Semana 2!

This week was so much fun!! My district started teaching a guy named Rafael who is amazing!! The lessons are only in Portuguese which makes it a challenge of course, but it is so much fun being able to testify in Portuguese. The Lord definitely does bless us with being able to learn the language. It's honestly so crazy being able to see all of the progress we are making. 

MTC life gets pretty repetitive, but my district loves to have fun with it. The other day, the MTC president gave a devotional about why the elders and sisters shouldn't have feelings for each other. He said, "If an Elder looks upon a Sister and sees a woman, he needs to repent. If a sister looks upon an elder and sees a man, she needs to repent." So Elder Egan gets up in front of the entire zone last week and says, "if an Elder looks upon an elder and sees a man, does he need to repent" and it was the funniest thing ever hahaha

I've been able to get to know the other brasileiros better and I'm convinced they are the happiest people on earth. They are so humble and just awesome people to be around. I gave elder santana a one dollar bill and he thought it was the coolest thing on earth. He told me he was going to keep it forever haha

Today I got to go to campinas. It was sooo much fun to see such a beautiful city. It looks like they just plopped a city in the middle of the jungle. The temple in campinas was also sooooo much fun to go to. It's on a hill that overlooks the city and it's so beautiful. It's surrounded by green, just like everything else here in Brasil. I honestly don't think I've ever seen so much green in my life.

This week we had a devotional with Elder Holland in which he talked about discipline. He said, "if we are going to accomplish anything, we have to be obedient and disciplined with the first." This definitely applies to missionary work. Learning portugese will be and is a challenge, but if I stay disciplined with it, it will come in time. :)

Amo Voces!! I hope everyone has a good week!

Elder Larkin

My Arrival

Hey dad!!!

Sorry I wasn't able to email last week, they didn't give us a pday because it was only our second day being here. 

To answer your questions, yes, I have enough cash. I exchange at the airport and have more than enough for awhile. 

Ah, the airport. I have never been to a more completely disorganized place in my entire life. I stepped off the plane to thousands of people yelling in portugese and it was MOITO QUENTE. Hahaha that means very hot. You hear that thousands of times here in the CTM because it's the middle of summer here. The AC has been broken since I've been here so that means I haven't stopped sweating since I stepped off the plane haha.

I ABSOLUTELY love the culture. The Brasileiros are so kind and so fun to be around.The first day I was here I made friends with Elder Marques who's from Recife. It's a miracle that he's here. 8 months before he left on his mission, his dad didn't have a job. He had to pay for his family's bills and food etc. and didn't have any money for his mission. Just before he was supposed to leave his ward was able to pull enough money together for him. He's the most humble person ever and I love just talking to him. He helps me with my portugese and I help him with english. It's so much fun. Today we were able to go to the temple and explore around the streets a little bit. It was so much fun. An endowment session in another language is always very interesting. We took lots of pictures at the temple and I'll see if we can send them. We also went shopping in the street markets and it was so cool! I got some soccer jerseys for the entire family because they're only like $2 each. They're all Brazilian teams, I'm sure you all will love them.

Food- I got over my pickyness very quickly. Everyday they have something new to eat and you can never be very sure what you're eating, but it's always very good. They have lots of fruit for every meal, but it's not regular fruit. It's all indigenous and I've tasted lots of things that I had never tasted before. They have a drink here that is moito bom. It's called Guarana, it's made from a fruit in the amazon rainforest.

I LOVE the CTM. My district is the BEST. It consists of 10 of us who are already best friends. It really feels like we've known each for years but it's only been six days. I absolutely love my branch presidente. His name is Presidente Oppe. He always says that he doesn't speak english (he does), and we can speak protugese. We don't yet, but I'm sure we will within a few months. Here we try so, so hard. The third day we were expected to teach a lesson. I didn't expect it to go very well, but I couldn't believe how much portugese I had learned in only three days. I can already bear my testimony and pray in portugese, and next week we're supposed to go proseliting, which will be fun.

I've been able to feel the spirit so strong and even though I miss you guys a lot, I know that this is where I'm supposed to be.

I love you so much!!

Elder Larkin