July 18 They eat monkey's. (not the missionaries. the people who live there)

Hello everyone! I don't have a ton of time today since i need to print
out a form and do some other stuff today but Uitkijk is awesome!! It's
such a cool area, i've seen like 20 snakes already! Hahah and the
roads are so long they just go on forever it seems like... The
farthest place we bike to is a place called Groningen and it's about
an hour and a half, over like 20 or 30 kilometers away or something
like that, it's just insane. But it is so beautiful and I loved church
this sunday. We are the smallest branch, we had 15 people yesterday
and that is pretty normal, sometimes more and sometimes less. I loved
it though it's just such a cool little atmosphere. We already put a
guy on date! His name is 'A' and one of the brothers from the
church named Br. B picked him up for us and brought him! He
expressed a desire to be baptized while in the church service and so
it looks like Uitkijk's attendance will be going up by one just now!
Elder Hardy is also just the coolest guy. We quote star wars and
spongebob together most of the hours while we're biking together and
so it's a great time naturally, hahah. He is from Las Vegas and is a
very good and hard working missionary. So far it has been just a great
time and some good memories, which I'm sure will continue the next 5
weeks!! Anyways I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!!!
Elder Carpenter

 A Kingsnake he assured me was not poisonous

 Saying goodbye to Elder Geigenmiller

  Pet birds.  They used to have a pet monkey......then they ate it! :O not. kidding. :(

July 11 Uitkijk

Hey everybody! I hope that you're all doing well, I am doing

fantastic! Because I just found out that I'm going to the Jungle in

UITKIJK!!! Hahah I am going to spend my last transfer there with Elder

Hardy! He is a super cool Elder and I am so excited for it! The

uitkijk area is crazy, it's huge and the furthest away from the city.

Some of the members live over an hour bike ride away! So it seems like

I'll be returning home not only with honor, but with some really solid

thighs. Hahah they only get like 8 or 9 people in church some weeks

which will definitely take some getting used to but the area is

beautiful and it's the area with the highest chance of seeing

anacondas, crocodiles, and sloths :) hahah I am very excited for the

opportunity to go here, although saying goodbye to everyone here in

wanica south has been very difficult so far :( I love the people here

but i know that Uitkijk is where I'm needed next. I hope that I can

fulfill my purposes there these next few weeks and really make it a

meaningful time. We had a really cool experience just a couple of days

ago as well when we heard that one of our investigators sons was in

the hospital! We visited them the night he got released and he asked

us if we could pray for him, we told him we could do more than just

that and give him a blessing with the priesthood. He readily said that

he would like that, and we gave him a powerful blessing. The next

Sunday, he came to church with our investigator! And is now taking the

lessons and is close to receiving a baptismal date, his name is 'M'

and I am so excited to see how he progresses after I leave. I hope you

all have a wonderful week and I will tell you all about Uitkijk next

Monday!!

Lobi!

Elder Carpenter

July 4 Happy Birthday America!

HELLO EVERYONE!! This was a wonderful week! I hope that you all are
having a wonderful fourth of july right now!!!
We saw a lot of cool things happen this week, we set a baptismal date
with a woman named 'C' and her daughter for august 6th and she's
super excited!! One of our investigators also just got up in sacrament
meeting and gave her testimony! Her name is sister 'S' and she
talked about how much she loved the church and how much she loves when
we come by and visit her, she is also super close to accepting a date
as well! We are so excited for all of the cool things and grateful as
well. This is the last week of the transfer which means in a few days
I'll find out where I die! :O But not to worry me and Elder
Geigenmiller have been very good at sprinting to the end and I don't
think that will change regardless of who I'm with or where I am. I
love the time I have to be a missionary! I am grateful for the people
I serve and for all of the wonderful people who help and support me. I
hope that you all have a great day and I'll be sure to let you all
know where I'm headed next week!!
Lobi!
Elder Carpenter

June 27 Nearing the end..... Of rainy season

Hello family and friends, I was prettyyyyyy sick this week :( but i am
since then recovered and so there's no need to worry :p I don't even
know if it was a jungle virus or the flu or what but it was pretty
annoying. Despite the setbacks we still had a great week and we were
able to baptize 'G!' He was so excited to get baptized and there
were a lot of people who came to support him and it was great to see.
We also have a great new investigator named 'C,' she has a
mother who is a member but she's very old and sick, and 'C' goes
by almost every day to visit and take care of her, they talk a lot and
recently 'C' has been getting more interested in the church and
so we've started to teach her. She has a great understanding which is
a nice change of pace and I could really see her becoming a great
member someday! People are saying that the rainy season is about to
come to an end and I'm very grateful for that as well. I can finally
stop carrying my giant umbrella around, it sticks off my bike like 3
feet and has probably brought me closer to death than all of my
mosquito borne illnesses combined. People just drive way too close to
you while you're biking but that's just life here I suppose. Anyways I
hope that you all have a great week!
Lobi!
Elder Carpenter

June 20 two months and 5 days. But who's counting.

Hello! As I am writing this it is dumping tons of rain outside, it appears

we are still not out of the rainy season yet. I bought a huge umbrella

though and have started to just bike around with it so that actually keeps

me very dry most of the time now. We moved 'G's' baptism just one more

week back and so you will all probably get the pictures from that next

week. We needed some time to finish reviewing the lessons since there were

a couple of things we asked him about he didn't actually understand. He has

a mother who talks for a REALLYYY long time and so we have decided to just

meet with him individually and he gets so much more out of it. His dutch is

also not the best and so we just have to take it really slow and help him

to understand what a lot of words mean and why these things are important.

In other news, 'W,' our recent convert, is having a very strange

problem at the moment, in that he has been claiming to be attacked by

demons who keep telling him to burn his book of Mormon... we are going to

go dedicate his house this week with the branch president and are trying to

help W understand that spirits can't force him to do things and that

he has power over them. It has been very stressful. hahah but we are making

do. I hope that you all have a great start to your summer and you'll

hear from me again soon!

Elder Carpenter

Creepy nasty beetle!!

Two of the boys of the 'D' family. They get pretty wild and crazy when they're trying to teach lessons. 

June 13 the long road home

Hello Everyone!! This week was pretty weird for the most part. We had
one night in particular that really took it out of me, we were riding
to an appointment pretty far away when my back tire went flat! I
called the missionaries with the van but the van was getting repaired
so we were left alone to figure it out:p Hahah But it actually turned
out to be a good experience because as we were walking to the nearest
member's house to drop our bikes off for the night to catch a bus
home, we had a really cool opportunity to help a family in need who
were on the side of the road sitting on a couple of benches. They
didn't have anywhere to stay that night and were asking us for help,
we were able to help them out substantially and they were very
grateful, I felt like we were probably supposed to help them that
night, and I was happy to be able to help someone in need. This week a
young girl named 'S' was baptized, she turned 8 and her family are
recent converts to the church, since we teach the family they invited
us to the baptism and it went really well. Next week, one of our
investigators 'G' will be getting baptized! He is really excited
and we are looking forward to that a lot as well. I hope you are all
doing well and that you have a great week!

Lobi!
Elder Carpenter

South zone before the transfer

May 30

Hello! I hope that you all are doing well, I received a transfer call

the other day that told me that I will be staying here with Elder

Geigenmiller for one more transfer! And so it looks like he will be my

4th companion that I have for 3 transfers or more :o I am excited

about the area Wanica South right now because we have lots of people

to teach which is really good. We have two people on baptismal dates

for later in june or early july and I am hoping that they both make

it. One of them is an extended family member of the 'A' family, he is 15 and a great kid who has come to church the past two

months in a row without missing a day! He comes with the bus together

with the 'A' family to church ever sunday. The other is 'P' who I

mentioned last week, he is trying to overcome an addiction right now

and with a little help will hopefully be able to get baptized in the

following months if it goes well. He has a strong desire so I know

that the Lord will help him. This week rained a decent amount, but

that's not out of the usual, I do hope that the rain stops sometime

this transfer though. We did a service project for a member and

returned missionary also named 'W' and helped him cut a bunch of

grass and trees with machetes. He was complaining the whole time how

he's 27 and trying to find a wife. He said one of his few candidates

at the moment is 'A.'  A member in paramaribo who i baptized!

Hahah when I told him that he said that I am going to be the master of

ceremonies so I hope it works out between them. Anyways, I hope you

all have a great week and you'll hear from me again soon!

All the missionaries in Suriname 

Elder Geigenmiller hugging a cactus

Scenery

Their bikes in front of a house