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