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