Chapter 63: The Chocolate Challenge

Dear Family and Friends,

Hiya! Well, it's been another week already! I can't believe it. Time is seriously going by so fast. Except for when you're street contacting in the rain... then it goes by incredibly slow, haha.

Well this week we had some good things happen and some less than good things happen. Unfortunately, Li won't be able to make this weekend for baptism, he has some hidden concerns that we didn't know about until recently. But at least we know what they are now so we can address them and help him get closer to the goal of baptism! 

Jone also has the concern of his parents don't want him to get baptised, a concern which comes up all the time when teaching young Chinese students. But he himself is willing to talk to them and share more about what he learns. He also wants to be a missionary to his friends. The lesson we had with him was amazing - he had been basically trying to drop us at first but the Spirit was so strong and we just ended up talking about miracles. So that went way better than I could have hoped.

We had a great lesson with Joey, our newest investigator, as well yesterday at the Marshes, the best senior couple ever! We had tea and then watched the Restoration DVD with him. He loved the music and it was a very spiritual lesson with him. 

For a little fun story of the week, we have this investigator Paul who's been struggling to quit smoking for a long time. I've been teaching him since I first got to Newcastle in September. So this week I did something drastic: I told him that if he quit smoking, I would quit chocolate. And he said okay. So I haven't had chocolate since. It's only been a few days. But I miss it. But it will be worth it!! Wish me luck - I also happen to be in the country that has like the best chocolate ever, so that doesn't make it easy!!!! :)

Well I hope you have all had a great week. I just want to testify to you all that Jesus is the Christ, the light, the life and the hope of the world. He loves us. He wants us to be like Him, and picks us up every time we fall down. I have had quite a few experiences this week that have helped me realise that once more. Love you all!!

Love,

Sister Larson

Chapter 62: Deja vu

Dear Everyone,

This week has been pretty great! The weather was gorgeous up until about last Friday... and then it got super cold again. It was like a little teaser for what summer will probably be like. But we saw a way awesome double rainbow yesterday, so even when it's raining there's still beautiful things to be seen. :)

Some of the beautiful scenery of England in the spring!

A really cool rainbow (hopefully it's visible) 

We had one really cool miracle this week! Well, more than one, but one that was especially noteworthy! Last Monday while street contacting, I said hi to this Asian guy and he looked around all confused. When he saw me, he was like, "Oh, hi!" like he knew me. So we stopped and talked to him and it turns out that Sister Chee and I had contacted him a while ago on the street and just given him a mormon.org card. I didn't really remember him, which I felt slightly bad about since he remembered me, but it was okay. As we were saying good bye, we invited him to an activity that night. He said he'd maybe go, and then said, "I still have your card! I didn't lose it!" And he proved it later by texting us haha. So that was way cool. He ended up going to the activity that night, meeting with us on Wednesday, and then going to a baptism on Friday and having a lesson with us afterward!! So that was way awesome. Even when there were very few students on the street, Heavenly Father still put a prepared person in our path!!

As for Li and Jone, they're doing quite well. Li is supposed to be having a baptismal interview this week, so please pray for him that everything will go well and he will be able to make his date! Jone is working towards a later date, but has been making changes in his life in order to obey the commandments. He also reads the Book of Mormon every day, which is quite impressive.

As for me, I'm still happy here in wonderful (occasionally sunny) Northern England. I love being a missionary! It's the best decision I've ever made! Thank you for all your prayers and support. I hope you all have a wonderful week! Love you!

Love,

Sister Larson

Chapter 61: Meagan Forgets How Long She Has Been Writing

Note:  the actual title of this week's email was "Week .... I don't remember, sorry"

Hi everyone! 

I feel like I'm a bit off on my weeks now because I didn't e-mail last week. Sorry about that, we were travelling all day last week and I had a very short amount of e-mail time, so I just sent it to my family members. But we got to see a castle, so WOOT.

Well, this week has been pretty awesome. First off, transfer calls were last night. I found out that I'm staying in Newcastle with Sister Xie, yay!! And Sister Salcedo is moving, sad, but Sister Chee is still staying and she's training!!!! I'm going to be a grandma, haha! I'm actually way excited. This transfer is going to rock.

The ruins part of the castle. this was where the kitchens
and guest rooms were. in like the seventeenth century.
fact: the guy who owned this castle was a major playboy, but he also became the first duke of newcastle after the english
civil war in the late 1600s. cool, huh?

And in other news, we've had a great week with Li and Jone. They were our only investigators in town this week, but they're doing great! Li even came finding with us on Saturday... it was for like 3 hours but he stuck with it! Bless him he was a bit tired after that, but then we went to Conference. Can I just say, it was amazing! Probably the best conference so far of my life. I loved all the talks, they answered a lot of questions I've had lately. And I loved the emphasis on the family. Being away from my family, it's been a lot easier to figure out how much they mean to me. I miss them tons. But I'm so grateful that families are forever! I know it's true and I want others to be with their families forever, too. That's why I came here. :)

Easter was beautiful, the most amazing weather we've had since like last summer. It was gorgeous and sunny and warm. So it was a wonderful Easter Sunday, perfect circumstances to remember what our Saviour did for us. In the video Because He Lives, (go watch it if you haven't yet here:http://www.mormon.org/easter) my favourite part is where it says that Christ is here, with us, all the time. It's true! Because He lives, He truly is with us whenever we need Him. I've discovered that to be true on many occasions, and I challenge all of you to get to know Him a bit better. He truly loves all of us.

Well I hope you all had a great Easter/Conference weekend! Enjoy the sunshine, smile and be happy!! Love you all.

Love, 

Sister Larson

me and my comp by the front wall

the view from the castle. it's set on a hill so you can see for miles and miles. 

this tree reminds me of the white tree of gondor.
you know, if it was white. but i still thought it was cool.

Castle from last pday!

this room was called the senses room. it was a dining room
and had paintings on teh wall representing the five senses.
it was gorgeous, all black and gold.

this was the star room, so named for the ceiling, but it was way cool.
it had tapestries depicting the life of abraham and pictures of lots of saints on the walls.

this is a cool ceiling painting of Christ's second coming. with baby angel things. yeah, cool.

he top little thingy i don't remember what you call that, dome thing, whatever. it was pretty. :)

the best district ever!

Chapter 60: Late, short, and sweet

Note:  Meagan only sent one letter to family members, due to circumstances explained in her message.  With Meagan's permission I am posting parts of the message that are of interest to everyone.

Hi everyone! It's Meagan! 

Sorry you're all getting the same e-mail, I don't have much time. We ended up driving all the way down to Doncaster today for a doctor's appointment for ****** and now we're in Leeds and I only have a short time to e-mail. But I'll tell you a bit about the week! Oh, and today we went to a CASTLE! It is called Bosover Castle, or something like that, near Chesterfield. You can look it up. It's way cool and I'll have pictures next week. Again, sorry this week's e-mail is lame.  I'm still totes jelly you guys went to Disneyland, but it sounded really fun! And i loved the pictures. Man that sun looks nice right now. It's raining like crazy out here. As for actual missionary stuffs this week... it was slower than the week before but not too bad. We had a really good lesson with Li last week and it was awesome. He said he really felt something different and is progressing so well! We also met with Jone yesterday and he is doing so well too. He read so much in the Book of Mormon since the first time we met him. So that was really good. Other than that, it was a week where my patience was tried here and there but I have really tried to be good with that! So yeah. And I won't have time to send out a mass e-mail, so if you want to post this on the blog you can or you can just tell everyone to wait for a really cool e-mail next week, haha! 

Well I hope you are having a great day, again, sorry this is lame but it's better than nothing, right? haha. I love you all so much, have a fantastic week!

Love, Meagan

Chapter 59: Miracles Come After the Trial of our Faith

Dear everyone,

Yes, after our pretty lame week last week, we finally had some things happen this week. So it was an awesome week. We had a few miracles! Which I will now tell you about.

Miracle #1: Jone. 

We met Jone on the street last Sunday street contacting and set up an appointment with him for the following Thursday. So we meet with him and have an awesome lesson 1 and we schedule him for baptism! And he's talking with us afterward and is all "You know, I have some questions that might not be answered. But I'm really scared of death. Like, is that normal? What do you guys believe about that?" And we were like. "Oh boy, do we ever have an answer to that! To be continued, mate, next time we meet we will tell you." And he agreed to read the Book of Mormon. SOLID.

I looked out the window and what did I see? Popcorn popping on our neighbor's tree!

Miracle #2: Li.

You might remember Li from a while ago. We had a lesson, we ate hot pot together, he went to China, we never saw him again, met him on the street randomly. Well we had a great lesson with him, found out he read a large part of 1 Nephi while he was gone (man, so good) and scheduled him for baptism as well!!! WOOT. 

Yummy Chinese food from a feast we had a few days ago

Miracle #3: Zoe.

We found Zoe street contacting. She is really talkative and so we talked to her for like half an hour when we first met her. Well we saw her twice this week: the first time we tried to teach, but she just wanted to chat. The second time, we actually taught and it was stellar. She's like "I love reading Bible stories. Does this Book of Mormon have any stories in it?" Uh, yes, yes it does. BOOM. 

The lovely English sky at sunset yesterday. :)

Miracle #4: Hot pot.

This wasn't actually a miracle... we just ate hot pot on Saturday with Crystal, Doris, Fang Fang, and Am. ... But it was delicious. 

Anyway, this week was great and really taught me a lesson about being patient in my afflictions, and then the Lord will give me success. It's true. So if you're at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on! Things WILL get better, it's doctrine. :) I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week! Happy Spring!

Love,

Sister Larson

This is my zone. We're pretty good looking. :)

 

My companion likes to colour in the pictures
 she gets from the Liahona (in the children's section).
She says, "I'm such a good artist!"