Sister Larsen in the City of Brotherly Love : "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!!