Week 19 John Lennon

Hey Everyone!

This has been the craziest teaching week of my mission. On Wednesday, Elder Crook and I were running into the metro to catch our train. We noticed a man standing right outside the door of the station so we waved to him and he smiled at us. We took that as a green light so we hit the breaks and decided to talk to this guy. We found out he came here from one of Armenian's neighboring countries (probably shouldn't specify which one) and is now a vagabond musician, traveling all over the Middle East. He speaks Farsi and learned English from the lyrics of his idol, John Lennon. I'll just refer to him as John. We got his Facebook and I ended up messaging him that night. He replied to me saying that he wants to be baptized because he wants to follow the example of Jesus Christ. He told us that the day before we met him, he wandered into a random Armenian church and poured his heart out in prayer, asking for guidance in his life. I'm telling you... this guy is ELECT. We have been meeting every day since and he is accepting everything amazingly. My companion and I have never taught in English before so it's been a great experience. If it was possible, we already would have a baptismal date set. However, there is one big problem with John. The country where he is from doesn't like Christians very much. In fact, if John was to be baptized, he would be killed if he ever returned home to his family. They have spies all over Armenia so we are being very careful and John has said he wants to continue meeting despite these risks. His visa expires in a couple of days and we are praying the Lord will provide a way for him to stay here. We have been dealing with a lot of serious situations but John just keeps telling us, "God has a plan for me!" 

Some Highlights:

•Schawarma restaurant rating

•English classes

•Speaking in Sacrament

•Learning a little Persian

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT

"Yea, and how is it that ye have forgotten that the Lord is able to do all things according to his will, for the children of men, if it so be that they exercise faith in him? Wherefore, let us be faithful to him." 

--1 Nephi 7:12

Elder Brennan Larsen

Vratsakan # 5

0051 Yerevan

Armenia

Week 18 Grizzly Bear Encounter

Hey Everyone!

A lot has happened the last couple of weeks! I left the humble village of Ashtarak and am now living in the heart of the capitol in Yerevan. My new area is called Kentron. It's so fun to be in the city and be surrounded by so many different cultures. We interact with people from all over the world everyday. My new companion is Elder Crook from Tuscon, Arizona. Elder Crook is a stud and also wicked good at the guitar so I'm going to buy my own today so we can play! I'm really excited. Before I left Ashtarak last week, I went on a split with my zone leader. We were trying to street contact and ended up walking down into a big valley outside of town. We didn't see anyone for a long time and once we got pretty far into this valley, we found something a little weird. There was a big cage of grizzly bears just sitting there with no one around. I was just as surprised and confused as you probably are. I wish I had more answers for you but that's pretty much the end of that story. Classic Armenia. I'll throw in a picture so you guys can see what I'm talking about. In other news, a few of us missionaries have been working on a really cool project recently. There is an awesome blind member living here so we have been voice recording chapters out of the Book of Mormon for him and all the older members who can't afford reading glasses. Hopefully soon we will have the whole Armenian Book of Mormon available to those who are unable to read! 

Some Highlights:

•Moving to Kentron

•Split with Elder Tweed in Ashtarak

•Exploring old Soviet Airplanes

•Translating sacrament meeting

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT

My last sunday in Ashtarak I was feeling a little bit discouraged. As my first transfer was coming to an end, I looked back at the last 3 months and felt that I hadn't accomplished my goal of building the branch. I felt that we had genuinely worked so hard and endured so much, yet we had seen little to no growth in attendance every week. Minutes before sacrament meeting was scheduled to start, I felt discouragement as I looked around and saw the usual 4 ladies sitting in the congregation alone. These feelings soon left me when out of nowhere, 3 inactive families and an investigator poured into the chapel all at once. The timing could not have been better. We have not had such a high attendance rate since I arrived here in Armenia, including the Christmas service. I was overwhelmed in that moment, as I sat in the middle of the congregation that day, feeling like our efforts had truly been accounted for in God's eyes. Sometimes we work hard and we don't see the fruits of our labors right away. It may take a lot of patience but at the end of the day, "If you do the right things, the right things will happen to you."

Elder Brennan Larsen

Vratsakan # 5

0051 Yerevan

Armenia