June 6, 2011

Hello family!!!!!
All is just going grand grand here and i just love each day. The miracles are endlesson the mission and at the house also i hope!
Thank you all for your letters and kind words! Brecken keep working hard and try not to injure your foot more. Also something amazing you can do is ask for a blessing. We have this power and athority of God here on the earth for things like this. Dad thank you so much for your words these last two weeks! I loved the letters I recieved from you. Nikki you too. Your stories of your calling are always so insopiring to me. As I have said before, I just love thinking of you and my dad when you were missionaries and having experiences like me. It is just an amaizing amazing life as a missionary. Mom thank you too for your letters as I love hearing your stories of your callings in Church too. Aimee if you read this letter too, thank you so much for your email too. I love hearing about the fun things you are doing in school Keep up the good work with Chinese.
Ah my family, I just love family. These last couple weeks we have been working alot with a family. The are all older and have kids but most still live in the same house. Some are less active members and the others have dates set for their baptisms. This is an amazing family and I have loved see in the progression that has come alsong. One of the Daughters has been very pregnant and has been for like 9 and a hlf months. Yesterday she went to the church with us for the first time. She just loved it, but at the end when we were all talking outside the church, one of the sisters called to sme and said go get your companion this sister needs a blessing! So we had to wuickly give her a blessing and then off she went to the hospital to have her baby. All went really well as it was part of the blessing and now she has a little girl in her life named Kayla Denise. I told them I really like her name. haha After all this we had to go to another members house to give another blessing. My testimony has been so strengthened here on the mission of Priesthood blessings. WE give blessing several times every week and it is always such an honor and privilidgfe to be able to hold the athourity to give them. Also it is so amaizing as I live so that I am always worthy to act in the name of Christ to give these blessings. At first I was really scred to give them because in spanish, it uses a diffrent form of speacking that they dont really teach in the MTC because as missionaries we dont speak in that way. It is called the informal Tu form. But I have come to learn and realize that it does not matter if i mess up speacking becasue I am doing something so much more important. Giving a blessing in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ with His power given to men on earth. It is an amazing this wevery time. Well there are always many blesssing like this that I get to see every day. Oh and with this family we went to teach one of the daughters last night and she is so excited and ready for her baptism this week. We taught the word of wisdom and law of chastity and she has no problems with either of these commandments. I was nervous and doubting before the lesson because we did not know if she ws legally married or if she drinks coffe or tea. But no, she is ready. She is married and does not consume these things because just reacently she had a baby too. It is amazing to see how the Lord has prepared His children to follow in the path. Im alwyas so greatful for this. Also this week I have started reading the Book Jesus the Christ. Not in spaninsh yet but someday. This book is amazing. Im only in the first couple of chapters but I have learned so much already. the other week I was prayering fervantly to Heavenly Father to help me increase my tetimony in Jesus Christ. So I read more in the bible and this helped but then onother Elder lent be the Jesus the Christ Book. when i recieved it i was just so grateful for this small answer to prayer and I think everyone should read it. It is a big book and looks very intimidating but if you start with a prayer and read with a purpose to have your faith strengthed, You will love every sentence of this book. Well to all those that read these emails, just know that I love you all and that our Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ love you too. Remember always the covenants that we have made with our Father and if you have not yet, keep on preparing. Family, I dont know how to express to you all the love that our Father has  for us. It is unexplainable that he loves us so much. WE cant even understand how much love He has for you. There are very little things in this life that we can completley understand but I am here to tell you that we live in faith. If we have the faith that all is the will of the Father, we have no need to worry about the things of the World. Yes we are here in this amazing world, but so is Satan and his angels and he is doing all he can to stop us from returning to our Father. Do all that you can to stay strong and Pray always that you may come off conquorer. I forgot how to spell that but it is a very good scripture in D and C 10:5 Well I have to get going to go and enjoy another day here in the work of the Lord. I love you all. Elder Larkin
Yesterday we confirmed our investigator in sacrament meeting and it was so amazing to see how he has completley changed for the good things in the life.

May 30, 2011

Hello my family. How is it all going with you all.  THis week has really been great as we have worked hard as a mission to break a record of baptisms this month and we have close to 200. On sunday in the evening we had a combined baptism with the other elders and had a wonderful evening. The computer i am using cant upload pics so you will have to wait another week to see the photos. Our investigator that got baptized is so awesome. It was a miracle for me that he got baptized yesterday. He had an interview with the pres Cantu just an hour before the baptismal service and he showed that he has really repented of his past errors and sins and was able to recieve this remission of all last night. Wow it was just an amazing experience. He had such a great desire to recieve the baptism as he waited a month for his interview with the president. Ahh it is times like these that just make me love the mission even more. On saturday we had a zone conference in La Paz where the other zone is and Elder se Oyos came to speak to us of the 70. this was such ana amzing day as i always learn so much every time we have conference and all that. WE also passed through a little town called Todos Santos where the famous Hotel California is and i have pics of that too that I will send next week. I got to see one of my old companions again Elder Toledo and that was alot of fun. I have just loved getting to see how storng the Atonement can be in all of our lives as I see the people each day trying to repent of their past doings and really trying to change and follow Jesus Christ even better. THen the start to see that there really is power in the Atonement that all of us really can recieve this forgivness of our sins and follow on stronger than ever. I also have loved that I recieve power every day too. Everyday their are so many things that I have to repent of and then plead with the Father for this forgivness and for the strength to work even harder to think even better to have the spirit with me and to be able to usr the spirit more for my benifit and more importantly for the benefit of the investigators. It is such a battle with satan each to always have the spirit to be with you because it is so sensitive. ANd us as missionaries cant do anything without the spirit.  This is why it is so important for all those that recive the gift of the holy ghost, to do all that they can to always have the spirit with them. If we keep the covenants that we renew each week the sacrament meeting, we will have this gift with us alwyas. Brenna thank you so much for your story of you missionary experience, because you too like all that are members, are a missionary. I loveed that you were so excited to see the power that the spirit has just by sharing your testimony and talking of things of our Heavenly Father. Just ismagine, that is what I have the priviledge of doing all day, everyday!!! I love it! To see these example of faith that the people have to listen to what we have to say then to act on the strange and amazing feelings of the spirit, it is all just a miracle to me. THe mission is really the best thing that anyone can do. Even though I dont speack as good as I want to and I cant do and say all that I want to in lessons, it is alright because I too have this gift of the holy ghost and the people listen to this still small voice and not just mine and my companions. I dont have to much more time today to write my family and my friends but know that I love you all. Know that your Father in Heaven loves you too. I know that this is true as He loves me so much and I love you so he must love you too. My family the Gospel is true. THere is not any doubt in my mind that Through Joseph Smith that we have all the powers and keys of the Priesthood here on the earth again to bring to pass all the will of the Father. Untill next time my loved ones.  Elder Larkin

May 23, 2011

Wooow my family how is everyone doing? I have loved to here all these amazing stories of your lives with golf tournaments, band, colorgaurd, finishing 6th grade, and student of the month, with semeinary council also, wow the blessings are just being poured from heaven. It is so amazing to see all the good that is happening there. Well here in Los Cabos the blessing from heaven never stop. At times it is difficult because everyone has their own agencey to listen to us or to the opposite. We did not baptize this week but these next 2 weeks are lookining like miracles to me so I am very excited and cannot get down on the little things. WE have on family here that the mom is a less active member of a long time and her kids are not baptized. She wants the best for them and wants them to get baptized. the younger one, Guillermo wants to but there are many problems in this family right now and he needs all the help he can get. He wants to get baptized this week and all that he is faulting is the support from his family. My comp and i have been praying fervantly for the weeks for him but we need more faith. I want to ask all of you that read my leetters to not only pray for me and my comp but realy for the investigators. In this time of their lives, they are making the decision most important during their time here on the earth. In the premortal life we all choose to follow Jesus Christ and come to earth to gain a body and experience and to show how well we will follow Gods plan. And now all of us are here in this life. All of that have been baptized, already know of the significane of  this decision and also the amazing blessings that come from heaven. For the people investigating the church they do not know yet and are only acting on faith that they will go to church, read the scriptures, and pray to their Father in Heaven each day. And now is their chance to open this door and enter this pathway to God nuevamente and to live with Him again. For all this, I ask that you pray for the people that are listening to the Missionaries, that they can have their hearts soften and act on the feelings of the Spirit to enter into the Covenant with God. This week really was amazing as we had the opportunity to give several blessings this week. It is so amazing to see the POwer of the Priesthood here on the earth. When people ask in faith for a blessing, they really recieve strength from the heavens. I love seeing this each time we give blessings. Also this week at the church it was very good. WE had an investigator come for the first time and she really liked it. She came with her mother and law and they just loved the church. THey invited us to their house in the evening to watch the Testaments movie and when we got there the whole family was there. They all wanted to listen and watch. Also they prepared dinner which was so good. It was Marlin and oohh so so so good. I love the food here. But the whole family was there and they loved the movie and seeing that Jesus Christ came to visit his other sheep. They loved it. Also we had some other great experiences this week and one that was a little strange. WE met a guy this last week and we have been teaching him. When we inveted him to church on wed he seemed very excited. Then when we came back the next time of fri or sat, he told us about this gift that he has and that he reads the scriptures and after he jsut writes and transltes them. He told us that after he prayed about the Book Of Mormon and the church that he recieved revalation from God and wrote it down. It was a letter for us and he gave it to us and it said things that we would join with this guy to preach the gospel to the world and to save all the children of god. It also said that he could not go to another church because he was alrady in the true church of God. Well there are many experiences like this that happen and I just love to teach the people the truth. Ahh i just love the mission and the amazing people and experiences and opportunites we have to teach everyday. It has really just been the best time of my life and it is going by so fast I cant believe it.

May 16, 2011

How is it all going there? I saw some great pics of the band banquet and chanel student of the month! Great Job everyone! JAred and clinton wow im so proud of you guys being the Presidency! It is such a great opportunity to serve in the Band. Who is the new band pres and the band parent council pres? WEll i know all of you want to here about Cabo san lucas, well im here to tell you that it is just amazing here. I hve loved every miniute of my time here and The ward here is just amazing too. There are several american families in this ward with blonde headed little kids that all speak spanish and it is just amazing. We have some very good investigators and looks like we will be baptizing this weekend! Well in this ward there are 2 sets of missionaries and the others baptized this last sat, and our investigators went and now the are so excited for there special day. The people here are so different than the people of Sinaloa and it has been very fun to see the differences between states, just like the people in the US also. Me and my comp are just having a great time together and we are teaching alot. We get along very well and just have a blast all day everyday. THe other elders from our ward are ELder Molsee and Lish, both from Idaho and they are just having a ball too. They live pretty close to us so we get to see them pretty often and we are all just best friends. The mission over here is just completley different and i dont know why. The people here are alot more willing to listen and to accept these amazing changes in their lives. Also the members in this ward have and wonderful heart for missionary work and always are will to help us with anything and always want to give us food too so it is all good here. I just wish all of you could come out with me one day here in the mission so you could meet these amazing people that we have the privilege to meet every day. It is just so amzing when you pray contantly for the spirit and the inspiration that only comes from heaven and then you find another child of God that is just waiting to listen to the message and be reminded that they have a Father in Heaven and a Brother that has sacraficed everything for them and that through this sacrafice, they can have joy and peace in a life of turmoil and pain. It is so amazing to see people really become converted to Christ to leave everything to follow the paths of righteousness. All of the converts of the church are such amazing examples to me as they are humble enough to listen to the spirit and maybe have a couple of doubts but act on the spirit and accept this amazing gospel. We have been reading in the book of mormon, all the mission, and today I read about Nephi and when he broke his bow. His family was in the desert and needed food and in this time of crisis, his only way to retreive food for his family, broke. All of his family was sad and murmured against God. Even his own father Lehi. And so Nephi, knowing that God is his Father and can do anything for his children, decided to what it took to have food for his family. So Nephi made himself another bow and an arrow and had a sling, THen he went to his father and said, Pray to God so i can know where to go to find food. So in the Liahona, the answer was written and Nephi got food for his family and all praised od again. So what do we learn fro this? That we will have hard times, even when we are doing all that is right and all we can to serve God, but the advesary is strong. WE must do what it takes and build ourselves a new bow, then get on our knees and plead with God that we can know what and where to go next. I know that if we ask for help with these things in our lives, that we can recieve all that we need from our Loving Heavenly Father. My family I love you all. When the going gets tough, work harder and ask Father for His divine help. I love you and take care till next week!

Elder Larkin

May 9, 2011

Hello my family!  My first day in the lovely Cabo San Lucas, how sweet it is here. All the fun started last night though after my comp spoke with his family and we left to an investigators house for my last goodbyes. While there my companion fell ill and we had to go to the hospital last night at 9 ish. It was my first time in a mexican hospital and lets just say that the hospitals in the US are alot more fun. haha. Well he got a shot and they gave him some pills and everything turned out alright. WE returned to the house and Geovanny and I gave him a blessing. THis morning he was 100 percent better and everything was fine today. It was a scare for me though. Well at 630 this morning we had to be in the airport and it was in my area so we did not travel to far and we waited there for like 25 mins for the other elders to be going to the Baja. there were 6 elders coming here and we have all arrived safe. WE took just this little plane to fly over in like one hour and it was so sweet to see my area from the sky then cross the ocean then see mountains in the distance as we came in from obove to the Cabo san lucas airport. Before we landed I looked out to the resort part of the area and there were 2 cruise ships parked out in the harbor! So sweet! Well we arrived at our houses and cleaned up and unpacked and went to go by food for the week so we went to walmart! Haha the sister that  gave us a ride said that it is gringo land at walmart, and it was true! It was so weird to see actual americans again, not in suits or dresses but normal americans again and spèaking english! ahh so strange. WEll walmart was so cool and in this walmart plaza also there is a radio shack and GNC store. Im very excited for this area. For lunch we went down to the Dominos pizza in the more touristy part of town and wow it was so sweet! I just love it. Well my area is the very end part of cabo. I have the resorts in my area and all the houses on the hill so we will be walking a ton up and down all day, in the heat so if you get pics from me and dont recognize me, its ok im still your loving son and brother. WEll in our ward we have 3 americans and 1 from agentina. We are without mexican missionaries in our ward. Well alll this day has been about me and getting situated and it is stuff cause  I have just been thinking about me all day and dont like it. NOw is the time for me to get out there and just love the people here and just every minute of my mission here. Well my family all is going well here and Im very excited to get to work here as I have heard very good things of these areas. I love you family and it sure was good to talk to all of you yesterday!! Love you all!!! oh my comps name is Elder Terrera

Elder Larkin

May 2, 2011

Well hello my family another week just flew by! It is true that tomorrow i will complete 6 months in the mission. I cant even believe this as it has all just been one week to me. wow Well this is very interesting about Bin laden that 10 years later we finally found him and dad thanks for your thoughts about time square. That must have been an awesome sight. Chix good work on the bike and bay and chix amazing with your dance! Well it has been fun here as we had a baptism this last saturday and it was just amazing. This sat was Dia de Nino or Kid Day and the whole day was a party for kids. So with this baptism and the chappel there was also a party there during the baptism so it was all just great. Ramon is his name and he chose me to baptize him. My first time to baptize someone older than 15 and it is a little different. I was very excited for him to get baptized because his girlfriend is a a returned missionary and helped him so much to prepare for baptism. After his baptism when we were changing he expressed to me how excited he is to go to the temple and marry the returned missionary. Im so excited for them as I really just love the people here and even more my converts and their families. It is all just a blessing to me. When he was confirmed I was not able to go as we have two wards right now and they are very far apart so we had divisions and my comp confirmed him. After their church was over they came to mine and I was so excited to see him and I just gave him a big hug and he gave me an electronic translator. Haha yeah it was so sweet. He is just an awesome guy and we are such good friends. I just love it all. It has been a really good week and the whole mission is really having success as yesterday as a mission we confirmed 50 people in the church. The president is very happy and so are we as 50 more of the children of God have entered into this path that leads back to him. Ahh also during s¿this week we had some very special lessons and the spirit was just so strong to testify to me and to the investigators. During one lesson, we went to vistit my first convert paty and her family and while we were there some friends of thiers came over and had questions and so we answered and taught and they were all very receptive. at one point when I shared my testimony the mom said she got the chills and just felt really different but good and she could not tell what it was but we all know what and it was amzing to see  her realize that there is something different about us and this message and I just love the power of the holy ghost here on the earth and especially in this work. It is a challenge everyday to live the best that we  can to maintain the Spirit with us throughout everyday and throughout all the time and things that happen everyday. It is such a task but it is so possible when we have the Lord on our side. Well this month in the mission we are also starting to read the Book of Mormon again. The whole mission started yesterday and will read one chapter every day as we all read together. I want to invite all of you also to do the same and to read with us. Not only read but to  study the scripturees beacause they really hold so much power. Also we will have changes next week and it looks like its my turn. I will let you all know next monday, where I am! Haha! Well my family and friends take care and always look to God and His Son in times of need. They will never lead you away on the path of the evil one. I love you all so much and take care!! Elder Larkin

April 25, 2011

Hello again family! Wow Im so excited for all the news of the family this week with jared and his crazy driving and Nikki with her calling and bay an chix with their dancing and Ken wow great job with golf and brecken with your crazy school texting and all the other great things! Cousin Josh Im so excited for you too! Chinese in New Zeland great work!!!! Well family as you all know that this week was Easter. Here in mexico there is not one day like easter. Here it is called La Semana Santa or Holy Week. Everyday has a special significane of the last week of life of the Savior. It is sad though as it is now more of a Spring break for the people than anything, but I still felt the spirit and specialness of this week. It has been a rough week to as many people left for this time of vcation and literaly the streets were empty and we contacted the whole day and very little people wanted to listen to us. It was probably the hardest day of my mission on sat but it ended well as I closed the day in prayer. I was prompeted in prayer that duh its hard because satan is so real and is doing everything he can to try to stop this amazing work. As a missionary I have to keep an attitude of happiness 100 percent of the time and fight off every thought of discouragement of satan. It is a constant battle to fight off this opposition to retain the spirit. And if we dont have the spirit, we can not teach and for me, even more, I will not have the gift of the spirit of the gift of tounges. Every moment is so important. And so with this I am just a happy little gringo man walking down the streets of Mexico all day. I love it. This day was hard but I learned much, again of the importatnce of the calling. If we are not doing all that we can to live and teach and speak and think as Christ, whose work are we doing? and so it is that I just love trying to be like Jesus each and every day as i meet new people and have the opportunity to share my testimony and for them to feel just a small sense of the love. It is just so amazing! We have been working hard but ´people still have agency and baptism and investigators have really fallen through but in times of darkness, there always follows the light of day and this amazing gospel. We ahve one investigator named Ramone and he is 32 years old. His girlfriend is a returned missionary and has really taught him everything and he will get baptized this saturday. I am so excited for him as he is making the covenant to follow on strongly to make other covenants in the temple to have an eternal family and enter into the kingdom of God! Wow how special it is to see this in the lives of people everyday! When we have people like this, I just have such joy in my soul and can only imagine how happy our Father and Savior are to see another child return and choose for theirself to follow them. Wow this life is so special and so esencial. so we can all do better to live more in the way that our Father has asked us, and not only asked but commanded. I want to remind you that we all have these covenants with God right now and when we dont not honor and keep them, there really are consequenzes after this life. Also with these covenants, when we keep them, we will have more blessings than we can even think of. Remeber this as the work of the Father and Son is only this, to bring these blessings of eternal life to pass, to all of man. There are just so many things happening here everyday that I cant even think of them all. I really just love the mission more and more everyday as I thought lI loved it yesterday, It is amazing how much more I love it today. Its just like disneyland! Well everyone keep up the good work and some one tell Hma Mathews for me to keep up the good work in the MTC and just be so excited to enter the field. There is no way youcan learn all you need in the MTC to prepare for the field so just work hard and enjoy it! You will have strength moer than you can imagine if you learn to put your will competley in line with the will of the Father. Mi testimonio por Hma Mathews, tenga fe que El Senor va bendicirla. Solo podemos aprender todas  estas cosas con la ayuda de El. No tenga temor porque esta tiempo es tan corto y temor es de Satanas. Solo es un obstaculo por nosotros misioneros. Le amo mi prima! Nos vemos en como 19 meses! Cuidese! Ok nada mas ah nothing more. I love you my family and really take care!!!! Elder Larkin

April 18, 2011

Hello my family again! This week has just flown by!

 Well all these pics of disneyland and all the fun in utah is all just so great! And wow bailey you have a Kindle named Kendel! amazig!! Brecken you a net book too this is all just crazy for me as I am here and I share one kind of cool cell phone from the mission!! Haahahahaa  so fun to hear and see these blessing that you have! And disneyland is always so amazing and wonderful wow! Jared you and all those girls, as Geovanny always tells me, Behave yourself. Well that is all just wonderful and here in Bachigulato we are doing great too. We have many investigators and some baptisms planned for these coming weeks! Well this week was a seminary for many of the missionaries that have less than one year in the mission and it was so so so amazing as I really learned so much more about this work and so much more of the Imporance of baptism and every little thing that we teach. Wow baptism is so very important and that all this is so real. Yes I have had a good testimony and have known all this but to really learn it and apply again it is just amazing to me. Im so excited for Chantel to get baptized next year and that I will have the opportunity to be there for it. This one simple act of baptism has an eternity of consequences, good concequences. We learned so much in this seminary that I cant even explain it all. This baptism is a remission of our sins and we have much more power after but also it opens this gate for all the children of god to enter this straight and narrow path to return to His presence. I love it all, how perfect this Gospel really is! At this seminary my whole district from the MTC was there and we just had a ball talking in spanish to eachother and sharing all of our amazing experiences so far and ahh it was just amazing. President Cantu is such powerful and is such an amazing example for me. I want to be able to have this amazing testimony to be able to talk to anyone and just by your voice, they know that you are something different. There is still much to go with my spanish but it is really coming along and with my teaching it is much easier to explain and listen to these amazing people here. I really just love every day and am so excited for this work. Never can we think that it is our work but only the work of the Father and Christ and with the help of the Holy Ghost we can have this power not only as missionaries but in all callings of the Church and our lives. I know that this church is true more than ever as I got on my knees several times this week to ask the Father again to know that this church is true and you know what, I recieved an answer like never before. I know that we can always pray and always He will answer but we must be willing to accept it and live it. Ahh my family there is jsut such great joy in my soul as I know that if we are faithful in this life and keep these covenenants we have made, that we will return back to the pressence of our Father and live forever with Him, Chirst and this family. I love you my family!!!

Elder Larkin Oh the pics are of the bday of Hma Gloria the mom of Paty my first baptism and the seminary and when I got my hair cut today! Ha enjoy oh and I hve received all the packages you have sent nikki and Mom, I am close to the offices and we receive them pretty quickly!

 

April 11, 2011

Buenas Tardes mi familia! How is everyone doing? Bailey thats so cool that you went to the temple and did baptisms for the dead! soooooo awesome! Chicky and your little your little bike and no teeth haha so neat. There are many mant kids here that have little bikes to and many are my friends and I always think of you as they ride around in the streets here just like you girls! Well this week has been fun once again. Yesterday in the church we confirmed the older Hma Celia as conference was last week and we did not have sac meeting, and as always the opposition in tough as at half way through sac mtg Elder Reyes told me he forgot the record for the signature of the bishop and we had to run back to our house and get it and we confirmed her at the end of the sac mtg. Ahh what fun. This week has been really special as we have found many chosen ones and they have recieved us well. One is named Saul and we walked ´passed him as he was playing guitar outside his house and my comp said lets go back and he was just so awesome and went to church and everything and he will really progress. Also There was this ex misionera and she wanted us to teach her boyfriend and he too was so prepared and willing to follow these steps in life. Also over these last weeks I have really been blessed as my tounge has been loosed and my spanish has taken such an amazing leap foward. I dont know what happened but it is so much easier to speak now and I jusr love talking to everyone. Also we got to go to a referal in a rancherito like an hour outside of our area and this was really fun as it is just so flipped around there. It reminded me of kiowa and the people there. All the kids are just so small and love playing soccer everyday. In this picture this was a homemaid bridge and lots of people wakl across it and Elder Reyes and I both tried and almost fell! Ah what fun. Also this is an airport right along side the road as this we took this picture from a bus! Ahhh so cool. I love Mexico and the people so much more and more evryday as I can relate more to them as i have experiences everyday. THe people here are all so loving of eachother and I really try to learn after this example as they all do what they can to help eachother as we are all in this life together. Also in the mission I have really noticed the strength that we have as missionaries, that I was able to leave home and the family and make new family and friends every day. I love just taking a minute every now and then and I just realize, wow I am in Mexico, I am speaking Spanish, and wow I have so many friends here and so many people that love me here and I love them too. Then I can realize that wow back home I have a whole other people that are supporting me 100 percent also. Then I always to jsut have a small quiet moment to just thank our Father in Heaven for this amazing experience, that I can have the power and strength to live out here in Mexico just me and My Comp everyday and we have success! Ah the mission and life is just such an amazing gift from our Father. I am just so grateful for you my family that you can enjoy the blessings at home from all the work of our parents and others. Always I never feel alone as I am trying my hardest to be the best I can for you and also for the memebers here and the converts and especially for the people that are experienceing these feeling probably for the first time in their lives. I love the feelings of the spirit here. Never worry for me here as I have our Father and all His angels on my side. As we are worthy and have paid the price, we can recieve all that Our Father wants for us. We never need to doubt or be sad as we do all we can to follow the laws that have been given. These are just a couple to my thoughts today and I cant wait to the letter next week as this week is a seminary for all the newer missionaries. I cant wait to go and learn so much more this week. Well untill next time my family!!!  Love you a ton!!!!! and have fun in Disneyland!!!!!!!! Elder Larkin

April 4, 2011

Hello once again my wonderful family. These weeks just fly by and now as of this sunday I have completed 5 months in the mission. It has just flown by so fast! Today in a meeting of our zone I was talking to elder Brown from my mtc district and we were laughing so hard while remembering the fun things we did in the MTC. Also at how we have been out longer than we were in the MTC. Time is just such a strange thing. Well as i said last week we had a baptism and I have pictures today and Also from this sat as we had another baptism of an old lady named Celia. This lady is so awesome as missionaries have been working with her for months and years and her neighbor also , our ward mission leader, and finally she decided to take the step and become a member of the Church and enter into this narrow path that we get to follow back to our Heavenly Father after this life. She is just a super tough old lady that has had 8 kids and worked her whole till recently when her husband died like 5 years ago and lives with one of her daughters and her grand daugters now. It was amazing to me to see how she progressed over these last months and taht she had really grown much closer to Chirst and our Father. It was such a fun journey. For conference we could only go to one session and with the time change we missed half of it as we were inviting our investigators to go with us. Its all good as we get the LIahonas before anyone else haha. This week has really been fun as I have gotten to know my companion more and he is very awesome. He has a very powerful testimony and is a very good teacher. I can learn alot from him. It is hard when we have investigators that listen to all that we have to share and feel and know that it is true and still do not acceppt this amazing message. They are so close to true happiness but still so far. Remeber this as we all know the truth and now it is only up to us to live it. So as we loose investigators we are constantly searching for new people as there are always people prepared and waiting for us. The Lord and our Father are always watching over us and our lives and prepares people around us and prepares people through us as we are really trying to be diciples of Christ and trying to become like Him. As we let the goodness of the Gospel of Christ into our lives and reallly try to live it better than we ever have before, we really can have these blessings. As we teach everyday the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a very simple manner as 5 Things that ew have to complete in this life, I want to explain now. First is faith, faith that we can do all that we need to do in this life to follow Christ. Faith is first and for our whole life it is the most important as we can not do anything past faith, without faith. It is something that, yes we can a little at first but it is something that is constantly growing over time. At times it falls but it is here like we are taught in Ether 12 that it is after the trial of our faith, we gain our witness, our testimony. 2nd is repentance. We repent all the days of our life because we are so imperfect. It is only with this repentacne that we can have happiness in the life and the fullness of joy with God after this life. 3rd is baptism as we follow this perfect example of Chirst we are let in through the gate that leads to eternal life. 4th The holy ghost as we receive this gift and guide we can enjoy the blessing, feelings, guidance, protection of our Father through this amazing missionary and 3rd member of the God Head. Something that I dont think about very often but is very true is, that we have our father and our brother these two members of the godhead and also we have the Holy Ghost. The love that the Father and Son have for us is more than we can imagine, but also the love that this constant companion that we have, also is very strong. As we strive our hardest to be worthy of this gift, he brings the love of our father to us His Children. THe gift of the holy ghost is so very important in this life. And 5th is that we endure to the end. This includes all the work that we have in callings and work that we do in the temple. Also the work in our families and our actions everyday. This 5th step also is so very important as this is the path, the long and narrow way back to our Father as everyday, every decision that we make is so very crucial to all of eternity if we realize it or not. Every thing we do has a consequence and there is nothing tht we do that goes unseen by our Father. Well this is just what I felt like sharing today so I hope that it helps. I want to hear stories from conference as I love it so much and cant wait to go again in the conference center!! Well family take care and always love each other!!!

 Love, Elder Larkin

March 28, 2011

Family another week has passed and I cant even believe it. What a week and opposition of the adversary when such great things are happening. Well in this week we had 2 baptisms planned for this saturday and only one happened. It is sad and exciting when all the hard work of your investigators is lost when the satan strikes right before the services. Esta bien mi familia. We did baptize 1 girl 11 years old and yes there was opposition here too. We had a wonderful service and the spirit was so strong as family, members and non members, came to support her in the amazing covenant. Yesterday I had my first confimation of the Holy Ghost as she asked me to confirm her a member of the church. Wow what an honor but also very scary as It was the first time. But when you put your faith in Christ and our Father, there is no need to worry. I am so excited every week to write to you all and I so love hearing from you all as my testimony is so strengthed every week as I hear from you. Thank you. Also Im so excited for General Conference this week end as we get to watch it in the Stake center but only if we bring investigfators so I m going to work very hard this week, just as always. Oh this past week also we had tranfers. Elder Toledo has left to La Paz in the Baja Califoria Sur. I am still here in lovely Bachigualato and I love it here along with the people and members, just love it. My companion is now Elder Reyes from Vera Cruz also and he is way sweet. I m excited to see how things go! Oh and I will send more pictures next week of the baptism and my new Companion. Oh he wants to be a doctor so way cool!! Well this week has been very fun as we worked hard. Hard work really pays of even if there is alot of adversasry, every soul is worth 1 day of hard work, so why not everyday!? I do not have to much time because I had to wait a long time for Elder Reyes this morning and Pday is very short. But I got to see Elder Pearson, Tingey and Brown, my roomates from the MTC today and we are all doing so great! I love the Mission and Mexico! Oh and Paty my first baptism is just doing great as yesterday was the personal progress thing to the young women here and she gave a talk so we went for her talk and she is just amazing. When ever its tough I think of her and remember that I have to be the best I can be in all the rest of this life at least for her because I have resposibility for her now, just like all my investigators here. I love it as I am never alone but always have so many people that love me and I love them. Well take care my Family!!!

Elder Larkin

March 21, 2011

Hello again my family!

 I hope all is still going well and all are working their hardest. Well Today I am so grateful for the saftey of all the missionaries in Japan that is so cool to see the Lord in His work as the Missionaries in all the world are really in His hands. I have a couple of sweet stories to tell today also and the first happened a week ago for family night. We have family home evening with our investigators and the asked me to prepare a lesson so all day I was pondering and praying and finally it hit me to talk on faith so I studied hard and prepared a great little message for this family. we had to have divisions, ELder Toledo and I, as we had 2 family nights that night. So I went with another member and we show up at this house and all the family of this family is there. There was like 20 people there ready for the lesson and fun family activity. So I showed my faith gave this sweet lesson and all of the family had a great time as we shared experiences of faith and had an amazing spiritual conversation of faith and such sweet plain and simply things of the Gospel. The whole family participataed and we had a great night. It is just little things that bring such great spiritual opportunities. Well another experience I had was today as some members wanted to take us to get lunch today on Pday. So we went to a place that sells Camaron of shrimp and I love shrimp so I was super excited. We got there and I had no Idea what these things were on the menu so I got the same thing as this member. So the brought us the food and mine was just this bowl of like brown water with shrimp and other chunks of stuff. So I gladly ate it and while doing so I looked at these chunks of stuff and there were little suction sup things and I realized i was eating octopus tentacles. Ahhh I paniced for like 3 seconds and then jsut thought, ehh esta bien and ate all of it. My first experience eating octopus and Im still alive so it is ok to eat, I know now. Also this week the ward and stake here had the opportunity to go on a Temple trip for 3 days. The closest templs are both 10 hours away and and it is a big journey for them. Wow I wanted to go to but we have other work to be doing here. SO go to the temple as often as you can becuase the member here are always praying for a temple but still do not have one. The only have the chance to go every 3 months and many times opposition is very hard and many can not go at the last min. So go to the temple as it is the work of the Lord there. I know that there is so much power that comes from the temple if we attend reguarly. It is the house of the Lord and He has permitted us to go there, so what are we waiting for? Once again there are so many stories to tell but so little time. Know that all is well here as we are working hard all day everyday bringing the Gospel to the People here. LIke the missionaries all around the world, you too can spread the gospel with anyone, member of not, as we are all children of God and need His presence and Spirit in our lives. Continue to love everyone and love every second of this life as it is so short and goes by so quickly. Enjoy every moment of it as it really is a gift from our Father in Heaven.

 Love you my family! Elder Larkin

March 14, 2011

Wowowow Im so glad to hear from all of you and so glad to see that you recognize the blessings of our father in your lives. Bailey thanks for the pic and brenna I think about viens all of the time hahaha! Kenadee amazing job at your tournament Im so proud of you!!! wow! Dan thanks for your email too. It is crazy being here and seeing how so many many many people are suffering from the effects of pitutary damage and other difficiencies. Wow I feel for them.  And Lisa is home wow so much is happening. This week I have really been good. I feel closer to my savior than ever before in my life. This is not my work but I have the opportunity to help the Lord in His work. And because it is His work I need His help. The Atonement is my topic today. OUr purpose as missionaries is to Invite others to come unto Christ to recive the  Restored Gospel through, Faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, Repentance, Baptism, The gift of the Holy GHost and enduring to the end. Wow that was really hard to write and remember in English ok. But We are inviting people to have faith in Chirst and His Infinite and perfect sacrafice for us. I had to give my first full length talk in Sacrament meeting yesterday and this was my topic. Read in 2nd Nephi 2 and 9. These chapters are amazing as with all things of the Book of Mormon. The Atonement though, it is the act of Sacrafice in the garden of Gethsemani and the Death of Christ on the Cross and also the 3rd day when he was resurrected. Many people think that the atonement is simply a remission of our sins and the power over death to live for ever. THese are some of the everlasting effects of the atonement but there is much more. First we must understand that we can not comprehend all of the Atonement. Our mortal minds cant comprhend all the pains of an Infinite sacrafice. Jesus really suffered all the price of sin for us. But there is more. He also suffered every pain, every infirmity and and bad thing that ever happened and will happen to us. We cant usnderstand this but what we can understand is that this was not just done so that we can sit back and say "wow this sacrafice is so amazing and I love my savior so much for this." That is great. This is the first step and now we use this gift. The atonement is a gift for usr from God and Christ. Jesus did not suffer so that we would only worship this gift. He suffered so that we would use this gift. The healing power of the Atonement in our everyday lives is what I want to talk about. We must repent everyday so we can become like Christ but also we must use this gift everyday for strength in all aspects of our lives. This suffering is here for us to use it. If we use this power to have strength, we can then follow the example of Christ and really serve our fellow man. Understand that we use this gift, but still it is not free. We must devote all of our worship to God and Christ for this strength that we have. When we recieve amazing blessings from God, big or small it does not matter, we must then give our whole heart to Him in Praise. My family I know that this Atonement is the most important event to ever happen in all the time of man. Why cant we remember this sacrafice in our everyday lives. Everything that we have is a gift from our Ever loving Father in Heaven. We ahve covenanted to remember Christ always and I promise you that if you let this gift from Christ take place in your life and then act on the blessings you receive from this gift and latter give all praise to your creator and reedemer and our Father in Heaven, you will be able to keep this covenant. You will be able to remember Christ in all things that you do and you will have the joy in your life that God is always waiting to give to us His children. My family I love this gospel and I love this opportunity we have to live in the Life to show our Father how much we love Him and want to live with Him for ever. Only with this help of Christ we can accomplish this. There are so many things more that I learn each day and want to share with you but now I must share these things with the people here in Mexico. I can share it in peices along the way and all the rest of our lives with you so until next my family.

 Siempre con amor,

 Elder Larkin

March 7, 2011

Hello once again my family!!

 Im sorry I dont have to much time today so I cant respond to all of your emails but thank you so much as they really inspire me and I love hearing from you! Bailey I loved your letters and Brecken ohh my gosh your stories are hilarious and quotes are amazing Jared, thank you. I have been getting yours but Time is of the essance. You are just the crazy social butter fly now.

 Back stage jazz night already wow it was just yesterday we were up at the state game in weber and running back to the school for the jazz night wow. Time flies. Well all things are going well. We the people here are so amazing and I just love them so much. I can understand more everyday and I really have a greater love as I can understand more. Oh mom thank you for the Howard W hunter talk as wow that is exactally what I needed. It is difficult in the Field sometimes as when your leaders are not the best examples we always have the perfect example. The Only Perfect Example, our brother Jesus. This is something that we must always remember. Well this week we had a Zone Conference! Wow this was like almost one of the best days of my life, every day is the best day of my life, but the spirit was stronger there than I have felt in a while. Being all in spanish I had some doubts but as soon as I got there, I understood every word untill the end. During the talk of one of our APs I did not even realize that he was speaking spaniah because it was all so clear and perfect through the Spirit. I got to do a special musical number with Elder Pearson and Elder Tingey, 2 of my most favorite people from the MTC, and it was amazingly storng as we sand Mas Cerca Dios de Ti. or nearer my God to thee. I love music. The conference was especially amazing because our president is an amazing man. I dont know how ihe is such an amazing spiritual giant but I love this man. He loves the missionaries here so much and his wife to wow such an amazing pair. I love this mission so much even though the opposition of satan is so hard to over come each day and the opposition on oour investigators is just devistating to watch at times. I have such a love for them and Satan knows this and does all he can to stop the good from progressing. He knows haw very important this work is and that there are so many people just waiting to hear. Everyone must constanly be in the fight against satan because he uses every single glimpe of a chance to sneak in and cause disctruction. But my family, we have an amazing Savior. OUr brither Jesus Christ paid for this that we might be able to over come these trial of our faith. Never forget that we have our Father in Heaven also, constantly watching over us, always preparing us and leading us if we are worthy and willing to follow. Mi familia yo se que estes palabras son verdaderas y que Dios es nuestro Pader Celestial. La oposicion en esta vida es terrible en esta epoca, pero siempre tenemos nuestro fe en Cristo para superar estas cosas. Familia escuche a estas palabras y escuche a las palabras de sus padres y lideres en la iglesia. Tenemos esta vida solmente por esta cortito tiempo. Nunca olvide su Salvador su ejemplo perfecto. Family I love you and always want the best for you. Take care and really look after eachother as our families are a gift beyond we can imagine, from God.

I love you,

Elder Larkin

February 28, 2011

Hello Family! 

How are you all doing? Im am doing just great this week as I have worked hard with Elder Toledo. My spanish is definitley improving a ton and a tip of advice he gave me was to just completley forget english and so I have been thinking is spanish all week so if there are errors here im sorry. So we did not have anymore baptisms this week but the blessing of heaven and Fathers armies of Angels are here with us. I love this as I never feel alone. This week as with every week, so much happens. Everyday is completley different from the last and a new challenge and more adversary is there every day. We have had baptisms set up for the next couple of weeks, but with all good there is bad and it is our choice how we will face it. We have an incvestigator, an 11 year old who lives with his uncle and he is such an awesome kid. He is so ready for baptism and just wants to follow Christ but we need consent from his mother not just his uncle. This was very tough on us and on him as we were all hoping that he could get baptised this last week. He is very down but we remember the scripture in nefi that when God gives us a commandment,He provides a way for us to complete it. With time and patience he will be baptizsed and hopefully his uncle also! This week I got to go to another part of my area called El Campo Diez and this is like a rancho and the people there are very poor. There houses are tiny and made out of scraps. As soon as I set foot there I felt a flush of humility and I just wanted to go and hug all the people. I love them. We contacted this one house and taught a 22 year old named Reyes. We lef t him a Book of Mormon and hopefully he will continue to want to follow. When we went back to check on him he ran into his house and got the book and was going to give it back to us. we said oh no no it is your book and he was so happy. To see this kind of living and life here is so different and I just want to teach everyone. I love the people here. Yesteryday we were contacting after church and went to a lady that we contacted earlier in the week and she is a little bit crazy and her husband died 28 years ago and her 49 year old son that was in a accident and now has brain damage lives with her. She works all day at her house growning plants and keeping it up. she is a tough old lady named Ramona. We were teaching her and we were just talking and then I dont know what happened but Elder Toledo said that I wanted to learn to wash clothes by hand as she does not have a washer. She was so excited to teach me and pictures are included with this. Oh what fun. My comps bday is tomorrow so some converts from his old area wanted to come take him to lunch. So they came an hour here to take us out and we went to a part of my area that is by the ocean. I forgot my camera and I wish I could show you were I was today. I will go back. But the ocean ahh so coooool! It is a fishing town called Navalato. Bettweeen Bachigualato and Navalato there are many farms so I saw some awesome mexican farms a sweet sweet places today. I just love mexico. I had no idea what it was like out side of the city and I just love it. Also I love that Elder Toledo has had such an iimpact on his converts. I want to be like that with my converts. Well I just want to thank everyone for all of the great emails that you send to me. I love hearing from you! I dont have time to respond to all but I love reading your inspired words to me and stories from your lives right now! THank you my family. I hope all is well and everyone is just doing great, getting on their knees everyday and pouring out their souls to our Father for all of the amazing blessings he has given us in this life! Pray to Him as He is always listening. Put your faith in the sacarafice and Atonement of Jesus Christ as it is an amazing blessing for us to use if we can have enough faith to work it out the best we can and then simply turn it over to the Lord. THis is something I have loved learning here on the mission. I feel that I have to do this everyday. Ask for the help of our Father, because He is just waiting to open the Heavens and pour out more blessings upon us. I love this Gospel I love Our Father and our brother and Savior. and I know that they have more love for you than you can ever imagine in this life. And I also I love all of you. Take care my family!

Elder Larkin

February 21, 2011

Hello My wonderful family!!

How is it all going there? I am doing just great as I have worked harder than I have in my life. Elder Toledo has been working me hard and I have been learning so much. It has been great as our area really has exploded! Our investigators needed him and it really shows. Well sat was my first convert baptism. Her name is Paty a 15 year old with such great intentions to follow our Savior. About 3 or 4 weeks ago we were heading to an Hermanas housse to eat lunch and we were early so we contacted some houses. The first one was this lady named Gloria and we found out she was a less active member. She was so suprised that we were there and just was so happy to see us. THen we left and and invited here to church and all and then sunday came and she did not come and we thought nothing of it. Then 2weeks ago she came with her daughter Paty. Wow we were so excited and Paty loved the church. So we set up an appointment and we taught here over these last two weeks. Then this last week she was baptized. It is crazy the opposition that comes when doing such righteous things as baptism. She was so excited and asked me to baptize her. The strange Elder from the US that cant really talk, but she wanted me to do it. I was so honored and will remember this special day forever. I loved feeling the presence of Angels there on the other side. Not only our family but hers too. Ahh the mission is great. Elder Toledo wants to baptize every week this change so Im good with it. Working with Elder Toledo has been fun and difficult. We come from completley different backgrounds so I have had to learn alot to work and be effective with him. I love my companion as he really takes good care of me. I have learned so much from him as he really is an amazing misssionary and teacher. It has been a pleasure. Well the miricales of the mission never cease while we work our hardest and stay completley worthy. There are so many people here and are just waitng for us to knock on their door and invite them to come to Christ. I just am completly amazed. COming from Utah were most all are mormon or know alot about the church, There are so many here that have never even heard of the church and last night we taught this new family and the daughters have never heard of Jesus Christ before. I have such great work ahead of me and cant wait. Also I had my first experience of casting out bad spirits. Its quite scary and I cant really describe it but we have another new investigator now. I love being on the Lords Errand. His work is so amazing and we are all apart of it. If we have any particle of faith in Him we are to serve others and share this amazing gospel with them and all of the Amazing blessings we have recieved from Him and our Loving Father in Heaven. There are so many stories I can tell already but I dont have alot of time. Family I love you aso much and you can show your love to me by showing your love to your Savior. Keep His commandments. This is everything. Do you kids remember the seceret to this life? its simple, keep His commandments 100% of the time and your life will be so happy. I love you all and ¡Cuidense! con amor,

Elder Larkin

February 14, 2011

Well hello my family!

 Jared what a sweet birthday and Forced Unleashed 2 amazing!! Bailey happy birthday this week as I don't think I will get another chance to send a email later. Well whoever is in charge of my face book, accept Geovanny Flores as my friend as he is a member here that pulled the prank on me. He is awesome. Well yesterday we were sitting at a members house and we got a call and they said, We need to have a baptism for my son. So Elder Wirkus said that I would do it so I had my first Spanish baptism. It was not one of our investigators but a sweet kid from another ward. We did not know the family at all but they were so grateful that we could have a baptism. It was very cool and now I have 2 baptisms. The ward mission leader here said , yes 2nd of many to come so I'm very excited. We have 3 investigators that look like they will get baptized this week. So exciting! Well today were mission changes so I am no longer with Elder Wirkus. So sad as we went and said bye to some of his converts yesterday we left them in tears. I want to work hard so that I can have such good impact on people lives just as Elder Wirkus had. He is now is Angostura a Ranchito with one of the Elders from my MTC District Elder Brown. And now I am with Elder Toledo a Native here from Vera Cruz. I am excited to see how things go but also sad to lose Elder Wirkus as he was a very great friend to me. And now I have to lead the area for a while and this is something that scares me a little but I have really come to know that this is not my work but I just work in the Lords work. I need not worry because He is constantly guiding me and will never lead me astray. I have really loved the mission and I cant believe that is a been 1 month today that I came to Mexico!!!!! Ah it just flies! I love the members here and all of our investigators and I get to see how the gospel changes peoples lives right before my eyes. It is such a blessing to me to be here on a mission. I love the area here too. I don't feel like I'm in another country or far from you as this is my home here too and I just love it. Oh and my new companion doesn't speak a lot of English so I will be learning more Spanish over these weeks than ever before. I will try to send some pics next week as I forgot my memory card and camera today but I wont next week. This week though has really been great as we worked our hardest and it really showed with the investigators we have now. Pray for them too that they may have strength to fight against the opposition. I told Elder Wirkus a couple of weeks ago that I think its cool as we are inviting people to come unto Christ but at the same time to join the Fight against Satan whether they want to or not. The mission is just great and I love it so Much. Well I hope all is still well at home and you are all being nice to each other. I love you all so much. Have a great week!

Elder Larkin

February 6, 2011

Hello Family!

 Wow another week already! I cant beleive it. Well Jared happy birthday and I heard about you asking Maren to the Dance. Good Work. I also got your dear elder letter this past week and I was so happy to hear how excited you are for your mission. THis is so great! You are going to love it so much. This past week was very fun as there was seminary for all of the District and Zone Leaders, THis meant i was on divisions for most of the week. My first part of the day on Tues I was with Elder Fernandez Paz from Uruguay. He was so hilarious and completley crazy as he ran around smelling where the spirit was leading him. It was very entertaining for me. I then worked with another Elder from our district named Elder Hooper from Eagle Mt and we had a wonderful time working together in his area and in mine. I was a little nervous to run the area with out Elder Wirkus but we did gerat. I have learned so much this week about teaching and much more spanish also. It is coming along and everyday I understand people better and better as I pray for the gift of tounges always. On SUnday I had a very great experience as I got to listen to the ama<ing testimoies of the ward members here. I was almost in tears as one after another got up and shared breif and strong testimonies of the Savior and the restored Gospel and the Book of Mormon. I was amazed to see the strength of the Church here and I just loved it. Right after testimony meeting Elder Wirkus said, ok you are teaching Gospel Principles today. Ahh I had no idea what to do so I just prayed and we had a very good discussion about Obidience. All of our investigators there were so happy that I could teach that class. It was tough but I made it through just fine. Mexico is so great and I really have loved every moment. I get to wake up every morning srudy the Gospel and then go talk about it with people all day and be a positive influence in their lives. What is not to love? Its just great. So I am so glad to here all is well and that the Isreal trip was so great! Im glad you are all safe. Give my love to Char and Brent as I felt really off this week and I felt that death was near at home. I thought alot about this and had some good inspiration. Death is definitley not the end. It is the begining to so much after this life. As we do our best in this life and follow all that has been given to us and love everyone, we can know that through our marvelous Savior that all is well. Our father in heaven wants the best for us in this life and is always, always waiting to hear from us in prayer. He is listening and He will strengthen you. He will give you that which you need to continue on. I have come to know this better than ever during these past weeks. He wants us to be happy and to be our best everyday. If we keep this in mind, all is possible. It is like this morning, as we were walking to our District mtg I had many thoughts in mind about tough things I have to do on the mission and then I had the thought of, dont think about that and just start thanking your God for the amazing things He has given you and instanly I was comforted. Well Family, I have so many stroies to tell but not time. Oh also it was very cold here this week but we were taken care of so do not worry. My family, I love you all and know that you support me with all of your hearts and I feel this every day. Thank you so much for all you do for me and for eachother. Never stop taking care of eachother. I love you and have a great week.

 Elder Larkin

January 31, 2011

Hello my loving family.

 

Oh it is so great to hear from all of you again. I love the Emails I get from all of you all week and Nikki I think thats so cool that you made a blog for me. The cool thing is it will be there for ever. A digital scrapbook! Well I know you are all just waiting to hear from me and I want you to know i am doing great! My companion says we are in a little bit of an apostasy right now as our contacting and finding new people has been tough. The family that was so ready last week has really slowed and we have tried to talk to them everyday. I had a feeling that they would probably would take so time so we will have to continue to wait. So we do live very close to the Culiacan airport and it is loud sometimes. It is so strange that that is where we flew in over 2 weeks ago and now it is all just a different world. The members here are so great, and i love all of them o much. We had a ward missionary activity last Friday night and 2 of our investigators came too. So fun as we gathered together and watch the Finding faith in Christ film. It is so beautiful and the Spirit was so strong there. I loved it and so did our investigators. All of the ward is set up just like ours in Utah with primary and young mens and womens and all. The youth play a big role in missionary work here when we are teaching teenagers and it is so cool that they get to have these fun experiences already. Well the food here is just great and the members really loving cooking for us. The relief society set up every month where a different hermana gives us a huge lunch every day. They like cooking what we like sometimes and we had mashed potatoes and stakes one day!!! ah so good. Well lunch is really the only meal so its great that you have to eat everything or they get offended. Breakfasts are small and ligh and I dont really eat dinner. Just a snack in the night.

There is no time. So with this and all the walking we do, I have lost like 10 pounds already and am ready to loose more. Don't worry though I will take care of myself. Oh and one day we had to into the city and sign some papers for our visas and I did not know but all from my district had to come and we all got to go together to sign the papers.

Ahh I loved seeing my brothers again and how much we have all changed in just a week and to see how well we all are doing. So so awesome and then they were off just as fast as they came. Brenna I was so glad to hear that you got to go to Church this week. That is wonderful and continue to be a good example. I am so sad inside at the same time for Caroline and hope that she will want to return and be happy. Well one of my favorite investigators this week was a guy named Jonathan Cruz, a Christian learning English so our whole time with him was spanglish.

HE said at the very beginning he has not felt the spirit for a long time and we had a 2 and a half hour conversation with him and the spirit was so strong in this lesson. He was so grateful at the end and said several time s during it that he felt the spirit. We will see where he goes with this. I am excited to continue to find these people who are just waiting for us, Gods answer to their prayers. Well Take care my family and dad and Nikki Be safe!! I love you all so much and continue to do great in all you do! Chix great job on your reading!!!

 

Love Elder Larkin

January 24, 2011

Well family I am alive and well. My first week has been amazing as I have worked harder than I have in my life. But I have loved every moment of it. Today was our first district meeting and it was so fun to meet the other Elders. We have 6 in our district and mine and Elder Wirkus area is one of the biggest in the Mission. It has been so fun walking and walking and trying to talk. The area I am in is alot like southern Cali where grandpa lives and all the houses are alot smaller. There have been so many great experiences already as all week we worked hard attending appointments and then contacting alot alot. We had alot of people let us in as they are all very polite here and are open to hearing about new things but we did not have too much success as we contacted alot. It was not until sat night that we found this one family near to our house and they just loved every word and wanted to read and pray and then we challenged them to baptism and they accepted and set a date and all for them to prepare. This is what you call Escogidos, chosen ones, and we worked all week to find them. WE are going to their house tonight. I can't wait to see how things turn out as I have really been praying for them. Yesterday was district or stake conference and so all the people w invited to come with us did not show up but we did not get to down about it as we watched in over flow or something like it, Elder Snow of the 70 and Elder Holland speak to us. It was very special and Elder Holland even started his talk in Spanish and bore testimony at the end is Spanish, this was all so awesome and he spoke about temples too just like you dad. It was just wonderful. So there have been some strange experiences here also more like strange people, but I just love them even more. Everyone here is so nice and just loves to talk to you so it is easy. This week I have just been saying Si alot and nodding my head as sometimes I don't understand anything that they say here. I usually do very well but I get lost sometimes. Everything is just so much faster here and its hard to keep up but I have been learning so much everyday. Its been really amazing to me. My companion is such a great teacher and all of the members say his Spanish is really good and people say that I have a good accent to. I don't say alot though because I am constantly trying to translate every word and this makes you really tired. Wow well is so great at the same time and the last walk back to the house every night I feel like I am walking out of Disneyland after a long day of  fun and happiness. My area is really safe here to I never feel in danger but my companion knows what to do if there is danger. Oh yes and one last experience was yesterday at lunch with the members a family of A mother and 2 boys and they were just great. At one point the mom asked me if I though Mexico was interesting or not and I did not understand and just said no and the older son looked at me and said, Elder La Puerta, or the door. They all just laughed and it was just a crazy time with all of them. I really am learning so much everyday about péople and about teaching and about myself, finding the strength in myself and then putting all of it in the Lord and I am able to work my hardest every day. It is so fun. I have come to really know that this is not my work but His and there is no way that I can do it on my own. Its been tough coming to learn this but now I am so much happier. Family I am doing great and this week has really flown by. I'm so glad to hear about PH2 and loose teeth and b-ball tournaments and all the fun things in this life. So has the i-phone finally come to verizon? That's crazy!

So all in all I'm doing great and really love all of you and my job here. Thank you for all of your patience and prayers.

 
 

Elder Larkin

 

Jackson in the MTC