April 25 Contacting on the go

Hello fellow Americans, I did a lot of biking in the rain this week
and it was pretty awful. We had a lot of lessons though so that was
nice. I am very tired and also got a haircut today but it looks pretty
weird. Me and Elder Geigenmiller were both complaining about them for
a good while. 'W' biked to church again this week though! He is on
track to get baptized may 14th still so keep looking forward to that.
It will also be the same week when President Egbert visits Suriname so
maybe he can see him get baptized and talk to him! That would be
really cool. We have had some really cool experiences with finding
people recently, long story short being that we've been working really
hard and we get blessed with a lot of small miracles like people
inviting us in or giving us people to teach. Elder Geigenmiller's
dutch is getting a lot better and he is making a good adjustment into
Suriname. In other news I contacted a driving car and threw a pamphlet
inside, anyways I hope that you all have a good week and I'll talk to
you all again next week!
Elder Carpenter

With a baby anaconda

Contacting the moving car

Lunch last pday

Crazy street names in Suriname

"Construction" 

They use branches instead of 2X4's!

April 18 mud, beetle, and a dog race

Well another good week, I found out that I'll be staying again with

Elder Geigenmiller! Good news since we get a lot of stuff done

together. He's a really nice guy and a good companion. Unfortunately

I'll be losing the car since they called another zone leader this

transfer but that's alright. It was a good run while it lasted and I

learned a lot. I'm glad I don't have to worry about so many other

responsibilities and can just focus on missionary work again. We had a

lot of successes this week, the biggest was probably bringing our

investigator Winston to church! We biked to his house and we all biked

to the church together which was a good time. Elder Jennings, the

other zone leader, also got our van stuck the other day during a

service project and it was literally inches from tipping over... hahah

I don't know why I ever let him drive but it's okay now i guess, a

huge 4000 kilo truck just happened to come by and help us out. the

first attempt broke our steel cable, but luckily they had a thick

chain that was able to get us out and save the church a whole lot of

tithing money. We also witnessed something pretty crazy coming home

from our last appointment on saturday night, where we saw a huge truck

upside down in a ditch! There was a huge crowd gathered in the middle

of the street and we saw that there was also a wrecked bike and a man

lying on the road, luckily his injuries weren't life threatening but

it was pretty scary to see the whole scene. On a unrelated note I had

a huge beetle fly literally into my eye and it freaked me out in the

middle of one of our lessons. the beetle fell to the ground and got

eaten by a toad though so I feel good knowing it got what it deserved.

I also raced a dog on my bike and won. he had me beat with

acceleration but my top speed was too much for him to handle. I hope

you all have a great week and I'll talk to you again soon!

Elder Carpenter

April 11 Trinidad and third time is the charm?

I made it back alive, so you can all stop holding your breath, I had a

wonderful week in Trinidad and loved the missionary leadership

conference! Trinidad is so cool! The mission home is just as beautiful

as I remembered it a year and a half ago, hahah. While we were there

they actually had a small earthquake! It was while one of the senior

couples was giving us a seminar on how to do reports when everything

in the mission office started shaking!! Hahah the funniest part was

that Elder Bevins, the one giving the address, didn't even notice so

that was great. I got to go teaching with some of the elders there,

one of whom was my long lost son! Elder prestera was one of the elders

I got to serve with and we had a great time together! Hahah it was

great to catch up with him and see how things were going, he looks like he is really enjoying his mission a lot.  I ate some crazy food in trinidad and enjoyed meeting a bunch of people who I'd never seen before. I'm very jealous of the trinidad elders since they have so many things we don't but at the same time I

like our independence and how close we are in Suriname and it wouldn't

be worth to trade in my mind. I also got chikungunya for like the THIRD time and have some weird rash all over my body that has only just now started to go away lol so wish me luck with that. I got home

and slept for 18 HOURS straight so that's a new record or something. I

was dying I won't lie but now that I finally had time to rest I feel

much better and am looking forward to a great week back in Suriname!!

Elder Carpenter

With Elder Hood and Elder Prestera (his 'son') in Trinidad

He hasn't seen hills in a year and a half! 

More Trinidad

April 4 BUSTED!

Helloooooo Friends and family! This week was so crazy, I am just dead

tired right now. We took a trip to Brownsberg again, and had a great

time, unfortunately doing that trip requres us to wake up at like 3:30

a.m. but it was worth it. There were a lot of missionaries who hadn't

gone yet which is the reason we planned it. The highlight of the trip

though, was definitely on the way home, hahah where I got pulled over

by the good ol' surinamese police force. Long story short though it

really wasn't a fair ticket. and so I called our Branch President,

(who is also a police officer) and thanks to his intervention the

surinamese police station might have just miraculously "lost" all

record of my "ticket" hahahah so that was pretty sweet. I loved

general conference, I loved Elder Bednar's talk and also both of

Uchtdorf's talks that focused on rescuing. I felt that I could relate

to them a lot with the kind of work we do here. We have a lot more

investigators right now thanks to our recent contacting craze and have

had some good follow up lessons, we have a few people who are doing

especially well, a couple, named A& J, are especially

interested in what we teach and literally gave us an applause after

our last lesson, hahah so they're pretty cool. Despite my tiredness I

am still glad to be a missionary, and am proud of the work me and

Elder Geigenmiller have accomplished thus far, we are really trying

our best and I see a lot of blessings because of it. Anywho, I wish

you all the finest of weeks and would like to say happy Birthday to my

Dad!!!! Best man in the world!!!

Elder Carpenter

Waiting in LINE with Elder Van Den Herik to get his ticket with all the others 

Top of the waterfall with Elder Geigenmiller at Brownsberg

Climbing up a waterfall at Brownsberg with Elder Oldroyd