Email Excerpts from Elder Larsen

We had another baptism on Saturday. It was the first time I actually got to perform the ordinance. It was the experience of a lifetime. You mentioned your studying the adversity of the sons of Mosiah. I have not suffered everything they did, but I have experienced days full of closed doors and lots of walking, days full of rejection and blind people, days full of frustration and dropped investigators, and I see it is for my good. I thank Heavenly Father for the opportunity to see that I am not enough. It is only when I see that clearly that I can sufficiently lean on the Lord in faith. With those hard days come beautiful ones when lives change, testimonies grow, and everything falls into place. The way I look at is, the hard days are for me, and the beautiful days are for them. I’m glad I can do all I can when those days come.

I didn't get to watch the inauguration, but it was on in the background during a lesson we taught.

I’m staying in this area for three more months. I’ve been here 4½ months, so that’s a total of 7½ months in this area. That is a total of 11 months out before my third area. Ask me how I know it will be three more months? I’ll tell you. My companion is going home at the end of this transfer. I’ll have to show the next Elder the area the transfer after that. A transfer is six weeks. Two transfers are three months. So I’m going to know this ward real well before I get moved again.

Elder Isaac Larsen—Email excerpt

I had an experience with following the spirit. It was getting late. It was around 8:00pm, an hour before curfew. Virginia Wall, a less active member, came to my mind, but instead of going to her house I thought about how little success I’ve had with less active members. Though honestly I had mostly only dealt with her non-member husband. Instead of visiting the Wall family, we went to visit an investigator that wasn’t home, and then some potential investigators who also were not home. Then her name came to my mind again, so we went by her home. When she came to the door she looked both touched and surprised. She was very ill, and was almost ready to drive to the hospital. Her member ex-husband was not available to give her a blessing. She prayed and then we showed up. Afterwards she said, "I’m coming to church on Sunday. Where is it?" She even said she would bear her testimony on Fast Sunday.

I have learned that miracles are not wrought just by faith, but also by faithfulness in following the promptings of the Holy Ghost.

Elder Isaac Larsen – Email Excerpt

We delivered a Book of Mormon the other day that a lady had ordered. The lady wasn't in a position to talk with us. She was fixing her hair, or something silly like that. However, we talked to her husband who didn't know anything about her ordering the book. We taught him a mini lesson just on the Book of Mormon, and he committed to reading and praying about it. When I read Moroni 10:3-5 he said, "Wow that’s powerful!" He was 66 years old and Baptist, but he was prepared to hear about the Book of Mormon! Next time we go I’m definitely giving him a baptismal date and he will accept it.

I’ve experienced something very interesting lately. The spirit prompted me to say something I had never learned. Later I found it in the scriptures when I was studying. That was an interesting experience, and I’m really starting to enjoy studying. I’ve been out almost 5 months, but I’m just starting to really enjoy it. LOL.

I started reading Jesus the Christ before my mission. I couldn't get into it. Now I can't put it down, and somehow the vocabulary is not an obstacle. I understand it! The Lord has blessed me. I had been praying that I would have my understanding expanded and my mind enlightened. Although when I prayed, the words I used were, “Help me to be smarter,” but it’s the same thing essentially.

I love the lord with all of my heart!

I Loved Conference!

I loved General Conference. I’m so happy that I had the forethought to get a little notebook to take notes in. My favorite talks were:
Elder Uchtdorf: The Lord is the light that pierces through the darkness.
Elder Wirthlin: Learn to Laugh
*Elder Holland: Angels seen or unseen are usually sent to comfort and direct us.
Elder Christofferson: Give up the summer cottage in Babylon.
Elder Bednar: Meaningful prayers
Elder Iring: Speak well of each other
Elder Hales: Meekness is enduring injury without resentment
*Elaine S. Dalton: Return to virtue
President Monson: Find joy in the journey and express gratitude always
William D. Oswald (2nd councilor of the Sunday School General Presidency): Teaching is at the center of all we do.
Elder Cook: “I hope you know, I had a hard time.” We are all subject to hope and despair.
I didn’t take notes on the Relief Society broadcast because I forgot to bring anything to write on.

We did no tracking last week, and we got three new investigators. The Zone had a blitz in our area between Saturday conferences, and we got one investigator from that. We got two yesterday by having miracle timing, but they’re from Iraq. I don’t know how many the first presidency approves, but I hear not many. If it endangers the investigator’s life, we’re not allowed to baptize them.

I’m Driving Now!

My Companion’s name is Sara Jane Jordan. She fractured her ankle on Wednesday night. Her Fibula, the non-weight bearing bone, was broken at the nubby part of the ankle. She was walking off a sidewalk to a driveway, of a house we had just tracked, and didn’t see that it was a step down, and rolled her ankle. We heard it crack. We went home and she got a blessing from the member we stay with and his Home Teaching partner. Then on Thursday, her 22nd birthday, we went and had it x-rayed, she was given a partial cast so that the swelling would go down. Now she’s going to be put in a boot that she can take off to shower. That is, as soon as we get it.

We got a new investigator on Monday, and it was just me for awhile, because Sister Jordan had to catch up on her crutches. My first by myself (basically) investigator! We were walking to the car and I saw a man jogging, so I asked my comp if he was too far away. She said to go after him. I didn’t catch up to him, but I did travel quite a bit of parking lot, (maybe an 1 /8 of a mile) and got to a young woman who was just going out to her car to get something from the trunk. She’s the new investigator.

On Friday we were on “House Arrest” by the Mission Mom, and the one appointment that we got to go to we got a new investigator at! An Elder in our district called that a Sister Miracle :) . On Saturday Sister Pain, the lady of the home we stay in, gave me a bit of a voice lesson. I helped her record songs for one of her students on a voice recorder that was a bit too new-fangled for her. She opened it to 3 octaves, but she said that I have more than that. She said that I need to relax and push the sap (air) and not move the tree (me).

Letter from Sister Larsen-Oakton, VA

Hello My Loved Ones,
My Companion is on her fourth transfer and this is her second transfer being senior. In her letter from President Wixom, right before the transfer last week, it said that we’re going to bless each other. She’s a ballet dancer who loves math, is going to be a nurse practitioner and she’s taken calculus classes for fun. She says that my personality is like one of her sisters. We’re getting along really well.

The ward we’re over is really missionary oriented and has only 20 less active/non-active members. I’m going to get to ride a bicycle every once in awhile because the area is big, and we try to be good on miles.

My companion takes Adderal (AD/HD meds), and she says that if I have AD/HD it’s not bad. So I’m going to try to eat more Omaga-3s in my diet. She’s taken many classes and she says that’s what makes the chemical relays go faster. Flax loses its nutrients very fast, and I would have to grind it myself for it to be of any real value. Also, I work hard during exercise time in the morning.

Isaac does riding your bike 30-45 miles a day help your brain a lot?

Oh, I sang a duet with one of the returning missionaries the Thursday after transfers at the departing missionary fireside, and my new companion played the piano. The song is in the primary song book, I think it’s on page 182. It’s a four page song for leaders. I sang soprano for all and descant only on the third verse. I was told that Sister Wixom cried afterwards. A line was changed in the 3rd verse, something like, “When they are …grown” (can’t remember because I didn’t sing it) to “When they are on their own.” And I’ll get taught from Sister Linda Pain while I’m here. She’s really sought after as a voice teacher.

If I had the spiritual gift of empathy how do I deal with it? I’m still trying to figure out if I do or what.

Love,
Sister Larsen.

First Transfer-Elder Isaac Larsen

My area is the Tanglewood area. Sounds pretty gangster, huh? Paige got switched fast. I was only with my trainer three months, and four ½ months is standard. I love it here. I’ve already grown, and my comp is the coolest! We’ve already decided to become samurai after the mission and battle. I’m a little bummed I left my last area so soon because we had 17 baptismal dates, and I didn't get to see any of them.

Oh, I need new pants! Tear…tear. I badly destroyed a pair of pants from my blue suit when I had a bike accident. My knees hurt pretty badly, but it will go away. I’m tough. I kept tapping my Comp’s back wheel when we were riding, and I said, “Stop! Stop!” I didn't stop. Then I went over my handle bars, and rolled down a hill. It was pretty hilarious. We still laugh about it. Then later I crashed in the street on the curb somehow. I don’t know how that one happened. It was really fast, but long story short, I need new pants.