New Years and 9 Degrees

Beautiful Pennsylvania skies

Dear family and friends,

Happy New Year! I can't believe it's already 2016... Or the fact that it is currently 9 degrees outside, BUT the past (almost) five months have flown by, and it's crazy to think that this entire upcoming year will be 100% dedicated to serving the Lord in the Pennsylvania Philadelphia mission! 

It was a bit of a roller coaster week, with ups and downs, but a lot of really wonderful things happened! For starters, we got transfer calls on Friday night and.... Sister Robison and I are both staying as companions here in Susquehanna!! We have too much fun together, I have learned SO much from her, and we are both looking forward to the next six weeks!

As a missionary, you find to teach. So when we knock on a door, we hope to be invited in to teach a lesson. This week was the very first time I've been invited into a home to teach a full lesson while we were out finding!! I was so happy!! We knocked on the door of a man named Brian who talked to us on his doorstep for a few minutes, and mentioned he had talked to elders before years ago and had a Book of Mormon. Then he invited us in to come meet his wife, Jane. And to make a long story short, we taught them about the Restoration, and they loved it!...Particularly that we have a living prophet who leads and guides us today, just as prophets did long ago, because God loves us still. We set up a return appointment, and are so excited to see them again this week!

We had another lesson with our neighbors, Chris and Ronnie. Ronnie is loving reading the Book of Mormon, and as of last night is already to Mosiah! He says he loves to read especially when he's having a rough time because it makes him feel better and brings him peace. We love that he recognizes that the Book of Mormon can help him! We talked to them about obedience and keeping the commandments, and did a little restoration review so we can continue helping them progress towards their baptism date and retain the all the new information we are feeding them. They are wonderful people who are learning and growing so much!

We had an amazing week at the Priesthood Restoration Site!

A special experience this week:  Sis. Larsen was able to take Scott's former mission companion
and his family on a tour at the Priesthood Restoration Site.  The Wagstaffs live in New Jersey.
It was a sweet moment to see the picture of Scott's mission companion together
with our daughter now serving her own mission.  -Alicia

Brother Billings from Salt Lake skyped in for a conference call and answered our questions, talked about how Preach My Gospel principles apply to the Visitor's Center, and got us excited to do and be better VC sisters! Since that conference call, we are more committed to keeping in touch with our guests and have gotten so many more referrals than we were previously  receiving! 

This week (especially at the site) we have been focusing on inviting people to set New Years resolutions, not just to eat healthy or exercise more, but resolutions to remember Jesus Christ more and better center our lives on him. I recently read an article from the December Ensign by President Thomas S. Monson called, "Make Time for the Savior."  https://www.lds.org/ensign/2015/12/make-time-for-the-savior?lang=eng Short and simple, but so good! In it he said, "Among our resolutions for this year, did we resolve to make time in our lives and room in our hearts for the Savior? No matter how successful we may have been thus far with such a resolution, I am confident we all wish to do better.... In our busy lives, with ever so many other things competing for our attention, it is essential that we make a conscious, committed effort to bring Christ into our lives and into our homes." So something we have been committing lots of people to do is choose to do something that will make the Savior a bigger part of their lives. One of the things that Sister Robison and I are keeping up is writing in our journals everyday how we've seen the Lord's hand in our lives. How have we seen Christ today? It is so cool! You start to 1) Get excited to journal again every night and 2) You start to notice things you didn't take the time to notice before. It is a wonderful way to remember Christ and show our gratitude to him!

May we all take a little more time to remember the Savior this year! I'm excited to see all that 2016 will bring! Hurrah for Israel and Happy New Year!

Love,

Sister Larsen

At the old viaduct, which has been around
since Joseph Smith's time