Sunday, April 10, 2016

Tornados! 4/4/16

Well you guessed it!! There was a tornado in Tulsa, Claremore, and Owasso (the latter two which are right next to Tulsa). Guess who didn't get to experience the tornado? This girl. I was super bummed about it!!! I was in Centerton (Arkansas) that day and my companion was in Claremore (which got hit the hardest) and she hunkered down at a YSA's house there. The tornado hit less than a mile away!!! So jelly right now. That's alright though because there is bound to be more. But this is really the only tornado season I'll experience out here soooo...yeah. The only people that were hit were really well to do people. So that's fortunate. Well it's fortunate that they have insurance anyways. On Friday/Saturday I was on another exchange with the Owasso sisters and so I went with Sister Owens and we helped with Mormon Helping Hands. There was about 300 people that came from all around the stake to help out with the damaged homes and trees. We basically cut up the toppled trees and dragged them to the street. Fun stuff!!!

Conference was AMAZING!!!! I loved it soo much!! It's hard to pick a favorite but Elder Holland (of course) is definitely up there. I also loved Bonnie L. Oscarson's talk. Her testimony about the restoration was soooo powerful!!! I also liked Mervyn B. Arnold's about not giving up on other people! And then Elder Holland. He said exactly what I needed to hear at that point in time. Some quotes are, "We get credit for trying even if we do not succeed" "You are the miracle of this church" and "We all have to come down from peak experiences." A lot of times I find myself comparing myself to my best self. Even though it's good to strive to improve yourself,  there are times where you are going to be average or below average and it's not something to work yourself in a tizzy (heh I like that word) over. Well I love you all and I hope you have a magnificent week!!!

Love
Sister Larmouth

No Hablo Espanol

This week has been pretty great!!!  We are receiving referrals left and right and we got two new investigators this week!! One is a friend of one of our current investigators Bobby Hoover. Bobby has been an investigator for three years now and his grandfather (who raised him) just passed away last Monday night. His funeral is tomorrow. He has had a very rough week but he finally came to church!! We had fast and testimony meeting and all of the testimonies seemed to be perfect for what he is going through. When we got the call from Bobby that his grandfather had passed we prayed to know which elder should give him a blessing and one elder came prominently to both of our minds. I pushed it away at first because he isn't the most obedient missionary ever but I knew that he should give Bobby the blessing. On Tuesday when he gave Bobby the blessing it was so perfect. He basically said that Bobby knew the church was true and to be baptized so he could do the work for his grandfather in the temple. So powerful!!! So we're going to invite Bobby again to be baptized this upcoming lesson!
On Wednesday I went on exchanges with.....Sister Gerard!!!! She is the one who split-trained me :) We had a ball of fun! We also blitzed Bartlesville so I got to see a whole bunch of people that I knew so that was super awesome.
Oh almost forgot!! So last Sunday night when we were planning for Monday, we couldn't figure out what we should do. All of the things we planned didn't feel right. So we just planned to help out at FHE (moving someone). Well right as we pull up to move that someone on Monday we got a call from the Spaniards (Spanish Elders (Zone Leaders)) and they were at a members home and a less-active YSA was there as well and she LOVES sister missionaries. I don't blame her...we're pretty great. Well anyway they told us we should go over there right away and so we did. Her name is Casey and she is amazing!!! She's the only one in her family who speaks English so she translated for us. We had such a great time over there and I really wish I understood Spanish haha. Maybe one day...her mother told us that she had prayed for sister missionaries for her daughter and that humbled me a lot. How selfish was I for not wanting to leave Bartlesville!! But I love the YSA now so it's all good :) So Casey came to a lesson with us and she came to church with us on Sunday. Afterwards we had FHE with her family and the Spaniards (which we understood none of) and she said that she loved loved loved it. She felt as if the lessons were just for her and we had a "break the fast" dinner at the church and she felt so welcomed and integrated. Our branch is the best. Well I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week!!

Love
Sister Larmouth

Hit and Runners 3/21/16

Hi family!!!

This week has been such a great week!!!! It has been amazing to see all of the miracles that occurred!! So first things first...I feel like all of the things happen after I email ya'll...but after leaving the library, we witnessed a hit and run! The car behind us got into a fender bender which was really unfortunate. The offending car took off and went down a random street but some cars had got between us and the hit car so this lady that got hit thinks that we hit her (because our car was similar to the one that hit her...). So we had some interesting experiences with the police department but we've been cleared! He also said that we had the cleanest car that he has ever seen in his life :D That's right heh heh.
On Tuesday we had zone conference and I got to see Sister Gerard and Sister Lunt!! I was so excited! Then I went on an exchange to Bartlesville and I got to see some of my people!! One of the investigators Sister Lunt and I tracted into committed to baptism!!! So exciting. We couldn't set a date yet with him but it was such a spiritual lesson!
On Thursday we met with a new investigator that a senior couple is handing over to us and it was adorable to see how they interacted. He literally considers them as family. He is this big tough guy (pretty sure he was an underground street fighter (undefeated so we've heard)) and he committed to be baptized on April 16th. Things are a-happening in the Tulsa YSA!! We also received soooo many referrals this week it was amazing!
Oh I almost forgot about Easy E. So we knocked on a door and a ysa age guy answers and introduces himself as Easy E...I was a bit confused and thought he was spelling his name out like "E-Z-E" for Ezekiel or something but no. It's Easy E hahaha. We're going to try and contact him again. Also my $5 gloves got stolen at a service activity at the church haha. They kindly left the car keys that were inside of them though ha. Oh and happy day: I can eat pizza again! So exciting!
Spiritual thought for the day: So I'm doing this 30 day challenge thing where I pray for a question to be answered and then randomly open the Book of Mormon to have my question answered...it works guys. But anyways, today I was asking about weaknesses and why I keep doing the same dumb things over and over. I briefly thought before I opened the Book of Mormon "He better not send me to Ether 12" and lo and behold...that's what he did haha! But it was really cool because it was talking about faith and how we can't see miracles if we don't have faith first. Especially when Moroni was talking about his weakness in writing and how he needed faith  in order for the Lord to make his weakness a strength. We actually had an encounter with a guy that hated how the answer to everything was always faith. He didn't want to believe the Bible on faith, he wanted proof that all of those miracles happened. The chapter also stated in verse 37 "And because thou hast seen thy weakness thou shalt be made strong." As we come to recognize our weaknesses Heavenly Father is going to be with us every step of the way to help them become strengths! I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week!!!

Turf Wars and Tackles 3/14/16

Hola!!!

This week has been pretty great!! We had quite a few things happen this week! On Tuesday night we were able to watch the face to face with Elder Holland because we're in the YSA branch!! Perks haha. But it was soooo amazing!!! The Spirit was so strong and the advice they gave was fantastic :) On Thursday I went to Bentonville and my companion stayed here. We received training from the Missionary Department and he taught us how to use Preach My Gospel and the District videos and it was so cool! There are definitely going to be a lot of changes in the mission which is super exciting. 
So for the subject, we were trying to find an investigator in a very large apartment complex and the Jehovah Witnesses decide to pull up...so that was fun haha. We literally knocked on a door they just knocked on hahaha! We also had a turf war with a senior couple who are teaching a YSA and bringing him to a family ward with no one near his age attending....hmph.
Also we played ultimate frisbee again on Saturday with some people in the ward. I normally am not a big fan of ultimate but not very many people showed up so we played a different type of ultimate and it was super fun until I got tackled by someone in the ward hahaha. Some people are super competitive apparently...I woke up a little sore heh. 
So Sunday we went to a ward in Broken Arrow, OK and I was listening to a not very invigorating talk (you know the kind) and an investigator was present. As I was thinking about the not so great talk I thought about the investigator and why he thought we came back every single week to hear random people from the congregation speak. Usually when we ask people around here what they like about their church they say their pastor. But that's definitely not us! Sure we may get a good speaker every once in a while but the reason we go to church is much deeper than that! We have a deep conviction that this is the gospel of Jesus Christ and that he heads this church. We attend for the opportunity to partake of the sacrament and to be clean. It's a chance to feel the Spirit and start the week off right. To be able to be edified and uplift one another. This gospel is amazing and I love it so much!!! I hope you all have a great week!!!

Love
Sister Larmouth

Another week survived in Tulsa! 3/7/16

Hola!!!

This week has been pretty great!! We picked up a new investigator that the elders (pretty much every companionship in Tulsa) were teaching. His name is Kevin and he is a great person. The only problem with Kevin is that he doesn't want to learn about the gospel but he wants to be baptized and go on a mission....hmmmm...yeah we are going to have to clear that little problem up haha! I'll let you know how it goes!! So last Monday we went to FHE so we could get to know some more members and we played Telestrations!!! I love that game. So an autistic kid named Andrew sat next to me so he would pass his pictures to me....I got pretty inventive so  pretty much nothing stayed the same haha! I love our branch so much :D Another great story, so last time at this beautiful library I saw this YSA age kid who I wanted to talk to but I didn't. Terrible. But later that week we were at these apartments trying to find someone who just moved in (who turned out to be married but that's another story) and they weren't home. So we were clover tracting around them and we heard this door open somewhere. So we followed the noise and upstairs was an open door with a whole family sitting around. Well that would be really awkward to walk up with them all staring and it was a family instead of a YSA so I elected to leave instead. Then I remembered how I didn't talk to this one kid at the library and I knew I should talk to these people so I stomped back and the guy was on the balcony and we got a return appt. We gave him over to the Spanish Elders but anyways, follow your promptings folks. 
Another lesson learned this week is: don't be quick to judge. We had a coordination meeting with all of the branch missionaries on Sunday and we told them we had a lesson after church which we would like someone to come with us. Well we received a call from someone so we went out of the room and when we came back they assigned someone. Well the guy they assigned is a pretty big jokester. I don't think I've ever heard him say anything serious and I didn't ever intend to take him on an exchange unless we had no hope for the person we were meeting with. Yeah I know. What a terrible attitude. Well we go with this guy and the girl we were going to teach isn't home so we decide to take this guy clover tracting with us. He's been off of his mission for 4 years and he was kind of freaking out a bit because we were OTMing and knocking doors. Well he finally tells us he is doing the next door. Nobody answers but he heard someone upstairs and he OTMed him and he completely slayed it! It was so cool. He was so pumped up about missionary work afterwards which is super awesome!!! 
We also had this lesson with a recent convert and her story is amazing. She knew this LDS guy and there was always something "different" about him. After a while she started learning more about the church because she knew the one she was going to wasn't right. She learned for a long time and finally set a baptismal date because she knew it was true. Her parents however told her that if she was living in their house she couldn't go to church. So she didn't go to church for a while but she wanted it in her life. While at college she started going to church again and meeting with the missionaries and she couldn't ever set a baptismal date because her parents told her that they would disown her. She chose to be baptized anyway though!! She is so strong and has a lot of faith!!! 

Well I love you all and hope you have another great week!!!

Love
Sister Larmouth

Transfers 2/29/16

Hey my favorite people!!!

So it happened!! I am now in Tulsa! We are super excited!! My new companion is Sister Gibson and she is a champ! She is adjusting surprisingly well to the mission which is fantastic! This week has been a little crazy! Saying goodbye to Bartlesville was hard but I still get to go there because I still cover that zone as an STL!! So it wasn't as hard because of that. Our area is HUGE because we cover three stakes so that's fun. Yesterday we had a fantastic day in the new ward!! YSA is the best!!! The computer I'm using has not been sanitized so the emails might be a little short today cause it's kind of gross but that's okay! 
So on Thursday the previous elders left us with some assignments that they usually do every week and one of them was to attend BCM (Baptist Collegiate Ministries) at a college campus. So the first experience my new greenie has is this rock worship service haha. They were very passionate! Saturday we got to play ultimate frisbee with some people in the ward! I'm not very good at it but it was fun haha. 
We had a lesson with a guy who has been investigating the church for 3 years and we had a great lesson with him! He's prepared he just doesn't know it yet! 
I kind of forgot everything that happened this week but it was a great week!! Love you all!!

Love
Sister Larmouth

BFF's with Elder Christofferson 2-22-16

Soooo....

Elder Christofferson and I are pretty tight now. I would say on the friendship scale of 1 to 10 we're about an 8. 
So we had a mission conference on Saturday with the one and only Elder Christofferson from the QUORUM OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES! Pretty big deal I'd say. It was SO amazing. He is probs one of my favorite Apostles ever now. Elder Lynn G Robbins of the presidency of the seventy was there as well as our area seventy Elder Southward. Sooo much Spirit! The Oklahoma City Mission was there too! Elder Christofferson had us all shake his hand before the meeting :D He's so nice. I wish I could write all they said in an email...buuut I can't and you'll just have to believe me that it was so good heh heh. Some key quotes:

- "Every convert that comes into the church is a miracle. It's a day of miracles" Elder Robbins

- "We have a clear understanding of what was lost during the apostasy because of our rearview vision of the Restoration" Elder Robbins

- "We don't receive revelation if we don't have questions"

- "The Lord knows you become drained in battle. He allows you to take time to dress your wounds" Elder Christofferson

- "If we keep our covenants, we are entitled to be sealed" Elder Christofferson

-The Lord gives us revelation at night because it's the only time he can get a word in edgewise" Elder Christofferson

- "You can overcome the world if you bind yourself to the Savior" Elder Christofferson

- "Some have subjected themselves to the will of the adversary so long, they lose the will to repent." Elder Christofferson

- "If you leave this world walking on the straight and narrow, then you will never fall off." Elder Christofferson

- " 'The Kingdom of heaven is at hand' It's in your hands to bring it to others." Elder Christofferson

Okay that was a lot but there's more if you can believe it. We were on exchanges the rest of Saturday and guess what we got at 10:30 at night??? You're right! TRANSFER CALLS!!!!!!! So there were four sisters in our apartment so our reactions to this transfer call were a bit loud...poor neighbors haha. So I am being transferred to Tulsa YSA and I am training a newbie again!! We just got a call today that it might be a biking area...freaking out guys. But it will be good in a lot of ways #legsofachampion hahaha. Sister Lunt is staying in Bartlesville and is going to be companions with her MTC companion who has stayed in the same zone as her since day one! She will do a fantastic job leading the area! I'm going to miss being her companion. But it won't be totally awful because I'm still going to be her STL! I know! So I am going to the testosterzone hahahaha. So I'm shotgunning (or replacing with no one in the companionship having experience in the area) elders. And the rest of the zone is elders. So we'll be the only sisters in the zone! Weird! But since that is the case, I'm still over the sisters in the Bartlesville zone and my STL companion is staying the same! That was probably really confusing but yeah....It should be an exciting transfer haha. And this transfer we have 7 weeks in the transfer because of the MTC change. Yay!! 

Well anyways...on Sunday Elder Christofferson came to our stake conference which was held at our community center and our investigators came!!!!!!!!! And one former investigator!!!! One investigator cried when our stake president was speaking! So awesome. We had really good lessons with them (Hesters) and our other investigator Shawn. Shawn has a really good fellowshipper now who has an amazing conversion story. The spirit was so strong during the lesson we had on Wednesday. Also our lesson with the Hesters went well. They are part-member (mom is less active) and she said that she had a hole in her life that she wants to be filled and it can't be filled by man. I'm going to miss these people so much!!

Back to Elder Christofferson. We were walking home because we live really close and our stake president is pulling out of the community center so we talk to him and he says that Elder Christofferson is two cars back...so the next car is the 3rd ward bishop so we talk to him and awkwardly wait for the next car...and Elder Christofferson rolls down his window!!! Guys!! We all say "HIIII!!!" and then transition to a very awkward silence hahahaha. What do you say to an Apostle?? But we shook his hand again and so we're basically best friends now ahah. 

Well I love you guys and sorry this email is so long!! It's been a crazy week!!!!

Love
Sister Larmouth