Living The Gospel Joyful.

"The choice is yours!

The Creator of the seas, sands, and endless stars is reaching out to you this very day! He is offering the grand recipe for happiness, peace, and eternal life!

To qualify for these glorious blessings, you must humble yourself, exercise faith, take upon you the name of Christ, seek Him in word and deed, and resolutely “stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places.”

-President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

One of the best General Conference quotes of ever. It is simply our choice to be happy. Our choice to see what we want to see. If we want to see the negative, then we will. If we want to recognize God's blessings, then we will. What a miracle agency is. And God will never take that away from us because He loves us THAT much. Amazing.

It's been a really spectacular week. Had a lot of member present lessons and a lot of super solid new investigators(: Gotta love Sooke.

I read the talk about this morning and it's so funny because it has totally been the theme for this transfer. There was this super mean guy that we talked to on...don't even remember what day it was. sometime this past week, and sister unwin and i walked away and asked me why i could still be so happy even after someone was so rude. and so we talked about charity and how we are just so much happier when we have the Spirit in our lives because we choose to see the good. We walked away though and i said to sister Unwin, "what the heck? how could he be mean to me? i have a bow in my hair for crying out loud! i look like a child and he was still so mean!" but i guess that doesn't matter to people who just want to tear other's testimonies down. It was funny though. Also this lady was talking to us behind her closed door and i asked "is it okay if we leave a card in your website?" instead of "card in your door". i'm a genius everyone, i know. so those were my funny things of the week. also, please mourn over the fact that my companion, who lives in a first world country (she's from Liverpool, England) has never 1. had a PB&J sandwich, and 2. has never dunked oreos in milk before. moment of silence over that travesty please. thank you, moving on. I just love you all so much! thank you for all being amazing and supporting me through and through(: God loves all of you so much! keep being good and remember to "live the gospel joyful"!!(:

love always, sister brittany anne larsen(:

-matching shirts. #wecool

-me and some fog and geese. can you say "Canada, eh?"

-the porch was rebuilt that sister gowans and i fell through. wow.

-selfies with D. H. and C. at Sooke Group yesterday. joys.

-bowler hat selfie. (it's sister unwin's, don't worry. i look crazy, i know)

Aaaaalrighty my friends

Okay so this week has gone by super fast and i can't even tell you half of what happened because i honestly don't remember. ugh. missionary brain. but it was a good week! our 3 baptismal dates came to church yesterday and that was a huge miracle because we had to find rides to church for 7 people!! so crazy. but awesome(: i just love my companion so much. she just lights up my missionary work and i am so grateful for her! shout out to sister unwin! I've been just pondering a lot lately about a lot of different things, but mostly the word "pure" and what it means to be a "pure" disciple of Jesus Christ. or to have "pure" charity or love for someone. My favorite hymn of all time is More Holiness Give Me:

 More holiness give me,

More strivings within,

More patience in suff'ring,

More sorrow for sin,

More faith in my Savior,

More sense of his care,

More joy in his service,

More purpose in prayer.

 More gratitude give me,

More trust in the Lord,

More pride in his glory,

More hope in his word,

More tears for his sorrows,

More pain at his grief,

More meekness in trial,

More praise for relief.

 More purity give me,

More strength to o'ercome,

More freedom from earth-stains,

More longing for home.

More fit for the kingdom,

More used would I be,

More blessed and holy--

More, Savior, like thee.

This is something I've been striving to live by for the past few weeks and it has made such a huge difference in my missionary work and within myself as well. We had a training yesterday in Ward Council and we were talking about seeking the Kingdom of God first in our lives, then the people we minister to will want to do the same, and that is so true! If we are putting God first in our lives, everything else will fall into place. I have such a testimony that when we do the little things, but the most important things, meaning daily person and family prayer, scripture study, weekly Family Home Evening, and regular temple attendance, our lives just become peaceful amidst all the busyness of our lives. I know my Savior lives! I love him and I love you all so much!(:
love always, sister brittany anne larsen(:

-beatufiul!

-me and sister unwin!

-gorgeous ocean(:

"If the gospel doesn't excite you then you are un-excitable!" -Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

Hello my beautiful people! Hope you're all havin' a great week wherever you may be(: The sun is shining (well, kind of) and the time is now to seize the day! Clearly I woke up in a great mood this morning(: God is so GOOD everyone. He has just POURED out his blessings upon me and Sister Unwin this past week. We have so many awesome people to teach and our members are fantastic and coming with us to lessons! I have been called to serve my last transfer here in Sooke and am so grateful that I can stay here with all of these wonderful people. The Lord is still preparing the people's hearts here! What a blessing. Also, I've been called as the District Leader for my last transfer as well. ALSO, a huge blessing to be able to serve my sisters in the gospel and spread the love a little farther. I just honestly love my mission so much. It has been the best 18 of and for my life. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the whole entire world and I know that we can ALL gain a testimony of this divine work if we increase our faith, put that faith to action, and just go out and SERVE! Even those that aren't missionaries, you can still look for ways to serve always. This work is so good. This gospel is so true. And God is so good.

love always, sister brittany anne larsen

 

-the beautiful Capitol of BC

-we bought some artwork from a 4 year old to help fund her mission. love it.

-love my companion.

-love my town of Sooke.

The Icing on My Birthday Cake.

Well, the icing on the cake of the whole day was when everything went terribly terribly wrong. But it ended nicely with a video of my family singing happy birthday to me and my best friend in the whole world telling me happy birthday at the airport when he came home, on my birthday. Thank you Smith family for showing me those videos from my family(: but no seriously, this week was pretty legit besides my birthday being a wreck, minus the end of the day(: we had quite a few member present lessons, a lot with part-member families, and we found a new investigator(: we set a baptismal date for Febuary 7th with these awesome 3 daughters of a member here, so pray for them(: it'll be great(: also, word of advice for current/future missionaries. when you get a door slam, don't forget which house it was and then accidentally knock it again 10 minutes later. The people are not happy about that lol but it sure gave us a good laugh(: life is so good everyone. like honestly i love being a missionary so much it's ridiculous. There is so much growth and spiritual strength that comes when you serve the Lord with everything you have. And I love the Book of Mormon so much! I just crave to read it every morning and I never want to lose that, even after I go home. I'm so thankful for this chance to serve my Heavenly Father(:

love always, sister brittany anne larsen(:

-making non-alcoholic (obviously) shirley temples(: so good! happy nye!

-we done did eat some sushi for NYE dinner. delish.

-birthday selfie! happy 21st to me!

-the most beautiful thing you ever did see

-i'm obsessed with this stuff. it's called Mexican Feathergrass and I point it out everywhere we go.

& a Happy New Year!

Hola mi amigos!

Ya know, after 17 months it gets a little hard to come up with new catch phrases at the beginning of your email. #thestruggle. aaaanyways, it's been a pretty good week. Got to skype with the fam(: #WHATablessing and talk to lots of people! on saturday i was real sick so we had to stay in for a bit, but i'm almost all better now! (the power of priesthood blessings!) Christmas Eve was super hard. Everyone we talked to was definitely not in the Christmas Spirit, but finally one nice lady let us come in and she gave us some cookies and we said a prayer with her and her son. It was super awesome. She was definitely a miracle. We aren't really teaching anybody right now because everyone says "come back in the new year" yeesh. but hopefully things will start to pick up this week. I have no cool stories except for this morning we were in our apartment and i was carrying a pile of laundry and sister unwin was walking in front of me (not going fast enough) so i said i was going to kick her (softly/jokingly, of course) so she turns around just as she's turning the corner to go in our bedroom and she whacks her head HARD on the door frame. she has a giant goose egg. It was extremely funny and she doesn't have too much brain damage from it. haha oh how i love my companion. I love you all and hope you have a very happy new year(: remember to make some goals and actually DO THEM for 2015(: just a few of my goals for the year 2015:

-memorize The Living Christ (didn't do that by Christmas this year because I suck. whoops)

-attend the temple weekly

-bear my testimony at every opportunity given

-develop charity for people who annoy me

-less fear, more GO & DO type attitude.

i love you all(:

love always, sister brittany anne larsen(:

-i touched a llama!! (live christmas nativity that our church does every year in Victoria(: soups coolio)

-i carved a pineapple man. he's basically my boyfriend. (sister unwin made me "carve her something cool" out of the core of the pineapple. I'm basically a professional)

-ya can't see me Clark but I was there.

-feetjays on christmas eve! thanks mom and dad and cody! i look good, i know. #right

-our view Christmas day! #gorgeous

-i painted this(: so proud of myself #MerryChristmasSandy