Sept. 28

Hey everybody!! I'm happy to report that everything in this area has
been running fairly smoothly despite the lack of experience and
knowledge of the area exhibited both by me and my companion Elder
James, who has only been here one transfer more than me. Our "senior
couple" responsibilities are pretty crazy and we find ourselves
running around A LOT doing stuff for the other missionaries and making
sure everybody stays legal in this country! We have to visit the visa
offices of suriname which can be pretty intimidating to speak dutch
with them sometimes, along with driving people to the airports, and
looking after people with presidency callings every time they come to
visit Suriname, which is pretty crazy. To make it simple there's a
veryyyyy long list of responsibilities that we have that pretty much
just let missionary work in this country keep on running. hahah it's
crazy to think of it that way but in this area and with this
assignment that's pretty much exactly how it is. We take care of
everything for everybody else so they don't have to and can focus on
doing missionary work and teaching people. We do still get a chance to
do teaching of our own, however, and have a really cool couple we are
teaching with a baptismal date for next week! I'm super excited about
them, they have two little kids who are adorable and both of the
parents are super prepared and love what we teach them. Being one of
the only missionaries in a car has been stellar as well. Not only do
we get everywhere faster but it takes one of the most annoying parts
of my job away which is biking around in the sun :p This week a cool
experience we had was when we were looking for something to do around
8 and decided to pray and asked to be sent where we were needed most.
We decided to go to a member's house but she wasn't home and so we
decided to walk the dark street and talk to a couple people. Both of
the people we talked to were super interested in what we had to say,
and one of the ladies was so thankful she told us to sit down while
she cooked us food! Hahah they were so nice and I can't wait to go
back and see them again. It was great proof to me that God hears and
answers prayers. I hope you all have a great week I love and miss you
guys and I'll talk to you again soon!
Elder Carpenter