Serving Like Our Savior

Dear friends and family,

This transfer has just flown by! I can't believe I only have one more week here in Philly! (Note from Alicia:  Sis. Larsen sent this letter Monday morning.  Monday afternoon she emailed her dad to say the mission president had contacted her and she may be staying in Philly for one more transfer; she'll find out next week.)   I have learned so much in the past six weeks and  I am so grateful for the opportunity I've had to be here in this wonderful city!

Such a fun mural -- veggies!

This week was a slower teaching week, but we had some really neat experiences while we were out and about finding! We stopped by a woman named Pang. She is Hmong, from Laos, probably 4'8 and the cutest thing
ever! She let us right in and brought out waters and a big bowl of fruit and had her grandchildren watch "Hallelujah," with us. She loved it and all the pictures of people's family members, and how everyone in the video were from different parts of the world, but believe in God. Pang told us how she used to go to different inner city schools where the kids would be fighting and she would teach them how to love one another. She talked about how the world is a much better place when we put our outward differences aside and love each other as children of God. She said talking about herself, "tiny lady, but big heart!" 

We were showing the Easter videos out on the street and came across a Haitian man, Junior. We hadn't seen anyone react so strongly (a.k.a. Feel the spirit so strongly) to the video until he watched it saying, "wow," through the whole thing. He told us his mother had passed away in the last year which had been very hard for him. It is different talking about the resurrection with someone when they are thinking of a specific loved one they know will live again. He invited us to come meet his family and share the video with them as well, so we hope to see them all very soon.

I also love, love, loved General Women's Broadcast on Saturday! It was so good, and I liked that all the talks had to do with service and when we serve we should serve out of love. I think serving in this area I've come to love so many different people, more than I thought I could. In the past week I don't even think I could name all the places I've met people from... Bangladesh, Ireland, Liberia, Mexico, England, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Ghana... And even though we are so different, I see them as my brothers and sisters, and I want to serve and love them! I loved the scriptures from Mark 14 that Sister Burton talked about, "...she hath wrought a good work... She hath done what she could..." Selfless service does not require us to give anything more than our heart. It doesn't have to be preplanned, or cost money, or be physically exhausting. What the Savior has asked of us is to give our hearts, and love others as He would.

"And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God." Pray for specific opportunities and people to serve & love! I know we feel the Savior's love for us more fully when we lose ourselves in lifting others as he would.   Hurrah for Israel!

Love,
Sister Larsen

Happy Easter from the Philly Three and Ciana!

I Always Knew Tiffany Was a Good Name...

I LOVE being a missionary!
at Love Park, Philadelphia

Dear friends and family,

We had a wonderful week of finding and remembering what is so important this time of year! Although I miss the Easter tradition of going to the Easter pageant, I've been busy making new Easter memories here in Philly!

This week we went on companion exchanges, so I stayed here, my companions left me for West Chester, and Sister Nielson came with me for the day.   It was such a good day full of miracles!! We did a ton of finding with the new Easter initiative, "Hallelujah," and showed it to anyone and everyone who would watch.   If you haven't seen the video, click here: https://www.mormon.org/easter/hallelujah  We got 4 return appointments and several church invites out of it which was awesome!

The best part of my day with Sister Nielson was finding TIFFANY! (How fun is that?!?) We were walking down a street, not totally sure where we should go. We asked some people walking by if they would like to see the video, and they said no. Then Tiffany walked out of her house and we asked her if she would like to see the Easter video and she said yes! Literally 10 seconds into the video, she tells us to stop the video and runs inside her house. So we stood there on the steps hoping she would come back out... And she did, bringing her daughter, Nikaya, with her because she wanted her to watch it too! Tiffany was tearing up during it, and invited us to come back to talk to her and her family!

Fast forward 4 days and we go to Tiffany's for a lesson and to get to know them. She is so awesome!! She gathered everyone together, and made sure everyone would be home when we came. We asked Tiffany why she had come back and she said the video we showed her really touched her, especially since she has had loved ones pass away. She said she didn't know why she walked outside her house the day we were there, but did anyways. She thought it might have been God's way of speaking to her through us, so how could she not invite us back? She really wants to deepen her relationship and trust in Heavenly Father and wants the best for her two kids. I just love her already!! We hear it all the time on the mission, but God really is preparing people everywhere, sometimes we just have to wait and be in the right place at the right time for Him to use us to bring others to greater light and understanding.

Something we've been asking Ward members and people we meet is to share "Hallelujah" on their social media and use #hallelujah to spread the joy and hope of the Easter season.  I love the tools that the church gives each of us to participate in missionary work so easily! I know that using social media for good really does work and spread the good news of the restored gospel because we have gotten so many referrals for Bibles from Mormon.org and the special Easter website, which is wonderful! So moral of the story... Go grab your phone and post a picture of you and your family at the Mesa Easter Pageant and use the hashtag, or share the video and your testimony of Christ on Facebook. Be creative to get the word out and be a missionary!

I know the Lord can and will use each of us in His work, whether we wear a black name tag or just have the Savior's name imprinted in our heart. With this beautiful time of year may we all, like we say here everyday in the PPM, "Learn it, live it, share it!"

Love,
Sister Larsen

Now for a million "tourist pics" of my trip to the city...

First stop:  Betsy Ross' house with the comps!

Our dear Liberty Bell

Independence Hall

Reading Terminal Market -- aka a foodie wonderland!

Reading Terminal

Finally - a Philly cheesesteak!

City Hall

Near Benjamin Franklin's grave

Famous Rita's -- Pineapple ice with vanilla custard.
The closest thing to a Dole Whip a girl on the East Coast can get!

A little view of Independence Hall

Walking through the city

Us at the temple -- it's so beautiful!!

Inside the construction fence.  The Temple Open House
starts in August.  Best place in the city!!

Spring and New Beginnings

Dear friends and family,

I am one happy sister to be outside in the sunshine in my skirt and shirt (no jacket or boots required woohoo!) talking to everyone I possibly can. It feels like spring has officially sprung! I love this time of year... And  Easter is just around the corner-- a time for new beginnings!

I love Arizona citrus blossoms and "popcorn trees" all around VVL, 
but I'll gladly take these beautiful pink things!!

Gorgeous (and huge!) pink blossoms

This week we had a couple lessons with Stephanie as usual. We had one of the lessons in our Relief Society President's home with her, which was wonderful. Being able to have members as a part of the teaching process has been a huge blessing because Stephanie talks about the ward really being her ward family. She has quite a bit of difficulty in her personal life, trying to make big decisions, etc...Lots of things young single adults struggle with, but I know she has a solid testimony. As things have been getting harder for her to deal with, she has been turning to the Book of Mormon, prayer and even fasting. She constantly is relating herself and her situations to people in the Book of Mormon and how they feel; really "likening the scriptures." She decided not to travel over the weekend for a planned trip because she wanted to be at church so badly. There is no other way to say it -- she absolutely just lights up when we talk about the gospel! We were talking one night at a lesson, and she said, "I don't want my baptism to be about me... Can we make it all about Christ??" She is ah-mazing, and is making her way towards her April baptism date when her friend who originally introduced her to the church will be in town. May the baptism countdown begin! :)

We went to Sister Tuesday's for dinner this week, and boy oh boy do I love that sweet lady! She says she has no idea why her mother named her Tuesday, but she'll keep it and calls us Wednesday, Thursday and Friday... She's a funny one! As we were talking she talked about how she has been a member of the church for 20 years this past January, and how much that has blessed her life. Whether she was active or not, the church was always there for her. There was a time when the gospel was not an active part of her life, but Christ's hand was always outstretched to her through the hand of someone else seeking her out.  She has such a sweet testimony.

The highlight of my day today was getting an email from Elder Walker at the Priesthood Restoration Site. We email every week sending updates on the latest with the site and Philly. Here is a piece of something he sent this week that put me in tears, "The highlight of the week was yesterday when Tim Garrison was baptized here at the site. It was a wonderful baptismal service and Tim bore his testimony at the end.  He expressed how he felt about the church, the Prophet Joseph, and how blessed he felt that the Sisters found him while out walking his dog and introduced him to the gospel.  It was great.  He is also a great example of how effective the stop smoking program is when one follows the steps to exactness. He says even the smell of smoke now bothers him and he doesn’t have any cravings. It took a lot of grapefruit juice to get there, but it works!"

Sis. Robison sent me a picture of Tim's baptism program --

more tears of joy!

I know the restored gospel of Jesus Christ changes lives, and am so grateful to be a witness to that every single day! I can't put into words how happy I am for Tim and his decision to be baptized, and for those who I get to help prepare for baptism and help keep their baptismal covenants while being here in Philly. I know that Christ's Atonement works, and am a living witness of it! Christ takes imperfect people and makes them stronger, better people through and in Him. I love my Savior and I love being a missionary for Him!

Love, Sister Larsen

Enjoying picnic weather!

Valley Forge East Zone

Book of Mormon Stories

Dear friends and family,

Another good week here in West Philly! I love the people here, the warming-up weather and the Book of Mormon! I've been able to gain a deeper understanding of how amazing the Book of Mormon really is, and that it's something I shouldn't take so much for granted.

Nice weather, and a park in the middle of the 'hood = a great place for a picnic lunch!

We taught Stephanie this week, and she is now officially on date to be baptized on April 17th, and I am so, so excited for her and the decision she has made and prayed about! We went over one night to teach a lesson, and felt that we should bring Brother Holland, a man in our Ward, with us. So he came and we got talking to Stephanie about her Book of Mormon reading. She came across a verse talking about a "cursing of a skin of blackness," being put upon the Lamanites, which was very concerning to her (she is the only white investigator that we are teaching). Brother Holland is African American and addressed her concerns perfectly. It was such a blessing that he was able to come with us because his testimony of the Book of Mormon being the word of God was so powerful! We were able to ease her mind and share other Book of Mormon scriptures that would help her understand. How do you best answer a question about the Book of Mormon? With a scripture from the Book of Mormon of course! 

"I love the colorful row houses!  Lots of doors to knock."

We were out finding, knocking on doors and felt that we needed to stay on a particular street. We all felt very confused about which door it was that we were supposed to knock on, but tried several anyway and nobody was answering. We decided we would try one more door, having the faith that someone would come... No answer. We turned around to start back to our car when we saw a young woman walking her dog. We approached her and almost before we could get out that we were missionaries she told us that she was currently reading the Book of Mormon, and had been interested in learning more about our religion with the temple being built. We invited her to church right then and there, and she came!! I know the Lord is constantly preparing people, and the Spirit will always be felt by those who read the Book of Mormon. We hope to meet with her soon to tell her more!

The mission is all about conversion for everyone, missionaries included! This week I finished reading the Book of Mormon again, which I started reading cover to cover a couple months ago. In the Philly 4th Ward, Bishop has also challenged everyone to finish reading the Book of Mormon through by April 1st, which has been great to talk about with the families in the ward. You really do learn something new every time you read it, and I was able to pick up on so many things I have never noticed before.

  
Something fun I did was take a Sharpie pen (FYI they don't bleed! Woohoo! And if you end up using them as much as I do, they are well worth the dollar haha!) and trace over any mention of the Godhead. I know by reading the Book of Mormon I have come to know Jesus Christ as my personal Savior better, recognize my Heavenly Father's love for me, and all that through the feelings and promptings I receive from the Holy Ghost as I read. I know the Book of Mormon is true and love it's perfect teachings!

I love this quote by President Gordon B. Hinckley, "Those who have read [the Book of Mormon] prayerfully, be they rich or poor, learned or unlearned, have grown under its power. … Without reservation I promise you that if you will prayerfully read the Book of Mormon, regardless of how many times you previously have read it, there will come into your hearts … the Spirit of the Lord. There will come a strengthened resolution to walk in obedience to his commandments, and there will come a stronger testimony of the living reality of the Son of God." 

Read from the Book of Mormon and the blessings will come! Hurrah for Israel & happy reading!!

Love,

Sister Larsen