Jungle Adventures In The DR

Hey guys! How is everyone doin? I am doing really good here! I've had a crazy hard-working week and we've had a lot of success! But I don't have a lot of time so I'm just gonna get to it.

First off. Thank you mom. I always thought you were a little crazy when we would read scriptures and you would stop every 10 minutes and ask us what was happening or give us a little recap. Also I thought it was a little annoying. BUT. I am very glad now that you did that. It has helped me understand the scriptures so much better. And how I learned that is through a lesson we were in this week. We were reading the Book of Mormon with this kid we are teaching. He is about 16 years old. We were reading and when we got to a certain point in the 2nd chapter of 1 Nephi, I stopped, and asked him to give us a little recap of what we read, don't know why. But I saw in his face when he told us what was going on that he was actually learning it and he was getting excited about reading on. It was a very cool experience.

Now onto a good story! So we were in one of our areas, and we didn't have anything to do for the rest of the day right? So we decided to walk to our other area. The only problem is... it would take us an HOUR for us to get there because its a LONG walk. But... the areas are connected by guess what? A jungle. What could go wrong? We look at each other, and we asked that same question. So, we start walking and it gets pretty thick. A bunch of spiderwebs and spiders everywhere. We actually found a pig trail to follow! That was cool. We ended up on the other side of a river, which we would have to cross later. And then we kept going until we found a baseball park! The only problem was that we were still on the other side of the river. Some people saw us (because they were practicing) and were like "look at the Americans!" At this point we didn't know where we were so naturally, we asked. Some kid said, "you're on the other side of the river, in the jungle." NOOOO REEALLLY? So we had some kids help us across the river by putting some rocks to make a small path, which didn't really help since Empey fell in. I saw that and I was like, NAHH. so I just took my socks and shoes off and walked through it. Whoops. It was quite an adventure! We got a pic with some of the kids who helped us that day. Good thing I brought my camera! All in all it took us about an hour to get through the jungle, so it wasn't really a shortcut. I blame that on the rain though because it was raining earlier that day and the water level was really high. Oh also, the day before I stabbed my hand all the way through on some razor wire but that's not really important haha.

But anyways! That's my week! Really cool and really spiritual!

Thanks everyone who sent me pictures! Especially Chelsey and Grandma Mackley! Those were awesome!

Love you all!

Elder Bryson Larkin

CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO! :D

Hard Work Paid Off

Wow... It's been a LONG week. But a fulfilling one! This week Elder Empey and I worked so so hard and it really paid off. So this week was the best week we've ever had, and the best week HE's ever had (and he has 16 months out). Every day we were out, talking to everybody, having members leave with us to go teach, contacting the heck out of this town! We got 11 new investigators to work with and we are still working with like 20 more! It's actually kinda stressful to work with all of them and not leave anyone behind! We can't have that happening! 

So one cool story. We were trying to find this guy who we met like a month ago who is a Texan! And we were asking all around for a Fat, American guy who drove a civic. It took us a while but we finally found him on Saturday! Well actually we didn't find him, we found his Dominican Wife! We started to teach her and she was talking about how she feels like there is a whole in her heart that nothing can fill, because she is VERY wealthy because she's married to an American who works in the US. We got very excited at this and used that to invite her to church. We had just talked to her for an hour and the NEXT DAY she was in church with her whole family. It's so cool to see that!

Also. I baptized Frabel! FINALLY.  Saturday night we all got together and had ourselves a baptism! It was very awesome seeing him go through that, and ya know it's also cool doing it! HAHA. It is a little scary doing it in Spanish when his name is FOREVER long and remembering everything perfectly, but I did it! It was very spiritual and chevere! (Awesome)

Also today we had a zone activity where we went to play soccer and basketball and that was very fun! The Latino's are VERY VERY good.  Not saying I'm bad or anything, 'cause I held my own, BUT my team definitely won! Scoring against a Mexican and again on a Haitian makes you feel accomplished let me tell you! I was kinda tired after playing. (as you can see in the pic below)  But now it's time to go and work! We've got 2 family home evenings to run tonight!

Have a good week everyone! Love you all!

Send some pics!!

(today after P-Day zone activity)

Click {HERE} for an awesome video!!

(Empey falling asleep while studying/praying)

Another Week Another Rainstorm!

SO this week on Elder Larkin's mission, I don't even know where to begin! I don't have a lot to say I'm gonna be honest. We've been working very very hard and it's been a big blur. As for my week it's been A LOT of work. We have gotten like 10 lesson days and like 6 new investigators and a bunch of stuff! It's NUTS. We haven't gotten the chance to teach Aneuris this week, for some reason every time we pass by nobody is there! Who knows! We do have a troublesome investigator though. Her name is Zamira, and she came to church every Sunday, read every day, and did all of it, except pray. Prayer is the one thing we HAVE to do. Without prayer we will not be able to find out the truth of anything! It's the only way we have direct communication to our Heavenly Father. So Zamira was doing everything but praying right? So when we started focusing on prayer, she got all closed off you could say. We don't really know. She has something against praying and we don't know what it is and we don't know how to help her. Shes been very difficult in the last week and She is refusing to do anything now. It's rough to watch unfold. After a while of this we might have to drop her as an investigator. We can't be wasting our time on someone who has a hard heart and refuses to change. :( 

So one funny thing that happened. A few days ago I had to wash my clothes right? So I had it all done at like 12 (and left it to dry). Then at 2 we left and as we were walking away, because we don't come back till like 9:30, I thought, "man I hope it doesn't rain today, or change really quickly and rain later tonight!" At that time it was very hot and very sunny. And at about 8, when we were wrapping up for the day, it starts to POUR... And I'm just like "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" I jinxed myself! haha. My clothes were soaking wet, and I was just like "forget it man, I'll just try again tomorrow...". I had to sleep with the little blanket I got from the Airplane. Good thing I still have it! But now I have clean clothes to wear! haha.

We have been working very hard over here and it's really paying off! I am LOVING it over here and my language is coming along great! I understand most of what people are saying now, but I don't know how to put what I am thinking (in English), into Spanish and then say it out loud yet! Haha it's a little frustrating but it's coming along! I can hold a basic conversation about whatever, it's just that I don't really know all the words or rules yet :)

Anyways! All of you are awesome! Hope you have a good week! 

Also send me some pictures of what everyone is up to! It's really a treat to see :)

Con Amor,
Elder Bryson Larkin

(slept with only my blanket from the airplane)

(wet laundry on the line 'cause it rained, which means no clean clothes or bedding. meh.)

NEW YEAR, NEW... well everything is basically the same

What's up everyone!

This week has been really fun with all this Christmas and New Years business right? My weeks been pretty good too :)

We have a new investigator named Aneuris ( uh - neigh - oo - reese ) and he is pretty awesome! He is a friend of a member family, when we were there teaching one time he was there, and at the end we asked him if he could say the closing prayer. He accepted, and probably said one of the best prayers given by a 15/16 year old I've ever heard. After that, when we left I said to Empey, "we gotta start teaching this kid." We didn't see him for a while after that but this last week he came to church with the family! I happened to sit next to him in Priesthood meeting, and I asked if we could come by that next Tuesday. He gladly accepted and then Tuesday came. We went over, and started teaching about the restoration of the gospel. We asked the question, "por que hay tantas iglesias hoy en dia?" or "Why are there so many churches in the world today?" And his response was, "You know, that was what I was going to ask you." We had explained in the Bible how there is One God, One Faith, and One Baptism, signifying that there should be only one true church, and Jesus only established ONE, not ten, not thousands. He was really interested at this point, but to keep him interested, we left him a pamphlet talking about the restoration, and told him to read the part about the great apostasy and the actual restoration through Joseph Smith. We came back that Thursday and we had the lesson at the members house. We answered his question, and he had his own "lightbulb". His face lit up with excitement as he figured out for himself why there were so many churches. It was a pleasure to see and to see the holy ghost working with us to teach this kid. 

Then later that day, ('cause it was New Years Eve) we went to an investigators house to have a little party! We cooked, ate spaghetti, and played cards! Also I put a baby (a FUSSY ONE) to sleep. I had to sing to get her to go to sleep! It was at this point I realized that kids are a LOT of work, but I freaking want my own! I wouldn't mind just going outside in the middle of the night with my own child in my arms until he/she went back to sleep. I got a long way to go though! HAHA.

But yeah! I'm doing good!

(P.S. I only got 1 email and that was from my mother. Thanks mom! All the rest of you are slacking)

Love ya all!

Some video footage of the D.R.  (HERE)