Nov. 10

Another week has gone by and it was very successful! I finally got a
new bike! It's bright red with white tires, I guess they thought I
wasn't already sticking out enough as is, the good news is it matches
my helmet so when I attract attention at least I won't clash. When I
got here our teaching pool wasn't very large so that was our first
goal, so far we've picked up five new investigators! Which has been
great to see, our favorite is a fifteen year old girl named Jelissa,
she's the friend of a less active and during one of our visits we
asked her if she wanted to come and sit with us, we scheduled a return
appointment where she accepted an invitation to be baptized! We were
super happy for her and i'm really hoping it goes through and she
sticks with it! I also wanted to talk about some of the service
projects we've been doing! last week we got together with all the
members and helped raise awareness about chikungunya and how people
can stay safe from it, we had pamphlets and showed people safe ways to
store water and protect themselves from mosquitoes. The members were
also super helpful with getting referrals at the same time and the
missionaries in the area of the project got about 22 new people to
see! hahah so that was cool, but the service project this last week
was even better, we got to go to an orphanage and help construct
furniture to refurbish it, the owners of it are a wealthy dutch couple
and I could tell they were super grateful to have us all there, it was
a really cool project to be apart of! It's hard to believe how long
i've been gone already the time certainly does go by quick, i'm
technically almost done with my second transfer! Elder Dom said that
there's a pretty good chance we're not going to move our next transfer
and that he'll probably train me the whole 12 weeks but that's fine
with me, I like my area a lot and elder Dom's an awesome companion to
work with. In other news I still search diligently for a sloth but so
far to no avail... Lizards and huge bugs and crazy fruit are
everywhere though. One member always gives us mangos from her tree in
the backyard which I think is pretty cool, we also saw what was
probably the largest spider i've ever seen in person, I have no idea
what kind it was but its legs were only a little smaller than my
hand.... oh and also a truck hit me! hahah he backed right into me
while leaving his parking space it was a little sketchy but hey im
alive :p I love what it feels like to be a missionary so far, there's
no greater feeling than being led somewhere or to someone you just
know youre supposed to teach. I almost count it as a small miracle
every time. i'm certain it was for people like that I was called here
for! I love hearing from all of you, i'm so glad you've all been doing
well and I miss you guys always, don't take for granted everything you
have! I know that you hear that all the time but to experience it...
its almost a lesson you can't learn any other way. Love you guys and
talk to you again soon!!

Elder Carpenter

 New bike!! Mom and Dad can sleep now! ;)

He said this is the nicest area in Suriname