Week 26-Transfer Notice

Happy transfer P-day!  I didn't much need to check my email for the transfer notice this morning; President Nicholas called me last night with some big news, so I already knew.

As a follow-up to my email from last week, Elder Downing and I decided to change our goals that we'd already set: 5 investigators at church this week.  And you know what the result was?

...Okay, we had 4 at church.  But, considering the average for our area is zero, it was a vast improvement.  Among them were: Autumn, Darwyn + Shelly (haven't really talked about them, and probably won't right now), and Louise.  In addition, Autumn was accompanied by Ross, who says regularly, "I don't believe that Heaven waits for only those who congregate!" Autumn seemed to have a pleasant experience in Primary, and Louise (who is super solid, but is unfortunately moving back to Saskatoon soon) stayed for all three hours for the third week in a row!  Super solid week.

Because I've got some packing to do, I should probably just tell you the news:

I'm becoming a district leader somewhere in the South of the mission!! My prediction? Cardston.  It just barely became its own zone, so its kind of a vortex of leadership right now.  I guess I'll find out for sure tomorrow!

I'll definitely miss Sparwood.  Driving through today, I feel a little melancholy: But also satisfied.  I know I'm leaving this area better off than I found it.

I love you, and you'll hear from me next week!

-Elder Larsen

Week 25-What Ifs and Goals

Gooooood morning, mi familia!  Today I write with haste and love, but hopefully this letter will show more of the latter.

This week does have pretty great potential to be my last in Sparwood, which creates a lot of anxiety on my part.  I've grown to love and care for the people in this valley so much, and it's hard to think about another missionary coming in here afterward.  There are just so many "what if"s:  What if they don't care as much as I do?  What if they offend the people I'm working with?  What if they're "pile" (lazy) missionaries?

Fortunately, not all "what if"s are bad.  For instance: What if they baptize and reactivate every person we're working with?  What if they're one of the best missionaries in the mission?  What if they have the experiences necessary to reach some of these people in a way I never could?

It's when I think about all the possible outcomes that I have to start finishing "what if" with "it's His plan."  I have a strong testimony that Heavenly Father has, by His own design, placed me here in the Elk Valley.  I also know that, if by His design, I am to leave next week, I'd rather follow His plan with full faith and trust than with negativity or bitterness.  Obviously, despite whatever hardships lie in store, His planning will always be better than mine.

Of course, I could also stay here for the remainder of my two years, so I'll write to you as if I were.

So.  Sunday.  Elder Downing and I were riding high that morning as we overlooked the prospects for who could potentially attend church: Nila, Louise, Ross + Autumn, Sheila, Huw, Laura, and Bob.  That would be a grand total of 3 LARCs and 5 Investigators, which was well above and beyond our goal of 2 'gators at church.  We proceeded to carry out the necessary processes to ensure their attendance.

Ross + Autumn: We rode our bikes to his house that morning, only to discover that he and Autumn had forgotten to pack her church clothes, and Autumn's mother was fast asleep.  Despite our assurances that they could still attend, Ross declined.

Sheila: We received a call from her half an hour before church began, informing us that she'd gotten only an hour of sleep the night before, crippling her mental capacity.  She would not be in attendance.

Laura: Laura texted us about ten minutes before church and told us her son had suddenly fallen ill and would, again, not be able to attend.

Huw: Never showed.

We watched in dismay as our numbers dwindled, settling at our original goal of 2 'gators at church: neither of which were a surprise (They're both pretty solid).  However, we were simply elated to see Brother Stockell there (despite his own case of walking pneumonia), dressed in his best suit, ready to greet us as we came through the door!  We watched the ward members' excitement at this seemingly new face (he hadn't attended in at least eleven years), and a number of them hustled about to greet him.  Despite the disappointments of the morning, seeing Bob, Nila, and Louise in that chapel seemed to counteract anything negative that may have happened.

However, the Spirit kept nagging me about the sudden halt in progression of these other souls.  He told me that the reason the numbers dropped the way they did was because our goals weren't high enough in the first place, and we'd received exactly as much divine assistance as we'd requested.

...That hurt.  But He had a point.  I'm thoroughly convinced that the goals we set in life have a direct correlation with the amount of help we receive to achieve them.  It is only through the setting of achievable, yet high-reaching, goals that we will ever be able to progress at the rate we (and He) desire(s).

There's my soap-box for the morning, and I guess the week; it's something that really hit me hard this last week, and felt I should share it.

I'll definitely continue to keep you all in my prayers, with the addition of Elder Gillespie.  Give Josie a big hug from me if you see her!

I love you all, and you'll hear the final decision next week!

-Elder Jared D. Larsen

FYI

Hello! We had to change our P-day due to some outlying circumstances, so this is a quick note to say I'm alive, I'm well, and I'm emailing you tomorrow morning! Until tomorrow, you have my love!

 

-Elder Larsen

Week 24-The Faith of a Child

All right, first things first: I'm in Cranbrook once more.  Zone P-day.  And the other missionaries are sick of Elder Downing and I being late to every single one, so I'll see if I can keep it short and still do some justice!

So.  Ross.  He is a cantankerous, old, less-active, oxygen-masked man whom Elder Lauzon and I started visiting when we first got here; we've been visiting him once every two or three days and, despite his continued faith and belief in the Book of Mormon, refuses to do anything about it: Including attend church.  However, two Sundays past, something changed.

His extremely less-active daughter, Mikayla, has been interrupting our visits from the first day, and doesn't stick around long enough to talk to.  Actually, we had no idea she was even a member until that Sunday.  Why did we ever find out?  Well, apparently Mikayla's 8-year-old daughter, Autumn, has seen us every time she's come over, and has had questions brewing in her mind since day one.  And they all spilled out that Sunday.  She completely devoured everything we taught her (Lessons 1 + 2), and jumped up and down with the copy of the Book of Mormon we'd given her.  Shortly thereafter, we invited her to give the closing prayer, and she asked her mom to help her.

...And she did.  We invited Autumn to church, and she eagerly accepted.  Mikayla made sure to tell her that it wasn't a place to play, but rather to learn about Jesus Christ.  Autumn retorted that she'd rather learn than play anyway, and commenced to argue with her mom and grandfather about who would take her to church.  Ross accepted, and is bringing her to Sacrament Meeting next week!  Since then, Autumn's read over 5 pages of the Book of Mormon, which is pretty impressive for someone her age.

We've seen similar miracles occur with a certain Brother Stockell who hasn't attended church in over twenty years; however, because he wants to keep his commitment at least once before I leave (that's the prediction for this next transfer), he'll be at church, too.

The work truly is progressing, and all of the prayers and love are felt!

I love you all, and I look forward to next week's emails!

-Elder Larsen

P.S.- I appreciate all of the postcards from Taylor, Ashley, and Jori; I'll try to thank you more specifically for the items in that package next week!

Week 23-Pictures

Week 23-Ferry Ride, Niela, and Memories

Hey there, Hi there, Ho there!  Is it already Monday again?!  Elder Downing and I only have two weeks left in his training, with transfers on the 28th.  I don't know about y'all back home, but time is pretty much just flying by for us!

So.  Zone P-day.  Shortly after I emailed you, Elder Downing and I started the long trek out to Nelson.  It was agreed that I would drive there and he would drive back- bad plan.  I took a wrong turn, and we followed a road for about two hours until it promptly dropped off into a large lake.  More than a little confused (seeing as we'd just passed a sign that said Nelson was 60 kms away), we started asking around, and discovered we needed to take our car for a little ride on a ferry across the lake.  It was completely free, but the ordeal added an extra two hours to our journey.  At least we got some good pictures out of it (Those took a good portion of my time to send; hopefully they're worth it!  I hate not being able to edit photos.  Especially those panoramics).

The rest of the week held adventures in saying farewell to Sidney (who's moving back to Michigan), finally meeting with Carol again (she suffered some really bad heat stroke), and getting to practice my French while tracting in Fernie.  Carol told us she had a great experience at church, but won't be able to attend or meet with us for two weeks; one of the leaders from her church is going to be staying with her for a while, and she thought it wouldn't be the ideal situation.  She did say she would pray about the Book of Mormon (which she studies dilligently), and that, if she gets an answer, she will be baptized.  Sweet.  For the most-part, however, Elder Downing and I saw quite a few miracles just yesterday.  The day went a little something like this:

Woke up.  Got ready.  Went to our correlation meeting with Brother La Barbera, where we joked that it doesn't happen very often that golden investigators just fall into your lap.  Studied and prepared our lesson for Sharing Time.  Sacrament meeting started.  No bishopric.  The High Priest Group Leader took charge.  Testimonies were good- meeting was a little gong show.  Elder Downing and I started going to Gospel Principles, when I saw someone I didn't know.  *Pause and insert miracle here.*

I introduced myself to this woman as Elder Larsen, a missionary for the church.  She responded, "I'm Neila, and I've been waiting for missionaries to knock on my door for over 6 years!"  Neila grew up in a Muslim family back in Singapore, but never felt comfortable with their religious beliefs.  She met a young man named Dustin over the internet, emmigrated to Canada, bought a house, and began living the happily-married-life.  A couple weeks later, missionaries knocked on her door; she was interested, but she was home alone, and the Elders couldn't enter.  She told her husband about this, and discovered that he's a less-active member of the church.  She began to study on her own to prepare for the day the missionaries would return, but they never did.  Finally, last Saturday night, she called up her mother-in-law and asked her to take her to church.

...Yeah.  Talk about opportunity!  We invited her to Gospel Principles class, where we taught her the first lesson; it was interesting because she just kept saying, "Yeah, I know that.  And that.  Yep."  When we reached the end and asked her to pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true, she got this quizzical look on her face and said, "...But I already know that."  Pretty sure my heart skipped, like, eight beats- which wasn't that long, considering how fast it was beating prior.  We invited her for baptism, and she said she would once she learns a little more.

I don't have a whole lot of time to tell you about the other miracles, so I'm just going to have to write "Ross" here so that I remember to tell you about his family next week.

It sounds and looks like Kyle gave a great talk!  Not that I ever really had doubts; he's got the mind of a public speaker.  He'll be a fantastic missionary.  That is unfortunate that he has to add citrus to his long list of allergies, but at least seafood is gone!

As far as any more spiritual thoughts for the week, I've been thinking a lot lately about the trip Ashley, mom, dad, and I took to Palmyra and all of the miracles that occured thereabouts: But, more specifically, I've been thinking about a miracle we haven't really talked about.

After that memorable temple trip and all of the events that led up to it, we spent the next morning touring the Church History sites in the surrounding area: Beginning at the Joseph Smith Farm.  That sweet sister missionary took us from place to place, informing us dilligently and bearing powerful testimony about each site.  And, at each site, dad felt impressed to bear his testimony on each topic.  When we came to the attic of the replica of the Smith's log-cabin home, standing there in the same room where Joseph saw the angel Moroni, dad pretty much cut off everything our guide was going to say to bear his powerful witness of the Prophet Joseph Smith.  There he stood, overcome with emotions as he recounted to us the story, emphasizing heavily that it was by Joseph's own personal study of the bible- and a study that was motivated by a sincere concern for the welfare of his soul- that he was able to receive his answer, changing our lives forever.

In that moment, I honestly felt a little embarassed for a couple of reasons: 1. I had tears in my own eyes, and 2. I'd felt dad had over-stepped his bounds as a tourist in interrupting our guide.  Now, however, I cherish that memory of dad's testimony, and the look he had in his eyes when he told each of us that he knew the Church of Jesus Christ has, truly, been restored.  Over the course of the next couple hours spent with him in the Sacred Grove, at the Hill Cumorah, the Whitmer Farm, and the Grandin Building, the testimony he bore in the humble home of our more humble prophet continued to ring in my ears, and it still does.

He lives.

I love you all, and I hope this week is a good one for you; it's shaping up to be a pretty good one here.

Much love,

Elder Jared D. Larsen