Elder Hunt: January 25, 2016 Family baptism!!!!!

Hallo hallo iederien! Het heeft een andere gekke maar geweldig week in Uitkijk zijn!!! Daar is veel dat gaat hier in Uitkijk!! It's been another crazy week, and we were able to have the Roneradjo's baptized this week as well. It's been crazy but awesome! Transfer calls were this last week. I finally managed to stay in the same country for another transfer haha. But I get another companion. Elder Dibb is leaving for Kosabaholo in Temmega branch. Elder Dibb has been a great companion. He's taught me so much. We'll definitely miss him in Uitkijk.

To start the week off, on Monday evening I got a tooth problem that I had to go see the dentist about. Aparently I'm the first missionary to have dental problems here in Suriname because the church has no dentists on record here haha. Tuesday we went to the doctor the missionaries use here first thing in the morning who then referred us to a very good dentist. I was able to get my mouth operated on which is always fun (not really :/). It was crazy because his office is in the city. We spent 2 hours trying to get to his office. We eventually found out that the numbers for the buildings' addresses on this street restart from when the street goes from a 2 way street to a 1 way street. Ugh! It was a pain. But we made it to the dentist eventually and I was able to get in right away which is a miracle in it of itself. We weren't able to proselyte because of the dentist craziness that day. Great way to start off you're week right?

We have not been able to meet with M this last week. M is currently in Niewe Nickerie which is about a 3 hour drive from Uitkijk. We will be trying to meet with her this week. She's been really enthusiastic in her Book of Mormon reading.

We were able to hold the R's baptismal service this week! It was absolutely the coolest thing I have witnessed on my mission. We held the service itself on Saturday and tones of people came. Almost all of the missionaries in Suriname went to it and we were able to get a handful of members from Uitkijk there as well. The spirit during the entire service was so strong! I was able to play piano for the service which is always fun. President Schipper, the Uitkijk branch president, baptized the family. It's a mission policy to have a member baptize converts when possible, which I think is great. It really helps with retention of the new converts. Hearing their testimonies was the coolest thing ever! The spirit was specifically very strong then, and you could see how the gospel has just absolutely helped strengthen this family, it is soooo cool!!!

Sunday we were able to confirm the family. Church started 10 minutes late (like it usually does), and then after intros we were able to confirm them. Confirming all 5 of them took a good 25 minutes. So by the time we sang the sacrament hymn it was like 10:40 haha. We then held Sondagschool or Evangeliebeginselins class and Priesthood and Auxiliary classes after. We stayed after church for another hour and half to digitize the baptismal records. So by the time we had lunch (which was more like dinner at that point), we were only able to go see the R's family. It was sad because Elder Dibb had to say his goodbyes. He's worked with that family for 6 months. It was really cool to baptize the family for the perfect ending of a transfer though. It'll be really exciting to work with the family now since they're then only members in the area. They're really excited to start building up the church in the area which is very exciting.

Other then that this week's been pretty chill haha. I was listening to a conference talk by Elder Ballard where he actually talks about opening up Trinidad & Togabo, Guyana, French Guyana, and Suriname to missionary work. That was about 25 years ago. So arguably, this area has the youngest church presence in the western hemisphere in the entire world which is crazy to think about. The church is definitely very young. I was thinking about how isolated from 'mainstream' LDS church the members here are. But then something popped up in my mind from this conference talk. Elder Ballard talks about through small and simple things the Lord brings about miracles (Alma 37:6-7), and that how we 'feel' the gospel is a universal thing. A new convert in Suriname 'feels' the gospel the same way as a member does that grew up in Utah. I've really come to learn that (besides the temple), I have never felt closer to God than by preaching the gospel in the small town of Uitkijk in the small country of Suriname. Yet the members here are a 3-4 hours plane ride to the nearest temple, THE GOSPEL IS STILL THE SAME!!! It's absolutely beautiful how the gospel has been set up, and for that I am grateful.

Thank you all for all of your support! I am absolutely loving being a missionary here. I'll be back next week with more to come!

Ik hou van jullie!!!

Elder Hunt