Just An Instrument in His Hands

Dear friends and family,

What a good, good week! Things in Susquehanna are just getting better and better all the time! The sun is even starting to set later which is so nice! I feel that the Lord has truly been walking alongside Sister Robison and I this week.

"On the Susquehanna River -- dead trees and it still looks pretty!"

We met a woman named Diane a little while ago and were able to meet with her for the first time this past week and teach her about the restoration of the gospel. Since being out, here have been times when I wonder if people really are wondering about God and religion, or searching for truth and direction, and talking with Diane helped me remember that people are really looking! She mentioned that there are so any different churches and so many different opinions, she felt as if there should only be one, true church. Sounds a lot like someone we know as Joseph Smith, right? She was very interested in the lesson and will be praying to know if the Book of Mormon is true!

Early this week we were able to meet with a less active woman in our branch and her little boy is who isn't baptized and teach him the first lesson. I have been trying to teach Ashley and Casen since I came to Susquehanna 6 months ago, and we are now finally helping them find and grow their testimonies of the restored gospel! Casen really liked the lesson and visual aid we used to explain the importance of the priesthood, and as of this week is preparing to be baptized the 3rd weekend in March! I am so excited for him and to see that Ashley still has a powerful testimony. One of my favorite parts during the lesson was asking Ashley about her experience when she received an answer that the Book of Mormon was true-- she was almost unable to describe how wonderful she felt! The spirit was so strong! So lesson learned: Don't give up on less active members. They still have a testimony, it's just a matter of time and "re-finding" it!

We also stopped by a home a few weeks ago and briefly met a busy, young mother. Sara, who said we could try back again. We were out finding and decided to go try her again. This time she let us in and we showed her and her little kids one of my very favorite Mormon messages, "Earthly Father, Heavenly Father," and Sara loved it because that was their day to day life.  https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-01-002-earthly-father-heavenly-father?lang=eng   Just as the video finished, her husband walked in the door and we got talking to him as well. He had a ton of really good, honest questions that we were able to answer for him!  I pulled a Book of Mormon out of my bag to give to them  and before I hardly had it out all the way, Sara's husband came and took it and started looking through the pages, asking if he could have it! And what was crazy is that Sara's husband came home from work early, which never happens and he said walking into the house he knew the Mormons were there! We are going over tonight for dinner and more discussion, which we are so excited about! Just another instance where we saw the Lord's hand was working in our lives, and the lives of others.

Windsor, NY: "I think they are missing one!" 

And now... Tim!! We thought all was lost because we had texted and called and knocked on his door, and hadn't heard anything for days. We thought he had just fallen off the face of the earth, which sometimes happens with investigators. But we kept on trying and doing what we do. On Thursday, around 8:45 at night we had planned to go find some, "Main Street Miracles," and were driving towards downtown. We stopped at the stop sign by our house, and saw someone very tall walking their dog. It was Tim!! So Sister Robison threw our truck into an emergency back up, parked in our yard and we jumped out of the truck and started running down the street after him...for the second time haha! When we finally caught up to him, we figured out why we weren't able to get a hold of him and asked him about the commitments we had left him. He said he wanted to "tread the water" a little bit, before he jumped right into being baptized and making a life long commitment, so we were thinking "Great, it will probably be April or May." But he said he had prayed about a date to be baptized on, liked we had asked him to, and he wanted to be baptized on February 28th. That's "treading the water?!?" We couldn't believe it!!! We were so excited!! So the next day we scheduled a lesson with him and taught the Plan of Salvation, and he was eating it up. We answered a lot of his questions, and teaching him is so fun because you can see in face when a light bulb turns on, and he goes, "Yes! That makes sense!" And we are meeting with him again tomorrow. At first Tim asked to meet at 1 on Tuesday, then he changed his mind and asked if we could meet at 11 so we could have more time to teach him.  Haha! He loves learning!!

I know that the restored gospel of Jesus Christ is meant to help us in every aspect of our lives! It makes the bad times good and the good times better when we trust in the Lord and strive to become better instruments in his hands. I love the quote by Elder Richard G. Scott, "Heavenly Father did not put us on this earth to fail, but to succeed gloriously." When we put forth our best effort, the Lord will help carry us and improve our lives so that we can succeed gloriously! What a wonderful blessing!

Love,

Sister Larsen