Dear Friends and Family,
Below is one of the member's houses... they do the passports for all the foreign
missionaries in the Philippines. They're way nice and their daughter who's about to go on a mission works with us all the time. They fed us cake and
delicious stuff for their daughter's bday, hahah.
This week's been crazy. We ate spicy
sting-ray (it was delicious), went to the temple, listened to a member of the
area presidency (Elder Echo Hawk if you're curious... he used to be over Indian
Affairs for President Obama a few years ago), and I took a pillow to our
baptism. Let me explain.
First off, there's two things that people
always say to me on my mission... first, "Sister, did you know you look just
like Taylor Swift?" and second, "Do you know the senior missionaries named
"Larsen" at the Manila temple?" Both of those questions have continued in this
area. I think I've heard the Taylor Swift comment (or people singing her songs
to me in the streets) like 20 more times since I've been here in Manila. And when we went
to the temple... I finally got to meet the Larsen senior missionaries! When
they saw my last name was Larsen too, they said, "Sister Larsen, you're famous!
Everyone asks us if we're related to you!" I told them everyone said that to
me about them. We don't *think* we're related, at least not through the Fullmer
line and their family is not from Idaho. But Elder Larsen looks like
dad... dunno, haha. Anyway, that was a cool experience, and a little mini
"family reunion" with long lost family that I may or may not be related to.
Going to the temple again was, of course, supremely amazing as always.
Now, the second thing that was making
this week crazy is that on Friday, we always plan for the whole next week for 3
hours. So we were planning... and Thursday night I had felt really weird.
Friday morning, still felt weird. Halfway through planning, I felt really,
really cold. It's the Philippines. It never gets below 70 degrees. By the end
of planning, I had wrapped three jackets around me and two sheets and was
violently shivering. My fever spiked up and up... until it was at 102.4. I
slept most of the day... BUT. We had a baptism that night! There was NO WAY I
was gonna miss that baptism of the dear Bautista family and their 4 sweet
children. So, I told Sister Cooper to catch me if I started to pass out, and we
went to the baptism. I took a pillow with me, because I knew the chances of me
making it through the whole baptism were really low. Sure enough, I had to fall
asleep and pass out every now and then during the baptism, but somehow I made it
through. It was beautiful and so worth being there, though. Note that in the
picture, I probably had a very high fever at the time and had to sit down right
before and right after we took it, haha. I'm still on the mend right now, but
I'm getting better for sure. We went out and worked the very next day...
there's no way if I wasn't on my mission right now that would have been possible
at all. Definitely help from the Lord.
My favorite part of this week... on
Sunday, the 4 Bautista kids (two of who are twins and are 8, so they're
considered "children of record") were given the Koloob ng Espiritu Santo, or
Gift of the Holy Ghost. That's the right to have the Holy Ghost with us to
guide and direct us always when we live worthy of it. Then, their smallest
child received his baby blessing (although he's about 5 now.) For all the boys,
they were given the blessing that they would one day become missionaries as
well. That... is probably one of the most joyous things I could have ever heard
as a missionary right now. Their mom hadn't come to church for 10+ years and
now all of her kids are truly on the right track to happiness. They're a
beautiful family and we love them so much and their wonderful faith and joy in
the gospel.
That's what's up right now. Things are
great, we're super happy, and the Lord is helping us every step of the way.
Missions are amazing.
Much love,
Sister Larsen
No comments:
Post a Comment