Elder Hunt: 2017-04-02

February 20, 2017

Goededag familie en vrienden en groetjes uit Suriname!

Wow, it's been quite a crazy week. We barely had any investigators at the beginning of this transfer, and so this week e've been doing a lot of contacting. Commewijne is great! It's actually not even a branch, it's a group. There's about 2 active families and a handful of other members. But the members here are amazing. They're so awesome that they bought enough materials to build their own church! We're waiting for the group to get 5 active Melchizedek priesthood holders to build a church, and then we've got one! We got so close this last Sunday, we had four priesthood holders in church. We just need to reactive some more and then we've got our own church building!

We've been able to find some awesome investigators. One is Dorothy, who understands everything that we teach her. She is very friendly, very open, and willing to learn more. We had an awesome Restoration lesson with her and she agreed to be baptized, so I'll keep you posted on her progress.

We were also able to find an awesome family to teach. We were going house to house contacting and we found this man named Rowel. He is such a friendly man and when we met him, immediately he stopped what he was doing and let us into his house. He started explaining all of these problems that he's been having, and is very willing to learn more. He is such a humble man. His wife, Florence, also came and sat in on the lesson. I remember sitting in that lesson, and taking a picture in my mind, of how that moment just felt like the perfect missionary moment. The kind of moment you can look back at and think "This is it, I'm doing my job". More about them to come though.

I'm sorry I which I had more time but I have to email President Egbert. Here's a quick scripture: 41 But if ye will nourish the word, yea, nourish the tree as it beginneth to grow, by your faith with great diligence, and with patience, looking forward to the fruit thereof, it shall take root; and behold it shall be a tree springing up unto everlasting life.

42 And because of your diligence and your faith and your patience with the word in nourishing it, that it may take root in you, behold, by and by ye shall pluck the fruit thereof, which is most precious, which is sweet above all that is sweet, and which is white above all that is white, yea, and pure above all that is pure; and ye shall feast upon this fruit even until ye are filled, that ye hunger not, neither shall ye thirst.

Through diligence, faith, and patience, we can receive some of the Lord's greatest blessings. In fact, all of those blessings come through those qualities. By constantly repenting everyday, we'll be able to see the progression of our lives as we strive to have the Lord as our light.

Love you all! Have another great week!

Ik hou van jullie!!!

Elder Hunt

River

With New Companion Elder Ricks

At a fort

Sunset in Commewijne

main roads in Commewijne

working hard in the field

roads in the jungle

February 15 2017

Hallo en groetjes uit mijn nieuwe gebied in Commewijne.

So we had zone conference on Monday, which is why we didn't email then. And then our email shop here had it's internet down on Tuesday, so wala! We're emailing you on Wednesday.

It's been an absolutely crazy week, but I love my new area. My new companion is Elder Ricks, and he is from Orem, Utah. The two of us get along great. He's very friendly, and is an absolute mathematical wizard.

Commewijne (pronounced Comb - a - wine - a) is on the other side of the Suriname river, which separates us from the city. Our area is huge, and actually runs to the French Guyanese border. What we work though is a great big loop, which takes 3 hours to bike (yes there are members and investigators on the opposite side of the loop from us, and yes, we bike an hour and a half to get there ;D ). We're stationed at the top left had corner of the loop though, in a city called Nieuw Amsterdam (Dutch spelling for New Amsterdam). Nieuw Amsterdam is where the big old fort was that we visited about 6 months ago. It's actually a 3 minute bike ride from our apartment, so we bike there in the morning and then go walking on it's river side for exercise in the morning.

Commewijne is new to the church and new to missionary work. It's only been open as a missionary area for a little over a year now. A few of the members here were baptized in the city and then moved here, and all the others are recent converts. Our area is on the outskirts of the church's influence, and is very new. It's exciting though. We have some cool members and investigators that we get to teach and work with. I have to keep this short because we have a billion other things to do today. But I wish you all the best and I'll write to you in 5.

Ik hou van jullie!!!

Elder Hunt

District

Elder Crawford, Elder Josh, Elder Flemming

February 6,2017

Hallo hallo en groetjes uit Suriname!

I hope everyone had a wonderful week. We got transfer calls this week, and I am leaving Nieuwe Grond! I'm headed over to an area called Commowijne. It's across the river and east of the city of Paramaribo. It's been hard to say goodbye to people here, but I'm excited to go to Commowijne.

We were able to see a lot of cool things happen this week. It was difficult sitting with people this week. We called everyone that we knew, and we still couldn't find too many people. I guess the Lord wanted us to contact. We were able to see a couple of miracles with our investigators this past week. We've been teaching Selfie, and she's made a lot of progress. When we first met her, she didn't want to get baptized. After reading Moroni 8, she now wants to come to church and get baptized. But then her husband didn't want her to do all that. Well, this week we fasted for her, and she told us her husband started secretly reading the Book of Mormon. He's changed from it, and is now not only willing to let his wife get baptized, but he said he'd drive her to church! She told is it was the spirit working in him. (It's really cool to hear your investigator say that).

We've been also teaching the Ritfeld family. Their parents have been super busy and have hardly had time to sit with us. But they gave us permission to baptised their children. That's a HUGE step because a year ago the father didn't wanted his family to have anything to do with the church. All of this exciting stuff happens right as I leave!

Oh, by the way, I started teaching piano lessons. I'm teaching a member to play the piano better so that she can start playing after I leave. It's been fun doing that honestly. I might consider doing it back home.

I'm sorry I don't have too much time. I took some cool pictures that I want to send to I'm going to stop now. But there's a little update from Suriname. I hope you all have a great week!

Ik hou van jullie!!!

Elder Hunt