Everyday is an Adventure! 7/28/2015

Dear Family,

Sometimes I can't get over where I am and what I'm doing. It's been the craziest adventure of my life! It's really tiring and most of the time I have no idea what I'm doing but I know all these experiences and things I'm learning are sinking deep in my heart. I can't say "WOW, I'm completely different now," but something I do know is that the rest of my life will be different now and my perspective of life has changed. I think that is the main reason why God wanted me to serve a mission. I needed to refocus my life a little. I'm very grateful for that reason alone. I can just see right past the worldly façade and see what truly matters. Maybe it won't last forever when I get home--better believe that I want an iphone and all my clothes again--BUT still I see differently.

Well my companion opened a hair salon and I was her first customer. I was so sick of the blonde at the end of my hair. It just was not looking good any more. I also didn't want to cut it off. So we went to the store and bought some hair dye and dyed it that night. I didn't believe it would work haha but it did and now I'm all over brunette. It looks a lot better. 

We had a great week with Kosviello! We saw him on Wednesday and had a really good lesson. He told us that he made a goal to read one chapter from the BOM everyday. He also said he's ready to be baptized. We set a date with him for August 8. He said he's not sure if he'll pass school this year (By the way the school system is so weird. No one passes. There's 18 year olds in middle school). Anyway, he decided to fast the next day to do well on his tests. We checked in on him the next day and he was doing soo good. He was so happy. He went to church all by himself on Sunday.

We kept missing Dobyen this week and so we didn't see her at all this week! Sad, but she's still doing great. Her mom is so nice. I really think when her mom's done with school that she will sit down with us too.

Miracle this week. We introduced this 21 day challenge to Sunshine, Lucratia, and that whole crew. It has you pray for people to share the gospel with everyday and has some scriptures to read. They all haven't been to church in a while. They say they don't have money but I think it comes to priorities...I don't know. Anyway, on Thursday we went over. Sunshine was so excited because one of the girls she had been praying to share the gospel with was there. Her name is Lucinda. We invited her in the lesson and she came. By the end of the lesson she said she wanted to be baptized. And on Sunday she came to church with Sunshine and all them. So cool! 

Friday we went to Uitkike for a shadow. It's always an adventure there because we are in the jungle. It's fun. We went to see this one family that lives kind of in this village thing. By the time we were leaving we had this herd of little girls following us and holding our bikes so we couldn't go. They were so cute. We also saw this one member who is less active. He was baptized when he was 8. He is 31 now. I guess when he was 17 he got into drugs. He is so messed up now it's sad. He is basically delusional. Don't do drugs kids! We went to another investigator family whom we LOVE. We went there last time. They are the coolest! They make plantain chips and we got to see them make them. I'll show you a video when I'm home. 

Saturday we went to a Ritvield family member birthday party. Sister C got really sick all of a sudden and was throwing up. We finally got her home but she was sick all day and then sick on Sunday too. We didn't go to church or out that day. She is feeling better now and no I'm not sick. Knock on wood. Already did. 

I've been reading all about early church history. I'm really getting into it. SO MANY COOL THINGS. So many miracles and visions and wow. I'm blown away. I'm so inspired by the faith and diligence of the early saints. I'll try and be like them. 

Love always,

Elizabeth

New President 7/21/2015

Dear Family,

Yes we met our new mission president this week! President Egbert and his wife are amazing. So chill and they love the gospel and missionary work. They are so down to earth. I really like it. It wasn't a zone conference--next transfer will be one. But we did have interviews with him. We just talked about my mission and me. It was just nice talking to him! He has a lot of energy and enthusiasm. He's excited to be here. He speaks Dutch and so the members here just went gaga for him. They thought he was amazing! It was cute. There are two sisters on Curacou I think, but that's it. I don't know if I really will ever go there but you never know! Sister Egbert is so funny and nice. We had the best time just talking to her. 

As for our week it was great! We worked really hard this week. Last Monday we watched 17 Miracles at the Ritveild's house and brought Dobyen. She loved the movie but who doesn't! 

We met this really sweet old less active lady. Her name is Sister Muriel. She was just crying and so happy we were there. Her husband died long ago and she is in her 70's. Her son has diabetes and just had his legs cut off. She too has it and her body is falling apart but she has to take care of her son. Basically she has no help really. We are going to start helping her once a week with things around the house. So many people have diabetes and everyone has body parts getting cut off because of it! Crazy!

Kosviello is coming around a bit more. I don't know! Sometimes he really annoys me and then I remember he's only 13. He has all the info down. He knows what to do! He came to church again this Sunday. 

Dobyen is still doing great! Her Dad lives in the Netherlands so they are going to stay with him. She is eventually moving there next year sometime. She really is just solid. I know she'll get baptized one day for sure. 

Just found this monkey as they were walking down the
street!

We met lots of people this week. No one too exciting to talk about but there may be some potential! Our whole week is jammed already with appointments. Can't complain! I'm going to the city this week with Sister Jensen on exchanges. It should be fun! I love Sister Jensen.

It still rains every day! Sometimes we get lucky and other days we are wet. I really am just used to hot and humid and whatever else comes my way. No big deal now. 

Mom, I'm having a member make me a dress and some skirts too. I bought the fabric today--Should be really cute I hope! 

Love you all! 

Love,

Elizabeth

Dry Season, On It's Way... 7/15/2015

Dear Family,

We started this week with bike problems...yay! Sister C's back tire was having some problems. After being fixed on Tuesday it again had problems. We didn't teach any lessons those few days but we talked to lots of people when we walked! 

Wednesday I went to Tamengha on exchanges. I was with Sister Walsh. We had a good time together! We saw some cool members and investigators. The area is sooo different from Wanica. I really am in the country. It's so far from each place to the next there. There is takes max 15 mins. From what I heard Sister C had a fun time with Sister Johnson in Wanica. It went well. Sister Johnson is going home a transfer early from school so she only has a month left! She's very excited!

Thursday we were able to weekly plan and see a few investigators on our way out to Munder in the City. We biked through the city at night which was fun to get there. We stayed the night with Sister Jensen and Sister King and then shadowed them before this big district activity. Munder has just been opened for sisters. It is a really cool area! I like it there. Hopefully I will be there next. We are getting two new sisters next transfer and 5 new elders. I'm so excited to have some new missionaries in the mix. It's basically guaranteed that I'll move next transfer. 

The district activity was really fun on Friday. Dobyen came with her little brother. It was a live version of the tree of life. So there was a rod down this hallway leading to the tree of life and then in all the rooms along the way we had temptations. Us missionaries tried to get people in our room.  It was really fun and everyone loved it. We had some speakers talking about it afterward. Dobyen and her brother loved it. Her brother left the rod and went into the first room that had video games. Doyben has read the BOM so she knew she had to get the fruit. Afterward during the speakers her brother said, "I didn't know I was supposed to get a fruit from the tree!" and Dobyen said, "That's why you have to read your scriptures!" She said it all sassy- haha. 

Saturday we had a busy day with lots of lessons and lots of contacts. We had to make up for our days without a bike and being gone. It was fun!

Sunday we only had one investigator come to church--Stephen this little boy we teach from a family. Lucien picked Stephen up and they bused together. 

Dobyen is doing really well and wants to be baptised but she is going to the Netherlands this summer and won't be back until the fall. We don't want to rush baptism so hopefully she will get to go to the church in the Netherlands and then get baptised when she is back. She really is prepared though! She's awesome! She had a dream this week about the first vision. She said she saw Joseph Smith see God and Jesus Christ. Then she said, "Oh my gosh, Joseph Smith was soooo cute!" It was really funny. 

Kosviello's family is frustrating. I feel like they are losing their fire. They make promises that they are coming to things but never do. We will have to see if they start getting better!

Missionary work is tiring and also very satisfying. It's fun being able to share your testimony right away with people. I've had so many adventures and there's still so many to be had- it's amazing. I love my mission a lot. The Lord is definitely refining me to be more of the person he needs me to be. I love you all!

Also send me requests for things you want from Suriname! I'd love to be keeping my eye out now. It's basically China here so anything fake you want I can get. We have African clothing, Indian clothing, cool sandals. Mom I got you a sweet mumu a while ago. Just let me know!!

President Egbert comes this week to Suriname! It'll be great!

Love,

Elizabeth

Downward Slide! 7/7/2015

Dearest Family,

Where to begin! First of all Congrats Jacob and Ashlee! I'm very excited for both of you. I wouldn't be mad if you want to wait until next April to get married. Don't you think a spring wedding would be so nice?? 

This week started off nicely with a kitten rescue! Sister C loves animals. Sometimes I laugh but she's really got a soft spot and she can't help it! We were at a members house and the kids had found this little kitten. However their parents wouldn't let them have it. Sister C starts panicking and calling all these different people asking if they want a kitten. Everyone is saying no. She tells the family to keep it alive over night and she would find a home the next day. Tuesday after lunch we got a call from Sister Zaalman saying that she would take the cat! We were both very excited. We went back to get the kitten and we found it all wet from muddy water and bleeding cause these neighbourhood kids were trying to kill it! Sister C was not having any of that! She took and bathed it and wrapped it in a pillowcase and biked it in her hand the whole way to Sister Zaalman's. Sister Zaalman was so happy to have the kitten. She had another one that looked just like it. We went there last night and saw the kitten so happy and healthy and having fun with the other kitten. I'm sure Heavenly Father was so happy with us ;)

We had another busy and exciting week with lots of biking. I have the biggest leg muscles ever. It's ridiculous. Wednesdayhere was a holiday celebrating the freedom of slavery. Everyone wears their pongi's so we did too. Friday we had MLC with our new mission president. He seems AWESOME! Really cool. He is coming to Suriname next week for a couple days so we can meet him. I'm excited. 

We watched 17 miracles with Bro Leim the really old man. He LOVED it! He is my favourite member here in Suriname. I love him so much. I just gets life! I wish you all could meet him. He just cried after the movie and just bore a beautiful testimony that made me and Sister C cry. He is just the best! 

Marveel is already broken up with her man. He said she can stay in the house but she doesn't want anything to do with him. The problem is that her house is not ready either. Still don't know but she did receive the answer that she needs to be baptised in our church. That's cool. You really learn patience as a missionary though. Kosviello, Kosviella, and Mita came to church on Sunday though. 

We've some really cool progression with Dobyen. She is so diligent at reading the BOM. She fasted last Fast Sunday for the full 24 hours. She was so nervous to fast but she did it. Sister C and I prayed so hard that she would see miracles and she did. All of her questions were answered. This last fast sunday she did it again! We went to church with her on Sundayand she said her family went to Popeye's on Saturday but she sat in the car so she wouldn't be tempted and watch her family eat. I was like I don't even think I could do that! It was so cute. She is really gaining a testimony. We have tried everytime getting her mom involved but she just isn't coming around yet. At least she is very supportive of Dobyen. But still we really want her mom involved. 

Jackie is still being great. We taught her "son" this boy she helped raise the past week. He seems really cool and he speaks dutch so that's good. He's 18. Hopefully we can teach him more.

We really want to get some new investigators. It's hard having two areas because are days are completely full but we want to get new people in there. I feel a little overbooked. 

I'm half way this week. It's kinda crazy! But I'm just enjoying it with the time I have left. I'll be excited for a nice summer vacation though next year :)

Love you all!!

Love,

Elizabeth

Biked and biked and biked and biked 6/30/2015

Dear Family,

We had a busy week filled with adventures as always. First of all the pictures I'm sending are from last p-day. We went to this place called Palm Town which is the park filled with Palm trees. Really cool. 

We biked so much this week I felt like my bum was going to fall off. Having two areas takes a toll for sure. I feel like half the day is biking and the other half teaching. We schedule our day with hour and 1/2 blocks. But besides the fact we have our other area we also did a lot of other things. We biked 45 mins away to Lorna (a member) twice this week. We also saw Sister Rama again this week. Which by the way her family is very kind to us. They've asked us if we would live there haha. I've seen Sister Rama naked so many times. She can't really walk but just this last time while we were helping we talked about the temple to her. Hopefully she could go. It would be very hard. The closest temple is in the Dominican Republic. But anyway lots of biking this week. 

Back to the work! It's going good. We keep very busy. Hoping to teach more new investigators this week. Lucratia and her family are all doing good! Sometimes not all of them have money to get to church but when they do they come. 

Dobyen is still doing really well. Reading from the BOM everyday. She agreed to be baptized but is praying for a date. She came to church this sunday with Kosviello. They are best friends. In the youth sunday class they played a BOM quiz. We weren't in there but they teacher came to me after and said the Kosviello knew the answers to every question. He was answering all the question no one else knew like how many times Joseph Smith was visited by Moroni. Kosviello finished the kids BOM so I think that is why. It was cool though! Dobyen knew a lot of the answers too. 

Kosviello's family is doing well. Yes they are really frusturating sometimes. They don't always follow through. But as I practice my patience they will get there. We are going to teach Marveel's family this week like her mom and siblings family hopefully. 

Jackie is doing great. Still coming to church every sunday. Pansa has been dodging lessons lately. He has WOW problems. Jackie knows she needs to get married but she doesn't really want to marry pansa. I guess they sometimes have problems. I'm hoping she ditches Pansa and marries Lucien. It would be perfect!

I gave my first talk in church in Dutch! It wasn't too scary and it went pretty well. People kept on talking about my talk in the other lessons so I consider it a good sign. My Dutch is good. I really do feel comfortable speaking. I can say mostly what I want to say. I can translate most everything to Dutch at least when it comes to the gospel. It's cool! 

Sunday night was pretty crazy though! We were teaching one recent convert Bokian. He lives kinda in this more african village type thing. People were doing this voodoo ceremony next door. It was loud and scary! It's a story for after the mission. All was fine though we left...obviously. But voodoo really is big here. 

Anyways ending on a plus...I love my mission! I love the gospel and I know it's true! It just makes sense doesn't it? 

Love you all! Thanks for the pictures and letters!

Love,

Elizabeth

We Finish Each Other's...Sandwiches 06/22/2015

Sorry, I get so far behind in posting Elizabeth's letters!

Dear Family,

First good news...Sister Christiansen and I are staying together another transfer! We have a 7 week transfer coming up because of the change with the mission president. I'm really excited to meet the new mission president. It will be interesting! Hopefully he will do a mission tour this next transfer so we can meet him!

So this week was all thrown off for a lot of different reasons but that's to be expected as a missionary. Even though you do the same thing almost every day--it's always different at the same time. I think that's why I feel like I'm in some sort of time warp. Honestly I have lost all sense of time. It goes so fast but at the same time I feel like I've been a missionary my whole life. I just don't get it! I'm almost half way which is wild though. 

Wednesday we taught some girls that stopped us on the road. They wanted us to come by and teach their aunt. We went by and their aunt was busy so the girls said that they would meet with us. They are 14, 12, and 11. They have been being taught by Jehovah Witnesses. WOW it was a little difficult. They are so young so they're minds are just ingrained with JW things. It was hard but now we feel a need to save them! Haha. We will try and see them again and bring a member. 

Every Thursday we see a member Sister Marcett. She feeds us always some classic Surinamese food. Can't say I'm a huge fan but she is seriously the nicest. She is the only member in her family. Her children are all grown. But she did go to the temple to get her endowments a couple years ago. She's great. 

We went up to Tamengha to go on shadows with Sister Johnson and Sister Walsh. We had a long talk with them that night to try and discern their concerns. I think they thought they were getting separated this next transfer...nope. We are going to be working a lot with them this next transfer. Like exchanges every week. Hopefully with helps! 

Friday we were going out with both of them to see how they work...but Sister Walsh was sick with the flu or something. So we ended up coming back to our area and working it. We had a fun time visiting Kosviello that night. He's such a cool kid. Still reading and praying. Marveel was in the jungle again so they were all a no show to church. 

Saturday we went and helped this one lady in our branch Sister Rama. She is this old women who can barely move she uses a walker thing and wheelchair. She was hindu her whole life and got baptized last year. She is so faithful now though. Her family doesn't support the church. She takes a taxi every week to church even though her son that lives with her has like 3 cars. She pays her tithing faithfully. We go over like every other week and help clean and do her laundry. I love helping her. I trim her hair, cut her nails, paint them. She whole sha-bang. 

After Sister Rama's, Sis C was not feeling well. She got the flu or some bug. We went and saw Jackie that night but that's it. 

Sunday we went to church and Jackie came! She is so diligent. She bought herself an ABC book and we are still working to teach her to read. She is so sweet and always smiley. Sister C still wasn't feeling well that day so we didn't go out on Sunday. But she is feeling better today!

Love you all! Keep up the good missionary work mom and dad! Happy Father's day! Check your email Dad.

Love,

Everyone's favorite on all accounts I'm sure