January 13, 2014

Tender Mercy Today

Dear Family,

Today has truly been a tender mercy. It is like 50 degrees outside! It's like a nice spring day! Well, to me it is :)

This week was crazy -- it was pretty much Ice Storm part 2. On Saturday it rained and froze.  It was not as bad as it was at Christmas, but still bad. Cars were sliding down hills side ways, and my companion and I had quite the adventure going up a hill. That is a story in and of itself.

So we were walking and we came to this hill. Clear ice. So naturally we slid down it like we were riding a snow board! We were going down smiling and laughing. And then we got to the bottom and realized that we had to go back up the hill to get home.... We would take a step forward and just slide backwards. I tried getting on my hands and knees but that was no good; I would just slide back even more. We finally got to the side of the road where some snow was piled up and made it almost to the top of the hill (after falling a few times ) There was a lot of other drama getting up that hill, but words cannot describe it. To sum it all up, I am sore from falling so much. 

Image from International Business Times website, Jan 13, 2014

Back to missionary stuff that happened this week! This week we got to teach some more of the members how to do missionary work! It is so much fun and the spirit is always so strong. We also got to teach one of our less active members this week for the first time. It really was a miracle how we were able to teach her (from one of the members). We are going to be teaching her again this week! 

This week I have tried/started to write down all the promptings that I get. It was most amazing. In church I got about 5 million. I never realize how much Heavenly Father was trying to talk to me! I guess I just wasn't listening hard enough! 

Hope all it well and I love you! I can't wait to meet Mia! 

Sista Lassen

January 6, 2014

New Year 

[This is Bethany's new little neice, Mia Helene Lassen, born New Year's Day, 2014!
I sent Bethany this picture today]

Dear Family,

First of all Mia is Beautiful! I love her already! It was so hard to do! (wink, wink!) What an exciting way to start the new year -- congrats!

So my week wasn't as exciting as having a new baby, but it was still a good one. It is all kind of blurred together in one big mesh of a day. This week was exciting because we were able to see a few less active members and we will hopefully start to teach them weekly. One of them we met at the Christmas party. She came with her sister. Then we were able to get her updated address and stop by. It was such a miracle. Members are so important to missionary work. We would not have been able to do anything if it weren't for the help of the members! 

Just so you know my New Year's went like any other day really. But we did get a pizza for dinner and got to reflect on the goals we want to make for this year. It was really weird to make goals for the up coming year because I am not going to be a missionary for all of next year :( WHAT WHAT?!

The most exciting thing that is going down in Augusta ME is our Preach My Gospel (PMG) class that we are teaching on Sundays. It is really exciting to teach, practice, and help the members. Some are more excited than others, but we just keep loving them whether they like it or not! Sometimes my companion and I just want to tell them that we are just trying to help them you know...FOLLOW THE PROPHET... but that probably wouldn't be the best idea. 

The more and more I am a missionary the more and more I love Fathers perfect placement and timing. For example, on Friday the roads were very slick and our car was having a hard time getting up all the hills here. We were on our way to a dinner appointment and we had to get up a hill to get to the house. We tried and the car slowly stopped and would not go any farther. I don't know why I was so calm (probably because I was praying that we would make it there safely) but the thought came to me (the spirit)  to turn around and have the GPS reroute us a different way, one with hopefully no hills. As we follow the GPS we come to once again another hill. We try to go up and I see two people walking in the distance. In my mind I think, "Great, I am going to look like an idiot to these people" The car tries to go up and no luck -- it comes to a stop. Sister Wray gets out of the car to back the car up and lo and behold the two people walking were the ELDERS in our ward! We laugh and the elders helped us get the car up with no problem by telling me to put it into 2 gear. Don't make fun that I didn't know that -- I'm from CA!  I keep saying it but, Heavenly Father must love me or something.

Last story. So I keep having these little sparks of insights and then later on I tell them to someone and it is exactly what they need to hear. It is so cool! I really feel like everything I say is not of my knowledge or wisdom. We were teaching this one family and they haven't been members for a very long time. They are having struggles, as everyone does. As we were teaching them the spirit directed me testify of the Book of Mormon and have him study on his own the question of the soul in PMG. It really was what he needed to hear and gave him the tools that he needed to receive revelation for himself. 

I love you all! 

Sista Lassen

December 30, 2013

Happy New Year!

Dear Family,

It was so wonderful to talk to you! I am so grateful for such a wonderful family who supports and loves me so much! You are like the greatest thing ever! After I talked to you we went to a dinner with a member and played games -- Phase 10! I wish I knew how many times I have played that game in my life I bet it would be like 10,000 times.

Missionary-wise this was a slow week, just because of the holiday and all. I am really excited for it all to be over and we can get back to regular missionary awesomeness.  

As a result of the snow storm last Sunday we had the Christmas Program at church this Sunday. It was really cool.  In one of the talks the speaker made an analogy of the gifts that Heavenly Father gave to us, our life, agency and body. And then the gift that Christ gave to us. His life. On Sunday we also started our Missionary Class. It went really well and the spirit was really strong. We talked about our conversion story and how the gospel has blessed our own lives. Then we talked about the fears that we have with sharing the gospel. We addressed the the different fears and we read from the bible dictionary that says "fear is something unworthy of a child of God and perfect love casteth out"...or something like that. It is so true. God doesn't want us to fear, he wants us to be confident before him. And that we do not fear when we do what He wants us to do.  I love the members here and I am excited to help them progress in missionary work.

Last night there was a snow storm and it looked like Heavenly Father was shaking out a comforter on us! It was crazy how big the snow was that was falling! I better get used to it! They say that January is the coldest month! Here it comes! 

I love you! 

Sister Lassen

December 23, 2013

Ice Skating 101

Dear Family,

I would have to say that this week has been my favorite week in Augusta, ME!! Christmas really is a season to be a missionary. We were able to go tracting a few times this week and it was actually successful! And when in doubt we just sang a Christmas song to them! This week I focused more on talking about the atonement and the plan of Salvation with everyone we talked to. It was amazing to see how we were able to have a more focused conversation on the gospel and how we could help them in some way. Such as sharing a scripture with them or telling them about where their grandparents are. It is amazing to be able to testify to everyone that we talk to -- I mean when is that ever going to happen again in my life? 

When planned out properly a missionary's day is remarkable. We go from place to place, not knowing who is going to talk to us or what is going to take the longest amount of time. I feel like I am on a cloud and Heavenly Father is just guiding us to where we really need to be and who we really need to see. 

That happened on Saturday. In the morning we had a few member stop-bys that we were doing and they all fell through. Then we decided to knock on a former investigators door (we weren't planning to do this).  We have tried to meet this person many times but he was never home. We knocked on his door and he answered! We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into when we did. Nothing like this will ever happen to me again. His name is D. He told us that he wrote a book about his experience with the Elders called Who's At The Door (you can go buy it now!) and he gave both of us a copy. And then he took us out to lunch at Panera! IT. WAS. AWESOME! We had a nice lunch talking about the differences of Mormons and Catholics and telling him some of our funny mission stories. It was quite delightful. There was a point where he started talking about polygamy, and I just testified of a prophet and that put the conversation to bed immediately. 

So the lovely Ice Storm. So imagine your drive way or small parking lot being a complete ice skating rink. Then imagine your car completely covered in a quarter of an inch of ice. Now imagine getting that ice off by smashing your scraper into the windows, But wait! The door is frozen shut to get to the scraper! So you first have to use your key to break the ice around the car door. Now think about walking up a slope of a hill that is completely covered in ice. It is literally impossible to walk uphill because you are just sliding backwards. 

[This is just a picture I uploaded from the internet, but it gives you an idea of how pretty the trees are!]

That is what the past few days have been like. It is really super fun! Seriously! The trees look completely beautiful all covered in ice. And it is actually really fun to smash all the ice off the car. And don't worry the drive-ways are ice but the roads are completely fine. 

Can't wait to talk to you on Wednesday! Love you!

Sister Lassen     

December 16, 2013

Fifteen Inches of Snow Later…

Dear Family,

I feel got the "welcome to Maine winter" this week. On Tuesday we were walking down some steps and I totally fell and landed on my arm and lower back. I got the BIGGEST bruise on my forearm. It is healing up now, which is sad because it is pretty hard core. As long as I make up a different story to how I got it like I saved someone from getting hit by a car and then we started teaching them and they got baptized. The second welcome I got was on Sunday there was a HUGE snow storm and church was cancelled. So my companion and I got out the snow shovels and started digging away. The third welcome was today -- my arms are sore from snow shoveling. I guess I prayed a little to hard for a "White Christmas" this year! Careful what you pray for! My last "welcome" to the snow this week was on Saturday we were going door to door and a woman answer the door and gave had the biggest shock on her face. She look at us and said, "Girls, it is way too cold to do this today, don't come back!"  To her credit it was 7 degrees outside. But to our credit, 7 degrees wouldn't stop Jesus! 

Christmas is seriously the best time to be a missionary. I was so happy that I was only going to have one Christmas in the field, but now I think it would be cool to have two of my mission months be December. We get to sing to people, and nothing softens a lobsta shell like Christmas cheer. 

The most fun I had this week was when we volunteered at the soup kitchen. We do it every week and I just love the people that work there. They are so funny and we like to tease each other. There is an older guy, Ken, that works there and for some reason he really likes me.   One of the girls, Carla, doesn't understand why. She kept asking me, "Why doesn't Ken like me and only you?" And then she figured out why- "He just wants to get into heaven."  That must be it! 

Another funny thing that happened this week was that with our ward we are delivering Christmas baskets and we put a copy of the Book of Mormon in it with the member's testimony. So we were delivering to Frank and Ramona from Brother S. When we got there Brother S. was there. That wasn't really awkward, but the funny part was Ramona had us stand in front of the fire place and holding the basket while we sang to them, oh yeah and she recorded the whole thing. It was like I was on one of our family vacations again. 

One thing I learned in my studies this week was Moroni 8:25-26. I just love how every action we do has a set blessing and every step we take leads us closer to the greatest blessing of living with Father again. 

I hope this letter makes up for the last one being so short, and I hope it is not totally boring! Love you Lots! 

Sista Lassen

[This was the weather this morning for Augusta, Maine!  I check it every day.  I'm glad she's learned how to bundle up!]

[This was at almost 8:00 in the morning, Maine time!]

December 9, 2013

Dear family,

What an amazing week. 

Love,

Sister Lassen

[to which I replied… "Wha?!?!?!??!  This will NOT do!"  Thankfully, she instantly continued...]

Just Kidding, but it was amazing

So this week I feel like after all the work that we have put in the past 7 weeks we are finally making progress! Our mission president focus is on helping every member have a significant missionary experience in a year. So that is what we have been working on. Not just because of our mission president, but because we love them to death and want to help them, you know, follow the prophet! No big deal. 

It has been so much fun because we get to carol to so many people. And the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear... and talking about Christ.

Man, I really need to write down what I was going to tell you all because I really don't know what to tell you. It was a fun week.  I got to sing, meet with a lot of less active members, tract, help members with missionary work, and contact referrals. All that good stuff and more, like petting a pony, yelling at dogs, eating good food, and pretending to laugh at the Elder's jokes. 

Love you all!

Sista Lassen

December 2, 2013

An Amazing Week

Dear Family,

It was actually an amazing week. I don't have any amazing stories or experiences. I just really enjoyed being a missionary this week. 

Thanksgiving was wonderful.  We spent the day at district meeting, eating, and playing games with the members. It was really nice to get to know them better. Actually, I do have a funny story from Thanksgiving. We were at a members home and played Phase 10 with them (too much like home!) and their grandpa was there. In the middle of the game he got a bad Charlie horse and said, "I'm going to the other side!" It was so funny I thought I was going to die!!!

[This was a hand from one of the last games of Phase 10 that we played with Bethany before she went on her mission.  If my memory serves me right, I think it was her hand!]

This week we did the usual missionary things like tracting, trying to meet less active members, and helping the members in any way that we can. I guess what made the week so good was we did all that we could to help those around us, just focused on what their needs are. I love being a missionary and it is going to suck when I am not one anymore. I am just trying to enjoy it while it lasts! 

Today and yesterday it has been snowing/ raining and the snow is sticking. It is so beautiful! It is a true winter wonderland! And we sang Christmas songs to people already! Tis the season!...no Andrew, not that kind of Season. 

I love you all!

Sister Lassen