Monday, April 28, 2014

Woooo

 
Buenas!!
This week, well, to start it off we probably have the coolest guy that we are teaching that is going to get married and baptized on the 19th. He is a motokarista and he is one of those dream investigators, I have talked about him a lot in emails. He was the one that told us that he was convinced; well this guy was baptized in the Catholic Church when he was a little kid and never knew if it was a sin to get baptized again. And it is so awesome to see him now, because he is so excited to get married and baptized, and whenever we are there visiting them we just feel like we are home, they are the sweetest family and they are always so welcoming, they always want to give us some new fruit or food of the jungle. J But we are organizing an activity for them to get money for their wedding. We are doing a cookout thing of cow hearts. And you would be surprised but it is really really good J
This last week we had some cool experiences. We went and did service!! We went to another area that is a little deeper in the jungle and this family was making a chimney thing to make bread so we were helping build that, but in the process, we got to do some dirty work. There was this big pile of red dirt and what you have to do it get it wet and then smash around in it in your BARE FEET! It was awesome. We just smashed around in the red dirt for three hours, my companion and I. All the elders laughed at us, but it was fun, then the last hour the elders ended up wanting to do it too. Ha, it was fun. J I am going to send pictures.
We also had a pretty crazy lesson this last week. We went and visited one of our investigators and she has a daughter that is a member, but is a less active, well actually not active at all. And we started to teach them about the Book of Mormon and she was SUPER defensive. She said she had a lot of doubts about the Book of Mormon and that she didn’t feel the same when she read the BOM like she did when she read the bible. And we listened but then it got into one of those lessons where she just wanted proof and she kept asking us for proof on everything in the church and whenever we would talk she would just talk over us. It was kind of a hard lesson, but what we know is we shouldn’t have to prove everything; the real converts are going to be the ones that feel it and trust. J
We had a really really cool lesson though with a less active and her family, in their family the little brother died, he was only 18 years old and was preparing to go on a mission and he got killed. And they all decided to return back to church. But the mom is having a really difficult time. Because it was her only son, she has 8 other girls. But we were teaching her and we started to talk about the plan of salvation and I got the feeling to share a scripture. I shared it and it was like the spirit came in with a huge bat! It was so strong and she was crying and we were all crying. Her son was definitely in the room with her.
We had another cool experience like that. The sister of our pensionista, her really good friend, died in an accident on the Amazon River. And she is not a member, but she came to us and asked us to do a prayer with her. So we kneeled down in our room and prayed with her. When we were praying, I just could feel this really bright light and I felt like we were floating. Oh the experiences you have on a mission. I could keep going for forever, but I don’t have that much time.
Remember to smile. J I’m in the jungle! J
Hermana Larsen
 



 

Monday, April 21, 2014

Pescadores de hombres y no de pescados‏

Buenos Dias!
Whoa. This week was awesome. It all started with a ride on the bus and
we were riding on the bus to one of our visits that were out of our
area, and normally its 1.50 soles. So I gave the guy a five. And he
wasn’t giving me change. Pause on the story for just one minute, the
people here in motokars and buses think that I am dumb. Because I am a
gringa, I have blonde hair and can’t talk Spanish perfectly. So to
continue on with the story, he just looked at me and I was like I need
3.50 back, but he kept acting like he didn’t understand me. And I
started to get a little irritated but I was still being nice and was
asking for my money. And suddenly a lady started to yell at him saying
things like ‘she knows, she understands, she gave you five and you
need to give her 3.50. It was awesome, the lady was so mad. And so the
guy ended up giving me my change.  God works in mysterious ways 
Also this last week was kind of terrible at the beginning we decided
as a companionship to fast for our area. So we started our fast
Saturday, we were not finding anyone in their house, like no one ALL
day. But we weren’t gonna let that get us down. We went to bed
Saturday night with the thought that Sunday is gonna be a new day. We
went out early to go get investigators for church. And we had a lady
show up to church that we taught her once and she talked about how we
had to keep teaching her so that we could get the dark spirits out of
her body. Ha  She is awesome she is 60 years old. We also had this
guy that his wife is a less active and he has been investigating the
church for 2 months now and now he finally attended church with his
wife! We were so excited! But after church we went to the guy’s house
to talk to him and ask him how church went. And even before we said
the opening prayer he was saying ‘I’m convinced, I want to get married
and baptized’ The feeling in this house when he was telling us this
was amazing.  I will never forget it. But it was awesome, they are
going to get married and he is going to baptized the 3rd of May! Then
we went to the other investigators house and she was talking to her
granddaughter on the phone and she was talking and was like ‘I was
thinking of getting baptized, so you need to come visit.’ It was
awesome. So, she is getting baptized on the 3rd too! We also had a
pretty cool lesson with a lady who came to church she is interesting.
We were teaching her and it was one of those lessons that we weren’t
talking but the spirit was. And we asked her to be baptized and she
was like ‘well, I don’t want to just get baptized because it’s the
true church’…………Yeah, we are working with her. 
I just wanna say that fasting works! I feel so grateful right now and
so excited for these people that I have come to know here. Now we got
a lot of work to do with organizing a wedding and making these
baptisms happen  Bring it on.
One last thing, we were teaching a recent convert, the one that we got
married and baptized and he was praying and he said ‘please bless the
sisters that they will be fishers of men and not of fishes’ we could
not stop laughing. Because he was completely serious, so remember
ladies to be fishers of men and not of fishes. 
Hermana Larsen



Monday, April 14, 2014

Bautismo En Oscuro

Hey!!
Oh my, what can I say about this week! The first of the week we didn’t really teach that much because we kept having to search for our investigator to get her to her interview for baptism. And it ended up that now she is going to get baptized on the 26th. But most of the week was spent getting our investigators that were new to us ready for their baptism. So we were teaching them a lot. And they are the sweetest things ever. They got baptized this last Saturday.
This baptism is probably the most interesting baptisms I have ever had. First we went in the morning to clean out the baptism font and we got it all clean and filled it up, and then ants suddenly appeared in the water. They were coming out of the wall. So we had to empty the font it and fill it again. We killed all the ants and started to fill it again. We came that night before we went to go get our investigators, and all the lights just went out. (lately all the lights have been going out in Iquitos randomly). They all went out, but we didn’t really think anything of it. We just hopped on a bus to go grab our investigators. Everything was completely dark. We were hoping that the lights would turn back on. We returned back to the church and they still were not on, so guess what? We started in the dark with all of our flashlights and we even had motokars shining their lights in the windows. We started with all the messages and got to the point when we were going to have the baptisms and I was helping my investigator get into the water in the dark and a miracle happened! The lights came on!! It was awesome. They got baptized and everything went really well after that. But when my investigator with Downs Syndrome got baptized she got so mad at the guy that baptized her. She won’t even shake his hand now because she got a ton of water in her nose and she blames him. But we were so happy and excited.
We also went to go visit a new investigator last night that is a member’s aunt. She is really sick so we went with the elders in our ward so that they could give her a blessing. We had the coolest lesson together and she is going to get baptized the third of May.  The member was telling us that he truly believes that we made an agreement with his aunt before we came to this earth to help her and be guides for her. It was pretty awesome.
Things are going great, Iquitos is great, my ward is great, my district is great, my zone is great. Love you all, hope you have a great week!
 
Hermana Larsen
 
 
 


Monday, April 7, 2014

How much time do we waste?

Hola!!
Woooo. This week was great, what can I say? There was this day this week with a huge strike, where the people don’t like the  way people operate the working system and all that stuff so they do this terrible strike, but with this strike, they throw glass and light things on fire and throw other things. It’s pretty crazy. So, all the leaders this week had the leader meeting, that they have every month, and since we live so close to the airport, we had to go get one of the hermanas that was coming from Pucallpa. And she slept in our house and everything. Now listen, this strike goes on for 2 days. So, the next day we had to go to the offices which are about 15 minutes away by motokar. But the motokars this day were super expensive because the roads were so bad. But we had to go to the offices, so we set off on our journey in the motokar. It was pouring rain and there was glass everywhere on the roads so we were going pretty slow so that the motokar didn’t pop a tire…yeah too late. He popped his tire 5 minutes into the ride. So we started walking for about ten minutes until we found another motokar and we finally got there to hear that we needed to turn around and go to the airport. Ha! But we made it, and we are alive J
Also, this last week we got some new investigators that are out of our area. They are deeper in the jungle but the elders can’t teach them because it is a single mom, so we get the lovely opportunity to teach this wonderful family. J The daughter is 26 years old and she has downs syndrome. She is absolutely adorable! She is barely learning how to talk and has the spirit so strong with her it is amazing. She wants to get baptized, and her mom is so strong. She has been taking care of her alone for 23 years now because her husband died when her daughter was only 3 years old. And all of her other kids live far away.  But we are pretty excited they are getting baptized this week. J
We also were walking the other day and we had this lesson with this old investigator the other week that we thought went absolutely terrible like he was trying to convince us how alcohol was natural and how we needed it to be healthy. He didn’t want to get married and all this stuff and I was just super direct and we left and we were ready to kind of drop them and maybe contact them later on until we ran into him and his wife who is a member.  He was all like ‘there was something you said.’ And he looked and us and started to tell us how he was trying to change and give up alcohol and his old life. J It was pretty awesome.
This week was so great; we had a lot of cool experiences happen. We are working so hard and I feel all of it is paying off J Conference was amazing. I loved what Elder Uchtdorf asked when he said,
"How much time do we waste by searching for rainbows when we could just thank God that there is rain?"
Thank God there is rain! J
Hermana Larsen
 
 This is a hammock at an investigators home. I always sit in it when I teach her and she laughs because I can't get out.
 
 
 
                    Outside the Lima Temple reunited with my MTC companion, Hermana Ruesch.

                                         My current companion and I are such good friends!