Adrian from New Amsterdam (last area) got baptized ! April 18, 2016

Hallo iedereen! Fawaka vanuit de Surinaamse mensen!

Hello hello! Been another great week here in de stad van Paramaribo! We have had some really cool miracles and lessons this last week. We also got transfer calls this week, and I broke my record(s)!! I haven't 1) switched countries, 2) switched areas, and 3) switched companions. Me and Elder Lewis are staying together for another transfer. This will make 10 months for Elder Lewis in the Munder area. I guess the Lord has more miracles for us to facilitate!

C has been doing AWESOME! He's been to church 7 times now and loves reading the Book of Mormon. He heard the member's testimonies of the temple in sacrament meeting and now really wants to go to the temple. Hopefully his baptismal date goes through for the 30th this month. We still have a few things to teach him maar alles zullen goed komen!

Ch also came to church for the first time this last week, and he loved it! Turns out he actually knows a lot of people at church already! He's been telling us how it seems like all this stuff he's learning from us and the Book of Mormon he's learned before. It was cool to teach him that we did learn about all this stuff before, in the pre-existance.

I know J from Uitkijk my last area is still on date to get baptized at the beginning of May.  Do you remember Adrian from New Amsterdam? He's the boy we found there.  I just found out he got baptized as well!

We also have been teaching another lady, A, and we've had some awesome lessons with her. She comes from a very active Christian background but is very interested in the Book of Mormon. She won't agree to a baptismal date until she has an unmistakable answer that the Book of Mormon is true, but it'll come. She's been saying all the right things an investigator should be saying and experiencing. The spirit has been so strong at her lessons. She had a cool quote this last week, saying "Het koningkrijk Gods begint met u zelfde. Het begint met u ziel." (The kingdom of God begins with yourself. It begins with your soul), which has a lot of truth to it. The minute we allow God into our lives and the many things he gives us, we receive so many different blessings, and we'll also he able to help build God's kingdom.

Other then that it's been a pretty chill week. We hit 103 in sacrament this last week! We'll get our own church building here soon! It's exciting.

Elder Lewis' bike tire blew out Saturday. So for 2 days we've been walking. And I will tell you I am very grateful for our bikes!!! They make the work so nice (and faster)!! We'll fix it today so everything will be back to normal.

Have a great week!

Ik hou van jullie!!!

Elder Hunt  

The Paramaribo district with Jordan Beschizaar (right) who just got back from his mission from the Netherlands.

Church building in Paramaribo, Suriname... It is 2 stories

Dahl food

I'm so fortunate to have the best calling one can get, BEING A MISSIONARY! April 11,2016

Hallo iedereen en groetjes vanaf deze Surinaamse land!

It has been an awesome week this last week. We've had our first week in a long time where we didn't have any interruptions with General Conference or people visiting Suriname. We have been able to have a lot of lessons this last week which is awesome!

It's been a bit odd this week because a lot of the members are still on their temple trip in Manaus, Brazil. Between hearing the stories that members have been relating and the encouragement everyone heard at Conference about going to the temple has excited the remaining members here to make it a goal to go to the temple. It's interesting because a lot are planning on going with the district to Manaus again in September, and others want to visit The Hague, Netherlands temple as well. Pretty much everyone here either has lived in the Netherlands, has family in the Netherlands, or has at least visited the Netherlands. So in the travels that people will make in going to the Netherlands they'll visit the temple there in the Hague. Surinaamers are optimistically confident that given time, Suriname will get it's own temple though. I can't wait for that day!

C is still doing awesome! He keeps reading and we had good lessons talking about tithing, scripture study, and daily prayer this week. It's been a bit hard to visit him though because he's been busy. We'll have to bump his baptismal date back a week since we need more time to visit him. So hopefully he'll be baptized on the 23rd. 

Ch is doing great as well. He has a baptismal date for mid-May and continues to read the Book of Mormon like crazy. He's in 2 Nephi 11 now. He's been so receptive to the message of the Restoration and the message of the Book of Mormon. AND it's been awesome to see the change it makes in him. We as missionaries are here to teach and invite investigators and members to keep commitments. It's then the spirit that wroughts that change that is so cool to see in people.

We also picked up a really awesome investigator this week named S. She's been an awesome investigator to have. She comes from a Hindu background and doesn't know too much about Christianity, but she wants to believe in Jesus Christ and is so anxious to learn more about the gospel. After establishing a good foundation of who God and Jesus Christ are we've been able to teach her the Restoration and Plan of Salvation. She said she's also received an answer that the Book of Mormon is true, stating simply "Elders, ik heb een antwoord gekregen door de geest dat het Boek van Mormon waar is!" It'll be awesome to continue teaching her.

It's been another great week here! I'm so fortunate to have the best calling one can get, BEING A MISSIONARY! It's been challenging but also really fun. Fun Fact: This last week we contacted a really cool lady, and turns out she listens to the Spoken Word program the Mormon Tabernacle Choir puts out every Monday. Apparently they show the Spoken Word on the gospel channel here in Suriname haha. We've picked her up as a new investigator this last week so it'll be fun to teach her.

Have a great week! I'll talk to you all later with more to come!

Ik hou van jullie!!!

Elder Hunt

Pictures of a hike and waterfall in Bruinsberg..

Elder Hunt loves hikes.. got up at 4 am to go on this hike

With zone

Group after their hike in the amazon jungle

fog in the jungle "Lord of the ring shot for Jake he said"

Amazon jungle

Amazon RAIN on them all week

Hallo iedereen! Het heft een andere geweldig week zijn! April 4, 2016

Hallo iedereen! Het heft een andere geweldig week zijn!

This week has been awesome! Things have just sort of exploded this last week with a lot of good stuff going. The Paramaribo Branch has been on a temple trip in Manaus this last week. We're all jealous of their trip but it's awesome what they're doing. This small band of 21 people are taking over a 1,000 family names to the temple this trip! These names come from Suriname, the Netherlands, India, and Indonesia. These people are spending a solid 10 days in Manaus doing temple work. It's really exciting to see and the members love it as well!

K is still being awesome! He came to the last session of conference yesterday and said that he loved it! We may need to kick his baptismal date back a week so that we can get through all the lessons in good time. But other then that he's been doing awesome!

We've also picked up some awesome investigators this last week. One of these investigators is C. We received C as a referral and went by to introduce ourselves and give him a copy of the Book of Mormon. In the space of two days he had read through the entire first book of Nephi. He's loves reading the Book of Mormon. He said "Dit klopt wel! Wij zouden andere getuigenisen van Jezus Christus en zijn word moeten hebben!" (This just makes sense. Why shouldn't there be more than one testament of Jesus Christ). He didn't make it to conference which is okay. Hopefully he comes to church this coming week.

We're also teaching a man named A. It's been really cool to teach A because he's gone through is continuing to go through a lot of hard trials in his life. We've taught him about Christ's gospel and how it can not only bring strength in his life but also more happiness. He too has been excited to read the Book of Mormon and will hopefully start coming to church this next week.

To end of the week we had GENERAL CONFERENCE which was the BEST! We watched it at the Temmega chapel. Most people watched it in Dutch but there's enough English speaking members here that they also have it available in English. And of course all the missionaries watch it in English. There are so many cool messages that were brought to the pulpit this last conference. What I've mainly taken out of it is to remember the Savior and what He's done for us, and then to let His light shine in us as we go about doing the Lord's work. This gospel not only helps us but it allows us to help others more effectively as well. Having charity for others is basic in the Savior's teachings. We're able to receive His strength as we go about our various responsibilities and callings in the church as well.

To end off this crazy week, all the missionaries woke up at 4 am this morning to go on a 2 and a half hour road trip to a place called Bruinsberg, a mountain here in Suriname. It's deep in the interior, and is completely covered in Amazon jungle. We hiked to some waterfalls which were really fun to see. My favorite part was the mere fact that we were hiking in the Amazon jungle. (Pictures are coming).

Love you all! Have another great week!

Ik hou van jullie!!!

Elder Hunt

Hallo iedereen! Vrolijke Passen! (Happy Easter!) March 28,2016

Hallo iedereen! Vrolijke Passen! (Happy Easter!)

There has been sooooooooooooooooo much that's been happening this week. We have a lot of good things (for reals) going here in Munder/Gijersflijt. Easter was awesome! (Thank you for the pictures of Christ, the people here love them!!). We hit the Paramaribo sacrament meeting churchh attendance record with 101 people in church! We breached the 100's!! We just have to keep this going now haha.

Colif is still killing it. He came to church for his 5th time in a row, and we've had some awesome lessons with him. This last lesson we talked about following the prophet and the word of wisdom, and he loved it! He's coming to watch General Conference this week end and he said he'll keep the word of wisdom. When we asked him to keep the word of wisdom, he said (but sort of shouted) "Ik moet, Elders!!" (I need to Elders!). We're excited to see him at conference this week end.

This last week a church historian came with President and Sister Egbert to Suriname. I may or may not be EXTREMELY jealous and envious of this guy's job. He's one of two official church historians the church has. This guy's job is to travel the world and study, teach, research, and record church history. These two guys are the guys that teach the 12 apostles about church history. It was the first time a church historian was in Suriname which was cool.

...Anyways, this historian gave two presentations while he was here, one for the members and one for the missionaries. Missionaries were invited to go to the member presentation if they brought an investigator or less active member with them. We had arranged to bring Colif to the member presentation, but 30 minutes before the presentation started he canceled on us. So we start rummaging through our phone looking for someone to come with us. We were finally able to get Zuster H to come. Zuster H was a less active member here that we just reactivated. We went by her house and she agreed to come with 20 minutes worth of notice (and no return ride either). This was a HUGE tender mercy. We all went to the presentation and loved it! It really helped Zuster H's testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith.

There was a cool highlight from the missionary presentation by the historian that I wanted to point out. In one of his presentations he was talking about how he's been able to see the big picture fo the plan of salvation, traveling all over the world. He said "I can tell you from my travels of the world, and studies of the history and people, the greatest treasures of all time are the scriptures. The Book of Mormon, in all it's complexity, was brought forth by the power of God." The Book of Mormon is evidence that Christ has again established His church on the earth and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and we have a living prophet today! We get to hear from him this coming Saturday and Sunday! I'm so excited! General Conference is like Christmas for missionaries!! Love you all! Thank you all again!

Ik hou van jullie!!!

Elder Hunt

Elder Hunt and Elder Lewis in Suriname

Good thing Elder Hunt had a lot of practice fixing bikes with his Dad

Enjoying American Food

March 21, 2016

Wij hadden een echt geweldig week deze laaste week! We had another great week so full of miracles! It's so awesome to witness this all happening. The best part is that there's still more to come! I'm very excited to see what will happen.

The dilemma we had been dealing with was that we were worried that our investigator pool was shrinking too much. Me and Elder Lewis had been talking about it and we came up with a few ideas to get things back up to full operation again. The first was that we felt like we needed to fast every week. It was cool because our zone decided that once a week we were going to fast (together as a zone) to find new investigators as well. Me and Elder Lewis fasted for that, and specifically that we'd be able to contact someone and have a sit down lesson with them there. We broke our fast on Tuesday and the very next day we did just that! We were able to contact this one man, and he invited us in for a lesson, Turns out he was a past investigator, but now wants to start meeting with the missionaries again! That was so cool to see that happen.

Another thing me and Elder Lewis felt like we needed to start doing was only speaking Dutch outside our apartment. We're still working on it but it's been helping us a lot. Not only helping us recognize what Dutch we need to learn, but it's also helped us stay a lot more focused as we work.

We've had some days this week where we had like 7 lessons lined up in one day and all but two of them would fall through. This was good though because we were able to meet and contact some really cool people. The Lord was honestly helping us find people that he had been preparing. This week we were able to hit our new investigator goal and were able to go over our contacted people goal! We've been able to meet some really cool people, have some really good lessons, and we're still meeting people which is awesome! I'm very excited to see how it all plays out.

Colif is absolutely on fire right now!!! He keeps reading the Book of Mormon and he came to church his 4th time in a row this last week. You can see the gospel just absolutely changing him which is awesome! He gave his testimony in Gospel Principles class of how the Elders found him and how the Book of Mormon has been changing his life. The members here are very good at fellow-shipping him and making him feel welcome at church. We were worried that he didn't really have a testimony of the Restoration, so we invited him to read Moroni 10 again and then to pray. He did just that and it happened as we wanted it to happen. In our last lesson with him he said "Ik voel als ik aan een andere wereld zijn! Ik ben op de juiste path want het Boek van Mormon heeft mijn leven geverandert." (I feel as though I'm in another world. I'm on the right path because the Book of Mormon has changed my life). We've been able to set a baptismal date for April 16th, and he is planning on coming to another baptism happening this Saturday to see what it is like. It's really exciting to see him change!

We've been able to see some awesome miracles this last week. We've felt like it's been through our fasting and commitment to speaking only Dutch that's helped us stay focused and in tune with the spirit.It truly is a privilege to be able to be a part of all of this. The Book of Mormon really does change lives. It can change us more if we allow it. There's always something more that we can learn from that book. I'm so grateful for this chance that I have to be out here in the most random mission call you can get on the planet! My Dutch is coming and we've been able to have some awesome lessons this last week with hopefully more to come. Thank you all for all of your support!

Ik hou van jullie!!!

Elder Hunt

His new Pet

Downtown Parabaribo

Dutch Store in downtown

March 14,2016

Hallo iedereen!! Dit week voel me een beetje anders. De stad is heelemaal verschillent dan de stad maar ik hou er van!!

I absolutely LOVE it here in my new area. The city of Paramaribo is soooo different from the jungle of Uitkijk. My new companion is Elder L, and he's from Mesa, AZ! (Yes we talk about Arizona A LOT). Random fact: Elder L favorite pizza buffet was in my area in Mesa haha. He's only been out on his mission a transfer longer than I have been, but he's been in Suriname 3 transfers longer than I have, so his Dutch is much better than mine.

Our possession is a little interesting in the city. We cover two different areas of the city; Munder en Gijersflijt (G-'i'-ersfl-'i'-t), which are a 30 minute's bike ride away from each other. Our apartment is SO nice! We pretty much live in a penthouse in suburb Paramaribo. We live on the second floor of a member's house, Zuster Maarlene. Zuster Maarlene LOVES the missionaries! She gives us food every time she sees us, and makes us dinner at least 2 to 3 times a week.

The Paramaribo branch is the largest branch in Suriname, with about 90 people that come every week. It's weird, since there's 8 missionaries that serve in this branch. I've never been in a branch like that, but it's really nice. It's really exciting for us as missionaries right now. In order for a branch to receive it's own church building (one built by the church), the branch needs to have an average of 100 people coming to church every week for 6 months. So that's our goal right now as missionaries is to get church attendance up and over 100 people in attendance so the branch can get it's own church building! The cool thing is the church started a new group in the area of Commowijne which took about 15 active members away from Paramaribo branch. At that point the branch was still at 90 people a week. But now, even with the new group, we're hitting 90's. It shows that the branch keeps growing and we'll hit 100 people in no time!

I'm still getting acquainted with our area, but we have some really cool things in the works right now. One of our most progressing investigators right now is a guy named Colif. He's been coming to church for the past month which is awesome! He's been reading in the Book of Mormon and absolutely loves it at church! He's one fire right now! He does love to talk when we go over there to visit him which makes it a bit difficult to get through the lessons, but we keep on going! We're wanting to set a baptismal date for mid April for him. We'll see what happens.

There are so many awesome people here in Munder/Gijerslijt! They are absolutely awesome and have such cool testimonies. It really is a privilege to be able to be out here, teaching these people. They have such a strong desire to do what's right, which is to follow Christ and His gospel. We have been promised that if we build on the gospel of Jesus Christ, we cannot fall. Het is op de rots van onze verlosser, dat wij moeten bouwen! I'm so grateful for the chance that I have to be out here, serving a mission! Suriname has to be one of the most random and unique places you can get called to, teaching Christians, Hindus, Muslims (all in Dutch), and in the Caribbean too! It's crazy but soo cool.

Have a great week!

Ik hou van jullie!!!

Pet Macau that Steve and Jolanda have

resort area in Suriname

Missionaries favorite spot to play volleyball

Steve and Jolanda with Elder Hunt

new name tags, others have the letters getting worn off

sun bleached pants.. they used to be grey

Saying goodbye Roneradjo Family

Last sunsets in the Jungle