Last Week with American's

This week was the week of a big service project for a handicapped member in our branch. She has a wheelchair and every week we go to her house to take her to church. The only problem was, that to get out of her house you basically had to go off-roading, and that is very difficult in a wheelchair, and absolutely impossible for her. She literally cannot leave her house at all unless she has someone help her, so once a week she gets to leave her house to go to church. We had an idea to level the ground and make her a ramp and told the branch about it. We did it this week for this sister! (The same sister who's child died in the accident) We got all the tools and all the stuff to make a cement ramp and we got together at 9 in the morning to start. at around 2:30 we were almost finished and we made the way x1000% better. The sister still cant leave her house without help but this way it'll be so much easier for us, or someone else, to help her out. It is so good to do service for others. We had a discussion about service and it was decided that service is one of the most important things we can do in this life. We imagined that God will know that we aren't perfect in everything and that's why we have Christ, but we do have the chance to be charitable and do service for others. That's what I think will be very important. To see if we served our fellow man. 

Matthew 25:40 "And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Oh and with more coconuts this week we played "coconut baseball" with a machete. Good stuff over here!

Be sure to send me alot of pictures and everything! Hope all had an amazing week!!!

Elder Larkin

The One Where I Ate a Coconut

Wow. Very eventful week. First things first. A member gave us some coconuts and of course you have to eat them a specific way. That way is chopping off the top with a knife and drinking the sweet sweet nectar within. (I actually hate coconuts, with a burning passion. Please note that this country is very very hot and humid so I am basically sweating 100% of the time. 

As for other events, (the serious ones) we got a couple married!! They are members, but they weren't married for like 5 years. It's rare here that people actually get married so that's a really big problem. BUT we got it done this past week!! It was a big ordeal. We had to work for like 3 weeks to finally get it done. First we didn't have all the papers, second we didn't have the CORRECT papers, then the judge wasn't working this day, and he'll be back this day. It was awful. When we finally were all ready to do it, and after 2 and 1/2 hours of waiting at the marriage office, we got them married in 5 minutes! The following day we had a little party that was thrown by the branch. There was a pretty cake and I got to DJ. Plus 1 for regular "worldly" music!

Another special event was the temple trip for the branch on Saturday!! The missionaries here have been working for this trip for about 3 months and we've been working hard with the members to get names from their family so they could do baptisms for the dead. This week was the time to go, but a little twist. Our mission president told us the missionaries couldn't go! We were kinda mad and everything but what can you do? Ended up that our branch brought the MOST amount of work to do for their families! 70+ names from less than 30 people. Everyone that went said it was an amazing and spiritual experience. Oh and the night before we did NOT sleep at all. We had to be at the church getting people ready to leave at 4 in the morning, so we made the logical choice and just played cards all night until we left! So fun times there. SYKE! I was so tired the next day, tell you what!

Sad thing that happened, someone died shortly after the temple trip. The son of a member who went, died at about 8'oclock that night. It was very sad because we had just been talking to him that morning. We had his funeral yesterday after church. 

Anyways this week was full of stuff! I hope everyone had an awesome one!

Elder Larkin

1-Year-Shirt and Some Rain

Well I hit my ACTUAL year mark this week. Celebrated with the classic burning of a white shirt. (Don't worry mom it was already stained with my blood so it was already useless) That's always fun :) Burning stuff. I do miss a good bonfire I'll tell you what. 

So this week It RAINED. We had a tropical storm and the capital got hit HARD. I'm in the south right now and we got very heavy rain so I can't imagine what happened in the capital where it's notorious for raining hard. My little town of Tamayo got flooded pretty bad. We couldn't pass on a lot of streets to get to our appointments because the street was literally a river at that point (see pictures)

Nobody's house got destroyed too bad though. In these last few days I've realized how 3rd world this place actually is. The people live so humbly. They hardly have anything but they still have smiles on their faces. And even when they have nothing to eat they offer what they do have to us. These people are amazing even though at times annoying. I'm glad I am here to help them out in the best possible way I can. There's a quote that says "You see, I gave up sleep so they could have rest, Shed tears so they could cry less, My family gave up 2 years of being together, So that other families could be joined together forever, And for He that paid the ransom, I gave up first-world life, To help others find their heavenly mansion." Its great being a missionary.

Another thing that happened was that church in Tamayo, got a record high today again! 25 people. Doesn't sound like a lot when I'm used to 300 people in a stake center, but here it really is special. 

Anyways! I hope all had an amazing week! Ill see you all later!!

Elder Larkin