1 Awesome Couple!

We had the great opportunity to have another lesson with Pablo and Ana this week (the couple we found last week.) The thing we had last taught was the Book of Mormon, and we had gifted them one, with the invitation to read 3 Nephi 11. When we came back, (after the whole family showed up at church on Sunday) they had actually read the whole chapter, and understood it. They told us that baptism was super important and Pablo, said, "well I've never been baptized, is it too late for me cause I'm kinda old?" And Ana wanted to know, "well I've been already baptized in the catholic church, but I'm afraid that wasn't right, am I allowed to be baptized again in the right church?" We explained to them that they need not worry, and that we will help them prepare to do all the things they need to do to get where they want to go. We invited them to be baptized by someone who holds the Holy Priesthood of God and they accepted without thinking about it. Its such a blessing to be able to teach with the spirit. It works miracles and I'm so excited to have a family so excited about the gospel. Made my week :)

Also we had a Zone Conference this week! Pretty ok i guess. We had some "workshops" where we learn how we might better teach people, and that was a LONG day. We left at like 5:30 in the morning and didn't get home till like 8:30 at night. And on the way home (in a bus CRAMMED with people) there was a horrible car accident. A semi truck, (front end destroyed) a regular truck (basically bent in half) and 2 cars were totally and utterly wrecked. Nobody died though so that's a miracle in it self. I did take a picture in the bus though :) It was a really bad picture but this just shows how many people are in 1 bus with about 20 seats.

Anyway! I hope all had an amazing week! Don't forget to send pictures and videos!

365 Days Left

This feels weird. Ive almost been here a year now, but I only have 1 whole year left in the mission. The americans go home about 2 weeks early on average for flight scheduling or something weird like that. But anyways, I still feel like I just got here and its really weird thinking ive already gone through half of my mission. Time really does fly.

New stuff to say: 

• I have a very tough time thinking in English now and its quite annoying that I cant think of alot of words in English. Its also really strange how Im basically useless if I want to pray in English as well. I just feel uncomfortable and I just convert back into spanish half the time.
• I have to tell you guys about the transport system here in the south. So firstly we have to wait at a corner to wait for some random half bus half mini mini van (2 minis because its REALLY small) to come pick us up, they just fly around the corner going as fast as that tiny little lawn mower engine can take them (pretty fast actually, and its not really a lawn mower engine.) After that we start driving for a little, picking more people up. Then we stop so the driver can go do some errands. Then again when some people want some juice from people who make juice and put it in a plastic soda bottle. And when the guagua is full, as in FULL to where my face is smashed against the window, we finally just go to where we are headed. Its quite an adventure haha.
• Some people arent as nice as we'd like them to be. Sometimes when we are trying to hitchhike to the next town, we wait for a good long while for people to pick us up. The longest so far was about an hour. The other day, some dude slowed down, acting like he was gonna let us hop in the back of his truck, then he flipped us off, and sped away. Me and my companion were very confused because that is such an uncommon and "american" thing to do.

So a story from this week while contacting people: It was very hot this day and me and my companion were very very sweaty, like just got out of a pool sweaty, and we pass a couple playing cards underneath a tree. They were playing a game called "Casino" that we play in the house sometimes. SO we naturally told them that we were good at that game and they invited us to play with them, very confident that some gringos didnt know what they were in for. Unfortunately for them, Im from Las Vegas and im very lucky so we absolutely destroyed them. Very fun. While playing we were talking about the "mormons" and stuff like that, they were surprised that we could "have fun." I guess people think we are like robots or something. Anyways we put an appointment with them for today and they want us to teach the whole family. Im super excited!

Also we are working with a bunch of people and we are working on getting a couple married here! Fun stuff :)

Anyways! I hope everyone had an awesome week as I did! Dont forget to send me pictures!!!

Elder Larkin

Pictures: 

1. Me and my companion Elder McDonald

2. The District 

3. A cool wall art thing that says "Its love!" "God"

4. Elder McDonald hitching a ride with a plantain driver

Vicente Noble/ Tamayo

Well, I'm in the deep South, far far away from the capital.  I'm further away from the better shops and American food chains.  The people here are much friendlier and more open.

The house I moved into is fantastic. (It's in Vincente Noble). It was bought for four sisters, and now with just the 4 of us Elders it's quite big.  So far, everything works too - water, electricity (kinda) , and lots of good tools to cook with!  It will be nice living here.

The area on the other hand is a bit tough to work in.  The heat hasn't been too bad, thank goodness, I love it so so so much, SIKE.  It's a bit tough, all with little help.  Luckily the local members could help us with most of it if they wanted to. 

The branch, or group, here is tiny.  Less than 50 attend each week in Vicente Noble and in Tamayo we have about 10-15,  (and this is a huge change after an average of 170 in my previous area!) but, of course, we hope to change that!  We're excited for a new opportunity of hard work, with which comes rewarding results.  There's nothing like the feeling of helping out a whole branch, and not just adding in a few members.  It's a bit more stress but we're up for it!

So we had a miracle in Tamayo. This Sunday we had 22 people in church. It's basically unheard of and I think it's pretty cool for being a basic unit/group (meaning it's less than a branch). 

My comp is Elder McDonald from Orem, Utah and he's a stud! We are gonna work super hard here and I'm excited for our results/blessings! 

So to get to Tamayo we have to hitchhike. Having no bikes nor cars, we have to ask for rides between the cities.  As you can see (pics below), many other people get the same idea... good stuff!

Anyways. Not much else to say! Thanks everyone! Have a good week 

Going to Tamayo!

Whelp my 2 weeks are up here in Villa Aura! I got the call on Saturday night and they told me that I'm going to the DEEP SOUTH. To an area called Tamayo in Barahona. Apparently its VERY hot there but its beautiful. I imagine Ill be taking bucket showers for a while there haha. My new comp will be Elder McDonald. Don't know much about him but I've been told he´s a hard worker so i'm excited! Kinda sucks I have to leave Elder Page and the ward here but that's mission life! I was going to send pictures but my SD card reader broke. I'll either have to wait for another one or buy a sketchy one here!

Things on the mission have really gotten better for me. I feel 1000x better and I am really feeling the spirit all the time. The best thing we can do is to always pray, always do your job 100%, and be obedient! Its a saying here in the mission is that if we want miracles, we have to have 3 things. Faith, Works, and Obedience. Its a magic recipe.  I'm excited to get to my new area and work hard! Other than that I don't have much news!  I'll probably have a lot to say next week though!!!

Hope all was well this week!

Love y'all!

11 Months/Best week yet!

OKAY so I appologize for not writing last week, (and if i remember correctly the week before that too) BUT this week was one of the best weeks Ive had so far! (Probably due to the fact that I havent been able to work in a LONG while) So Im with Elder Page and he is an awesome missionary! He has 22 months in the mission so hes like a machine! We´ve been teaching, finding, and strengthening the ward here in Villa Aura. 

(Villa Aura is the red dot)

The Ward here is absolutely amazing. The members here COME TO US to ask if they can come teach with us or to come and teach their friends the gospel! Its been a complete 180 for me and I couldnt be happier to be where I am right now.

Something awesome that happened this week was in one of our lessons. So there was a girl of about 20 years who was going through an awful time, and her life was a wreck. She had NO idea what to do and one day she just decided to pray to our heavenly father. As soon as she ended, guess who knocked on her door? The Missionaries. Needless to say she got baptised shortly after. So anyways we are teaching this girls MOM. She is so so awesome and she wants to get baptized as well. She just wants to be completely prepared before she does. Otherwise we wouldve baptized her this saturday.  President Nuckols wants to come teach her with us and it´ll be pretty cool. Anyways yesterday we were sharing with her and we were talking about all the things that were going on in her live. I shared the ¨Story of the Pigs¨ with her. Basically its between me and my dad the story but the moral of the story is, no matter how bad our afflictions are, or no matter how gray and cold the world is, the sun will ALWAYS come out and when we look back on things, we´ll see how that it wasnt actually that bad and that we´ve actually grown from that experience. I had been thinking alot about that through my whole ordeal of being sick and now looking back? It doesnt seem that bad.

Anyways, I hope everyone had a killer week! I miss all of ya and Id love to hear from y´all! 

-- 

Got a haircut

I'm ALIVE!

MONDAY:

HEY!!!!! I AM ALIVE! hahahaha. YEAH!!! I feel awesome!  I went to the doctor 2 times this week and they took another blood test and x-ray and, again, nothing came up wrong. So I guess it's just an internal virus. So all is well here! The doctors gave me some super antibiotics and its killing whatever is inside me! I feel 1000x better and I'm excited to get back to work :) I wouldn't mind if they leave me here in the office as one of the office elders for the rest of the transfer (like a week or whatever) but I'm TOTALLY OK with that cause it's a lot of fun with these guys (the office elders and the assistants). Even more awesome is that I get to take hot showers while I'm here in the office. Something I haven't done in 10 months! 

So Basically for the next week, I'm companions with elder Unruh and Elder Marroquin. Elder Unruh is from salt lake and Marroquin is from Guatamala, BUT he is learning English and basically speaks it. It's really cool :) As for how long I'll be in the office I have no idea but I'm gonna enjoy it while I'm here. We are having a lot of fun here and I feel super super good. I'm ready to get back out in the field but I love it here in the office. I wouldn't mind staying here for the rest of the transfer if President needs the help. (Cause we've got a lot of work because of the many baptisms the mission is getting right now.) 

But wow am I excited to get back out there :) I really appreciate the support from home though. Really guys, it really helps!

Ok so I have to get off but I'm gonna write you tomorrow morning!! There it's probably really early :). I love you and talk to u 2morrow!!!

TUESDAY:

OKAY! So they are sending me out to work in the field again! I'm going to an area called "Villa Aura" in Las Caobas. I'm going to be comps with a missionary named Elder Page from Oregon. Super cool! Heard he is a super good missionary. Too bad I'll probably only be there for like 2 weeks, but we'll see :) Anyways :) It was really good to see you guys and talk to you yesterday! I wish it wasn't so early in the morning there, (like 6:30 AM right?) But what can you do? Haha its 9:30 here.

Anyways!! I love you guys so so much! Tell everyone how I'm doing cause I don't have time to write a big letter. 

Have a good Tuesday!

Elder Bryson Larkin

(Pic is from BRAVO, a store here with Elder Unruh, ¨oh Todd¨)

-- 

Still Sick

Hey mom! Yeah missing another week sucks. I didn't know that my medical stuff was "clear" or anything! I feel even worse to be honest. We lost our phone and we didn't know what was going on. We just got the number for President Nuckols and we'll call him later, but this "thing" that I have is awful! I can hardly breathe without hurting, and I always have a sharp pain in my ribs. We'll have to talk to the doctor again. But yeah I'm sorry I don't have much to say. 

Anyways yeah, this has been a rough week. Hope your guys' was better than mine!