Memorial Day?

So I guess it's Memorial Day. That's weird. I hardly remember the holidays anymore, (except for Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween, and of course 4th of July.) Just a normal day here in the Dominican Republic! 

Last Saturday, I baptized Ronelby, our investigator who is complete GOLD. Funny story with him. So we were talking with him and his mother a few days before his baptism, and she told us that she probably wouldn't be able to go. His dad was also out of town for the whole month and he wouldn't be there either. After the fact, I asked him if he really wanted to do it that Saturday knowing that neither of his parents were going to be there. This was his response. "No I'm sure, we are NOT gonna push this back any more. I'm getting baptized this Saturday. I don't care what happens." That's strong coming from a 13 year old. He KNOWS that what he is doing. And he has a true testimony of this gospel. Heck, I wouldn't have gotten baptized if my parents wouldn't have been there with me. haha I remember I didn't even want to do the rain-gutter regatta (the thing in scouts where you race the boats) because my parents didn't show up (yes i STILL remember that mom and dad :]) Ronelby is truly taking the road to eternal life and I love watching it. Another cool thing! THIS Saturday the week after the baptism, we went to the temple with all the recent converts, including Ronelby, to do baptisms for the dead! Now that was cool. When they all came out of the temple I asked them how it went and what their thoughts were. Ronelby said, "when we walked in, I just looked around and felt, well...knew that this was God's house." This kid is going to be a strong member of this church and a GREAT missionary one day, mark my words.

Funny story. So my comp, Elder Zamora, before the mission weighed 210 lbs. Now, because of the diet that we have, he weighs a LOT less. BUT he still has a habit of  eating a lot of cookies and drinking a lot of soda. We were at the church once with a member and my comp had his coke and a cookie, and without shame, asked him, "Zamora... you used to be fat before huh..."  my comp said, "ummm yeah, how did you know?". All he said was, "se nota" or "its noticeable." THAT was SUUUPER funny. AI burst out laughing and so did my comp. Dominicans just say stuff how it is! It's very entertaining.

Me and my companion are getting along great! I kinda like having an American comp haha. His Spanish isn't that great because he has a really hard time understanding the people when they talk but it's totally okay because I'm totally great now! I don't even worry about my Spanish any more :D It's a really good feeling. I think after the mission I'll really use it quite often! Also I think I wanna learn Japanese when I get back as well. Surprisingly, there are A LOT of Japanese people here! Weird right? of all places. As for my area I don't know how long I'll be here, maybe I'll leave this transfer or the next. But in reality I have no clue.

Me and my comp are STILL trying to find awesome people to teach but we do have a few! Jose, Miguel, Yeri, and Hugo. All of them are potential Priesthood holders and that's awesome cause that's something that this branch lacks a lot of. We are working hard and trying our best to keep ALL of the rules, even being in the house AT 9, or at the latest 9:30 if we have a lesson. That one's pretty hard sometimes cause we have a member that feeds us everyday here. As for the food? Basically it's just a bunch of rice with some beans and a little meat. Everywhere else in the world it's like, everything is on the plate and then the rice is just a small aspect of the meal, but not here! The rice has the show on lock down. Honestly I'm probably not gonna eat rice or beans for a good 2 months when I get back, unless it's Cafe Rio or something like that, you know. :)

So that was my last 2 weeks! Hope everyone had a good memorial day and everything! Love you all!

RONELBY GOT BAPTIZED

RONELBY GOT BAPTIZED SATURDAY!!! SOO awesome! It was a nice small baptism but the spirit was so strong and he was SOOO ready to get baptized. So glad I got to help with that ordinance for him. The next day (yesterday) I confirmed him and gave him the Holy Ghost and that was also very cool! Its great to be a missionary.

Election Week in the D.R.

OKAY so this week on "2 freakin' years in the Dominican Republic" Elder Larkin gets a new comp, new haircut, doesn't do much because of the elections,gets a ton of mosquito bites (and hopefully not dengue AGAIN) , and is about to have another baptism!

Cool cool. So this week was interesting! First off I received my new companion Elder Zamora on Tuesday. Hes from Texas so you know what that means! Speaking in English. We get along great and we are gonna kill it here! Or at least get a few baptisms.

Funny story, so one day after we had a zone meeting, I went to go get a haircut near our home. So I told him to just TRIM the top of my hair so it wasn't so long.

Big mistake there. So this guy just takes his hair clippers, and goes to town on my head. Long story short I now have a Dominican haircut. He basically just shaved my head and redid my sideburns and stuff. The thing is that I don't have the right type of hair to pull it off very well. Needless to say I didn't tell the guy anything, I just gave him $100RD ($2.18 US) and went home laughing about my shaved head.

Now for the next part. This week there were the presidential elections for the country. Know what that means? ALOT of partying, ALOT of drinking, and NOBODY in there house. Yesterday, was the actual day to vote and everything, and the mission told us that we HAD to be home at 6 sharp. Because it gets NUTS at night. So that was that! Hopefully the next week wont be so bad.

Mosquito's mosquito's. There are TONS of mosquito's in my house. like I don't know how there could be so many in a tiny area. We are going to try and find an electric racket to kill them. My comps feet are DESTROYED because of all the bites. I feel bad for him because i forgot to tell him he should sleep with socks. Whoops! good times though.

Okay so we're gonna have another baptism on Saturday! Super excited. Ronelby is gonna be an awesome member of this church and a great future missionary. He was asking me about mission life and stuff like that earlier. Its gonna be awesome!

Oh one more thing!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! If you guys didn't know, I have a mom.

WHO happens to be the best mom on the planet! If you haven't tried her cooking, that sucks for you, if you haven't seen her photography, its AWESOME. If you haven't been there to see her work so hard to keep us boys in line, or work so hard in her callings in the church, all the time she spends doing small and big things so that our family stay in comfort, the support she gives me, my dad, my brothers, her family, her friends, the people in the ward, well you can take my word for it. She is absolutely amazing and I couldn't wish for a better mother. Mom, I love you so much! hope you have a great day tomorrow! 

Well that's all for this week! Remember to send me pictures of what everyone's up to! Love y'all!

Elder Sosa leaves for his new area

Elder Zamora & Elder Larkin finally get to ride instead of walk 

Mothers DAYYY!!!

Not gonna write a big mass letter today because yesterday................... I got to Skype with the best people I know! Namely My beautiful mother Cindy, my dad Bryce, and my 2 brothers Matthew and Tanner, with guest appearances from LEVI Larkin and Chambray Cribbs! (shout outs! be ready for Levi's mix tape coming out soon) 

Basically it was a LEGENDARY day. Couldn't think of a better way to spend mothers day in the Dominican Republic. 

Mom! You are absolutely amazing and I'd like to thank you publicly for everything that you do! I love you so much!

Now as for the rest of you... you're all right :) Hope everyone has a great week and that ALL the moms out there know they are awesome 

¡Nos Vemos ahorita!

Jungle/Beach Adventures

So okay I'm on today!! and I've got a lot to catch up on!

So as for missionary work. It's going very very good! We are teaching some really awesome people and its really really good! I've learned that this is the ONLY gospel that really makes any sense and when other people realize it it's just so amazing to see how fast their lives change! We are going to have a baptism in 3 weeks and his name is Ronelby. Hes 13 years old and he is just so awesome. He's shared the gospel with his family and they are already talking to him as if he was LDS all his life. His dad even asked us what his son would do on his mission!! This kid isn't even baptized yet :) Its very very cool. Another is named Jose Miguel. Hes 15 years old and this kid is TALLER than, you guessed it, just about anyone I've ever seen. He's like 6'6'' or something like that. But this kid is GOLDEN. We met him one day at his grandma's house, (she's a recent convert.) And we were talking with her and her grandson was just sponging all this knowledge up. At the end we asked him if he wanted to go to church the next day and he did! Actually he was the FIRST person to show up. That's on of the coolest things I've seen. We've been teaching him for about 2 weeks now, and hes gonna get baptized June 18th! The last lesson we had with him was about the Book of Mormon. At the end of the lesson we asked him if we could kneel for the final prayer and asked if he could say it. Normally we ask the people we are teaching to pray that night for an answer from God to see if all of this stuff was true. BUT this time I felt like he should ask at that moment. So.. he prayed like he normally would've but this time he prayed, and sat there for a moment with his eyes closed. Silence........ then he lifted his head, and with tears in his eyes asked, "why do I have to wait for June 18th?" Its good to be a missionary I'll say that.

So as for activities! We went to the beach like I mentioned before but this time I have my pictures! And yesterday we went up into the jungle and UP a river to a waterfall! There were places where we had to scale a small cliff, walk through knee deep water (doesn't count as swimming) but we made it to 2 waterfalls where I took a shower under it :) VERY VERY FUN. I took a bunch of pictures and videos, but the videos are WAY big so you'll just have to see them when my mother, who has a blog for my mission apparently, uploads them! Oh also I caught an iguana in this dudes backyard!! Good stuff :) 

Whelp...

Okayyyyyy so im not gonna be able to write TODAY because it's a holiday and all the Internet centers are closed.... but I'll write tomorrow! Sorry everyone! I'm using a members phone to write this real quick but love ya all and see ya tomorrow!