10 February 2014

Okay, this past week was amazing!

On Friday night we went to I**’s home and met with her mom, F*.  She has been reading the Book of Mormon and told us that she wants to study with us.  When we arrived she said that she wants to study with us but does not want any invitations and commitments--only to study.  We went on to describe that as missionaries we will always invite (that is our job) but that we will be considerate of her desires.  We then had a marvelous lesson on the Book of Mormon.

The next day we returned to talk about 2 Nephi 31 with her.  We then had an amazing lesson on the importance of baptism.  She had many questions--especially, regarding the concept of people who die before having an opportunity to accept the gospel.  She came to church on Sunday with I** and another daughter.  I** spoke in sacrament meeting and did a fantastic job talking about faith.  F* absolutely loved church and described it as "bem diferente" (very different) and it just "felt right."   She is going to be baptized on February 22.  This is so humbling for me.  It truly is not us that teach but the Spirit.  It is all in the Lord's hands.

This has been a good week.

Love,

Elder Larkin

3 February 2014

Wow!  I can't believe I am 20!  Another year in the books!   Thank you so much for all your prayers, support, and birthday wishes.  This past week has been very humbling and very insightful.  

I finally received one of the packages that you sent in December.  Hopefully, the others will follow. Thank you so much!  It is funny…where we go for district meeting (where I get my packages) is the most dangerous part of Fortaleza.  I was about to walk out the chapel with my package when all the other Elders freaked out and told me to wait there.  They ran to the back room and grabbed an empty, brown cardboard box.  They told me that I needed to put my United States Postal Box inside or else I would be robbed immediately. This was quite the experience because we had to walk about thirty minutes in this part of Ceará to get to a lunch appointment before returning to Canindé.

My heart is so full--the Lord truly prepares His people to receive the Restored Gospel. Today, I**, our investigator who was baptized last week, taught Principles of the Gospel in church.  We have been helping her prepare throughout the week.  She taught as if she had been a member for decades.  In my opinion, she will be one of the most firm members in all the world.  I know without a doubt that He prepares His elect.  

Another miracle happened yesterday.  Elder G and I were returning from the outskirts of the city on a dirt road when a woman on a moto-taxi stopped us.  She said she was a member of twenty years but moved to Canindé five years ago and could no longer attend because the Church wasn't here.  She was so excited to see us--she lives a long ways out of town.  She came to church today and brought her two daughters, who aren't members. She bore her testimony of how true the Restored Gospel is and how she had yearned and prayed to be able to have it again in her life.  Well, her prayer was answered (she was crying in her testimony because Heavenly Father knows her)--she even mentioned that during the past five years she has gone to other churches to try to fill a hole in her heart but they could never do it for her. This morning she said she was finally at peace.  How humbled I am to be a part of the answer to her prayers.

Thank you for all your words of encouragement.  I am beginning to realize that my mission isn't to learn Portuguese or even baptize...it is to become the person Heavenly Father wants me to become and help those around me.

Love,

Dave (Elder Larkin)

Happy Birthday, Elder Larkin!

Here are some recent photos from Caninde, Fortaleza.

20 January 2014

We had our first two baptisms in Canindé this week!  I* and I** are wonderful women and the first two members of the Church here.  What a miracle!

I* is the investigator of Elder A and Elder T.  I interview their investigators for baptism and Elder A interviews ours.  So, this past Friday, I had the opportunity to do my first baptismal interview.  I was scared to death because of the language, and prayed and prayed that it would go smoothly.  What a blessing!  We were able to understand each other and she recounted to me a beautiful conversion story, with the biggest, brightest smile I have ever seen.  Then, she honored me by asking if I would perform the baptism.  This was such a humbling experience for which I am so grateful (although I must have repeated the prayer and her name about a thousand times the night before to make sure Iwouldn’t mess up the Portuguese.)

I** is the investigator that Elder G and I have been teaching.  Wow, what an example of courage, strength and power…her conversion is a testimony to me that it is the Spirit that teaches, not us.  When Saturday arrived, it actually rained (does not happen often).  As the baptism approached, the clouds cleared and a beautiful, quenching vista of the water-deprived Canindé came into view…it was so amazing.  We had contacted the richest person in Canindé (and the only swimming pool owner), who agreed to let us use his pool as a font.  Moments before the baptism, I** and her mom were in deep conversation with Elder A and Brother W, and I** was crying.  Evidently, I**’s mother had just received a phone call from their pastor who said that if I** was baptized, he would excommunicate their entire family.  I** did not want to hurt her family and her mom, who is not friendly to our church, did not want to hurt her daughter.  Finally, her mom gave her blessing, and I** was baptized.  I** is a beacon of courage who I will always remember.

The spoken language remains very, very difficult for me.  I am understanding gospel-related words and phrases, but I’m lost when it comes to normal, everyday speaking.  Please keep me in your prayers.

13 January 2014

This past week has been fantastic and Elder G and I have had some great experiences.  We’re taking the language one step at a time…it is SO hard to understand the people here because they don’t speak Portuguese…they speakCearean (Portuguese slang.)  Half the words they use are not even in the dictionary.  And, most people are pretty set in their ways and have no desire to learn new truths or change.  How grateful I am to know that we have the ability to progress because of Christ, if we simply follow Him.  My hope and prayer is that the people here can open their hearts to the truth.

There is hope!  Our investigator is getting baptized!  She came to Family Home Evening last Monday and asked how soon she could be baptized.  We were shocked because we were not even sure she had understood our lessons (because our Portuguese is so bad!)  She explained that her answer had come over the past few days in many different ways and, when she comes to church, it “just  feels right.”  She will be going against her family’s wishes and her Pastor, but she is a strong, young woman and is experiencing a great conversion.  I have learned a good lesson…the gift of tongues is not the ability to speak, but the ability to be understood as the Spirit teaches.

Please keep sending your letters…I cherish each one and look so forward to Wednesdays when I can travel to Fortaleza to get them.  (We’ve figured that it takes at least 3 weeks for a letter to reach Fortaleza from the States.)

It is so hot!  Oh my goodness, it does not even feel like Christmas.  It is about 90 degrees each day.  I am not in Fortaleza!  I was put in a rural part of the mission, which I wanted, and it is called Canindé.  It is so, so poor.  But what has really been the struggle, which I am still baffled about is that Elder Garcia, my trainee from New York is still my companion.  We get along great, but do you know what that means?  Neither of us speaks Portuguese!!!  And, Canindé is a new area, which has never had missionaries. There is only one member here!  I am so lost!!!  I get home at night and just want to cry.  We street contact in the sun all day...we walk about 12 to 14 miles each day.  It is funny, everyone here thinks we are evangelicals...they have never heard of the church.  In terms of the work...super, super hard.  The people here are very open but they do not understand us.  I cannot tell you how many times this past week that it has taken Elder Garcia and me something like twenty minutes to carry on a conversation, which the equivalent in English would take two minutes.  Not only can they not understand us, we cannot understand them.  Canindé is notorious for being the most "slangy fast" Portuguese in Brazil.

About my apartment…  Well, the first three days we did not have electricity or running water.  Now we have both but the water that comes out of the shower is lake water and is pitch yellow.  So gross...you can smell the rotting flesh which has been brewing in it as it comes out the spout.  It is quite the experience.  I am so, so grateful for America.  I am happy I am here, though.  I know the language will come.  People just laugh at us when we speak because we are so bad!   Everyone here thinks I am German.  They ask me to speak German to them...

The church is brand new here.  They literally have never seen us before.  Everyone here is of the Catholic culture and we have to go to the slums of the city to have people listen to us.  But, we teach a lot because everyone is very hospitable.  They all wonder why people in white shirts and ties are here because they have never seen us before (rather they ask why we are wearing pants in the heat!)  It is so hot here and so poor that most people do not even wear clothes besides short shorts and torn up shirts.

There are famished dogs and cats everywhere.  There is this one pack of dogs which roams the city.  The dogs are super afraid of humans here.  And, there are frogs everywhere...so many "sapos."  The other day, while walking, I counted hundreds of frogs flattened by the millions of motorcycles which are here.  So, if I have a message to share with you this week, it would be this: be grateful for what you have!

I really do love it here.  I have never been as stressed, though.  The language is so, so, so, so...HARD!    Mom, I am sorry, but I know longer take spiders out of the house anymore.  I wake up each morning and part of the morning routine is to grab my shoes and kill the spiders that are the size of my hands.  These things are huge!  So big!  They could probably take on a small pitbull and win.

2 Nephi 28:30 has become one of my favorite scriptures...line upon line...precept upon precept…

Feliz Natal.

Elder Larkin

Elder Larkin and Elder Helvey from the MTC 

The town of Caninde where Elder Larkin is serving.

It is so dry in Canindé.  In this picture it was raining.  It has not rained here in three years.  Pretty awesome that the day the church came into the city for the first time with missionaries was when it rained for three consecutive days for the first time in years.

Elder Larkin received his visa for Brazil and left the New York, NY mission on Monday December 16! He was very excited to start his mission in Brazil but will miss all of the missionaries, friends and wonderful people he met in New York!

Elder Larkin's new address is:
Elder David M. Larkin
Missao Brasil Fortaleza
Av. Santos Dumont 1789
Sala 1612
Aldeota
Fortaleza-CE 60150-160
Brasil

Here are some pictures Elder Larkin sent to us from his time in New York.

We will keep you updated on Elder Larkin's adventures in Brazil. Happy Holidays!

Pumpkin carving with Elder Henriques, Elder Johnson and Elder Picoli.