How do I use wp_get_recent_posts?

Don’t use the ‘helper’ methods, they tend to cause more trouble than they’re worth.

Any time you want to grab posts, be it the latest, the oldest, in a category etc, use a WP_Query loop, here is its standard form:

$query = new WP_Query( $args );
if ( $query->have_posts() ) {
    while ( $query->have_posts() ) {
        $query->the_post();
        // do stuff
    }
    wp_reset_postdata();
} else {
    // none were found
}

This is what wp_recent_posts will be doing internally, although it isn’t doing it very well. So save the above to an autocomplete macro in your editor