We've Got the Power that Never Goes Out!

Dear friends and family,

I know I always say it was an amazing week, but the weekend especially was one the very, very BEST!!! A surprise trip to the Philadelphia temple, an all-mission conference with Elder Lynn G. Robbins, and an exciting power outage... although we know we have real power, Priesthood power, and that never goes out, so all is well :)

Standing by my favorite tree on site

On Wednesday a power line down the road was knocked down... not sure how, but we lost all power at the site, and we are actually still trying to get it back. 

What do you do when you have no power for days?
Enjoy a kitchen window-lit Subway dinner with my sisters.  (Day 1)

Power outage day 2:  Still no running water.
Desperate times call for desperate measures.

It's been quite the experience and I have a new-found appreciation for modern conveniences like light, heat or A/C, running water... there is a reason I was not born in Joseph and Emma's time haha! 

The first night the power was out Sister Anderson and I took a tour with 6 women, and the entire evening felt like being back at Girls Camp. The homes were completely dark so we would shine a flashlight on the different things in the room, and everyone was sharing experiences and testimony. When we came to the visitor center we decided to sing for them and there was one little emergency light on, lit right over the bust of Jesus Christ. We sang several hymns to them and then with them. It was so powerful singing together and standing around that dimly-lit statue. "He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless..." -Mosiah 16:9

On Tuesday at our weekly training meeting Elder Walker said he had an announcement. He stood up and on the movie screen appeared a picture of the Philadelphia Temple. We were all on the edge of our seats thinking, "The temple? What is going on?" He told us on Saturday morning he had arranged for all of us sisters to go do an endowment session before the all-mission conference in Broomall. That announcement was better than any Christmas present!! It would be the first time I'd ever gone through the temple (to serve those who've passed on) on my mission, and I was so excited! 

Saturday finally came around, we woke up early and drove down to Philadelphia.  

Driving with my sisters to the PHILADELPHIA TEMPLE!!  Best day ever!!!

It was one of the most special experiences I've had on my mission, to be at the temple with such amazing sisters that I have been so incredibly blessed to serve with. One of my favorite things at the temple was seeing everyone dressed in white. It's hard to put into words just how peaceful and good it felt to be there. The temple truly is a little piece of heaven on earth. 

After the temple we made our way over to Broomall for an all-mission conference with Elder Lynn G. Robbins of the Presidency of the Seventy. It has been a couple of years since our entire mission got together, and it was so cool to see so many missionaries! We all sang hymns together until Elder Robbins and President and Sister Randall came, and we PRS sisters got to do two musical numbers for the conference. The power of music!

Elder Robbins said the mission field is truly the Lord's university and we won't learn more anywhere else. But what he talked about us learning is not what any of us were expecting... marriage.  Elder Robbins acted as the chairman of the committee which dealt with temple-sealing cancellations, so as much as the topic of marriage makes a missionary squirm, he gave some great advice. He talked about how the degree to which you love your companion now is a predictor of how you will love your future spouse. We talked about some of the things we can do now to have happy and successful marriages in the future (since a mission in Elder Robbins' eyes is Marriage Prep 101 in the Lord's university). Something I really loved was talking about pride. When we stop blaming, making excuses, and justifying, Satan's power is lost on us and we are the ones who gain control, power and freedom. He said pride is something easy to see in others, but difficult to see in ourselves-- it's like bad breath, obvious to everyone else except the offender :) When we let our pride go, and put others first, and most importantly the Lord, that is when we will find joy and fulfillment in our mission and marriage companionships.

What a wonderful weekend! This church is true. This is where we can turn for spiritual and emotional uplift and the direction we need to become more like our Savior. In the temple and through latter-day prophets and apostles we can find that. Hurrah for Israel!!

Love,

Sister Larsen

Our view out the site window... although most of the leaves are
completely gone now.  It's crazy how fast they come and go!

Harmony 🍂

It's Autumn Time! It's Autumn time, the leaves are falling down!

Dear friends and family,

On the trail 🍂🍁🌰

Susquehanna is SO BEAUTIFUL. I don't even know how to describe it. Everything is perfect, the trees and the weather! I love walking by the homes and imagining that the view I see is the same one Emma Smith saw when she was here. I love it so much!

Fall on the Susquehanna

Yesterday Brother Mark Staker came to the site with a tour group. He is the site curator and man who wrote most of our site guide we study from. Elder Walker and I got to join his tour group. He talked about a lot of interesting things, lots of historical background. He told a neat little story about how the feather quill on the translation table in the Smith Home ended up there. He was bringing lots of artifacts into the homes but was struggling with finding the right kind of feather that would hold up, wasn't terribly overpriced, looked right etc. and it needed to be a turkey feather. One morning as he was bringing items into the house and was going to put a feather quill in the house he wasn't happy with but as he walked up to the house, laying right there on the front steps was a perfect turkey feather he could use for a quill! A little tender mercy! 

We've taken so many tours in the past week, Sister Anderson and I have been lucky if to take just one one together before we have so many guests we need to split companionships. But one of the tours we were able to give was with two cute sisters and their families. One of the little girls had mental disabilities but held Sister Anderson's hand through the tour and kept showing me the flower she had picked on the site. When they were leaving she ran up to us and gave us hugs and was waving and blowing kisses all the way through the parking lot as her family walked to the car. It was just one of those moments where your heart swells and you can't help but feel so happy, and you know that Heavenly Father really does love each and every one of his children. 

14 months with Sis. Anderson!

There is a new video series on the Mormon Channel called "Hope Works." (Go watch it! https://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/hope-works) In one of the videos a woman talked about an equation that I love! This woman said we tend to think that "Me + More = Christlike," but that is Satan's greatest lie. He wants us to become discouraged by our faults and weaknesses, so that we feel we can't ever truly become Christlike. She goes on to explain that the equation really should go this way, "Me + Christ = More, and even enough." Because of Christ we can be more patient, more humble, more happy, more whatever despite our inadequacies, faults or weaknesses. If we rely on Christ we can even be enough. 

Because of Christ we can find hope, love and peace and know that we have a Heavenly Father who is so aware of us. We can find happiness now and share what we know! Hurrah for Israel!

Love,

Sister Larsen

Most of the sisters, district leaders, and zone leaders

The Scranton Zone!  The Electric Zone!

Bye Bye Bus Season 🚌 🚌 🚌

Dear friends and family,

How I love fall!  The leaves started turning this week! 

We have officially kissed summer goodbye this past week with it being our last busy scheduled week of the year (299 guests just yesterday), largely due to multiple buses coming in everyday of the week to see the sites and fall colors. It's funny to look back on how we've changed... In the beginning if a bus came in it would require all hands on deck, everyone having to be given a little card with a rotation assigned so we would know where to go, and lots of scrambling to get everyone where they needed to be. Now a bus comes in with 56 guests and we just have 2 companionships handle it!

Earlier in the week I was with a group from a bus tour walking to the Hale home when I discovered two of the women in my group were good friends with my grandparents when they lived in Stockton, CA. They hadn't ever met me, but remembered seeing my baby pictures! They were with a fantastic group who gave so many great insights and discussion. Almost everyone in the group was teary by the end of the tour, and with the Spirit being so strong, I felt prompted to remind everyone of their opportunity to be a missionary and leave the name of a loved one on the referral card we offer. After the tour, one of the women came up to me and handed me her referral card. She said she had taken a card, not knowing whose name to write down, but surprised herself when she found herself writing down the name of her less-active son, who I now have the privilege to reach out to. As we talked about her family, she had also recently been able to do her husband's temple work, and I am so grateful for her example of missionary work. As members of the church, many of us feel that we have to meet someone who could really use the gospel in their lives in order to have missionary experiences, when so often, we can be missionary within our own families! 

Leaves changing and a rainbow:  this was taken at the beginning

of the week and it already looks much different!

With one of our bus tours yesterday, we sang to them as usual, but after our song Elder Walker asked if they would like an encore and they did, and on the spot we chose to sing "Come Thou Fount." Both Sister Walker and I felt like that was the one we needed to sing and the group loved it. As the group was headed back to their bus, the tour guide, who I had visited with earlier, approached me and told me how grateful he was for us sisters, and wanted us to know just how special we were. He said that his daughter had unexpectedly passed away four weeks ago, and one of her very favorite songs was "Come Thou Fount." It was a blessing for him and his wife to hear her favorite song in the place where the priesthood was restored which allows their family to be eternal, and binds their daughter to them forever. 

Another amazing man I was able to meet on a bus was Brother Glen Nelson, a spry nearly-100-year-old man. He has personally known every prophet of the church since Heber J. Grant!! He has been involved with printing copies of the Book of Mormon and other church materials for a very, very long time. He told me when we was a young man on a mission, while he served in a part of Oregon for a time, he did his weekly wash in the home of Oliver Cowdery's great grandson which was also crazy to me! As we talked about life and living it to its fullest, he gave me just one piece of advice. He said, "You always need to keep the Holy Ghost with you. The Holy Ghost will be your greatest companion." From someone who has lived almost five times as long as me, I love that his advice was so simple, and that's the way it should be. The gospel brings happiness, and the gospel is simple. If we follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost and choose the right, Heavenly Father will guide and help us all along our way.

Choose the right. Follow the Spirit. Look for missionary opportunities! 

Love you all! Have a good week!

Love,

Sister Larsen

Love her!!

Mutual with the Young Women:  learning about "inner beauty"

and then doing hair and nails

I painted flowers on nails and everyone loved it!

Even the leaders!  Sis. Slocum was excited to work

the cash register at work with her new nails.  :)

Come Listen to a Prophet's Voice

Dear friends and family,

Happy October!! I can't believe it is this time of year again! The leaves are changing and we are in the mid 60's. October also means GENERAL CONFERENCE, and what an amazing weekend we had watching that! There were a couple of themes I noticed as I listened, so many of which are directly related to what happened here in Harmony!

The Book of Mormon: So many people talked about or mentioned the Book of Mormon, it's being recorded on golden plates and that it was truly translated by the gift and power of God. I loved Elder Stevenson's story about his ancestor, Mary Elizabeth Rollins, who just as a young girl read the Book of Mormon and felt that it was true. Elder Gary E. Stevenson said, "As she looked to the Book, she looked to the Lord." I loved this little statement and thought about myself and my personal testimony of the Book of Mormon, especially as I've been able to read it through from conference to conference. The Book of Mormon really has helped me look more to Christ as I've studied more about Him, His teachings and His character. 

Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration!! Lots of speakers talked about Joseph's divine role and calling as prophet of the restoration and how we need to have a firm testimony in who he was and what he did to restore Christ's church. Craig C. Christensen said that because of Joseph Smith we have more than just a window to heaven, but the very door to the eternities is open. M. Russell Ballard said that the restoration is not just an event, but it continues to unfold. Because Joseph was called as a prophet in this dispensation, we continue to have living prophets. Through Joseph, God was able to restore truths that had been lost for centuries. I'm grateful to be serving where I am, bearing testimony of Joseph Smith's role daily.

Missionary Work: Every other person spoke about missionary work, which was awesome! One of my new favorites, Dallin H. Oaks, spoke all about missionary work, something all members of the church can be involved in. He spoke about praying for missionary opportunities personally and in families. He talked about using social media for the Lord's purposes. And I loved that he said success in sharing the gospel is defined by our inviting others and genuine desire to help them. If we look around us, pray for courage and seek out ways to share the gospel, missionary opportunities, experiences and miracles will come. We are all enlisted!

Some of the enlisted (10 of the 12 current PRS sisters) -
Back row L-R:  Sis. Walker, newly-arrived Sis. Vergara, Sis. Eckman (very back), Sis. Harvey, Sis. Hill, SIs. Francis
Front row L-R:  Sis. Agado, Sis. Brown, Sis. Larsen, Sis. Anderson

Jesus Christ: Something you can always count on with General Conference is that everyone talks about Jesus Christ. Why? Because He is at the center of our lives and the head of this church. Kazuhiko Yamashita talked about being "ambitious for Christ," motivated by and focused on Christ. Many speakers focused on the different ways we can use the Atonement of Christ. I loved Elder Robert D. Hales' talk about how if we love the Savior more we can hurt less because He is the ultimate care giver. He has experienced all that we have. Russell M. Nelson, another favorite of mine, talked about how our joy has nothing to do with our situation, but everything to do with our focus and Jesus Christ. Christ allows us to find true joy. When we choose to repent and turn our hearts to the Savior we can become true disciples of Him.

I am so grateful for living prophets and apostles. What a comfort it is to know that God continues to speak through them to us, His children, and that the heavens are still open! Because our Heavenly Father loves us and wants to help us along our mortal journey we can receive the guidance and direction we seek through the words of living prophets, and what a wonderful gift that is.

Have a wonderful week everyone! 

Love,

Sister Larsen

Note from Alicia:  There is a sweet story behind this pic.  A visitor to the PRS sent 
the picture and an email to our family, with a note that "...On our trip we visited 
the Priesthood Restoration Site, Kirtland, the Hill Cumorah, Palmyra and the Sacred Grove
 and the Peter Whitmer farm, and at each place we had missionaries give us tours. Each had 
a different feel as they gave their presentations, and it was clear that your daughters are 
 unified in spirit and love each other. They truly glowed and I think you can see that 
in this photo.   Thank you again for sharing your daughters with us. I think any who visit 
who are in tune with the spirit can see the light of Christ that they both radiate 
from their faces.   If I could choose a photo to represent Moroni 7:48,
 ...'that when He shall appear we shall be like Him...' this would be it."