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.