HMM

Ok so I have 0 time this week so I'm just gonna say that this week was not the greatest but I'm gonna make the next one awesome! I have a lot to say but I'll just save it for next week! Also I have lots of pictures so those are gonna be fun! Hope everyone had an awesome week!

Love you all!

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Since Bryson's mass email was only one sentence, I thought I'd post his email to me that has a little bit more info!  LOL!  (see below)

(Elder Gubler sent this all the way from Paraguay!  Too bad we didn't get it until after Bryson's Birthday!)  :(

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YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS THAT COLLAGE IS SO AWESOME THANK YOU GUYS!!!!!!!! also the money is a nice perk of becoming older. I like that. hahaha.

Okay so this week was rough. There's a big festival in the city and basically EVERYONE is gone all day and it was really hard to get lessons in. We spent a lot of time walking from house to house knocking on doors on houses that didn't have anyone inside. Meh! NO I didn't get my package yet. Ill probably get it tomorrow when we have interviews with president or at our next zone meeting on May 20th!  I'm hoping tomorrow!

Also that sounds awesome that the jeep is running awesome!! Haha too bad Matthew cant drive it yet! DON'T be slack on him! Make him do that Eagle project before he gets his permit! 

But yeah we went to the beach today! (obviously we cant swim but it was still cool) I took pictures BUT because of the virus I cant send ANYTHING. It sucks. BUT I know how to fix it so I'll get that done ASAP. 

Also today I met a witch!  Like a real one. Before the mission I would have said "yeah right that stuff doesn't exist" but dang is it real! This lady was standing on the rocks in the middle of the water with her hands up in the air and she like picked up water, threw it into the air and then drank some sea water!! It was nuts. She started to talk to me after and said that she is a "missionary" and God gives her power to control the ocean and junk like that. Crazy. But yeah she definitely was a witch. There's some messed up stuff here in the DR!  But I'm on the Lords errand so I don't even worry about that stuff :)

But hey! Love you so much! 

Bryson

OH ALSO May 8 we get to call home for skype! I don't really remember when Mother's day is but that's the day we get to skype :) It'll be awesome!

Work work work work work work work

Yes that is a reference (my subject) to the new songs about "work" that ive heard many a time in the street here in the DR haha. 

So this last week we worked our butts off! We have been trying to find our new investigators since i got here and we're finally starting to find some! We are working with 3 in particular and they have baptism dates in may! We contacted SO MANY houses. The hardest people to talk to are the Catholics for some reason. they just wanna get us out of there as soon as they can. once the person saw who we were, and just said, "no" and walked back inside... we walked away and i was like, "okayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy" :D

So we had a fun activity today with our zone and another, and we did a bunch of fun stuff. (water balloons were thrown and sisters dont like that very much ill tell you that. I got many a bucket of water poured on me) 

But yes it was a good week. Some good stories. I found a spider in the shower with me.. he was watching me and i was watching him... we found an agreement in that if I didn't move toward him he wouldn't move toward him. good stuff.

But yeah! love you all! have an awesome week!

Stress? Yes a little.

Okay so I have like little time so imma make it quick.

This week has been stressful! So first of all, my camera memory got a virus from one of the computers here, yeah it sucks because I cant view ANY of my pictures. Hopefully ill find someone who can fix it. secondly the members here are a little difficult to deal with. They don't really wanna work or help us out, and then there's the fact that there's like 30 of them. We're gonna have to motivate them to work with us and not just see them on Sundays. We DO have a few people who do actually want to do some work and that's awesome! I've got a lot of work to do!!!

But it was a good week nonetheless! We contacted A TON this week. We've been finally finding a bunch of people that are willing and wanting to hear the message I have to share. Its really a blessing that we're having success in finding golden people!

Anyways, I gotta go teach some more and then hold a family home evening, so I'll write you guys next week!!

Goodbye's and Hello's

Well... Now I'm here in Yaguate! I apologize for the people who looked up "Yaguate, San Cristobal" on google images. And now I know that some of you are going to do it right now, but... I warned you.

Haha! Its a lot different here in the south! The people are EVEN more laid back here. To the point they don't really wanna help us that much but... we'll work on that!

My companion, Elder Sosa, is from here! He's from the north part called Santiago. He just got done training with his "Dad" and I'm his "Stepdad." Basically the first person who is your comp is your Dad and the 2nd is your Stepdad. It's gonna be interesting! But he has the attitude to work so we'll do fine!

So Conference was a little rough here. We had to watch it in the church. (a little teeny tiny building with the church logo outside) on a computer monitor. Like 4 people showed up Saturday and like 10 Sunday.  And it was in Spanish! I'm downloading them in English so I can get the full experience but you know how it is :)

Have a good week everyone! I don't have a lot of time left!!

Your fav missionary in the DR...
Elder Bryson Larkin
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Saying Goodbye

Elder Sosa and Pics of New Apartment

Elder Larkin & Elder Sosa

Me voy a yaguate

This was a good week.  This Saturday we had our baptisms! As always, some fell through, but we still had 4! It was very special for all of us. There were 9 in total! That's a lot!! It was so awesome because 3 of ours were sisters, Ismenia, Julissa, and Lesly. Now their entire family are members. That was very special because they were all there! The other, Lindsay, is a little girl who turned 8, and wanted me to baptize her! Her mom was there and it was awesome for them. I had to baptize her like 4 times though because her toes kept poking out of the water! She was crying because she was nervous but you know how an 8 yr old thinks. The next day she wanted me to confirm her as well! I've never done that, but it was cool!

Another miracle of this week! We were with Miguel again, and we talked about the law of chastity. He said, after sitting there for a minute, So I have to get married so I can keep the commandments and get baptized?" We told him yes, and this is what he said. "Okay then, my wife (everyone calls their significant other "wife") doesn't live here right now, but I'm going to call her right now and propose, do you guys have minutes on your phone?" SO we gave him our phone and he called her! She said yes over the phone! They do have like 17 years being "husband and wife" so you know! It was a very very cool experience! He is like the most "Golden" investigator we've had! 

So I'm finally moving areas! I don't wanna leave 'cause we have like 6 more baptisms for April but it's the life of a missionary! I'm going to an area called Yaguate in San Cristobal! It's in the south where there isn't anything! My companion is named Elder Sosa, but I have no idea who he is. We'll find out tomorrow! It's weird that I'm leaving, but the Lord needs me somewhere else!

It was an awesome week!!!

Love you all! Remember to send me photos!

Semana Santa

Happy Easter all!

Hope everything is going well! This week is a big thing here in the DR! Well basically in all of Latin America. It's a week long celebration of Easter I guess.

This week is very special. First of all, we are having a baptismal service on Saturday. We will be baptizing Leslie, Julisa, Ismenia, Beba, Andres, and Maria AltaGracia. It's just such a good feeling knowing that these people are changing their lives to follow Christ. Just... wow.

One of the miracles of the week we had, (I'm gonna start calling them that) was our experience with Andres. We were at his house talking to him about his baptism, and he was expressing his doubts. He wasn't sure if he wanted to get baptized. My companion explained to him that if he really wants an answer to see if he wants to get baptized he needed to pray that night for an answer. The thought came to my mind to say, (in Spanish of course) "well, Andres, we're going to say that prayer right now. And then tonight as well." My comp was like... "oh! um okay!" So we prayed... on our knees he pleaded to God to give him an answer. After the prayer, nobody said anything, not even moved... We sat on our knees for about 2 minutes. It was very very spiritual.

I'm very excited for this week :) Hope everyone has a good one!

PS Here's a picture of me with my zone at the temple here!
-- 

Elder Bryson Larkin

*("Holy Week." In Spanish-speaking countries, the Easter holiday is referred to as Semana Santa, and celebrations last for a full week)

(last week at the Santo Domingo Temple trip)

It was really awesome! I love the temple so much. Every time I feel the great spirit that's inside and I just know that's where I wanna be. Forever. [ W/ my wife (; ]

Knock knock. Who's there? THE MORMONS!

Having had aching feet, an aching back, being sweaty 24/7, eating nothing but rice, beans, and spaghetti for the past 6 months I can tell you... I feel right at home.

"The work will progress with or without us Elders, so why don't we help out?" 

This week I've learned that there are people out there just waiting for the Gospel to reach them, we just have to find them. Knocking on somebody's door that you don't know, trying to talk about Jesus Christ and his teachings at first, is somewhat daunting. But after a while it becomes fun to see who comes to the door! A sweet old lady who will give you juice? Or maybe a catholic who says, "I'm catholic" and says they can't listen to you. OR OR OR a family who has been prepared by the spirit, who are genuinely interested and will one day get baptized. This is something we do every day and it's becoming a treat. Finding the "Gold" our mission President calls it. How are we supposed to share the gospel with people if we don't have anyone to share it with?

We've been finding more and more of these golden investigators and it's really exciting! They will all probably get baptized in the upcoming months but I might not be here to see it! It's totally okay though! The life of a missionary! I'm going to leave my first area at the end of this month. I've been here for 6 already and that's a long time to be in an area! Pretty crazy!

This week has been awesome! We just got back from the Colonial Zone in the East part of the country. It's basically where EVERYTHING started in the Americas. It's where Columbus landed. The first street, the first University, the first Cathedral! And it's all older than anything in the US. Weird to think about! 

Have a great week everyone! Love y'all!

Elder Larkin

ps. I have A BUNCH of pictures on my dropbox if you'd like to see them btw.

(statue of Columbus with Elder Rodelo)

"Forgive me Father for I have sinned"

(an eternal fire)

(and a couple pictures from a Family Home Evening we had! Fun :) 

Yes, Rodelo likes tortillas! hahahaaha