❄️Tracting in a Winter Wonderland❄️

Dear friends and family,

There is so much that has happened since I last wrote... it's even a new year!  Happy 2017!! 2016 was a wonderful year which I spent entirely on a mission, so I'm thankful to be kicking off 2017 on a mission as well. There seems to be a million and one things that happen in a single day, so I'll just catch you up on a couple of highlights from the past two weeks. 

On Sunday Brother Lane was able to come to church; we were so excited!! And he bore his testimony in fast and testimony meeting. I loved something he said, "We don't have to pray for miracles, we just have to pray. God will always answer us in His time and way." It was so sweet and so sincere.... and true! When we turn to Heavenly Father and involve Him our lives, miracles big and small do happen.

We've had some ups and downs with a few investigators lately and had to let them go, which was really hard. So we've been having even more of a need to find new investigators. Yesterday the temperature didn't top 20 degrees, so it was super cold and windy and snowing... but we were sure that we would find someone to teach despite the weather!!  

Happy 2017!!  Love, your favorite popsicles

We walked down the street and decided to go to a particular house. We knocked twice, nobody was coming to the door, and just before we were about to knock one last time a teenage kid, named Eddy, came running from the across the street in a short sleeve shirt (crazy boy!!). He lived at the house we were knocking on and said he had been making a video blog. And since he liked filming, we asked him if we could show him and anyone else who might be home the Christmas initiative video. He went inside to get his mom and they both came out to watch and absolutely loved it! We asked if we could come back to talk about how we can find more happiness in life through Jesus Christ, and the mom (who has the best name ever... Tiffany!!!) said she would actually really love that because she has a daughter who has been having questions about religion and God lately. We will be seeing Tiffany and her family next week and are so excited and grateful that Heavenly Father helped lead us to them. 

 We must really like being in the cold because we taught Mae and Dalton at a park this week. So we were all huddled around this little wooden table and talked about the restoration and why it is important. We used our Restoration Jenga blocks and not being able to feel our fingers was definitely worth the outcome. We asked them to start reading the Book of Mormon as a couple, so we Facebook messaged them a passage to read. Dalton, who had especially been intrigued by our lesson, responded with what he had learned from reading, "What it means to me is always keep your head held high. Believe in the good Lord and have faith in him cause all good can be done by him through you. And always listen to others and be willing to learn cause you are never to old to learn new things. Always ask for forgiveness at the end of your day to be able to repent of your sins for that day. That way you can reunite with him in the after life. - Dalton." It was a simple witness to us that the Book of Mormon really can give us guidance on how we can bring our lives in closer harmony with Christ. 

We also had a special opportunity to go to the Philadelphia temple on Friday with the Walkers before they end their mission next Tuesday. 

At the temple with the Walkers, VanOrdens, and sisters

Out to Chinese after the temple

It has become more special to me since being on my mission, not being able to attend like I used to. It really is a house of God and His spirit can be felt there. Every time I go, it makes me even more excited to go back to continue to learn, come closer to God and receive peace, direction and added spiritual strength. I love the temple.

Sun or snow, the mission is oh so good and I love being here. There's nothing better than proclaiming the good news of the restored gospel! We all have opportunities to do so each and every day, whether we wear a tag or not, so pray for and look for those opportunities and they will come. Have a wonderful week everyone! 

Love,

Sister Larsen

A few other pics from the last 2 weeks:

New Year's Eve Jam Sesh:   President Randall gave us special permission to be
at the VanOrden's house with the senior couples until 8pm. So we ate a lot,
played games, and Elder Walker whipped out the guitar  and I pulled out
 my fiddle (as he'd call it) and we played together. Everyone knew the sisters
 at the PRS can sing, but boy can Elder Walker play the guitar! 

At the PRS - Pres. Randall's daughter Alli was visiting from BYU for the Christmas break

Pierogies!!  Finally bought some at the store because they are everywhere in PA...
and Sister Young loved them!  (Note from Alicia:  my grandmother was born in
Lithuania, so we have eaten many pierogies in our day!)