February 22-Another Wonderful Week:)

This has been the most wonderful week! I am just trying to relish being a full-time missionary in the Philippines Angeles Mission. This week we had zone conference and then we had stake conference. It was an awesome overflowing of personal revelation.

At our zone conference, President Clark was the concluding speaker and he told us that originally he had planned to talk about the Atonement because that is the theme of our mission training plan from Jan-March. But instead he felt impressed to talk more about "Real Growth" our theme for 2015. And I am so glad that he did because it was exactly what I needed.

He shared with us an article he had found about 7 signs of real growth. They are:1. There develops within your heart a  desire to further the work of the Lord and to become a better person. 2. You being to review commandments, laws, and church directives differently. They become helps,guides, and kind gestures of a benevolent Heavenly Parent. 3. The more you search the scriptures, the more you see patterns, connections, parallels, and principles for living. 4. Your personal gospel study becomes more and more enlightening and faith affirming. 5. You begin to be more secure and settled in your faith and less troubled by doubts. 6. You feel a deeper since of love for and loyalty toward the apostles and prophets. 7. Your faith is transformed into certainty. 

I am so glad that I can say that I have felt myself progress in each of those areas and I have been able to see real growth in myself. I was reading over some of my notes from the MTC (which i should have done a long time ago),and I remembered how worried I was at the beginning of my mission that I wouldn't change. That I would go home the same person I was when I left. Well silly me, because how can you possibly NOT change when you spend a year and a half teaching others about the gospel of Jesus Christ. More than anything my understanding of the Atonement has changed and that is really what makes changes possible. I've seen some great changes take place in those I've taught because of the gospel and the Atonement of the Savior and that has also caused me to change. I am so glad that we are creatures of change. 

Recently we started teaching a sister of one of the returning members in our branch. This sister is soooo willing to be baptized. This week we taught her about the Word of Wisdom. She smokes and drinks coffee and alcohol. But she committed to stop. We stopped by one night this week to check on her and lo and behold there was a group of people outside of her house just sitting in a circle and drinking alcohol. And she was one of them. She tried to convince us that she wasn't really drinking. Finally she admitted that she only drank "a little bit".  But as we talked to her you could see the alcohol working through her system. I hate Satan. She has a sincere desire to change. I am learning more and more that Satan doesn't want us to change. And he doesn't want us to even think that we can change.

At stake conference we got to see the dad of one of our investigators stand up and be advanced in the office of the Melchizedek priesthood. That was great change. This man and his wife were offended and became less active. Now they have returned to activity (well the mom is almost there) and they are really helping their daughter prepare for her baptism. That's real growth! 

I really do love being a missionary. I love seeing the gospel change lives. It has definitely changed my life. I love my Savior, Jesus Christ and I love feeling His love. 

Sister Larson

Just eating some dried fish. It's called tinapa. Pretty yummy.I didn't eat the head though

Birthday party/coordination meeting for our branch fireside about fellowshipping. The man holding the baby is our 1st counselor and there's also the two elders that serve in Zaragosa, the other part of our branch. 

And a giant rhino beetle that Sister Salde woke me up with. I was just sitting at my desk, still blurry eyed when Sister Salde came in and asked "Hey Sister Larson have you ever seen one of THESE?!" and that almost gave me a heart attack. But she got a good laugh out of it.  :)