Oct 26 spaghetti milkshakes

 Hey everybody! I hope that everyone's weeks have been fabulous. I had
a great time this week and have a couple of pretty funny experiences.
I met with the Head of Suriname's foreign affairs department yesterday
(you could say it was kind of a big deal) and talked about a lot of
missionaries' visas and how we can avoid sending people in on tourist
visas so that they don't become illegal when they expire and their MKV
isn't done yet. The meeting went fairly well and we had a good chat
and learned some important things about the process. In other news I
learned how to make "spaghetti" this week... I know what you're all
thinking this how is this scrub just now learning how to make
spaghetti BUT what I actually mean is a crazy new hatian recipe I
learned where you use spaghetti to make a milkshake! Hahah it's so
crazy, and you can also use potatoes instead but it tastes SUPER good
despite how weird you feel at first when you set a bunch of spaghetti
in your blender... As far as the missionary work in our area we were
really busy with meetings and senior couple responsibilities but we
were still able to go and see a less active named brother 'a'. Fun
fact: Brother 'a' is the FIRST missionary from Suriname! The first
ever from an entire country I thought that was so cool, definitely a
pioneer in his own right. He has a super strong testimony and is a
magnificent man I think that it's just a personal choice that keeps
him from coming to church every week instead of off and on. And last
but not least to keep all of you on your toes I totally saw a dead guy
on the side of the road on the way here :( Not to worry though the
police had already arrived and handled everything it was just pretty
creepy o_o  On a brighter note we had a cool pday activity at a place
called Cola Creek (so named due to the black water) It was a really
cool place to hang out and we played some volleyball in the middle of
the jungle it was pretty sweet! Anyways I think that's about all from
this guy but I love you all and I hope you have an awesome week!
Elder Carpenter

Oct 19 a President, a puppy, a pizza, oh my! ;)

Hey everybody!! Great stuff continues to happen here in Suriname, we had

the baptism of one of my former investigators in south! 'O,' who I had

been teaching for almost 6 months, was finally baptized just this saturday!

I was so excited about it and looking back am humbled by how much progress

he has made. Me and Elder James had a lot of success as well, just mostly

in other departments, namely visa things. Hahah, we got two missionaries

their MKV's which means their visas are just around the corner. And we just

processed a couple missionaries short procedure letters with the "Foreign

affairs department" which means that either this transfer or the next new

missionaries can come into suriname! Needless to say it's different than

the normal baptism or reactivation stories but they are successes

nonetheless! Hahah, we also spent this week driving our mission president

around while he was here in suriname to do interviews and give temple

recommends! It was cool to get a chance to spend some time with him since

it's always a long time in between his visits. Maybe my favorite happening

of this week was when me and elder james saved a puppy! Someone had tried

to throw this poor guy in their trash :'O but me and elder james came to

the rescue and found him a new home with some owners more responsible. He

was so dang adorable. We also had to drive to the airport in zanderij to

pick up new water filters for all the missionaries, it required about 3

hours worth of driving to get all of the documents from different

departments and then down to the airport which is in the heart of suriname,

quite a distance from the coast where we normally are. But anyways it's a

great feeling to serve others even in this capacity and I continue to have

a lot of faith in our less actives who are beginning to return to church! I

think that's about it this week but I love and miss you all and I'll talk

to you again next week!

Elder Carpenter

O's baptism

Saved puppy!! (Makes up for the wild dog he had to kick to keep from getting rabies, right?!)

Scenery from driving around Suriname

More scenery

Elder Carpenter can cook!! His specialty is pizza!

Oct. 12 and pictures!!!

Hey guys! This week was a really great success in my eyes, Elder James

and I were able to get a lot done, and even had time to do missionary

work! :O hahah I say that only because our senior couple

responsibilities sometimes limit our ability to teach as much as we

like but we really managed our time well and had some cool

experiences. One of the families we visited was a

couple from Guyana named 'H' they are super funny

and we had a great lesson with them. Guyanese people have great

hearts, and I was super excited to see them come to church this sunday

for the first time in a long time! I am loving the tammenga branch and

the members that live here are so great to work with. We get more

member referrals here than I've ever received on my mission and that

has been awesome! We had a funny experience with one of our referrals

in that upon arriving they thought that we were professional marriage

counselors...? and proceeded to tell us about their marriage problems

hahah. Upon telling them our actual purpose and introducing the Book

of Mormon, the wife just went off and got her bible. She put it in my

hands and asked "is this a real bible?" hahah i guess she thought that

we didn't believe in it but after some convincing and A LOT of

patience on my part, I was able to convince her that the book of

mormon is a book of scripture written by prophets just like the bible

and got her to agree that she has to try reading a little before she

can know its bad, so we'll see how that goes! Funny story of the week,

we got called to pick up some art for the church and got lost with our

first counselor as he kept yelling out our window asking people for

directions. Upon finally finding it they unload a pallet of boxes on

our truck about 7 feet high weighing over 500 pounds! Hahah needless

to say it was a slow moving ride back to the church to unload it all.

The ability of these people to plan ineffectively never ceases to

amaze me. But yeah other than that it was an awesome week I hope that

you all have another great one as well!!! Lobi!! Elder Carpenter

Elder Carpenter meets "Mothra"

His 'bucket' bike helmet

Studying with Elder James

Outside his apartment

Attack of the pants eating parrot!

Elder Carpenter's new ride. 

Oct 5: the mattress situation

Hello Americans! This week was pretty crazy, the amount of stuff me
and Elder James have to do as our country's senior couple is still
pretty intense. We had to take everybody new to a police station this
week to get them fingerprinted so that they could get the rest of
their paperwork sent in from America. The man we were working with
there told me I must come from the mountains because i'm apparently
short. His name is Mr. Cedarboom (which means cedar tree)
((Appropriately named because he is as tall as a tree)) He said that
short people live in the mountains and tall people live in the flat
lands. And used that as the excuse why he isn't very fast while
climbing stairs. hahah needless to say he was an interesting guy. we proceeded to get there fingerprints
and everything seems to be in order for our newest missionaries which
is great news! Conference this week was also fantastic, I learned a
ton and it was a great chance to take a breather and listen to the
messages of the prophet and apostles, I especially enjoyed the
testimonies of the newest apostles and know of their sincerity and
drive to serve God. We had a couple missionaries stay at our apartment
on saturday night in between sessions, just so that they wouldn't have
to go all the way home to come all the way back the next morning. One
of them is just a temporary missionary, meaning he is actually just a
surinamese local they found to work with one of the other missionaries
for a transfer. I offered him my bed for the night, a choice I would
later come to regret... As I settled in for bed the following night,
something became apparent to me quite quickly. This surinamese temp
had peed in my bed... needless to say I was not super excited about it
and am currently on couch cushions until further notice... certainly a
character builder to say the least hahah. But anyways the baptism of
the 'K' couple went through!! They are so awesome It's been a
privilege to teach them the past couple weeks, they were so excited
for this and have a super strong testimony. Definitely some people I
won't forget! I hope you all have a great week I'll talk to you again
soon!
Love, Elder Carpenter