Great Week

Boaaaa tardee!! 

We had a great week this last week!! We went on a bunch of exchanges and I got to learn a lot from lots of different Elders. We got to meet a whole lot of great new people to teach and we were also able to focus on our friends who are preparing for baptism on Sunday!! Their names are Nenè, Alessandra, Heloisa, and Magna. I'm super excited for all of them, but Nenè's story especially stands out to me. 

We met Nené a little over a month ago. He is the neighbor of one of the members of our ward. Since we've met him, he's stopped smoking, drinking alcohol and coffee, and he's getting ready to marry his girlfriend. He's going to be baptized on Sunday!! He loves going to church and loves meeting with us. He's very humble and doesn't have very much in the worlds standards, but he has an incredible amount of faith which has moved mountains in his life. In the space of about a month his life has completely changed, all thanks to the atonement of Jesus Christ. 

The atonement is very real, it makes me so happy to know we have a Savior. A little while ago Elder Uchtdorf gave a talk on the atonement and he basically said that as long as we repent, our errors won't condemn us, but they'll be for our good.  It means that we can all change, learn from our mistakes, and become better people because of them.

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

Elder Larkin 

Long Week

We had an incredible week!! We were very very busy and by the end of the week I was downright exhausted. Although it was pretty tiring, I felt like the happiest man in the world. We're finding so many children of God who are ready to receive us, it's pretty incredible. We're spending most of our time teaching and the members have been finding most of the people we're teaching. I feel like I've unlocked all of the secrets to missionary work haha. I'm excited to see where all of the people we're teaching wind up. 

We also had zone conference on Thursday! We got to listen to President and Sister Crane, and I'll always love getting to listen to them. They had some very inspired words for all of us. Elder Sodrè and I gave our training on working with part member families!! Something we said must have worked, because our zone is having all sorts of progress this week. So many miracles have been happening!! We're all super excited about the work going on.

Well, I guess we were having an incredible week until yesterday. On Saturday a man, who was very clearly suffering pretty badly, was waiting at the door of our chapel when we were leaving. I spoke with him, and he was in desperate need of help. His wife passed away last week, he is trying to take care of 4 little kids, and was clearly struggling. We talked with him for a minute and told him that if he would come to sacrament meeting on Sunday, we would get him in touch with the Bishop and find him some help. 

Well, he came to sacrament meeting and he was in even worse condition than the day before. He was desperate. Immediately after sacrament meeting, our bishop went into some interviews and we didn't have a chance to talk to him. This man sat by the front door of the chapel, and every single person walked right by him to leave. We talked to everyone we could, but everyone was either too busy or not interested. Eventually he got up to leave. He told us he didn't have enough force in his legs to make it home. I really did not know what to do and while I was trying to find someone to help him he left. Elder Sodrè and I walked back to our apartment soooooo sad. We sat in silence for a while and just cried. I'm tearing up as I write this. I am not being critical of the Bishop or anyone else. I just feel like we could have and should have done more to help someone who was clearly in a lot of distress. 

A couple verses I love are found in Mosiah 4 and Matthew 25. Mosiah tells us that in reality, we're all beggars, we all depend on the same being for our salvation, and everyone should be treated equally. Matthew 25 says, "if ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." I'm always going to remember that experience, and when I'm in the position to help somebody like that, I'm always going to help. Sorry for the somber end to the email today. It has been a great week and we have a ton going on, this experience was just a tough one. 

Espero que tenham uma boa semana!! Amo vocês muito!!

Elder Larkin

Nene

Boaaaa tarde! 

This past week was one for the books! On Tuesday we got to go to Recife for MLC! It was an incredible meeting and I learned a lot from President and Sister Crane especially. I look up to both of them immensely. At the end of the meeting Sister Crane was able to bear her testimony in Portuguese! It was a big deal because she NEVER speaks in Portuguese haha. Everyone was kinda shocked and it was very powerful. The gift of tongues is very real! 

We were able to meet one of our new friends Nené this last week! The other day we got news that the Grandma of one of the members in our ward had passed away and he was feel pretty sad about it. We decided to visit him and see how he was doing. He said he was fine, but that he wanted to introduce us to one of his friends, Nené. We taught him about faith, repentance, and baptism, and the spirit was very strong. He was so ready to be taught, it was incredible. We invited him to be baptized next Wednesday, and he accepted! I look up to this man a ton too. He doesn't have very much, his house is about the size of a minivan. He doesn't know how to read or write, but has incredible faith. He's shown me what really matters and is important to our Heavenly Father. 

Other than that, I'm excited about the work that's going on in our ward! We decided to have a couple of activites with our ward, and it got everyone excited about the work too! All of the members are wanting to introduce us to their friends, I love it!!

I hope you all have a great week!! Love you all!

Elder Larkin

Prayer

Hello everyone!

 

We had another great week this week! We were able to get a lot of work done and find a lot of new people to teach in our area! I'm especially excited about the referral that we received yesterday, the one we told you about before our meeting started. She is so excited to visit the chapel and hear all about our beliefs! We technically haven't taught her anything yet, but I'm excited to see where things go with her. 

 

We also had an amazing experience with a woman named Aparecida. A couple days ago we were working in a section of our area that's pretty far from everything, when we both remembered a lady we had spoken to only once, who lives clear on the other side of our area, and we felt like we needed to visit her. So we decided to call and make sure she was home, but she didn't answer. The walk from where we were to her house was about 1.5 hours. If we were to walk clear out there only to find out she wasn't home, it would've been a huge waste of time and energy. After thinking about it, and praying about it, we decided that we needed to visit her. When we got there, she was home, and told us that right before we got there, she had been praying for someone to come and help her. Her son has cancer and is dying. She is so sad about it, and she said she didn't know what else to do. She felt like her faith was weak and she needed direction, and she shared she has been searching for a church to join but none of them have been the right one. I'm so glad I had the spirit with me, and that I followed the spirit to her house. I'm so happy to have been an answer to her prayer in her desperate hour. I hope we get to continue to work with her. She is working alot and is always super busy. But I'm sure that if we do our part it will all work out.

 

I'm very excited about my new companion, Elder Sodrè. He's an incredible missionary/companion, who is always pushing me to be better. For example, we both sang in sacrament meeting yesterday. I wouldn't have ever dreamed about doing that before. But we did it, and I lived to tell about it! I'm super excited about all of the work we're getting done together. Last Monday, after our pday got over, we put together an activity with the YSA and our friends who are YSA too. We sang hymns, shared a message, and played games. It helped to integrate everyone who participated super well, and we planned more activities with our ward counsel for the future! 

 

Thank you for everything you all do for me! I love you all, I always love to hear from you all!

Elder Larkin