Flip flop week, and a baptism!!

Another very exciting week in the DR! So I had to go not once, but TWICE to the capital to get my ingrown toenail out! Talk about painful. This whole week I've been only able to wear my white shirt and tie, slacks, and on my feet some Van's Flip Flops. Makes me really feel like I'm on a tropical island! They got all the nail out the second time I went, so now my little piggies are healing. Feels good not to be in constant pain! People who have had these know what I'm talking about.

Anyways! This week has been one of the best! We are taking to so many people, and the youth that are going to get baptized on the 29th (4 of them) have invited us to share with their families, who are very interested.
Julian, got baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday, it was very special for him because he's been wanting to get baptized for about 2 years now. It was a great service.

As of now, we have 7 baptisms planned for the 29th. I'm very excited and I love to see the way the spirit works through each and every person differently.

Now I have many many pictures so don't be surprised when you get like 6 or more emails from me this week. Hope everyone has had a good week! Love you all!!
Elder Larkin

Mud.

Sooooo yeah Vicente Noble basically got DESTROYED. were we live basically it was just a big storm but I'm other parts even the asphalt street got washed away. It devastated some houses. This week we've done nothing but service. Helping people out and such. Like you know those pictures of the Mormons in the yellow vest things? Yeah that was us. Buy we missionaries didn't put them on cause we represent the church in a different way. I'll be alot more specific in my big email but yeah! It's been crazy. ALSO we have a baptism on Saturday! Julian passed his interview at our district conference and his baptism is this Saturday. Super exciting!

Everyone at home sounds really good! I'm glad to hear everyone is doing fun stuff :)

Wow. So for those of you freaking out over the storm here, I'm fine! :) My area of Vicente Noble? Not so much. The rain really did some damage over here. Where I live, the rain didn't do any damage, but it just rained HARD. Everywhere else though? Wrecked. There is tons and tons of mud. Like literal tons. There were some houses next to a canal that had 5 feet of mud inside them. Lots of people lost everything. Other houses only got about a foot of mud. And me saying that is only mild to what some stuff. The road, yes the asphalt road, is now gone. I don't know how it even happened. But it did.

Now, the only thing we have been doing this whole week, has been help. We have helped getting people's houses cleared out, helping getting new things for all these people and more. The church sent a bunch of stuff to the people affected. We've been going back and forth for days just doing this kind of stuff. It's really good to help out :) if you've seen the "Mormon helping hands" yellow vest things, thats the kinda stuff we've been doing. I have pictures uploading RN so when they are done I'll send them over!

So we have a baptism on Saturday! His name is Julian an he has 35 years. He's been investigating the church for 2 years but he is finally ready! I'm super excited for him.

It's been a heck of a week! But it's been a great one as well. I hope everyone also had an awesome one!
Elder Larkin

Hurricane Matthew!

First off Id like to appologize for not sending a big email last week. Sorry!

Anyways got an announcement! Im in a hurricane! Its hitting haiti right now but we're getting a ton of rain and where I am (the south) its gonna get the worst. Its said we're gonna get 4 feet of rain just where I am and it could go nonstop till thursday! Now dont worry we've got plenty of drinking water and food to last us a whole week. Its chill :) So probably we'll see a bunch of flooding, but we are here to help all the people here!  

So general conference was awesome! Its always a pleasure to see the prophet and apostles speak to us and give us counsel. President Monson said some very good things during the conference that I liked alot. These things we were invited to live to become closer to God.

• Do more than just believe in Jesus Christ and His mission. Work to learn of Him in the scriptures, come to know Him through prayer, and continually use His power to repent and improve.
• Know God’s laws and live them. It’s the only way to obtain true happiness.
• Live the truth.
• Share the truth.
• Care for our bodies and our minds by observing principles set forth in the Word of Wisdom.

This week we did some good :) We are teaching 5 people that are preparing themselves to be baptized in october. Ana, Julian, Keiny, Alex, and Yameli. They are all awesome and we are helping them get to that point where they need to be. 

Anyways thats all I got for this week, have a good one everyone!

Elder Larkin

Sept. 26 2016

This week was ehh. My companion (Elder Castro) still has his infection of the kidneys and also we took an x ray of his foot cause it was hurting and turns out he has 3 fractures in his foot. SOOOOO basically it's like what I went through but only with my companion. It kinda sucks but my comp is getting better faster than I did so that's good! 

Good Stuff

This week in sunday school, we were talking about repentance and there was a question asked, "when is it too late to repent?" Some people were saying a few things like, when we lose the desire to repent, when we've committed very big or very many sins, and things like that. I realized something in that moment. Literally there IS NO "too late." That is the beautiful message of the Atonement. Jesus Christ's atonement is infinite, without end. It doesnt matter at all the things youve done, how old you are, what nationality we are, if we are of a different faith, whatever. Christ only asks that we TRY to keep his commandments, and when we mess up, ask for forgiveness. Even when we die, we'll have the chance to accept and use the infinite forgiveness that Christ offers us. I imagine that even when we are standing  before God, being judged, that we will still have the chance to be pardoned of our sins. Christ is the one who intervenes for every single person that ever lived, is living, or will live. If we accept his gospel, and his atonement, we have a chance to live with our Heavenly Father again. Alone, we will never ever be perfect, which is kind of a requisite of getting into heaven, but thats just part of being human. Since no unclean thing can be where God is, alone we are done for. But if we join up with Christ, we can be perfected. Its like 2 companies. We are like a company that is completely bankrupt. And Christ is the head of another company with infinite amounts of money and profit. Christ extends us an offer to merge our companies, and all we have to do is give all we have to him, and in turn we get all that he has. By merging the companies, we immediately become profitable, it doesnt matter how much money we had before, how much we lost, or what happened, because now, we are apart of the only truly successful company that there is. The only way we lose this opporotunity is if we cut it off.

So, in this life, we should search out Christ, and his gospel. We need to give our 100%, to try to be the best we can. Its never too late to start, and theres nothing we can do to lose the love they have for us and no way to lose this opporotunity.

Onto some fun stuff now!

So this morning I had the pleasure of waking up at 5:30AM to my companion basically wailing in pain, saying his back was on fire, stomach hurt, and basically wanted to die. Naturally i was like "ahh freak what now," and called my mission president. We contacted our branch president and had him drive us to a clinic about 30 minutes away in his little plantain truck. There my comp was put on an IV drip and took a urine sample. Turns out he has a stong infection in his kidneys. Awesome right?

Anyways, things are going good here in my area! We have like 5 people that will probably get baptised in October so we are working with them, and the branch keeps getting better! The presidency change was really helpful. We are all good here!!

Hope everything is well back at home! Also thanks everyone for sending pictures! Awesome to see :)

Until next week,

Elder Larkin