Brightly Beams . . .

... the sun on the day of another baptism!

This week, one of the wonderful people I've been teaching my whole time here, Sister Imee, was baptized.  It's been a long journey, but as we testified to her about the blessings of eternal families (her husband is a member and baptized her) and continued to express to her just how special she and her family are to Heavenly Father, she received a testimony for herself of its truthfulness.  Her testimony was one of the best testimonies I've heard on my whole mission.  We sure love them.  The sun was SO burningly bright when we took that picture, haha!  We sang with the Zone Leaders at her baptism and it sounded pretty nice apparently.

I've been listening to the music Brooke sent me a while back, specifically the bluegrass Christmas songs on the album "Christmas Pickins'."  Reminds me of good ole' Virginny erry time.  This week we also went on exchanges again with Sister Te'o and her companion (normal exchanges this time), and it was super awesome!  At the end I tried to explain to Sister Teo a quality trait she has that's really good, but I couldn't remember what the word was in English.  I tried for literally 5 minutes to remember it... tried about 5 different words that were all wrong... and finally came up with it... "resilient!"  It's good.  I'm trying to find my English again.

In the mission right now, we're working on becoming "Master Gospel Teachers," which means really focusing on the doctrines in Preach My Gospel and knowing them like the back of our hands.  This week Sister Slade and I got "certified" for knowing the first lesson like that :)  Feels like studying for tests a little bit, but I like it a lot better.  I"m going to try and get certified for at least the first 3 lessons before I go home, even though it's a mission goal for everyone by December.

We also had interviews this week with President and Sister Ostler.  I love them so much, and I'm going to miss them SO much when I do eventually have to leave.  I have a huge amount of respect and love for both of them, and I hope I can be like them when I'm older.  Honestly, in my interview, he gave me a lot of sound dating advice as well as answering my question for him about how I could be a better missionary right now in my mission.  I definitely will miss being able to learn from him on my mission after my mission.

The windows of heaven are definitely open to us when we do our best and love others with fullness of heart and lead by love and the Spirit.  I testify that Heavenly Father answers our prayers and truly loves to answer them.  Here's my parting thought this week about my feelings towards my mission and life at this moment:

2 Nephi 9:49

49Behold, my soul abhorreth sin, and my heart delighteth in righteousness; and I will praise the holy name of my God. 

I love all of you and I hope that we all recognize every blessing and feel God's love for us every day.

Much love, 

Sister Larsen

No TB, Yay!

Hello everybody!

A ton of things happened this week!  First - we went and got our tuberculosis tests and Sister Slade and I are both clear - they took an exam to check us both (required before we can leave the country.)  Then, today, we woke up early and with everyone else who's going home this transfer we got our visa stuff fixed and had our fingerprints taken.  I managed to get ink ALL over my arm and papers because I didn't realize that table was where the ink was (it just looked like a black bar painted on the table.)  Smooth. I wasn't the only missionary who did that, haha.

Random things - Sister Slade and I saw this AMAZING rainbow thing this week at sunset.  It was crazy though, it wasn't a rainbow... it was like right in this one located spot of clouds, there were about 10 different colors shining out of the clouds that looked like watercolors splashed around.  Never seen anything like it, and we don't know what it was... kind of like the northern lights, but we are DEFINITELY not in the north, haha.  Also, one day we opened our gate and saw something suddenly wriggling violently on the ground.  We jumped back and then looked a little closer.  It was a lizard tail!  For about a minute, it just wriggled and writhed like a worm on the ground even though it wasn't attached to the lizard anymore. Gross.  Probably a self defense mechanism.  

Mariz (who we found weeks ago in a very inspired way!)  got baptized this week!  We're so very excited for her, and she's excited to work with us.  We sure do love her and her energy and enthusiasm.  Definitely a person I'm lucky to have met on my mission.

So, Bishop asked me to sing a solo in church a few weeks ago.  After we sang "Nearer My God to Thee" in Tagalog at Mariz's baptism, he approached us and reminded me I had said that.  I said that it'd be a lot nicer if Sister Slade sang with me (she's a killer alto.)  So we did "Be Still My Soul"--first two verses in Tagalog, and last verse I kind of re-arranged to be like the version that's on Vocal Point's "Nearer My God to Thee" CD.  I got a video of Sis. Slade and I practicing, but it refuses to upload in the Philippines.  We got pretty fancy with it, especially for having one day to practice (partially cuz I'd worked out the arrangement for a solo several weeks before that.)  Went well, and now we have a lot of people who want to work with us from the ward.

Sister Slade and I are working on our English.  We have some pretty terrible grammar.  And some things when we try to say them in straight English are really hard; there's some words we just pretty much always use the Tagalog for.  So we're working on that.  A good example this week is when I was talking about someone who just gave birth that we know.  When I was talking about it though, I said, "Yeah, well, it would be hard when you just gave baby and..." and didn't realize that birth was the right word there until about a sentence later.  Working on it.  Talking in straight English makes me nervous these days though.

I love you all!  Have a great week.

-Sister Larsen 

We came home one day to see this parked in front of our apartment.  It's the basket wagon!  And there's hammocks and other woven things.  I'd seen one in Paranaque before, but never got a picture of it.  And there's a HUGE carabao that pulls the cart around.  Super awesome.

Magbabago Ang Buhay--Life's All About Changes!

So we found out last week that Sister Bechachino was actually transferring, so we went to transfer day along with all the other missionaries who were transferring.  As we waited for my new companion, one of the Elders I had met before came up and said, "Sister Larsen, Hello!  YOU are about to die!!"  In mission lingo, the term "die" means that you're about to finish your mission and go home.  About 5 other people said the same thing when they saw me because they all know this is my last transfer.  I try not to think about it too much, but it is getting really close right now, especially because I'm just enjoying my mission SO much right now!  My new companion is Sister Slade, who I already knew and got along quite well with (did exchanges with her before when we went to Palawan) and life's pretty lively with her around, haha.  I feel super blessed to have her as my companion, and she goes home in only 12 weeks, but we joke that the only way that we're trunky is that we're eating pretty much exclusively American food now.  

During General Conference when we watched it, it was, of course, super awesome, and I got a lot important revelation for how I need to be preparing to go home.  My area is a missionary graveyard - there's about 10 of us here "dying" off our missions within the next few transfers, and it's the most "trunky" area.  That's chill though, we got this.

We've been seeing a lot of miracles this week, and people are really opening up to our message and living it in a way that is truly amazing.  I really love these people here.  One cool experience is that about a month ago I talked to a man who was fixing his car, and we set up a tentative appointment, but he wasn't there.  We've tried about 6 times since to go back to him, but I felt like we shouldn't give up even though he wasn't there every time.  When we went back on Sunday, a lady answered the door and asked how we met that man and why we were there.  She then came out, and I expected from the questions she asked that she was about to chew us out and tell us to never come back.  Then she said, "I was at church (conference) earlier this morning, I'm a member visiting here!"  So she invited us in and apparently the man we met is somehow her step cousin or something and she's staying there with them for a while.  Talk about a miracle!  There's a lot more other circumstances like that happening right now (like seeing a fish in a fish tank, going up closer to the house to see it (if it looks cool and is an animal, I"ll probably go look at it regardless of how sociably acceptable that is), and then realizing there was actually a person sitting there in the dark who we're now teaching) and a ton of other awesome things.  

That's it!  Love you all!

-Sister Larsen

Kapayapaan--Peace

Dear Everyone,

This past Thursday ended a week long extended exchange I was privileged to have with Sister Te'o, a brand new missionary to the mission.  That was one of the most amazing, clarifying weeks of my whole mission.  And boy, did we have fun together (you know, staying within the bounds of missionary dignity of course... but I haven't laughed that much in probably my whole mission!)  Sister Te'o left a commitment for me after the exchange that I should "just be myself" regardless of whatever else might happen after the exchange.  So I started looking really deep inside to who I am becoming and who the Lord wants me to be.  I did a lot of self evaluation.  And after doing so, the Spirit really poured out to me that the Lord knows I've been doing my best and the work I've been doing is acceptable to Him, and the person I'm becoming right now is also acceptable to Him.  I couldn't be happier.  The Spirit really is my constant companion right now, in ways that I can't really explain... but consistent, persevering happiness every day in a way that very few things can get me down is one good way to describe it.  Just too happy, in spite of honestly quite a few reasons why I shouldn't be from external sources.  I suppose I've reached the point where I really am satisfied with myself, who I am, and how the Lord has shaped me.  It feels so good, and I'm planning to enjoy that (and continue to press forward steadfastly) to the best of my ability over the next 6 weeks, regardless of what happens.

The picture is of Sister Te'o and me.  That hand sign means "pogi" and people here do it to mean that they're really attractive.  

Anyway.  I don't have a whole lot of specifics this week, other than I'm feeling really good about everything right now.  Things are all falling into place.  I'm seeing things clearly (or a lot clearer than previously) and because of it I don't feel confusion or uncertainty anymore but the Lord has given me certainty of what He wants me to do now and what things I can still improve upon.  It's awesome.  I know this clarity is only possible through making correct decisions, seeking the Lord's guidance, and ultimately accepting the Gift of the Holy Ghost through God's authority on the Earth.

Love you all.  Invite the Spirit into your lives every day, and in every way.

Love,

Sister Larsen

Go Hard or Go Home

Heyo errybody.  This week's been a pretty crazy week of surprises (fortunately mostly pleasant ones), and I'm just kind of like... aight, I'm along for the ride, and I'm determined to enjoy it, and things are going pretty great.  We'll put it this way... I'm not ready to go home yet, so the only option is to go hard.  Maximizing this as much as I can , and getting really specifically inspired to get over stuff that I shoulda gotten over a long time ago (like my still innate fear of talking to random people.  That fear is pretty much totally gone now.  There are a lot of things where suddenly everything's clicked, and I just don't care too much anymore to pay attention to my obstacles like that.)

I'm currently on exchanges with a Sister who is the daughter of someone famous.  You know that awesome movie "The RM" ?  You remember that "Polynesian exchange student" the main character's family brings into their house right when the main guy gets off his mission?  Yeah, that's this Sister's dad.  Pretty cool, haha.  

At Zone conference they taught us how to communicate effectively, meaning how to shake hands as Sisters and how to smile at people so we don't give off the idea that we're "interested" or "flirting."  There's been a lot of problems in the mission with people falling in love with each other or other people falling in love with them and of course, that's not why we're here on our missions, so we had some training to try to stop that before it starts.  Apparently my handshake's not firm enough.  Gotta practice it so it's less "soft and feminine" hahahaha.

We also got a lot of training on becoming "master teachers" so that our lessons are guided by the Spirit and that we teach all the doctrines better that are in Preach My Gospel.  It went really well and we learned a lot.  My teaching has definitely been improving more because now I'm more focused on it, and really getting to know every lesson truly inside out so I can teach the doctrines the way that will be more effective and helpful.

Bishop came up to me yesterday and asked me to sing a solo in sacrament meeting a few weeks from now.  Let you know how that goes.

Love you all!

-Sister Larsen

Probably a photo of the district playing basketball and volleyball, as mentioned in last week's blog post. 

When It Rains . . .

IT POURS.

Maybe some of you heard about Mario, the tropical storm or whatever it was this week, but we definitely had some crazy flooding right outside our apartment.  That picture is of the road that we use to get out from our apartment, and the water you can see behind that wall is the huuuuge chasm that normally funnels out all the water.  Talk about a flood!  I don't know why that lady was using an umbrella while she was up to her waist in water, haha, or where was so important for them to get to that they walked through all that rat and human feces and trash that's in that water.

When we were restricted to staying in our apartments because of the flooding, I washed my laundry by hand (the Filipino way) for 3 hours (it takes that long.  Be thankful for washers and dryers), took a nap, wrote a coupla letters, and ate a lot of food.  It was fun.  Fun... we're gonna have some later on today when we play basketball and volleyball as a district.

Anyway.

This week I've really been working on talking to everyone.  Sometimes that's productive, sometimes it's not.  One time as we were walking, I saw an older gentleman walking ahead of us.  And I saw in his hands... nun-chucks!  Then I got excited, now I definitely had something to talk to him about.  So I walked up and said, "Bakit mayroon po kayo mga... nun-chucks?" (pretty sure there's no word for that in Tagalog.)  The man turned around and said, with a strong British accent, "Oh, my, I do not speak Tagalog."  Turns out he's from France, but went to school in England, and teaches self-defense to some of the other foreigners that live in the area.  We talked to him a bit, and when we asked him if he would be interested to learn about our message centered on Christ and families, he said, "Absolutely not, but thank you for the offer... I have nothing to gain from religion, and am actually a very wicked man."  So, there we go, but he wished us well, and we went on our way.  On the way back later at night I heard from his house the sound of a punching back getting whacked, probably by nun-chucks.  New life goal - learn how to use nun-chucks.

We also had a "work and self reliance" workshop this week where missionaries who are going to go home in a few months learn about applying for jobs and doing interviews and all that stuff.  It was SO funny because when we did the practice of people walking into a room where their "potential employer" was, they were supposed to walk up and confidently say, "Hello, I'm (their first name and last name) and I'm here to apply for the (job.)"  Almost every single one of them who did that walked in and said, "Hello, I"m Elder..." or "Hello, I'm Sister..." and they just couldn't say their first names!  It gets hard for sure when we haven't used our first names for the past two years or so.

Speaking of which, I will be coming home in mid-November for anyone who doesn't know that.  I'll be looking forward to seeing most of you all then, and for now I'm focused on being a missionary!  But thanks for all your continued love and support throughout these 18 months.

Thought this was way awesome when I read it in the Bible Dictionary this week. The definition of the word earnest in a Biblical context.

"Earnest"

A pledge or security. The word thus translated is a commercial term denoting the deposit paid by a buyer on entering into an agreement for the purchase of anything. As used by Paul (2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5; Eph. 1:14) it means that the Lord gives us His Holy Spirit in this life as a foretaste of the joy of eternal life. The Spirit is also the Lord’s surety that He will fulfill His promise to give eternal life to the faithful.

May we all live earnestly to receive the gifts of the Spirit and have that foretaste of joy every day.  I know that the Lord does and will fulfill His promises to us, and there's only one way for us to be happy - through obedience to His commandments and pure, clean hearts.

Much love,

Sister Larsen

Music Manager

Dear Everyone,

First, off, what happened at Mission Leadership Training this week.  On the top of the list of things talked about was music.  For those of you who forgot, back after my first transfer in the mission, the rules for what missionaries could listen to got changed from being the white handbook rules - pretty much that the music just had to be uplifting and inspiring - to that we could only listen to hymns and Mormon Tabernacle Choir. So that's what I've been listening to my whole mission up until now.  This time, though, we all had a council on music.  Sister and President Ostler played clips for us of what was mostly classical music and had missionaries put their thumbs up if they thought it was appropriate for a mission and thumbs down if not.  For all except for one song (which reminded me of Virginia because it was some bluegrass with a guy singing in a strong Southern accent about his tractor and which few other missionaries understood except for me), I put my thumbs up.  But, as I looked around, many of the other missionaries were consistently doing thumbs down... to classical music.  Their reasoning was that it was "too exciting" or "too depressing," and I wanted to laugh because I was like... so we're only allowed to have one emotion on our missions?  Anyway, I was definitely (and predictably) one of the few voices for being liberal on the music, but I never thought that a mission would be vetoing classical music, haha.  I can only describe it this way... Manila MIssion is one of the most straight laced and strict missions you will ever come across.  Been doing some technology stuff to try and get it distributed tomorrow at Zone Meeting to our zone since Sister Bechachino and I are assigned to talk about music.

Anyway, didn't really end up mattering, because the Ostlers gave us a USB with a bunch of music on it and said that it was the new playlist for the mission, and we can still listen to Mormon Tabernacle Choir and hymns.  So that's that.  It's a nice solution, I suppose, but.  My music choices will change *some* when I go back, but I still miss having more freedom in the category of what we listen to on our missions.

President Ostler is also awesome because for part of MLC, he got down on the floor with some worn out shoes and shoe polish and started polishing them.  He said absolutely nothing to us, just started polishing them.  He started pantomiming that he wanted us to start giving out suggestions, and pointed to the board that said, "Leadership Qualities."  We all eventually realized he wanted us to get "service" out of what he was doing.  It was pretty impressive, he didn't speak a word the whole time and afterwards brought it home by handing the shoes to one of the Elders (he had polished the Elder's shoes) and said that actions speak louder than words (hence he wasn't speaking) and that our number one priority in exchanges, etc. is to serve missionaries and not to correct or judge them.  I like that, it's much needed in the mission and for us right now.

I went on an exchange with one very happy and enthusiastic Sister who's only in her second transfer (still in her training.)  When we went to the apartment, she realized she had forgotten her keys... so we yelled for her apartment mates to come out, but they didn't hear after 10 minutes of yelling.  So we planned outside and then tried yelling again.  No response.  She said, "I'm gonna climb the fence."  I protested, but she said she'd do it so we could at least drop my stuff off inside in case it rained (I was going to be spending the night at their house.)  So she totally climbed the fence in a skirt and was really quite skilled at it, hahaha.  She's from New Zealand of Tongan and Indian descent.  It was way fun to go out with her, and I commented on the fact that she has a gold tooth (which I've seen on other Polynesian missionaries before) and asked her why they wear them.  She said that it can symbolize having done something noteworthy or good, and I said I totally wanted a gold tooth now after my mission (hey, serving a mission is noteworthy and good) and she said, "Yeah!! That would totally be so cute on an American like you!"  Next goal, gold tooth.  Just kidding (kind of), but it WOULD  be super legit.

Anyway... my time's up.  I love you all and hope you have a great week.  Always find ways to use your free agency to make good choices every day!

Much love,

Sister Larsen