Transfers!

Olaa todos!!

 

 

I hope you all had a great week! Our week was pretty awesome! It started off with transfers! Elder Marques left, which was a huge bummer. I loved him a lot and we worked so great together! But on Tuesday Elder Sodrè got here and he's pretty incredible too, so it's all okay haha

 

 

Elder Sodrè is a phenomenal missionary! He's from Tocantins, Brasil, which according to him is the best state in the world. I had never heard of it before he got here, so I'm not really sure about that one lol. But he loves to sing and play the guitar, is super funny, and he loves everyone! He's a great example to me and I'm excited to see where this transfer takes us. 

 

 

After he got to the area, our friend Tomàs was confirmed on Tuesday! Our Bishop wanted to make it a special experience for him, so he wasn't confirmed after his baptism. But he couldn't make it to sacrament meeting on Sunday, so we had to improvise a little bit. We decided to have a giant family night in the Elders Quorum Presidents house. We invited everyone, and it turned out super well! Tomàs felt very special and honored, and he got to finally meet everyone. We sang hymns, my companion and I taught a lesson on the Plan of Salvation, and our Bishop confirmed Tomàs afterwards. It was so much fun! Not sure I'll ever forget that experience. 

 

 

On Thursday, we still hadn't found very many new people to teach. So we decided to pray specifically to find a family to teach, and we found them!! That day it rained all day, and it was honestly pretty cold. We had been going from appointment to appointment, all they all kept falling through. We got to one house we had visited before, and the guy we were looking for wasn't home, but his entire family was. They invited us in, and we wound up teaching his mom, and all of his brothers and sisters. The spirit we felt was incredible, it was amazing to see the Lord's hand play such a big role in our work.

 

 

I'm excited to see where this next transfer takes us!! Thank you all for you love and support. I always love to hear from you all!

Elder Larkin

Tomas

Hey! Sorry you aren't going to get a long letter. We had a bunch of things come up last minute, but we had a great week! Tomàs was baptized, and he was super happy afterward. I'm super proud of him, and I'm excited about the future he has!! 

I hope everyone has a great week this week!! I love you all!!

Elder Larkin

Great Week!

Eaeeeee! Espero que todos estejam tenso um bom dia hoje!!

 

 

We had another pretty good week! To kick it off we had exchanges with the Elders in Caruaru! I stayed with Elder Stephens in my area, it was gringo day! Haha, he's an awesome Elder and we got a whole lot done. We got to teach Tomàs, our friend who's preparing for his baptism on Saturday, Alexandre and Josinade and their kids, and it went awesome!! This family we've been teaching has been progressing a little slowly, and we decided to try something different. So, we taught them about family history and the temple, and they loved it! Then and there they all downloaded family search and started putting together their family trees. It was exactly what they needed to progress a little more. They're now looking forward to coming to church and getting to know the members a little better! 

 

 

On Friday, Elder Marques and I were walking down the street to an appointment. We were practically running because we were late. Then all of the sudden, a man came running from his shop and was following us! He was telling us to wait, so we stopped, and when he caught his breath he told us he'd been looking all over for us, and he asked me for a Book of Mormon. It was incredible to see his willingness to learn more. I'm so excited to keep teaching him and see where it goes.

 

 

After we got to that appointment we were trying to get to, we got a text from another person we had been teaching, but decided he didn't want to meet with us anymore. He told us he had been praying and thinking a lot, and that we wanted a copy of the Book of Mormon to study, and he wanted to hear our message again! So from there we went and taught him, and he has been progressing pretty well since then! I'm very excited about him too. 

 

 

Our city is currently in lockdown, so we've been inside a lot more, but the Lord's hands have been all over our work, in pretty much every detail. I'm learning that the promise made in D&C 84 is very real and important. It says, "And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up." It's so true! I'm a witness that this work is the Fathers work, I count myself lucky to be a part of it.

 

 

I hope you all have a great week!!

Elder Larkin

Teaching

Olaaa todos!! 

 

 

First of all, I need to apologize for not writing last week. We got busy and I honestly forgot.

 

 

But we've had a pretty good couple of weeks! We've just been working on finding new people to teach and teaching them when  we find them. Imagine that lol. 

 

 

We've been able to teach a guy named Renato! He's 28, and a huge bible scholar. He has questions about anything we teach him, but he really wants to learn. The thing is, that he almost always succeeds in proving us wrong every time. His interpretation of the Bible is a big product of the Great Apostasy, and it goes to show that a lot of truths were lost. But we know that they've been restored! I really hope he is able to gain a testimony of the restored gospel. 

 

 

We've also been teaching a guy named Weverton. Yes, it's spelled with a "w" haha. But he's awesome! He was formally taught by the Elders before us. But when we showed up to his house, he immediately asked us, when can  I be baptized? We were shocked hahaha But we're working with him now, and we're super excited about the progress he's making. 

 

 

In terms of a spiritual thought, I was really impressed by the testimony that President Crane gave to the MLC last week. He and his family are currently going through a lot. They all have Covid, and Sister Crane has gotten the worst of it. Sister Crane, bless her heart, tried to participate in the meeting, but could hardly sit up straight. They were both super stressed and not feeling good, but President went on to say, "We can't even comprehend the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for each of us. He asked if the bitter cup could be passed from him to somebody else, but he stepped up. And because he stepped up, we all can have eternal life." He went on to say, "Elders and Sisters, we all have to make our individual sacrifices. But, when we step up, we gain eternal life, and we have the chance to give that blessing to the people around us."

 

 

I hope you all have a wonderful week! I always love to hear from all of you! 

 

 

Amo vocês muito!

Elder Larkin