Leap Day 2/29/2016

Hallo iedereen!!! Groetjes van Suriname!

It's been another great! Lots of cool stuff has happened and there will certainly be a lot more after this week! To start off the week, Uitkijk has a new Branch President! He'll be really good for the branch. We're very excited to start working with him. President Librettoe is from Wanica branch but will be working as Branch President here in Uitkijk.

Last P-day all of the Suriname missionaries went to a resort called Overbrug, about an hour drive south of the city. It was a really fun activity. It's reminded me how much I miss playing beach volleyball. It was a bit rainy but still really fun. It was pretty great to play when it's just down pouring rain haha.

J has been doing awesome! She finished reading the Book of Mormon all the way through since our last appointment which is crazy! She reads so much and is so excited to talk to us about what she's learned. She's doing awesome. She and her husband Steve made dinner for us on Sunday which was the most American meal I've had since leaving the states. I was pretty culture shocked haha.

We had an awesome lesson with M and J this last week. We were able to teach them about the first part of the Plan of Salvation. We ended the lesson by talking about the Atonement and Gospel of Jesus Christ. After explaining what the 5 steps of the Gospel were Jeanette asked if her family could be baptized which is very exciting! We're working on getting them a date right now.

Continue praying for M. We haven't been able to teach her husband at all. But M is still doing great! She always reads and is ready to talk about whatever she's read. We had a really fun lesson teaching her the 10 commandments.

We've also had some really cool contacts this last week. A lot of very promising investigators. We'll be following up on a lot of people this week for sure. The best kind of people to teach are people who were Hindu who then converted to Christianity, because they want to believe in Christ but they don't know too much about him. It's a perfect introduction to the Book of Mormon.

I've learned a lot about the Atonement this last week. Me and Elder James taught District meeting this last week. We talked about how it is through Christ that we can be cleansed from sin. There's a perfect scripture that sums everything up in Alma 7:11&12, saying that Christ "[suffered our] pains and afflictions... that his bowels may be filled with mercy... [and that] he may know how to succor his people". The atonement is very simple, in that if we accept and follow Christ, we obtain a remission of our sins (we're forgiven). Yet at the same time the Atonement is so powerful that it can literally help anyone at anytime with any trial.

Ik hou van dit zendelings ervaring! I'll be back next week with more to come!

Ik hou van jullie!!!

Elder Hunt

February 21, 2016

allo iediereen!! Het heeft een andere wel leuke week in Uitkijk, Suriname zijn! Veel gaat dit week en daar zult meer komen als de week doorgaan. Ik ben echt moe van alles dat gaat en zult gebeurt dit week zijn!

A lot of great stuff has been happening this week. We've been able to receive a lot of answers to prayers this week as we've continued on in the work here in Uitkijk. It's certainly been a blessing and I am very grateful for how the Lord is aware of each one of us.

A great answer to our prayers this last week is that we were able to build our teaching pool a lot more. We've been able to find new investigators as well as meet less actives that have been off radar for a while. The work had been struggling in that respect so I am very grateful for that.

We've had some pretty great lessons this week. The biggest miracle I think this week was with one  of our new investigators, J. She was a previous investigator who was dropped because the missionaries weren't able to meet with her because of how busy she was. BUT, we were able to go and visit her and her husband (who is a member) and talk to them about how the gospel can bless their family. It's reminded her of the spirit she'd felt before, and now she wants to take the missionary lessons again! We were able to get a baptismal date for her which is awesome! We've been able to meet with her more this week, and she's been reading A TONE and she and her husband even read to their children which is absolutely awesome!

We've been able to meet with M and J this week. M has been very busy and has had some things come up that will make it difficult to meet with her for a bit. She's doing great in her reading of the Book of Mormon, and learns and feels the spirit as she reads which is great. The next step for her is to get her husband to sit in on the lessons. It's been difficult to do that but we'll keep trying. J is also reading in the Book of Mormon, and is doing awesome recognizing how the teachings of that book can help her in her life which is awesome! We''ll see how things play out later this week.

This week's letter is a bit short. I don't have too much time this week but I wanted to say how grateful I am for a loving Heavenly Father that loves and knows us each individually. I am so grateful for the personal relationship that I can and do have with my Heavenly Father. That relationship, as well as the power of the atonement of Jesus Christ, can get us through any hardship that we have in our lives. We can and will succeed with any trials that come our way in life as long as we do our best to keep the commandments of the Lord.

Thank you for all of your support. I'll be back next week with more to come.

Ik hou van jullie!!!

Elder Hunt

February 15, 2016

Hallo iedereen!! Ik ben zo blif met alles dat heeft hier in Uitkijk gegaan!! Het is wel een leuk ervaring om hier te zijn! Suriname de leukste land is en de lidden hier zijn geweldig!!

This week has been a very exhausting week as every week turns out to be here in Uitkijk haha. But this week we had a lot of cool miracles happen and it is so cool to see the area and people here ripen for receiving more of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Tuesday was fun but exhausting. We biked the hour ride from Koerasaan to Leiding which was all going slightly up hill, and we were traveling north. Traveling north is always bad news because there's always a wind coming from the north that we have to bike against. We were able to go teach Broeder B, a recent convert here about the temple and family history work which are two topics that get me very excited. Broeder B will hit his year mark in August and is planning on going with the Paramaribo District to the Manaus, Brazil temple this September which is awesome to hear. That is going to be something that we're going to push with a lot of members here, is getting them ready to go to the temple with the district this September, AND being able to take family names with them when they go.

Wednesday is when a lot of the miracles happened this week. We were able to see a referral we received named E. E is an older lady from Guyana who now lives in Suriname. She's a very nice lady and very intelligent when it comes to religion and the Bible. We were able to teach her the Restoration and the lesson went awesome! She literally agreed with us on every point of doctrine we taught her, and she was very excited to receive and read the Book of Mormon. It'll be very cool to see what she's learned from it.

We had a very cool experience with Z this week. We were able to get his wife, J, and his daughter C, to sit in on the lesson. We taught them about the Book of Mormon and gave them an assignment to it together. It is very cool to be able to finally teach them as a family since that is what the gospel is all about.

We were only able to go see M once this week but we had a very good lesson with her. There were a number of hurtles that we have had to clear to get M ready for baptism and we were able to clear most of those in this lesson which was very good. We taught her a little bit about the temple and eternal marriage, and then challenged her to talk to her husband about having him sit in on the lessons with us. We will be going by soon to see how things turn out. If he does sit in that will be two new families that we've found that we can teach which is always AWESOME to have.

We have had the chance of being able to visit a lot of less actives this week. Church attendance is always something that has been a challenge for Uitkijk. But as we've been meeting with less actives, we've been pushing Book of Mormon A LOT. We've been hoping that this would get the members excited again about the gospel and it's been working. It's reminded a lot of people about the blessings they've received from the gospel, and how they can have those blessings again. It's helping them recognize what they need to change. We have also been asking for referrals which was awesome because we were able to receive a good number from them this week.

The Book of Mormon is absolutely key in the church. Zonder het Boek van Mormon, het gaat niet. The Book of Mormon is absolutely fundamental and foundation for helping us build and strengthen our testimonies in Christ. As I've explained so many times now, "Het Boek van Mormon is het sluitsteen in de kerk". The Book of Mormon is the keystone because of it's teachings of Christ. And that's what this church is all about.

Thank you all for all of your support in helping me get and stay out here! I'll be back with more to come!

Ik hou van jullie!!!

Elder Hunt

Feb. 9, 2016 And this isn't one of those cute rainstorms you get in the Caribbean, this is an authentic, Amazon Rainforest rainstorm.

Hello hello everyone! We're writing today because yesterday was the "Sinaase Nieuwejaar" (Chinese New Year), so everything was closed. This week has definitely been a busy week, and we've been traveling all over the place.

To start of the week we had an AWESOME lesson with M. We were able to go see her on Tuesday, AND we were able to bring Broeder en Zuster R along with us to go visit her. We had a really good lesson on prayer and getting answers to our prayers. We were able to have her relate to past experiences she'd. The R's also gave an awesome testimony of how the gospel has blessed the lives of their family. It was a really cool lesson to have the R's at.

This last Wednesday I was in Koerasan with Elder Christensen. We had a fun time contacting and looking for less-actives in the area when it started to absolutely down pour on us. And this isn't one of those cute rainstorms you get in the Caribbean, this is an authentic, Amazon Rainforest rainstorm. We were on a dirt (and then mud) road and we had  a fun time biking through mud puddles that got up to a foot high. It was some fun stuff.

We were then able to manage to go to the city 4 days in a row which was a bit exhausting but well worth it. Friday was Zone Conference, my first one in Suriname which was cool. President and Sister Egbert both talked about the Power of the Atonement and the Sacrament. President Egbert pointed out 7 categories of the Atonement, we 1)are cleansed from sins, 2) gain a resurrected body, 3) have justice satisfied, 4) gain power to resist Satan, 5) have our weaknesses strengthened, 6) gain the power to change, and 7) have our infirmities healed. He said that any doctrine of the Atonement could fit into one of these 7 categories. A really cool way to study the atonement. Sister Egbert had a really cool quote about the Sacrament. She said "When I hear the little sacrament cups clinking at the bottom of the sacrament trays, I hear the Atonement at work". The sacrament is a weekly renewal and commitment that we are willing to do our best to become more like Christ.

Saturday we were able to help a member named Broeder P build his house. He lives in Temmega branch but is building a house here in Uitkijk so we were able to go over and help him build for a good 4 hours. We made the foundation for his house, hauling sand, gravel, cement, and wood to build it. It was a good time. Saturday night we had the adult session of District Conference here in Suriname. The missionaries were asked to come and give a musical number. We sang "Christus is mijn Heer" (I Believe in Christ). I was asked to accompany which was cool to do.

Sunday we had District Conference at the Temmega chapel. I was also asked to play piano for it which was cool. The District is pushing temple preparation and family history work. The district is preparing to do a temple trip down to the Manaus, Brazil temple. It's really cool to get everyone excited for that. We'll definitely want to focus on that with a lot of people down here in Uitkijk.

On P-day we went to the Temmega Chapel again where there was a district sports day. We played basketball and Werewolf while there. It was pretty fun to be there with the other missionaries as well as a tone of members. Me and Elder James decided that we wanted to bike back to our apartment afterwards. Everyone thought that we were crazy. They thought it was like a 2 hour bike ride home but it only ended up being 55 minutes haha. We made really good timing and it was a cool bike ride too.

I have been learning a tone out here in the mission field. I've changed a lot since being out here. You learn all sorts of cool stuff about the gospel and the atonement. I've absolutely loved it out here. It's so much fun. You rely on God and have faith that he will help you and then you go out there in the world and teach the gospel. Thank you everyone for all your support! It means a lot. I'll be back next week with more crazy stories!

Ik hou van jullie!!!

Elder Hunt

Biking through muddy Koerasan Roads

Going to the dentist in Tandart

With Elder James helping build a house 

Hauling all the stuff to the area to build

February 1, 2015

Hello everyone!! It has been another great week in Suriname! A lot has been going on, and it's been super awesome to be a part of all of it.

The new transfer started this week and I got my new companion, Elder James. Elder James is from South Jordan, Utah, and has been out for about a year longer than I have. He's a great companion, and he's letting me lead out on literally everything. It's been rough but I've been learning a lot. It's tough to completely lead out an area when you've only had a month and a half of speaking the language. It's pretty great, sometimes I can understand people great, and sometimes people will talk to me and I'll have a completely blank look on my face haha. Elder James is really good at having me push myself haha. It's been really good though. Elder James just got back from 6 very stressful months in the North Zone. Suriname currently has no Senior couple and so it was his responsibility to be the 'acting senior couple' as well as a Zone Leader. He had to worry about packages, visas, bikes in the country, etc. So he's pretty happy to be in a less stressful environment.

This week has been a pretty rough week. A lot of our lessons this week have been falling through. Tuesday Elder Dibb said his goodbyes to everyone and and Sister J, one of the members here, made us the most deluxe french fries I've ever had. We have not been able to teach M this week. BUT, we did get in contact with her again. She's been out of town and she's had family visiting so it's been hard to visit her. But tomorrow we have an appointment to go see her, AND we're bringing Broeder en Zuster R along with us. It'll be a really good week.

Another one of our progressing investigators is Z. Me and Elder Dibb had taught Z for a while. We had had a few small lessons with him this week where we read out of the Book of Mormon. But we then had a really cool lesson on Sunday. We had an appointment with Z on Sunday and when we got there he wasn't home. Turns out he was at the Riverside beach in Groningen. Long story short we were able to go teach him at the beach and it was one of the best lessons I've had on my mission. Picture a lesson on a riverside with the sun setting, it was pretty cool. We felt impressed to reteach the Restoration again to him. The spirit was so strong in that lesson. It was really cool to hear Z say, "Ik voel blij in mijn hart" (I'm feeling happy inside). The lesson went really well and the sun setting on the riverside helped with the lesson too haha. It was really nice to have that lesson since the week has been a little rough.

The R family is doing great! They're excited to come out teaching with us. It's be very cool to start growing the church in that area. It's hard and tiring work but those few moments you get as a missionary where you can feel the spirit so strongly make it all worth it. They're spiritual experiences that you cherish for the rest of your life. It's really cool.

How many people are in the branch?  

It's small. About 20 active with another 60 inactive

have you eaten any monkey? 

no monkey,  but the craziest things I've eaten so far is cow foot and chicken intestines, snake. The R family feed us crazy stuff!

Thank you for all of your prayers and support and know that I'm praying for jullie as well! Have a great week!!

Ik hou van jullie!!!

Elder Hunt

Also, I may start teaching piano to some of the members here. Maybe a little something that could help me teach piano would be cool, but still a church publication

Me and Elder Rodas on an exchange. Elder Rodas is from El Savador but grew up in Belgium. He's served on the French, Spanish, English, and Dutch sides of the Caribbean, and he's fluent in all for languages
(ps, they drive on the other side of the road)

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

So excited for this Family!

Normal Suriname dinner,,,, fried rice and Dutch cookie

January 18,2016

Hallo Hallo iedereen! It's been another great week in Uitkijk. Definitely a bit of a struggle this week but we still have awesome stuff going on this week.

I led out the area again, this time with Elder Bowen. We had a fun day in Groningen being able to see a couple of less actives, visited President Schipper, and then went by M and the R's. We had a great lesson with Melissa. We taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ that lesson. We then challenged her to a baptismal date and she accepted! She also agreed to come to church this Sunday. That was my first baptismal invitation that I'd ever given in Dutch. It was a bit rough but she got the idea.The R's are absolutely awesome (as usual ;) ). We have had a couple of lesson with them this week and they're doing great! Sunday attendance this week was a bit rough. There was a power outage just hours before church started so not too many people came. Neither M or the R's came this week which was disappointing. BUT, when we went by the R's Sunday night, they said that they got ready for church (they even got up at 7 to go), but weren't able to because they needed gas in their car and with the power outage they weren't able to pump gas into their car. They did make the effort to go to church though. Their baptismal service is scheduled for this Saturday. We can still technically baptize them according to mission standards. Elder Dibb and I are a bit hesitant but we think we'll continue with their baptism this Saturday. They are so ready for baptism, and so excited for membership in the church. We'll keep you posted.

Not too much has been going on other then that. A lot of lessons have been falling through this week. We didn't get nearly as many as what we've normally been getting. We have been doing a lot more of contacting this week. We were able to get a good number of contacts, nothing too promising from what we've been finding. But we keep going at it, finding those that the Lord would have us teach. Dutch is coming pretty good though. I feel like I can speak basic Dutch. I can understand a good amount too (but at the same time it depends on who's talking haha).

A great lesson I've come to learn this week is to always have gratitude in our hearts, no matter our circumstances. Being able to have gratitude for what we've been given makes it soooo much easier to have charity for others. I've really found that it is so much more easy to have charity for others when we're focused on the blessings we've been given. We're generally more happy and we're able to help others more. As Moroni 7 says, charity never faileth. What an awesome scripture!!

I am absolutely loving being a missionary here. All our difficulties that we have are swallowed up in our joy in Christ and the gospel. Thanks again!

Ik hou van jullie!!!

Elder Hunt

Dutch Beach cruiser 

Hindi donut

AMAZING SUNSET

MULTI ZONE SPORTS P-DAY