Then I would clap my hands, shout and rejoice!

Haaaaaaaaaaaaayyy guys!

This week I am going to be typing in free prose. In other words, I am not going to make it scriptural language this week. Sorry! I have too much to say!  So this week. Hmmmm. Where to start? So much has happened! Well I guess I can start from the beginning! Last week for P-day we just did preparation stuff, then played basketball with the Elders in our zone. That was fun! I love basketball! Sounds like Kaysie and Mojo are beasting it up in Chico 2! Good on ya!

Left to right: Elder Ee, me, Elder Williams (AP), Elder Puriri (AP), Elder Cocker, Elder Boswell

A hectic miracle!

Tuesday we had a hectic miracle!! So, remember S_____?  Well, a while back, she gave us her address and told us to come visit her partner when he got back from New Zealand. So we decided to follow up on that referral, because we knew that he would be back this week.

So, we roll up to their house, say a quick prayer, and walk up, both unsure of how well it was going to go. They welcomed us in, we sat down and started catching up with T___ and S_____ (T___ is her partner). T___ is mid to late 50's, Cook Islander guy who moved to Queanbeyan like 20 or so years ago. Great guy! So, it turns out that he shares a last name with a missionary in our mission, and he has other family that are members of the church. He has a nephew serving his mission in Hawaii. So he knows about the church. That's cool!

Then I would clap my hands, shout and rejoice!

So, we just started talking to him about the Gospel, drawing it back frequently to his nephew, and what he must be doing. We talked to him about prophets. About the scriptures being the word of God. And how important they are to us. And he ate it up! He told us how important the Bible was to him. How much he treasured the words it contains. He clearly holds the scriptures very dearly. So we asked him "What would you think if you knew that there was more scripture available to read, more of God's words?" He leaned in close to me, starting out whispering, then getting louder, a grin appearing on his face... "Then I would clap my hands, shout and rejoice!"

I couldn't help but have a ginormous grin on my face! We told him that our bold claim to the world was that we have a book, The Book of Mormon, that contains more of God's words to his prophets, and that it functions as a map that leads to eternal life, that it complements and completes the Bible. He was sooooo excited! Before I could offer him the Book of Mormon in my hands, he asked if we could bring him one next time that we came to visit. I simply handed him the one I had, and if you could have seen the smile on his face, the way that he thanked us for it, I know that you would have smiled just as widely as I did. He told us he couldn't wait for us to come back! The Spirit was so strong! We counted ourselves blessed to have the opportunity to witness such a miracle.

Da district at the stake center after zone conference. 

Zone Conference and Stake Conference

Nothing too exciting happened after that until Friday. Friday, President Lew and the Assistants came down to Canberra and held a Zone Conference. It was fantastic! We learned a lot of valuable things from our former Stake President, President L_____ who was released two days later (I will talk about that later) about how to work more effectively with our members. We learned about how we can improve our teaching skills from the assistants. And we had a lot of great training about becoming better missionaries in general from our Mission mom and dad. The Lews are amazing!  We also had interviews, where we had the opportunity for a one-on-one chat with our President about our area etc. And that is always great!

Zone Conference normally happens.... Whenever President feels it should happen. It isn't a regular thing. He visited 3 other zones last week, and ended with ours, and stayed throughout stake conference. That may have been part of the reason. I have no idea!

Saturday was the Adult session of Conference. We had Elder Pearson from the States, first counselor in the Pacific Area Presidency come to speak with us. He is a fantaaaaaaastic speaker! In all three sessions of conference, I was amazed at the inspiration I was able to receive from the things he said. It was incredible. His companion speaker was Elder Orirden from Melbourne, now a Seventy also. He also delivered some powerful talks.

Looking for all of the "sixes and sevens"

One of the things Elder Pearson said that inspired me concerned member missionaries and missionaries combining efforts. Specifically speaking to the members, he told them that on average a person has 7 experiences with the church before they are baptized. He made a joke that was actually kind of true, that us missionaries are out looking for all of the "sixes and sevens", referring to the number of experiences with the church. But then he said that we can't only look or invite those that seem like they are interested, or will most likely accept the gospel. 0's need to become 1's. 1's need to become 2's. 2's need to become 3's. 3's need to become 4's. 4's need to become 5's. 5's need to become 6's. And 6's need to become 7's. He encouraged members to work with the missionaries. Missionaries shouldn't be asking "Do you know anyone who may be interested in hearing our message?" We should instead be asking "Do you know anyone?" That made me laugh! But it is so true!

Looking back, I wish I would have shared the gospel with every single one of my friends that is not a member, to give them a chance to accept the message. I had sooooooooooooooooooooooo many missed opportunities! Gaaaaaaahhh! But that is okay! Don't have regrets! Do you guys know anyone? Cool! Do you know the missionaries in your ward? Cool! The missionaries will be at your house on Thursday at 7, expecting all 900 of your Facebook friends to be at your home, waiting to be taught. Okay, that was a joke. But seriously! Open your mouth! Pray for opportunities to help out! I never realized the power and the wonderful opportunity that I had when I wasn't a missionary per se to share the gospel! You have sooooooo many opportunities! Use them!!!!! Pleaaaaaseeeee! Por Favor! I exhort thee!

Okay, sorry about that. I hope you can tell I feel strongly about that, and have regrets. Don't have regrets! Just sayin'.

Rain in Queanbeyan! I was excited so I took a picture, and a video, but I can't send that...

New Stake Presidency

So, as far as what happened to our stake presidency, President L_____ and his first counselor were released from the Presidency. 2nd Counselor President M___ (from our ward) became first counselor. Bishop O______ from the Belconnen ward became stake president.... And Bishop A___ from our ward is now the second counselor! What??? That is both awesome but terrible! He is such a good bishop! Man! But he will do well in the stake presidency. I am curious to see who will be bishop now.

Cool beans. Oh, I forgot to mention, the Assistants stayed with us the night after zone conference because we have a giant flat with only two elders (since E. Pedersen and E. Searle got transferred). That was awesome! I found out that the Assistants are real people too! What? (mock gasp) Surprising. I know. They are cool! One of them, Elder Puriri is related to Sister H___, so we went to their house for breakfast Saturday morning. That was awesome. The other one, Elder Williams, is really cool, from Adelaide, and he is a drummer too! They are awesome.

Bracing for a bible-bashing attack

One other cool miracle that we had was yesterday. We went to go see T___ and S_____ again,  and as we knocked on the door, we could see some people sitting down at the table in their house through the screen door. We asked them if our investigator was there, and they called for him. The woman who was sitting there said "Wait, are you guys Mormons?" We told her yes. So she stood up, and walked briskly to the door. I know I was tensing up, bracing for a bible-bashing attack, or some other loud outburst.

She got to the door, opened it and came outside, and said "I'm a Mormon too!" Basically she told us that she was baptized some twenty years ago, and she fell out of the church slowly. But she still believed. She asked us for a Book of Mormon, which we gave her, and she said that she wanted to get her kids baptized into the church! We exchanged contact info, and we hope to meet with her later this week! It was pretty cool! We didn't get to meet with our investigator yesterday, but we will be able to on Tuesday. Very exciting!

I am going to send you guys part of my letter that I wrote to President Lew also. I talked about some insights that I had from reading the Book of Mormon that I think you may like. I said:

'I love reading the Book of Mormon! There are so many things and insights that I get from immersing myself daily in the Book of Mormon. One of those insights came from a verse in Mosiah chapter 28. Verse 3 says "Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble." I think that is a good reason to want to serve the Lord. It really made me think. Why am I serving a mission? What are my motives? Is it for selfish reasons? Or do I sincerely care for those I serve? I am working on that, for sure. I want to love the people with all my heart.'

I reaaaaaaaaaally like that verse a lot. When I read through the Book of Mormon for the first time other than seminary reading, that verse stuck out to me. It really provoked some thought. Unfortunately, the thought slipped my mind. But I plan to be better when I get home. You guys should read that chapter in the BoM! It's some good stuff!

That is pretty much my week at a glance.  The rings were indeed at R____'s house. And that is indeed a sweet as picture of the Waters of Mormon!

Oh yeah! We are meeting with the K____ Family today at 5 pm for the first time in ages! So pray for us please!

Looks like y'all are well! Thanks for being awesome!

I love you guys!
'Ofa 'atu

Elder Larsen

BONUS VIDEO - Elder Larsen Christmas Morning.  We found this video of Elder Larsen opening a gift from his younger brothers on Christmas morning.