Chapter 16: Tales of Rain and Rainbows

Hiya everyone!

This week has been not super eventful, but I sure have learned a lot. 

First off, we had zone conference last week! Yay! It was in Sheffield, which isn't too far of a drive, but we had to go pick up a ton of missionaries in Huddersfield, which is an hour out of the way, and then go all the way back. So it was about three hours there and three hours back, but it was really fun! We learned a lot about virtue and obedience, and my mission president is just hilarious. I also saw an Elder I met in the Provo MTC who had to be there for 8 weeks waiting for a visa even though he was an English speaker! He's here now though, so it's great.

Finally the picture you've wanted! I finally met sister pilkington, she's lovely.
And there's one with just me and one with me and Sister Huang! Aren't we cute? :)

Ting Ting is continuing to progress! We had to let go of Leah, unfortunately, but Ting Ting is absolutely wonderful. She shared with us her experience of going to church for the first time and said that when she opened the hymn book during the first hymn, she felt the sense of peace and of being at home, and that she's never felt anything like it before. It was so amazing! She is just so great!

As is common for the weather of England in the spring time, it has been raining a lot lately. At first, I was a little down because of it, but this morning I was reading President Uchtdorf's talk from the latest Conference. He mentioned about being grateful for the rain before being grateful for the rainbow. At first, I thought, "That's lame. Rain makes me wet and cold and it makes people not want to talk to me on the street because they're wet and cold." But then I remembered how beautiful and green England is, and how pretty the flowers are all of the time. It's because of the rain that these beautiful plants grow and bring joy to people. So remember everyone, that even trials teach us something and are necessary. We can be grateful that Heavenly Father loves us enough to teach us and make us into something stronger, something better than we could be on our own.

Miracles happen! Hard work eventually pays off! No words are wasted, as our mission president reminds us often. You are all so wonderful and I'm so appreciative of all the work you do to help local missionaries and tell friends about the church. There really is nothing that makes missionaries happier! Love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Love, 
Sister Larson

Chapter 15: Meagan Learns to Love Everyone, and Their Yorkshire Pudding

Dear everyone who gets this letter,

There is sunshine outside and there has been for the past few days and it has been SO NICE. Seriously, I hadn't seen the sun for days before that. The weather here is so beautiful right now! I love it! Unfortunately, it means that the nights are warmer so we have to open our windows, and because we live between two pubs, I woke up at 4 this morning to a drunk guy singing. Love it.

Statue of Queen Victoria in Victoria square, really pretty and European -looking!
(fun fact about the current queen: she loves to gamble,
and so there are so many like gambling places all over.
They're as common as an LDS chapel or an Arctic Circle in Utah)

So this week we worked a lot with our two investigators, Leah and Ting Ting. They are now BOTH scheduled for baptism on the 13th of June! It's Friday the 13th, which is rather ominous, but a member told us that if we get three baptisms on that day, it'll break the spell or curse or whatever. So I guess we're working on that now haha! 

Pictures of some more old buildings. Detail from the Maritime Museum I think. 

Also this week, I tried a Yorkshire pudding for the first time at a member's house. Don't be confused by the name. It's not pudding. It's like a biscuit thing you put gravy on and eat with roast and potatoes. They're really good. I also ate chips with salt and vinegar. Not bad, but I do prefer the American french fries. :) 

This past weekend was a HUGE football match, it was the FA cup, which apparently is important, and the two teams were Hull City (that's where I live) and Arsenal, a team from London. So Saturday we were told to not proselyte after 4 PM because people would be watching the match and/or getting drunk. So that was fun! We just visited some members and it was great. But we lost, which was sad. Next year we'll get that cup for sure!

A cute picture of the sisters just before district meeting!
And also you can check out the wonderful new skirt I bought last p-day, love it!

So now for something actually spiritual that I've learned this week, I have learned love and charity. Sometimes, when you are really trying to develop charity, it means that you need to love everyone. That includes those people who don't love you in return, the people who reject you and say sassy things to you and the hooligans who yell in your ear... I was thinking during personal study, feeling sorry for myself because sometimes people are mean, and I got the thought that "The Saviour loves everyone, even those who rejected Him and crucified Him. Art thou better than He? You're being selfish, Sister Larson." And it was so true! I have since then tried to have the love of all mankind that Nephi promises will bring us eternal life. It's not easy, trust me, but it is attainable and is something we could all work on.

I love you all! Enjoy the last weeks of school before summer! You are all amazing and I am so grateful for all of the support I get from you. Have a super week!

Love,
Sister Larson

Chapter 14: A new investigator and lots of goodies!

Hiya everyone! (quick side note, literally everyone here says "hiya" they think "hey" sounds so American and weird)

Leah (investigator) and I at the RS activity! 
We were learning how to make bags out
 of scarves, but I just tied a big one
 around my shoulders and made a cape
. i'd much rather be a wizard than
 have a posh looking bag... :) 

Well, this week has been super amazing!! First things first, we found a new investigator!!! Her name is Ting Ting, she's a first year university student, and she's from China. We found her street contacting. We were just having a nice conversation with her and then Sis. Huang brought up the church, and she asked Ting Ting if she was interested at all. She was like yeah, totally, and then Sis. Huang said, "Well, do you have time to talk about it?" and Ting Ting said, yeah right now! So both of us were surprised, but we said, uh okay sweet let's go! So we went to a lounge in the university and taught her lesson 1 about the Restoration. It was awesome.

My new, snazzy planner for this transfer. It's cute, huh?

Other funny story about Ting Ting: we challenged her to read the Book of Mormon, which she accepted, and said she could read 6 chapters by the next time we saw her a few days later. So when we were following up, she said, "I'm sorry, I only read one chapter! It was just really long!" So we were kinda confused, but we asked her what she read. She holds up this big chunk of the book and said, "I only got through 1st Nephi" and we said "The whole book??!!" and she said "Yeah" and then we were all like OH MY GOSH that's amazing! So she's just great. And then we cleared up the whole chapter/book thing. :)

Remember zi se de putao zhi? [purple grape juice] I found some at a Chinese store here.
It was a great trip down memory lane!
[Note: this was a staple at our dinner table when our family lived in china]

The other highlight of the week was yesterday, getting to talk to my family through Skype! It was absolutely amazing! I love how it felt like I was back at home, that my family was still my family, and we still have such fun together! 

Photo of Meagan talking to us on Skype.

Tidbit of British culture: They have these things called Jaffa cakes, which are like little soft cookies with orange jelly stuff on them dipped in chocolate. I think they're pretty good, but Sister Huang got sick of them. So while we were at a Chinese member's house, she basically forced this box of Jaffa cakes on us and Sister Huang was like, "Sister Larson LOVES those, give them to her!" So now I have a lifetime supply of Jaffa cakes. I'll never go hungry, haha.

Jaffa cakes. They're pretty decent. For British food. Just kidding, I really like them! 

American candy and dry ranch powder i got from an American member!
She's the best! I love Hershey's! And ranch! 

Well this week has been good with lots of miracles, and it's also been a week of growth as well. The weather has been sunny for a few minutes, then rainy for a few, then sunny, then rainy, etc etc. That's kind of how life is, but if you remember Pres. Uchtdorf's talk, then don't forget to thank Heavenly Father for the rain and the sunshine! Both are so important to the growth of flowers and trees, and they are so important to our spiritual growth as well. I love you all! Have a fantastic week and Happy Mother's Day to all of you mothers! Also, Happy Birthday to my baby brother, who's eleven years old now and not so much of a baby anymore! 

Ta, loves!

Sister Larson

Chapter 13: A bit of Word Fighting and a bit more Teaching

Dajia hao! [Hello everyone!]

Wow I have been in the field for a whole month! That is just insane, it still feels like yesterday when I came to Hull, scared out of my mind and totally overwhelmed! But I've gotten so used to it here at the same time, that I feel like I was born in Hull and that the totality of my existence has been here. 

So this week has been pretty great, we are working a lot with our two current investigators, Bruce and Leah, both of whom are Chinese. Bruce has been investigating the church for almost a year now, and still isn't baptized. We call him our "dry member" because he comes to church and the YSA FHE we put on  every week and yet he won't be baptized. So we've been reading the Book of Mormon with him these past two weeks to help him better understand it. He's really liked it so far and last week, he called us to set an appointment! It was just awesome.

Leah is a Chinese student who is really funny and is just so great. She has said before that she doesn't like to pray because she doesn't feel close enough to Heavenly Father to pray, so we're working on that. We had a great spur-of-the-moment lesson on faith with her, when we were planning to teach her Lesson 2, the plan of salvation. It was a great lesson and I'm glad that my companion and I were being led by the Spirit so we could teach well!

This week I have also seen some very interesting things that I have not seen before my mission. We saw a drunk guy keel over on the street and thought that he might have been dead. So we were wondering whether or not we should call 999 and if he was still breathing when a policeman flipped on his lights and came over and picked him up. So that was fun. :) 

Sister Huang is still so awesome. She's really funny. Because English isn't her first language, she'll say some things sometimes that aren't quite what I would say as a native English speaker. For example, if we pretend to argue, she says that we are "word fighting" and then if we start punching each other, which does happen haha, she says that it's "physical fighting". But she never says "arguing" or anything like that, which I think is funny. We have lots of fun and we are staying together for this transfer, yay! We are also now the only Chinese speakers in the zone, the other Chinese speaking Elder is being transferred to Newcastle.

My first district in the field!
With Sis. Tafengatoto, Sis. Huang, Sis. Pacis, me, Elder Veitch, and Elder Knoll.
We are all from different countries! Tonga, Taiwan, Philippines, USA, Canada, Austria!
It's a great district.

Well this week has definitely been better, but I've also learned that I can't change my circumstances, I can only change my attitude. Sometimes I'm tempted to be lazy and not work as hard as I could, or that I don't want to try speaking with Chinese people on the streets, but I have been really working on trying to be positive and willing to do what my leaders might ask. I know that our perspective on life is built entirely by us, that we can have a good life no matter what if we look at the bright side of things. I love you all and hope that you have a great week! Happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers, you are all so wonderful and it's because of you that these missionaries are out here serving. :) Ta, loves! Have a fantastic week!

Love,
Sister Larson

Chapter 12: An Exercise in Patience and Unsalted Vegetables

Nimen hao!

So this week was pretty crazy. Lots of exciting things happened, and lots of disappointing things. Unfortunately, not every day will bring lots of investigators and lessons, as I've had to learn recently. 

So this week on Thursday, I went to Beverly on an exchange with Sister Scott, one of the sister training leaders. She's Scottish, which is funny because of her last name, and she's super sweet. In Beverly, which is an English-speaking only area, we ride bikes, or cycles, as the Brits call them. And we ride them in rain or shine. Lucky for me, it was rain. We were riding to a lunch appointment with a member and got so completely soaked, my dress was damp for the rest of the day and my hair... I don't even want to talk about my hair. But, it was fun and we laughed about it. Eventually. 

That day we also went knocking, which was interesting for me because in Hull, we don't do knocking. It's a bit too sketchy and the students are never really home at one time. So we knocked on this old guy's door, he was a bit brusque but let us come in and talk to him about life and religion. He said that the scriptures were a bunch of fairy stories and that anyone who believed in religious crap was completely mental. (That's British for "stupid"). He also told me that all Americans are idiots and that we need the British to help tell us what to do. Well. That was another instance where I had to chant "I'm a missionary, I'm a missionary, Christlike love," in my head to keep me from saying something sassy back. He was an interesting guy, suffice it to say, and I'm never going back there ever.

For service this week, we went to the chapel and helped a member put on a huge birthday party for her kid. We blew up balloons, set up food, and then got to watch the magic show that was done for the kids. It was hilarious seeing the kids get so freaked out whenever he would pull out a dove or a scarf or something. And it was really fun to serve as well, that's the most important part.

So when I was in Beverly, Sister Huang was supposed to meet with Winnie, but sadly, she flogged us. Flogged is either a missionary word or a British word, I'm not quite sure, but it means she stood us up, which was really sad. We've called her a couple times and she won't answer us. I'm pretty sad and I want to be able to see her again and help her out with whatever she's going through, but I also have to trust that the Lord knows the situation better than I do, and that He will help me get through whatever happens. 

But all that aside, I found an amazing scripture that applies not only to missionaries, but every member of the church! It's 3 Nephi 5:13 and it says, "Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life." When I read this, I was like, Yeah I am! I'm a missionary! But then I remembered that every member is a disciple of Jesus Christ, and anyone who is willing to follow Him is His disciple as well. We represent Him, and we are trying to help bring about the immortality and eternal life of all men. I know that it is hard sometimes, I know that it's not always fun or exciting. But I know that there is a purpose to this, and I'm learning so much every day. I would never give up this experience for anything, and if I didn't know without a doubt that this church was true, then I definitely wouldn't be here. So be bold and be happy! You are disciples of Jesus Christ, and as such, you have great responsibilities and the entitlement to great blessings. 

I love you all! Keep up all the good that you are doing! I appreciate all of your support and prayers, it really keeps me going. You're wonderful! Have a super fantastic week!

Love,
Sister Larson


Bonus feature: An excerpt from Meagan's email to me about the food in England:

On my exchange, Sister Scott asked if there was anything I didn't eat. I said I could stomach almost anything except seafood, I really hate it. So what did we have for dinner both Thursday and Friday? Fish. We had fish pie on Thursday, with salmon and cod and prawns (shrimp for you Americans) and then salmon on Friday night. The salmon wasn't that bad, but oh my goodness I still don't like fish. You'd be so proud of me for smiling and choking down those baby shrimps. Also, the British don't put salt on their anything. Especially the vegetables. So that's been fun too. Either way, I'm getting used to it and I knew that I wasn't coming to England to try all of the amazing exotic food they have here, heehee. While these days have been hard and discouraging, I still am glad I'm here. I know that it can't stay horrible forever and that if I put the focus on others instead of on me, improvement will happen.

Chapter 11: Accepted invitations, the true meaning of Easter, and a punk kid is spared by Meagan's longsuffering

Da jia hao!

So this week I don't have a ton of time to write a bunch of things, but I'll start off with the most exciting news for those of you who don't always care to read the whole message... I don't blame you, when I get going I just can't stop! Anyways. We invited our investigator to be baptized and she said yes!! And I'm the one who invited her, in chinese! It's pretty exciting because she's really our only investigator at the moment, and because she's just so great. Oh, it's Winnie by the way, I think I talked about her last e-mail, where we started teaching her under the assumption that she was just helping me with my Chinese. So it's great to see how far she's come. She's scheduled for baptism on May 23 and I am just so excited!

Some lovely pics of these head statues at uni[versity],
and some lovely views of the greenery of England.
All of the buildings are so old. and those head statues are weird,
they're in front of the law building, which makes no sense.

Me and my companion, Sister Huang with the head. we're picking his nose

Other than that, we've been working with some other less actives and recent converts. I think the hardest thing about being on a mission is trying to help people change their lives and come closer to Christ, but they aren't willing to do things. It's so frustrating! I just want to tell them, You could be so much happier! Let me help you! But agency is the greatest gift we have been given, and I have to respect that.

We had our zone training meeting last Thursday and it was great, the Spirit was so strong when we shared a few experiences about when we felt success on our missions. I felt kind of like a poser because I haven't been out that long, but I shared Winnie's story and inviting her to be baptized and it was just great.

I also had ranch dressing on my salad at a member's house this week. It was an amazing, beautiful experience. Not many people here use salad dressing, they use this stuff called salad cream. It's gross. So the ranch was basically heavenly. 

More lovely views of England in the spring.

I also got my full Chinese name this week from my trainer! We worked for like half an hour finding something I liked, but we finally settled on Lin An Jia. Lin is my last name, so my missionary chinese name is Lin Jiemei, and An Jia is my first name, which means peaceful and good. So, it's super fitting, yeah? :)

Easter was great, even though it didn't really feel like Easter because I didn't hunt for eggs or have a big dinner. The talks in Sacrament were great, particularly the one from Elder Gibb, the senior Elder in our district. He talked about his sister's battle with dementia and how it was heart-breaking for him to watch her forget everyone, even her own family. But he also said that through the Atonement of Christ, he has found comfort and solace. And that's what the Atonement is for: to strengthen us and comfort us. I know that I have felt uplifted by my Saviour on those lonely nights when I have been frustrated and yelled at and just want to go home. That's when I remember why I'm here: so that I can share the message of this wonderful event with others, hoping that they will be willing to hear it. Remember that the Lord loves you so much! That's the true message of the gospel.

My pet, xiao ji as he's called in Chinese,
or Sam as he's called in English.
I got him from a member who's a Chinese YSA
the first time I met her, like my second day here.

Well, I love you all and hope you've had an amazing Easter! Some days are good and some days are less good, but I know that when we try to do our best, we are successful! In England, when we want to say "thank you," we say "ta, love". So, ta loves! You're all wonderful!

Love,
Sister Larson

P.S. I just remembered another story! Elder Holland would be so proud. Last night, I was walking along the road, trying to get to the YSA FHE activity we have every monday night, when some punk kid on a bike yelled in my ear and freaked me out, and then yelled some racist things at my companion, who's an Asian. Oh, I wanted to chase him and yank him by his little punk hood and give him a piece of my mind, but I remembered Elder Holland's story in conference about the sister who had mashed potatoes thrown at her, and I thought of what Christ would have done in my situation. So I just smiled at that punk and tried to think Christlike thoughts and said nothing else. It's so so hard to do. But it's what Christ would do, and I'm trying to be like Him. I know we all can be if we really try! Wo ai nimen!

Chapter 10: Meagan's first week in England-- Salvation is not a cheap experience

Dear jiating he pengyoumen,

I'm finally in England!!! It was a long, boring journey, including a 6 hour layover in the London airport while I was jetlagged and running out of stuff to do, but I finally made it to the mission home around 2 in the afternoon on Wednesday. I was picked up by the two APs and did some business, then was driven about an hour east to Hull, my first area! My trainer's name is Sister Huang, she's from Taiwan and so speaks fluent Mandarin, but she's also very fluent in English, so that's wonderful. We live in a flat between two pubs, or like night club things so weekend nights are very interesting, with two other Sisters, Sister Tafengatoto and Sister Pacis. They are English speakers but are from Tonga and the Philippines. 

Everyone who wore polka dots to travel!
Me, Elder Moore, Sister Kwan, Sister Berrey

So this week there is so much to say, I'll have to restrain myself. First, there are accents everywhere! This area is less posh and fancy, there's lots of druggies and single moms and teenage partiers, so that's been interesting to get used to. I'm the foreigner now, and people automatically are like "oh, you're American" and I just smile like Yup. They sometimes think it's cool. Unless they're Mormon, they don't know where Idaho is. So, that's always fun to explain. British people, as you know, use different words than I do, so when I say trash can, they're like no, it's a dust bin or a rubbish bin. Among others. They also drive on the wrong side of the road. I've almost gotten in to member's cars and the driver's side when they told me to go sit in the front. So that's been interesting to get used to as well.

Our study room in our flat! Our flat is really narrow
and has stairs all over the place. It's weird.

So far, we've visited a few members, and now we're mainly working with less actives and recent converts. One of them is Vania. She was baptized in December I think and is Chinese. We go to her house for lunch or tea (tea appointments mean like dinner appointments, so tea is dinner). She works with music and music mixing, so we're trying to help her keep her standards and we're also trying to get her to go to all three hours of church, about every other week she only comes to Sacrament meeting. We also have FHE with Suki and her son William every week. Suki is older and has two older kids, but she also has William, her 7yo at home with her. She speaks Cantonese and Mandarin and not much English, but William speaks really good English. He was shy with me at first, but now he likes to give me stickers and show me stuff on his mom's phone. He's great. They come to church every week, so that's awesome. 

We also have a sort-of, almost, kind of, new investigator. Her name is Winnie, and she is a street contact from a few weeks back. She likes singing, so Sister Huang was going to invite her to church choir but didn't know when the practices were, so she never set up an appointment or anything. So when I came, we had the idea to ask Winnie to help me with my Chinese since it's terrible, and she agreed. Saturday evening we went over and I was like, okay I'll say some stuff and you correct my grammar and pronounciation. So then I taught her the first lesson in chinese, with her correcting me. At first, it was all about the Chinese and not really listening to what I was saying, but at the end when we were talking about praying and the Holy Ghost, she actually had questions and wanted to listen to us. It was awesome! So we're meeting her later today to help check her essay (another way we try to get to talk to Chinese investigators - I love English grammar and I'm good at it:) and hopefully we'll get her to come to the YSA FHE they hold here every Monday night as well. 

I think the hardest thing to get used to so far is not being afraid to talk to people, be it members, investigators, Chinese, English, strangers. It's pretty hard for me. It's also hard to go to Chinese appointments because they just jabber to Sister Huang and I don't really follow the conversation. My Chinese will come in time, and during that time I can work on developing patience!

One funny thing that I didn't really know the English had was squash. It's like liquid fruit concentrate juice stuff that you add to water to make a juice drink thing. It's pretty weird, but it doesn't taste too bad.

British money! 10£ note, and then 1p, 2p, 20p, 50p, and 1£ coins.

Well I know that was a way long e-mail, sorry about that, but I love my mission so far! It is so so hard, so different from what I was expecting, but I do love it. The ward is great, they're all very nice and willing to feed us and help us out. I know the Lord is watching over us! This work is hard because, according to Elder Holland, "salvation is not a cheap experience". It is so true! We are trying to help change people's lives, which is not easy and never has been easy. But I think it will be worth it. I'm excited to see what I will learn and experience here in England. I love you all, especially you missionaries! Keep working hard and reading your scriptures!!

Ai,
Sister Larson