January 5, 2016

Hallo iederien! Het heeft een andere gekke week hier in Suriname zijn! It's been another good old Uitkijk week here with tones of cool stuff happening.

Good gracious! New Years here puts anything you see in the states to shame!! It's a war-zone here at New Years time. I had to put in earplugs to get any sleep. Thankfully I slept through the entire night which I consider a blessing. A lot of our appointments fell through for New Years which was a bit of a bummer, but it's like that around holidays. We had a branch New Years party on the 1st which was fun. We had a little testimony meeting and then ate some Pindesoep which is like Peanut Butter in soup form. You eat it with these little balls of dough with some chicken. It's a fun little Creole food here in Suriname.

Wednesday I led out the area of Uitkijk. I know right? I've only been in the area for 2 weeks with only 2 weeks worth of Dutch behind me. It went pretty well though. We biked the 70 minute bike ride to Groningen, where President Schipper lives. We had a little lesson with him. We usually then work our way back with some other people that we visit. But coming back I got a flat on my back tire. And let me tell you,DUTCH BIKES ARE COMPLICATED! Luckily I had a Dutchman with me, Elder Van Den Herik. Elder Van Den Herik is from the Netherlands and understands Dutch bikes really well so he was able to help me get my bike fixed and up and running again so we could bike back that night. Fun stuff.

President and Sister Egbert have been in Suriname for the past week or so. They spent Sunday in Uitkijk and came to church here. Fast Sunday here was awesome. The R's came to church which is AWESOME! They're on line right now for baptism on the 23rd this month. They just need to come to church 2 more times and they'll be ready. Sister Egbert says thank you, mom, for making me play the piano. She says I'm one of only a handful of people she knows that came play piano in the entire mission. President Egbert got up and bore his testimony in Dutch which was cool to hear.  Broeder R also got up and bore his testimony of how the gospel has blessed he and his family. Zuster Ronerajo started to cry by how powerful the spirit was there in that meeting.

The R family are doing absolutely steller! We had a lesson on the Atonement with them Sunday night which was an awesome lesson. Some how that lesson evolved into going to the temple and family history work. They have said they are planning on going to the temple here within the next year after their baptism which is awesome. They also want to start doing some family history after their baptism so me and Elder Dibb have been looking for the best ways of going about doing that. They're absolutely awesome!

We are continuing to teach M. We were supposed to see her Wednesday but because my bike broke down we didn't have enough time. We were able to meet with her Sunday and teach her the rest of Het Heilsplan(Plan of Salvation). She's continued to read and accepted the invitation to be baptized. The next step with her is getting her to church. Hopefully we'll see her there within the next week.

We have a number of other investigators that we are also working with. We haven't been able to see them much, if at all this week because of New Years and Christmas. Everything will resume back to normal this next coming week hopefully.

I am absolutely loving Uitkijk as usual! It is so much fun down here! Yes mom and dad I got your package with the new camera. I am having way too much fun with this thing. I may or may not have already taken a few hundred pictures on it. I do need to apologize. The computers here are a bit sketchy so I can't send home pictures without getting a virus. But I promise I have taken TONES of pictures. I promise I'll catch up haha!

I absolutely love being a missionary. It's definitely a privilege to be able to do the Lord's work here in Suriname. The gospel is absolutely amazing! I am very grateful for it and for the chance that I have to be able to share it with others.

Ik hou van jullie!!!

Elder Hunt