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
