much about it. The next day she drew a comic strip of the whole thing and gave it to Oliver. I think he enjoyed it:) The other story involves a family from Mexico. The grandmother's name is Hermalinda. She was the first one that we spoke with. We met her while we were knocking doors. She immediately invited us in and then told us that she was Catholic. "Great," I thought, "this is just going to be a waste of time." Usually when people tell us they are Catholic that means, "I'm not interested in listening to what your religion is. I just like the 'word of God' so tell me what you have to say and then get out of my house." But we were already sitting on the couch so we started in with the message anyway. As we got talking to her she started telling us about how confused she feels about religion. Also, that there are a lot of things in her religion that she doesn't agree with. We didn't have much time so we quickly talked about the experience of Joseph Smith that he had when he was feeling those same things and set a return appointment. When we went back about a week later, she had her son and two grandsons sitting at the table with the Bible and a few other books ready. At first, I didn't know that it was her son so I immediately thought, "Oh no. She brought someone from her church to bible bash with us." Good thing that wasn't what really happened. She asked us about the ten commandments and if we could explain them to her. I thought that was going to be pretty easy, but when we read the first commandment out of Exodus and started talking about it, she had a TON of questions. We spent the whole lesson talking about the first commandment and trying to teach them how to pray. She really doesn't want to give up her book of prayers where she can just read them. But she seemed to like how we answered her questions so she asked us when we were going to come back. The next time we went back the whole family was there again and her husband was there as well. I thought for sure that we would at least be able to get through the next four commandments, but we only covered one commandment in the whole time that we were there again. How can these people be so confused about what is written right there in front of you? It really made me grateful for the simplicity of the gospel. When we finished the lesson, they started asking us if we had activities that their grandchildren could go to in order to stay busy for the summer. They also wanted some activities to go to as adults. We told them about church and mutual and invited them to come. She said that they would go as long as no one forces them to get baptized and change religion. I told her that no one was going to force them, but that they were certainly invited to get baptized:) They're going to come this week...we hope. We'll see what happens with it.

I love you all!

Hermana Larsen

Since you don't know who Helen is, you probably don't know how much of a MIRACLE you are reading in the subject line of this message. Helen has been investigating the church for about two years now. (I know...right?) We FINALLY got her to set a baptismal date. August 1st! Happy Birthday to Brianne! The only thing we are worried about is that she is supposed to have a baby on the 12th of August. Let's hope that this one doesn't come early... I hate to wish that on anyone, but really, it's about time. Everyone pray for her. The time between setting a date and actually getting baptized is always the hardest time for all of these people.
We got transfer calls this morning. I'm staying in Bella Vista! So is Hermana Henderson. But we are also getting a third companion fresh from the MTC. I don't know what her name is yet. It's going to be interesting getting ready in the mornings with three sisters and one bathroom. We are also going to have to put a mattress on the floor in between our beds for one of us. Fun stuff! Really, though, I'm excited to be in a threesome. They are always really fun.
We had an appointment with Grover last week and he found out that I studied art for a couple years at school. I showed them a drawing that I was working on. He was really excited because he also wants to be an artist. He's really good. When we were leaving he asked if I would draw something with him at our next appointment. I asked him what he wanted to draw and he said, "Maybe the president of the church." I thought that sounded like a pretty good idea:) He was also asking us how the mission is. We gave him the best taste that we could of missionary work and he told us that he's thinking about serving a mission! Sweet! I'm so excited that he is doing so well. I'm also excited that we found a good connection through art. I was wondering when art was going to come into my mission in some way. It'll be good to get a little extra practice. It's been way too long since I've seriously drawn anything and I think I've lost quite a few of my abilities. Let's pray they come back fast!