"Be not afraid, only believe."

Hello all of my beautiful people that I know and love. I hope you are all having a GLORIOUS week so far! Mondays rock. No one can say otherwise.

This past week has been crazy! We were so busy and Heavenly Father blessed us so much! So here are just a few of the miracles we saw.

1. I was in dire need of a haircut last week so we went to this place that we pass all the time when we go street contacting and this lady that cut my hair was just about the cutest thing you've ever met. Her name is Wida and she was from Iran. She told us how she thought it was so cool how we were going and talking with people about Jesus Christ for 18 months. And she just kept saying "such a young people!!" it was so cute and I sooooo wish we could have made her a new investigator. but she said she might come to church one day and now we have made a new friend(: so that was great.

2. We were able to have a super awesome Plan of Salvation lesson with M.! She just is so prepared and so wonderful. The only thing left is to get her to come to church! It was the best plan of salvation lesson I've had since being on my mission though. Man! Do my companions know how to bring the spirit or what?! They are the best! And i love being in a tri. #GoDreamTeamGo

3. Yesterday we were trying to figure out a place to go finding because the original place we had decided on we had recently done and so we were driving and found a place that we felt very strongly about. We got out and started tracting. 2 hours later and we had 3 new solid investigators! it was so miraculous and God does not cease to amaze.

Some other funny things that happened this week were that we got invited to join the Catholic church by this super confrontational lady. we politely declined and invited her to baptism. she rudely declined. then one of our member's granddaughters, (sister P.'s granddaughter H.) kept coming over to me during our lesson and kept touching my face and telling me that I had a beautiful chin...so random haha Then some lady asked us later in the week, "Are you Normon?" instead of "Mormon" haha we said "yes, we're MORMON." (:

A talk that's been on my mind a lot lately is the talk by Elder Holland "Lord, I believe." It's such an amazing talk and the story is in Mark 9:17-29. Such an amazing story. The way Elder Holland speaks is just so powerful. What an incredible Apostle of the Lord, Jesus Christ. I love that he says that we need to lead with what we DO know, rather than what we DO NOT know. Otherwise, it's like trying to stuff a turkey through the beak! We need to recognize what we have faith in first, and then lean on the testimony of others until we gain one for ourselves with the things that we are struggling with. And don't forget to pray for help from God to help you receive answers to the questions you are having a hard time with. If there is one thing that has been shown to me time and time again on my mission, it's that GOD DOES ANSWER PRAYERS!! And no one can ever tell me anything different. He is there. He is real. He is aware of EACH OF US so individually that we can scarce wrap our heads around it at times. But He does know us. He does love us. And He will NEVER leave us alone, especially amidst trials!

I love you all more than you know! Have a joyous week and find someone to share this good news of the gospel with(:

love always, sister brittany larsen(:

Miracles have not ceased.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a baptism coming up. Miracles have not ceased. God is so merciful. The power of the Atonement heals people! I am so excited for our investigator! She is so wonderful and so ready. God loves all of His children. Another soul coming unto Christ! What an amazing way to end our week last week. M. telling us her dad gave her his blessing to be baptized. I've never prayed so hard in my life for this to not only happen, but then once it did happen, my prayer after I fell to my knees to thank God for this miracle me and my 2 new companions had just been so privileged to witness. By the way, I love my new companions. They are awesome and it is constantly a party and a joy to preach the gospel! Love my life, love my mission, love my God. Everyone should serve a mission. That's all I have to say(:

Love always, Sister Brittany Larsen

P.S. everyone needs to watch the video "because of him" on lds.org. changed my life.

10 months has come and gone.

Can you believe it's been 10 months? I can't. so bizarre. anyways, that just means i've gotta work my tail off these last 8 months I have to serve my Heavenly Father! And it's gonna be great.

Well, we got transfer calls yesterday! Sister Stewart is going to open North Van for sisters and being the District Leader there! And I will be staying in Maple Ridge and am going to be in a TRI!!! SO CRAZY! haha Sister Allen and Sister Settle will be my new companions and it's gonna be sweet! Sister Allen was in my district for 3 transfers back in my first area, Osoyoos. Sister Settle was Sister Holm's MTC companion. ( I trained Sister Holm for those of you who don't remember. she's the greatest little missionary there is.) aaaanyways, this next transfer is going to be awesome and I know we are going to see MIRACLES in Maple Ridge!

This last week wasn't as rough as last week but was still not as great as far as finding solid investigators goes. We did find this one though, T., who is SUPER solid and she is searching for the truth! She is stoked to read the Book of Mormon and we are excited to continue teaching her(: she actually invited us back before we even asked if we could come back! this is what makes a mission worth it!

Missions are so hard but they are so beautiful! I have learned more on my mission than I have during my entire life! I love being a missionary with all of my heart and I'm giving my all to the Lord these last 8 months! Go team Vancouver! Go team Missionary! #dreamteam

love always, Sister Brittany Larsen(:

Peace, Be Still

A little while ago I went on exchanges with one of the most amazing sisters! her name is Sister Johnson. We were talking about the different emotions everyone feels and how there is one emotion that people generally feel the most. Hers was happiness. I thought that might have been mine too, but on thinking about it about more, I recognized that the feeling that I feel the most, is peace. I love peace. It always makes me think of soo many scriptures in the New Testament when Jesus Christ calms a storm, or like when He was walking on water and only when Peter looked towards Jesus Christ, and not at the storm raging around him, was he able to walk towards the Savior amidst the storm.

This is what Heavenly Father was trying to teach me this past week. How to feel peace amidst the storm. We were struggling badly. We hadn't come close to meeting our goals for the day and so we weren't on track to meet them for the week. I was losing faith quickly, so we started doing worse. Then the Sister Training Leaders came in and then I found the peace God was trying to show me all along. When we put our faith and our trust in Him COMPLETELY (meaning 100%, if not more), then that's when we are able to have that calm assurance that everything is going to work out the was God needs it to. We weren't able to meet all of our goals for last week, but we at least were able to meet the standards of excellence. So i'm grateful for that.

We also had a Canada-wide stake conference this weekend. It was broadcast from Salt Lake and it was so amazing! Elder Perkins from the 70 spoke, as well as Sister Linda K. Burton, Elder Holland, and President Eyring. All of their talks were so powerful and I was so thankful to be called a Canadian even for this short time as I sat and watched them speak on Sunday. Elder Holland's talk stuck out the most to me. He talked about how too many Latter-Day Saints are worried or concerned or stressed. He talked about how the Savior has given us a commandment to feel peace when he said "peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you." It is a commandment to feel peace! And how grateful I am for that commandment. What a blessing the Savior's Atonement is. He knows EXACTLY how to help us, as children of the Almighty God, because He went through EXACTLY what each of us will go through, individually, in this life. The Holy Ghost could have just simply told him what everything would have been like for us, but He chose the route that would enable Him to say to us, "don't worry, I know exactly how you feel." And how grateful I am for that. Jesus Christ knows us. He knows what each of us are going through individually, and if we will but turn to Him and give everything over to him, we will feel the peace and love that comes from His atoning sacrifice.

Anyways, I love you all so much! And i hope you have the best week ever(:

xoxo

love always, sister brittany anne larsen(: