Aug 9th 2010

Hey,

Well we have had a pretty good week. We had a really good lesson with Lorraine, we went over with Bishop Hare. It was cool because we had planned to teach the Restoration, and we said the opening prayer, but as we were praying I felt like we needed to spend more time just getting to know her and building a relationship, so we asked her some questions and told her about ourselves and then we ended up just talking with her for a long time and she expressed that she was going through a hard time with her marriage, and so we talked about how the church is like a family and would really be able to help her. She was very grateful for our discussion and said for sure that she would be able to make it to church. It was great to have bishop there too, he added some really good insights. But then Sunday she wasn't able to make it because she had a death in the family. So she is going through an even rougher time now and could use your prayers.

We had a pretty cool experience this week with a less active family. They are the ones a couple weeks ago that we asked to give us a ride but he ended up calling someone else. Well we were talking about prayer, and it was a good lesson because she felt like she didn't receive answers to her prayers. So we talked about what we have to do on our end to get answers. And then a thought came to me that I should tell them a great place to receive answers to prayers is by coming to church and feeling the spirit. So i told her, and then she agreed and she said that she wanted to come but that she didn't like coming without her husband. She said that one time she was in the temple by herself and it like really sunk in that she was alone, and she felt like she was leaving her husband behind, so now she doesn't want to come to church or go to the temple without him, and as she was telling us this she started crying, which, is definitely the most awkward and uncomfortable thing about missionary work, and it freezes me up better than anything else, but it is good because it means they are sincere and often that they are feeling the spirit. So I felt frozen, and really bad for her that her husband wasn't being supportive. But then words just came to me, and I asked the husband what was holding him back, and he gave me his reason and then I asked him if that was more important than his family. The spirit was helping me be bold and know what to say, the words were just coming out of my mouth. Well then Sunday rolled around and we went to the chapel to drop off our bags and it was about fifteen minutes before sacrament meeting started and I was so happy because when we walked into the chapel there whole family was already there sitting along one of the back rows, and they stayed all three hours. And it was a very spiritual sacrament meeting and priesthood was good too, so I am hoping they will keep coming. And I don't want to take any credit, but it was really cool that we were able to help them come to church together. Its cool how when you are working with people you start to really care about them so much, I guess love them, and you want more than anything for them to accept the joy that comes from living the gospel. So seeing them together as a family at church was the best feeling. Well, I love you and thanks for the email as always. Yes I remember doing swim lessons. I liked seeing the Grimes while we did them but not swimming.

Elder Larson