Elder Bryson Larkin: Week 6 | My First Days in the Field!

First Area: Pedro Brand

Woah. This is nuts. My first few days have been so awesome yet so hard AHH. I don't know how to explain it but this is for sure going to be the best two years of my life. I am so blessed to be here in the Dominican Republic. Sure I have to struggle to learn Spanish but there's an up side. The people here LOVE to talk about Jesus and the gospel. I could have gone to the US and spoken English but nobody really wants to talk to you. Or I could have gone to somewhere in Europe where the language is hard AND they don't want to talk to you.

It really is a blessing I'm here. It rains pretty often and I love it so much, especially since it like never rains in Vegas. One thing that sucks is the mosquito's. I am getting EATEN ALIVE. Oh my goodness its bad. I have one on the bottom of my foot somehow! They will bite you through your clothes its crazy.

I don't think I've ever been so sweaty in my whole life. It is soooo hot here. In a lesson I was LITERALLY dripping with sweat. I mean i was WET. My area is called Pedro Brand A1. All these people are really nice here. It might just be my area, but that's totally okay with me. Our investigators are incredible. First is an 11 year old. His dad is in the MLB (major league baseball). (big surprise) His brother and mother are members so that's pretty awesome. Another is Pedro. I don't really know much about him but he's like 14 and lives above a colmado. Those are basically just small places where you buy food from. Some of them are pretty ghetto but we gotta eat too, ya know? Another person is a 13 yr. old, and her grandma is a member so she´ll probably get baptized. She has a little sister who said the opening prayer and a part of it she said. ¨We are thankful for the missionaries, and please bless Elder Larkin. He is a good missionary. We are thankful for him.¨ It was probably the cutest thing I've ever heard! Next is a lady (about 40 yrs. old) and has been taking the missionary discussions for a while now. She is so ready to get baptized but there was a problem. She was married to a guy who lives in Panama and lives with a guy here in the DR. Elder Empey (my companion) told me she'd probably never get baptized because it was so hard to get a divorce, because the people are so poor and she might not leave her boyfriend. But that all changed in my first lesson with her. She told us (mostly my companion because I don't understand Spanish yet XD) that she prayed and she got the answer that the guy she was living with wasn't the right guy for her and she is going to leave him. And she said she found someone who would do the divorce for cheap! That's really exciting for us and I hope everything goes well. Our last big investigator is a 13 yr. old and is one of the best investigators we have. She's had the Book of Mormon for like 2 weeks and she's already in like Jacob. That is really impressive. The other day I asked them to be baptized on Dec. 12 and they said they would!!! Its so good to see the spirit work in people.

On Sunday we had a lot of investigators at church! We sat next to our investigator and her sister. When I stood up to go bare my testimony (In flippin' Spanish!!) they stood up too! We all bore our testimony of the church and the Book of Mormon. I can't wait to see them get baptized.

I already have....................... 2 BAPTISMS. WHATS UP!! They are both youths who were already ready to be baptized but ya know? I'm gonna count it. One was baptized by his brother and Pedro was baptized by Elder Empey. I've been out a week and this is what I see?! It makes me really optimistic. Once I get Spanish down in like 6 months I'm gonna DO WORK. :)

This has been one crazy week for me! Hope It was good for the rest of you too! I'm uploading pictures as I'm writing this so hopefully they all make it on there! This computer is pretty sketchy. Love you all!