Hello again! Happy 20th of February! Today is my 16th month mark! Which
means I only get 17 months and a week and a day, when all is totalled
up. I'm feeling kind of gypped right now.
Well, this week was great.
Sr. W stayed sick Monday and Tuesday (apparently she's cursed and get's
sick every Valentine's Day, fun....) so Tuesday I perfected the art of
the sugar cookie. I'm not kidding, the cookies I produced were
beautiful. They look like Granny B's except better because I made them.
And ever since then we've been delivering them. It's funny trying to
explain a sugar cookie to a french person, they're like, don't all
cookies have sugar?
I think my mission has taught me patience, especially with people. I've
learned to see and be excited by even the smallest baby step in the
people I teach. And each disappointment or trial, every bit of fatigue,
is all made up for in the love that the Lord pours into our hearts, and
the Spirit that fills us with hope and keeps us going. This week we had
the opportunity to visit an inactive member of the branch and as we
taught her I was surprised by the love that I felt for her as I listened
to her talk. I don't know her well, I've only met her once before. But
as she cried telling us about the things she's struggling with, I wanted
to just throw my arms around her. We read to her from President
Uchtdorf's talk, "Forget me not" and the Spirit in the room was
tangible. I love loving people into the Church. Once at a training with a
member of the Seventy, he asked us what it was that kept us going when
everything else made us want to give up, and I thought of the love of
our Heavenly Father and of our Savior. When it feels like nothing could
make things right, or nothing could make me go on, it's been the
knowledge that they love me and believe in me and would do and have done
anything for me that has helped me get up again and put one foot in
front of the other. Since then it has been that, more than anything,
that I try to share with the people I teach.
Off my soap box...
Oh funny story this week, we had to teach the law
of Chastity to a couple we're teaching who are living together. This
might sound wierd, but the law of chastity might be my absolute favorite
thing to teach. Because the blessings are just out of control. And
because it's something that many people here have never heard. Anyway we
got to their apartment and Kevin was there alone in a a rather
depressed state so we made him get up and come outside, get some fresh
air, and learn about the law of chastity! It was funny. He started
listing off all the reasons his life is terrible because he hasn't lived
the law of chastity and he went on for quite a while. So long, in fact,
that we had about five minutes left to teach. So we went on about a
wonderful thing that the Lord has given us to avoid all those terrible
feelings of fear and jealousy and guilt and who knows what else so that
we can have wonderful happy families! And then we handed him True to the
Faith, dog-eared on the section about chastity, and told him his
homework was to read it and focus on the blessings. He opened the book,
read the title, and started to giggle. Sometimes people think we're
joking.
I'm SO TIRED! I've never been so tired in my whole life. Which puts me
in that state where everything is funnier than it normally should be.
So, good news, I spend a good part of my time laughing. Also this week,
while still cold, has been less so, and the SUN IS SHINING! Hooray! So I
go about my days in awe, remembering that I'm living my dream. The Lord
is good to me.
I love you all!
Soeur Larsen
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