Spending a few seconds in Gethsemane

Hey everyone! So much has happened in the past week! It was good and bad and up and down! We've felt just about everything! I had the craziest Monday ever! We got haircuts... and for some odd reason I thought it would be a fantastic idea to say "sure" when I was telling her how I wanted my hair cute and she asked if I just wanted a hard part... lol. So i got one! Never thought I'd do that! I haven't taken too many pictures because of it... but I don't look all that bad! I feel like a completely new person though! Then right after haircuts we walked across the street to Ross for Elder Boehner and I to get our companionship ties. While we were in there... I found black water!? It is somehow naturally black... tasted exactly like water... no food coloring no nothing. It was so strange! It was one heck of a P-day! 

 Here's a weird/bad picture of my hard part 

Another strange picture with my black water

We were also able to have zone conference on Thursday which went really well! There was a whole ton of good instructing information, but I loved one of the testimonies at the end. Sister Ison shared her testimony which was powerful. Often times we relate ourselves as missionaries as investigators. Theres a quote by Elder Holland that goes "Remember, everything in the conversion process must happen to you before it can happen to them, everything." We had talked a little bit about the importance of following up with our investigators throughout zone conference and Sister Ison talked about how God is gonna follow up with us. He's gonna follow up with the commitment we have committed to do. It really put things into perspective. It was so powerful. 

Practicing a song for Zone Conference 

Zone Conference 

As far as our teaching pool goes... this week was hard... really hard. Hard enough for Elder Boehner and I to get blessings from our district leader and his companion. We got a little down on ourselves about mid day on Fridaybecause we had just talked to ANOTHER investigator/friend who doesn't believe in god because he had a loss in the family as a child. He's been through a LOT. There's so many people here in Ukiah who don't believe in God because something hard has happened in their life. It's so sad to see these people we love have that lack of knowledge. They don't believe they are a son or daughter of god (which was a great talk in general conference). Then the rest of the people here are high on weed.... they can't feel the spirit after they've done that! Its true though... We are in Mendocino county... weed is legal here... but thats kinda why we were getting down. 

We were talking to our district leader's companion Saturday night and he basically said do you have the faith to not succeed? Submit your will completely to God's? I'm not saying we don't give it our all... but just trust God. Elder Boehner and I also looked at things from a different perspective... We thought... Wow! This must be how god feels! Hoping there's a change in people he loves so much... hoping we would just understand and choose the better way. We thought that this is probably just a small spec of what god must feel towards us. Another thing is... we may not see the results now... but they will come in time. It's just hard when you have all these people you love so much not just open and soften their heart.  

We did have a pretty cool experience that kinda shows how our efforts may not show right now. We were going around visiting these members that we haven't heard of (probably because they're inactive) we came to a short street where there were only 3 houses and a member was on each end. As we walked past the middle house we got a small impression to knock it. So we did! We met this very kind lady who apparently has a lot of family members in our church. She said about half of her family was Catholic and half of them were Mormon. She said when she was moving up to Ukiah from Santa Rosa about 2 years ago... 2 elders helped her move! So she is now always willing to talk to missionaries. Really cool to hear about other missionaries creating experiences like that.

Another topic kind of off subject... we get fed SO MUCH lasagna and spaghetti haha! Like 2 or 3 times a week. Just thought I would let everyone know... if you feed the missionaries, we get fed lasagna and spaghetti a lot! And I don't mean to sound like I'm complaining! Because we are super grateful to even be getting fed! But it's good for you all to be aware :) 

I'm so grateful to be a missionary. I'm so grateful to be blessed with the happy moments and also the hard ones. I know this church is true. I am so grateful for the scriptures and the things we can learn from them. I know we can feel comfort in reading them. I am so blessed to have the knowledge that we have a Heavenly Father who loves us and wants the best for us. I absolutely know that. I know there is no sin that puts you outside of the infinite power of the atonement. I love my savior with all my heart for all he's done for me. I love you all. You mean the world to me. I hope you have an amazing week!

Love Elder Larson