Week 24 Quick Update

Hey Everyone!

The past week a big portion of our missionaries have gone home. Between both Armenia and Georgia, there's only about 30 of us left. For those of us who chose to stay, we've heard that our projected quarantine time is around 3-4 months. The Armenian government announced a state of emergency so the whole country is supposed to be on lock down. We get an hour each day to be outside for exercise or to run errands so that's a huge blessing. All the Armenian missionaries have been moved to the capitol, so it will be easier to keep track of everyone now that we're all in Yerevan. My new companion is my best Belgian friend Elder Van Gijsel! We moved in with the two APs, Elder Mandla from Australia and Elder Stratford from Arizona. There are a lot of different accents going on in here haha. These guys are some of my best mates so life is good. We just have to be diligent and find ways to keep everyone's moral high during this time. I think now more than ever, we have to take control over our lives and choose to be positive. I pretty much just try to stay busy by studying and playing a lot of guitar. I will keep you all updated if any changes take place. No matter what happens, we will bounce back!

Other than that, I'm happy and healthy. Here is a pic of me on a run the other day:

Week 22 Cherry Blossoms

Hey Everyone!

Armenia is finally starting to melt a little so things are looking up! For my birthday on Friday, we spent the entire day moving bricks and bags of concrete to help build a children's school. It was definitely the most rewarding, yet exhausting birthday I've ever had. My companion took a picture of me afterwards caked in dirt so I will make sure and attach that below haha. I truly think I've learned just as much about home rennovation so far this mission as I have about the gospel. Anyways, sometimes for language study my companion and I will go to the university here in hopes to contact more people. The librarians are very adamant that we are only there to study, and are not to draw any extra attention to ourselves. Well, last week I accidently drew a lot of attention to myself. As a missionary, you work so hard that you learn to fall alseep just about anywhere. I will seriously catch myself napping while standing up on the metro sometimes. The other day while we were in the library, I fell asleep while reading my book and had a full on spaz sleep-attack. I scared the crap out of everyone sitting next to me, so when I opened my eyes half of the library was staring at me. I was so embarrassed that I just packed up my things and asked my companion if we could go. Way to represent the church man!

Some Highlights:

• New senior couple from Idaho! (pic below)

• Soccer finding

• Building a children's school

• Entire sacrament meeting in Russian

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT

Last week this man asked us if we could give his new grandson a blessing. When we got to their house, it became obvious that there was something wrong with the baby. He could hardly make any noise and barely managed to grab onto my little finger. My heart started to break as the family explained to us that the child had no strength in his body and that he wasn't expected to live much longer. Out of options, they reached out to us in hopes that we could save the child's life. I was asked to give the Priesthood blessing and it was one of the most humbling experiences of my life. Even though I couldn't promise that the baby would live, I felt confidence as I held his tiny head in my hands, that God had a plan for him. After the blessing, this non-member family told us they felt peace in their hearts. We explained to them that what they were feeling was God's love. When life feels too confusing and overwhelming to handle on our own, Heavenly Father is always there. Just like this family, we can lean on that knowledge. God is always there! 

Elder Brennan Larsen

Vratsakan # 5

0051 Yerevan

Armenia

Week 21 Dear Winter

Hey Everyone!

Life in the city is going well. My companion and I have been assigned by our mission president to spend most of our time contacting, so it's hard work but really rewarding. A lot of the people we meet are studying internationally so I've started to make a little contact book of all the countries I a place to stay in one day. For example, this past weekend we met these guys from Greece. They said they didn't want to learn about our church right now but they added us on Facebook and insisted that we visit their home after our missions. This scenario happens quite a bit so that's a little perk of serving in the captiol! This week we also made new friends from Dubai and Australia. Hopefully these people will remember our church and one day be willing to accept the gospel. When we can, we also refer their contact to the missionaries serving in their home countries. Anyways, something super funny happened last week. My companion and I went to visit this referral someone had given us. When we got there, the man was absolutely hammered. He said he had been drinking all day and it looked like a tornado went through his house. Anyways, he grabbed a liter of milk from his cupboard and started to chug it straight from the bottle. I just sat there, watching half of his drink go from his mouth back into the bottle. I genuinely had never seen anyone backwash so effectively before. After that, he handed the bottle straight to me and told me to drink it. By the way, Armenians are really aggressive about their hospitality. After I said no, he got mad so I just took the bottle from him and decided to take one for the team. It was my worst nightmare. It smelled like rotten potatoes and tasted like warm, old, Armenian goat milk. Having no choice, I went bottoms up and threw a few gulps back. The rest of the meeting, I sat there with full-body chills while this man yelled at us about how he is the only one who has God's cell phone number. Pretty interesting day!

Some Highlights:

•Playing volleyball 

•Visit from Elder Kearon of the Seventy

•Organizing youth activities

•The first sunny day in 3 weeks

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT

This week I have been studying a lot about receiving answers to our prayers. We will all have times when it feels like our prayers are going unanswered, which is totally normal. The Lord promises that, "Whatsoever thing ye shall ask in faith, believing that ye shall receive in the name of Christ, ye shall receive it." (Enos 1:15) I've been thinking about this verse a lot. Faith is asking for something and expecting that your prayer will be answered, not asking for something and stressing about it afterwards. We don't need to pray to Heavenly Father the same way we used to timidly ask our parents for sleepovers when we were little. Faith is confidence in God's plan. We have to be smart, do all that we can do, then be assured that the Lord will provide. This week I have tried to express my faith to this extent, and I have noticed a big change in my mindset. As I did this, I had zero feelings of fear, anxiety, or self-doubt. Instead, I was filled with patience, hope, and gratitude because I was absolutely confident that God was going to guide me every step I took.

Elder Brennan Larsen

Vratsakan # 5

0051 Yerevan

Armenia