Christmas in the D.R.

Whelp.. that was Christmas wasn't it! How is everyone doing? Good? Ok cool.

My Christmas was very interesting!

So first of all it's like 90 degrees (like always) and second I was here. Being away from home during the holidays is very very hard. I thought a couple of times, "how great would it be if we could just go home for the week of Christmas and spend it with my family?" But obviously that couldn't happen. We did get to go to a Christmas party with our investigators at their house though! That was very fun and brought a little Christmas spirit to the day! We ate a bunch of good food. But yeah! This Christmas was great! I even got a present from my parents! Socks, and some pajamas! HAHAH Thanks Mom and Dad! No but for real, I also got a rubix cube (yeah I can do one of those suckers) and letters from my brothers and my parents (and cash).  We also went to the hospital and sang Christmas carols and had a zone activity at our stake center.  On Christmas day we went to a members house to Skype our families! I could've just chilled all day on Skype with you guys!

(A funny story} Remember Suarez? The one who hit his head on our ceiling fan? Well his mom sent him a package with a Christmas ham in it!  They don't really take care of packages here in the D.R. so by the time it got to him, it had been punctured with holes and it was oozing with disgusting ham juice!  So gross! Lol!  

So about the last week and the Noche Blanca! We had SOOO many people there and it was amazing! Christopher got baptized by Empey and I DIDN'T baptize Frabel... This fool didn't show up! He was at the university taking an exam or something! But we rescheduled it for the day after Christmas (more about that in a minute). But I did get to baptize a woman from the other couple of missionaries. They weren't baptizing her because another member was going to. But I guess she felt bad or something and she told me to baptize her because Frabel didn't show up!

AND NO FRABEL DIDN'T GET BAPTIZED this Saturday either!  His mother forced him to go into the deep capital for a few days and his aunt told us that he was MAD with his whole family during Christmas because he was supposed to get baptized.  SO we'll just have to move it another week! Kinda sucks but what can you do??

Love you all so much!

Elder Larkin

(Elder Larkin, Christopher, Elder Empey, and )

(Noche Blanca)

(Christmas Zone Activity)

(Pres. and Sister Knuckols)

Christmas Lights in the D.R.

(I made Russian Punch!)

(P-Day)

Hard Stuff

So this week we had 4 baptisms drop. I recall Elder Empey saying as we walked home Friday night, "well I can surely say that in the 15 months I've been here this day has been the worst." Rafaelina and Orfelina, the twins, can't be baptized this Saturday. Not because their mother says no, luckily. She just wants to be here for the baptism! The only problem is that she lives in Brooklyn! Shes coming back in January so hopefully I'll be able to baptize them then! If not they will have to be baptized in the US! They are moving there after their mom comes. It sucks because they are literally the best investigators ever! Most people in this country who are members have read the Book of Mormon once or twice in all the years they've been members. Rafaelina has already read the BofM and shes only had it for 3 months!! Here that's absolutely insane! But in good news, we ARE having 2 baptisms! I'm baptizing Frabel, the awesome 18 yr old who all he wants, is to be a member, and Empey is baptizing Christopher. It's going to be an awesome event and this is my first person I get to baptize! I'm really excited. I know what the gospel has done for me in my life and I cannot wait to share it with everyone I can here.

Anyways, I'm still having the time of my life, and I couldn't ask for a better calling. :) I hope all of you have an awesome holiday season!

Reply to Mom's email:  Who has the nicest house ever? Heavenly Father of course! Not us that is for sure! We live with the 2 other missionaries in the same house. NO we do not have hot water. And MOSTLY we have electricity haha. It goes away halfway through the morning and halfway through the evening, but good ole Dominicans have 2 car batteries strapped into the power lines so when the power goes out the batteries kick in. Probably SUPER dangerous but they work! Anyways! Love you guys so so much and I hope you guys have an amazing Christmas! I emailed dad about the Skyping so make sure that happens! LOL.

Love you!

Your son who is on a mission in the Dominican Republic, Bryson

Also,  Click {HERE} to watch the "Fruity Pebbles Rap".  P-Day shinanigans! 
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More P-Day Shinanigans

Pedro Brand Area 1

They Call Me Ratkiller

Hey everyone! It's been a good two weeks! I didn't have a chance to send a mass email last week because we had a storm and the internet went out!! Kinda sucked! But anyway I have some crazy stories to tell! So in our house our pipes are broken under our sink, okay? So we just have a bucket that catches all the water and junk that comes down. (Really gross.. also I'm pretty sure it's full right now). But sometimes, RATS fall through the pipe into the bucket! and they can't get out. So I'm the only one who is man enough (or crazy enough- who knows) to kill them. So anyway, I get our machete, and then someone dumps the bucket into the street and I kill it with the machete! Can't let them get back into our house ya know? I'm at 4 rats!

Also one of the other missionaries (Suarez) was standing on his bed, trying to kill a moth. Silly silly Suarez. He forgot the FAN was on! So yeah, our fans are made of metal, so when it makes contact with a human skull, it does some damage! We went to the hospital at midnight with a member and we went to this free clinic where he got 3 stitches in the back of his head! It's a good thing it wasn't on full blast because that could have been really bad!!

One more crazy story! So me and Elder Empey were coming home from a hard days work right? Like always! It was 9 o'clock and we were in a public area. Then out of nowhere some people start screaming and stuff and then BANG. A gunshot. People started screaming and running. We were kind of confused. Then another BANG. That's when me and elder Empey started running 'cause somebody just died (probably) and we don't know where or what was happening. All I know it was like 30-50 feet away from us and it was pretty nuts.

Anyways! We are doing really awesome here! We have 6 baptisms planned for the 19th of December so that's SUPER exciting! I hope you all are having an awesome holiday season! We are hoping we can make someones Christmas this year. We have a lady we are teaching. She is so ready for baptism except one problem.. she isn't married!! So me and Elder Empey are putting money together to help pay for their marriage! They have little money but they are really really amazing. The money we are gifting them could go towards moving to a better place or at least a better home! We are really excited and I hope that you all can find that giving spirit this Christmas. I mean Jesus Christ gave his whole life for us and we should be grateful for that and give too!

I invite all to watch this video. It will bring with it the spirit and that is just the Best!  https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2014-00-1460-he-is-the-gift?lang=eng

Love you all! Happy Holidays!

Elder Bryson Larkin

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This is Momma Larkin here.  In a letter a while back Bryson said, "Keep Christ in your lives and don't take anything for granted!  Like a nice toilet... oh my gosh".  

Do you remember that letter?  Well, after that letter, I have been begging him to send me pictures of his apartment. I wanted to see where he was, I wanted to see his apartment and living conditions etc.  At first he WOULD NOT send me pictures! I guess he didn't want to worry me.  He said it was bad!...really really bad!  I had to explain to him that he would want these pictures later in life, so he could remember his mission like it really was, and that he needed to document everything, including the good, the bad, and the ugly.  Well, today he delivered!  LOL!  And he added "the gross" in there, as well!

(the toilet AFTER it had been cleaned)