Little Christmas Miracles

Dear friends and family,

Happy December!! And happy official start to this year's Christmas initiative!! 

Happy December, and Merry Christmas
from the Great Bend sisters!!

We had a great start with the worldwide day of service on the 1st, and have had some wonderful experiences in the past week that have really helped us focus on Jesus Christ this beautiful time of year. 

LIGHT the WORLD Day 1:  Worldwide day of Service. Ours began
with a chilly & fun morning at the Windsor Fire Department
to help distribute goods from the Mobile Food Pantry to 40 families who came in. 

LIGHT the WORLD Day 1: Worldwide day of Service.
Ours ended with caroling at the apartment Brother Powers lives in.
Crystal was kind enough to join and take us to all his friends in the building.

When we visited Brother Lane this past week after he had come to church he was still so excited about having come to church! We had given him a copy of the Gospel Principles manual to keep and between Sunday and Wednesday he had read and studied the first six chapters! He just kept talking about how he was also looking forward to the next Sunday. Brother Lane is back and here to stay! 

On Saturday we had a great Relief Society activity that Mary came to! She had been out of town for Thanksgiving and not feeling too well, so we hadn't seen her, but we invited her to the activity and she came! We had a great time having lunch, making chocolate dipped pretzels, snowmen ornaments and hot cocoa kits. She really enjoyed being around a good group of positive, Christian women. She also came to see the art exhibit and the second we walked in the door she gave a small gasp and a couple of tears slipped out. She walked around the room looking at, and relooking at all of the paintings, silently crying. She definitely felt the Spirit and told us she was not expecting to be so emotional, but that it (the Spirit) was overwhelming. She loved how the paintings really brought Christ to life for her and it was the most beautiful start to her day. We will be meeting with her again this upcoming week!

Mae was sick earlier this week so we weren't able to meet with her until yesterday, but it was well worth the wait! She is on fire!! About two years ago she had met with elders and so she has a pretty good understanding of a lot of church basics, so we went over the restoration with her using Jenga blocks (Sister Martinez's genius idea).  She loved it and a lot was coming back to her so she was answering and asking questions, which was awesome! We asked her how her Book of Mormon reading was going and she went on and on about how she loves it and she knows it's true. Although we also believe the Bible to be the word of God, she said of all the different things she's read, and all the different versions of Bibles she's looked at, especially since she and her husband are church-hunting right now, this is the only book that really "speaks" to her. We weren't able to see her husband, Dalton, because he was at work, but Mae said that once in the middle of the night she woke up because the lights in their room were on and Dalton was up reading the Book of Mormon. Mae said she thinks the Book of Mormon has spoken to Dalton too. :) So we are really excited to see Dalton too! 

We officially asked Mae if she would be baptized and she said yes, so we asked her to pick a date. We had been thinking of January 15th as a day she would be ready to be baptized on but didn't say anything. Mae sat there for a minute and thought, said she didn't want it to be too soon or too far out, and then, "How about January 15th?" I think our jaws hit the floor haha. It was a huge spiritual confirmation for Sister Martinez and I that Mae is so prepared and will be ready to be baptized on that day!

We also had a wonderful Stake Conference with Elder Paul H. Sinclair. He talked a little bit about creating "righteous routines." We read in Alma 5 and I particularly liked verse 7 which says, "Behold, he changed their hearts; yea, he awakened them out of a deep sleep, and they awoke unto God. Behold, they were in the midst of darkness; nevertheless, their souls were illuminated by the light of the everlasting word..." When we "awake unto God" and make small commitments like to go to church, to pray, and to read scriptures our souls will be illuminated and we will be able to see the light the Savior brings into our lives. 

May we always think of Christ this Christmas season! #LIGHTtheWORLD

Love,

Sister Larsen

It's Christmastime at the Priesthood Restoration Site!