Chapter 68: The Parable of the Rubik's Cube

Hi everyone!

Well this past week was an improvement on the week before. Firstly, there was a huge massive miracle that I'm just gonna start with: Paul started living the Word of Wisdom completely!!!!!! By himself!!!!! Like we met with him one day and followed up on it and he's like, "Yeah, I'm living it. I decided it was time. No biggie." And I was like "...." Yeah, I was totally speechless. I teared up a little bit. It was fine. :) Miracles happen, guys. All the time. So he is now finishing the preparation for his baptism - I'll let you know how that goes!

Beautiful English clouds (I love the sky here)

Also this week we got to go to a Zone Conference! It was in York this time (ooo, so exotic!) so we had lots of travel to get there and back. The actual conference was really good. Sister Pilkington talked about how attitude is so important. (See last week's e-mail). And President talked a lot about not gossiping or harming others with our words or actions. It was something I really needed to hear and helped me to gain a different perspective on what the word "charity" means. Charity is the pure love of Christ. If you have pure love for everyone, you would never say or listen to anything mean or negative about someone else. So like President Uchtdorf said, when it comes to gossiping, stop it! 

By now you might be wondering what the title of this e-mail has to do with anything. Well I'll tell you. On the bus back from conference, we as missionaries were getting bored. One Elder brought his Rubik's cube (he brings it all over and uses it in street contacting). So my district leader started teaching me how to solve a Rubik's cube. And this is where the parable begins:

And it came to pass that the sister missionary asked her district leader, Behold, how is it done? And the district leader answered her questions and showed her how to move the cube in order to solve the puzzle, the great cube of Rubik. 

And it came to pass that the sister missionary began to be astonished, and slowly started to learn how to solve the puzzle.

But behold, that night when the sister missionary took the cube of Rubik home, it came to pass that she completely forgot how to solve the bottom of the cube. And so during her nightly follow up, she asked the district leader, How is it done?

And the district leader did not directly answer her question, but instead gave her a hint to remind her of things she had already learned. And it came to pass that the sister missionary was satisfied and solved the cube, with much help and guidance and advice from her district leader.

And behold, when the morning came, the sister missionary began to solve the cube again. But behold, she got stuck, and began to be distressed, because she could not solve the cube on her own.

And it came to pass that in nightly follow ups, the sister missionary meekly asked again of the district leader, How is it done?

And the district leader in his much patience and wisdom guided her slightly and then told her to figure it out herself because he had other people with whom he needed to speak. And he also had much confidence in her abilities and so knew that she could do it on her own. (Or at least, we shall assume so for the sake of this parable).

And it came to pass that the sister missionary toiled and laboured and learned how to solve the great cube of Rubik all by herself. And behold, now she is a boss at the cube of Rubik and can solve it in under six minutes. Which is quite impressive considering she has never before learned how to solve such a great puzzle.

A "my companion locked me out of the flat" selfie. :)

The end. Sorry for the really long parable, but there is some correlation between this and prayer: Sometimes we pray for help and guidance, and we receive it step by step. However, we sometimes get to a point where we ask a question and Heavenly Father needs only to give us a gentle prompting to help us find the answer for ourselves. Sometimes he lets us figure our questions out for ourselves completely. The important thing to remember, however, is that He will always help and guide us, though it might be through different methods. :)

I hope you all had a great week and a good long weekend! The work here in Newcastle continues to go forward despite setbacks and miracles happen everyday! Love you all!

Love,

Sister Larson

Chapter 67: Attitude is Everything

Hey everyone!

So this week has been interesting to say the least. Basically, we didn't get to teach a lot and instead did mostly street contacting. And most of the street contacting we did was unsuccessful. All of the students here start taking their exams this week, so last week they were studying like crazy. I mean, crazy. One of our investigators didn't sleep for like almost three days. He's still alive, don't worry, but man these guys are crazy for studying. 

However, we as a companionship decided early in the week that we were going to be positive and happy no matter what happened. And that we would encourage each other to do that. And guess what? We were happy, despite the fact that practically everyone we stopped on the street rejected us! Haha, it was a great learning experience for me. I realised that you always have a choice of how you're going to react to situations - you always choose your attitude. So if you choose to have a positive attitude and look for the good things in life, then you're going to have an awesome life! 

Other good news: Martin is the best recent convert ever. He made us dinner last week and it was absolutely amazing. He's a pro chef. And he made us a lot of food. Also, he got the Aaronic Priesthood on Sunday (the same day as my little brother!) so that was really exciting. I love seeing people progress in the gospel! 

Well I hope you all had a great week, rain or shine! Remember to stay happy and look at the blessings in your life! Love you all!

Love,

Sister Larson

P.S. Sorry my pics are lame this week. I only have pictures of food. But I forgot to mention - we're getting our iPads on Wednesday!!!  So I'm sure you'll be getting pictures of that next week. :)

Martin's fried chicken (MFC). He didn't have anything to drain the oil
 on (we were at Crystal's house) and so Crystal put it on a cheese grater.
 And he thought that that was the dumbest thing ever. But it worked.
 Sorry that was a random story that has nothing to do with anything.
 But I thought I had to explain the inexplicable cheese grater in the picture.

Martin made us delicious pasta and amazing steak. It was really good steak.
Side note - that's the first time I've had steak on my mission. Yes, I know I've
 been here for like 15 months already haha.

Chapter 66: Best Weekend Ever!

Hello everyone!

So like I said, this weekend was awesome. Why? I'll tell you. Because on Saturday, Martin got baptised!!!!!!!!!! Yay!!!!!!!!! He and this guy named Vincent (who has been investigating for about as long as I've been in Newcastle) were baptised!!!!!!! It was tied for the highlight of the week. It was a great service, the Spirit was so strong, and I'm so proud of Martin for making this decision. He has come so far since the first time we met him! His story was just a miracle from beginning to end. It truly was a testimony to me of how people are prepared by the Lord for us to find and teach. So yeah that was amazing.

Also, I got to talk to my wonderful family on Sunday! That was probably also the highlight of my week. They're just so cute! I can't wait to see them again in a few months. It made me realise once again how important the family is to us as individuals and as a central part of God's plan for all of us. So treasure your families! 

Well this week was also transfer calls. I found out that I'm staying in Newcastle yet again! This means I'm most likely going to stay here for the rest of my mission. I'm excited to see the further miracles that are waiting here in this wonderful city that I love! 

I hope you all have a great week and that you go and tell your families that you love them!!! Love you all!

Love,

Sister Larson

This is me and Sister Xie taking selfies. Because we can.
Also my eyes look ridiculously big. Sister Xie calls me a
Chihuahua because she says my eyes are too big for my body. Whatevs.

The actual castle!!! This is the field where they filmed
the flying scene in Harry Potter 1. It was so great. I walked
on the same ground that Daniel Radcliffe walked on. Hehe. :)

More pics of Alnwick, particularly of me when I dressed up like a princess.
 Yes, I'm an adult. Yes, we were the only adults there dressing up. No, I am not ashamed. :)

This is me and my comp. I am the queen and she is the king.

 Apparently, it's because she has the bigger chair.

Flying a broomstick at Alnwick castle last week!!
 I am just too cool for the world. Also i'm a boss at flying now.

Chapter 65: i think we are going to Pad our stats soon

Hi everyone!

Well this week had some exciting things and some less than awesome things. But we'll just gloss over the not so cool stuff and jump to the cool stuff:

On Friday we had a meeting with all of the missionaries from the whole mission in Leeds. It was pretty cool to see so many missionaries gathered all at once! Plus also I got to see all my buddies. :) The reason for this meeting was to inform and educate us about the proper use of technology as a missionary. That's right, we're a test mission for further developing the use of iPads! So that's pretty exciting. We'll be getting them in a few weeks. It was a great meeting, Elder Dyches of the Seventy and Elder Allen who's like the head of the missionary department were there with their wives. One thing they said that really stuck out to me was that we have the opportunity as missionaries to learn how to use technology properly. We can learn the skills we need to now so that after our missions and later as parents and teachers, we can teach the rising generation how to use technology in uplifting ways, since they'll be so bombarded by it. It was cool to think about, I'd never had that point of view before.

So that was probably the highlight of the week. Other than that, we did lots of street contacting haha. All the students are studying for exams/dissertations/final projects right now so it's really hard to meet with people. However, all of our investigators are still coming along. Martin gets interview for baptism tonight!!! We're so excited and if all goes well, he'll be baptised this Saturday. More on that next week!

Well sorry this will be a bit short, but there really wasn't a whole lot going on this week. We've seen some miracles and we've had some rough times (everyone in the flat but me has been sick at one time or another this past week) but we keep going regardless of what happens! My companion and I get to go up to Alnwick Castle (where they filmed parts of Harry Potter) today, despite the rainy yucky weather. It's going to be great!

I hope you are all still doing well and that you enjoy your Mother's Day this weekend! I for one am positively ecstatic to speak with my family, and I'm especially grateful for my mom. She is the greatest example of womanhood and motherhood to me. She's always caring and always loving. She's AWESOME!! Have a great week everyone! Love you all!

Love,

Sister Larson

Sister Larson and Sister Xie pass the quiddich flying exam

Queen Sister Marsh and her Princesses at the castle

I found Nemo! People stared at me like I was a weirdo when I took this pic, but I couldn't resist. 

There was a beautiful sunset last night where the clouds
 were just a swirly mix of pink and purple. I tried to take a
 picture from the bus window, but it didn't really do it justice.
Well, use your imagination. :) or Photoshop. Whichever works.

Chapter 64: Many Mini Miracles Make Meagan Mirthful

Note: the original title of this email was "Week 64 - My dad is better at coming up with titles for my e-mails, so I'll just let him do it."  She is correct, and so I did. :)

Hello all!

Well this week has been pretty amazing to say the least. After a meeting together as a district to decide what we could do better to improve our area, we decided as a companionship to have shorter lessons with people so we could meet with more people and thus progress our investigators while still supporting our recent converts. And it worked like a charm!!

Paul is officially scheduled for baptism on the 12th of June!!! So excited! We made a plan for him to get over his challenges and be baptised. He has help up his end of our bargain, and I've held up mine as well. :)

Martin is going to be baptised next Saturday, the 9th of May, fingers crossed! He's doing great though and so I have no doubt that he'll make it. He has just progressed so much since the first time we met him. 

Li has a new date now, and with him it really just comes down to whether or not he desires to be baptised. I really hope he does, especially because I've seen him progress a lot too. However, we were all given our agency and so ultimately, all I can do is invite and encourage and pray. 

Jone is also scheduled for late May. He is doing so great! Usually we meet people at the Metro station at 9:30 on Sunday mornings to go to church. He showed up a day early... haha on Saturday morning he calls us and he's all "Where are you guys??" And we said, "Buddy, it's Saturday. Come back tomorrow." And he was like "Oh... Right, sorry." Aw, bless him!! He is so ready.

So basically, this week was just a lot of me getting to witness miracles. Honestly, I barely did anything. I was just obedient and tried to do missionary stuff, and look at what Heavenly Father has blessed us with!! It is so amazing how He is so eager to bless us and all we need to do is obey and wait patiently for the blessings to appear, sometimes subtly, sometimes not, in our lives. I love the gospel! I love being a missionary!! I hope you all had a great week and that the weather continues to be warm and sunny for you! Here it's sunny, not so sure about the warm... Heehee. Love you all!

Love,

Sister Larson

Me and Sister Chee with flowers in our hair

The Elders are really enjoying the springy weather and the beautiful flowers!! Haha.

Grandma, baby, and daughter

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