Monday, February 22, 2010

Feb. 22, 2010

Just so you know Jase, I like hearing from you even if you don't really have anything to say. same goes for everyone. I sent Jase a letter last week so we'll see how long it takes for it to get there.

I'm really excited to get those packages! I'm pretty snack deprived and with all the marijuana smoke in the air I always have the munchies. That's probably a good idea for me to send a written letter to jullie(you) once in awhile to get details in. Tell me when you get Jase's letter to see how long it takes to i can gauge when to send Mother's Day letters and stuff.

I'm still just getting used to stuff. ..LIKE COLD SHOWERS!. It rained a lot today which is good because the rain is a lot warmer than the shower. I still can't believe how important the missionaries are to that church here. Its so tiny and young. makes me feel like I have a lot of work to do.

I've met most of the Elders here and they are all awesome.

Our teaching pool is a little shallow right now. The last couple of days pretty much consisted of me following Elder Schroath around looking for people to contact. We did have a less active come to church that we didn't expect so that was cool. I Feel like Elder Schroath is carrying all that weight with contacting (because he is) so I want try to talk to more people. I can pretty much say anything I want in Dutch now, But I still can barely understand what people are saying! I guess just trying to talk to people will eventually cure that.

I haven't really got to experience real Surinamse food yet so I can't really say anything about it but a family invited us for lunch later today so hopefully that will be an unforgettable meal! So far it's just been cereal and ramen. One time I tried to cook chicken nuggets in oil and they turned out pretty good but for clean up I put cold water in the burning oil! Holy cow that freaked me out! I through the pan in the sink and ran away. Elder Schroath didn't laugh at all so I just felt really dumb.

If you here anything from tanner let me know cuz its been awhile.

Ok Fam, til next week!
I love you all.
Love <
Me

Monday, February 15, 2010

Feb. 15, 2010

Is it Valentines day? I don't know. Ik ben op zending!Well this might be short again because the guy that works at the Internet cafe cheated me again so I'll see what I can do.A missionary of ours just got called as a branch president because one of the presidents in Suriname got disfellowshipped. Glad I'm not in that area. For p-day we sometimes play soccer at a field by our apartment(which is actually pretty nice.) or we just laze about doing a little study and sleeping.Surinamers are funny people. They are really angry drivers. When we went to district meeting in the zone leaders van some guy started banging on our window in the car next to us and yelled something but I don't speak dutch so I didn't understand why!My area kinda reminds me of downtown Ogden if it was a little dirtier so its not to bad here. I don't think we have anyone lined up for de doop(baptism) anytime soon so that's too bad. There's this one guy named Ralph that we teach but he seems a little off sometimes. He's a security guard who just sits in a chair outside a building and that's when we teach him, at work. Every time we ask him to pray he asks if he should use the lord's prayer and every time we tell him that we have to prayer from our heart. He's just really funny. We're not sure if he gets what we teach yet but it will come eventually.I thought Suriname would be junglyer but its really just a busy little city. At least here in Munder it is. Maybe outside Paramaribo its less city like.I'm still just bearing my testimony once per lesson when we teach but I'm getting better I think. I gave a talk in church yesterday! It was pretty easy because i just read a lot of scriptures so i didn't have to use too much language. I got called a devil yesterday! I feel like a real missionary:)OK I gotta do my e mail for that president now. I hope I answered a few more questions this time.Love you!Love,Hayden

Monday, February 8, 2010

1st letter from Suriname, short but sweet.

Don't have much time.I'm doing good. Didn't get any sleep till I got to Suriname on Friday. All is well though. I have a good trainer and we're getting along great. My area is mostly city. Most everyone speaks dutch but one guy we teach only spoke Sranan Tongo so I didn't know what was going on. I did about half that teaching in one of our lessons though so that was good. I don't know if that guy understood me much but that's OK. My address is : P.O. Box 2932 Paramaribo, Suriname South America. I lost all my addresses so I need you to send me some of those. I went to work right when we got to Trinidad. I can't understand those people even though they speak English. I definitely like Suriname better than there. It's crazy how young the church is here. Everyone is first generation in that church. It's really tough to keep people in the church too. It's like way inactive here. but the actives are awesome. They do a lot of work because there aren't even enough members to fill all the callings.Well I'm happy to be here oh yeah the Super Bowl thing was legit! I still don't know how that got approved but make sure you make everyone jealous about that:)I'm still adjusting so don't worry that I don't get to say much because I don't really know what to say or what the heck is going on yet ha ha! I love you all. thanks for helping me out with stuff while I was done and for keeping me in your prayers! Love,Hayden

Friday, February 5, 2010

It really happened this time!

Elder Van Meeteren left Salt lake at 2 PM on Wednesday the 3rd, (11 weeks in the MTC) and traveled to New York via Minneapolis. He was able to call from there and then went on to Tinidad arriving there at 7 AM on Thursday. We were told by the mission secretary that he would spend the day there to be interviewed and oriented and then catch a plane that night to Suriname. He arrived there at midnight (8 our time). Here is an Email from Sister Dirkmaat who is a Senior missionary there:

Hi,

He arrived in last night. His companion says he is fine and speaks Dutch like a pro. We hope to meet him some time today or tomorrow. The Zone Leaders picked him up. His companion is Elder Scroath from Boise ID and they are already out working. You might find it interesting that the US Ambassador invited all the missionaries to his home to watch the Super Bowl. President Gamiette gave his permission. At lest you will know what he is doing at that time.

Sister Dirkmaat


We are happy he is finally there!

Last glimpse for 2 years!

Last glimpse for 2 years!