September at the Site

Dear friends and family,

New weather, new opportunities, a new companion (Sister Anderson.... woohoo! Bringing it back to our MTC days!),

Classic companion selfie!

and our newest addition to the PRS crew, Sister Mayer Vergara who finally got her visa from Chile and arrived this week. This will be our last transfer all together before sisters leave to proselyte in other parts of the mission and then start going home, so we will definitely be making the most of these next six weeks!

I seem to always write about amazing people, but another amazing family walked through our doors this week! This couple is soon to have 10 children, 6 of whom are adopted from different countries all over the world (their 10th, another little boy from China, is coming in October). They are amazing, amazing people who truly understand the worth of souls. 

When we were in the Smith kitchen two of their little girls saw our referral cards and copies of the Book of Mormon (interesting fact:  Joseph Smith received the gold plates this past week in 1827! And the world changed forever!) sitting on the shelf of the hutch.    

Happy September 22nd!  The day in history 189 years ago
the angel Moroni visited Joseph Smith and he received the plates!

They both asked if they could take a card and Book of Mormon, and of course we said yes... so long as they had a friend in mind to share the book with. The girls both responded that they did! We then got into a great conversation about their friends and how they could share the gospel with them. What I loved watching was this entire family talking about sharing the Book of Mormon and their experience at the Priesthood Restoration Site with their friends. The more they talked to together, the more excited they got! Hopefully in a couple weeks I'll get to share how their story continues :) The excitement of missionary work is contagious!! Sister Anderson and I have really been focusing on the referral card aspect of our tour in a non-pushy way, and it's been amazing to me that more often than not, people think of a friend or family member of theirs who they would like to share the gospel with. And that catching onto that missionary excitement is just the very first step in sharing the gospel with others. 

Also this week:  hauling rock and helping our favorite VanOrdens

The "Hobbit House" sisters -- boy oh boy do we have some good laughs together!

This weekend we watched the Women's Session of General Conference, which I have to say is so much fun watching with a bunch of sisters, while Sister Walker runs around the theater throwing chocolate at us during the songs :) But aside from that, the talks were absolutely amazing!! (and are available here:  https://www.lds.org/general-conference?cid=HP_SA_24-9-2016_dPFD_fLHNA_xLIDyL1-C_&lang=eng)  If there were a theme to the conference I think it would be something a couple of the sisters quoted from President Nelson, "We need women who have a bedrock understanding of the Doctrine of Christ." The church, and world, need women who are grounded in Jesus Christ and his teachings, who live what they believe and never give in or give up. All of us here at the site loved, of course, President Uchtdorf's story about the missionaries who knocked doors in an apartment building, all the way to the "4th floor, last door" and their story of faith. We all need to have our faith centered in Christ and have the faith to act on it. President Uchtdorf said, "Faith is a conviction so strong it moves us to do things that we may not otherwise do." Faith is what should motivate our actions, even when we cannot see what is before us. That is when we trust that God does see all that we cannot. Faith is not just trusting in God's wisdom, but in His love too.

It all comes back to our love for our Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ-- our desire to share, to grow, to learn and to try a little harder to be a little better everyday. May we all look for those opportunities given to us to exercise our faith. Hurrah for Israel!

Love,

Sister Larsen 

Another fun tour this week with this darling family

Tiny flowers

"Jesus Christ is the master builder of celestial men and celestial women"

Dear friends and family,

Another exciting week!! This week we celebrated 1 year since the dedication of the Priesthood Restoration Site, as well as the youth cultural celebration for the temple, and the Philadelphia Temple dedication... and still plenty of amazing tours :)

The PRS Sisters with Glen and Debra Rawson

We had a great bus tour come in this past week led by Glen Rawson, who is the host for the Joseph Smith Papers Project videos you can find on lds.org and gospel library app. They had plenty of time to spend at our site and after giving tours we, of course, sang for the group and then Brother Rawson had a little devotional with us and his tour group all about Oliver Cowdery and how we need to "open our hearts to the spirit of sacred places." Oliver Cowdery was a part of many special and sacred events in church history. Unfortunately, many members only think of how Oliver left the church, but what they don't remember is that he came back. Before he was able to go out west  with the saints he caught tuberculosis and died. His last words were, "I am going to my Savior." David Whitmer who was with him when he passed said he never saw a happier man than he did at that time. 

On Saturday we were able to get special permission to broadcast the youth temple cultural celebration at the site! Watching it took me back to when the Gilbert temple was dedicated and I was able to perform in the cultural celebration my senior year in high school. Something I really loved was that in every dance and acting scene, which went all through American and Pennsylvania church history (with a big shoutout to what happened here in Harmony!!) there was a white brick. 

During the finale of the show all 1,700 youth took these bricks and built a temple on stage. As I saw the temple in each part of the show I thought of how the temple affects every aspect our lives. 

On Sunday, we were able to travel to the stake center to view the dedication. In the dedicatory prayer President Henry B. Eyring dedicated everything from the grounds the temple is on to the rooms themselves, and prayed for everyone from those not of our faith who were able to attend the open house to those couples who would be sealed for time and eternity. Something Elder D. Todd Christofferson who was also attending the dedication said something I have thought a lot about. He said the temple is place where we can learn more and come closer to our Savior and that "Jesus Christ is the master builder of celestial men and celestial women." 

If we have faith in Jesus Christ, He can mold and shape and build us. Through His atonement we can become exalted, or reach the highest state of happiness and glory in the celestial kingdom. The temple is where we can "come unto Christ, and be perfected in Him... deny[ing] ourselves of all ungodliness..." It is a place of peace and joy, where we can feel even more deeply of our Heavenly Father and Savior's love for us. I'm so grateful for the beautiful temple in Philadelphia and the miracles that will come of it!

Love,

Sister Larsen

Other news this week:

• Transfers happened this week.  Surprise!  Sister Walker and I won't be companions anymore. Sad I only got one transfer with her, but glad that I did get at least one! I've absolutely loved being her companion.  My new companion will be Sister Anderson!!! (My blonde MTC companion) So we are excited to start and end our missions together.  

Our last time getting ice cream as companions 🍦

• It's official:  With my release date I've decided to stay until March 7th. (Note from Alicia:  Her mission president last week asked her to decide whether to come home in January or March, since there are no transfers in February, which would have been 18 months.)  19 months here we go! :)
• I have also been called to be one of the sister training leaders here at the PRS, with Sister Brown. I'm super excited to work with her, and nervous because we will have to do part of the weekly training meetings we have and whatever else comes along with being an STL. Lots of change ahead!!   

Our entire zone at the temple dedication broadcast

Our PRS family at the dedication

 

That's a wrap, folks!

Orange Juice, Kleenex, and a Spiritual Thought

Dear friends and family,

It's been an interesting past week... I caught some kind of nasty bug which completely took me out, so I've only been able to go to the site 2 days this week. The rest of the week I've been home bound with my sick buddy, Sister Agado.  

How good is Sister Walker to us???  Two grateful sickies!

We've become best friends with Kleenex, Sudafed, DayQuil, orange juice, and even looked for someone to pay us for every hour of sleep we got but were unsuccessful. But we have been so, so, so incredibly blessed to have so many people taking good care of us here at the PRS.

So thankful for modern medicine!

We're both feeling better, still on the mend, but getting back to feeling 100%!

Sunday was my first full day back at the site, and that night Elder Walker was able to broadcast the CES devotional for us in our little theater, which was so fun to watch with the sisters who I hadn't seen all week!

CES devotional with my sisters

Both Sister and Elder Quentin L. Cook gave great talks, but there was something that Elder Cook said that I really loved. He said,"Being sincerely Christlike is an even more important goal than being authentic." The more I think about this statement, the more I love it! 

I think about how in today's world everyone is looking to be unique and individual. It is important to discover who you are and be yourself because there's no way you can get through life trying to pretend to be someone you're not, but even more important than being "you," is being like Christ. On the mission I feel that as I've been trying to find more of Christ and help others find Him, I've been able to find more of myself. When we emulate the Savior, we begin to change and become more like Him, which is ultimately allowing us become who we have the potential to become. It's like one big circle! When we try to be like Christ, we find ourselves. When we find ourselves, we discover our potential as children of God. And when we discover our potential as children of God, we know we can become like Jesus Christ... And the pattern starts all over again. 

Of the few tours I have given this week, I've met some more amazing people who are wonderful examples of losing themselves in Christ, finding who they truly are and can become. I went on a tour with a woman, her 6 children and her grandmother. The grandma/great-grandma has 8 children, 39 grandchildren and 61 great-children. She had been on a two week long road trip with her granddaughter's family seeing all the church history sites, and in just a few days would be flying back home to say goodbye to another grandchild leaving on a mission. She has lived a long life centered around Jesus Christ and his restored gospel. Another family came in, a couple and their daughter in her 30's with special needs. Much of these parents' lives had been given in caring for their sweet daughter in such a Christlike way, and in turn they had seen how their daughter's Christlike ability to love had helped them and so many other people. Just from the way they treated each other, and the way they talked about the gospel you could see the light of Christ shining in their faces. 

I love being able to see Christ in other people, helping others find how they can become like Him, and becoming more like Him myself. It's a wonderful work to lose yourself in! 

Love,

Sister Larsen

Some more pics this week:

The view from our kitchen window

Beautiful Susquehanna

The Jazzy Miracle

Dear friends and family,

What a crazy weekend we had with Labor Day here! We had a ton of people come to the site which was awesome!! Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday were back-to-back tour days... You take a tour, walk back in to another group ready to go, grab a drink if you can and walk back out the doors again. I LOVED it! It's crazy to think that this weekend could very well have been our last "crazy" time before things really die down for the winter.

Picture shared by guests below

Note from Alicia:  This couple is in Sis. Larsen's
Gramps' ward in Utah -- he serves as her Gramps' Bishop.
A few of the many visitors over Labor Day Weekend.

On Sunday we had a couple Primary teachers out of town, so I was asked to be charge of singing time. Usually we have 3 kids in Primary, a 10-year-old and 2 little Sunbeams (3-year-olds). Labor Day weekend we had 23 kids in Primary!!!... We ran out of little chairs.  :)  But we had a blast and I loved leading singing time. I love how the gospel is so simple a 8-year-old can understand it, and a lot of what we learn is through song. One of my all time favorite Primary songs is "A Child's Prayer".  "Heavenly Father, are you really there? And do you hear and answer ev’ry child’s prayer?..."  On Friday earlier in the week I had this song stuck in my head all morning.

With all the hustle and bustle later that Friday afternoon there was a woman who came into the site for a tour with some of her friends. I noticed she had a difficult time walking so I offered her the jazzy (our motorized wheelchair), which she quickly accepted! Her group began their tour, waiting by the front statues while I ran out to the shed to get the jazzy. When I got there, I took off the cover, unplugged the charging cord, hopped right onto the seat and put in the key to go. When the little screen lit up the battery showed it had just 1 of 6 bars. I turned around and saw that the charging cord had not been connected to the outlet in the wall. The jazzy had been sitting there in the shed for days, unplugged, left with hardly any battery to run on.

I didn't know what to do. I knew this woman needed the jazzy if she was going to take a tour. I knew there was no way she would be able to walk it all, and there was also no way any of the elderly people she came with would be able to push her in a regular wheelchair. I didn't know how far the jazzy would be able to go until it died, and I didn't know long it would take to charge. And I also knew there were people at the site who in minutes would be ready to go on a tour and I would be needed, so I couldn't take all day trying to decide what to do.  Amongst all these little thoughts running through my mind, one came strong and clear, "Say a prayer." So right then and there I folded my arms and said a quick prayer that somehow Heavenly Father would help me and that this woman would get the experience she needed and had come for. Like the primary song I had been singing all day, I knew Heavenly Father was listening and had faith he would answer. When I opened my eyes and looked down at the jazzy's screen again I could hardly believe it... all six bars on the battery were full. I didn't know how my prayer would be answered, but it was in an amazing way!

I drove the jazzy over to the woman where she and her group were waiting and sent them off on their tour, and said a gratitude prayer for this miracle that had just happened!! Later I happened to be in the building when she came to return the key and she thanked me for letting her use the jazzy and told me that it ran perfectly.

This little experience may seem small, but it definitely strengthened and solidified my testimony that Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers. We need to pray because He is there and speak because He is listening. It doesn't matter whether we are praying for a little jazzy to work, to know which job to take, or to even know that we are a child of God, He wants to hear from us and help us. And when we receive promptings from the Holy Ghost, we need to act on them without hesitation and miracles can happen!

Seek out your own daily miracles! Hurrah for Israel!

Love,
Sister Larsen

Also this week:

"Speaking of Primary, our (few) cute Primary kids wrote all of the 
PRS missionaries little notes!  I love being in Primary with them!"

"We found frozen yogurt!!  It's been over a year since I had fro yo and it was so good!!"