Why I Want to be Guyanese

Why I want to be Guyanese
First, an Elder Hulme report on Guyanese:
Guyana is all English speaking, but it's a very different English and is not understandable unless you are familiar with it.  The people there usually have a 1st grade reading level.  Thats the usual, there are indeed exceptions.  They love playing Cricket.  They are a very mixed race culture, from India, the Interior, and Creole.  
We were referred to this Guyanese woman by Elder Thompson, so we went to see her.  She's named Anita and has a very old house that is very well inhabited - something like 15 people live in this 4 bedroom home.  The front room has 2 couches and 5 beds just thrown in the middle of it.  It looks and smells like nothing has ever been cleaned.  There was the cutest little girl in the world there.  She had the shiniest eyes.  Anita was very glad to see us and was very accepting in hearing about Joseph Smith and stuff.  At the end of the lesson, they brought us some crackers and Coke which was very nice especially seeing how poor the situation is there.  We talked with Anita's 25 year old daughter who is currently 10 and a half months pregnant.  She has a massive belly, and is actually the mother of the cute little girl.  Anita was describing how her daughter would be going in for surgery to deliver the baby.   She described it so;  "They'll have to go in there and pull the ching."  Pull the ching is roughly translated as "remove the baby."  So we had Elder Baker say a closing prayer and pray that they ching pulling would go well and that the baby would be healthy.  After we left we decided that Pull the Ching would be a great name for a ska band.  And that is why I want to be Guyanese.
The other band name we've come up with comes from Elder Baker's favorite weather situation "Clouds Without Rain."
Lionel finally came to church!!! It was great and he loved it.  We went over to his house and were talking with him.  He stopped and got a deep look in his eyes and said "er zijn vele autos in deze buurt." (there are a lot of cars in this neighborhood) Then later as we discussed the Holy Ghost, he stopped mid sentence to mutter under his breath "Ik moet en goude ring met en witte steen vinden." (I must find a gold ring with a white stone) Upon reflection within the companionship, he's still way weird.  It's not that he's bad or anything, just incredibly strange.  But he bore his testimony about JOVO which is the young single adult program.  I liked hearing him talk about how much he liked it.  Zr Devredis however was not so cool and didn't show.  Hopefully everything is ok, we haven't seen her since Saturday.  Melton works from 7pm to 7am Saturday night/Sunday morning, we're still not sure what to do about that.  
We did find a new family to teach, family Tandool.  I'll keep you updated.  
I feel like I've been typing forever.  Bike wars is still good.  I think it would have been a lot of fun in Little Red Riding Hood.  We went into the city today.  Elder Lake needed some gifts for his home boys.  By home boys I mean family.  We then went to the Jansens for lunch and a final get together in honor of Elder Lake.  
I've lost my personality.  I've got some sort of mid-life crisis where I don't know who I am anymore.  So now I get to choose whom I will become.  It's a big choice.  Could I get everyone brainstorming ideas of what I could/should do when I get home, so that I can make a decision before winter so that I can get any university applications in before it is too late?  Please, thank you.  
I may not have a personality anymore, but I still love you.  
-Elder Hulme

Bike Wars

Elder Lake or Elder Baker

It's been raining a ton.  Luckily we've been driving around all day so I'm nice and dry inside the cyber.  I fixed my bike, then Elder Lake's then Elder Bakers.  It was fun, and we've all got well working bikes now.  We played soccer this morning, I'm not a very good player, and it was super slippery, which made the whole experience muddy.  Now our house is muddy because we had 9 people getting ready for the day there.

Elder Hulme and either Elder Lake or Elder Baker (he didn't tell me!)

News from this week.  We got a new Elder in Suriname, who will be working in Kwatta with Elder Norton.  Elder Baker has joined up with Elder Lake and I.  It's been crazy.  The first day we were together, we taught 12 lessons.  A good day you usually teach 6, bad day is usually like 3 or 4.  But we got 12 on Friday.  Then we all relaxed a ton, and weren't able to match it since.  It's nice working with Elder Lake.  And it's nice working with Elder Baker.  But with the 3 of us, the amount of time spent messing around has increased drastically.  Study time is filled with more stories, and planning time is a disaster.  

In French Guiana to renew Visa (Photo copied from Elder Tullis' website) 

We've instituted a new game(it's not a game though, it's a way of life).  It's called bike wars.   The idea is that you make the other two people fall off their bikes.  There are two ways to get someone out.  1) get them to crash or put their foot down.  2) if they run into you or your bicycle.  You are allowed to hit each other with your shoulders.  You are allowed to run people into the river(I nearly got Elder Lake into a big nasty one, but then was merciful and didn't finish him).  You are allowed to double team.  The game (way of life) stops when cars are coming.  Nobody has crashed yet, we are anxiously awaiting that day.  Mom, you should implement bike wars into Little Red Riding hood.  

Downtown French Guiana (Photo copied from Elder Tullis' website)

We've got 3 good investigators.

Lionel, who is the oddest investigator I've ever had.

ZR Devredis who is still stubborn.

Melton, who is way cool, has a massive girlfriend and a little kid.  He's quiet and works security.  He's also an Indian (not of India but of South America) and thinks the Book of Mormon is wonderful, which it is.  We've got to explain how you need to use Saturday to get ready for Sunday with Melton and Lionel, because they both missed church yesterday.  

I've realized that teaching is so incredibly hard, and I'm not very good at it.  I sometimes think it would be better to just teach the lessons like the olden days, just so that my investigators would be taught well and stuff.  But instead, they receive my personal teaching which is always custom tailored to them but not as clear or powerful as it could be.  I'll be working on that a lot, and studying about it.  If you look at statistics, the written lessons bring far more convert baptisms. As Elder Holland explains, Preach My Gospel was designed to convert the missionaries.  So I use Preach My Gospel as much as I can, and do my best to allow myself to be converted.  My redeemer lives.  

-Elder Hulme

May 23, 2011

We've had a great week, lots of good things happened.  It rained every day, so we've been nice and wet.  I got your package! Thanks so much.  Those Trader joes powerberry dipped things are wonderful.  And gone already.  It was strange receiving a wedding invite to Joey's wedding! That's the first reception I'd ever really want to go to...  it's over now though.  I haven't seen Grandma's package yet. It's probably just sitting in Surpost for no reason - the people there are lazy. 

As far as me saying funny stuff in Dutch, I'm sure I do all the time.  This week I confused a man a lot.  I told him he had a nice looking poncho(I was soaked to the bone at the time. He explained how he got it from his work at the water purifying center near the city.  I misunderstood and heard that he sold them at his water place in the city.  I told him that we'd try to come by on Monday to pick 2 up, and walked away.  He stood there with a confused look on his face for a minute and then went back to fishing.  Elder Lake explained what it was that he had said.  Sometimes I forget to actually hear what people say, and I just assume I already know what they will say.

I fixed Elder Lake's bike this morning, we had to replace the entire bottom bracket and cranks.  Fixing bikes here isn't as fun as it is in a bike shop.  It takes tons more time because you never have the right tools or parts or anything.  After a little bit of bashing the bike with a hammer, I got it together and it works beautifully.  The problem is that I still need to overhaul my back hub and replace my grips.  I guess I'll have time tonight probably.  Elder Lake is great to live with, he likes cooking sometimes and makes tons when he does cook.  I feel bad though because with how much food he makes, I never need to make anything.  I try to make up the difference by making his bed or ironing his shirt and stuff.  It's so strange that three weeks from today his mission will be over.  He'll be boarding a plane to Trinidad, then to Miami, then to Fort Whatever Texas and then to SLC International.   This transfer is going by too fast. 

ZR Devredis is coming along great, yesterday she had to save some Portuguese people from getting thrown out of the country, so that was a bummer because she missed church, but she's progressing still.  We're going over there Wednesday with the Jansens to try and whoop her butt into shape even faster.  We're hoping to get two baptisms before Elder Lake leaves, so we'll see how it goes.  Lionel is sliding backwards, he was being rude on Saturday, and bailed out on the YSA activity and church.  Those three things combined we may be dropping him after the next appointment.  We went to ZR Hek's house(an old member from 2 years ago who only speaks Surinams) with the intention of baptizing her daughter, and/or reactivating her grandson who is missionary aged.  Elder Lake had the Hiccups and Zr Hek offered to pray for him.  She offered this super baptist prayer and asked that he'd be healed.  His hiccups ceased immediately.  We laughed pretty hard, realizing that she was more faithful than we assumed. 

There is this Korean restaurant I want to eat at today, Elder Lake wants to go get a steak.  I think either way will be tasty, but I'd definitely take the Korean place over a steak place.   Zr Devredis gave us some Tamarind cookies she makes for a living.  They weren't cookies, and weren't all that good.  It was more like a big smarty that didn't taste like a smarty but like Tamarind.  There is this other crazy fruit here called Mope' it makes really tasty juice, I think I'd prefer Markoesa juice or Mango Juice, but Mope' is unobtainable in the states as far as I know.  They also have this one called a Zuurzaak.  Sour pocket.  That makes good juice too.  We've got tons of bananas freezing for smoothies and milkshakes right now.  Bananas, coconut milk and pineapple makes good flavors. 

We make a good team you 5 and I. 

Love you all lots

-Elder Hulme

Easter Here is Huge

Easter here is huge, but it's quite cheapened when you see everyone just taking a 4 day long vacation, and nobody really doing any Jesus things.  We saw bunches of Hindu and Muslim kids lighting fireworks though, that was celebratory.  And we got to sing that one hymn that I like, Christus is Verezen nu!

Today we ate lunch at the Salijo's again.  It was good, but I wonder if the people who live here their whole lives ever get sick of eating the same food every single day.  I think I would, luckily we make our own food too, so it's more varietiesly.  

Thanks for the ring! That was quite the experience, having 14 20-year-olds all in a room balling their heads off.  The 40 day fast was great, we all grew a little closer and had a good follow up meeting about it, everyone was enlightened I think. 

Elder Bytendorp talked to a man last week that really wanted a Book of Mormon, so we were trying to get a hold of him, and I took this picture of Elder Bytendorp.  I thought that that particular sunset was really cool.  

The guy ended up blowing us off 3 times and I don't think he'll be receiving a book.  That's super frustrating about Surinamers, they tell you a time to come over, and then aren't there.  This happens at least daily, and usually many times a day.  I guess they just aren't used to appointments.  Friday we showed up to two different people who asked us to come over at a specific time, we changed our whole schedule to do it, and then we show up and they were taking a nap.  That's one thing about Suriname too, if someone is taking a nap, it is a federal offense to wake them.  I think I'd appreciate that, but then you get through your whole life and realize all you did was sleep.  

I went on exchanges with Elder Guinn on Wednesday.  We had lots of fun, knocking doors in the richest neighborhood in Suriname, and just talking and laughing.

We taught Zr Parni about tithing.  It was a disaster.  She had no clue that tithing was a commandment.  We tried explaining it using the scriptures, but the whole situation was just spiraling out of control.  Then after  the closing prayer when both Elder Bytendorp and I assumed that she was going to never come back to church, she reviewed the law of tithing one more time, and understood most of it and accepted it.  It was an absolute miracle. 

I've still never crashed my bike as a missionary, I feel like I'm getting left out of the club or something, everyone else seems to crash.  

Love you bunches

-Elder Hulme  

I Don't Much Care for Thieves

We had a rough week, we got dropped by just about every one of our investigators. They said they don't want to get baptized and stopped all progress.  This didn't happen with Karta however, because we haven't even been able to see them since last Monday.  I had a few bike problems which were tricky to solve due to the lack of parts here in Suriname.  I couldn't get tubes for my bike, it was a joke.  Luckily it worked out in the end.  I think the worst part about the whole week was that my face broke out. I had a zit on my neck right on the collar and it hurt incredibly. 

Elder Hulme and Elder Bytendorp drinking Cocos

Timothy swinging a hak mes (chop knife) through the air to cut open a coco

This week we get to find all new families, which isn't all bad.  We can be at least assured that we aren't wasting time with people who won't progress.   I just want to be assured that my service is actually helping people, because it usually seems that the people see us as an irritant.  Hopefully that's not the case always.  The tough part is that if we were teaching pleasing doctrines, people would be all over it, but we're called to teach truth.  Once you start living according to truth it is pleasing, and brings that fruit that Lehi was so excited about. 

"Octopus flavored chips aren't as good as you'd assume"

The tulip farm is very Dutch looking.  Cool thing about tulips and the name thereof.  Tulp is the word in Dutch.  The tricky part is that in Dutch you roll the L's and the R's.  The R is similar to spanish how the r's are rolled.  The L's are stranger though.  Think of the word milk.  Dutch says it Melk, but it's pronounced more like melluck.  Tulip is similar, the Dutch word is Tulp, but pronounced Tuh-lip. 

Today, we were playing Ultimate Frisbee as a zone, and some guy raided our stuff.  Our phone got stolen.  Also Elder Lundgren's wallet and watch.  Then to top it all off, Elder Bytendorp's bag.  The bag itself has lasted through his entire mission until this morning.  In it was his Dutch triple and Bible, his glasses, camera, new pen, flip flops, all sorts of stuff.  Poor guy.  I don't much care for thieves really.  We got a new phone from the Elders in Uitkijk, since they had an extra.  Preparation day is always too short.  After email today, we're headed to the city to see if we can get Elder Bytendorp's old glasses fixed, get some pants made for me, and eat lunch with Elders Guinn and Badoni at the Pannenkoek house.  They make super fancy super Dutch pancakes (hybrid of a real pancake and a crepe) and then we were going to see if there is a tailor who will take fat ties and trim them into skinny ties.  Good luck right?

Much love, Elder Hulme

Flat Tire, Broken Camera, Ripped Pants, Bird Poop

Recent converts are great, I liked hearing about the one in Oregon. Here are the recent converts we have here in Blauwgrond (blue ground)

Kasmani 1 - 6

Zr Parni

Jacinta- won't talk to us, I haven't even been able to meet her

Ramon- coaches soccer, busy every week and hasn't been to church since I've been in Suriname.  We're super responsible for these people, but 2 of them are super impossible, which makes things super hard to stay on super top of. 

 

I've been trying to teach Zr Kasmani's other two sons, but they are slippery.  We waited for one for 20 minutes yesterday, then we had to go to another lesson, and he took off right after we left.  The other we've got an appointment with Friday.  They are 18 and 22 I think, and they get into fist fights all the time.  I think missionary service is good for young men.  They are both covered in tattoos (tattooing here begins at 14 years old it seems, so most of the tattoos you see are absolutely awful).  Luckily, Zr Kasmani is determined to get them taught, so we'll be working with her in that way. 

 

Saturday was nuts, and filled with opposition.  We had to print some stuff out, and when we came out, I had a flat tire.  So we called a taxi, got a new tube, then while I was installing the tube, I ripped my pants (2nd pair this week that got killed in the crotch).  It wasn't too big of a hole luckily - easily sewed.  Then when I was nearly done with the tube I ripped another hole in the pants! That Kleermaker makes some wussy pants.  They are only 4 months old.  Still sewable though, and has been done now.  Then our appointment wasn't there, which wasn't the worst thing because we had to head up to Clevia anyway. We went to Warung for lunch.  Food was great, I had bamie and bacabanas.  Then we came back to the bikes, and a bird took a poop in my helmet.  It was way gross, so I cleaned the helmet and we headed out to Clevia.

Clevia is North, the northernmost part of the country.  Which means the closest part to the ocean, which ocean I still have not seen.  But it also means that frequently there is a huge breeze that comes, and it was way strong Saturday.  I was dripping with sweat by the time we got to our destination.  Here you're usually wet, but not frequently super sweaty, but Saturday was way way sweaty.  Then Elder Bytendorp broked his camera (that was stolen two days later).  It was rough, but we ended up teaching a lot of people that day.  We decided now to only work with families if at all possible, we have 4 investigator families now, two are looking super super promising, and two took some steps in the wrong direction.  The coolest are the Fung-A-Wing and Karta families, the other two are Asmad and Kastani.  Elder Bytendorp learned the spelling of Fung-A-Wing from the tattoo on sister Fung-A-Wing's back, it was hilarious having him explain how to spell that name and how he knew. 

Ripsticks here are the hottest thing, everyone wants a ripstick.  Life is good here in the Caribbean

-Elder Hulme

Conference was Absolutely Enjoyable

Dogs here are mangy and nasty.

Elder Hulme and Elder Bytendorp (I think)

One of their favorite restaurants

Conference was absolutely enjoyable.  Here's the timeline.

Saturday morning.  Woke up, studied and then went out to try to talk to the people, we got slammed and nothing done, people were MAD that morning for some reason.  Then the Zone Leaders picked us up, and we went and picked all the other missionaries up together and met at the church at 1, when the first session began.  Enjoyed the first session and learned lots, then we went out and talked to the people again. These people were nicer, but all Hindu, and may or may not be valuable to continue teaching.  Went to the second session beginning at 5.  Loved it.  Then we went to McDonalds for food due to starvingness, had a good time there and talked to some of the members afterwords and sat down for Priesthood at 9.  Priesthood is #1.  Then we went to the two missionary houses in the area for sleeping.  I stayed at the Zone Leader's, listened to Elder Thompson and Norton play guitar until about midnight, and then fell asleep.  We got up and ate some french toast, then went to the church to do studies.  I studied about the priesthood like President Uchdorf asked.  I learned lots from DandC 20, it's a good one.  We then did some role playing with everyone and went out to talk to the people.  We met some nice people, some mean.  More Hindus.  Really interesting culture.  Then we watched the Sunday morning conference, which was lovely.  We had lunch at the Jansen's on Sunday.  Delicious soup, and really good sandwiches.  She had this yogurt drink that was way good when mixed with the chocolate milk, it tasted like a chocolate dipped strawberry.  Dutch people are funny, they are very very very picky with a few things:

Cream and creamy things

Bread

Cheese

Stroopwaffels

Weird kinds of salty black liquorice

Bitter foods, they love them.  Like the soup which was so herby and wondefully bitter.  I haven't enjoyed soup for years, but I think I'm ok with it again. 

Priesthood is more than a fancy word, and we need to use its power. Richard G. Scott said something way interesting about getting married young, I'd say definitely check his talk out, it was beautiful. I mostly enjoyed hearing about the priesthood, but the other stuff was good also.  When president Monson said he was going to talk about a very special temple, the only thing that came to my mind was "whoa it's time for New Jerusalem!!!!!" But that was not the case.  He was talking about the newly announced and incredibly beautiful Rome temple where the olden Apostles did their proselytizing.  It was a great relaxer, I was getting wound pretty tight. It was a great time at conference.  The two Kasmani boys decided they didn't want to come to conference at all though.  It doesn't make sense to me because there is only 2 times in a year that you get to hear talks that aren't awful.  We need to do a workshop on giving good talks at some point. 

-Elder Hulme 

I was on exchanges with Elder Thompson.  We went to an appointment with a super uninterested man, closed the lesson as soon as possible due to how uninterested he was.  Afterwords he asked if we were still looking for families.  This came from the day of initial contact where we drilled him for referrals.  He showed us the direction and gave a few instructions on where a family he knows lives.  We went looking and asked a few people.  One man was mean.  One lady was nice.  So we asked the nice lady who she knew we could try to visit.  She referred us to the same family.  So we went and finally found them.  Turns out it's a part member family, Mom and daughter are members.  Other daughter is now and investigator.  The coolest part, is that we set a goal of two reactivation's for the month of April.  Game on.  -Elder Hulme

This is a "success story."  The zone Leaders asked us to send these in every week, it's something important to President Gamiette. 

I Love you bunches.  Until next week.