March 19, 2012
Beste Families, Succes om dit te kunnen lezen!
This week has been pleasant. I think for the inhabitants of both continents. And there have been no further tropical diseases. And my bike has been a strong as ever.
Brother Lloyd Olymph and Sister Jolanda Verdies were married Wednesday March 14th at 6pm in Paramaribo. It was scary at first that nobody was going to come. Elder Guinn in all his wisdom pointed out that they began at 5pm on a work day, and that people would be filtering in as the night drew on. Which they did. Elder Warner and I were in charge of drinks, and we had a lot of fun, a lot of spills and a lot of drinks. President Gefferie was not there, because he was being trained for his new promotion, which training took place in the interior. The problem was that he's the only one in the branch who even owns music. No music afterwords makes for a tough party. Luckily Brother Olymph knows a lot of songs, and he sang the music that night until Jason, the son of President Gefferie, came with music. Everything seemed to work out perfectly. The food was good and there was enough for everyone. We met a lot of new people, family from both sides. A few of our investigators were present, and everyone seemed to have a great time.
Saturday was also a cool day. Brother Olymph was baptized. This was a very very special service for me. It was so peaceful and right feeling. He bore a beautiful testimony at the end. He is very determined to take his new wife to the temple. If the photo will actually come through, I'm waving to you all. Seriously though, it was the best baptismal service ever. After the service there was a priesthood training by the first counselor to the mission president, President Goodluck of Guyana, and Elder Anderson of the 2nd quorum of the 70. It was fantastic. They did a recent convert training the next morning(Sunday) before district conference. Elder Anderson taught us how Christ can also be called the father. It comes by baptism. Just as when I was born I took the name of Hulme and call Mr Hulme father, when someone is born again or baptized, they take the name of Christ, and he is thus their father. Really cool, because nobody has been able to understand that since the time of Christ. I've still got to restudy it and compile it in my study journal. If anyone wants to read my study journals, you are welcome to. I was studying my old one this morning, and there is some good stuff in there!
P. is learning slowly. We are the tutors. We have no idea how to teach people to read, but it seems to be working, he becomes continually better. It's extra challenging since he is reading a language that he can barely speak. We may need to get him some Sranan Tongo reading material. We're going over there in a few hours to make roti and french fries. For some reason P. really wants to make us french fries, so we said we'd make him roti. It should be a good experience, we'll practice reading even more.
I discovered coconuts this week! Our house has 4 coconut trees and they are almost all ready to eat. I've got about 8 in the fridge right now. We cool them down, and then use them to make smoothies using the coconut water and goo, and frozen bananas, and watermelon or whatever else we've got. It's so good. The first 2 I ate made me feel awful, but I guess your body just needs to get used to drinking coconut water.
I need all of your help to keep me focused, I've been praying for help.
Thanks for everything
-Elder Hulme
