Christmas

Olà todos!

I hope you all had a wonderful week and a wonderful Christmas! It only seems fitting that Christmas was a little strange this year. This year has been pretty different, I have definitely learned to expect the unexpected. I am so grateful for all of you, thank you for all the mail! I appreciated it so much, I loved getting all of your christmas cards. 

This Christmas I'm grateful that I am a missionary and able to testify of Jesus Christ. He is the one that we celebrate at Christmas time and I'm so happy to be His servant! I loved the Light the World initiative and how many awesome service opportunities there were. It made me realize how many people we can serve daily and it made me want to be better at looking for those service opportunities. 

We were also able to have exchanges this week! I went to Lewisburg with Elder Smith. He's an amazing Elder and I was able to learn a lot from him that I want to implement into how we go about the work in our area. We had a blast and it's always fun  to be around someone new.

Thank you for all that you guys do. I'm so grateful to have so many wonderful examples of Christlike love and service in my life. You are all awesome!

Amo vocês!

Elder Larkin

Pics: Exchanges with Elder Smith and the sunrise this morning! Sorry I don't have any pictures from Christmas! It's kind of hard to take pictures of zoom calls hahaha

Showers

Olá todos!! Feliz Natal!!

I hope everyone had a great week, we sure did in Covington.

On Saturday we had a mission wide day of contacting. As a mission we had the goal to contact 3500 people. Well, we blew that goal out of the water and made 8,011 contacts in one day!! It was pretty incredible to see all of the miracles that happened. There were countless stories that resulted, there were many blessings that came from unified hard work.

Funny story, last Tuesday our shower broke. It was super clogged, the water from our sink started to fill up in the bathtub, and it smelled HORRIBLE!  We called our landlord, the mission housing coordinator, and a plumber after we tried to fix it ourselves, and didn't hear back from anyone until today. We've been showering in our garage, and that was an experience. I'm never taking my shower for granted again!

This Christmas I'm grateful for the Savior and the hope he brought to the world. He is the greatest gift of all, I hope we can all remember Him during the holidays. This year has been hard for a lot of people especially, but there isn't a problem that can't be solved with a reliance on Jesus Christ. He loves you all so much. I love you all. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

Elder Larkin

Pics:

Feijoada (Brazil rice and beans, super good), our district, and today we went and checked out a resort in our area!

Travels

What's up everyone!

This week was honestly pretty crazy. An Elder in my district is originally assigned to Taiwan and he had to go back to Utah to get his Visa. That meant that I had to go to Lewisburg, WV, to pick him up, pick up another Elder who was travelling with him in Beckley, WV, drop them off in Charleston, then head back to Lewisburg to be companions with Elder Diede for the week, all during a snowstorm! It was a fun adventure that I'm not going to forget anytime soon! Up until then I had never really driven in the snow, but I'm basically  a pro now haha. It was a fun week though! Elder Diede is an awesome missionary. He has only been in the field for about 6 weeks, but I still learned a ton from him. 

We had a zone conference on Wednesday and I loved it! It was all online, which was a bummer, but I was still able to learn a ton. We talked about Christ- like attributes and how we need to strive to develop them in order to progress. President Newman taught that right now, serving a mission, is the best time to develop those attributes. We literally focus all of our time on Him and bringing others closer to Him, the impact it will all have for later on will be incredible!

Also, my companions and I made some Christmas cards! If you'd like one in the mail please send me your address! 

I love you all, thank you for all you do! Have a great week!

Elder Larkin

Thanksgiving

Olá tudo mundo! 

We had a fantastic week this week. We've been getting to know the members of our branch better and they're starting to get really excited about missionary work, which is awesome. Our branch president asked Elder Aloiso and I to speak at sacrament meeting this week, which was super fun! I always enjoy rubbing shoulders with the members and getting to know them better. There's always good people wherever you go!

As you all know, this week was thanksgiving! The members were super kind and brought us lots and lots of food. One dinner turned into about 3 or 4 dinners hahaha. We were super grateful for their kindness. This Thanksgiving I was grateful for good people. I have a lot of very good people in my corner, such as friends back at home, members in my current branch, my family, the list goes on. I am so grateful for all of your support. It really does mean a lot!

This week we found a lot of new, solid people to begin teaching, which is exciting. In all honesty, the work was a little slower when I showed up, but it's starting to pick up slowly but surely!

Thank you for all that you all do! I always love hearing from you guys, let me know how your Thanksgiving went!

Amo vocês! 

Elder Larkin

Pics: my comps and Thanksgiving dinner!

Covington

Olá gente! Como vocês estão?!

This week was definitely a roller coaster! So I told you all that I was going to be transferred to Wytheville, but that didn't end up being the case. The night before the transfer, President Newman decided to transfer me to Covington instead. Honestly, I'm super glad that I'm in Covington! My new companions are AMAZING guys. Their names are Elders Morrison and Aloisio, and I'm super grateful that I have the chance to serve with them. 

I absolutely loved President Nelson's broadcast on Friday. It's so true, the cure to everything going on isn't going to be found in a vaccine, it's going to be in a change of attitude/point of view, an attitude of gratitude! I'm a firm believer that when we are grateful for our trials, they are so much easier to bear.

I'm excited to be here in Covington and I can't wait to see things we'll accomplish! I love you guys and I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Larkin 

Pic: my new companions!!

Transfers

Olá todos!

This was a fantastic week! Elder Bassett did a mission tour and it was phenomenal. He provided some training and different things to focus on as we're going about the work in new/different ways. The pandemic is forcing us to work more with the members, which is exciting. Our investigators are feeling more welcome, the members are more involved, just a better deal all around. It's a high standard of missionary work and I'm all for it.

I also got some exciting news, I'm getting transferred to Wytheville, Virginia! It'll be a good change of scenery, but I'm going to miss this ward. I've been able to develop some really great relationships in the ward and it was pretty tough saying goodbye to some of them on Sunday. We had an amazing Bishop, I don't think I'll ever find a ward quite like it. But, my parents favorite quote comes to mind, "Change is joy." I'm excited for the change and I can't wait to see what things lay in store in Wytheville.

During the mission tour Elder Bassett shared a story about President Ballard. Back in 2018 President Ballard's wife passed away. They were married for many, many years and everyone was speculating that this loss would be especially tough for him. A little back story, President Ballard's grandfather is Joseph Fielding Smith, son of Hyrum Smith and Mary Fielding Smith. When Hyrum Smith was martyred alongside Joseph Smith, he left behind Mary to take care of 11 year old Joseph Fielding and some other younger children. They faced the prospect of crossing the plains, which Mary did. She crossed the plains with her very young children and faced all the dangers along the way. So, when President Ballard showed up and delivered a general conference talk days after his wife's death and showed up to his regular meetings, Elder Holland asked why didn't he just go home, why didn't he just take the week off? President Ballard's reply, "In this family, we mount up and head west."

What a powerful statement. No matter the odds that we face, may we all do it with such determination. We all have our trials, some very difficult to bear. But we're also expected to get through them, and we will, through reliance on the Savior and His atonement. 

I love you all! Let me know how y'all are doing, I love getting your emails!

Elder Larkin

Pics:

Mission tour (Elder and Sister Bassett met with us from Church Headquarters), saying good bye to Bishop Polk and his family, and our last district meeting!

Facebook Finding, Stake Conference, & Food Pantry Service

Olá todos!!

This week was amazing! There was a lot going on, sorry if this email is a little longer haha.

We've been able to find a couple new people and start teaching them. One of them was Noah, and he has an interesting story. I messaged him on Facebook a few weeks back and we've gone back and forth here and there. We finally got to have a lesson with him and it went super well. The thing is that he's only comfortable with us teaching him over video chat, so we haven't been able to actually meet in person yet, which is strange. As long as he understands the concepts that's what matters I guess!

We were also able to meet up with our new friend Yolanda! She has a crazy story. I'm not sure if I've talked about her before, but a few years back she met with the missionaries in New York and came very close to baptism, but wound up moving to WV. We were finally able to get in contact with her and put her on baptismal date for December 12th! We're so excited for her, she is very clearly prepared to receive the Gospel.

This Sunday we had Stake Confernce and Sister Newman (President Newman's wife) gave us a shout out in front of the entire stake. It was very nice to receive a little recognition. Not out of selfish desires, but to know that someone appreciates the work we're doing is exciting.

We were also able to move 18,000 lbs of food for the food pantry on Friday. Yes, it was A LOT of food. It was kind of unbelievable. It was all on big trucks, and it was my job to organize the pallets and make sure the food got off of the trucks and inside. Thank goodness for Grandpa Jennings' instruction over the summer, I'm sure all the Pastors were impressed haha.

I love you all and I want you to know how much Jesus Christ loves you all as well. He knows when you're feeling lonely, lost, or confused, because he descended below it all. He loves you and His arm is always outstretched, it's our job to take it. No one is ever too far gone, you simply have to reach out to Him.

Thank you all for the support, I really appreciate it. I always love to hear from you guys!

Elder Larkin

Pics:

We took a hike down the gorge to the river this morning. We've had beautiful weather recently, we'll take it while we can get it!

Another Week

Olá todos!

I hope y'all had a good week! Not much has changed here, we had some pretty awesome lessons with some of our investigators. 

We had an amazing meeting with Jordan. She told us that she believes the Book of Mormon is true and bore her testimony of it. She told us the great impact it has had on her life in such a short amount of time. It was astounding. It's been amazing to watch her conversion process and see her testimony grow. We haven't been able to get her to church yet, but it's pretty much a no brainer at this point. I'm sure that will change this week. It would help a ton if y'all would keep her in her prayers.

I also got to meet a pretty amazing lady named Terry this last week at the food pantry. The week before she was wearing a T shirt with a reference to Philippians 4:13 and I told her I liked it. So, she told me it was Pastor appreciation week at her church and she was going to get a shirt like it for her Pastor, and she wanted to get me one as well. So I gave her my shirt size and didn't think much more of it. The following week, she came and found me and had a shirt! That gave us some time to talk and we actually got to have a follow up meeting with her. It was a miracle. 

I love you all! Have a good week!

Elder Larkin

Pics:

1. With one of our investigators named Justin. He is a Baptist pastor, knows the Bible like the back of his hand, and wants to go to church with us the week of Thanksgiving. He and his wife are super kind and we teach them every week. 

2. With Terry from the Food pantry. She also is super kind. I get to see her every week, we've become fast friends.

Buddha

Hey everyone!

Sorry y'all didn't get an email last week, that was my bad. I just kinda spaced it, but y'all honestly didn't miss out on much. Pretty much the only thing that changed was we got another companion, and we're in a trio! His name is Elder Riggles. He's super kind and funny. It's a little tight in the apartment, but that's okay. He's great and I've already learned a lot from him. 

Not a whole lot is going on. We went on a streak of 6 days in a row where we didn't teach, which was unfortunate. Because it's getting colder, fewer people want to meet outside, which is a bummer. We have been working more through Facebook and video calls though, and we have seen more success there. 

Funny story: We were talking on the phone with a guy named Fred. He was in our area book and had last talked to the missionaries in 2007. So we called, and he picked up. Right from the get go he told us he wasn't interested. He said he was born and raised Baptist and we weren't gonna change his mind. So after talking a little more, we found out he has traveled all over the place. He's lived in Utah, California, South America, China, and West Virginia. So he said that there's tons of different people and they all worship differently, which is totally fine. And one day in China he was walking down the street when someone sneezed, and he said, "God bless you." Well the Chinese guy said he doesn't believe in the same God he does. So Fred says, "Well, Buddha bless you. Someone is gonna bless you for sneezing." It was all I could do to not crack up laughing. Now when  one of us sneezes, it's always Buddha bless you hahaha.

I love you all! Have a good week! Always remember that God loves you and is there, even when  you don't think He is.

Elder Larkin

Pic: Another hike to Long Point. We had to get Elder Riggles there before the trees lost their leaves.  

J's

Olá todos!

We had another great week! A ton happened,  so I'll try to get all the good stuff Haha.

We taught a whole lot of lessons! They all actually went super well, and we were super excited. We taught Jordan, vJohn, Jason, Justin,  and Vickie.  Yes, lots of J's haha. We're super excited about all of their progress. Jordan and Jason are on baptismal date and are progressing very well.  The work its moving so fast, it's getting kind of hard to keep up Haha. I'm not complaining though. I'll take it while I can. 

We also got transfer news! Elder Empey and I are both staying, and we're getting another companion.  It'll be interesting trying to fit him into our tiny apartment, but it'll be exciting!

There was also an amazing miracle that happened this last week.  We do service at a place called Warm Hands From Warm Hearts,  it's a food pantry run by all the local preachers and pastors. Well, the Sisters in our district volunteer there on our off days. On our day, the Sisters had their plans fall through and decided to come volunteer with us. Turns out, it was a good thing they did. When we all got there we learned that ALL of the pastors had gotten Covid and couldn't show up.  So we ran the show. Hundreds of people were lined up and we got to feed them all! It was so amazing how it all worked out. 

I love you all! 

Elder Larkin

Pics:

Last District meeting in our district and a cool hike! West Virginia is SO BEAUTIFUL!!

Amazing Week & General Conference!

Olá todos!

This week was AMAZING! First off all, we had exchanges! I stayed in Oak Hill with Elder Mitchell and it was great. We got to meet with Jordan, the girl we met through Facebook. It went super good and we committed her to baptismal date! She loves the Book of Mormon and has been studying a whole lot from it. We're excited for her and can't wait to see how it all works out.

General confernce was also awesome! I especially liked Elder Anderson's talk. We absolutely need to put Christ at the center with all we do. We were actually talking about that at our last zone conference. Too often He gets excluded when in reality this is The Church of Jesus Christ. Too often we say the Atonement, not the Atonement of Jesus Christ or repentance, not repentance through Jesus Christ, or baptism, not baptism in the name of Jesus Christ. I invite you all to put Christ at the center. When you do you'll realize the power that comes from using His name.

This is the last full week of the transfers and we have interviews with President on Friday! I'm excited to finish this transfer out strong. 

I love you all and hope you all have a great week!

Elder Larkin

Pics:

Exchanges with Elder Mitchell and carving pumpkins with the Sisters!

Sons Of God

Hey everyone! 

This week was a roller coaster of emotions. For starters, Mark and Samuel, the two investigators we've had on date, dropped us for good. That was super sad, but we had already ended up postponing their baptismal date, and they had already been kinda flaky in the past. So, it will be good to focus on the people that are more interested. 

The funniest thing happened the other day. Elder Empey and I were walking down the street in front of a parking lot, and from clear across the parking lot, a man yelled at us, "SONS OF GOD!!!!" and he waved us over hahaha. Turns out his name is Steel Tango, he had a giant Turkey feather in his hat, he was wearing a suit (which also had a feather in it), with Lebron 11 basketball shoes, all while running a fruit stand. When he found out both of our first names are Jacob, he took his hat off, and looking up into the sky, he said a prayer thanking God for sending him "a double dose of Israel" hahahaha. He is quite the character and we've actually been able to meet with him since.  

This weekend was full of miracles. One in particular was the day after we lost Mark and Samuel. We friended a girl named Jordan, she gave us her number, and we taught her about the Book of Mormon over the phone. After we finished, she told us that the day before she had been praying for someone to help her back on to the straight and narrow. She couldn't believe it's all happened so fast and we're meeting with her tomorrow to get her a Book of Mormon. 

We had an amazing week and I can tell you that our Heavenly Father is in the details of our lives. All we have to do is look for His hand and we'll see it.

I love you all! I hope y'all have a good week.

Elder Larkin

Dogs

Hey everyone!

Sorry y'all didn't get an email last week, that was my bad. You didn't really miss out on anything, just that the mission leadership set the goal to find 1,000 new people in a month. We're all excited to see how it works out!

This week was a whole lot more eventful though. We had a zone conference on Tuesday in person! It was a great meeting and we talked more about our goals. I also ran into Sis. Abby Larkin! President was kinda confused about having an Elder and Sister Larkin, it was hilarious haha.

The rest of the week was very busy. On Friday, a funny story, I got bit by a dog. We were out for our morning run at 6:30 in the morning, and all of a sudden three pretty big dogs came tearing out of a house! One of them got me, and we wound up at insta care to make sure I didn't get an infection. Fast forward to yesterday, we decided to give their owners a call. We had their contact info and they were very nice about everything that happened, so we figured, why not give them a call? Long story short, we have an appointment with them next week. The Lord works in mysterious ways. 

In terms of a spiritual thought, I just finished President Monson's biography. It really emphasizes reaching out to the one. There are a lot of lonely people, especially those that are still social distancing. So, I'd like to challenge you all to reach out to someone new and make a new friend. We all need good friends and to feel loved. 

Because I recently got a new phone, I haven't been able to transfer all of my pictures over yet. I do have a couple, but you'll get more next week.

I love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Larkin

Pics:

Thomas (the guy in the middle) was baptized into our ward on Sunday! Elder Empey did his interview and he took us out for hot dogs and shakes (very west virginian).

Also, at the zone conference I ran into Sis. Larkin! Super awesome!

1,000 Stairs

Olá todos!!

This week was pretty busy, which was good for a change haha. We taught some great lessons and had some great discussions with amazing people! Doesn't get any better than that.

Yesterday was fast and testimony meeting, and it was AMAZING! Thomas, a guy who the Sister in our ward has been working with, stood up and bore his testimony. He hasn't even been baptized yet, but his testimony was super powerful. He told his conversion story and how he came to know that the Book of Mormon is true. The spirit was strong and Elder Empey and I were blown away.

We've also been able to work more closely with the members in our area. It seems like everyone has a different story, they're all amazing. I love our ward so much. They're all so kind and helpful, it's been fun getting to know them better. 

We've also been able to volunteer at the Warm Hands from Warm Hearts food pantry. It's actually run by all of the different local denominations and churches. Everyone there is a pastor, except for us, the missionaries. It's been fun getting to represent the Church in that sort of scene. The local news actually stopped by while we were working there the other day and they talked to us for a little. Looks like we made a cameo on the news! That was super fun.

I love you all so much! I hope you all have a good week! I love hearing from you all,  keep those emails coming!

Se cuida. 

Elder Larkin

Pics:

1-2. We took a hike earlier. It had over 1,000 stairs, so I wouldn't really call it a hike haha.

3. Cool sunset and sign from our hike.

4. Different pastors we've been working with.

Never Give Up!

Olá! Como vocês estão?!

This week was AMAZING! It kicked off with interviews with President Newman which were super good. He had some great advice, it's always good to have some time with him to get to know him. 

Pretty soon after interviews we met with some amazing investigators! They actually reached out to us first, they sent us a text and wanted to meet with us. They told us how excited they are to be Latter Day Saints and we expect to have them on date this week! That's actually a pretty big miracle. This area hasn't baptized in at least a year, so it's amazing that they are so ready. We can't wait to see what happens!

We also got our transfer news yesterday and Elder Empey and I are both staying put! We're excited to stay and see the progress of the people we're working with. The work is really starting to pick up in our ward especially. We have been super blessed.

In terms of a spiritual thought, I was reading in Genesis Chapter 29, and I learned a lot about patience. Jacob was willing to work for seven years for Rachel, which I'm sure was tough. After that term was over, he had to go another 7. Sometimes we just have to take what's given to us and do our best with it. Because he stuck it out, his posterity was blessed with their inheritance in Canaan. So, never give up! You never know what the outcome will be of your hard work. 

Eu amo vocês tanto. Tem uma boa seaman! Eu gostaria ouvir de vocês!

Elder Larkin

Pics:

We did service for Sister Dean! We put a post in for a mailbox and a light. We also had our last District meeting before transfers!

Also, Sister McCarthy has a really cool backyard. Typical West Virginia, very green.

I'm 19 Years Old!

Hey everyone!

This one will be pretty short, this week wasn't very busy. We did meet some pretty cool people on Facebook and the phone, so we're excited to see what happens this week.

Thank you all for the birthday wishes! I can't really believe I'm 19. Thank you all so much for the messages/letters! It really meant a lot. I really have been blessed with great family and friends, I love you all so much! 

As for a spiritual thought, I'd like to talk a little about pride. I was studying the book of Helaman this week and it's super interesting to see how the pride cycle plays out. Through reading the Book of Mormon, I realized that the Nephites go through that cycle at least 30 times. It really is evident that the Lord chastens us because he loves us. When the Lord prospers his people they so easily forget him. It's important to rid ourselves of pride not just in the difficult moments, but in the blessed moments as well.

I love you all! 

Have a good week!

Elder Larkin

Facebook

Olá tudo mundo!!

This week was super fun and super busy! We started off by finding a lady named Alex on Facebook. She is a paramedic and is super nice. We were able to teach her a lesson on the phone and set up an appointment for this week. Can't wait to see where we go from there.

We also started teaching a man named Justin who is a Baptist pastor who, until we asked, we thought was a member. His first question for us was the difference between the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthood, and he has already read the Book of Mormon all the way through. We are super excited for him and we have another appointment with him coming up. Hopefully everything goes well with him!

We also had splits on Friday with the Zone Leaders. I stayed here with Elder Haskell and Elder Empey went up to Charleston with Elder Mitchell. We had a blast and it was super fun teaching and learning from Elder Haskell! He's the man!

For a spiritual thought I'd like to invite you all to listen to a BYU devotional by Brad Wilcox titled, "His Grace is Sufficient". It is an AMAZING talk about grace. I think grace is a topic that is commonly misunderstood. Yes, we are all saved by grace, which is a popular conversation topic here in West Virginia :) BUT, the real question is, how are we changed by grace? 

I love you all and I love to hear from all of you! Keep those emails coming!

Elder Larkin

Pics: Splits with Elder Haskell. Yes, I know it's super dark lol. We ended pretty 

late :)

Week 1 Or Week 31?

It was so amazing to finally get out here to West Virginia! I'm in Oak Hill WV and it is super, super green. It's a smaller town and a smaller ward, but hopefully we can change that. At church on Sunday we basically did everything. I blessed the sacrament, Elder Empey passed it, Elder Empey gave the opening prayer, we both gave talks, and I said the closing prayer. It was kinda the missionary show. But we're always happy to help out. 

My new companion is Elder Empey, and he is awesome. He is super smart and knows the scriptures in and out. He was serving in Porto Alegre in Brazil before they were reassigned so we get to speak portuguese! 

The work is definitely very different from Brazil. About a month ago Elder Empey opened this area. We also aren't allowed to proselyte, so it's been kind of slow.  We've been making a lot of phone calls and friending a lot on facebook, we've also been working a lot with members. 

We had a bunch of lessons lined up this past week but they all fell through. You've got to start somewhere though! It's only upward from here!

I absolutely love the people. They are so kind and genuine. The accent is pretty different, but according to them I have an accent lol. They are all so humble and all love God!

As for a spiritual thought, Elder Empey and I watched a devotional by Elder Gong that talked about blooming where you're planted. Many times we find ourselves in places that we don't expect, but Elder Gong said, "it's all about what you practice. If you practice being frustrated with your circumstances, you will certainly be frustrated. If you practice finding joy, you will find it."

I love you all and hope you have a good week!

Elder Larkin

Pics:

We hiked out to the bridge for P Day today! Super cool!

Leaving And Arriving To The West Virginia Charleston Mission

Setting Apart