August 26, 2013

What a Week!

If I could re-live a week on my mission it would be this week. Where to start?

Tuesday- So I love talking to people. If I go through a day and I have only talked to one person, it was a wasted day. Tuesday was an awesome day because we got to talk to a ton of people. I don't know why but every Tuesday when we go to the library everyone wants to talk to us. We usually leave an hour to be on the computer for mormon.org, but we are going to have to give ourselves another hour because multiple people always need to talk to us. I freakin' love wearing a name tag; people just stare at you! Perfect chance to talk to them, and give me out some Book of Mormons! 

This is what Jerusalem Artichoke plans look like!

Wednesday- We got to weed one of our investiagtors HUGE garden. And when I say weed I mean, we were pulling out small trees. We pulled out hundreds of Jerusalem Artichokes that were taller than I am. It was all worth it though because I pulled out the biggest root so I won a trophy, and she fed us dinner after. 

Thursday- I wonder if Angels feel like what I felt like on Thursday. We got to help someone in her hardest times. She was praying for us to come, and was in tears the whole time we were talking to her. I don't even want to type it because there is no way of explaining it in words. It is just the most amazing thing to spend 24 hours of your day thinking about what other people's needs are. 

Friday- We stopped by another less-active member and asked her if we could started teaching her all of the missionary lessons, and she agreed! It was cool, but the cooler part was when her active husband came up to us at church and said with tears in his eyes, "I don't know what you told my wife, but last night she wanted to read the scriptures with me, thank you!"

"What is a Mormon?"

Saturday- WE GOT THREE NEW INVESTIGATORS!! That might not be amazing to some missionaries but it is amazing to me. One was former investigator that wants to continue to learn, and her girl friend wants to learn more. And then there was E. I loved every moment with E.  Satan was working hard to keep us away from her. We were on our way to another less-active member's house. We drove by the less-active member's house we saw a woman (E.) and her daughter on the porch. My comp asked if we still wanted to stop by. I said yes because what are two woman going to do to us? When we walked up, all I said was "hi," which I usually don't do.  Then the LA who we were visiting wanted to sit outside. So we went back outside and the LA introduced us to E.  E. was very interested to find out we are mormon missionaries and asked us a golden question, "what is a mormon?" It was an ensign moment. We talked to her about the Book of Mormon and moved her to tears as we bore our testimony of the truth and power of the Book of Mormon. We are meeting with her again with her neighbor, the less-active member we were visiting on Saturday. 

This week was like we were on a cloud and we just think we are going through the people we have planned to see, but God puts us in the path we need to be to find the people who are ready to listen. 

 

This week was also full of good food and finishing a tennis ball size jaw breaker and laughter from my companion killing a house fly. 

There is no place I would rather be! Love you all!

Sista Lassen

P.S. My accent is coming along nicely :)

August 19, 2013

Missionary Work Has Changed Forever

Alright so this week has a whole lot of stop and go. My companion was sick so we spent a day letting her sleep. It was awesome though because we spent the whole day, and week really, reading Jesus the Christ together. That book is amazing. It has changed everything for me. I understand my relationship with God is so much more than Him being my father. READ IT! 

Then we had Zone Conference on Friday and It. Was. Awesome. President Stoker received so much revelation for this mission. We were just waiting for these changes to happen! It probably won't seem so cool to you guys, but I am in this area and with these people I know that it was inspired. So the changes so far with the mission is we are going to be working with the ward A LOT MORE. He wants us to do what we call "lightning lessons."  We will stop by active members' homes and teach a 10 minute lesson and commit them to do something. Had my doubts that we would be able to keep our lessons at 10 min, because if you know anything about Mainers it's that they like to talk... a lot. For example, we were teaching a member, and in the middle of my companion saying "In the name of Jesus Christ, amen" they started talking, and didn't stop taking. Another example, we will say "In the name of Jesus Christ, amen" they will say amen and then immediately go off on a 10 min story about their cat. It is really funny, but frustrating at times. It is hard for me not to think "Don't you know we have work to do? Souls to Save? People's salvation on the line here?"

We have thought of some trick to help the situation, like we will immediately ask someone to say the closing prayer, and then the prayer is over, immediately stand up and start walking to the door. It's fun. 

President Stoker has an awesome mission goal too. It is to help every member have a significant missionary experience every year. Isn't that everything that the Salvation Broadcast was about? Working with the members. Saturday was our first day that we got to put our lightning lessons into action. It was ballin' because we got all of our lessons done in 10 min. It was a miracle. One of the members that we stopped by, at the end of the lesson she asked, "How did you know this is exactly what I needed to hear?" If it weren't for our lightning lessons we would have never gone to her house and share the message that she needed at the exact time she needed it. 

One more cool thing about Zone Conference was I saw my friend from BYU-I That lives in Maine! 

One more funny story for the week. So we had dinner with the Davis's again this week. It was so funny because I have been there about ten times now, so you'd think that Brother Davis would know my name. When I got there brother Davis handed me an envelope that said, "To the girl with the blond hair. Ha-Ha"

Inside was this really cool fisherman's quote. I will never forget the Davis's! 

Love you all! And Happy Birthday to Dad, Andrew, Corban, and Joshua! And any else birthday that is in August that I am forgetting!

Sista Lasn'

August 12, 2013

"It's Amazing What a Name Tag Will Do!"

Dear Family,

 

I loved getting all your letters about Carpenteria! I am afriad that I don't have enough wall space for all of the pictures!

 

This week was just awesome! The Spirit is where it is at! All of our investigators fell off the face of the Earth so we get to start fresh! I think this is the one thing that I don't what to start fresh will, but hey this just means I get to put my all in it!

This week we have really been focusing on helping the ward. We have been going around trying to contact all of the less active that no one knows anything about and get them back to church. I know that this is what we needed to do this week because everything was Divine timing. There was one Less active and she never answers the door. But when we got there she had her door opened and she was vaccuming by the door. She looked at us we said hi. We just kind of stood their for awhile as she ignored us, but her daughter came right up to us. Then she had to let us it!

 

Earlier this week we went to a Book of Mormon study class that we are doing with our ward, and right when we got there all three of us knew that we needed to be somewhere else. We quickly left and prayer where we needed to be. We all felt that we needed to go see a less active that we have been working with ever since I got here. When we got to her house she was sitting in her car. We talked to her and uplifted her.  I wish I could say what was said to her, but it was 100% the Spirit and not us talking. Later that night I was thinking about that experience and that thought came to my head. I thought Wow our Heavenly Father really does love her. He promped 3 people to completely stop what they were doing to go see her, just her, no one else. It is amazing be apart of the Lord's work.

 

It seems to me that everything happens at the library. We were in the library watching mormon.org videos and I was waiting for my turn. As I was sitting there I had the thought that someone needed to talk to me. I looked around at each person and no one that I looked at seemed like that one that I needed to talk to. I sat there and looked down at my scriptures. About 10 seconds later a woman went up to me and said, "Excuss me are you a JW?" I said no and told her who I was and then she said, "oh yeah I don't know why I said that" She expressed to me how much she wants a relationship with God and wish for it. I explained what I am doing on a mission is helping others come unto Christ. I shared a verse with her and expressed the love that God has for her. The whole time that she was talking to me she had tears in her eyes. I am so glad that I have a name tag on so that people know and see that I am reprecenting Christ.

 

I love you guys!

 

Sista Lassen

August 5, 2013

Trifecta is A.Maz.Ing

Dear Family,

I am lovin' this 3 Nephite, Tri-fecta thing going on in Saco, ME! My New companion is Sister Cowley. And of course I am still with Sister Escobar. I AM SO PUMPED! It's going to be a great transfer with lots of learning and growing for Sister Lassen. 

It was a great week of lots good ole' tracting. I found a really good strategy with tracting. 

Step 1- Embarrassed yourself (This is the most important step)

Step 2- Make them laugh

Step 3- Read a Scripture

Step 4- TESTIFY!

It has been pretty sweet. My favorite story of the week was on Tuesday.  It was our first outing with Sister Cowley tracting. We were knocking on doors and here some of the apartment buildings look like one big house, but you have to walk in the front door to knock on the persons actual door. We walked up to one house and we thought that it was one where we had to walk into the front door...we were very, very wrong. So Sister Cowley opens the door. Now she didn't just open the door. She threw herself into this persons house because the door was jammed. Then we realized that we were in someone's house ran, and slammed the door shut. And then we RAN away. Luckily the owners did not see us...that would have been bad. I could just see the headline "Mormon Missionaries Breaking Into People's Homes! Who will be Next?!"

That was pretty classic and sums up what this past week has been like. 

My favorite part of the week?! Placing me some Book of Mormons! 

I hope everyone's summer is Super! 

Sista Lassen