Christmas

Hello everyone!!

Christmas last week was absolutely incredible!! It was such a great experience that I had to be able to testify of Jesus Christ during the Christmas season. On the 23rd we had a Christmas Mission Conference and the entire mission was there! It was so much fun to see all of my friends and former companions. Before the conference I was called to speak about what we learn and what we'll do because of that "Silent Night". I decided to speak about Luke 2:14, which says, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." I shared that the missionaries are the angels sharing the message of peace and joy, and I won't ever forget the feeling of peace and joy I was able to feel with all of the missionaries there together. It was pretty incredible.

For Christmas Eve we ate with two families in our branch. They were super good to us and I was super grateful to be with them. But on Christmas day, my companion woke up super sick. He had a fever, was throwing up, and couldn't get out of bed. So, we wound up just laying low for the rest of the day, and I called every single person I could think of to wish them a Merry Christmas. I wound up getting to talk to a lot of people that were lonely and just needing to talk to someone during the holiday. It was a fun way to share a little more light with other people, even if we couldn't go out and have our visits.

A huge miracle that we had was on Sunday. I couldn't see how we were going to be able to bring our friends to church with a sick companion and almost everyone else with family or on vacation. I wound up praying for a miracle to just bring one person to sacrament meeting. As soon as I got done praying, our recent convert Cicero called us and said that he wanted to take his wife to sacrament meeting in the city where he was on vacation. We got everything lined up for them to go, and they went! I felt super blessed and I saw first hand that the Lord is very aware of my prayers.

I love you all a lot!! Have a great week!

Elder Larkin

Cicero

Hello everyone!!

We had another great week! We were able to have Cicero's baptism, and it was very special. All of the members of the branch got involved to help welcome him and turn his baptismal service into a remarkable meeting. Cicero was beaming the whole night and was super excited to share the gospel with his family right afterward. We started teaching his family as well, and they all went to church. I'm super excited for them and their progress.

After Cicero's baptism, we had district conference. Basically stake conference, but for a mission district. And it was very different, but very powerful. The leaders purposefully didn't put a program together in order to let room for the Holy Ghost to conduct the meeting. For almost two hours, random members were called on to bear testimony, and President Crane spoke at the end. All of the testimonies were very special and the spirit was very strong. To close the meeting, President Crane called on Cicero to bear his testimony. He bore a simple yet very powerful testimony of the savior and expressed his gratitude to have found the restored gospel. It was very touching to me, I am very grateful to have helped him receive so many blessings.

I'm very grateful for the chance that I have to testify of Jesus Christ during the Christmas season. This Christmas is already turning out to be the most special that I have already experienced. Time and time again I've been able to testify of the peace and joy that the gospel brings to people that are desperately needing it. So, I'd like to invite everyone reading this email to pray to our Heavenly Father and express your gratitude for the gift of His son Jesus Christ, and ask Him to show you someone who needs to hear our message. I promise that He will show you if you ask with a sincere heart. Then act! Love and serve the people who God puts in your path, and you will find many, many blessings.

I love you all! Have a Merry Christmas!

Elder Larkin

Cicero

Boa tarde a todos!!

We had another great week! There is always a lot going on with transfers, let's just say it was a miracle that everyone got where they were supposed to go haha. I'm entering into my final transfer and I received my last companion on Tuesday! His name is Elder Nonato, and he's from Salvador. His story is a little more different than most. He's going to turn 27 in January, and he's relatively new to the church. He's already graduated from college, he had a career in logistics and administration, and he's the only in his family that's a member of the church. Everyone thinks he's crazy to be serving a mission, but he's here because he felt like it was a commandment from the Lord. He's a great example of faith to me and everyone else.

This last week our friend Cicero really had a lot of progress. He has been going to church and participating in the activities we've been having, and he accepted to be baptized on Thursday this week. I'm certain he's going to be a big leader in the branch. Our Elders Quorum president is already going to call him to be his first councilor, and all of the members are excited about his conversion.

I've been thinking a lot about all of the wonderful experiences that I've had and people that I've met over the past 23 months or so, and just thinking about them brings me so much joy. I've been so blessed to see so many incredible people come unto Jesus Christ and be perfected by His atonement. I don't think there is a greater blessing that I could receive, than to have had the chance to serve Jesus Christ for two years. I am so grateful for the love I feel as I serve the people around me.

I love you all so much!

Elder Larkin

Ebono

Boa tarde!! 

We had a great week this week. I'm honestly feeling super proud of the work we got done. We've been seeing lots of miracles and finally lots of fruits of the work we've been doing. 

We had an especially big miracle with our friend Ebono! We had been teaching him for about 2 weeks, and he is amazing. He loves the church and has a very powerful testimony. He had been wanting so badly to be baptized, but his grandparents weren't allowing him because they were thinking that he was too young. A few days ago we were teaching him the plan of salvation and during the lesson I was pondering about how we could help him to be baptized. I suddenly had the idea to have him write a letter to his grandparents and bear his testimony. He wrote about the things that he had learned with us, his desire to keep the commandments, and the example of Jesus Christ in his life. When he read his letter out loud to us, the spirit testified very powerfully of the truths that he shares with us. I won't ever forget it. 

Later that day he went and read his letter with his grandparents. He said that they read it with him three times. And they wound up letting him be baptized! His grandfather even came to church with him and participated in the Sunday school lesson we taught. He was asking questions and sharing his own ideas. Afterward he stayed to watch the baptism and had a wonderful experience. It was an incredible experience to see the spirit work so hard on someone. 

This week as a companionship we were studying and thinking a lot about how we could help our friends keep the sabbath day. Many of them say they will come to church, and many will accept our invitations, but when Sunday comes it's been hard to get everyone to go. So, as we were thinking about our friends' needs and how we could help them, we came across President Oak's talk in the last general conference called "The Need for a Church". We taught the same principles to our friends that he taught in this talk, and we had a better result this week. I'm grateful for the truths we learned together and how well we were able to apply it. I felt like I should invite everyone to read that talk and apply its truths as well!

Amo vocês muito! 

Elder Larkin

Miracles

Wow! What a week. We had lots of miracles happen, and the biggest one was getting such a phenomenal new companion. Elder Tuckfield showed up on Saturday and he is incredible! Elder Dias and I are getting the chance to train him along with our other responsibilities, and it's been fun. He is a super dedicated missionary. He is a bright light to everyone and when he testifies you can see the image of the Savior. I'm super grateful for his example. He definitely helps me want to become more like Jesus Christ.


We had Zone Conference this week!! I loved Sister Crane's training on habits. I'm realizing the need to create good habits that help me feel the Spirit. When we create good habits it's harder to get distracted. But on the other hand, when we have poor habits it's a lot harder to break them. It's all about our focus. So, lately I've been thinking about how current habits help me focus on my missionary purpose. As I do so, I feel like I'm a lot more effective as a missionary. It's almost as if the Lord is more willing to use me as an instrument more often when I have the right focus.


We had a huge miracle that happened this week, which is pretty sacred to me. Last week I was very worried about spending so much time away from our area. I definitely wasn't expecting the extra time we took to pick up Elder Tuckfield. I was worried about finding new people to teach. Last week we had fast Sunday, and Elder Dias and I decided to fast to find a family of four people to teach. As I fasted and prayed for that specific blessing I felt so strongly that the Lord would bless us. However, as the week went on, and I realized that we would only have a few precious hours to get the work done that we needed, I couldn't really see how we would find these people.


When we got to our apartment, we dropped our bags off and went to work. Before we left our apartment, we prayed to find this family. Then we went to work. We already had a few appointments lined up but they wound up falling through. As we were walking to another appointment, we all felt like we needed to knock on a specific door. So we knocked, and they answered. The lady that answered immediately looked at me and we both said at basically the same time, "Eu te conheco de algum lugar." But we had never met before. It was one of the most pure experiences of divine revelation I've ever had. She quickly invited us inside and introduced us to her family. We taught them the restoration and they're now reading the Book of Mórmon. We taught her, her husband, and their two kids. It was a huge miracle and I'm immensely grateful for the Spirit that guided us to them


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


Elder Larkin

The Mission Is Worth It

E aeeeee boa tarde a todos!!

We had another great week last week!! It started off with Dia dos Finados or in English, day of the dead. Our mission put together a huge project to visit the cemeteries and sing hymns and contact the people mourning their loved ones. It was actually pretty incredible. In the cemetery we went to there were tons of people that were so  heartbroken because of the loss of their family members. But it was a good chance to share about eternal families and see the hope and light the gospel gave them. We didn't find anyone to teach that lives in our area, but we found many from other areas who have already gone to church and had wonderful experiences since then. It definitely strengthened my testimony to see the light that our simple message gave to so many people. 

After that, we traveled to Recife for MLC!! We had the chance to receive lots of revelation and to learn from President and Sister Crane. Needless to say, they're incredible and I look up to them a lot. I left inspired to improve my missionary work and to improve my relationship with Jesus Christ. 

After everything else going on, we had exchanges with Elder De Lima and the Assistants! We've been super busy! And I was super tired at the end of this week. I would say I was the most tired I've been on my mission. But it was worth it!! We've been so blessed by the Lord it's hard to believe it sometimes. 

I love you all! I hope you all have a fantastic week!!

Elder Larkin

Sao Jose Da Coroa Grande

Olaaa todos!! 

This last week we had transfers! Not gonna lie, I'm feeling like everything got turned upside down haha. I got transferred to São José da Coroa Grande! It's the furthest south that you can get in the mission, close to Alagoas, our neighboring state. My companion is Elder Dias, and he's the best! He's from my CTM group, so we have the same amount of time on the mission. He's from Belo Horizonte in Minas Gerias, and his parents are serving as Mission President and Wife in Mozambique, Africa. He likes to work hard and we keep each other in line! 

Because we are still Zone Leaders and our area is so far away from everything, the next few weeks are going to be complicated. We're going to travel to Boa Viagem for MLC, Zone conference, exchanges, etc.. Needless to say, I'm learning how to plan a lot better haha. 

This week had a huge miracle!! Most of the people we found this week didn't wind up coming to church. Our area is right on the beach and almost everyone goes Sunday morning. But Saturday night there were some teenagers hanging out right outside the chapel, and we went to talk to them. We invited them to come to church the following day, and afterwards I completely forgot all about them haha. 

Sunday morning rolled around and we were kinda bummed because no one came. But, before the meeting started, 3 "members" showed up, knelt in thr chapel and started to pray. They were all dressed up and everything. Come to find out, they were the kids we met the day before! They had a wonderful experience and they already started to read the Book of Mormon. I felt very blessed after a week of hard work. I was so happy it worked out!

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Larkin 

October Pictures

Alessandra

Hello everyone!! 

I'm sorry I don't have a ton of time to write this week, but this week was very special in a lot of ways. 

We had a zone conference, and I was very grateful for what I was able to learn from my leaders. They are very inspired as always, and it was a spiritual feast! I have a lot of incredible examples of faith and hard work around me. 

I wanted to share a wonderful experience that I had yesterday in sacrament meeting. It was fast and testimony meeting, and everyone wanted to share their testimonies. One of the girls I had baptized a few weeks ago, Alessandra, got up to bear her testimony very last. It was very simple, but super powerful. It was incredible to see the change that has taken place since the time we met until now. I was very touched by her testimony and I don't think I'll ever forget it.

I love you all!! Have a great week this week!! Thank you for all that you do!! 

Elder Larkin

Jane

What's up everyone!! 

This week was fantastic. I've been seeing a lot of miracles, the Lord has definitely been guiding us. 

The biggest miracle happened today. Today I was honestly feeling pretty down and a little stressed about some other things going on. But we wound up going to get haircuts from a member, and he's the boyfriend of Jaqueline, a girl we baptized a little over a month ago. We had fallen out of contact with them, and it was great to see them. However, we showed up to this haircut appointment and I was chatting with them, and come to find out they're engaged!! 

That made me so so so happy. After Jaqueline was baptized, Victor, her fiance, had a wonderful experience and was reactivated. In a little over a year, they have plans to get sealed in the temple. My take away from all of this was: you never have any idea the good that you do. In all honesty, because we've been so busy with other people, we'd handed them over to the ward and I'd forgotten about them. Everyone there today walked away feeling so happy. 

Also, on Friday we had another baptism!! Jane was baptized and it was another sweet experience. The spirit was very strong, the members showed up to support her, and we got to meet her sister!! It's looking like there will soon be a group out in Serra Velha because of this family. Jane's mom is Ednalva, and she was baptized 2 weeks ago. She's getting ready to marry one of the members in the ward, and we're now teaching there aunts, uncles and cousins, who all live on the same farm. They're a huge example of faith to a lot of people. I'm excited to see how their futures pan out.

I loved conference too!! So many awesome messages from the Prophet, Apostles and other leaders. I loved President Nelson's talk on having a Firm Foundation. I invite everyone to listen to that talk and put it all into practice!

Have a great week! Love you all!!

Elder Larkin

MLC

Hello everyone!!

We had another fantastic week!! We were super busy, there was a whole lot going on. But we were able to see a lot of miracles happen and more people come into Christ!! What more could you ask for?! 

To kick off our week, we traveled to Recife for our MLC meeting. The entire meeting was incredible. The spirit there was super strong and I was able to learn a lot from President and Sister Crane, and the other missionaries. It was interesting, nobody had planned to talk about the Mission Standard of Excellence of Baptisms, but everyone felt like it needed to be changed. It wound up getting doubled, and the results have already been incredible. As a mission, our faith has increased so much. This past week the number of baptisms doubled and it's set to get doubled again this next week. Not that numbers show what's important, but the work is picking up so fast. I'm super proud of all the work going on and it makes me so happy to see so many successful missionaries helping so many people make sacred covenants!

After we got back from Recife, we were able to baptize Maciel and Amadeu. These brothers are a huge miracle to me. A few weeks ago I was on exchanges with Elder Cloward, and we had prayed specifically to find a family to teach and baptize on September 26th. We found this family. Unfortunately their parents weren't able to overcome a couple things holding them up, but Maciel and Amadeu made it. After the baptism was over, Maciel told me he wants to serve a full time mission and baptize the rest of his family. He's had such a big change of heart and I'm so excited for the progress they've both made. 

Other than that, we've been staying busy teaching the Gospel to anyone that will listen to us haha. This week we're planning to have the baptisms of Jane, Samily and Milena. Please pray for them and all of the other people we're teaching. They definitely need your prayers!

I hope you all have a great week!! I love you all so much! 

Elder Larkin

Ednalva

Olaaa boa tarde!!

We had a fantastic week!! We've been working hard and learning a lot, and we've definitely seen lots of miracles. It's the best feeling to feel the spirit testify in the lessons we teach, and it's even better to help our friends recognize the spirit. 

For example, we've been teaching our friend Ednalva who was baptized on Saturday. She has a lot of faith and already has a very strong testimony. She lives in Serra Velha, a city clear out in the hills, so we taught her pretty much exclusively online. We decided to go out and visit her the day before her baptism to fill out her ficha and finalize everything. 

So, we went with one of the brothers in the ward (who she's actually dating), and Ednalva invited her daughters to participate in the lesson. We taught the restoration and focused on eternal families and the temple. The spirit was so incredibly strong, and everyone that was there said they wanted to enter the temple together. We invited her two daughters to be baptized, and they accepted. 

It was a huge miracle, and the thing is, these miracles are happening so frequently. I'm so grateful to be where I'm at, seeing so many peoples lives change as they come into Christ!

With so many people changing around me, it's interesting to realize that the person who has changed the most is me! Looking at the person I was at the start of my mission, It's pretty incredible to see the results of almost 21 months in the mission field. When I began I was inexperienced, not accustomed to change, and I honestly didn't have the testimony that I have today. I know that the Lord can see my potential and He is constantly helping me to achieve it. His Atonement is very real and I'm grateful for the surety that I have of it. 

I'm looking forward to another transfer!! I'm sure I'll have some more failures and even more successes. I can't wait to see where these next few weeks take me!

Elder Larkin