Remember the Reason for the Season!

Dear family and friends,

I feel like Susquehanna is having a Gilbert, AZ Christmas! I haven't worn a coat or boots all week long, and we are enjoying 60 degree weather and no snow! I'll keep this all winter long!! We've had such a great week and are really starting to see our investigators progress! We have 8 baptism dates set, which is super exciting for me to finally see people taking a step of faith in preparing to be baptized after being in this area for almost 4 months!

This week we taught Tom about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the steps we take that can help us reach our heavenly goal of living with God and Jesus Christ again.  He is a pretty hard-core dirt bike racer, so we taught him that the finish line to his eternal race is Celestial glory, and the steps we take (faith in Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end), are like giving your bike a little more gas which will help you get to where you want to go.  He loved that analogy, and understood very quickly and on his own that baptism is just a step in his eternal progression.  I now understand why Christ taught in parables!

At the branch's Christmas party with our neighbors

 We are meeting with our neighbors Chris, and her son, Ronnie, and Sandy and her two boys, Travis and TJ.  We taught them the Plan of Salvation and they all enjoyed it, had some of their questions answered, and have now committed to be baptized! We had some really sweet moments during the lesson, and I know they could feel the Spirit there. They came to our branch Christmas party and knew quite a lot of people in our branch, which was wonderful because a familiar face (other than the missionaries) is great!  I'm realizing more and more the importance and effectiveness of members helping with this marvelous work.

When we went to Jennifer's house again this past week, you probably guessed it, but we sang "I Am A Child of God," with her kids and this time almost all of them had the words memorized! It is so precious!! But we taught them about the Restoration, told them how we like to teach typically 5-6 lessons, and invited them to be baptized. They also accepted, and are ready to learn as we take them one step at a time! They have a sincere desire to come closer to God and to each other as a family, which makes us so excited because the gospel blesses families and only strengthens the bonds that already exist! We have been really trying to make sure that our investigators are genuinely interested and have the commitment level we know will help them make decisions, like baptism. But things are looking promising here in Susquehanna!

Christmastime is the best time to be a missionary!  

A noticeable pair!

 We knocked on the door of a woman, Natasha, who said her little boy wasn't home from school, but because we were missionaries and talk about Jesus Christ, she wanted our help in explaining to her son why Christmas is so important, so we went back later that night. We sat down and showed the two of them the new Christmas initiative video here  https://www.mormon.org/christmas and helped him circle the word "Christ" in "Christmas." We talked to Natasha about how the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ like the Bible, and how it blesses us and our families. She took our book and we will be going by again this upcoming week! We've run into a lot of people who, when we ask them on the street why Christmas is important, say it's a day for the family to come together, and I'm realizing how much smaller Christ is becoming in peoples' ideas of the holiday. But it is people like Natasha who want their children to know why we celebrate, and why it matters! That knowledge is the greatest gift!

I hope you all take some time before Christmas to reflect on our Savior a little bit more. Something we did for our branch Christmas party is have everyone write down "their gift to Christ," that one little thing they will do this holiday season to remember Him. We took all of those papers and wrapped them up and put them under the branch tree. I'd invite each of you to do the same!

Love,

Sister Larsen

Celebrating early Christmas with a sweet new-member family