Monday, February 24, 2014

I'm a Mom!



Cara has been sick with dengue from mosquitos. She is better now but needs to be sure to wear mosquito repellent with deet. She passed her twelve week training course and is now an official trainer. I have added some photos of her below with her training group at their graduation.
I am so grateful for the care her mission mom, Sister Gomez and her pesionista give her. She is definitely  being watched over by angels, seen and unseen.

Hey! Finally I get to write. What can I say? I'm training, I'm a mom!
:) That's the slang here with the missionaries when you are training.
I have a daughter. And she is a gringa too. Kind of, she is from the
United States. But, her parents are Mexican, so she speaks fluent
English and fluent Spanish. She is great, she's learning really fast.
I was sick for a good amount of time this last week and couldn't work
that much, but I became really close with my pensionista because she
was my companion for a couple days when we went on divisions and I was
with her. We talked a ton and she is amazing, she is so sweet. I am so
grateful for her family and all their sweet care that they give to us.
They are so selfless and sweet. When she heard I was sick she got all
the natural remedies that she could and gave them to me. And now I am
able to work.
We are teaching this family that the father is a member and the wife
isn't and they are so sweet the mom understands everything about the
church and wants to get baptized but they have to get married, like
usual and their family lives really far away so they want to wait. But
the woman was so sweet, she is like 'but the kids can get baptized,
can't they?' So we are going to baptize their kids in march. One of
their kids attended church yesterday and she was so excited she even
wants to serve a mission! What?! Ha, it was awesome.
I think I have told you about the family that we are teaching that his
marriage papers are all over the place and he wants to get married but
we have to wait for his papers to get all organized and they can't get
married until like June. But we were teaching them the other day and
the guy can't find work because his papers are all messed up, so the
family isn't eating. They don't have money. But we are looking for
ways to help them. So keep them in your prayers :)
Iquitos is fantastic. I love my area and I love the people in my ward.
Rain Rain Rain :)
The food is delicious as usual, my porcion of rice and chicken everyday. :)
Love you all hope you guys have a great week :) Remember to wear
mosquitoe repellent!







Monday, February 10, 2014

Brownies! :)

Cara tells about making brownies at the end of this post and mentions including a picture of the event, however no picture came through. She has said in the past that the internet connection is slow and pictures take a while to load, so it may be that she ran out of time.

Hola!!
This week was probably the most stressful week that I have had. We had
a ton of problems with investigators. But it started out with the
coolest experience. My companion was a little sick, so I went
prosylyting with a member for one visit. And we went to visit the
couple that I told you guys about last week. The wife was drinking and
the husband was waitng for our visit. We arrived and I noticed she was
drunk and she sat outside while we taught her husband. He started
crying because he wants to change really bad but he thinks he can`t,
because his wife doesn't want to change. We taught him about faith and
that he gets to have faith in himself and be there for his kids. We
told him that it is his choice, no one elses. And it starts with him.
In the end of the lesson, I asked him what he was going to do, and he
said 'I'm going to have faith in myself because I can change.' I was
like YEAH! :) It was so cool. :)

Later on in the week things started to kind of get stressful. My
companion had a meeting with the leaders of the mission so I was with
another companion for a day. We went to visit one of our

investigators that is getting baptized on the 15th. She ran out and hugged
me and was really excited. But then, her dad came out and he was
drinking and was really mad. He started yelling at me, and I simply
said yeah, okay, we will leave. I did not understand a lot of what he
was saying to me. Luckily there were a lot of members around the house
so they were able to explain. But basically he was annoyed with us
teaching his daughter but apparently there were other problems
happening personally. Later on my companion started to explain to me
the reason why I couldn't unhderstand what he was saying. And I
realized when it is of the light I understand a lot more but when it's
not I don't understand anything. It's pretty cool, I think :) but now,
the dad wants to listen and learn. But from now on we are only
teaching them with members with us for our safety :)

I sure do love Iquitos. Here is definitely where I am meant to be in
this moment :)

This week I've really realized how much God watches out for His
children. We have transfers today and I'm almost positive that I won't
be with my companion and I'm ready to take on my new adventure. :)
Thank you for your prayers and your light. I feel it everyday.

Have a great week, oh and Happy Valentines Day!

Hermana Larsen

This picture was our last weekly planning together and we made brownies!! :)

Monday, February 3, 2014

pero aveces es un pescado‏

Greetings from Iquitos,
This week has been great, where to start, that is always the hardest
part of all these letters…Well, we have a ten year old girl and a 16
year old girl that are getting baptized on February 15, Kimberlith is
the 10 year old and she is absolutely adorable, she has wanted to be
baptized now for like 3 months but her parents are not members. Her
parents have a lot of problems, they fight a lot, but this girl is
just a ball of light all the time and understands everything we teach.
The 16 year old is Isabel and she is a niece of a member and she is
cute, she’s wanted to be baptized for a while now too. People just
keep coming into our path that want to get baptized and want to hear
what we get to say, it’s pretty cool. We had another single mom that
was gonna get baptized on the 15 also, but her family is really
evangelic. And one day this week we went to go visit her and she said
she didn’t want to learn about it anymore and that she didn’t
understand the music and basically slammed the door in our face. At
first, I was a little sad, but after I got this feeling that it’s not
her time right now, and my companion and I felt that when we first
taught her. So, esta bien
We also have a family where the father is the best, he wants
everything to do with the gospel, but the wife wants to leave for work
in Lima and they are three daughters. They are kind of tough but we
taught them and shared some personal experiences and she is still in
town. So, we are going to see if they are ready to get married and
baptized.
We had a funny experience this week teaching Kimberlith, she lives
right next to the 1 counselor of our bishopric so her best friend is
the daughter of the first counselor her name is Chantelle. We were
teaching the Word of Wisdom and the word for fish in Spanish is
pescado, and the word for sin is pecado. Well my companion was
teaching and when she wanted to say ‘sometimes it’s a sin’ she said
‘sometimes it’s a fish’ so everytime we see Chantelle now she says
‘aveces es un pescado’ it’s pretty funny. I hope I explained that
alright, it’s hard to explain it in English 
We went on divisions again this week, but this week I was with a
companion that only had six weeks in the mission, it was a little
different, but it was good. It’s amazing how god takes care of you
when you need it the most. And puts the most perfect people in your
path to learn and grow.
Well, it’s still raining a ton here, I still eat a lot of rice with a
little bit of meat. There is this one food that I absolutely love it’s
called maduro frito. Which is basically platano when it is yellow
fried in oil. It’s probably my favorite thing here right now. Or there
are chicken restaurants everywhere here and last week our zone went
and ate at one and we got I don’t know how to call it but it’s cooked
chicken that is really yummy with fries.  yummm  can you tell I’m
hungry?
I hope you guys have an amazing week!  Be in the moment, moment to moment ;)
Hermana Larsen