Meet the Mormons

Dear friends and family,

This week has been a great start to a new transfer with Sister Walker! 

At our house... the "Hobbit House".  It's missionary legend here in the PPM.
Missionaries have been living here since the beginning of time,
and the house seems like it's been around that long too haha :)

...hence the nickname.  Ceilings throughout are low enough for a hobbit!
I'm 5'2 (and a half), so how Elders ever lived in this house I have no idea!!

Everyone calls us the "Musical Duo," since she is our amazing pianist and I play violin. So among the tours and online teaching center, we are happily planning, writing parts and practicing for our next concert in October. She is a wonderful companion!

This week we were able to watch the new "Meet the Mormon" segments the church has released exclusively to visitor centers. There is "The Artist," which is on DVD, but "The Horseman" and "The Entertainers" are completely new and amazing! They tell such inspiring stories and motivate you to want to be better. (If you have the opportunity, go to a visitor center and make a family home evening out of it!)

This week we were able to take a very neat woman, LaJean Carruth, on a tour. Sister Carruth is the woman who wove the cloth the gold plates (replica of course) are wrapped up in on the translation table in the Smith home. She was explaining how intricate the historic pattern is and how difficult. She had spent 60 hours weaving on her loom and had less than one inch of fabric to show for her work because of the difficulties and all kinds of bumps in the road she seemed to hit. But she had the strong impression that the work she was doing was sacred and if she gave it her best and her all everything would work out, so she continued to try. And after just 50 hours later she had several feet of fabric woven for the gold plate covering. Sometimes we struggle, but with patience and a little bit of effort on our part, we can reach righteous and worthy goals. In the new Meet the Mormons segment, "The Horseman," (which is definitely one of my very favorites!) the man quotes a rodeo cowboy who said, "If you're not winning, you're learning." And it is so true! Heavenly Father won't let us fail, but he does let us learn. The stumbling blocks we come across in life are all part of the journey.

Me, Sis. Martinez, and our little Peruvian friends

I've also been going on lots of Spanish tours with Sister Martinez in the past week which has been super fun! Can I speak Spanish? Barely. Luckily I can pick out what our Spanish speakers are saying because I know the key points we talk about in each room, and there's only so much they could be talking about. Sister Martinez usually does the talking and I keep the little kids occupied by pointing out "un pato y las manzanas" in the pantry and other exciting things to look at :) I was walking to the homes with a little boy who was telling me all about how Jesus loves children, so I asked if Jesus loved him and said, "of course he does!" I loved how he responded doubting absolutely nothing, but confidently knowing that he was a child of God, and he was loved. There is another Meet the Mormons segment called "The Entertainers," which is all about 4 Japanese siblings who are a famous pop music group. While one of the brothers is serving a mission, they make a recording of "I Am a Child of God." It is one of those truths that is so simple, yet incredibly powerful! Elder Hallstrom, in his most recent conference address said this about being children of God, "This doctrine is so basic, so oft stated, and so instinctively simple that it can seem to be ordinary, when in reality it is among the most extraordinary knowledge we can obtain."

Being at a visitor center, I've been able to meet so many people, and so many amazing members! I love getting to know them and hear of their experiences and testimonies. I get to meet people from all walks of life and what I share with all of them is the same. The restored gospel of Jesus Christ is for everyone! The message of living prophets, a loving Heavenly Father and Savior, the Book of Mormon, and priesthood authority once again restored to the earth is for everyone. That knowledge is what helps us to improve and become better, and how grateful I am for it!

Love,
Sister Larsen

This is the surprise we walked into the other day.  We have the sweetest branch ever!
They found out about our birthdays after the fact, so they decided to celebrate all
of our birthdays together! 

Note from Alicia - the only mention of a milestone this week:
"Has it seriously been a year already?"