Sister Larsen in the City of Brotherly Love : 17 Below and New Places to Go!!

Dear family and friends,

This Arizona sister survived -17 degree weather (with wind chill) and is still living to tell the tales of another wonderful week in Susquehanna, PA! And it was a good last week because on Sunday night I got a call that I'm being transferred! It's a little bittersweet to be leaving this place right now, but a comfort to know I'll be back in 7 short weeks when all 12 visitor center sisters have a big reunion and go full steam ahead for the summertime!

Happy Valentine's Day from the Sunday afternoon shift of PRS Sisters
(L-R) Sisters Anderson, Walker, Robison, Larsen

Opening Valentines at the Visitor's Center

Monday night Sara and Stan invited us over for dinner and a lesson with them and their three little guys, and they are SO fun!!! They both have religious backgrounds and loved learning about the restoration of the gospel. Even the little kids liked learning, because they have been asking lots of questions lately. Something funny Libby, the little girl, did recently was draw a picture of their family with God and Jesus Christ and "Sin"... So we tried to help her understand that "Sin" isn't a person, just mistakes we make :) But even funnier than that we were talking about the Bible a little bit and then Stan said, "Here's my own theory... There's got to be some book out there, buried in the earth for thousands of years, with all the answers in it." ...."Ummm yeah, and it's that book sitting in front of you on YOUR KITCHEN TABLE!" Hahaha :) They are such great people with a real desire to follow the word of God and bring their family even closer together.

We also had an amazing lesson with Tim on Tuesday!!! We finished talking about the Plan of Salvation and taught him about the Word of Wisdom. He continues to accept everything and follow through on his commitments, and is so excited to continue progressing and learning!! He was especially excited to do temple baptisms for the dead because his father passed away this past December, just weeks before we found him. I continue to be amazed by the Lord's timing in every part of this work!! I can't wait to come back to the branch and see Tim as a member!

We also taught Casen again, and taught him the Plan of Salvation as well which he had lots of questions about. It went so well!! He loved being able to find answers to questions in the Book of Mormon, which was great to help him understand that the Book of Mormon really can give us the answers to life's biggest questions! He is starting to read the Book of Mormon everyday now to get in his 15 of reading homework for school. What a great kid!!

Sister Robison and I taught the lesson in Relief Society on Sunday about how adversity and challenges are all part of God's plan for us. Each experience that we go through is a moment of molding. We used a piece of play dough to explain. We are like a ball of play dough needing to become a star. As the play dough gets squished and pinched into a shape, we can't always tell what it will end up looking like, but after time it will become all that it needs to become. For us, our trials seem to just be bumps and bruises, and we can't always see what difficulties we may face will help us become. So long as we continue to trust in the ultimate potter, our Savior, He will shape us into the person we need to become. I love what Sister Marriot said in this past General Conference, "President Gordon B. Hinckley said: 'If you do your best, it will all work out. Put your trust in God. … The Lord will not forsake us.'... [not], 'It will all work out now.' It speaks of our hope in the eternal outcome--not necessarily of present results." Whatever difficulties we may have now or that we will go through, so long as we trust in our Savior and our Father's eternal perspective, it will all work out.

Hurrah for Israel!

Love,

Sister Larsen

And for picture overload, here are a few more pics as of late: