Sister Melissa Larson: The Work Progresses!

Family and Friends!

So I have pretty much had the best week of my mission so far. So many things to say and so little time. First of all, I was glad to hear that you all had a great time at Disneyland and missed me a lot! To be honest, I completely forgot you went! Which I am glad, because there is nothing better than being at Disneyland with the whole family!! Awesome that Kurtis and Ashley surprised you Jake, but c'mon guys this is Kurtis we are talking about... I KNEW he would do it. :) I even told Sister Bradfield last week.

Ok, I think I will start today with the miracles. Family be excited because I have written you a detailed letter of this experience, but I am only giving the readers digest version now... OK, so last Tuesday we had a return appointment with this sweet family that we had taught a great "basics" lesson (basics are the Godhead and an invitation to pray) SO we call to confirm and the man says no it's not a good time!! We were distraught. But I followed what the Spirit told me was the best thing to do, and we decided to go on thursday unannounced (they told us the first time that we could come back anytime) with Brother Ooh, who is the awesome member who just had the baby.

So we get there, and the lights are off and the gate is locked. Ah, we were bummed. Right when we were about to leave I felt a strong impression to look inside. The husband, Narong was sleeping on a mat!! Well, if there is one thing I learned from the MTC it is that you need to follow the Spirit and be BOLD! So I woke him up! OK,so we go in the house. Imagine this, we are sitting, two American girls with a clean cut, nice looking Thai man, in front of this tired, groggy man who really wants nothing to do with us at that moment. We needed his wife to be there... he wouldn't go get her, but by miracle, she came on her own!! (she had been sleeping also) OK, so were ready to teach, but they are still WAY tired!

The Lord wanted these people to be taught, and I can promise you there were not enough Thai words in mine and Sister Bradfields limited vocabulary combined to get these people to take us seriously at that moment, but Brother Ooh, OOOOH BROTHER OoH! He shined like a star! Turns out they have the same line of work and could totally related to them! He just layed it down and told them how important the message was. I swear he was speaking the words of angels and I could understand him! So basically we taught the sweetest lesson and their 10 year old son will be the temple president for the Thailand Bangkok temple. :) haha. (we'll see...)

So basically Sister Bradfield and I felt on top of the world after that, like How can life get any better than this?! and you know what, it did!! Remember in my last e mail, I said we had 7 new people? well 4 of those were just referrals that didn't end up going through... (happens a lot because people are too nice to say no) well this week we had 10 new investigators!! 10 new people that want to learn more about Jesus Christ!! Yesterday was pretty awesome too. We taught 4 lessons with 4 different members (which is pretty amazing) After every lesson I just feel so jazzed and excited about the work.

OH and an update on William and Penapah, we visited them on monday and they are coming to church this Sunday!! (we are helping them just this once) but President will be there because he is giving a fireside to the members about preparing for the temple because a lot of them are planning to go next year. I am so excited!!

Well basically, life is amazing and I would not want to be anywhere but right here! I think about home every single day, but it doesn't slow me down, it helps me to want to be a better missionary so that when I come home I can feel like I did my best and look back on these days as being the best. I love you all so much and Can't wait to hear from everyone! Please write me!!

Love,
Melissa