I Always Knew Tiffany Was a Good Name...

I LOVE being a missionary!
at Love Park, Philadelphia

Dear friends and family,

We had a wonderful week of finding and remembering what is so important this time of year! Although I miss the Easter tradition of going to the Easter pageant, I've been busy making new Easter memories here in Philly!

This week we went on companion exchanges, so I stayed here, my companions left me for West Chester, and Sister Nielson came with me for the day.   It was such a good day full of miracles!! We did a ton of finding with the new Easter initiative, "Hallelujah," and showed it to anyone and everyone who would watch.   If you haven't seen the video, click here: https://www.mormon.org/easter/hallelujah  We got 4 return appointments and several church invites out of it which was awesome!

The best part of my day with Sister Nielson was finding TIFFANY! (How fun is that?!?) We were walking down a street, not totally sure where we should go. We asked some people walking by if they would like to see the video, and they said no. Then Tiffany walked out of her house and we asked her if she would like to see the Easter video and she said yes! Literally 10 seconds into the video, she tells us to stop the video and runs inside her house. So we stood there on the steps hoping she would come back out... And she did, bringing her daughter, Nikaya, with her because she wanted her to watch it too! Tiffany was tearing up during it, and invited us to come back to talk to her and her family!

Fast forward 4 days and we go to Tiffany's for a lesson and to get to know them. She is so awesome!! She gathered everyone together, and made sure everyone would be home when we came. We asked Tiffany why she had come back and she said the video we showed her really touched her, especially since she has had loved ones pass away. She said she didn't know why she walked outside her house the day we were there, but did anyways. She thought it might have been God's way of speaking to her through us, so how could she not invite us back? She really wants to deepen her relationship and trust in Heavenly Father and wants the best for her two kids. I just love her already!! We hear it all the time on the mission, but God really is preparing people everywhere, sometimes we just have to wait and be in the right place at the right time for Him to use us to bring others to greater light and understanding.

Something we've been asking Ward members and people we meet is to share "Hallelujah" on their social media and use #hallelujah to spread the joy and hope of the Easter season.  I love the tools that the church gives each of us to participate in missionary work so easily! I know that using social media for good really does work and spread the good news of the restored gospel because we have gotten so many referrals for Bibles from Mormon.org and the special Easter website, which is wonderful! So moral of the story... Go grab your phone and post a picture of you and your family at the Mesa Easter Pageant and use the hashtag, or share the video and your testimony of Christ on Facebook. Be creative to get the word out and be a missionary!

I know the Lord can and will use each of us in His work, whether we wear a black name tag or just have the Savior's name imprinted in our heart. With this beautiful time of year may we all, like we say here everyday in the PPM, "Learn it, live it, share it!"

Love,
Sister Larsen

Now for a million "tourist pics" of my trip to the city...

First stop:  Betsy Ross' house with the comps!

Our dear Liberty Bell

Independence Hall

Reading Terminal Market -- aka a foodie wonderland!

Reading Terminal

Finally - a Philly cheesesteak!

City Hall

Near Benjamin Franklin's grave

Famous Rita's -- Pineapple ice with vanilla custard.
The closest thing to a Dole Whip a girl on the East Coast can get!

A little view of Independence Hall

Walking through the city

Us at the temple -- it's so beautiful!!

Inside the construction fence.  The Temple Open House
starts in August.  Best place in the city!!

Spring and New Beginnings

Dear friends and family,

I am one happy sister to be outside in the sunshine in my skirt and shirt (no jacket or boots required woohoo!) talking to everyone I possibly can. It feels like spring has officially sprung! I love this time of year... And  Easter is just around the corner-- a time for new beginnings!

I love Arizona citrus blossoms and "popcorn trees" all around VVL, 
but I'll gladly take these beautiful pink things!!

Gorgeous (and huge!) pink blossoms

This week we had a couple lessons with Stephanie as usual. We had one of the lessons in our Relief Society President's home with her, which was wonderful. Being able to have members as a part of the teaching process has been a huge blessing because Stephanie talks about the ward really being her ward family. She has quite a bit of difficulty in her personal life, trying to make big decisions, etc...Lots of things young single adults struggle with, but I know she has a solid testimony. As things have been getting harder for her to deal with, she has been turning to the Book of Mormon, prayer and even fasting. She constantly is relating herself and her situations to people in the Book of Mormon and how they feel; really "likening the scriptures." She decided not to travel over the weekend for a planned trip because she wanted to be at church so badly. There is no other way to say it -- she absolutely just lights up when we talk about the gospel! We were talking one night at a lesson, and she said, "I don't want my baptism to be about me... Can we make it all about Christ??" She is ah-mazing, and is making her way towards her April baptism date when her friend who originally introduced her to the church will be in town. May the baptism countdown begin! :)

We went to Sister Tuesday's for dinner this week, and boy oh boy do I love that sweet lady! She says she has no idea why her mother named her Tuesday, but she'll keep it and calls us Wednesday, Thursday and Friday... She's a funny one! As we were talking she talked about how she has been a member of the church for 20 years this past January, and how much that has blessed her life. Whether she was active or not, the church was always there for her. There was a time when the gospel was not an active part of her life, but Christ's hand was always outstretched to her through the hand of someone else seeking her out.  She has such a sweet testimony.

The highlight of my day today was getting an email from Elder Walker at the Priesthood Restoration Site. We email every week sending updates on the latest with the site and Philly. Here is a piece of something he sent this week that put me in tears, "The highlight of the week was yesterday when Tim Garrison was baptized here at the site. It was a wonderful baptismal service and Tim bore his testimony at the end.  He expressed how he felt about the church, the Prophet Joseph, and how blessed he felt that the Sisters found him while out walking his dog and introduced him to the gospel.  It was great.  He is also a great example of how effective the stop smoking program is when one follows the steps to exactness. He says even the smell of smoke now bothers him and he doesn’t have any cravings. It took a lot of grapefruit juice to get there, but it works!"

Sis. Robison sent me a picture of Tim's baptism program --

more tears of joy!

I know the restored gospel of Jesus Christ changes lives, and am so grateful to be a witness to that every single day! I can't put into words how happy I am for Tim and his decision to be baptized, and for those who I get to help prepare for baptism and help keep their baptismal covenants while being here in Philly. I know that Christ's Atonement works, and am a living witness of it! Christ takes imperfect people and makes them stronger, better people through and in Him. I love my Savior and I love being a missionary for Him!

Love, Sister Larsen

Enjoying picnic weather!

Valley Forge East Zone

Book of Mormon Stories

Dear friends and family,

Another good week here in West Philly! I love the people here, the warming-up weather and the Book of Mormon! I've been able to gain a deeper understanding of how amazing the Book of Mormon really is, and that it's something I shouldn't take so much for granted.

Nice weather, and a park in the middle of the 'hood = a great place for a picnic lunch!

We taught Stephanie this week, and she is now officially on date to be baptized on April 17th, and I am so, so excited for her and the decision she has made and prayed about! We went over one night to teach a lesson, and felt that we should bring Brother Holland, a man in our Ward, with us. So he came and we got talking to Stephanie about her Book of Mormon reading. She came across a verse talking about a "cursing of a skin of blackness," being put upon the Lamanites, which was very concerning to her (she is the only white investigator that we are teaching). Brother Holland is African American and addressed her concerns perfectly. It was such a blessing that he was able to come with us because his testimony of the Book of Mormon being the word of God was so powerful! We were able to ease her mind and share other Book of Mormon scriptures that would help her understand. How do you best answer a question about the Book of Mormon? With a scripture from the Book of Mormon of course! 

"I love the colorful row houses!  Lots of doors to knock."

We were out finding, knocking on doors and felt that we needed to stay on a particular street. We all felt very confused about which door it was that we were supposed to knock on, but tried several anyway and nobody was answering. We decided we would try one more door, having the faith that someone would come... No answer. We turned around to start back to our car when we saw a young woman walking her dog. We approached her and almost before we could get out that we were missionaries she told us that she was currently reading the Book of Mormon, and had been interested in learning more about our religion with the temple being built. We invited her to church right then and there, and she came!! I know the Lord is constantly preparing people, and the Spirit will always be felt by those who read the Book of Mormon. We hope to meet with her soon to tell her more!

The mission is all about conversion for everyone, missionaries included! This week I finished reading the Book of Mormon again, which I started reading cover to cover a couple months ago. In the Philly 4th Ward, Bishop has also challenged everyone to finish reading the Book of Mormon through by April 1st, which has been great to talk about with the families in the ward. You really do learn something new every time you read it, and I was able to pick up on so many things I have never noticed before.

  
Something fun I did was take a Sharpie pen (FYI they don't bleed! Woohoo! And if you end up using them as much as I do, they are well worth the dollar haha!) and trace over any mention of the Godhead. I know by reading the Book of Mormon I have come to know Jesus Christ as my personal Savior better, recognize my Heavenly Father's love for me, and all that through the feelings and promptings I receive from the Holy Ghost as I read. I know the Book of Mormon is true and love it's perfect teachings!

I love this quote by President Gordon B. Hinckley, "Those who have read [the Book of Mormon] prayerfully, be they rich or poor, learned or unlearned, have grown under its power. … Without reservation I promise you that if you will prayerfully read the Book of Mormon, regardless of how many times you previously have read it, there will come into your hearts … the Spirit of the Lord. There will come a strengthened resolution to walk in obedience to his commandments, and there will come a stronger testimony of the living reality of the Son of God." 

Read from the Book of Mormon and the blessings will come! Hurrah for Israel & happy reading!!

Love,

Sister Larsen

Tornado warning, River Flooding, and a Baptismal Forecast

Dear friends and family,

Cute row homes

Driving at night - trolleys and taxis

Another good week in the city! We had some stormy weather this week, but it didn't stop us from doing the work! We got a tornado warning while on exchanges in West Chester, and were driving past flooded parts of Philly, but so many good things happened this week. We had some really great lessons and I realized more this week than ever just how important it is to get members out with you to teach!

"Oh dear, I think I must have lost my hair weave in that bush!"  
Haha!  We started a "weave count"  this weekend,  
and we currently have spotted 6 in the last 2 days: on the 
street, in the bushes, etc.  Got to make "finding" fun!  

We taught Abraham again with Aarti and Pooja. We talked more about prophets of old, and how we continue to have prophets today, which he really liked. We invited him to be baptized, but he said he cannot be baptized twice. We tried to explain, but then Aarti and Pooja piped in and talked about how they were both baptized in another faith but realized after talking to the missionaries they needed to be baptized by immersion and someone holding the priesthood authority. And Abraham said he will pray about baptism and let us know what his answer is the next time we meet, but it was because Pooja and Aarti bore their testimonies that he agreed to do that!

My first week here we taught a YSA named Stephanie. She was being taught by the sisters in the fall, but she dropped them around December because she didn't know if she was ready to be taught.  She then called them up again not too long before I came here. She has been making leaps and bounds testimony-wise, considering she was atheist, but now feels that she has a relationship with God. It's amazing how the gospel changes people!! Anyways, this week when we saw her we brought Sister Brown, who is this sweet newly-married lady from Mexico. We were just talking with Stephanie and had planned a lesson, but were then directed to teach her about the Word of Wisdom instead. It was perfect because Sister Brown is a convert and had to give up coffee drinking too, so she was able to totally relate to her! And now Stephanie has committed to live the Word of Wisdom and is considering moving her baptism date up, which is so exciting!!

Mildred and her family had a family emergency come up in Maryland, so we haven't been able to see them and will have to hold their baptism sometime after they come back this upcoming month. We just hope that with everything going on, their testimonies won't be shaken. It can be hard to continue to trust in the Lord when we feel we can't see Him there, but He is always beside us. I love verse 13 in D&C 31, "Be faithful unto the end, and lo, I am with you. These words are not of man nor of men, but of me, even Jesus Christ, your Redeemer, by the will of the Father. Amen."

How many languages can the church library have scriptures and church books in?

I know that when we continually put our trust in Christ, everything will work out in the end!

Have a faith-filled week! Hurrah for Israel!

Love,

Sister Larsen

And They Stuck a Country Sister in the City...

Dear friends and family,

Hello from WEST PHILADELPHIA!!! From the country to the city...Wow, culture shock!!! Haha it is the craziest thing ever! There are African Hair Braiding Salons right and left and row homes as far as the eye can see!!! It is very, very diverse here, and I LOVE it! :)

Row homes, row homes, row homes...  My first reaction?  Wow, that's a LOT of doors to knock! 

Meet the trio:  L-R:  Sisters Roesch (this is her last transfer), Kartchner (2nd to last transfer) 
and Sis. Larsen at their first district meeting, and at church.  "Yes, the church is completely
 gated and we have to use  a key FOB to get in... welcome to the city!"

There are lots of immigrants from Liberia here! It's pretty common for multiple-generation families to live all together in the same house too, so there always lots of people around. We are teaching a Liberian family right now- Mildred, Love, Blessed, Apple, Victoria, Jane and Rufus...With our trio and all of them, it was a full house!  Mildred and Love are preparing to be baptized towards the end of March, so we taught them more about baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and how we can renew our baptismal covenants. Mildred is SO solid!! She practically teaches her own family! At church Mildred bore her testimony in our gospel principles class. She talked about how in Liberia there are a lot of hard feelings towards the church and people believe that the Book of Mormon is evil. If you even touch the book, people thought you wouldn't go to heaven. When she lived there and was walking near the church building, she would run past it so that she wouldn't be on such "unholy" ground for long. Just crazy stuff!! But then she and her family came to the U.S., the sister missionaries found them and introduced them to the Book of Mormon, and they were so nice she decided to read it and instantly felt that it was true when she did.  Now she can see how the Book of Mormon has changed her and her family's life. She is an amazing woman!

There are murals EVERYWHERE!  Love it!!

We are also starting to teach another Liberian man, Abraham, who actually came here from Liberia several weeks ago. We were able to take two members, Pooja and Aarti, who are sisters and from India, and they really added great insight to our discussion. Before we went into the lesson Aarti said a prayer for us, in Hindi which was super neat. We talked with Abraham about the Book of Mormon being the word of God, how it has blessed our lives and families and asked about how he liked church last week. It turns out that he got some missionary pamphlets from someone last week and after reading about the Word of Wisdom and learning that his body is a temple, he has completely quit drinking! He also came to church again and loved everything! It's so nice that the ward is so welcoming to investigators. After the lesson we went to Pooja and Aarti's for a snack and got to know them better. My favorite thing was that on one wall of their home were pictures of their Indian weddings, everyone decked from head to toe in jewelry and traditional dress, and on the other wall was a picture of their whole family wearing white temple clothes at the Manhattan Temple the day of their sealing. It was so sweet!

Dinner at a Hmong member's house.  We are crazy Thai chicken soup
eaters... Yes, we ate the feet and the brain.  It tastes like chicken! :)  The
feet are gelatin-like and you kind of suck on them.  For the head, you peel the
skin off, nibble on the neck, crack open the skull, and pick the brains out.
They have a pudding-like texture.  Yum.  :)

It's amazing to see so many different people being unified by the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. It reminds me of the quote by President Packer, "True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and behavior. The study of the doctrines of the gospel will improve behavior quicker than a study of behavior will improve behavior.” I love what this gospel can do for people and what it continues to do for me each and every day! Hurrah for Israel!

Love,
Sister Larsen

The Philly skyline -- typical view from the back seat

17 Below and New Places to Go!!

Dear family and friends,

This Arizona sister survived -17 degree weather (with wind chill) and is still living to tell the tales of another wonderful week in Susquehanna, PA! And it was a good last week because on Sunday night I got a call that I'm being transferred! It's a little bittersweet to be leaving this place right now, but a comfort to know I'll be back in 7 short weeks when all 12 visitor center sisters have a big reunion and go full steam ahead for the summertime!

Happy Valentine's Day from the Sunday afternoon shift of PRS Sisters
 (L-R) Sisters Anderson, Walker, Robison, Larsen

Opening Valentines at the Visitor's Center

Monday night Sara and Stan invited us over for dinner and a lesson with them and their three little guys, and they are SO fun!!! They both have religious backgrounds and  loved learning about the restoration of the gospel. Even the little kids liked learning, because they have been asking lots of questions lately. Something funny Libby, the little girl, did recently was draw a picture of their family with God and Jesus Christ and "Sin"... So we tried to help her understand that "Sin" isn't a person, just mistakes we make :) But even funnier than that we were talking about the Bible a little bit and then Stan said, "Here's my own theory... There's got to be some book out there, buried in the earth for thousands of years, with all the answers in it." ...."Ummm yeah, and it's that book sitting in front of you on YOUR KITCHEN TABLE!" Hahaha :) They are such great people with a real desire to follow the word of God and bring their family even closer together. 

We also had an amazing lesson with Tim on Tuesday!!! We finished talking about the Plan of Salvation and taught him about the Word of Wisdom. He continues to accept everything and follow through on his commitments, and is so excited to continue progressing and learning!! He was especially excited to do temple baptisms for the dead because his father passed away this past December, just weeks before we found him. I continue to be amazed by the Lord's timing in every part of this work!! I can't wait to come back to the branch and see Tim as a member!

We also taught Casen again, and taught him the Plan of Salvation as well which he had lots of questions about. It went so well!! He loved being able to find answers to questions in the Book of Mormon, which was great to help him understand that the Book of Mormon really can give us the answers to life's biggest questions! He is starting to read the Book of Mormon everyday now to get in his 15 of reading homework for school. What a great kid!!

Sister Robison and I taught the lesson in Relief Society on Sunday about how adversity and challenges are all part of God's plan for us. Each experience that we go through is a moment of molding. We used a piece of play dough to explain. We are like a ball of play dough needing to become a star. As the play dough gets squished and pinched into a shape, we can't always tell what it will end up looking like, but after time it will become all that it needs to become. For us, our trials seem to just be bumps and bruises, and we can't always see what difficulties we may face will help us become. So long as we continue to trust in the ultimate potter, our Savior, He will shape us into the person we need to become. I love what Sister Marriot said in this past General Conference, "President Gordon B. Hinckley said: 'If you do your best, it will all work out. Put your trust in God. … The Lord will not forsake us.'... [not], 'It will all work out now.' It speaks of our hope in the eternal outcome--not necessarily of present results."   Whatever difficulties we may have now or that we will go through, so long as we trust in our Savior and our Father's eternal perspective, it will all work out. 

Hurrah for Israel!

Love,

Sister Larsen 

And for picture overload, here are a few more pics as of late:

Violin lessons after church with Malinda

After church with Malinda, Sis. Larsen, Shayna, and Sis. Anderson

At the PRS with Elder and Sis. Hanks

Just An Instrument in His Hands

Dear friends and family,

What a good, good week! Things in Susquehanna are just getting better and better all the time! The sun is even starting to set later which is so nice! I feel that the Lord has truly been walking alongside Sister Robison and I this week.

"On the Susquehanna River -- dead trees and it still looks pretty!"

We met a woman named Diane a little while ago and were able to meet with her for the first time this past week and teach her about the restoration of the gospel. Since being out, here have been times when I wonder if people really are wondering about God and religion, or searching for truth and direction, and talking with Diane helped me remember that people are really looking! She mentioned that there are so any different churches and so many different opinions, she felt as if there should only be one, true church. Sounds a lot like someone we know as Joseph Smith, right? She was very interested in the lesson and will be praying to know if the Book of Mormon is true!

Early this week we were able to meet with a less active woman in our branch and her little boy is who isn't baptized and teach him the first lesson. I have been trying to teach Ashley and Casen since I came to Susquehanna 6 months ago, and we are now finally helping them find and grow their testimonies of the restored gospel! Casen really liked the lesson and visual aid we used to explain the importance of the priesthood, and as of this week is preparing to be baptized the 3rd weekend in March! I am so excited for him and to see that Ashley still has a powerful testimony. One of my favorite parts during the lesson was asking Ashley about her experience when she received an answer that the Book of Mormon was true-- she was almost unable to describe how wonderful she felt! The spirit was so strong! So lesson learned: Don't give up on less active members. They still have a testimony, it's just a matter of time and "re-finding" it!

We also stopped by a home a few weeks ago and briefly met a busy, young mother. Sara, who said we could try back again. We were out finding and decided to go try her again. This time she let us in and we showed her and her little kids one of my very favorite Mormon messages, "Earthly Father, Heavenly Father," and Sara loved it because that was their day to day life.  https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-01-002-earthly-father-heavenly-father?lang=eng   Just as the video finished, her husband walked in the door and we got talking to him as well. He had a ton of really good, honest questions that we were able to answer for him!  I pulled a Book of Mormon out of my bag to give to them  and before I hardly had it out all the way, Sara's husband came and took it and started looking through the pages, asking if he could have it! And what was crazy is that Sara's husband came home from work early, which never happens and he said walking into the house he knew the Mormons were there! We are going over tonight for dinner and more discussion, which we are so excited about! Just another instance where we saw the Lord's hand was working in our lives, and the lives of others.

Windsor, NY: "I think they are missing one!" 

And now... Tim!! We thought all was lost because we had texted and called and knocked on his door, and hadn't heard anything for days. We thought he had just fallen off the face of the earth, which sometimes happens with investigators. But we kept on trying and doing what we do. On Thursday, around 8:45 at night we had planned to go find some, "Main Street Miracles," and were driving towards downtown. We stopped at the stop sign by our house, and saw someone very tall walking their dog. It was Tim!! So Sister Robison threw our truck into an emergency back up, parked in our yard and we jumped out of the truck and started running down the street after him...for the second time haha! When we finally caught up to him, we figured out why we weren't able to get a hold of him and asked him about the commitments we had left him. He said he wanted to "tread the water" a little bit, before he jumped right into being baptized and making a life long commitment, so we were thinking "Great, it will probably be April or May." But he said he had prayed about a date to be baptized on, liked we had asked him to, and he wanted to be baptized on February 28th. That's "treading the water?!?" We couldn't believe it!!! We were so excited!! So the next day we scheduled a lesson with him and taught the Plan of Salvation, and he was eating it up. We answered a lot of his questions, and teaching him is so fun because you can see in face when a light bulb turns on, and he goes, "Yes! That makes sense!" And we are meeting with him again tomorrow. At first Tim asked to meet at 1 on Tuesday, then he changed his mind and asked if we could meet at 11 so we could have more time to teach him.  Haha! He loves learning!!

I know that the restored gospel of Jesus Christ is meant to help us in every aspect of our lives! It makes the bad times good and the good times better when we trust in the Lord and strive to become better instruments in his hands. I love the quote by Elder Richard G. Scott, "Heavenly Father did not put us on this earth to fail, but to succeed gloriously." When we put forth our best effort, the Lord will help carry us and improve our lives so that we can succeed gloriously! What a wonderful blessing!

Love,

Sister Larsen

Staying on the Straight and Narrow Path!

Dear friends and family,

Happy No Snow! It has actually been surprisingly warm in the past few days, and I've heard rumors of 50 degree weather this week, so I'm definitely looking forward to that! But this past week was a pretty good one!

We were warned to not take any back roads because they could be icy, but because we have a limited number of miles we can drive each month, we have our GPS set to "shortest distance," which often takes us down back roads. And it isn't anything unusual to feel a bit like Indiana Jones as we drive in our truck from place to place. So we started driving down this dirt road, all was well and we were looking at how pretty the sunset was, and to make a long story short, we ended up having to walk a mile and a half through the woods in the dark to the nearest house to find help because the road turned into solid ice. While in the moment we thought we were lost forever in the middle of nowhere (and hoping that bears really do hibernate), we can now laugh our heads off at what we had gotten ourselves into.  There are a lot of things, though, I learned from that experience...

1. Always follow promptings you receive! Once we realized we could not control our truck from sliding, we knew we needed to walk somewhere for help. We started down the road because our GPS told us we were more than halfway to the end of the road. But after several minutes of walking we felt that we needed to turn around and go back the direction we came. As it turns out, the direction of our GPS was turned around and we actually had more than halfway to go and would have been walking for a lot longer! Sometimes, and I've found as a missionary, it can be frustrating to "listen to the promptings of the Holy Ghost," because it can be difficult to discern whether it is the Spirit or your own thoughts... But it doesn't matter! I love the scripture in Moroni 7:13:  "But behold, that which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do good continually; wherefore, every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God."  If it is a good thing, act on it because all good things come from God!
2. Always have a sure footing! The ice on the road was so thick and slippery that we couldn't stand up on it, so we had to walk along the edge of the road in the trees where there was some snow. It reminded me that we have to walk on sure ground, and not slip or waver in our testimony. How? Through the little things! All those "primary answers," like studying scriptures or attending church meetings really do strengthen our testimonies of the restored gospel, so when difficult times come and it's hard to stand, we won't fall! 
3. Always be prepared! For some reason Sister Robison and I had left our snow boots in the back seat of our truck, even though it hadn't snowed for weeks. That morning we had also had put an extra blanket in the truck. So when we decided we had to walk to help we changed our shoes, grabbed the blanket, and a small flashlight that was in the truck. Granted, we didn't think we would be lost overnight, but we were prepared! Being spiritually prepared is the same! We have to have built our testimonies and done those things that help us come closer to Christ because if something comes up to shake our testimony, and we aren't ready for it, we can be harmed spiritually. 
4. Know you can always find "cell service!" In addition to it being completely dark outside when we got stuck, we had no cell service. We knew of countless people who would be to our rescue in the blink of an eye, if only we could call them. But there is someone we can never get out of touch with, and that is our Heavenly Father. Prayer is like a 100% guaranteed phone call, with no ignored messages and no voice mail, because He always is there to answer! He loves us and wants to hear from us, wanting to help us, all we have to do is get on our knees and call out to Him.
5. Look for the good in all things! Optimism is key! Once we got to the closest house, we were welcomed in by the most adorable family ever! They invited us in, lent us their phone, had us join them for dinner and even offered to keep us overnight if nobody was able to come until morning. We were able to get to know them, tell them about what we do as missionaries, the Priesthood Restoration Site and why families are important to us. Now we have a potential family to teach and all because our truck got stuck on an icy road!

"The Lost Lamb" by Del Parson

As we turn to Christ we become spiritually safe! If we rely on Him and our Heavenly Father, we will not fail because, "Whether it is the best of times or the worst of times, He is with us. He has promised this will never change." -Thomas S. Monson. Have a wonderful week everyone!

Love,

Sister Larsen