Transfer to Wanica

I got your package!  Thanks so much, pictures were number 1!  I still haven't seen or heard anything about grandma's.  Thanks also for putting cash in the box, it makes it a lot easier to pay for.  

After the trip to the binnenland, Elder Guinn and I thought we were going to get busted hard.  We called the assistants and asked them about it, they asked President Gamiette, and nothing happened.  The whole thing turned out just fine.  


Transfers
I got a crazy crazy transfer call.  I'll be working in Wanica.  I get to serve as a trainer for an elder fresh out of the MTC name Elder Job.  He's from the Netherlands, but his parents are from Curacao.  He arrives Wednesday morning at like 2, and I'll be working in Wanica with Elder Tullis until he arrives.  I'm very relieved (and a little sad) to not be the zone leader anymore.  That's a really big mantle and I can feel the weight of it lifting off me already.  I will miss driving though.  I get to learn Dutch from a native now too, that will help lots.  Elders Guinn and Pederson will also be training.  Their trainees got stuck due to visa delays, but they shouldn't be held up long though.  Elder Norton is going back to being zone leader, with Elder Scott, who will be coming back from Guyana - he left a few months ago and gets to come back.  
I'm down with going to BYU, I'm a bit torn between BYU and UofU.  BYU has a good scene, but I think UofU does too.  I like this list of ideas.  I've been pondering about becoming a physics professor.  If I do it at BYU, I could also remain associated with CES, where I could further improve my teaching skills.  
Marina is doing well, she will be baptized on the 6th of August.  We found a family too, the Roos. That means pink.  They are sweet, and should be baptized soon


There was that same iguana who used to live in the tree outside my window, we found where he's living now.  He was hanging out on our big water tank this morning.  So we started chasing him around.  What it finally came to was us walking around behind this boomkip and now he's stuck on our balcony where we chill on the hammock.  Pets are not allowed, but I don't think it's bad to leave nature where nature wants to live right?  


Studies have been a lot on obedience if you can see the irony there.  There is this quote by Bruce R McConkie "Faith is a gift of God bestowed as a reward for personal righteousness.  It is always given when righteousness is present, and the greater the measure of obedience to God's laws the greater will be the endowment of Faith."  If you mix this quote with Ether 12:12 you get miracles.  So I've been trying to become more righteous.  Trying to lift myself from the physical to the spiritual side of things.  Then yesterday morning I received some of the best revelation I've ever received, it came from a talk given by Kevin W. Pearson. "The ability to focus and be steadfast , continually holding fast to true principles, nothing wavering, even when the mist of darkness confronting us is exceedingly great.  This quality of faith is exceedingly powerful."  When things get rough and the mist gets thicker what can you do?  There are really only two options.  Stop and start sliding backwards, or press forward.  Using Lehi's vision, how would one take steps forward?  If you can't see anything but want to get to the tree, what could lead you there?  There's only one thing really, the word of God.  It's been a good week of studies.

I haven't written a letter in 4 months, sorry everyone.  Actually, I did send Tyler a post card a few weeks ago.
I love you all lots, hope these photos go through easy.
-Elder Hulme

Binnenland, Mud Puddles, Circumstance, and Faith

Thank you all for the ideas on my future, could I ask someone to compile them?  I don't know if that's too much. 

It was requested that we go to the binnenland (inland country) before the end of the transfer.  90% of the country of Suriname is uninhabited Tropical Rainforest.  We went to a part of the inhabited rainforest this morning.  Elder Guinn and I spent some time making plans and phone calls this week and got permission to go to the interior and we did, at about 6:30 this morning.  We drove out there with the bus, I was driving, and the Jansens in the truck and a member guide.  We took off for what we thought would be a great day.  We planned to go up there, do a hike to a waterfall, eat some lunch and then come back and be home around two.  Notice it is now 5.  

About 20 Kilometers before you reach the parking place, you begin on a dirt road.  Dirt roads in the Amazon are awesome, massive massive puddles of water.  The issue is that this water got into our engine, and about half way in the car stopped in a big puddle, not so deep that we couldn't get out, but it was stopped.  Everyone started flipping out, and wondering what we were going to do.  Our guide, who is Broeder Holman, (whose name when spoken sounds similar to my name and I kept getting confused), took out the filter, and sprayed some aerosal bug spray into the engine and got the car running again.  So, we continued deeper into the jungle.  Then we got to this big big hill, with big ruts and a very steep decline on the left side.  As we drove, the bus lost traction and slid into the rut and we got stuck.  (I'm sorry that this story isn't written in a way that is fun to read, but I'm trying to type quickly.) Now some of the Elders were getting somewhat uncomfortable.  I was loving the whole thing.  Just giggling about the entire experience, being in the middle of the jungle with one local and a bunch of white people.  It was decided that we'd ditch the bus after getting it unstuck, and walk the rest of the way to the parking lot.  I took a picture of a monkey, but have no way to send pictures.  It was a nice walk, and at the parking lot they had these crazy birds that I don't think can fly.  They are black, about as big as a chicken, and have this helmet of grey feathers.  They also have some green and purple on their neck (think male mallard).  They make noises like the sound effects on the Donkey Kong game for Super Nintendo.  By the time we got to the place, we had time to eat lunch, hike back, and go home.  We didn't really have time, because we were way late, but we did it anyway.  There was a nice lookout at the parking lot though, that was cool.

Photos stolen by VaLene without permission from Sis. Jansen's Facebook 

The whole experience really proved the point that sometimes what you planned simply doesn't happen.  But if you go about yourself enjoying it, it ends up being way more fun that what you had expected.  But I still got scared because president Gamiette told us specifically to be home before 2, but we didn't even go home yet and it's 5:40.  What a great adventure.  We have to personally fund the fuel and stuff (we have to buy the car a new filter I think). 

Must be the monkey Xander spoke of

President Gamiette tried to teach me this principle, and I've been experiencing it ever since.  This principle I will explain right now:

There are two factors, circumstance, and faith.  Circumstance can come in many forms; i.e., you were placed in a bad branch or area, you don't like your companion, the members aren't helpful, your plans fell through, you can't reach your daily goals, etc.  Now, circumstance like this is unavoidable, nothing will work out perfectly.  The choice we have is how we react.  If I get to my 5pm appointment and it falls through, and the member who was going to come bailed and everything falls to pieces, this is a bad circumstance.  This is where faith can come in.  My desires, my thoughts, and my actions if mixed together becomes my faith.  If I desire to still have a good day, I'll think about what I can do to create it, and then I'll perform in a way that brings a good day.  If my desires are to chill, or simply do mediocre missionary work, or anything like that, I'll think about those things and act accordingly.  Abraham 3:23.  God made us his rulers.  If I choose to rule the situation, I become this ruler, this creator.  If I choose to let the situation rule me, I'm wasting God's time.  I have loved experimenting with this principle all week.  

Marina is going to be baptized on the 6th of August.  I don't know how she'll get free from her chinese boss, but we'll figure something out.  I'm so glad to be seeing her progress.  Zuma taught the best Law of Chastity lesson ever on Sunday.  It's not quite as monumental as what happened with you home boys on Sunday, but I enjoyed it.  We also had Brother Chin give one of the best talks I've ever heard, he spoke about work.  How it is a principle of the Gospel.   He's been a member longer than anyone in the branch, he's also been less active for longer than anyone else has been a member.  He was ordained to be a priest last week, and is doing well.  

I'm doing very well, I'm busy but good.  I love you all a ton.  Thanks for the Birthday whatups.

-Elder Hulme

my hands hurt from typing

7/11/11

4th of July with the Jansens was gezeleg. They put up all these American flags with Dutch flags next to them. There was one that looked like a tattoo that a man on a Harley would possess. Zr Jansen made us hamburgers, and really they were top 3 of the best hamburgers I've ever had, not very American at all though. They take good care of us, and I'll be eating there on Thursday for lunch :). It's nice being with the car, because they are always needing us to come over for one reason or another, so we have more interactions with them than normal. Their grandson is going to be here for the next 3 weeks. He's 16 and is doing what's called a mini mission. He's here working with a pair of elders for two weeks, then he'll spend a week with only the Jansens. It sounds like a pretty good gig for a well behave 16 year old. I think at that age for me, I wouldn't have enjoyed it very much.



Oh, If you ever see Ande's chocolates that are the crunchy toffee flavor, don't be fooled, they are awful, and cost 11SRD.

Pres. Gamiette flew in Wednesday night, and we picked him up Thursday morning for zone conference. Our portion was shortened down to 20 minutes because he wanted to talk more about planning, then it got shortened again to about 8 minutes. It was pretty easy, and we only covered one topic. Pres. Gamiette is brilliant, absolutely the best teacher I've ever encountered. He ended up teaching basically the whole experience. But the real treat came from my interview. One on One with him for about 45 minutes, it was super. I expressed concerns about how long it's been since I've baptized, and he said that if I begin teaching better, contacting better, and repenting more, "we'll see if you don't baptize" the whole experience gave me a lot of hope, and drive to do better. I never have enough time to study and ponder all the things that seem necessary to study and ponder.

We talked to Ruben Saturday. He explained how the Book of Mormon gave him nightmares, and how he believes that it is not of God but of man. He gave the book back and asked us not to return. This blew me away. I was so bummed. We now have 0 families to work with again. We've got to find a whole new teaching pool. We have one girl with a baptismal date for August 6th. I think she'll make it, she's best friends with Zuma, and we think they should get married. Zuma will put his papers in in a few weeks, I'm so happy for him. I was a bit bummed to learn that the only Suriname missionary now is Elder Hoepel, and he goes home the exact same time I do. He'd be returning to be in this branch too, we've only got one returned missionary in this branch, and that's Ritchi Bishesar, and he still needs to finish his mission. Ritchi is good though, his younger brother is also working on his papers, we just need to help him fill them out.
One of the areas, Wanica, is District leadered by my old companion Elder Bytendorp. I learned a lot of good things while working with Elder Bytendorp. It's his last transfer, then he goes home in the middle of August. I'll be eating lunch at Burger King with him in about 35 minutes.

It's interesting reading from the BoM and seeing how closely even missionaries, servants of God can follow the Nephi, Sam, or Laman and Lemuel pattern. There is:
Yes of course, I don't know how but I will do it.
Ok, I'll try
That's going to be hard.... I don't know... Whose Idea was this?



I try to never assume that I'm out of the range of being in these categories.

I used to sleep on my side or stomach. I hit the bed so hard now, that I lay down on my back to wait a little while to cool off before I get under my blanket, and wake up when the alarm goes off not having moved at all.
Thanks for all the birthday love
-Elder Hulme

4th of July

This last month is nothing but a blur.  This week has been lovely, we've been able to sleep in until 6:30am almost every day.  We went over to the Jansen's to double check all the stuff for the ability of the missionaries to stay in Suriname, and everything turned out fine.  I don't really know what happened, but the mean voice lawyer called me because I had sent an email to Pres. Ricks in the Mission Presidency, who forwarded my email to the lawyer.  They got everything worked out and we'll continue missionary efforts in Suriname. 

We'll be going to the Jansen's again today, to have a 4th of July celebration, because the BBQ at the Ambassador's house isn't going to go through.  We'll eat hamburgers and have rootbeer floats and have a grand time. 

I've got now a thing that allows me to drive here in Suriname, it's good.  Driving on the wrong side of the road is about as strange as riding a bike on the wrong side of the road.  After about two weeks it feels mostly normal.  The stranger part is that you have to stay abnormally close to the lines on the inside, because I'm not accustomed to having all the excess automobile hanging off the the left of me.  Normally it's off to the right.  But,  yeah, it all gets normal after a bit of practice. 

Pres. Gamiette is coming Thursday, which is good because we need help.  Everyone is struggling and seeing little to no success in the work.  This is a massive problem because we're supposed to begin baptizing weekly.  We didn't even get to see the people we needed to this week, they were simply too busy, or out of town, or not interested anyway, and didn't get anyone who needed to be there into the church.  So now, we have to wait another week before we can baptize anyone.  It just keeps getting pushed further and further away. 

Elder Hulme and Elder Freeman

We've been teaching a man named Ruben.  He's stubborn.  He's Christian, but refuses to go to church, saying that his home is holy enough so he doesn't need anything further.  He's been reading in the Book of Mormon though, and I think he's learning bit by bit.  He, his wife and a few of his 5 children would then all be baptized.  I've set two personal goals for the last 9 months of service as a full time missionary.  They are as follows

1. Baptize every week for 12 weeks straight

2. Baptize two families, Father Mother Children

These are incredibly lofty, but I think I can do it.  I think also, that this is what the Lord expects of me. 

As I said earlier, President Gamiette will be here Thursday, we are his drivers to everywhere he needs to go.  We'll be having a zone conference and the part that Elder Guinn and I are doing is on the Doctrine of Christ, which goes a lot into unity.  The point I think we want to make is that if we do everything that President Gamiette and the Prophets ask, we'll then produce what is expected of us.  I hope that this will impact the other missionaries like it has impacted me.  It's interesting that I'm striving to be micromanaged by God and his servants, I never thought I'd do that.

Love Elder Hulme

Hiace

Zone leaders don't have any keys, they are all held by the mission president, and we borrow them as necessary (for baptisms and things).  Leadership as a missionary isn't like a calling.  My calling is as an Elder.  But when someone is called into such a position, he is just given further responsibilities within the original calling.  In place of interviews, we do exchanges, or trade offs.  Where you switch companions for a day.  The whole event is ideally an interview/training situation.

just a photo borrowed from the web.

We drive a Toyata Hiace.  It's a big 10 passenger minivan.  Driving outside America is a treat, and something many many people should experience.