Soeur Larsen: Part XXXX

Conference is the best thing EVER. I was GIDDY when they announced the temples, absolutely GIDDY. The smile on my face hurt me, it was so big. First of all, PROVO?!?!?! Did NOT see that one coming. Also I just feel like every moment I spent in that tabernacle just became super cool. Never doubt the ability of the Lord to sanctify your experiences :) The Lord doesn't do anything halfway. Also, the temple in Congo felt basically like getting a temple in my own mission because I have probably taught more Congolese people than French or Belge. And our ward has a good Congolese showing, so they were pretty excited about that. Also, STAR VALLEY! Haha. Woot! Hometown of my hero, Asher Cox! And therefore awesome. And of course, Paris France! It's coming! I'm so excited! The work of the Lord will go forth! Even though that was a very vague announcement...

Which reminds me of one of my favorite AHA moments this week, which I wanted to share. So, this week we invited hundreds of people to General Conference. That is not an exaggeration. Hundreds. I bore my testimony of the living prophet til I was blue in the face. (That one was an exaggeration...) And, well we had less than hundreds show up, I'll just say that. So in between conference sessions I was reading the story of Alma the Younger, because recently I've just been fascinated by that story and reading it over and over, looking to figure out WHY Alma the Younger got to see an angel. Why was it that the Lord intervened in that way at that time for that man? It was triggered by reading one of the quotes by Elder Holland (love that man) where he said that the work of the Lord is about calling down angels and miracles to help his children. I thought, I would LOVE to call down an angel or two. So what do I have to do? Well, I learned a LOT that I probably don't have time to share but with regard to people not showing up to Conference, the scripture that hit me was Mosiah 27:13, where the angel of the Lord is speaking to Alma and says that the Lord said, "This is my church, and I will establish it; and nothing shall overthrow it, save it is the transgression of my people." This is MY church, and I WILL establish it. NOTHING shall overthrow it, save it is the trangression of my people. The work of the Lord WILL go forth, until it has filled the whole earth. Israel WILL be gathered. Because our God is the same God that brought Israel across the Red Sea on dry ground. He is the same God who changed Saul into Paul, and Alma the Younger into one of the greatest missionaries of all time. The very hardest of hearts cannot be kept from changing once the Lord decides to touch them. All those who are meant to hear and accept the gospel will hear and accept it. Therefore it is not the hard heartedness of Europeans, nor their culture nor the many other things we like to list that might get in the way of the work. It is only the transgression of those who are already members that will change things. If we are sanctified, the Lord will change the hearts of those for whom we pray and labor. They have, of course, their free agency, but there are not many who will taste of the love of the Savior in the way Alma did who would then turn their back on it, never to taste of it again. Maybe I will sanctify myself, will work my little rear end off, pray without ceasing, and never baptize another person during my mission. But I KNOW that because of my prayers and personal sanctification, the Lord will intervene in the lives of those people when the time is right, and I have absolute faith that they will taste of his love, see his light, and never turn back. I know it because I know that where I am right now has nothing to do with me. It is the result of the prayers and faithful service of generations before me and the wonderful friends and family around me. And I will never turn back :) There is nothing I know more than that I have found the truth, I have found the fountain of all joy and peace and comfort, I have found the iron rod in the midst of darkness, and there is nothing that scares me more than letting go!

Sorry if that sounded soap boxy. I just get going... so yes, this conference was basically the best thing that ever happened to me. I hope it was the same for you :) Hey mom, guess what? I even made cinnamon rolls! Except then halfway through I realized that in my excitement I had overlooked the fact that we had no cinnamon. So, I improvised. haha. It's ok, someday I'll be a domestic goddess like you. As for how we watch conference over here, we watch both the morning sessions live. Here's how it went down: Saturday night we watched the RS session (LOVE, I can see forget me nots becoming a super popular theme in Utah...) and then had a baptism! (Her name is Mayra and she is beautiful and so sweet and the Spanish elders taught her) and then watched the Saturday morning session live from 6 to 8. And then Sunday they show the Priesthood session from 11 to 1, and then we all ate lunch together, and then watched the Saturday afternoon session 2 til 4, then ate dinner, then music and the spoken word and the Sunday morning session live. And I'm not sure when we'll see the Sunday afternoon session... In versailles we watched it the next sunday, in place of RS/Priesthood and Sunday School. On verra. Oh also, I watched it in French! First session I got a headache, it's just not the same as the normal everyday conversational French, my brain was trying to translate it and then feel emotionally involved about it and then figure out which investigator to share it with, so the other sessions I just tried to listen for the spirit and it was AMAZING. I took pages of notes, things just came to mind and I was being taught and it was just wonderful. I still caught most of the stories, like President Monson, SO funny. I LOVE that man. I love that I know that he is a Prophet, called and inspired by God. I love that I know where I can look for truth and guidance. I love that I know what our standards are and that they don't change.

Oh, I almost forgot! We are teaching a wonderful family from California (go figure) and the two children are getting baptized! The mother was baptized years ago but has been inactive since and has just recently started coming back to church and she wants her kids to be baptized. So we met them this week and I LOVE them. It was absolute chaos in their home, it made me MISS being in a family! SO good! I was just dying laughing inside. On the outside I tried to keep it together. Also they are all geniuses. The mother is amazing, she has a master's degree in religion and she was telling us all this stuff about the Bible and about trips to Israel and Jerusalem and my favorite was her reaction to the Book of Mormon. She freaked out when we told her it had only been translated once. Seriously freaked out. It was the best reaction to the Book of Mormon I have ever seen. "You mean to tell me that this book hasn't been changed? It's like God saw how much we messed with the Bible and decided to give us another chance with the truth! This book is direct from the prophets?! I need to read this book! Why did I never read this book? You need to tell more people about this book!" haha. Tell me about it, lady. Maybe if I talked about it all the time with that much excitement in my voice... Other random funny thing, the baby in this family is named Jaguar. Yeah. And there's another toddler in our ward named Tiger. So, Tiger and Jaguar are going to be friends.

Ok, that is all. Hooray for the gospel! And everything! Seriously General Conference just got me so pumped for life. I hope everything's going well back home! I feel like I had something else really important to say.... But I can't remember, so obviously not that important. Well, I'm off to go look at some cathedrals now. Oh that reminds me, it is SUPER wierd to me that it is football season back at home! I got a play by play from one of the interns here of the BYU- Utah State game, sounds pretty intense! I felt like I was there. Good times.
LOVE YOU!!!

Soeur Larsen