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

May 30, 2016 Greetings from Suriname

Hello everyone! Greetings from Suriname!

This week has been absolutely awesome! It's been a bit crazy but it's been really fun. We had Anna's and Christopher's baptisms this last Saturday which was absolutely awesome! The baptismal service was beautiful. Transfer calls also came this last Saturday, and Elder Lewis is leaving Munder. He's been in this area for 7 transfers (almost a year) so he's excited to see more of Suriname. It was great to be able to have these last two baptisms while he is still here.

Aniel came to church for the first time yesterday. That was a HUGE step for him. Honestly it was after we brought members by that he started making tones of progress so that showed me the importance of member missionary work. We saw him a couple of times this last week and he is doing awesome. He still struggles with the Word of Wisdom, but we've helped him make a plan to overcome that.

We weren't able to sit with Kolif this last week. He had a family member die this last week and so he's been super busy. He keeps reading and coming to church though! He's practically already a member, he just needs to get baptized!

We were able to have an awesome lesson with Roy and Cheryl this last week. We taught about the commandments and obedience and how obedience brings us blessings. At the end of the lesson Roy said he would like to become more active in the church, and Cheryl agreed to be baptized! Their motivation is finally there, so we just need to be able to get them in the right direction.

We were mainly busy preparing Anna and Christopher for their baptisms this last week. The service went really well and they were both very happy. Their testimonies were awesome as well. Anna got up and bore her testimony about how her getting baptized was the will of the Lord, and that she knows she's on the path to return back to live with Him. She ended and turned to sit back down in the congregation and then real quick, got back up and added "oh, en ik ga zeker blijven volharden!" (and I will for sure endure to the end). Christopher got up and bore his testimony on how the Book of Mormon has absolutely changed his life and how he's felt the love of God during his conversion process and especially at his baptism.

It's been another absolutely awesome week with these baptisms. We have been very blessed to be apart of Anna's and Christopher's conversion process. But like in any other teaching situation, it's not the teacher or the missionaries that convert us, it's the Holy Ghost. It reminds me of a scripture in Mosiah 4:11-12 "11 And again I say unto you as I have said before, that as ye have come to the knowledge of the glory of God... even so I would that ye should remember, and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God... and humble yourselves even in the depths of humility, calling on the name of the Lord daily, and standing steadfastly in the faith... and if ye do this ye shall always rejoice, and be filled with the love of God, and always retain a remission of your sins; and ye shall grow in the knowledge of the glory of him that created you. I know that this is the work of the Lord. I know that he has a plan for each one of us, and we will be able to receive his divine help and guidance as we humble ourselves, rely on Him, and pray sincerely to Him. -and then- we will "grow in the knowledge of the glory of Him" and his divine plan of happiness, which does indeed bring us greater happiness than we will ever imagine. Love you all! Have another great week!

Ik hou van jullie!!!

Elder Hunt

Anna's special Day

Christopher's Baptism Day

the chapel 

Josh's area

The Suriname North Zone

Add caption

May 23, 2016

Hello hello hello! It's been another great week here in Suriname.

We haven't had anything too crazy happen but this next coming Saturday C and A are getting baptized which is really exciting. They both are doing very well and are very excited to be baptized. We will be rapping up the lessons with them and getting them ready for Saturday.

Honestly other then that we haven't been able to see too many other investigators this last week. We have been having a lot of success with our less actives that we have been working with. I've told you about Roy and Cheryl before, a couple here in our area. Well, we weren't able to sit with them this last week but they came to church. And they stayed all three hours too. It's awesome because they are finally starting to make progression. Some other people have also stayed the last two hours of church which was cool. We hit 101 people in sacrament this last week. Our record right now is like 103 so it's getting back up there.

On Saturday the Suriname North Zone went to Saramacca (the Uitkijk area a.k.a. my Surinamese birth place) and did some service for an investigator by digging ditches for a couple of hours. It was fun to go back to an old area and see the familiar sights. I'm still sore from the service though. We were digging through straight mud and clay. But it was a good time.

Other then that it was a pretty chill week. Talk to you all next week!

Ik hou van jullie!!!

Elder Lewis, Josh and Sister Williams with kids

Digging Trenches 

Was Elder Josh's first area

May 16, 2016

Hallo iedereen! Groetjes vanuit Suriname!!

So this week has been different. We've had a bit too many struggles this week than we'd prefer. We haven't been able to teach as many lessons as we wanted this week. BUT, the lessons that we have had are awesome! And we've had some awesome miracles happen this last week.

First with the struggles. We've been having a lot of bike trouble this last week. Elder Lewis' back tire went out as we were biking to Gijersflijt. It's 30 minutes to get there from our apartment, and it took us an hour and a half to walk back to the apartment. We thought we fixed the problem but we ended up finding out that Elder Lewis' tire needed a new rim. So we fixed that too. Then my gears were going out, so we fixed that. AND then, the new rim for Elder Lewis' bike was having problems. A day and a half later we fixed all of our bike problems. Hopefully we won't have any more for the next few months.

President and Sister Egbert are in Suriname again. We had zone Conference on the temple! And it was awesome! But it did take a lot of time out of our proselyting time. We had interviews, Zone Conference, and then the missionaries were asked to sing at a Fireside that President Egbert was doing. It was really fun as I was the official accompanist.

As there was a lot of this stuff going on we didn't have as many chances to go visit investigators. K, C, and A all came to church again. They're all doing awesome! C and A will be baptized in two weeks, and we're working on getting a baptismal date for K in June.

Miracle for this week. A couple of weeks ago, maybe a month, I was talking about our  investigator A. He wanted a change in his life and decided to meet with us. He wasn't making much progress so me and Elder Lewis were thinking about dropping him. We wanted to bring a member by before we officially dropped him though. There were a couple of weeks where it was hard to meet with him. We were finally able to make contact this last week and brought by some members, and the lesson was awesome! Al asked when was the soonest he could be baptized. We're still working on getting him to church but he's making a lot of progress right now. We heard him pray for the first time this week which was awesome.

President Egbert gave a really cool Zone Conference this last week on temples and he as another awesome quote. He said "You go to the temple to receive a fullness of the Holy Ghost. If you go to the Lord and seek to confirm something, if you feel the same way you do in the temple  it's right. We go to the temple to learn how the Holy Ghost feels". It reminded me of a scripture I read this morning  in 3 Nephi 11:3 "for they understood not the voice which they heard; and it was not a harsh voice, neither was it a loud voice;nevertheless, and notwithstanding it being a small voice it did pierce them that did hear to the center"

The spirit is one that is felt through our feelings, not necessarily our minds or our brains. The spirit can do that, and we can receive spiritual impressions, but the spirit talked about in this verse is more of a feely thing. Often times spiritual guidance doesn't come from a thought of the mind, but a feeling from the heart. Cool thing to ponder about.

Love you all! Have another great week.

Ik hou van jullie!!!

Elder Hunt

basketball court- swimming pool

Elder Burr, Elder Lewis, and Elder Josh

Lots of Rain in Suriname

"White rain" in Suriname

sunset at the Chapel

Branch meets in the building by the two cars

May 9, 2016 Lots of RAIN

Hello hello hello! It's been another rainy week here in Paramaribo. Fun fact, alot of our appointments have been falling through due to flooding that's been going on. That's been a bit difficult this week but the lessons we've had this week have been awesome. Christopher and Anna are doing great. We tuaght Christopher last night and he pretty much bore his testimony about how the gospel has changed his life for 40 minutes. But it was really cool to hear. We've changed his baptismal date to the 28th so he'll be baptized the same day as Anna will be.

A is doing awesome as well. She's been reading and is getting accustomed to the church's culture and the Relief Society sisters very well.  She is so ready to be baptized! (We just have to teach her the rest of the missionary lessons first.)
We haven't been able to sit with K this week because of the crazy weather we've been having but he came to church yesterday which as good. We've been having fun teaching the less actives here too.
Sorry this email is short. But we'll have some more stories this next week
Ik hou van jullie!!!
Elder Hunt