My Favorite Tool is Called a Chop

This is me with Brother Tjong a Jong, the day that we did service for him.  That tool is called a chop, I think it's my favorite tool, similar to a hoe but shorter handle and a very setback blade.

Next is me and Brother Conrad.  He's one of our best investigators right now.  He looks like a pirate, came to church, is loving the Book of Mormon. 

He's been a bus driver for like 50 years now, and used to work with Brother Tjongajong for a long long time.  We didn't know that until he came to church and they were talking, it was a good experience.  As he was leaving the church he was saying something to the effect  of how glad he was that God had lead him to this church.  He won't accept a baptismal date yet, I'm not sure why, but he knows we expect it.  I'm very glad for him, and excited to work even more with him.  Elder Scott who is coming home in 2 weeks took a picture with him, and made a pirate hook with his finger, it was pretty funny.  

The last is our new district!  we've got 3 trainers and 3 trainees now.  The one in the red is Elder Garcia, he's cool, from sugar house, and looks just like Tyler Otteson to me.  The other is Elder Sadler, from Illinois somewhere.  He seems good too, but I haven't had too much of a chance to talk with him.  The other three elders are Elder Tullis, training Elder Sadler, and I'm so stoked for him, I would love to have Elder Tullis as my trainer - he knows how to make missionary work fun.  Elder Fernandez, of Brussels Belgium is training Elder Garcia, the two spanish root name companionship.  Then there is Elder Job and I, loving the work in Wanica.  Elder Job has lots of interesting things.  He's from Groningen, he's got a girlfriend who is a convert of 2 years and will be getting her mission papers in sometime.  It's funny because he's super dark and she's super light, like way way way white skin.  Elder Job gets tons of mail, from tons of people, nearly every day.  He likes making pancakes in the morning.  He's been snowboarding before, but in an indoor artificial resort, it sounds kind of boring compared to real mountains.


We got together as a zone today, played some frisbee, played some soccer, basketball, everything.  Then went and spent 300SRD at Burger King.  I like the Angry Whopper.  I haven't had Javanese food in a long time...  I should get on that.  For the caramel corn, I just browned some butter, added some coffee cream and sugar and poured that on salted popcorn.  I'm so excited for conference, I love this time of year, even though this is my last conference.  It's so strange being on the downhill slope of missionary work, and seeing other elders packing up and going home.  

I gave a talk on Sunday.  I talked about scripture study.  I am trying to get the branch to learn the doctrines better, because it seems that the understanding level right now is very very simple, and not very converted.  I used the parts that talk about "ask and ye shall recieve, seek knock."  My favorite is in 2Nephi 32:3-5 with the question of, What happens if you do not understand the doctrine?  MMMMM I love restored truth.  Did you get my postcard?  and Elder Job's?

It's great hearing from you.  Thanks for all the support.  

-Elder Hulme

September 12, 2011

So, the first activity was something that Miranjo, the son of the Branch President, and the only active deacon said he wanted to organize.  We said okay and let him do it because he said he could get 16 of his friends there.  When it was done, he didn't have a single friend there.  We were able to get Joan's boy to come and we had a good time with them and all the women that were asked to bring food.  

This second activity was something Elder Job put together.  We invited Joan to teach us all how to make our own kites, and then fly them, snacks and things would be thereafter provided.  We invited lots and lots of people and turned out with 5 investigators there.  Joan and two of her sons, and then these two brothers we met on the street the week previous.  Also many more people from the branch showed up and we had a great time making kites, I can show you all how some day.  The picture is of Brother Meygoe rescuing his kite from the roof of the church.  And some people making kites, and the snacks.  We made a vital mistake with this activity, and didn't have any spiritual benefits integrated into it.  Hopefully we will do better about that in the future, it was good for me to experience it though, and realize if you don't take control and make the spiritual things happen, they simply don't happen.

 

Ricardo is doing really well.  I think that Daboetje lied though - I don't think he's been trying to read for a while, so we've made some plans to crack down on him and get him into the Book of Mormon.  It's incredible seeing his personality develop.  He's 33 years old, and hasn't had any sort of work for the last 10 years.  He spent some time in prison, and on the streets homeless.  All because he was not following the commandments, (surely he was never taught to follow them or what they are, but still) and now, he's working, learning Dutch, learning to read and preparing to receive the Aaronic priesthood.  It's so great being able to see the massive progression and improvement he's had in his life.  I love being witness to it.  

We started finding work in a new area this week too.  It's close to the church, and home, and just feels like the right place to be.  We have one street called Kroondijkstraat that we have 4 investigators on.  Also, Ricardo lives nearby and we hope to take him to visit some of the people with us, to get him used to doing missionary work.  I like this new place, it's very calm and quiet, and lots of kids playing around doing crazy stuff, chasing each other and all that good stuff.  Also there isn't other churches nearby teaching anti to all the people, that makes them far more receptive to our visits.  

I've been studying repentance like President Gamiette told me to.  I've begun repenting as much as possible, and as quickly as possible.  I've learned a lot about how the Holy Ghost can purify us of our sins, and how without the ordinances such as baptism and confirmation, you can't get cleaned from sin.  I read 3 Nephi 19 this morning, and it's incredible looking at the manner in which Jesus prays, and the things he says about the people in the land of Bountiful.  When I entered the MTC I think I had maybe 3 verses of scripture memorized. I've been working on that really really hard and I think I know about 200 verses now from the standard works.  I read each Ensign completely the month it comes out.  All you have to do is put it by the toilet - it's a perfect plan!  I love being a missionary.  

We made a discovery this week, after realizing how disappointed we have been due to the lack of berries here.  There is only one berry, and that's the podosiri berry, AKA Acai.  They are all over and way cheap.  The discovery is this: the flavors of all fruits can be found in Suriname.  I bought some green bananas, they never turn yellow.  These bananas contain the flavor of the blackberry, but in banana form.  We had some other ones too, called Zuiker Bacova, sugar banana, it hides within it's peel the flavor and tartness of an apple.  I tried this morning a new zuiker bacova, and it is in the essence of strawberry.  This is an incredible step for the science of mankind!  

Ik hou heel veel van jullie. 

-Elder Hulme

September 5, 2011

Elder Job (from the Netherlands) and Elder Hulme

In the Suriname style Dutch, the word Gerechte is used as the english "dish" and Kwak is one of these dishes.  It's made from Kassava and ginger and quite good.  That's a really good translation though, I laughed at least.  I didn't get any shoes because they were all so awful.  I'm going to look into finding a cobbler.  In another few minutes, the Jansens will pick us up and take us to their house to eat, and we as a whole zone will be watching the newest Joseph Smith movie with lots of extra footage and stuff.  I'm happy to go and will enjoy being able to relax a bit.  I hope to find some more time to study though.  I've realized that I don't know nearly enough about repentance and forgiveness and things. 

Upon further investigation, Ricardo had been reading, just when Jerome wasn't home, so he didn't know about it.  That cleared him for baptism, and Brother Ricardo Babel is the newest member of the Wanica Branch.  It was great seeing him prepare and make the covenant.  It also really built up Dudie, the referrer of Ricardo. Dudie is the girlfriend of Ricardo's older brother.  She explained that while Lucian was giving his talk on the Holy Ghost she really was struck by it.  She really wants to get married so she'll not longer be living in sin.  I hope they take care of that quickly.  I think if you've been dating for 5 years and you're still not married, that is just bad planning and a bad idea. 

Zone conference was Saturday.  It was nice, we had President Gamiette present, and also President Vinas a member of the first quorum of the 70, meaning he is a general authority. All members of the 1st and 2nd quorums of the 70 are general authorities. I didn't know that until this weekend.  We talked about the atonement.  Many of the thoughts shared were verses that I felt I had been lead to in the month previous.  It was a cool experience seeing that God really has been leading and guiding me all along the way.  We got our transfer calls - Elder Job and I are staying in Wanica!  I'm so pleased with that.  Elder Tullis and Elder Fernandez will be working in Koewarisan, another area in our district.  I'm glad to be able to go on exchanges with them and have a good time with them.  

This whole week seemed abnormally hard, and stressful, and failure ridden.  I think, however, that Elder Job and I learned a lot due to the stress.  We organized a young men's activity, since there is no young men's president or anything.  It was a success all in all, but we didn't have as many people there as what would have been ideal.  We're doing a "learn to make a kite" activity on Thursday.  Elder Job did that one pretty much all by himself - I was very proud of him for it.  

I'm out of time, enjoy life.

Elder Hulme