Touchdown!

Hello everyone, this week was another one full of miracles!  We have been working really hard to help the branch be strengthened.  We had 3 families come back to church this Sunday which is awesome!  

Yesterday we were out teaching with a member of the Branch Presidency who is from Detroit.  After church the Lions were on TV and he was listening/watching it on his phone as we were driving to an appointment.  We got to the appointment and he was like hold on give me a minute… The lady we were visiting had a dog who started barking and she came outside so we walked up to the porch.  He was still playing the game on his phone as we start talking to this lady, he just turned the volume down.  Brother Weathersby is pretty straight up with people so he starts telling her the reason we came by was to get her back to church and that she needed to be there on Sundays. Mid sentence he looks down at his phone and the Lions score a game winning TD, he looks at us and puts his hands up signaling touchdown and continues talking to her hahahaha!  Elder Vest and I about died cause he was really sly about it.  It was pretty dang funny!  

The cool thing that seems to have been a theme this week is the power that the spirit has to bring things to our remembrance. 

John14:26  But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

We have had multiple experiences with people that may have forgotten their baptism day or the blessings that came to them as they were living the gospel, that were able to remember the special feelings that they had because of the spirit. It like a rushing water comes over them as they remember those memories.

The gospel is true. Thanks for all your support! Love you all!

Elder Larsen

Fun on Exchanges in Shreveport! Elders Prater and Smith

Monroe Zone Conference October

Dinner with The Alhalteh Family!

                                        
                                        
                           

                           

 

 

Beheading Shrimp!!

This week was a good one! We saw some cool miracles with our investigators as well as within the branch. We have made it a goal to visit every active member in the branch and share with them some of the things we have been doing. On Friday and Saturday we went on exchanges with Elder Bailey and Elder Weaver who are both studs! We also traveled down to Hattiesburg to go to their ZTM(zone training meeting). Its always fun to travel and see everyone! 

Exchanges in Hattiesburg with Elders Bailey/Weaver

As I was studying this week I was able to come across this cool scripture. The things we go through in this life will not compare to the things we will receive after this life!

Romans 8:18

18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Things are going well!  The weather is starting to cool off here which is super nice! We had a good week of teaching and exchanges.  The Riches had us over for dinner and we had a shrimp boil!  The shrimp were really good. They were fresh from off the coast!  

Shrimp Boil with Riches Family

Beheading Shrimp!

Love you all!!!:)

Elder Larsen

Everyone Bailed!

So this week was a good one with lots of excitement! Tuesday-Thursday we were at different ZTMs. (zone training meetings)

Tuesday we were able to teach Jessica while we were in Shreveport. That was awesome! She hadn’t been in contact with the missionaries all of the past 2 weeks. So it was fun to see her again, we also taught her fiance Carlos. He is agnostic and so it was awesome that he listened to us! 

We got to go see the Osborn Family- on exchanges with Elder Smith in Shreveport!

Friday we were able to go on exchanges with Elder Bledsoe and Elder Gilbert. We went to Gary’s and he had his Systematic Theology book laid out ready to throw some stuff at us....... I was done.. After he went off for a few minutes we shared a few scriptures and then basically told him that what he read was insignificant because of the apostasy which he had already gained a testimony of. We told him that we could go back and forth sharing our different beliefs/opinions of the scriptures but it doesn’t matter because the gospel has been restored to the earth through a Prophet.  We told him that in a nicer way than what I just said though, don’t worry. 

Saturday we went to the Mississippi State Fair to try and contact people. We talked to a lot of people but most of them just told us they would talk to us after the fair was over haha..... 

Sunday we were planning on having some people in church and they had committed and everything but last minute everyone bailed!  That is alright though.

This week has been pretty successful!  We were able to make a lot a plans and goals for the branch and share them with the leaders. They were all on board and wanted to help us out!  Hopefully we can see the Jackson Branch grow in some sort of way to help the people here in Jackson!

I am doing good!!  We got to go have dinner at the Bradburns last night and share with them a video from Jeffery R. Holland!  Gary made some good strides but then bailed on coming to church... We have been working super hard though.  This week we are going to Hattiesburg and then we have an exchange, other than that we are just going to get to work really hard in our area!

Dinner with The Bradburn Family!

                               

Blake Bradburn- Recently returned Missionary!

                                                    

Hope you are all doing well!
Love, Elder Larsen

God Speed!

Hello everyone!

This week was a pretty good one! Things have been pretty crazy here, we were all over the place, we made it through both transfers and MLC which was a miracle… Lets just say we got less sleep than normal haha. We were also able to have some really cool teaching experiences as well. On Saturday we had Gary over to the Mission Home to watch a session of conference with us. It was awesome. Gary said it was a "revelatory experience". He shared what he had learned with us and said "it makes sense why there was a need for a restoration because of all the confusion that was on the earth during the 1400-1800. It was awesome!!

Mission Leadership Conference September

On Sunday we got a few Less-Active members to go and visit from President White. The second one we went and saw was great. Sister Lemrabot, we knocked on her door and she looked a little confused as to why we were there but she let us right in. We talked with her for a while and she told us the reason she hadn’t been coming was because she had been offended and didn’t want to see that person any more. We kept talking and asked about the experiences she had in receiving a testimony of the Book of Mormon as well as when she got baptized. The spirit was there and we talked about Sacrament and miracles and then Elder Vest asked her if she would come back to church on Sunday and she said "Ya, I was told before that I needed to stay there. I will be there" I couldn’t help but smile and laugh because it was the easiest someone has ever just accepted that they needed to come to church!

Conference was awesome. Its cool to see as I actually learn how much the gospel means, it means more to hear them speak. Instead of being forced to watch it I actually want to watch it haha. Kinda funny.  We went to the mission home and watched a session with President and Gary there. He really enjoyed it. It was awesome for him to come!!  The others sessions we were at the branch building. Have I told you before that we meet in an old dentist office?  We only have like 30-50 members. Its way different than in Madison.

Elder Vest is an awesome missionary, he will be fun to learn from the next few weeks. He is from South Jordan area. He is super good at talking to people and teaching in groups and things like that. He is really motivational so President wanted everyone to be able to learn from him his last 6 weeks.  This week we are traveling to Shreveport and Monroe to go to Zone meetings.

Love you all!!

Elder Larsen

Goodbye to Elder Beckstrom

A Sister of a Recent Convert at the Library

                            

  

At our Apartment!