War in Armenia

 Hey Everyone!

Thank you for all of your messages and prayers the past couple of weeks. It has been crazy, but all of us missionaries are safe and well! For over two weeks now, Armenia has been at war with its neighbor, Azerbaijan. Living in a war-torn country has really put things into perspective for me. On the streets you can see crowds of men squeezing into buses, on their way to go join the fight on the border. Little boys are loading supplies into military trucks and propaganda is decorating the entire city of Yerevan. It doesn't feel real at times. The past week, my companion and I were able to help supply 10,000 lbs of supplies to local municipalities and city halls. We even had the opportunity to take kits to a refugee home, filled with women and children who had just fled their homes across the Armenian border. We have also hit the 2nd wave of COVID-19, so it is worse than it has ever been. The laws here have changed as well, so we are no longer able to identify as volunteers and obtain residency permits. To temporarily avoid this, all of the missionaries except 6 of us flew to Dubai for a couple days and then re-entered Armenian soil. This loophole gives everyone a 6 month cushion, but we are currently meeting with lawyers in order to find a permanent solution to this. My residency expires in December, so if no traction is made by then I may score a trip out of the country here soon! Despite all of these things, we are keeping focused and pushing the work forward. I know my life is in God's hands and we will continue to work hard and serve others!

Some Highlights:

• Hiking to a sweet waterfall

• Delivering supplies to refugees

• Saying goodbye to Stratty & Mandla

• Organizing voting ballots for the US missionaries

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT 

"We cannot become perfect beings of divine joy without experiences that test us."

- Matthew Holland 

Elder Brennan Larsen

Vratsakan # 5

0051 Yerevan

Armenia

Turn Left Here

 Hey Everyone!

Well I hit my year mark last week! Pretty crazy. Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers over this past year. I can feel them every day and I'm so grateful for the support system in my life. We have been in quarantine for the past 6 months but I have never been busier as a missionary. A lot of my time is spent doing assignments that I never thought I would be doing on my mission (e.g. working with the US embassy, meeting with Armenian lawyers, closing church branches), but I definitely find the most fulfillment in those moments I am able to teach and serve others. Something cool that happened this week was we had a visit from one of the Church's apostles, Elder David A. Bednar. HE IS THE MAN. I didn't write down a lot of the things that he said, but I remember the feelings that I had. I remember feeling like he was a man inspired by God-- a man I could follow. It made me even more excited to hear from our prophet, President Nelson, in a couple of weeks at General Conference. Now, since it has been a year, I'll give you all a quick language update: It's still hard! I am pretty comfortable with Armenian now, but there are definitely times when the Lord feels like I need a little humility check. Sometimes that humility comes in the form of Russian... like last week when I tried to ask a man about a word I heard. He immediately pointed at me and Elder Stratford and yelled at us in the middle of a busy street, "SOVIET UNION!!". I'm not sure what his deal was, but we sure got out of there fast!

Some Highlights:

• Morning workouts with the boys

• Area-wide Zoom meeting with Elder Bednar

• Road trip up to Gyumri

• Campfires outside of our apartment 

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT 

"Sometimes we can be so impatient with our progress that we mess up our progress."

- Elder David A. Bednar

Elder Brennan Larsen

Vratsakan # 5

0051 Yerevan

Armenia