March 14, 2011

This week was good.  I've comitted myself and Elder Freeman to work with the branch more, and we did.  The issue is that all of our other numbers dropped.  I had to use a morning doing more visa stuff - working state side has benefits.  Elder Freeman's bike is kabusted, and we spent from 11 to 4 on Friday trying to fix it, it's still broken. Numbers wise, good week.  Souls wise, I just hope we helped someone. 

We found a lady, Mevrouw Panee.  I think it's a french name that is spelled more like Panet, but I'm not positive.  She told us all these stories her great grandpa told her as a child.  They are native american.  The coolest part is that all the stories she told us, are actually in the Book of Mormon.  I think we'll be working toward helping her and her son get baptized. 

The Kasmanis haven't been to church in 3 weeks, except for Denise and Cheyanne.  I asked Sister Kasmani if she was coming, she said that they didn't have enough money to get to church, because taxi prices are going up with gasoline which is 4.75SRD per liter unleaded (yes, the gasoline is incredibly expensive).  I asked them to pray for a miracle.  I then went home and made some phone calls to try to make the miracle come about, and it did.  I want to give a little interlude on faith.  Some people seem to think that faith is just not doubting, but I'm convinced that that is only 1% of 100 of what faith is.  James 2 teaches that faith without works is dead.  Alma 32:21 teaches that we have to not see, but believe in something that is true.  So in this story, I demonstrated faith in believing that I could get them a ride, but it didn't mean anything until I did all possible to get them a ride, or rather, did something faithful.  It's all about what you do, not what you think or your attitude about things, however thoughts and attitudes affect what you do.  So if you have faith, it is measured by what you do.  Interlude concluded.  Ritchi, again the Branch Mission Leader, said he'd be glad to pick them up and take them to church.  So I called Brother Kasmani Sunday morning, he was working.  I called sister Kasmani, no answer.  I called Denise, who was sleeping, and told her that they had a ride.  She was very excited and sleepy and went to wake up everyone else.  Ritchy showed up to church and only Denise and Cheyanne had come.  For some reason, the rest stayed home, simply didn't want to come.  I'm so perplexed, because when we go there twice a week, each Monday and Thursday, they are thrilled to see us, and seem super excited, they invite their friends and everything.  There is something else there, and we have to find it.  It'll come though. 

 

Mom, you asked about the food washing.  I hope that I'm not missing something there, but I haven't washed any food since I got here, at least nothing out of the ordinary.  I've heard that Guyana is way worse and filthier, but here everything is mostly clean.  I'm still getting fat, so I don't think I've got any sicknesses or parasites.  My tan pants and a pair of my blue pants are completely too small, I can't even button them.  I think that I'm just putting on man weight, and not really getting all that fat, just thickening out of my boyish figure a bit. 

I heard about those Japanese earthquakes, Hopelijk is alles daarmee goed. 

The zone leaders have a van, and the Jansens have a truck, the rest of us are on bikes.  The people who live above us have a car, they are great neighbors, they don't play loud movies or anything, and they are neat and clean, even though the construction workers are filthy and leave the place looking like garbage outside.  He actually cleaned up a bunch of the construction stuff yesterday.

Nobody likes dogs here, they just are for protection (The dogs here aren't like American dogs at all.  They are the most foul and disgusting things imaginable, not like Decca at all.) Houses here have a gate, then the porched is barred up like a prison.  All the windows are barred up.  

We continue to buy Mrs. Olga's popsicles, even though there is a woman down the road that sells chocolate ones - I still need to investigate that.  We've taught her grandson a few times. The woman is awful and not very kind to us, but I want to buy her ijsjes some day.

We are not allowed to take naps on Sunday, however I was reading the Book of Mormon during lunch and fell asleep for 15 minutes, but  we got out of the house on time anyway.  

President Gamiette comitted us to read the who Book of Mormon in a month.  I decided to read it in Dutch, and I'm on track to finish by the end of the month.  I've been reading so so much it seems, but it's been great.  If I'm feeling down, or not very excited about the work, or tired or anything I'll just start reading, and it boosts me enough to keep going strong.  I'm also putting the story together better, Mormon was brilliant.  He was able to put 2 or 3 stories, simultaneously happening, together and do so in a way that is understandable.  Also he recorded the history of an entire civilization and put in tons of doctrine. I hope to meet that guy some day. 

Transfer calls are this Thursday, we'll see what I'll be doing for the next 6 weeks.  This transfer has gone by so fast for me.

Love you all.

-Elder Hulme

March 21, 2011

No new photos, so this is an old one - Elder Hulme, President Holzapfel, Elder Guinn

I got a new companion.  Elder Bytendorp, from Sandy.  He's got less than 6 months in his mission, so he's the most experienced companion I've ever had.  I think that this is going to be a fantastic couple of weeks.  I was shocked however, that I stayed with Elder Freeman only for 6 weeks.  He got transferred to the south, Koewarisan.  He was really sad I think, and the Kasmani's said that they don't like it when the missionaries leave, and that we're no longer allowed to go over to their house.  I hope they don't mean it, but they were really sad.  I'll send more info on Elder Bytendorp when I know him better, he does snowboard though, so that's good. 

 

Thursday is 1 year for me.  Also the day before Elder Bytendorp's birthday.  As for the halfway mark, things have started to begin clicking in my mind the last few days.  It's like there was fog there, and it's not there anymore.  I'm not sure what it is that's changing, but something is.  I like being in charge of the area, even though I'm Jr companion now,  I'll be planning everything because he's never worked here.  I was receiving all kinds of inspiration in church on Sunday, even though the talks and stuff were the same as all the other weeks.  Numbers this week were about the same, but we taught lots of lessons.  

I spent all morning cleaning someone else's apartment today.  The health lady from the mission is coming on Wednesday, and this apartment needed help, so they sent me there with Elder Baker and we cleaned for a few hours and then went to Roopram for some roti.  It's absolutely incredible how filthy missionaries are.  I think due to how easy it is to say things like "well I only lived there 3 weeks."  Phrases like that are a recently found enemy of mine.  Again, I threw away years and years worth of collected garbage, cleaned things that had never been cleaned before, and used another big chunk of another p-day.  After roti, we moved Elder Bytendorp in (Elder Freeman moved out last night) and now I'm here emailing. The real bummer is that I needed to purchase a new wheel today, but we still haven't done laundry or shopping and the wheel place is simply too far for how short my time is.  Also I have two letters, one for Hoven and one for Jayson that I needed to send, but not enough time. 

 

I love you all.  The work here is going forward, I'm happy and loving the land and the people. 

-Elder Hulme

March 7, 2011

Elder Hulme and Elder Freeman live here

It feels good to have a nice clean new house.  No extra stuff or anything.  The tricky part is that it takes a lot to keep this place clean.  It's all white tile floor that holds and shows dirt clearly.  Our upstairs neighbors are virtually not there, and the lady across the street sells Ijsjes for .50 SRD.  Ijsjes are home made popsicles, and hers are quite tasty.  She's this nice lady named Olga, must be 120 years old.  She has these awful dogs that bark at us while we are in our house, and bark more when we come outside.  She then begins chasing them down throwing shoes and rocks at them until they shut up.  It's hilarious.  Some dogs broke into her trash bags last night, so this morning we helped her clean up.  It's funny, our neighborhood is ghetto!  100% creole and tons of little kids.  I like it though, even though our house stands out compared to all the other ones... I don't like that part much, but I guess it's not that important really. 

A pretty decent-looking kitchen

This week was a good one.  We haven't seen Navin yet, but it'll come.  We went to Brother Borgia last night, he's a member thats been in the church for about 18 years, which is 3 years less than the church has been in Suriname.  He's medium active, knows everything about the church, but really isn't all the way converted.  He studies, all kinds of books and stuff, but the connection from his brain to his spirit isn't quite there yet. 

A swerver (?) sleeping outside of their church building

 We gathered as a zone, and everyone shared one thing that they thought we could do or stop doing to make our zone more righteous, and become better missionaries.  So I said that we all needed to certify, or progress in the training president Gamiette gave us to do, but not many people have done.  So for 40 days, we will all be working on that, in addition to all the other things that the other missionaries said. The fast is also in an effort to prepare to meet our goal of baptizing 89 people in Suriname before the end of the year, and to bring more unity to the zone. 

Elder Freeman eating breakfast

I was really tired the whole weekend, probably from a lack of sleep all week.  I only slept for about 5 hours on Monday, then was up late and out of bed early the whole week.  Being tired is such an interesting sensation, I really don't care for it.  Luckily getting up at 6:30 is mostly natural for me now.  I've worked so hard to develop that habit, I'm holding on to it for the whole rest of my life.  And I think in D&C it is a commandment somewhere anyway, to get up early.  It's interesting looking at myself 2 years ago, thinking that the commandment didn't apply to me?  Even one year ago.. but then I was still working at Sundance, and had to get up at 7. 

Everyone said something about my year mark coming up, and I realized that also, just yesterday.  It's scary because I haven't even done anything yet!  I am however excited to see if I can do better with the last half than I have the first, it's going to be tough to top.

Good news.  Yesterday, Rachel was confirmed a member of the church, a woman I found and taught in Munder. 

 

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.

One Day Trip to French Guiana

Happy Birthday Mom, I hope you get my letter.

Here's me and Elder Freeman, and our house.  We've got this tiny place in comparison to the other house.  We live in the same house with an old lady, but in an extension. this is against the rules, so we will be moving on the 24th.  The new place is absolutely gorgeous. I hope to remain in this area for a long time. Elder Freeman and I are having a great time together. This morning he was singing some non-missionary song, so I started singing Sweet Hour of Prayer really loud.  He starting playing air guitar and pretending to sing along, we were doing this massive lip-sync concert in our kitchen on the way out the door.  It was completely hilarious.


I didn't get to go grocery shopping last week, so I haven't had any food at all this week. The interesting part is that I haven't been all that hungry anyway. I made rice for breakfast this morning. Apparently if you get "par-boiled" rice it is horrible.  It's not sticky at all. I attempted to make Nasi, but it just didn't work.  I will gladly take a trip to the store in a few hours.  I think I've got some extra SRD saved from last week too, so it'll be just great.



I don't know if the rest of you have been reading the Jansen's blog, or if they will post this story on there, but here is what happened Friday:
Because I didn't get the extended stay "MKV" I have to exit the country every three months to renew my normal visa.  That trip took place on Friday.  Elders Guinn, Tullis, and I slept at the Zone Leader's house Thursday night, had a good time, and the Jansens came at about 8 in the morning to take us to French Guiana for the day.  We were instructed to not eat any breakfast before they got there, so that we could stop on the way.  We started driving, crossed the Suriname bridge for my first time, and stopped for some Broodje's. (This emailing place is playing the worst of 70's love ballads.)  After the breakfast break, we got down to the 100km trip.  This road is nuts.  It's by far, absolutely no comparison, the bumpiest road in existence.  We had to strap ourselves down in our seatbelts to keep from flying through the roof of the truck.  Elder and Zuster Jansen sat in the front, Zuster Jansen driving, and the three Elders in the back.  The entire trip, Zuster Jansen was laughing her head off, because all three of our heads would bounce up at the same time, and it was apparently really funny.  We told stories, in the smooth parts, learned lots of Dutch and saw lots of the beautiful KonKondre trees.  Then, we got to the river that separates Suriname from French Guiana.

When there, we talked to this guy who agreed to take us via boat across the river onto the French side.  The boats they have there are about 30 feet long, and super thin, with a little fishing motor on the back, it was sweet. They took lots of photos, but I left my camera, so I'll try to get some if you can't see them.  Once on the French side, we got some stamps for our passports and went to this Chinese restaurant that sold all sorts of food. I figured I'd get an omelet, since I was in the best place I could think of to get french style food.  Ordering was hard. Between me and the 2 the Chinese people and our 3 languages, we couldn't communicate at all.  Got the food, and it was good, apparently Cervettes means shrimp.  Shrimp omelet.  Then we hopped back on the little boat, and went to Suriname again, got some more stamps and am now clear to stay for another 3 months.

Computer translations are so funny!

I absolutely love the Jansens. Upon our arrival in Paramaribo, it was 8pm, none of the missionaries were home, and none of us had keys to get into any of our houses, so we went to the Jansens.  We looked at pictures, and ate grilled cheese sandwiches and ice cream.  I was snacking on the whipped cream, just squirting it on my finger and eating it.  Zuster Jansen came up to me yelling "Jongen! Je bent verkeert.  Doen zo," She then threw her head back and opened her mouth, implying that I should immitate, so I did and she filled my mouth with whipped cream.  Not just put some in there, but filled it, heaping over the tops of my lips with whipped cream.  It was great, everyone started laughing.  Best vacation I've had for a while, even though my back was so so so sore on Saturday, I couldn't believe it.
Things are good here, I love you bunches everyone, I'm glad to hear from you.  
-Elder Hulme

Transfers

Big news on transfers. Here's the lowdown:
I'm going to take Elder Norton's place in Blauwgrond as Elder Freeman's companion.
Elder Guinn is taking my area with Elder Badoni.  Elder Guinn will be our district leader.
Elder Bell is going to Uitkijk(jungle).
Elder Norton will be the new Zone Leader, with Elder Thompson.
So I'm going to be moving about the time everyone leaves to school.  I'm pretty excited to have my own house again. The bummerest part, is that we finally have some people progressing now.  It will be nice to have something new and fresh. I do however get to remain in the same branch.  Different work area, same branch.  Now I know which members to work with from the one area, and I'll learn who to work with from this area too, it should be a good asset.  

Rain.  Usually rainstorms come in little bursts.  If it looks like you can dodge it, sometimes we'll just find some shelter and wait a few minutes for the rain to pass.  If it looks like a wet day, you just make sure all your stuff is in plastic bags and get wet.  When it rains it feels really cold.  The temperature is really about 75 degrees (in the rain), but in contrast it's freezing.  I don't know what I'll do coming home, it's going to feel so cold without this humid blanket.  

That's sweet about reading out of the BoM every night, it's something that I commit people to do every single day!  I've been studying tons out of the scriptures, and have learned to absolutely love it.  Despite the problem I had this week where all of my studies seemed really dry.  I read 3 Nephi 17, it's when Jesus was chilling out with the Nephites and he starts praying for them, and it was so incredible that nobody can describe it.  I hope to learn to pray like that some day, where people can't even describe the prayer.  

Here's to your questions...
Yes, we've been working with a woman named Rachel and her brother and children, they came to church this week.
I'm way healthy, I've been working out hard in the mornings, and getting stronger.  I still have lots of fat on me, but it should fade.  I couldn't afford any snacks this week, so that will probably help. 
Chocolate is fine in the mail.  Here's something to keep in mind though.  The ants here are nuts. They are super tiny, and don't collect food at all, they are rogues.  So they get into everything.  So any chocolate stuff you send, make sure it's covered in plastic.  Bij Voorbelt, the Christmas chocolates had tons of ant corpses all over them.  I ate them gladly disregarding the ants.  
I haven't learned anything new about Suriname.... I saw a nasty dog yesterday, but couldn't get a picture of it.  
Usually we go out to eat together on p-day, I like that a lot.  We've gone to Roopram, and McDonalds and BK and Jawa (my personal favorite), and different warungs.  Last week we went to the zoo, it was hilarious watching Elder Freeman look at the monkeys.  He was so thrilled by them!  Love you all.
-ElderHulme  

January 31, 2011

Milldew, you looked very nice for your concert, I hope you enjoyed it.  I feel like I really missed out eating Cold Stone with everyone! I sure miss Cold Stone, the ice cream here is ok, but nothing quite that caliber.  
 I was way sick feeling yesterday, stomach ache and achy all over, just dragging.  Elder Bell was great, he rode bikes slow for me, he wasn't grumpy at me at all, just hanging out enjoying the rain.  I don't know why it's been raining so much, but it's been raining lots lately.  And luckiest thing of all is that I'm not feeling sick today! It was a sub 24 hour gig.  
President Gamiette sent us a way cool email this week.  It's about a purification for ourselves.  Turning ourselves completely to the savior and stuff, I will forward it I think.  I'm excited to become better.  It's just like Nephi, who in my mind is one of the best prophets ever, in 2 Nephi chapter 4 he describes how even he has sins that do so easily beset him.  It's interesting that we are fighting such a gloomy looking battle, but know who wins at the end.  I like righteousness.  
We had two investigators at church this week, which was a huge relief.  Unfortunately, we haven't taught either of them. One just came because we asked him to on the street, and the other came with a member.

Things are great, the food here is fabulous, I feel bad that I'm in such a beautiful country and none of you are.  Have a great week :)  Thanks for the super good update.  
Hows the snow?
Is it way cold or medium cold?
Who has the longest hair in the house?
Did anyone learn anything cool in church yesterday?
Drive safe in that snow.
-Elder Hulme