Jan 26

hey everyone sorry im late today! We had a really cool p-day activity at a place called Cola Creek, its a park of sorts here and there's a creek that's super dark, almost black, but still really clean water. It's kind of an open area where we just hang out and play games and it was a lot of fun! The unfortunate thing about it though was that I may have pulled something in my back.... when i was jumping something felt really weird and hurt a lot and i wasn't really able to walk. But it's slowly been getting progressively better so hopefully in the next day or two it's no problem. We were disappointed a little in this week in that only one of our investigators came to church, but we have a lot of people to teach right now and I feel like i'm really starting to get things down as a missionary and the best way to do things. I have no doubt im going through a lot of personal growth out here and im learning new things everyday. Going from someone who normally didn't like being super talkative to everyone i met and then being compelled to be a missionary to every person on the street has certainly been demanding, looking back to 5 months ago when I first started looks like a different person in a lot of ways. But I realize it's also good that i hold onto who i was, it's by being yourself i've found you connect best with the members. I've made some awesome friends here and I think it's awesome what the people are willing to do for their friends here. We have a baptismal date for February 7th scheduled with our investigator 'I,' all should go according to plan if his sister and him prove to continue to stay active. We have a couple other people potentially coming up who could progress further if they come to church so we'll have to wait and see until next week if they finally take that step! In other news I am 3-0 on surinamese kids trying to beat me in bike races. I hope you all have a great week i miss you guys

Elder Carpenter

Wolfpack Suriname style

Hoe gaat het iedereen its been a great week here in suriname and a lot
has happened! We picked up elder orton from a tiny airport thursday,
he flew in on a tiny single engine propeller plane and hardly knows
any dutch! But we've had a fun time and he's learning fast. It's nice
to finally not be the newest one or have the people look at you the
strangest when you're trying to learn dutch. We've already found great
success with him though! We met a new investigator named 'V,' she
was a referral from the pelswijks, one of the families in our branch.
V has A LOT of life problems at the moment, from her unfaithful
husband to the fact she's recently discovered she may have cancer at
only 38. We taught her a very powerful restoration lesson followed up
with a lesson about fasting a few days later. She responded very well
and we decided that we would fast with her together for what blessings
she needed in her life right now. We haven't met with her again yet
and she has obstacles to overcome but so far I feel like her life is
one of the one's i've been able to begin to make a big difference in,
and I hope that continues and she progresses. We also have a new
investigator named 'A,' we met her outside a house and invited her
to church, she said she would come and wanted us to come pick her up!
We were pretty shocked seeing as how getting people to come to church
is normally the hardest part of our job... so we have very high hopes
for 'A!' Lastly, we have 'I,' the little brother of one of our
just re-activated branch members, he's expressed a desire to be
baptized and so if we see that he and his sister stay active we plan
on teaching him soon! I don't know if it's a suriname thing or a
missionary thing but i have been super tired the last few days! I'm
convinced there's actually something about the atmosphere here that
contributes to laziness and tiredness. I couldn't count on both hands
how many times appointments have been rescheduled due to people giving
their hammocks priority over us. But it's whatever, we're making
progress with a lot of good people! And one of the less active
families we teach has been coming back to church! I was really excited
about that. we had another sister named sister ramlal who has been
re-activated as well! I'm really glad that i've been able to help
these people come back to church. I am extremely disappointed to hear
that i have to miss my favorite team go to the superbowl as well!! I
hope it's not sacreligious to say the seahawks will be in my thoughts
and prayers come super bowl sunday. I hope you all have another
awesome week!! I love you guys!!
Elder Carpenter

 Elder Carpenter's kitchen



 And Elder Orton makes three!



 Their favorite monkey



 Scary dog



 Random back yard

 

Giant casino in the middle of Paramaribo 

Transfer to.......just kidding. He's staying right where he is.

Hey guys! Another week come and gone, i'm still feeling great and had
an awesome week! I found out that i will be staying right where i am
with elder Dom for another transfer, the only difference being we get
a third companion! His name is elder Orton and he's been stuck in
Guyana with visa problems and is finally coming into suriname! We're a
little nervous about having 3 people and how that's going to work out
with everything but it will be nice to have someone new. I knew him in
the mtc for a few days and he seemed like a pretty cool kid, i'm sure
that everything will still be fine. In other news one of the people
that I helped our zone leaders find while we were on exchanges got
baptized this last week! We found him a few weeks ago and he was a
super prepared investigator, I was really excited for him when I found
out he was baptized a few days ago! We picked up a couple new
investigators just the other day as well, one of them is named 's'
and i didn't catch the name of the other but we were able to teach
them a great lesson and im excited to see how they progress! Our
investigators still have a hard time coming to church.. if there's one
thing im stressed about it's probably just that, i want them to
progress badly but its just much more difficult to get some of these
people to church than it should be, I hope they have a change of heart
soon. I found out that elder bowen, one of my favorite missionaries
here who came with me in my mtc group, is going to uitkijk! uitkijk is
known as probably the hardest place in the mission and its in the
middle of the jungle so he wont see us very often. I was disappointed
to hear it but he's determined to have an upbeat attitude about it
which i agree is for the best. He's very good at staying positive and
im sure the people down there are going to love him. Im glad im
staying in paramaribo south, we have some good people progressing they
just need a little more time and motivation which im praying will help
them progress and make the right choices! We gave 'r' another
lesson on the word of wisdom and showed him how much money he could
save if he stopped drinking and smoking, it was nearly 500 surinamese
dollars every week! he was super excited to stop after we showed him
that so im hoping that can be the extra motivation he needs in order
to stop. As usual thank you all for your continued love and support! I
can't believe i'm already on my 4th transfer in my mission! I miss you
guys and can't wait to hear from you all next week!
Love, Elder Carpenter

 A set of French Guiana Elders stayed with them for Zone Conference

 They play on these fields and courts on p-day sometimes.

One of Elder Carpenter's favorite sisters in the branch.  He says she is hilarious! :)

2015!!!

hey everyone! 

sorry i missed you on monday our p-day was pushed back a

day due to zone conference! There was a lot that happened, i'll start

with new year's, one of our favorite members, sister 'm,' invited

us over. Her house is very nice for suriname and has two floors and

and extension that leads to a balcony on the roof, so we climbed up

there to watch fireworks on new years, because that's the big day for

them here. From there i could see all of the fireworks in suriname

going off at one time! it was one of the coolest things ive ever seen,

and definitely topped the list of new year's eve celebrations. The

only downside was... 

*breath for dramatic pause*... 

I have

chikungunya. i've had it since last Monday on p-day, but the good news

is you don't have to worry because i'm already better! it only lasted

about 3 or 4 days, i was stuck inside with a high fever and some joint

pain, it was really annoying to have but at least i've gone through

it. I was feeling a little sick new year's eve but really didn't want

to miss all of the fireworks, fortunately i felt good enough and had a

great time! Later that week we had another contacting activity in the

city with president and sister mehr there with us! It went really well

and i drew the plan of salvation at every station to help people have

a visual to look at so that was pretty cool. Zone Conference was just

yesterday and we had some cool lessons, mostly focused on working with

members, so that's something we're going to put a renewed focus on. We

played basketball today with the assistants and other elders from

french guyana who come to have zone conference with us, and so having

some new people for a little while was pretty cool, something else

funny is that i've begun to start a chess fad here in suriname.

Because i was sick i played elder dom in a lot of chess, hahah and

after beating him i began to play the other missionaries and thanks in

part to my chikungunya giving me time to practice i have finally been

able to declare myself the best chess player here in suriname. which only i

am very excited about. Anyways im very excited to enter the new year 

with renewed vigor in order to see success! My dutch is becoming

better and better which ill need if me and elder dom get separated

next transfer! i don't know if it will happen but we'll probably find

out this week if we're staying or moving. I hope all of you had a

great new year and don't think im apostate for e-mailing on tuesday. i

had permission.so its cool.

 Love, Elder Carpenter