#54 独立日 dúlìrì (Independence Day)

Hey all! Elder Larson here, I hope everyone has been having a wonderful week so far and I hope everyone had an awesome 4th of July! I was actually super grateful we got to go to church on the 4th this year. It made for a really cool fast and testimony meeting. 

We have some updates with those we are teaching. We had a super awesome Restoration lesson with our friend Steve, and a wonderful Plan of Salvation lesson with the Bowden Family! They are both doing very well and are progressing. We had a phone call with our friend Evelyn and she seems to be slowly gaining a testimony of Joseph Smith! We are super excited to see her grow and progress. 

Today I just really wanted to express my gratitude and bear my testimony of this Country. I have had a few opportunities in my life to travel to other countries and see how other people live. And I am so incredibly grateful for the blessings and freedoms we enjoy as American Citizens. I love this country so much and I found a wonderful scripture about this land in the Book of Mormon.

Ether 2:12 "Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ, who hath been manifested by the things which we have written."

I can testify that this land is a choice and promised land, and as we do our best to follow the example of Christ and act the way he would have us. This country will prosper and it shall stand forever. In the name of Jesus Christ amen. 

Funny story for the week: So we were out park contacting each other this week and I expressed to Elder Sexton that I wasn't very good at contacting large groups of people. He said "oh it's not too hard, watch this" and walked up to this group of people sitting in a circle. We start talking and it turns out they were all Jehovah's witnesses... it was rather funny to see, they were actually super nice and supportive but very much not interested. 

Anyway, hope you have all had a great week, here are some pictures!

1. Scraping tin roofing in 95° 

2. A visit to a member named Cowboy Larry

3. 4th of July Hot Chocolate and Mt. Dew 

4. P-day at the Morro Bay sand dunes