Days of Harmony

Dear family and friends,

Not going to lie, this past week was a pretty rough one. Every one of our appointments we had planned and scheduled for our week fell through, except the appointment we had with Mark and Kate. And to make a long story short, they kindly told us they were no longer interested and did not want to meet with us anymore. But we made it, tried to stay positive and did all we could to ensure that there was no reason not for things to start looking up. I love 2 Nephi 31:20 and how it teaches us that we must "press forward with a steadfastness in Christ" and "with a perfect brightness of hope," and I found that to be so helpful this past week. Nothing is easy, but with Christ, anything is possible.

Even hard days are better with ice cream!  
The best (and only) place in town to get ice cream.

So...positive things from this week! Yesterday we finally got totals of the number of people who have come through the Priesthood Restoration Site in the 9 days since the center has been open, with a grand total of 661!!!! Monday was an insanely busy day due to the holiday and we are expecting several large groups, including a tour bus of 55 people this next week. Talk about crazy! 

Sundays are the best day of the week. Hands down. It's a little different as a missionary (no Sunday naps, no watching The Best 2 Years haha, etc.) because we do all of the same things we do every other day of the week-- serving at the PRS, teaching, and finding. But it is so cool to think that the work we do everyday is so sacred that we can continue to do it on Sundays. 

Anyways, we are still meeting in our teeny, tiny, white school house church building on the hill until after conference. There are about 150 members in our branch, but on an average Sunday only 45-50 attend... That is, until the site opened. We have had so many less active members, visitors and investigators attend services with us since the PRS opening. To give you a frame of reference, this branch used to only use 3 sacrament trays of bread and water and always had leftovers... Until this past Sunday. I never thought that running out of sacrament cups would be the greatest thing ever, but it was! We had 93 people in sacrament meeting! Fast and testimony meeting was so wonderful, and I love how everyone in church, young or old, has something to offer. 2 recent converts who have never shared their testimonies before bore theirs, which was so neat to listen to.

Sister Gomm and I also taught our Gospel Principles class on the Sabbath Day, and it went pretty well. I love teaching, but am so excited to use our new building that has real classrooms! Right now we just go down to the basement and there are partitions and chalk boards set up to create "walls," so it's pretty easy to hear the priesthood lesson, or primary kids singing, or nursery kids playing with toys, etc. And when members of our branch come to the PRS I love taking them to the church side of the visitor's center to show them the chapel, classrooms and baptismal font (fun fact, the Priesthood Restoration Site is one of three visitor centers in the world with a meeting house attached and which has a baptismal font). Lots of the members tear up or are at a loss of words when they see the place, it's so sweet. 

Sister Gomm and I helped in Primary for the 3rd hour, and it felt like I was right at home. We did sharing time, and I taught our primary the sign language to the chorus of "I Know That My Savior Loves Me." Oh, I loved it! And speaking of singing, the 12 of us PRS sisters will be singing a three part women's chorus of "Consider the Lilies" at a breakfast on Sunday morning for President Russell M. Nelson when we comes for the dedication, so we've been practicing each night when we typically don't have any visitors coming in after 8 or so. I love it!! And Sister Gomm and I sing in the car and around our apartment all the time. 

Now for the BEST PART of this entire week... Jessi! On Sunday, one of our converts of 1 year, Alyssa, who is now a high school senior, brought her friend Jessi with her to church. She stayed for all three hours and we got to know her pretty well in our Gospel Principles class. Alyssa and Jessi also came to the PRS in the afternoon and Sister Gomm and I took them on a tour. I just had this feeling that we should ask Jessi if we could start teaching her more and I told that to Sister Gomm when I had the chance. We sat down in a room of the Joseph Smith home and asked Jessi if she'd like to start taking the lessons. She said, "I hadn't really thought about that... But yeah, I think I'd really like that!" We asked her if we could she could meet with us this week and she said Thursday would be great. She said "couldn't wait! :)" when we texted her today. *insert a seriously happy missionary dance*

At the PRS we show a special 25 minute film about the history and events that took place here in the area which is only available for viewing at the site, and it's so powerful. In it, following some scenes of hardship and trial, there is a scene of normal everyday things where they are working and laughing together. During this scene, one of my favorite narrated lines goes, "These were days never to be forgotten. Days of harmony, days of gratitude, days of hope." And isn't that exactly what life is all about? Isn't that what serving a mission is all about? We will all have lows, Joseph Smith seemed to have had a lot of them, but there will always be good times if we look to Christ. 

Have a wonderful week everyone! Thanks for all the love and a special thanks to all of you who sent me letters! Hurrah for Israel!

Love,

Sister Larsen