Zoo, Camera Broke, Retention, Wedding, Afro Jesus

Kwatta Monkey (English = Spider Monkey)

So I'm working in the area Kwatta, it's named after the Kwatta monkey.  It's going well, Jerry and Ingrid are getting baptized in December, and also married in December, the same week, but the wedding comes first.  


We went to the zoo today. I stood about 3 feet away from a lion, gave a high five to a wild boar, played on the swings, and went down a zipline.  The monkeys are still just like gangsters.  

I was studying Preach My Gospel, because that's what we do, and found an activity I've never done.  It is to ask you all to share an experience.  The question is "How have you been blessed by obeying a specific commandment (i.e. tithing prayer or sabbath or something)?"  I need the support from everyone!  Oh, I got a new pen today.  

I don't know what's up with my camera, but it's not working very well.  It always claims to have a lens error.  The lame part is that it didn't get dropped, or wet or anything, it just stopped working properly.  I may just purchase one here, they are about the same price I think.  I also know of a store that sells Canon.  Or I can try to locate someone to fix it... I'll likely do this next week unless you have any other plans.  

Elder Job, Elder Hulme upside down

The district Presidency seems to be really waking up.  They have committed themselves to help us with retention of recently baptized members.  Up until this point it's been the work only of the missionaries.  It's incredible to not feel like I'm working alone anymore.  We bought a new tie for our branch president to butter him up in hopes of teaching him how to delegate work better.  There was a missionary serving in Wanica when I got into Suriname 362 days ago.  He got married Thursday to someone he baptized while in Wanica.  We went to the wedding.  Two missionaries accidentally drank alcohol for the first time at the wedding.  They ordered a bunch of non-alcoholic Champaigneq but some of it wasn't non-alcoholic at all.  I came too late to be a part of that group.  We did see the groom give a nasty nasty kiss to his bride.  Elder Norton was disturbed by it for the entire evening.  


We've got an investigator named Tony.  He's the oldest investigator I've ever had coming in at 78 years old.  Well, actually my first investigator in Bama was over 80.... Anyway Tony blacks out some of his afro, and bleaches the other, putting a big white stripe on his head.  It's great, he's also got a painting of "The REAL last supper" his house.  Afro Jesus is great.  I took a member there, and he was so excited about it, he took a picture of it with his phone.  Tony may have memorized the restoration pamphlet we gave him.  He's read it many times, and understands the restoration really well.  I don't have a date picked out for him yet, but he'll be joining brother Jerry's family home evening tonight.  I hope to hear that he's read all the way through the Book of Mormon.  He should be our newest old single man in the branch soon.
Things are great.  I love missionary work, and I'm excited to hear your responses to the Preach My Gospel assignment.  
-Elder Hulme

Q: How are Jerry and Ingrid coming along? 
A: Jerry and Ingrid are doing really well, they decided to push their marriage date back a bit, which is fine, and will be wed and baptized in December.  They are really enjoying the church.


Q: Is medical care typically considered very poor in Suriname?
A: Yes.  I refuse to go to the doctor even if I'm dead.

Elder ?, Elder Norton, Elder Baker, Br. Jansen, Elder Bell, Elder Hulme

Q: Are the bananas tastier in Suriname than in the states, or is a banana a banana, whether it's fresh off the tree or not?
A: There are gross bananas here sometimes.  But if you find the good good ones, they are better than American bananas.  


Q: Do you find mangoes year-round or are there definite seasons for them in Suriname?  Do you usually purchase them or find a random tree?
A: Mangoes are seasonal, even usually you can get your hands on them for a higher price.  We bought about 25 last week, and are still working on eating them all, one by one as soon as they are ripe.  I also bought about 40 bananas today.  I hate running out.  I've replaced most junk food with fruit, and I think it's a good thing.  


Q: Do you speak often in church?
A: Not too much, we are trying to make the branches more independent of the missionaries.  This branch especially is excelling in that regard.  


Q: What is a typical Sunday for you?
A: Wake up and make phone calls after studying.  Study a bit more and go to the service.  I'm in either the investigator class or the YSA class.  Both are great.  Then we have priesthood, which is getting better.  Afterwords, we make lots and lots of appointments, eat some food either at a members house, the Jansen's, or home, and go preach the gospel until 8.  8PM we do weekly planning.  That lasts usually until about 10.  Then we take numbers for the whole zone, and fax them in.  That numbers part I've never completed before 11:30pm, and no that's not ok.  I'm still trying to find a way to follow that rule.  I think they give us way too much unnecessary stuff to report.  

Q: Tell us a little more about Elder Norton (interests, quirks, life plans).
A: Elder Norton often gets into this "zone" where he's deep in thought and it lasts all day.  I just learned last night that if he's like that, it's still ok to talk to him.  He's very dedicated to studying the scriptures and writing in his journal.  He plays bass guitar, and dances a lot.  He's very kind to everyone.  


Q: Are you still sweating all the time?
A: Yes of course.

Q: The internet says the long rainy season is April-July, and the short rainy season is December and January.  Does it rarely rain during the dry season, or does it still rain quite a bit?
A: The rainy seasons haven't been following their patterns for the last 2 or 3 years.  But when I was with Elder Job, it only rained 4 times, which is very very few.  Usually outside the rainy season, it rains at least a little bit every single day.  

BOY I enjoy hearing about bike rides and bike stores.  I also sometimes daydream about lefty, and how good a bike that is.
Congratulations Simon the Champion.  Millie, stay cool, don't worry about mistakes, I've been doing this missionary work thing for 1.5 years and I still make mistakes.  Mom's cool, Oli's cool
Much love.
-Elder Hulme

Spiderman Box, Better Fathers, Losing Legs

Elder Tullis

That box in the photos is used to transport important documents in the car.  We were at district meeting and I took photos of everyone holding it.  Steve O. inspired move. I've had many shirt fatalities this week.  3 down due to collars.  I resurrected one though, it had a coconut stain on it, but I washed it many many times and now you can't even see the stain. 


Breakfast is pretty much always disappointing.  I'll sometimes eat cereal with yoghurt or use a banana instead of a spoon.  Or bread with cheese, sometimes an egg too.  I ate leftover yellow rice this morning, and last week I ate leftover Bruine Bonen once.  I hope to find a ton of mangos today, that's my true desire.  I eat at least 3 bananas a day.  

Monday last week we went to the Van Tholl's house.  There we met with 6 active members who all live in the same area, we talked about how we could boost the amount of members in the neighborhood.  They came up with an idea of starting a class there, aimed at teaching the men to be better fathers.  It's a huge task.  But it'll be good, we start Saturday.  There is a beer here called Guinness.  They have a slogan, "after work is guinness time" that slogan has destroyed fatherhood in this country.  Many many men sit outside the supermarket all night drinking beer.  



We've got two progressing investigators right now.  They are Jerry and Ingrid.  We're helping them to get married and baptized.  This will take place over the next 40 days I think.  They were wanting to get married on January 3, because that's their daughters birthday, but then Ingrid had a vision last week where a man in white with her son came and told her to get baptized on another day.  She decided to do so and the whole branch seems to be excited to help them.  They are getting fellowshipped really well, and they are a legitimate family!  Jerry had an infection in his leg 3 years ago.  They removed it, but then left him sitting in his bed with an open wound for 5 days in the hospital.  They then had to amputate his left leg, so he has only a stub.  He seems to be handling it really well.  The same thing happened with a member 2 years ago.  He had an infection, so they removed part of his leg, but then realized it was the wrong leg, so now he has no legs.  This story ended kind of sad, but they are both well on their way to the Celestial kingdon.  Love you lots
-Elder Hulme

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

August 22, 2011

Life is good here in the Carribean.  It's hot and sweaty and our washing machine is still awful, but we eat like kings and have been working hard, and learning a ton in doing so. 
Roberto got dropped, I may have mistyped Ricardo, who will be on the 3rd of September.  Good work at Payson lake, and good luck building a garage.  I think that once you get it on there, nobody will have anything to complain about right?  The number of houses here without a garage is many. 

Could I get some photos of Lacey's wedding thingy?  That sounds nice absolute.  Tell her hi for me too if you can.  Also the rest of that family.  Is Tyler still around?  Oh, I sent Jayson a letter to his mission address.  And one to Elder Knecht.  

I found a way to trick this computer into letting me send photos.  I hope it works.  If it does, this is me and Ricardo.  He doesn't speak Dutch or English.  I can only communicate with him in Sranan Tongo, or in Paramakans if I could speak that.  He was sick with evil spirits for a long time, and he's been completely better since he's been coming to church.  He smiles way big, it makes everyone else smile.  He's also quite possibly one of the largest people I've ever met.  His arms are like trees. 

Elder Hulme and Ricardo

The other one is me and Elder Job being photo friendly in the cyber, because we haven't taken any pictures together yet.  It's been too busy with missionary work for things as futile as that.  I did however go to Koewarisan on exchanges.  It was so incredibly beautiful there.  The locals claim that it is the garden of Eden.  Elder Lundgren and I had a good time, I've always wanted to work with him. 

Elder Hulme and Elder Job

We are going with the Zone Leaders to buy Elder Job a new bicycle.  Its about time, all the time playing bike wars didn't do as much damage to my bike as allowing him to use it.  It's ok though, I still love him.  

I studied the Atonement this morning.  It was intense I learned a lot and understand a lot better what's going on right now.  I love reading the scriptures, and Amulek is a good teacher.  Alma 34 is one of my favorite places to learn.  Verses 42-46 blew my mind. 

We taught a less active recent convert this week.  ZR Wijngaarde, she doesn't like taking the bus to church, so we were calling to set up a ride for her.  Mid phone call, our phone died and we lost the call.  Elder Job and I both prayed for a way to make the call knowing that this would be able to get the woman to come to church.  We asked someone, and they happened to have the same phone as us, so we just borrowed the battery long enough to make the call.  Cool little miracle. 

I honestly have no idea what else happened this week. 

Two new missionaries came into the zone this week.  One being trained by Elder Guinn, the other by Elder Pederson (who just got here 3 months ago, he's good). 

I love you all lots.  Thanks for not forgetting I exist. 

-Elder Hulme