Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Bautismo y Testimonio‏

What a week it has been, as usual. We worked super hard this last week in the boiling sun!! IT has been so hot lately and the sun has been burning us, and to make it worse the power has been going out a lot so we can't use a fan. AHH...But at least I am getting a tan :) 
I don't have a lot of time but we had a good week We had a baptism that was really cool. He is the only one that wasn't baptized and finally he got baptized. He is awesome! Both of his kids gave talks at  his baptism.  One of his kids just got baptized in November and was super nervous to give a talk because he feels like his testimony isn't that big and not worth much and we explained to him that this will help him and it doesn't matter what it looks like. And he did AWESOME. It was so spiritual and made me want to cry and then the whole family sang together, Families Can Be Together Forever. It was so awesome. They are an amazing family and I am so grateful that I got to know them. 
Well, I just wanted to share that litte experience with you guys this week. Sorry I don't have a lot of time.  I love you all :) Have an amazing week! 
Hermana Larsen
 
The Baptism!
These are paintings in Iquitos.


 This is super cheesy but I like it.
:)
 

Monday, February 16, 2015

Carnaval...cuidado

What a week! Full of rain! I think we worked three nights in a row in the rain and returned home soaked from head to toe. We had some cool experiences this last week with the people that we are teaching. We have a family that we are teaching that the dad is a member and the mom not, but she is super sweet and they are just awesome and so willing to listen and she wants to get baptized and married. We went with a member to visit them and only found the mom, but we talked with her and taught her about coming to church and she said that she attended the church before but without her husband. Now she wants to attend church with all of her family. They weren't able to come to church yesterday and we don't know why, but we are going to work with them this week.
We left with a member one of these days and we finally found these twins that are less actives that we have been searching for since we got here. They are 17 years old and identical twins. They are super sweet but we went to go visit them with a member and it was hilarious because they talked for probably 45 minutes about the monkey that they had that died in November. They told us everything about this monkey named Martin. He was like a normal person; how he slept, how he ate, everything you could possibly think of. They talked about all of it about this monkey. We wanted to share something with them but they talked so much that we couldn't inturrupt, it was pretty funny. :)
We also left with another member this week and there was a returned missionary that served in Iquitos 21 years ago that was visiting. We heard he was close by so we went to go say hi to him and talk with him. He was very nice. He served in some of the same areas that I did, so we talked a lot about that and he gave us a ton of references which was awesome. He companioned us to a reference that night and it was pouring rain, and the street was full, it looked like a swimming pool. It was cool to see that it is possible that I will return to visit Iquitos :)
Yesterday at church, the bishop got up and made an announcement to the ward that they needed to start gathering food storage. Why? Because it is raining so much in Iquitos that the river is growing a ton and he explained it is going to grow so much that we could be in great danger by living here and the members need to be prepared. It was something really interesting because I could see the worry in his face. So please keep the people of Iquitos in your prayers. :)
This last week was Carnaval, I don't know if you guys remember last year when I wrote about it. Well it was that time again! We couldn't leave our house again. Carnaval it where it's basically like a huge water balloon fight all day. But it all starts on a Saturday and they put up this huge tree thing called the Umisha, with things on top, like Tupper wear and things like that. A bunch of people put them up, there is like 4 or 5 on every street, then Saturday at night, there is this group of people that come around dancing around the Umishas at midnight with masks like a night of Halloween. Then Sunday is when it really starts. All day Sunday they are throwing water  and dancing and drinking. It is nuts. They dance around the Umisha and do this ritual thing where they cut it. They dance these dances called pandillas. But we couldn't leave our house because they don't respect anyone. They throw water at anyone they see, especially the girls with yellow hair and green eyes ;) ha ha! So, we were stuck in the house doing nothing yesterday. We studied, talked, ate, it was interesting.
But now everything is peaceful in Iquitos. Everyone is sleeping and exhausted from yesterday. :)
Well I hope everyone has an amazing week and enjoys every minute.

Hermana Larsen





Monday, February 9, 2015

O está, todo bien‏

What a week it has been, like usual. We had an interesting week full of more miracles. Our two families that we are teaching that are going to get baptized on the 21st are doing super good. The dad of one of the families is doing awesome and his they remind me so much of my family. They are reading and praying together and are doing great. We are seeing a lot of miracles with this family. 
This last week we left our house everyday and we searched references that we had and we found a ton of less actives that live with non members. It was pretty cool, and the less actives all had this huge desire to return to church and remember the feeling they had when they got baptized and the change that they had. It was pretty awesome. 
Another family that we are teaching has the husband in a wheelchair and he is a member and the wife isn't. We taught them Saturday and they said that they weren't going to be able to attend church because the husband had to work but that he asked permission that after this Sunday he will be able to attend church every Sunday. So we were like, awesome, and we went to church expecting that they wouldn't attend. But we were standing in the doors of the church greeting people as they walked in. We were so excited to greet them as they came to church anyway! They found a way and they took it and came. It was awesome. This family is super special and are doing great :) 
It didn't rain as much this last week it was very hot and sunny. My companion and I, we both got super burnt from the sun. We are hoping that it rains again this next week. 
Everything is going really good, working and living the dream and laughing :) 
I hope everything is going good in good ol' Utah. I love you all :) 
 
Hermana Larsen
Painting the wall:)


Monday, February 2, 2015

No olvide a sonreír‏

I'm on a little boat!
 
What can I say about this week. This week was a little more difficult. We had a lot of appointments, but a lot of the people weren't there when we went to go visit them. We just continued working during the week and trying to find new people. We found some people that we feel are going to progress for the future. 
 
We had a service project this last week with the whole zone where we had to paint a wall. It was fun! We were working and I don't know what it is about Iquitos but EVERYONE likes to give you food and soda and just stuff you full like they are preparing to cook you. It's funny, because in Moyobamba not a lot of people give you food, or Pucallpa, but Iquitos it's almost every house they give us cake or pop or some kind of food. So of course when we were painting, the woman came out with popcorn and juice for us. So we took a break and ate but now we are going to finish the wall this week.
Also this week we had a blitz in our area where all the missionaries came and searched all of the less actives and found references and everything and that was awesome because we received a ton of references! They found a lot of new less actives and we got to know new parts of our area that we didn't know before. 
We had some fun experiences this last week where we were laughing super hard. We are finding the good news in everything. If people don't want to listen to us or if we don't find the people that we are searching for, we are keeping a good attitude and always laughing. Everything is going really well and we are doing really good. 
There is not much else to tell about this week, But I hope that everyone has a good week and keeps up the big smiles :) 
Hermana Larsen
 I
 Facials:}
 This kid is so cute!

Being silly...imagine that ;)