I've Been Adopted 8/8/16

Hey guys!!!!!

This week was a roller coaster but it was pretty good!!! Basma, the Syrian refugee, and her husband told us in their cute, broken English that we were like their daughters and that they will be like our parents and it was adorable. I love them so much!! I just want them to have the gospel but we can't teach them because it would be life-threatening to them if they ever go back to Syria. 

So investigator update: Isaac (who had a baptism date and has been avoiding us) has been a bum lately. We tried contacting him on Wednesday but he was pulling out right when we got there. Then later while we were in Gravette, we saw him driving behind us and he was driving slow and keeping his distance. We decided to take another route to his home and meet him in his driveway, well we ended up driving behind him and he PASSED his house!!!!!! The little nugget saw us driving behind him and passed his house. What a turd. I left him a not very happy voicemail and he texted us later that night and said, "lol I bet you thought I was avoiding you haha" humph. But he told us that he doesn't want to go to a different church than his family but he still believes the book of mormon....his wife doesn't even go to church. But we know that he actually has some trouble with the word of wisdom.......we're still trying to meet with him one last time. 

But on a better note, Tasha has a baptism date!!!!!!!!!!!!! For the 20th of August!!!!!!!!! We're super excited! She's golden and she loves the church. Her husband who doesn't like religion even wants to come to her baptism! 

So when we went to grab some green beans from an older member of the ward, we asked if we could share a scripture with him. Well I let my greenie share the scripture and she opens up to a scripture about the resurrection and she hasn't ever really read this scripture before but it says, "Behold, will ye reject these words? Will ye reject the words of the prophets; and will ye reject all the words which have been spoken concerning Christ, after so many have spoken concerning him; and deny the good word of Christ, and the power of God, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, and quench the Holy Spirit, and make a mock of the great plan of redemption, which hath been laid for you?

Know ye not that if ye will do these things, that the power of the redemption and the resurrection, which is in Christ, will bring you to stand with shame and awful guilt before the bar of God?" hahahahahahahaha I almost died on the doorstep!! She kept a straight face though and pulled it off really well but it was hilarious. She basically preached hellfire on his doorstep. 

We had a really good Sunday yesterday! Fast and Testimony meeting was amazing and we started writing down what testimonies would help our investigators and asking the people who bore that testimony to go on exchanges with us and we're pretty excited because some of the testimonies were specific to our investigator's needs! 

Well I don't know if this was a really clear email, but I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love

Sister Larmouth

Miracles 8/1/16

Hey Guys!!!

So this week was pretty great! We had a lot of good experiences!!! For one, on Thursday we had a multi-stake thing. It was a dance concert put on by dancers at BYU-I and Tasha (our investigator), Chester (also an investigator), and Nancy and Faith (less actives) came!!!! It was awesome. Tasha's two kids were a little on the rowdy side sooooooo she left half way through. The poor people sitting in front of us...oh well! But otherwise the turn out was great!!! The dances were fun. I liked some of them. I guess I'm not really artistic or something but this modern dance stuff is kind of weird. 

On Saturday we had our missionary Lake Day in the ward. We organized it and it turned out to be good too! So we were a little scared because it had rained all day (really really really hard rain). But it ended up stopping and made the day super cool and nice :) which is a plus for us 'cause we can't cool down in the water. Tasha came to that too!!! We had a super good lesson with her this week where she asked us what she has to do to be baptized! That was pretty neat!! The only hard thing with her is that she likes to talk A LOT so we usually only get through 1 or 2 points each visit we make. And she was so excited about our visits that she has felt inspired to start reading scriptures.....but she wants to start with the Bible. Which is really great don't get me wrong, but you can't really find out if our church is true if you don't read the Book of Mormon....so we're going to work on that haha. 

We also had a cool experience with Jennifer. So she called us and told us that she watched "The Cult of Mormonism" (sounds like a thrilling video) and she was super confused. Her weird reasoning was: it cost a lot of money so there has to be some truth behind it. Another one of my favorites was: well they are former members of the church so they gotta know something....uh huh. She said it made a lot of sense. Well she prayed and opened her Book of Mormon randomly and it opened to Alma  47:36 which stated, " Now these dissenters, having the same instruction and the same information of the Nephites, yea, having been instructed in the same knowledge of the Lord, nevertheless, it is strange to relate, not long after their dissensions they became more hardened and impenitent, and more wild, wicked and ferocious than the Lamanites—drinking in with the traditions of the Lamanites; giving way to indolence, and all manner of lasciviousness; yea, entirely forgetting the Lord their God.

Whoah!!!!! Isn't that the coolest thing ever!!!!!! It described the "former members" to a tee haha. She didn't understand it when she read it but then I explained it to her and then she was like, "Oh." So MIRACLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

So it was a pretty dang good week! Love you guys!!! Have a great week!!!!!

Love

Sister Larmouth

Heat Wave 7/25/16

Hey guys!

So this week was pretty good! About died from heat but it builds character I guess haha. I have never felt so sticky in my life! Humidity is insane! Well investigator update: we had to push Isaac's date back again because he smoked but he quit chewing so that's good! He also didn't come to church so we'll probably have to push his date back again and have a little talk about the Sabbath. We think he probably feels guilty because of the Word of Wisdom and doesn't want to get help to quit. Tasha and Jennifer came to church this week! We made some real progress with Jennifer yesterday. She is calling a psych out-patient unit to get help with her alcoholism. She is going to get a pill that makes you really sick if you drink alcohol within two weeks of taking it so hopefully that will help her. The doctor says that she won't live til 30 if she keeps drinking the way she does. She's 27. We also had a bunny funeral for her on Saturday. So on Wednesday she was showing us her bunnies in the barn and we asked what the pink squirming things were in the hay and her rabbit had just had babies!! Jennifer didn't even know she was pregnant! One came out really really malformed. He looked like a monster. He had no eyes and a really really really bad cleft pallet. Really bad! He only had one nostril hole and he was really ugly. But she wanted to nurse him but he ended up dying. So we wrote a eulogy for him because she gets really attached to her animals. It was an interesting experience haha. 

I pulled off my first tick yesterday! It was pretty traumatic! Those things don't squish either! You have to rip them apart! Yuck yuck. 

So on Saturday we had a lesson with the refugee from Syria that we have been teaching English to and her husband has terminal lung cancer. He wasn't in too good of shape and she started crying while we were there and it was one of the most heart-breaking experiences of my mission. She has been in Syria for 2 years and he has only been here for 2 months. One of her sons is still in Syria and they are trying to help him come to America. They are the most beautiful family and I want so badly to teach them about the plan of salvation but we can't. We have decided to get the relief society involved with them and members have been eager to show their support and one member is going to come with us to the lessons. We are so lucky to know about Heavenly Father's plan for us and that families can be together forever. It makes me so grateful for the temple and covenants we make.

I love you all!

Love

Sister Larmouth

Sister Martin's First Day 7/18/16

Hey guys!

So this week was great! We got a new investigator who we tracted into on Sister Martin's first day. It went really well and we both felt the Spirit. We talked about how there's a saying "See your investigators in white" whether it be temple white or baptismal white. But we could both see  her in white. But we had to drop another investigator who got into some trouble with the law and would never keep appointments. So that was sad. We had a lesson with Isaac who has the baptismal date and we found out he smokes so we had to reiterate the word of wisdom and push back his date to the 30th but then he didn't come to church because he broke his toe! What a terrible reason. Oh well. None of our investigators made it to church on Sunday. The adversary is working hard on them! 

We did a lot of service this week! We got to help a member on his house again and I love doing service there. I feel uplifted every time I have a conversation with that guy! He has been working day and night on that house so when his wife and kids come home they can have a big surprise! So adorable. He said the worst thing about marriage was when you are apart! Isn't that the cutest thing in the world? We also got to paint graineries on really rickety ladders. That was fun haha. 

We also did a lot of tracting which I'm starting to like again. But we OTM'd one guy and he was like "the Jehovah Witnesses right?" and we said "Nope, we're the Mormons!" And he kind of went off on us telling us to read the Bible and everything and then we OTM'd his neighbor and while we were talking to him the not so nice guy yells and says, "Don't listen! It's a cult!" hahahaha. We have such good experiences. 

I was reading a talk today called "the Power of the Word" and it was talking about how sometimes we focus on things to improve when we should be focusing on studying the Book of Mormon and other things will follow. I have such a testimony of doing the little things like reading scriptures and praying and going to church. It's when we stop doing those things that we start to slip. I have seen it in my investigators. One who had so much potential and had the first ray of hope she's ever had in her life stopped reading the Book of Mormon every day and doesn't pray everyday and now she's struggling to know if God cares at all or if he even exists. As we study the Book of Mormon our desires will be changed! Well I love you all so much! Hope you have a great week!

Love

Sister Larmouth

I'm a Mom again!! 7/11/16

Hey everybody!!!

This week has been sooooo awesome!!!! One of the best weeks! Fourth of July was a blast! We had a pancake breakfast with the ward and then a zone activity at a member's house on the lake!! It was so pretty! We also went bowling and saw the fireworks with some members. So fun! We also got to teach a Syrian English with Sister Loveland. We thought she didn't know any English at all and so our lesson plan was a bit rudimentary but she opened the door and started a conversation with us haha. So we're working on pronunciation now. She is soooo sweet and her husband has stage four lung cancer :( 

We got a new investigator who is friends with a less active who used to be in our ward and she talks A LOT. Holy moly this girl can talk. But she's awesome. We saw a lot of miracles this week. So we have 4 main investigators right now: Tasha, Isaac, Jennifer, and Chester. Isaac was able to come to church for the first time yesterday!!! We had a lesson with him and he was having a lot of trouble with some doctrine but he prayed about it and he got an answer!!! He wants to be baptized!!!!!!!!!! Guys this is exciting!!! He prayed and wants to get baptized on the 23rd of July! And he loved church! Jennifer came as well!!! She's gone downhill a lot. She stopped doing the things that she knows that she is supposed to be doing and has lost a lot of hope because of it. So we basically told her to repent and make good choices. She came to church though. Then while we were sitting in the pew, we look over to the entrance and Tasha is standing there with one of her kids!!!!!!! We were not expecting her at all!! But we have the best relief society president in the world who fellowships everyone and she sat with her. During gospel principles Tasha said that this is the first time she's ever felt comfortable at church and she wants to come back and make it permanent!!! So many miracles!!! 

On Thursday, I said goodbye to Sister Ball and got my new companion!!! Her name is Sister Martin and she is the cutest thing in the world!!! She had a rough start at first but as soon as we got to work she was all better and has loved it a lot! Seriously I love her so much. I feel like she's an answer to my prayers!! She's probably the sweetest person ever. Well I hope you all have a great week!!!

Love

Sister Larmouth

Temple Time 6/27/16

This week was amazing!!! We got to go to the temple on Tuesday!!! It was the best thing ever!!! We took a bus early in the morning with 1/3 of our mission. We went to the Kansas City Temple and it was hard to not run around and scream with excitement haha. It's been way too long since I've been to the temple and it was much needed. It was such a tender mercy and gave me the respite I needed. The Spirit was so strong and I learned what I needed to learn!! 

Jennifer, our investigator we've been teaching, came to church!!!!! Guys, this is a big deal!!! She has anxiety, depression, bipolar, OCD, and PTSD. She got a priesthood blessing before hand and she stayed for two hours!!! And despite her parents telling her not to go and we're a cult and her husband (who's Hindu) telling her not to come, she came!!! She had a whole lot of anxiety the whole time but she made it through two hours!! She liked Sunday School a lot more than sacrament meeting. Chester, our other investigator, came to church as well!!! 

Another miracle! So we brought a youngin with us tracting and he saw someone he knew from school and was going to try to avoid talking to him, but we were a bit persuasive and we set up an appointment with the kid. Soooo on Sunday we met him at the park for a lesson and he told us that he met with some elders before back in December and then he got really busy and stopped but he had been thinking about them the other day and said that if something happened then he would pursue it and we came two days later!!! Isn't that so cool?! I asked if he thought it was coincidence and he said no :D 

Today we went to Crystal Bridges which is a really amazing place!! I'll send some pics :)

It's been an awesome week!

Love

Sister Larmouth

Blueberries :))) 6/20/16

Hey guys!!!

This week was great!! We met some awesome people!! And picked a lot of blueberries!!! I never knew blueberries could be so good!!! Mmmm delish. The weather is getting a little warm....quite a lot actually. It's like the worse sauna you've ever been too! And we moved!!! :((((( We moved from our members home to an apartment in Centerton because one of their sons and his new wife are going to stay with them for the summer. So out of the boonies and into town. Our run this morning wasn't quite the same. Instead of pretty greenery we breathed in fumes haha. They told us Friday night and we packed up and moved on Saturday! But it will be good on miles and we get to bike a lot more which is my absolute favorite thing to do haha. We actually biked to church yesterday! Instead of being 97 degrees it was only 90 so it all worked out!

Our week was pretty crazy! I can't remember if I told you this but I'll tell you again anyways. So a member calls us about a week ago to tell us about her son's babysitter and that she wants us to teach her but never gives us her number or address. Well last Sunday we get a referral from the sisters in Siloam for the same girl! They had gotten a headquarters referral and Jennifer (the babysitter) wanted a Book of Mormon. So when they went to drop it off the mom answered (who doesn't like Mormons) and things didn't go very well. Well anyways she ends up calling us after we text her and we set up a time to meet! She is married to a Hindu and lives with her anti parents and she has been reading the Book of Mormon every night!!! Every night! Craziness. She has watched every documentary on Mormons that exist (including the District (the videos we watch to learn how to plan and teach hahaha)). She says that she knows it's true and wants to be baptized and we haven't taught her anything! Her husband doesn't want her to though because he doesn't want them to get kicked out of the house. She texted us yesterday saying that she didn't want to read the Book of Mormon but she knew that she needed to so we called her and we read it together. She says that every time she finds something in the Book of Mormon that is "wrong" she will get her question answered within twenty four hours. I don't know if that made sense at all but she's awesome!

We had less luck with our less actives. They had a lady they picked up off the streets lie and say they moved...we saw him later outside by his car so we stopped and talked to him saying "oh so you didn't move" heh. Little nuggets. These people were active 2 weeks ago. Crazy how that works.

We tracted into this cool girl who is 17 and has TWO kids. TWO. She had her first one at 14! She was pretty sweet though and she is a good mom to her kids. We hope things work out with her! She needs the gospel!

Well I love you all mucho!

Love

Sister Larmouth