Chapter 9: Meagan Leaves the USA; Her Mission Leeds Us To Believe She is Not in Heaven, But Maybe in Hull

For this week's blog, we present a smattering of text and pictures documenting Meagan's exciting week as she has left the MTC and is now in England.  First, part of her final MTC email to her family:

Dear jiating,

Well it's my last day at the MTC and they gave us some time in the morning to e-mail, do laundry, and pack. So far my suitcases aren't going over the weight limit, which I am very happy about. Other than that, it's been so crazy busy this past weekend. On Friday we had in-field orientation all day, which was kind of like EFY a little bit. It was okay, but there were lots of Yingwens (English speakers) there who like don't know anything so it was mostly targeted towards them. Basically it was about stuff I've already learned in the MTC. But I still got a few things out of it, so yay. Then Saturday was Conference. Being that this is like the first year in ages where I've listened to all four sessions, it was amazing. There were so many good talks! I hope you all enjoyed it too, especially the ones about working with missionaries in the ward (nudge nudge). :) In between sessions, we just hung out in the classroom, signing bye bye books (or bye bye shus, as we call them. Hopefully Dad will be able to figure that out). I'm really sad to be leaving these missionaries, I love all of them so much! Especially the ones in my district, we got really close. So it's a bittersweet farewell. Anyways, Saturday night we watched the General Women's Meeting, which was pretty good. I liked the video of the different language "I Am a Child of God" or "Wo shi Shen di haizi" as we say in Zhongwen. Then Sunday we got up and watched Music and the Spoken Word and then Conference. Sunday morning was my favorite session I think. Then we ate lunch, then watched afternoon session, which was also good, and then we walked to the temple and took zone and district pictures with everyone. And then today we are just packing and getting ready to go!  You won't hear from me for a little bit because I won't have a p-day this wednesday, because I'll be arriving in England! I'm excited but nervous, so hopefully I'll get there in one piece! I have loved the MTC, it's been one of the best experiences of my life so far, but I am excited to move on with my mission and have my first "transfer"! I love love love you all, thanks for all of the letters and packages you've sent to me while I was here. Be good and nice and share the gospel! Wo ai nimen!

Love,

Meagan

 Along with this email, we got some pictures and some amusing descriptions to go with them.  I can't say I appreciate the "dad" comments:

All the sisters in the zone! the one with beautiful blonde hair
 in the middle is Sister Branch. I love her! And the Asian one on the end is
 Sister Phelps, who is so cute and gives the best hugs. I will miss them so much!

Our district! Like any family photo, there wasn't any one where we
 all looked super great. In the first one, Savage is looking
 too cool for school. And then I think in the next one, Faddis
 isn't smiling and is squinting. He was like dad and was whining like
 "The sun's in my eyes! I can't smile for this long! I'm uncomfortable!"

Meagan has a perfectly good Canon camera that she got a few years back for Christmas and it still works well.  Apparently it has taken on a life of its own in the MTC:

Also, everyone (meaning the elders) likes to make fun of my camera. They call it the dinosaur egg, Faddis makes some snarky comment about how they used it when Lincoln was president, Johnson is always like "you have to wait for Larson, she has to change the bulb on her camera," and then I was pretty amazed to learn that not everyone's cameras run on AA batteries like mine does. Everyone made fun of me for that too. We also call my camera like an indestructible weapon. They're all like "You can't take weapons on the airplane, but you can take your camera, so I think you'll be safe from anyone and everyone" and when the elders bug me I threaten to hit them with the brick and they stop. And the other day at the temple I was swinging it around and I accidentally hit Faddis in the hand with it and he just looked at me and then like freaked out like it hurt really bad. So yeah, that's the story of my camera. :)

Finally, this morning (Thursday), we got an email from the England Leeds Mission office, including a letter which reads, in part:

Dear Brother and Sister Larson,

It is with pleasure we welcome your daughter, Sister Meagan Anne Larson, to the England

Leeds Mission. We find her prepared and committed to serve the Lord and to share the

message of the Restored Gospel.

Your daughter's first companion is Sister Huang, who was prayerfully selected to ensure

the best introduction to missionary work for Sister Larson. They will be serving in the

Hull 1 Sister Area in the Hull Zone. We are confident their relationship will be a mutual

blessing.

Weekly encouragement from home will certainly help inspire Sister Larson's missionary

effort. We encourage you to write her once a week with your letters uplifting in spirit.

Please let other family and friends know how important it is to write positive, encouraging

letters that support missionary work. 

We also received this picture of Meagan in the mission home.  We are so excited to hear her first report! The blog will probably be updated on Monday or Tuesday now, instead of Wednesday or Thursday, coinciding with her weekly emails home.