Adventure Time

Dear Everyone,

I really like something that President Ostler said at Missionary Leadership Conference.  For one, he said, "Blessed are the flexible because they will not break."  Definitely experienced that on my mission... not with relation to being flexible on rules or our values, but with situations and things that might happen which we weren't expecting.  So, the more open we are to changing our plans and views of things regardless of what might happen, the happier and more successful we'll be.  He also said, "Count on things not being the way you planned, and call it an adventure." So, so so true.  Love it.  Every day is an adventure if we view those wrenches in our plans as adventures rather than hardships.  Time to try and do something new, explore new things.

This has been a pretty tiring week.  Two back to back exchanges, trying to do really good exercise... but it's good. Good stuff's happening.  I feel happy, even though sometimes there's a lot of hard work and effort before miracles can be seen.  While on exchanges, I saw something that made me ridiculously happy - while in a tricycle, I saw a tindahan (a tiny family owned store that sells just a limited supply of snacks, drinks, etc.) and normally each tindahan has a name, normally the name of the family or owner. This one, however, had written in huge letters in English, "BEST DANG STORE."  I suuuper wanted to meet the owners of that tindahan.  They need to become members, haha.

This week I felt pretty enlightened by these verses from the Bible.  This is when David instructed his son Solomon to build the temple, although Solomon was undoubtedly young and inexperienced:

9 ¶And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father,and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.

 10 Take heed now; for the Lord hath chosen thee to build an house for the sanctuary: be strong, and do it.

20 And David said to Solomon his son, Be strong and of good courage, and do it: fear not, nor be dismayed: for the Lord God,even my God, will be with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee, until thou hast finished all the work for the service of the house of the Lord.

So, this has some pretty real applications to my mission right now, at this time.  I'm certainly not building a temple, but I am in a sense trying to build myself to be what the Lord wants me to be and learn right now from my mission, the things I'm supposed to incorporate into my being.  There's a lot of places I know I can still improve, with relation to my thoughts and heart and desires, but I also feel and can definitely see how far I've come as compared to where I was previously.  One of my favorite exhortations here is "be strong, and do it."  That's really one of the main things my mission has required of me, one of the basic principles I've learned... to do, with faith, and to be strong in spirit and body.  Even though building the temple undoubtedly seemed a giant challenge to Solomon, David gave him everything he needed to accomplish it - plans, men to help him, and funds.  I feel that in a sense that's where I'm at on my mission.  I have what I need to accomplish  the work I said I would do and now is truly my time to do it.  Fear is slowly being erased from my life, although it was a huge part of me before my mission and during a large portion of it... as I've learned confidence in the Lord, my fears have slowly ebbed away to confidence and trust in Him.  I know the Lord will never forsake us until we have accomplished the things he asks us to do, and we need not be dismayed if we give our whole selves to what we know and feel to our very core is right and coming from Him.  I'm so very grateful for every circumstance and all the people I've ever met on my mission and what I've seen and experienced which has brought me to where I am right now, with the things given to me that I need to do this work but at the same time stretch myself and my faith.  

Much love,
Sister Larsen