March 28, 2011

Ruiz is a recent convert who is getting married in August and going to the temple in September.

Zuma and Elder Hulme

Elder Bytendorp and Elder Hulme.   This outside of the church in Tamenga, where we will watch General Conference next week.

ZR Parni's house after the massive rain on Tuesday.  The whole city was flooded.  I was in water up past the top of my chain ring.

It's cool, because missionaries have been trying to get ZR Parni to church for 6 months and she simply didn't ever come.  Now she's been 3 weeks in a row.  I think it's because she likes it when we speak Javan's with her, that's the language of the Javanese.  Akoe sunung karo kowee. That's the Dutch spelling of a Javans sentence, so it likely won't translate well.  

Everyone rides on handlebars here

Me and Seth going to an appointment.

My missionary day was great, we got our house inspected, and had an effective work day.  Made brownies.  Elder Bytendorp's birthday was nuts!  We taught so many people! And we bought Pizza Hut, which was way expensive, each slice is 10SRD.  It was delicious though, and lasted two days.  Then we had Zone Conference on Saturday morning. Apparently this daily goals thing is brilliant.  I set weekly goals, then plan out how to achieve them with daily goals, then when I achieve my daily goals, the weekly goals just fall into place.  It's a good system.  
Zone Conference we talked about activating the power of the Priesthood here in Suriname.  President Gamiette got me really inspired to do better with this last chunk of full time service.  


Elder Bytendorp has been great.  He's good about taking pictures of stuff.  Our only problem is that we are both easily distracted, so planning every night that is supposed to take 30 minutes, takes an hour and a half each day.  We're working on it though.  I've been thinking a lot about how I can become a better teacher.  This was introduced by CES to President Gamiette:  Search, Analyze and Apply questions
Search questions are things found in the text that you just read, they are used to specify what will be discussed, they are called the head knowledge.
Analyze questions are used to take the principle out of the text.  They get the person thinking, and are the heart knowledge.  
Apply questions are used to take the head and heart knowledge, and place it into the soul.  They are tough sometimes.  These are the Soul questions.

I'm still not incredible with this source of good teaching, but I'll be working on it a lot.  President Gamiette blew us away with his use of these types of questions.  It was absolutely incredible.  This is something that has always been around, but is becoming more understood now, so hopefully we will all become better teachers.  


The Jansens are having the missionaries over today at 2, so I'll be having a very delightful dutch meal later today.  
I love you all bunches.

March 14, 2011

This week was good.  I've comitted myself and Elder Freeman to work with the branch more, and we did.  The issue is that all of our other numbers dropped.  I had to use a morning doing more visa stuff - working state side has benefits.  Elder Freeman's bike is kabusted, and we spent from 11 to 4 on Friday trying to fix it, it's still broken. Numbers wise, good week.  Souls wise, I just hope we helped someone. 

We found a lady, Mevrouw Panee.  I think it's a french name that is spelled more like Panet, but I'm not positive.  She told us all these stories her great grandpa told her as a child.  They are native american.  The coolest part is that all the stories she told us, are actually in the Book of Mormon.  I think we'll be working toward helping her and her son get baptized. 

The Kasmanis haven't been to church in 3 weeks, except for Denise and Cheyanne.  I asked Sister Kasmani if she was coming, she said that they didn't have enough money to get to church, because taxi prices are going up with gasoline which is 4.75SRD per liter unleaded (yes, the gasoline is incredibly expensive).  I asked them to pray for a miracle.  I then went home and made some phone calls to try to make the miracle come about, and it did.  I want to give a little interlude on faith.  Some people seem to think that faith is just not doubting, but I'm convinced that that is only 1% of 100 of what faith is.  James 2 teaches that faith without works is dead.  Alma 32:21 teaches that we have to not see, but believe in something that is true.  So in this story, I demonstrated faith in believing that I could get them a ride, but it didn't mean anything until I did all possible to get them a ride, or rather, did something faithful.  It's all about what you do, not what you think or your attitude about things, however thoughts and attitudes affect what you do.  So if you have faith, it is measured by what you do.  Interlude concluded.  Ritchi, again the Branch Mission Leader, said he'd be glad to pick them up and take them to church.  So I called Brother Kasmani Sunday morning, he was working.  I called sister Kasmani, no answer.  I called Denise, who was sleeping, and told her that they had a ride.  She was very excited and sleepy and went to wake up everyone else.  Ritchy showed up to church and only Denise and Cheyanne had come.  For some reason, the rest stayed home, simply didn't want to come.  I'm so perplexed, because when we go there twice a week, each Monday and Thursday, they are thrilled to see us, and seem super excited, they invite their friends and everything.  There is something else there, and we have to find it.  It'll come though. 

 

Mom, you asked about the food washing.  I hope that I'm not missing something there, but I haven't washed any food since I got here, at least nothing out of the ordinary.  I've heard that Guyana is way worse and filthier, but here everything is mostly clean.  I'm still getting fat, so I don't think I've got any sicknesses or parasites.  My tan pants and a pair of my blue pants are completely too small, I can't even button them.  I think that I'm just putting on man weight, and not really getting all that fat, just thickening out of my boyish figure a bit. 

I heard about those Japanese earthquakes, Hopelijk is alles daarmee goed. 

The zone leaders have a van, and the Jansens have a truck, the rest of us are on bikes.  The people who live above us have a car, they are great neighbors, they don't play loud movies or anything, and they are neat and clean, even though the construction workers are filthy and leave the place looking like garbage outside.  He actually cleaned up a bunch of the construction stuff yesterday.

Nobody likes dogs here, they just are for protection (The dogs here aren't like American dogs at all.  They are the most foul and disgusting things imaginable, not like Decca at all.) Houses here have a gate, then the porched is barred up like a prison.  All the windows are barred up.  

We continue to buy Mrs. Olga's popsicles, even though there is a woman down the road that sells chocolate ones - I still need to investigate that.  We've taught her grandson a few times. The woman is awful and not very kind to us, but I want to buy her ijsjes some day.

We are not allowed to take naps on Sunday, however I was reading the Book of Mormon during lunch and fell asleep for 15 minutes, but  we got out of the house on time anyway.  

President Gamiette comitted us to read the who Book of Mormon in a month.  I decided to read it in Dutch, and I'm on track to finish by the end of the month.  I've been reading so so much it seems, but it's been great.  If I'm feeling down, or not very excited about the work, or tired or anything I'll just start reading, and it boosts me enough to keep going strong.  I'm also putting the story together better, Mormon was brilliant.  He was able to put 2 or 3 stories, simultaneously happening, together and do so in a way that is understandable.  Also he recorded the history of an entire civilization and put in tons of doctrine. I hope to meet that guy some day. 

Transfer calls are this Thursday, we'll see what I'll be doing for the next 6 weeks.  This transfer has gone by so fast for me.

Love you all.

-Elder Hulme

March 21, 2011

No new photos, so this is an old one - Elder Hulme, President Holzapfel, Elder Guinn

I got a new companion.  Elder Bytendorp, from Sandy.  He's got less than 6 months in his mission, so he's the most experienced companion I've ever had.  I think that this is going to be a fantastic couple of weeks.  I was shocked however, that I stayed with Elder Freeman only for 6 weeks.  He got transferred to the south, Koewarisan.  He was really sad I think, and the Kasmani's said that they don't like it when the missionaries leave, and that we're no longer allowed to go over to their house.  I hope they don't mean it, but they were really sad.  I'll send more info on Elder Bytendorp when I know him better, he does snowboard though, so that's good. 

 

Thursday is 1 year for me.  Also the day before Elder Bytendorp's birthday.  As for the halfway mark, things have started to begin clicking in my mind the last few days.  It's like there was fog there, and it's not there anymore.  I'm not sure what it is that's changing, but something is.  I like being in charge of the area, even though I'm Jr companion now,  I'll be planning everything because he's never worked here.  I was receiving all kinds of inspiration in church on Sunday, even though the talks and stuff were the same as all the other weeks.  Numbers this week were about the same, but we taught lots of lessons.  

I spent all morning cleaning someone else's apartment today.  The health lady from the mission is coming on Wednesday, and this apartment needed help, so they sent me there with Elder Baker and we cleaned for a few hours and then went to Roopram for some roti.  It's absolutely incredible how filthy missionaries are.  I think due to how easy it is to say things like "well I only lived there 3 weeks."  Phrases like that are a recently found enemy of mine.  Again, I threw away years and years worth of collected garbage, cleaned things that had never been cleaned before, and used another big chunk of another p-day.  After roti, we moved Elder Bytendorp in (Elder Freeman moved out last night) and now I'm here emailing. The real bummer is that I needed to purchase a new wheel today, but we still haven't done laundry or shopping and the wheel place is simply too far for how short my time is.  Also I have two letters, one for Hoven and one for Jayson that I needed to send, but not enough time. 

 

I love you all.  The work here is going forward, I'm happy and loving the land and the people. 

-Elder Hulme

March 7, 2011

Elder Hulme and Elder Freeman live here

It feels good to have a nice clean new house.  No extra stuff or anything.  The tricky part is that it takes a lot to keep this place clean.  It's all white tile floor that holds and shows dirt clearly.  Our upstairs neighbors are virtually not there, and the lady across the street sells Ijsjes for .50 SRD.  Ijsjes are home made popsicles, and hers are quite tasty.  She's this nice lady named Olga, must be 120 years old.  She has these awful dogs that bark at us while we are in our house, and bark more when we come outside.  She then begins chasing them down throwing shoes and rocks at them until they shut up.  It's hilarious.  Some dogs broke into her trash bags last night, so this morning we helped her clean up.  It's funny, our neighborhood is ghetto!  100% creole and tons of little kids.  I like it though, even though our house stands out compared to all the other ones... I don't like that part much, but I guess it's not that important really. 

A pretty decent-looking kitchen

This week was a good one.  We haven't seen Navin yet, but it'll come.  We went to Brother Borgia last night, he's a member thats been in the church for about 18 years, which is 3 years less than the church has been in Suriname.  He's medium active, knows everything about the church, but really isn't all the way converted.  He studies, all kinds of books and stuff, but the connection from his brain to his spirit isn't quite there yet. 

A swerver (?) sleeping outside of their church building

 We gathered as a zone, and everyone shared one thing that they thought we could do or stop doing to make our zone more righteous, and become better missionaries.  So I said that we all needed to certify, or progress in the training president Gamiette gave us to do, but not many people have done.  So for 40 days, we will all be working on that, in addition to all the other things that the other missionaries said. The fast is also in an effort to prepare to meet our goal of baptizing 89 people in Suriname before the end of the year, and to bring more unity to the zone. 

Elder Freeman eating breakfast

I was really tired the whole weekend, probably from a lack of sleep all week.  I only slept for about 5 hours on Monday, then was up late and out of bed early the whole week.  Being tired is such an interesting sensation, I really don't care for it.  Luckily getting up at 6:30 is mostly natural for me now.  I've worked so hard to develop that habit, I'm holding on to it for the whole rest of my life.  And I think in D&C it is a commandment somewhere anyway, to get up early.  It's interesting looking at myself 2 years ago, thinking that the commandment didn't apply to me?  Even one year ago.. but then I was still working at Sundance, and had to get up at 7. 

Everyone said something about my year mark coming up, and I realized that also, just yesterday.  It's scary because I haven't even done anything yet!  I am however excited to see if I can do better with the last half than I have the first, it's going to be tough to top.

Good news.  Yesterday, Rachel was confirmed a member of the church, a woman I found and taught in Munder. 

 

Moved, Address

Elder Hulme has moved into a new house, but his address is still the same:

PO Box 2932
Paramaribo, Suriname
South American

Here's today:
I got up at 6:30 and packed until 7, then started cleaning. I cleaned in a way that would make mom's jaw drop.  The whole apartment, all sparkly clean.  Then when the Jansens came (11:30) I was still cleaning and they came in and told us how filthy the place was.  It's tough.  My stuff took me a half hour, but cleaning the ions worth of things from other missionaries takes far longer.  It's the same problem we had in my apartment in Ensley - the thought of "maybe somebody will want this" is a real real curse.  Tons of Ensigns, New Era's, Liahona's, DE STER's, and other books that we aren't technically allowed to read as missionaries.  Lot's of garbage bags, lots of sweeping, lots of dishes, and we're still not done.  I guess work is work and it had to be done some day.  Also, we're fasting, so I'm super hungry and thirsty still, another hour and I'll be eating.  We'll be moving in at about 4 or about 6.


We had the first Zone Council, as opposed to Zone Meeting, on Friday.  We talked about all the things that the District Leaders and Zone Leaders had learned in Trinidad.  There are lots of changes going on right now.  It seems that most missionaries in the mission are taking an introspective look at missionary work, and redoubling their efforts.  We talked about unity, and our goals for the year.  We set some goals and as a zone are beginning a 40 day fast.  Everyone put in one suggestion and the whole zone had to agree for it to be put into the fast.  The only suggestion that was denied was that of listening only to hymns - one companionship refused to do that, so the whole zone decided not to.  Things in the list are things like studying every day, using good language, various obedience things, I put in that we all need to level up in this personal preparation thing that President Gamiette has asked us to do.  All sorts of things that we as a zone will be doing together in an effort to create a unified and Zion-like zone.  
We had a fantastic week, and then saw the church's lowest turnout I've ever seen.  I guess it just fluctuates a lot here.  But it disproved the idea that rain makes people not go to church, because it was absolutely beautiful yesterday.  Likely the nicest morning I've experienced in my entire life.  Maybe everyone went skiing, that's what I would have wanted to do in a situation like that.
You asked how Dutch is.  I've heard all this stuff about dreaming in different languages and that is how you know if you're fluent or something. I've never dreamed in Dutch, but I'm quite fluent.  I study a lot, practice most times, and have been putting a lot of effort into it.  Actually, as a part of the zone's 40-day fast, Elder Wehl (the only Surinamer missionary in the zone) decided that we will be having a contest beginning tomorrow at 6:30, to see which companionship can go the longest without using English.  I want to win.  I think Elder Freeman thinks it'll be fun too. I still don't know all the words in the world, but it's coming.  

You got me nearly drooling with all that mention of homemade bread.  The bread situation here is strange.  There is Fernandez, the company that seems to own all retail in Suriname, and then these Chinese breads.  Sometimes you can find bakeries, but as missionaries, we don't make it out to the bakeries often.  Fernandez has 6 models of bread, listed as follows:
red-white
blue-milky type bread
yellow-wheat
orange-double wheat or something
maroon-white with grains
green-really dark with grains
I like the green usually.  It's soft and has the best flavor.  
There are two things that are absolutely awful in Suriname: Milk and butter.  There is only one kind of butter sold in stores, the rest is margarine, and the butter is way too salty, and it's not nearly creamy enough to be butter. The milk is just unavoidable.  I decided that soy milk was too expensive, at 9SRD per Liter, and the other milk is the super long-lasting stuff that you don't have to refrigerate.  This presents multiple problems, because you don't want to buy milk because it's gross, then if you have a recipe that requires milk, you either don't have it, or don't want to use it because you know it'll put a nasty flavor in the food.  Then when you make cookies and brownies and things, there is no way to quench the richness of the food.  

Yesterday we had our appointments almost all fall through, so we were riding around, talking to people on the streets, going to their houses and things.  We happened to run into where Ritchy, the branch Mission Leader, was staying.  He was sitting on the couch in the front room and we asked him if he knew anyone nearby we could visit.  He took us to Navin's house and we talked with Navin.  He's a member, 26 years old, and hasn't been to church in a while.  He's been working at a casino, got back into some old Word of Wisdom issues, but he's smart, knows the stuff and is cool.  Hope to help him.    
Love you bunches, I'm out of time.