Sister Paige Larsen—Email Excerpt

We are learning our area better. We haven’t been back to Maryland thus far on accident, since the first few days. Sister Arnett drives now and I work the map. It’s working out well. We just can’t play the music while I’m keeping track of the map, or I end up skipping a step/turn, thinking: “Oh we’re already on that road,” not: “We still need to turn on to that road.” Then my mind goes onto the next step thinking it’s already been done. It’s only happened 2 or 3 times though.

There’s a Sister that’s been coming out with us that already has her mission call to the bilingual mission of Carlsbad, CA. I was excited when I heard that she was going there. I assume that Oceanside is in that mission, right? Everyone in that mission gets called to speak Spanish because it’s so densely populated with Spanish speakers. Weather they’ll ever serve in a Spanish ward is another thing. She’s come with us to a few appointments thus far, and she’s so good. She came with us when we taught some Muslims, and then again to visit a 21-year-old girl who was raised Jewish and Baptist. The Muslim appointment went well. We’ll see if they kept all their commitments and if they’ve gotten an answer this Saturday.

Yesterday we had Zone Conference. It was so good!

Sister Paige Larsen—Email Excerpt

I am going to a NEW area! I’ll be opening the area to sisters. This is called White Washing. White Washing an area is when both companions are new to the area. I’ll be serving in the Colonial 2nd Young Single Adult Ward. That covers two stakes; Mt. Vernon stake, which I’ve served in before, and Annandale stake. I’ll be serving with Sister Arnett, who has been out as long as Sister Bagley. Sister Bagley is gaining one of the 5 baby missionaries coming in. Sister Arnett and I are so excited for each other. I love White Oak, it’s so great. With the spirit’s support it helps us not to be overwhelmed and cry. We got the call from President Albright this morning. Which consists of getting a call from one of the AP’s phones and getting a, “Will you hold for President?” Then the president tells you your special assignment. You only get a call from the President if it’s a special assignment.

One of our investigators, who does all of the reading and really takes the time to ponder and apply it, but never got to church because he worked every other week, now works Monday through Friday with the weekends off. His wife never wanted to learn before, but she found out that their favorite book series is written by a member and now she is interested. She is pregnant, so maybe she is more sensitive to the spirit. When we talked to him on the phone on Tuesday, he said they were looking to come soon. Woo hoo! We have been praying for them, and including them in our fasts.

Missions and all hard things refine us if we let them.

Sister Paige Larsen—Email Excerpt

Is it going to be weird to have everyone either married, or on a mission in the Larsen family? By the way, on the subject of the Larsen Family, I have someone in the ward who keeps asking me about my Larsen ancestry. I really don’t even know cousins with the last name Larsen. Could you mail me the family tree on the Larsen side going back more than 4 generations? This member told me a story about a Larsen ancestor that went blind. Maybe that rings a bell. His father’s mother was a Larsen. His oldest child just graduated from High school.

Emma’s baptism was on Thursday. She got baptized twice. We asked a prospective Elder to baptize her. He’s getting ready to go on a mission, so it’s good experience for him. They already have a home teacher for the family.

The next baptism is on July 4th for a 19 year old man in the Marines. He’s coming up here to be baptized because he started being taught here before he went into the Marines. This is where his main fellowshipping family is. I was volunteered to give my first Baptism talk. Before if I got an assignment I sang, or gave a prayer in Spanish.

Elder Isaac Larsen—Email Excerpt

It’s getting pretty hot. The other day Brother Blood said that it was 106° according to the Walgreens thermometer when he drove by, and it was probably 80-90% humidity. It was rather warm. My companion from Lehi, Utah thinks it’s crazy hot. Every time we go outside, on a day like that one, it’s like wrapping up in a big soggy blanket and riding your bike five miles. But from what I hear, August is way worse than anything that has transpired thus far.

Here in South Carolina squirrel is a common food and the Bishop’s son, with the bishop’s permission, offered to hunt, kill, and skin a squirrel so we can try it. So of course we’re jumping on that. It’ll probably be next week when we eat it; good stuff.

Next week we are getting a new mission president.

Sister Paige Larsen—Email Excerpt

I will be receiving my new mission president and mission mom in the nest week. We're going to take Emma to the Washington DC Temple Visitors’ Center tomorrow before her baptism. The baptism is Thursday at 7:00pm. We had a really fun Zone activity today. We studied together, ate burgers and hotdogs, and played Ultimate Frisbee.

My companion and I have been working on being bolder in the past two weeks. Now we've given away 3 Books of Mormon. We've recited the first vision about the same amount of times. We may not be talking to many people, but we feel like we're in the right place at the right time.

We're teaching a 10-year-old girl of a member mom and a non-member dad. The girl has ADD so we need to make all the lessons interactive. We taught the Plan of Salvation first. We had drawn it out with colored permanent markers, and then cut it out into pieces for her to walk on. We had her literally walk through the Plan of Salvation. My companion had a sweater like mine, so she dirtied hers to represent before baptism. Then we gave the girls tools to use in life:
Faith—Flash Light
Repentance—First Aid Kit
Baptism—Bar of Soap (with clean sweater)
Gift of the Holy Ghost—Umbrella

Then when she was resurrected we gave her a white sweater to wear. The sweaters represented her body. She took the sweater off for death when she stepped onto the spirit world.

Elder Larsen—Email Excerpts

I love media referrals. I do. I really do. Give your friends a card for a free video, and make the day for a nice missionary. =]

I’m going to have some baptisms coming up. One for sure is Antonio. He did everything for baptism many months ago, but was on parole. We had to get permission from Salt Lake to baptize him, and we finally got it. So now all he has got to do is get a baptismal interview from President Hobbs.

We committed our next door neighbor to baptism and he accepted. It’s always in the place you least expect it! Oh well, the work is slower than it was. There is a lot more, “What should we do now Elder?” But the lessons that we do have are quality stuff.

We taught a lady the other day and the trinity came up. The lesson started out, “This is how it is,” then turned into “This is what they tell me,” then turned into “You're right, I don't believe it either.” It was funny. We are teaching them again tomorrow. I’ve got some sweet scriptures about becoming gods. (John 10:34, Psalms 82:6, Romans 8:16-17, and John 17:11)

I know this entry is kind of random, but I thought I’d write a longer entry. So stream of consciousness it is. It just so happens that the stream in my head has many turns and bends.

I met a man the other day. He was a homeless man that sat with me, and we talked. He said that he knew that drinking was bad, but that it wouldn’t be right to change until he was ready. I tried to convince him that repentance was his own choice. But he was one of those, “You’re young. What do you know?” kind of people. In the book of Timothy, I believe, it states, "Let no man despise you for your youth."
(1 Timothy 4:12 —Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. )

So I gave the old man a dollar, and told him to go to McDonalds.

I’m kind of loopy because I’m tired. My companion tells me I’m crazy, but when I start to teach I get in a teaching mode and I am completely different. So that’s good at least.

Beware of Golfing Turtles

Last P-day we went down to Rock Hill, South Carolina to the District Leader’s area. We hunted for turtles on the golf course at the country club where they live....no joke. Anyways, I found a turtle and picked it up. It scratched me and launched all kinds of excrement at me. It was madness. I wanted my revenge. I was going to eat it, but the DL said to get a bigger one because there wasn't that much meat on the one I had. So I let him go, but then we ran out of time before we found another one. TURTLES!!