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