032 - Larissa Elliott

You're listening to Women Infused Radio, where women in the marketplace connect with purpose and spirit, where the conversation covers all things women, business and fascinating faith. And now, your host, Christy Lynn Olson. Hello and welcome to episode 32 of the Women Infused Podcast. Today it is with complete joy that I introduce you to another woman of joy.

Her name is Larissa Elliott, and she is on fire for God and is literally speaking life and success into women around the world. Larissa has such a unique story that I can't wait for you to meet her, and she truly is one of these women that you just speak to her and she exudes joy. You cannot be joyful around her. You cannot be joyful around her.

She's just so incredibly amazing. She's originally from Russia. She moved to America just 16 years ago, and she was a former dancer and a dance instructor in Russia. And now, fast forward, she's a makeup artist.

She's a certified Christian life college. She's extremely successful here in everything that she does. She has an incredible testimony, and I'm going to let her share that later in the broadcast, but I want to give you a sneak peek. She was saved through a Joyce Meyer TV broadcast.

I'm going to be back up a little bit. Most of you are aware of Joyce Meyer, but it was so interesting because when Larissa came to America and she transitioned, she had a young daughter, and she started becoming very successful. And the outside, everything in her life looked perfect. She had everything.

She had a husband, she had a daughter, she had a new grandbaby, but there was something missing. Her heart was just full of turmoil, and she felt like she was always missing out on something. And so she was listening one night to TV and flipping through channels. We all do that.

And Joyce Meyer caught her attention. But listen to this. This is how sweet Jesus is in meeting us where we are at. Joyce Meyer caught her attention not because of what she was saying, but because of how beautifully dressed she was.

And that caught Larissa's attention. It is so sweet of Jesus because he knows our heart. He knew Larissa's heart, and he knew to pursue her where she was at. Larissa was beautiful.

She was in the makeup industry. She dressed well, and she comes from a country where women are very well dressed. And it was so interesting to me to hear her perspective on how she thinks American women dress. So I'd be curious to hear what you think of that through her experience.

But God met her where she was at. And then just kept showing her Joyce Meyer broadcasts every time she would turn on the TV. So I'm going to let her share the rest of her testimony with you. But I just wanted to share how good and faithful our father is.

And he knows we need something. He will always find something that we can connect with him on. That's how he is. That's kind of God he is he wants to connect with us.

Now Larissa is also the author of a signature course called Be Successful. She's a teacher of Bible study for Russian women in a retirement home in Richmond, Virginia. And she truly loves to empower and inspire women to live their God given destiny. And she does that through one on one couch.

You know, we'll put some links on her website on the bottom of this broadcast. But I really want you to just listen in and just soak in everything that she stands for. And just you'll hear the beauty of the spirit that she has been filled with through the spirit of God. And I'm so excited to introduce her.

So let's listen into the interview now. Well Larissa, I want to welcome you to the Women of Fused Radio program today. And I'm so excited to have you talk to our listeners because you have such a unique story, an amazing God story. And I didn't want to tell all of it in your bio because I want you to share more just so the women can hear personally from you.

But what I would love for you to do is kind of start us off by sharing about your personal testimony and how you came to America from Russia and he struggles that you faced. Maybe tell us a little bit about what you were doing in Russia and how that all transpired and then how did God kind of meet you where you were at? I think you have this amazing testimony. So why don't you just share with us a little bit more about that?

Sure, Krista. I just would like to thank you first of all so much for giving me this unique opportunity to speak and share my heart with listeners. So I came to America from Russia 16 years ago with my daughter. I met my husband, actually, future husband online and I moved to reach North Virginia.

It was not an easy transition from one culture to another. I think it took me about five years to adopt a new way of leading without my parents and Russian friends. But Krista, I'm a winner. I decided to succeed no matter what.

And I fully marked myself into a new career. I used to be a dancer and a dance teacher. But I become a makeup artist with finally that finally got me into management position. So I just wanted to go up in my career and I was very successful in everything.

Good from outside. But my heart was always full of turmoil and non satisfaction in overall life. So I felt like I was always meeting something. As a teenage girl, I fought myself wondering all the time why I am here on Earth.

What's the purpose? Why people leave? Just grow older, more get married, have to keep and die afterward. Then what's the meaning?

And I kept asking this question, leaving here in America too. I felt like I had a great life, full of faithful friends, wonderful husband. And his family was just amazing. But lovely daughter and newborn grandson.

Everything appeared so good, but I still did not have a piece inside my heart. I just look back to my life and imagine part of the board. A huge part of the board. Every piece is certainly the end.

Like one of this would be my birth, another one school, another one marriage, and my kids, another my next achievement. It looked like I had everything. But something was still needed. Just I felt like one piece that can make my whole picture complete.

So once after work, I was in my bed watching TV, sleeping through the channel. And I saw one lady that caught my attention. She was well dressed, had a beautiful makeup and jewelry. She stood out.

Why did she caught my attention? Because till that time, I have not met a woman in America who would dress to kill. A lady is here dressed very casually. Compared to in Russia?

Yeah, sometimes when I was working at the dealer's department store, I encountered women wearing a roller from their hands into jamas while shopping. That was one of the differences between my life here and where I came from actually. Yeah, but anyway, I observed a beautiful lady for a few short minutes and went to sleep. I saw her again on TV broadcast next night.

She had a different outfit and knew jewelry. But Christa went on a third evening. She appeared on my TV screen again. I decided just to listen to what she was saying.

She talked about God and I know that God loved me. He wants me to be his child that I am not an accident and he had a great plan for me. I was named by the creator of universe. Christa, I was shocked and overwhelmed by this knowledge because nobody never talked around me about God in Russia.

So I received Jesus Christ in my heart and my journey with Christ has begun. Do you know, do you want to know the name of that lady? I do. I can't wait.

Who was it? Well, her name is Joyce Meyer. Oh, we love Joyce Meyer. Oh, everybody know her, but that was the surprise for me at that time.

But you see, God has a unique way to reach everybody. I admire beautiful things of jewelry, nice clothes and well done makeup. And Lord, change my attention from outside the Institute in her beauty. And when I received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Sarah, that one, missing teeth of my life puzzle board that I was talking about was finally found.

And I become complete. So he still be with his joy and peace and his love that all this years I was learning for. And later when I have grown and gotten his word, I found out his promises for me and realize that my life can be so much better than I experienced until that morning. John 10 10 promised us an abundant life.

But when I saw mature Christians around me, always broken the need, other questions started raising up inside of me. And I was asking, well, how come Lord? This precious, precious people, they believe in you, they trust you, they love you, they are your children, they worship you, but still live and walk. They stay in life, waiting for life to be gone.

And Bible said that when you ask, you shall receive. So these questions led me to the path of discovering success with Jesus. During my research, I found another lady who was very familiar with the topic of success and how to get there. And her name is Clarice Seville-Foy.

Are you familiar with her? I am, I am, as a matter of fact, we have on our broadcast network, Terry Seville-Foy is going to be doing some of her broadcasting with us. And we're so excited about that. But I love the way that God grabbed your attention with things that you love, with how they looked, how they dressed.

And that was the initial thing that drew your attention. But because God has a better plan than we could ever understand, he was able to draw you in and then make that shift and just change it around and bring you what you needed to know. He always teaches us what we need to know, but in a way that he loves us so much that he knows how he wired us. So you knew how he had to get your attention.

So I know you heard about Terry Seville-Foy. And I think you and I were talking earlier, I think you were maybe even driving and you just realized like the Lord spoke to you. Tell us a little bit about what the Lord told you after you were listening to Terry. Oh, yes, Christi.

I spent a lot of time with Terry and still do. She's my car in my bedroom and the bathroom. I listen to her life-changing messages. But I was not only listening, I was applying this information to my situation.

And last March, when I was driving, the Lord told me that I will be Terry Seville for Russian women. I mean, it was a wow moment for me. That's where everything started. Well, my journey on path of success.

So make the world story short, last July, after that March, I conducted the first success course in a small church in Russia, it's difficult cause that. Since that time I'm teaching a group of Russians who follow me using media platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp ads, where I inspire and empower them to live and they got given death to me. I also teach Bible study to Russian ladies in a very time and home. He and Rich was in Virginia.

They are from 66 years old to 84. So that's what I got the idea to. So I am doing that for them. So I know clearly my purpose is to reach Russia, particularly women, to teach them that way to success in an abundant life.

That's why I was 35 to be a Christian life coach and enjoy encouraging women every single day. Wow. That's so exciting. And we're going to talk a little bit more about your coaching and how you help women be successful.

I want to track back a little bit. You mentioned that you've been working with women now in Russia and teaching them. And I know that's part of your heart. What's the difference in your opinion?

You know, obviously you heard about God, but when you were living in Russia, what's the difference between what those women are hearing and understanding about God versus what you've learned now? Is there a difference? And how do you think you can kind of help them understand a different way of life? Hmm.

Great question, Chris. It's a huge difference because in Russia, it is also the religion. Okay. Where people just go to church where particular clothes they are buying candles over there to light the candles in the churches.

There is no specific teaching about the God. The pope would say something that nobody would understand. We feel they are feeling holy being there, but it feels like it's a work. I feel good because I went to church.

I did something spiritually, but there is there is no real meaning, no relationship with Jesus Christ and no knowledge of how to be safe and how to talk to him every day. So that was a huge difference to me. Wow. I love the opportunities that God is giving you, which just goes to prove what I always tell women everything you've experienced up to this point in your life.

God wants to use in some way, whether it was a positive or a negative experience, but God wants for all of his daughters to understand who he is. And so he is uniquely using you to kind of go back and I don't know how often you go back, but you can do things here with all the technology that we have. And I love the fact that you're even going to the women in the retirement home because age is no discriminating factor. It shouldn't be.

And so if you can continue to teach the Bible to all these women, the reach and the impact you're going to have for him is absolutely amazing. And as you empower and inspire different women to live their destiny, I know that through your coaching, you've told us that you are also a licensed and certified coach. You have some success principles or success strategies that you've learned along the way to help women achieve their goals. I'm wondering if you could share maybe four or five however many you want success strategies that will help our listeners get a little sample of how they can maybe connect better to their own.

To their purpose and achieve their goals. Would you be willing to share a few of those with us? Absolutely. Yes.

They are all based on the word of God. That's what I like to teach. That's when Jesus is the first principle is the first and foremost principle and success is hidden in Matthew 633. That's safe.

See pure first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and everything else will be added into you. So other words when we need we need to know God know his word, his rules, his principles, his promises. We have to be plugged into the main source. We must rely on him and try to him in every way.

That would be number one. Number two, discover your purpose. Know why you're here on North. What is your assignment?

We did not come to just exist. We came to share with others our gifts and talents in order to make a difference in this world. One of my very, very favorite verses in the Bible, Romans 12 to it says do not become firm to this world, but be transformed by. Whether the renewal of your mind and then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

So when you think the kingdom and God's way of doing things here is the real purpose for our life. Is it powerful? Yes. Truth is just beside me when you know what to do and when you go.

So the truth is you see God after that he renews his mind and after he reveals his purpose for your life. So I think so many Christians still missing it. And my coaching sessions, I helped you discover, give me talents and skills because I know everybody has them. Number three, dream big.

Proverbs 29, 18 says without vision, people perish. If we don't dream, we go nowhere. We don't have a compass. We don't have a goal.

But when we take time to think about our future and not God to show it to us, our life becomes more meaningful, bright and exciting. I do just that leading leaders, leading their dreams and fulfilling their purpose. Next will be right your dreams and goals. Again, it's in the Bible.

Habakah 2, 2, right your vision. Make your plan. We need to have a crystal clear reading goals and plans for achieving them. I always encourage my clients to have a great and detailed plan that plan that helps to organize every day, month and a year.

So I don't know what's your favorite. I'm sure you have one, but my favorite is Ponda and Ignited. A very detailed plan that I always suggest. Maybe listeners would like to try that.

And one more I can share is a daily routine. I will read the right things that we do every day. We'll make a successful later on. We must be faithful in small in order for God and tries that with much.

Well, I can share what I do. One of my great coaches taught me to do them every day tracker. So you leave all the little things that you need to do every day and to be successful later on. So, Christi, all the principles are not new, but for some reason, a lot of people still don't live to their fullest.

And majority of my clients, wondering without dreams and goals, they say they love God, but don't treat the Bible. So I came to conclusion that God's promises are for everybody, but we are responsible to do the work and act on the work. Because again, Bible states face without work is death. So anybody can be successful if they have a burning desire to live a life that God gave us to live and take step to their destiny.

Amen. Oh, amen. That is so powerful. And I'm always writing notes when I interview people because I always learned something new.

I love that you said, you know, we have to go to the Word of God. And so you've referenced everything with a biblical reference and listeners can listen to that again if they need to write down some of the references. But what I liked about what you said is not only do we have to seek the Lord first and ask Him, but we have, and we can ask God to show us and then to but to write Him down and get a crystal clear plan. And I think that's maybe where a lot of women have trouble because we have so many ideas that we think we have to do them all at once.

Have you, do you have any suggestions for us? How do we pick like just one idea? Is that something that you would teach someone how to do or do you say do all of them at the same time? Well, again, the first and final more just to make sure you spend time with the Lord because without it, you can, it cannot go in the world as a conqueror.

You've got to know what He's planned for you. You got to be filled with His love and joy. You got to know His Word, what He's saying. Yeah, on my tracker, that would be the first thing and we meet with God every morning.

Wow. And next would be. And so you can, I didn't mean to interrupt you. You can tell us what you would do next.

So you meet with God. So why don't you give us a little sample of maybe kind of how an average day would go with you. Can you do something for us like that? Oh sure.

Well, I would couple early in the morning. I'm rising up at five a.m. and I take my coffee and I go to my room and I close the door and I just ask the Holy Spirit. I invite Him into my day, into my morning and I start to read in the Bible and ask Him to reveal me what I need to know today and what I need to know over all about life.

I ask Him to talk to me while I'm reading the Word. So something like that. Now, how important is it for you to listen to other messages? Do you still listen to Joyce Meyer, Terri Savile, and have kind of other mentors that speak into your life?

Oh, this is must. Absolutely must. Yeah, because it's encouraging to know that people live the same life, a lot in God and be and already being successful because they have so many years prior death stage already. Absolutely.

We have to learn from the death. Absolutely. So it is a combination. Obviously we want to learn from God because He is the ultimate best.

He's our best mentor ever. But I also think that God has inspired women that we can listen to and men with messages that will help us be successful. And I know I read somewhere that you had written, if you don't like what you're experiencing, then you need to change. Or you need to change something, you know?

And so I think that's so important that we don't just because we think it has to be a certain way. If it's not working for us, we can change. And that's part of what you said about writing your dreams and goals and tracking them because that I think will also set us up for success because we'll be able to look back and say, okay, I've been doing this for three months now, but I haven't reached this goal. So maybe I need to do something different or maybe I need to change my goals.

So is it okay for a woman to kind of make changes in her plan as she goes throughout the year? Oh my goodness. Absolutely. Actually, that's interesting that you mentioned it because I was not happy with my work schedule.

With my schedule. I could not. What? On Sundays, I start.

I become stressful about the everyday life. Yeah. That's why I'm like, I sit down one day with the Lord. And I was like, Lord, why I feel that way?

I want to do this and that do this and that. I know this helped me to do this and this. But why I feel so stressful? And I felt like he was telling me that you are the one who is doing your schedule.

And I'm like, whoa, all I need to do is change it. So that's probably when I put the post a bit on the Facebook. I know you don't like something. You have a power to change it.

Yes. Absolutely. Oh, that's interesting. But you were listening to his voice and you had to work through some things, but we all can feel frustrated or feel stressed out.

As you said, you're feeling stressful, but he's answered that. And so now I know you've set aside time to do the things that you want to do. And also, I just want to share with you. And I don't know if our listeners obviously have picked up on this, but I think you've learned English once you came to America.

Is that true? Well, kind of. Yeah. Okay.

Because it was three years of preparation to come to America three years when I had my first dream because I wasn't for you. I wasn't happy in Russia and I thought you come to America and to me American man. I will be happy. So I did not know God back then, but I knew that I have to be prepared to come here anyway.

So in one of my goals was to loan English and I took a lot of courses. But when I came to America, it still was challenging for me because you guys speak Americans not English that I used to loan in Russia. So it was a little bit different. So it's kind of I knew English and I did not know it.

So I have to adopt it to your way of speaking the words. But you know, the reason I ask is because first of all, I think your English is excellent. But the second reason is I think sometimes women think, oh, we can't do something because we don't know that or we're not perfect in everything. And so you're a great example of how if we set our mind to something and that goes to be successful in setting goals, but you had to do the work that you knew you were anticipating.

And so you set yourself up by success, I think by learning learning English, knowing you wanted to come to the United States, but that we don't have to be perfect either because God will teach us what we need to know how and when we need to know it and that we can encourage other women through your story that you don't have to have everything perfectly figured out. You just do need to have a plan though. So he can help you be successful. And I just think that's important for women to hear that you've overcome a lot.

But that's because you had a plan and you were willing to do whatever needed to be done to make those dreams and goals happen. Would that be a correct statement? Oh, wow. And then to that, Chris, it was a great preaching.

Excellent. Well, absolutely. Oh, good. Well, I know that what you do is empower women.

And so I always like to ask and thank you so much for sharing a lot of your stories and your success tips with us. I always like to ask the women that I interview on the show. What does God have next for you? Because I know you're a big dreamer and I'm sure you're taking steps to do that.

So could you share with us a little bit about what do you think God has next for you and what you're doing to make that happen? Oh, sure, Chris. My big dream is increase the kingdom to see more people safe to deliver set free and live their best life now. And testimony of my client success that make me happy and inspired to continue to impact more life.

So I know I'm on the right track. So I'm in the progress of all finishing 10 steps online courts for women on both English and Russian language. And through that court, they will be able to love biblical principles on success with practical applications. I trust that this tool will lead them to desire God more to dream big to plan and advance and achieve every day they want.

Because we can do all things through Christ who's drinking up. It was got nothing as impossible. This is my declaration for every day. I am also planning to conduct success confidence in Kazan.

This July again, the last and I will as soon as I finish with my course, Chris. I want to join a woman in fields and have my own radio. Like you do. Oh, we're so excited to have you.

Yes, yes, yes. Absolutely. Just continue my today. We're women to live on their purpose.

I also plan to create a Christian planner on both languages because I really believe there is a meeting. We are meeting something in a plan because I like a lot of planners, but not perfect one exact for me. And I feel like everybody around me saying the same thing. So I would like to create a Christian planner that detailed planner for our life.

Wow, I will be the first one to buy it. I am a planner fanatic and I agree with you. I have like three or four different ones that I like, but nothing really fits. And so I think we can't wait to see what your Christian planner will look like.

Oh, awesome. And I will create a Russian daily devotional unsuccessful living. That's another in my place that excels for next year and Christie. My desire is to meet your smile and take that personally for transforming my life.

Because now I'm able to transform on it. That's my biggest desire and I know God will do it for me. He will. He will.

And you know, all we need to do all we ask is to speak into existence, those things as though they were. And you've done that and I stand in agreement with you on that that you will meet Joyce Meyer. You will meet Terris of Elphoy in person and I can't wait for that day and I want pictures of it. And I know that'll be like the ultimate testimony and God will do it.

You know, his promises are true and he will absolutely make that happen. And I think they are going to be just tickled pink to meet you. So if there's anything we can do to make that happen faster, I hope Joyce Meyer or Terri are listening and we'll make sure that we keep praying for you about that. And that is just so exciting for me just to hear your journey.

And I know there's a lot more that we could talk about. So I would love to have you back and just keep talking to the women and interviewing you and helping you have you help us, you know, walk through dreaming bigger and just kind of keep us posted on our dreams. And I don't know if you'd be willing to do this and you can say no, but I would love for you to close out our interview by praying for women. Well, I'm your father.

We thank you so much for this beautiful conversation. I just thank you so much for everybody who is listening to us right now. And I would like to just tell them that it doesn't matter where you are, what past you had, what you did or did not do. You are unique and God has an amazing plan for you.

He wants you to be successful and have a great and joyful life. Assistant, don't give up. Speak to him because he can do exceedingly abundantly above all that you can are big or imagined. And I really believe that because I see it in my life and he will do the same for you.

Heavenly Father, thank you for blessing. We're listening right now and thank you that you opened up the door for them. You show them their purpose, that they can read victorious with you Father because we know that that's exactly what you want us to do in this our Father. Thank you.

We give you glory. We give you honor. We give you praise Lord. It's so good to us, Father.

Mighty name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. This has been Women in Fuse Radio, connecting women around the globe with purpose and spirit. And we want to connect with you.

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