Fastest week ever?

So it feels like a few days ago I was writing to you guys.... So I dont have a whole lot to say this week!

Our investigators are still progressing. Sandy and Mime are basically done with the lessons and their interviews will be this saturday. We also have Lemuel. (same as the BOM haha) who'll be baptised the 8th as well. Victor and his family are still doing awesome. They brought their whole family to church again yesterday! And they are now becoming friends with the members so we are excited for them :)

Today we had a multi-district activity and we took a picture in the guagua on the way back! We played dominoes, cards, ate pizza, and just hung out. It was pretty fun! The other picture is on an exchange I went on. The guy whos looking at the camera is Elder Rogers, and he reminds me EXACTLY like Matthew. We are pretty good friends haha.

Anyways! Im alive and well! Sorry this email is so short but Im runnning out of stuff to say!!

Have a good one!!

Elder Larkin

Camp Greenlake

Id like to dedicate a quote to the city of Azua. It describes perfectly how I feel. 

"Once there was a magical place where it never rained.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................THE-END" ~Mr. Sir (From Holes)

Its very hot here I'll tell you that.

On other stuff I'm loving it here! We have lots of progressing investigators and we have 3 baptisms scheduled for April 8th and we are very excited.

Here's a story about someone we met the other week: So we had our "bring your friends to church" day 2 Sundays ago right? So the Saturday before we went around with a bunch of members to re-invite the people they had invited. We went to one of our investigators who wasn't even progressing, and invited them to church yet again, basically thinking "if they don't come to church we cant keep wasting our time with them." We invited them, and started talking to one of the people that was in their house. His name is Victor. Victor is a man who had moved to Azua a few days prior to look for a job, and his wife is the daughter of our investigators, so he is staying with them. We hadn't even talked for 5 minutes when we had to leave, and we asked him "hey do you want to go to church tomorrow with us?" And he thought about it for 2 seconds and was like, "Yeah! Sure why not." 

The next day we had many many people in church because of all the people the members had invited. Guess who showed up. VICTOR. He had walked 29 minutes (he timed it apparently) to get to the chapel, and brought his primary-aged daughter with him. They could only stay for sacrament meeting but they both said they liked it and the next week they'd stay longer. We were pretty excited and we put an appointment for the following Wednesday. On Wednesday we only had 15 minutes to talk with them before we had to leave to go to a meeting, but we left him the Restoration pamphlet and told them we'd be back on Ssaturday to talk more.

Saturday comes around. And we start the lesson. We ask him if he was able to read the ONE page we left for him to read. Come to find out... he read the whole thing, AND marked it up how I imagine an apostle marks his scriptures. THIS PAMPHLET WAS FULL. Questions, comments, numberings on important stuff, you name it. I'm pretty sure I had a smile on my face the entire lesson. I haven't taught anyone who's ever done that before. When we talked about the Book of Mormon he basically just taught us what it was, and then without even us talking about it, he asked. "Tomorrow in church can you guys get me a copy of the Book of Mormon? I mean if there's extras that is." I reassured him that there were PLENTY of extras and we were going to ask him if he'd like a copy anyways. Then he got to church yesterday, and brought his wife, and his 2 kids. They stayed for sacrament meeting and gospel principles, where we talked about the scriptures! It was super cool and they are going to progress SO MUCH. They are the "Seekers of the Truth."

Its good to be a missionary.

Anyways, I hope everyone has had a good week! Hopefully its warming up for you! Its nice and toasty here. Nos veremos en 5 meses!

Elder Larkin

(The pictures are of me and Steven. One of the Priests in the branch. Hes chill)

Domingo de Invitados

So this week was all in preparation for the "Domingo de Invitados," where the members invited their friends to church. It was a good event. We had 20 new people come to church and we have appointments with a lot of them this week. It should be a very good few days. :) We are working with Jendy's older brother Sandy and one of his friends Jose aka "Mime" (mee-may). They are progressing very well and we have baptism dates with them for the 8th of April. They are like 18 years old and they've basically done whatever they've wanted in their lives because their parents aren't there for them, so they still have some work to do to, but they're on their way.

Being here in the mission has really brought to my eyes how good I actually have it, my family, my friends, my home, school, lots of things. A lot of people here grow up in broken or dysfunctional homes, and its sad to see how some of these people turn out. I'm not trying to brag or anything, but I am super grateful for my amazing family and the things we have the opportunity to enjoy.

So I bought some healthy health protein shake things a few weeks ago when I hit 18 months and started working out hard in the mornings (weird I know). But something will come out of it I hope! In the mission field your last six months are your "Sexy 6". So CHEERS to that! 

But I don't have pictures this week so sorry for that, but I hope everyone has a good one!

Ciao!

Elder Larkin

The week where nothing exciting happened

Just like the subject says, not a lot happened this week!! We worked and worked some more! We gave a few blessings, and had some activities at the church! I'm sorry I don't have a bunch to say this week.

One thing we did was fast with our district so that we will find the people that are ready to hear the gospel in this month, and that was good :) The branch is really stepping it up when it comes to helping us out in the mission work. President Nuckols told us once, its not the members who help the missionaries, it should be the work of the members, and the missionaries are just their to help them in that work. I'm not sure if I said that before but I really think that's true. If we all did the work as members like we are supposed to, the work would progress like we've never seen it before!

Other than that, Id just like to share a small part of a book I've been reading. Its another analogy about Christ. With him, we win, without him, we lose.

"In team sports, it doesn't matter which of the players makes the points. When one individual scores, the whole team scores. If the quarterback throws a touchdown ball to the tight end, then it doesn't matter that the guards never touched the ball, or even that the defense was sitting on the bench. It doesn't matter that some on the team may have missed their blocks or run the wrong routes. It doesn't even matter that the second- or third-string hadn't yet been in the game. When one member of the team scores, the whole team scores. In terms of who wins, it doesn't matter whether we are on the offense or the defense, in the backfield or line, or on the first-string, second-string, or special teams. The entire team wins, not just the individual who makes the winning score. In making the gospel covenant, we become part of a team whose captain and quarterback is Jesus Christ, a cosmic Heisman Trophy winner who throws nothing but touchdowns. If we are on his team, we will go undefeated. Even if I miss my block now and then, even if he asks me just to sit on the bench most of the time, as long as he's the captain, we're going to win. But I've got to be on his team, not my own and not somebody else's."

I know that this is true. I might not be the best "player" and I will always make mistakes, but through Christ we can all win, as long as we finish the game on the right team.

I hope everyone has had a more interesting week than I have!! But anyways!

¡CUÍDENSE!

Elder Larkin