June 20,2016

Hallo iedereen! Groetjes vanuit Suriname!

This week has been a really interesting week. A lot of lessons have been falling through, which on one hand has been difficult, but on the other we've been able to meet some really cool people this week. 

It's been hard to meet with A this week. He's been out of town these last couple of days so it's been a bit harder to meet with him. We'll have to move his baptismal date again. He's been doing very good though. He's completely stopped smoking now! That's a huge miracle this week. He's doing great. Our last lesson with him was on the temple, and he is soooo excited to go to the temple. We brought by the Temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints magazine (we got one in Dutch) and he loved it! In fact he asked if he could keep it haha. Thank you for that idea, it's been coming in handy.

We've met some other cool people this week too. We have a new investigator named W  who is super cool. He's a referral from Broeder S, a member in our area. S was so excited to come teach W. He even came with his own lesson plan, with some of his most favorite scriptures in the Book of Mormon. It's really excited Wicheel. We're going back to have another lesson tomorrow, and we're excited for it. We also have a new guy named Chiral. He's an investigator the South Elders had, and he moved into our area. He's a cool guy loves to read. He's really busy with work so it's been hard to sit with him. Hopefully we'll be able to find a better time to meet with him this week.

President and Sister Egbert were in Suriname this weekend. They gave a really cool Zone Meeting on God is Our Loving Heavenly Father. It's such a cool subject to ponder about. There's a great quote that says "You will be humbled as you come to realize how God perceives and regards you". As we come to realize the amount of love God has for us, and everything that He's capable of, we will want to humble ourselves in order to have His promised blessings in our lives. Cool to think about! I'm grateful for my Heavenly Father, and for His love for me. I'm grateful for my own father and for how awesome he is. Love you all, have another great week!

Elder Hunt

Munder area drying out after floods

Munder Area

Alligator Scripture case

It fits his Dutch scriptures

June 13,2016 Miracles

Hallo en groetjes vanuit Suriname!

We've had some ups and downs this week but we have been able to see some cool miracles. It's also been a very hot/rainy week. We've had some days where it feels so hot here and then the next day it's down-poring rain. We also woke up to a crazy thunder storm this morning. Typical Suriname ;)

First the bad news this week. K dropped us. It wasn't anything like he was doubting his testimony or the truthfulness of the church. What happened is he realized how important the family is in the church, to be sealed in the temple, and be unified as a family. He also really wanted his wife and children to come to church. So we fasted together that that would happen. He then invited both his wife and daughter to come to church and neither of them did. So he feels like he needs to give it some time to allow his wife and his daughter's family to accept the missionary lessons. So he said in a couple of months he'll get back in contact with the missionaries. So not completely terrible.

On the flip-side of things, A is doing awesome! He has been liking church a lot and he keeps reading. We had a cool experience where we fasted together with him so that he could overcome his Word of Wisdom problem. He said that it's really helped him and strengthened him to break his habit. So that's been really cool to see. It's been so cool because he's always so happy to see us and is excited to tell us about the things he's learned in the Book of Mormon. A is doing awesome!

We've been focusing a lot more on getting member referrals this week. Preach My Gospel talks about how we need to do our best to receive member referrals, because those people often turn into the best progressing investigators. So we've been focusing a lot on that.

I was studying about gratitude this morning, and why it's important to have a grateful heart. I was also thinking about how gratitude and humility are related. A scripture I love is in Alma 7:2323 "And now I would that ye should be humble, and be submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive." When we're grateful, we recognize the things we have in our lives, and we're happy because we have them. On a more spiritual note, we recognize that these things we have came from God. We realize God's had in our lives. That fact, the fact that we recognize God's hand (His help) in our lives, allows us to recognize how much we truly rely on Him. We give Him the credit, and that is humility.

Love you all so much. Two Saturdays from now A will be baptized so we're really excited for that. We'll let you know on how that all plays out. Have a great week!

Ik hou van jullie!!!

Elder Hunt

Flooding in Munder 

more flooding

Missionary Apartment in Munder

Another view of Kitchen

Munder area

Munder Street

Bedroom

Study area

June 6, 2016 NEW COMP

Hallo iedereen!! Goetjes vanuit Suriname!!

We've had a really cool this week. We've been able to meet some awesome new people and have seen a lot miracles this week (with more to come). I have a new comp, Elder Christiansen. He's from Spanish Fork, Utah and has been in Suriname for a year now. He's fun to serve with so it'll be a good transfer for sure.

We have been making progress with our investigators. Our most progressing right now is A, who came to church for the second time last week. He's almost completely stopped smoking which is awesome. He's been reading and praying and doing everything he's been needing to do.

We had a cool experience with K this last week. He was talking about how he wants his wife to sit in on the lessons. We were talking about the temple and how his family can be together forever. Then we talked about fasting and prayer and receiving answers to prayers. So for this last fast-Sunday we fasted together with K that his wife would sit in on the lessons. We're going back tonight to see what will happen, but me and Elder Christiansen are excited for that.

Church was awesome this last week. We got 109 last week and this week we got 119 people in church! That is an official Paramaribo branch record that was set! There were so many people that we started running out of chairs and hymn books (that is the best problem we've had here haha)!! Testimony was really cool. I love sitting and listening to Surinamer's testify of the restored gospel. That was a really cool to see.

I've been pondering a lot about hope this last week and why it is so important. When you hear faith, hope, charity, hope often gets overlooked. I love what Moroni says about it in Ether 12:4 "Wherefore, whoso believeth in Godmight with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works,being led to glorify God." Having hope in the gospel is a trust in the promises Heavenly Father makes us, if we stay obedient to the things He asks us to do. These problems are important to us as missionaries but they're important to everyone. Hope creates motivation and enthusiasm, and gets rid of discouragement.

Have another great week! I'll talk to you all later,

Ik hou van jullie!!!

Elder Hunt