Chapter 38: So much excitement I can't even!

Dear family and friends,

So as you can tell from my subject line, this week was exciting and all over the place. It was transfer calls this week, so we had to say goodbye to the two dying missionaries in my district, one who was my flatmate. So that was sad.

But then on transfer night, I got a call to say that I am training a new missionary!!! I was really excited and a bit overwhelmed, but it will be a great experience. Unfortunately, she doesn't get here until November 5th, because she is still in the Provo MTC learning Chinese. So until then I'm in a trio with Sister Lu, who got moved to the Newcastle English area with Sister Monroy! Crazy. But we've had lots of fun as a trio so far.

The other highlight of the week was working with Rui Feng. Now, when I first met her she was terribly shy and would barely talk to me or my companion. She didn't read the Book of Mormon or pray hardly, and she wouldn't answer the questions we asked her. Flash forward a few weeks. She's reading the Book of Mormon and enjoying it, and praying too, but she won't commit to a baptismal date and/or pushes her date back every week. Flash forward to this last Wednesday. We had a super long super awesome lesson with her where we were trying to figure out why she didn't want to be baptised. Basically, it came down to the fact that she's afraid of water and she doesn't think she can endure to the end. Well. The water thing was easy to deal with. The endure to the end - she went home and talked to her dad about it and do you know what he said? "Just do it. Go get baptised, it's a good thing to do." And he's not even a member!! So she called us the next day and said she was so ready to be baptised and can she get baptised tomorrow and she's just so excited. And we said okay you can be baptised. But you need to wait a few days so we can interview you and schedule your baptism. 

So, she will get baptised this Saturday!! And we couldn't be more excited. :)

Me and my companions and Rui Feng!
The wind made my hair get all over my face so i'm not that cute in this picture but oh well.

This week has been amazing and full of wonderful miracles and excitement. I hope you all have a happy Halloween this week, don't eat too much candy (the chocolate in America can't even compare with British chocolate anyway) and remember to pray and read your scriptures! Love you all!

Love,

Sister Larson

The Angel of the North - a cool statue that is randomly in the middle of nowhere.

 Here's us by the ELM street sign.
Because ELM stands for England Leeds Mission!!!! ha ha.

Great food that Angela (member) made for us last week.

 

This is my district! The girl on the end and the shortest elder went home.
Sister Rossi, me, Sister Lu, Sister Monroy, Elder Adams, Elder Thompson, Elder Summers, Elder Field

Chapter 37: Tales of Answered Prayers

Hiya!

This week has been pretty fantastic. First off: I got to go on a field trip! To South Shields, another area in my zone. I went on an exchange and got to be companions with Sister Ahola for the day. She's still in training, so it was fun to be with a missionary who's actually younger than me, in real life and mission life. So that was awesome.

Me and sister Ahola! 

I still make ridiculous faces. #somethingsneverchange

And then we had awesome lessons with Zhang Yi and Rui Feng. I didn't have any Avatar analogies this time, but they are both making such great progress! Zhang Yi talked to us about how he thinks he's finding answers to prayers, and he said, "I think maybe we can get answers to our prayers from other people. Does that ever happen?" And we told him yes, yes it does. Then Rui Feng said to us excitedly, "I actually like reading the Book of Mormon now! The more I read it, the more I love it!" And we were able to tell her, "We love it too!" So this week our lessons have been amazingly spiritual. I could tell that in them, it wasn't just our investigators who were growing spiritually, it was my companion and me as well. 

Big ship from Russia 

Pretty South Shields right by the River Tyne 

To top it off, Sunday was great. I'd been praying all week with a problem I was having, and then on Sunday morning during personal study I happened to be reading Alma 5, a chapter that answered my question. And all of the talks and lessons in church on Sunday kept answering my question and gave me further ideas for how I need to fix my problem! One of the speakers in sacrament meeting told about her conversion story and how her prayers were answered. She said that it was amazing to her how, despite the fact that millions of prayers are offered around the world all the time, Heavenly Father knew her and listened to her prayer and gave her an answer she could recognise. I know that is true.

So this week I hope you all are listening to the still, small voice, because Heavenly Father is just waiting to answer our prayers and help us. I know He listens to us and loves us. I love you all! Have an awesome week. 

Love,

Sister Larson

Baptism on Saturday!
Me, Angela (member), Sister Lu, Sophie (investigator/recent
convert of other sisters,) Sister Monroy, Sister Rossi

We were playing around on Sister Monroy's camera

Chapter 36: Avatar Aang Saves the Day

Hello everyone!

This week was super awesome. First off, our Chinese members, and some of the investigators, go to go to the temple!! Yay! All of the members did baptisms for the dead and the investigators got to walk around and enjoy the Spirit on the temple grounds. It made me a bit jealous, I wanted to go so bad, but I'm glad they had that opportunity. It made me realise how much we need to go the temple when we can. It's an act of service, but it's also necessary for our own spiritual growth. So, go to the temple when you have the chance!! 

I had a great learning experience this week. We were teaching Zhang Yi, our investigator, about the gospel of Jesus Christ and explaining the five steps back to Heavenly Father: faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. He didn't really get it, so in a moment of inspiration, I realised that I needed to liken this doctrine to him. I knew he watched Avatar: The Last Airbender, and of course, I watched that too, so I did a bit of an analogy. Just like Aang needed to master four elements to fulfil his purpose, we need to take these five steps to fulfil our mortal purpose. But he doesn't master any of those elements in a day. It takes weeks of learning and daily practise to get there. Same with the five steps: we don't gain faith overnight. Repentance doesn't happen after one prayer. And endure to the end? That takes a lifetime! It is through the small daily decisions and actions that we begin to climb those steps back to Heavenly Father. And just as Aang mastered the elements and became the Avatar, so can we fully envelop the gospel of Jesus Christ into our very beings and return to our Father in Heaven to an eternity of happiness, peace, and continuing creation. 

So yeah, I was rather pleased that I could help him understand that doctrine a bit better, (he loved the analogy) and I was so grateful that I could receive divine help when I needed it most. Remember that if you don't understand something about the gospel or think it doesn't apply to you - it does. Just try and you'll find the inspiration you need to make it make sense to you personally. 

I love you all and hope you have a great week! Keep on keepin' on! :)

Love,

Sister Larson

P.S. The pic is of my district! Elder Thompson, Elder Adams, Sister Monroy, Sister Lu, me and Sister Rossi are probably the most awesome district ever, full stop. :)

My box that holds my cool Chinese/pinyin/English Book of Mormon.
I'm so proud of it. It looks so awesome. I'm awesome.

Pretty fall leaves! By a cool old church that I forgot to take a picture of. (oops) 

Good thing there are five thousand cool old churches in Newcastle.

Me and my companion! Early to a tea appointment, so we had time for a few selfies.

Chapter 35: More Teaching and Possible Flynn Rider Sighting in Newcastle

Hiya everyone!!

This week has been so great in so many reasons. First off, we did some awesome finding this week and found a lot of new investigators! It was so great because with most of them, we scheduled a teaching appointment right there on the street in our first contact with them. So many miracles.

One of these street contacts was an awkward-awesome moment for us. We had met this guy on the street and set up an appointment with him at a certain time. He showed up on time and brought a girl with him. We were like "Sweet! Two people!" And then we asked him sort of awkwardly, "So, is this your friend? Classmate?" And she just smiles and says "No, I'm his wife." And we were like .... uh, that was really unexpected but hey cool! It just makes me wonder what he thought I was after when I stopped him on the street and asked if he was a student and could we maybe meet up with him sometime.... Either way, the lesson went well with them, and so hopefully we will be able to continue teaching them! 

Also this week, we had a spiritually enlightening weekend... Not only was it Conference, but right before the Sunday "Morning" Session (it airs at 5 pm here in Jolly Old England) the Elders had a baptism!! Doris had a great baptismal service, the Spirit was so strong and she bore the sweetest testimony towards the end. She said, "My friend told me it was going to rain and be cloudy today, but right before my baptism, the sun came out and it was warm. I know that Heavenly Father is proud of my decision and I'm so glad I decided to be baptised." So amazing!

General Conference was wonderful! I noticed a pattern of speakers talking about how we need to put God first in our lives, and also that He is the source of all knowledge and truth: not other people, certainly not the Internet, and not ourselves. I know this is true. I have seen people progress and change for the better when they pray and read their scriptures, and I've seen people stay stagnant and struggling when they don't. So remember that Heavenly Father is the ultimate source of light and help!

I love you all and hope you have amazing weeks! 

Love,

Sister Larson

We celebrated Sister Rossi's birthday last p-day and had a little surprise birthday party!
We even had the birthday song in Italian for her. :)

 All of us with the beautiful Newcastle sights of the Tyne Bridge and Gateshead Millenium Bridge.

 Random creepy mannequins that looked Halloween-ish, even if they weren't meant to do so.

The random bar is because it said Flynn's bar and i figured that apparently before Eugene Fitzherbert settled down and changed his name, he owned a bar in Newcastle. I thought I was really funny, but none of the people I was with got it. *sigh*  The struggles of being the only American in your flat.

Chapter 34: Barbie Queue!

Note:  Meagan apparently was very excited about this Barbie Queue, however it is not mentioned in the letter itself, only the subject of her message, and in the caption for a picture.  We're sure it was a very fun event.

Helloooo everyone!

This week was really busy. We were teaching so much! It's been so great to be here in Newcastle with so many Chinese people.

Some of the most exciting news is that we have two new investigators who are scheduled to be baptised! Izzie and Jessie are both uni students, of course, and they are both so awesome. Izzie came with us to church after meeting her on the street once, and then we started teaching her. She is really starting to like being with the members and learning about Jesus Christ. Jessie is pretty quiet and shy, but she has a lot of faith and is very accepting of the doctrine we teach.

This is us with Yiling, an investigator, and her daughter Ellen for a birthday celebration for my companion, whose birthday was a few weeks ago.

Zhang Yi is also doing well, he has some conflicts with political affiliation and being baptised, but he is reading his Book of Mormon and continuing to feel the Spirit, and that's the most important thing anyone can do in their study of the gospel.

Our Chinese group also had two new members come in to it! They've been members for a while, but it's exciting to see new faces and have more people to help build up the Chinese area of Newcastle!

This is us at the ward Barbie Queue last Saturday!!
Izzie is standing right next to me with the gray jacket.
The rest are either members, investigators, or random Chinese people.
I love how I'm the only white person.

Well this week has also taught me a lot about humility. One of my favourite scriptures in the Doctrine and Covenants says: "Be thou humble and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers."

I love this because of course we all need the Lord's help. There isn't anything we can do on our own. So if we are just willing to confide in Him and ask for His divine help and then do all we can, we will receive answers and the strength to get done all that we need to get done.

I love you all so much! Have a great week! Remember to read your Book of Mormon and say your prayers. :)

Love,
Sister Larson