I Stand All Amazed

With great sadness we give notice that Elder Thomas Larsen's father died yesterday, very unexpectedly, in his sleep. Our great love and prayers go out to his family and friends and as

a mission of brothers and sisters, we mourn with him who mourns and comfort him who stands in need of comfort. Elder Larsen is one of our finest missionaries who gladly accepted a calling to go from Zone Leader to Trainer at the last transfer. President Nilsen spent days laboring over the assignments of new Elders to trainers and we now see the results of the Spirit's influence in those pairings. The love and friendship, the immediate priesthood blessing given, the respect and understanding from Elder Smith will never be forgotten.

We are humbled to be in a position of counsel at times like this. Since our training in the MTC five weeks ago, we have had two Elder's lose their fathers and two Elders lose their grandfathers. When we got our mission call to Ohio we were surprised since we thought we'd go to a foreign country due to all of our overseas experience. Now we clearly see that the Lord looks at the sum total of our skills and experience and places us in the lives of people not countries. I have volunteered at a grief therepy center for the past five years. I never imagined that I would be doing this kind of work so early on and so frequently. I stand all amazed at the Love Jesus offers me.

Please fast and pray for our missionaries. This job is so much harder than I imagined it would be for them. They live on a budget of $4 per day. They travel long distances to find that their investigators won't answer the door. It is so humid here that our own kids don't play outside in the afternoons. But every day, our missionaries get up, put on a smile and fight the good fight. They do it because they love the Savior and they know the Gospel changes lives and brings miracles. I am in awe of their resilience, their love of the work, their willingness to try harder and their want to improve continuously. They are scriptorians, they are ambassadors, they are members of a world wide community that strives to come closer to Christ through restored priesthood ordinances. I stand all amazed everyday.