Every word was guided

Dear Family and Friends,

Thanks for everything that you guys are doing for the Lord. The work around the world is hastening! Someone must be helping out the missionaries back in Chico, because we are being helped out by members here!

Every word was guided

There were a few highlights of this week. The highlight for me, I reckon, would be Thurs. and Sunday, concerning two investigators that seemed to have dropped off the face of the planet. Perlita and Ocean! Their father's cousin finally got permission from the father for us to be able to meet with the daughters without him. So, on Thursday evening, we went over to Charlie's house and had dinner with Charlie, Charlie's mother, Perlita, and Ocean. Man, it was an awesome night. We had an amazing meal, following which we had a lesson. We followed up on how they felt about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and there was some pretty positive feedback. They felt that it was true after prayer and Book of Mormon study. Cool beans!

We taught the Plan of Salvation to them. That was one choice teaching experience. It was one lesson where I felt that every word I said was guided. My companion feels the same. The Spirit was so strong. It was cool, because some of the response was "That answered questions that I have had my entire life!" and "When members used to tell me that getting baptized changed their lives, I thought 'that's just a cliche, it can't really change your life', but now I understand and feel that the knowledge that this brings really does give hope." When we asked about how they felt about baptism, "I feel much better about it than before. Before I was going to do it just because she was (pointing to sister) but now I actually want it for myself." Man!! Awesome! We were going to set a baptismal date, but Charlie suggested we wait for their father's schedule. They are golden! So prepared!

Sunday, the entire family came to church, not just Perlita and Ocean. Man, it was a good day. We should be teaching them again on Tuesday (I will be on a trade-off with Elder Macfarlane).

Half the Zone at our P-day last week.

Setbacks, Spiders and Spanish?

We taught Te Auiti the Plan of Salvation as well. He is learning swiftly! We had a bit of a setback this week; his main fellowshipper's mother gave birth! So we are trying to work around that.... We will see what this week brings.

The scariest insect that I have come across probably would be the Huntsman Spiders that infested Dapto. There were heeeeeaaaapss! I also didn't enjoy the cockroach infested flat. That was interesting..

For the Spanish stuff, if I was asked to go Spanish speaking, I would be sent to the Spanish ward. So all of my time would be devoted to Spanish. Which would be sooo cool! I have been studying gospel language for Spanish, so perhaps I would be able to teach the lessons in Spanish, I don't know! I haven't tried yet.

Brett has been busy building stuff.. we will hopefully be meeting with him this week though. Will keep you updated!

Update on Sister Levine, who was injured in a car accident

Poor President Back! He had a Pacific Area Mission President's seminar in Melbourne last week till Friday, and he told us on an unrelated phone call about how he and Sister Back got back home and literally as they walked through the door, they got a phone call about Sister Levine. He said they threw the dirty clothes out of their bags and threw clean clothes in and hit the road again. They drove down to Canberra to see Sister Levine. Sister Levine for those that have not heard is a Sister Missionary serving in Canberra who was just hit in an accident. Here is President Back's description that he gave for us on our weekly email from him:

"She continues in critical but stable condition in the Canberra Hospital. Her family arrived Sunday night at about midnight. She continues in a coma and yet has no visible injuries other than a scrape on the right side of her forehead, a small bruise on her right shoulder and a very small cut on her left hand. The unknown issue is the trauma to her head. Through CT scans they know that she has not had significant swelling, which is good, but she does show bruising on the brain and we won’t know the full damage, if any, until she wakes up."

 She is miraculously alive. How could she have survived without the involvement of the Lord?

That is pretty much our week!

Love you guys heaps!
Elder Larsen

That's all we had last night - two servings of dessert!

PS - Funny story, yesterday was Fast Sunday of course, and after church all of the dinner appointments were taken, so we were just calling around to a few members that we figured would definitely feed us, and we were able to go over to a Tongan family's home. We shared a message, and then they offered us dessert, which we accepted. So my diet is not exactly healthy. That's all we had last night - two servings of dessert!

The two pics of Graf Park, which is also where Elder Abquina and I run in the mornings.

Elder Vaelua hugs Elder Abquina.