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