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
