Zone conference in Suriname

Bonjour ma famille! ça va?

Zone conference was a blast!  We were in Suriname for 3 days.  On the first day we woke up really early to drive 3 hours out to St. Laurent du Maroni, bought tourist cards to get into Suriname, then got in a canoe to go across the river.  Once across we were waiting maybe an hour for the taxi guy to show up.  Once he got there we drove another 2 hours to Paramaribo to the chapel there. We got left there and had to wait about another hour for the AP and zone leader to come pick us up, then from there we got dropped off at what I hear is the nicest apartment in the mission.  Man, it was nice!  It was a full on house with air conditioning, a walk in closet, and only two Elders stay there even though its about three times the size as ours.  Anyways, we had to wait out in front of the house for Elder Staley and Elder Free to bike back and unlock the door for us.  After that, they didn't have a companionship that could take all 4 of the Elders so we just had to hang out in the house the rest of the day.

Then next day we got picked up by the assistants to go to another church building where zone conference was.  Everything was in Dutch, and let me tell you, I'm so glad I'm learning French. Dutch just sounds so... ugly, haha!  AND Suriname is kind of a dump.... it has the same scenery as Guyane but people are a lot poorer from what I could tell.

Zone conference was cool we talked about handling stress with a new "adjusting to missionary life" book that they will be sending to all the missionaries.  They were supposed to give it to us in the MTC but I never got one and I haven't met anyone who has haha.  We also talked alot about the importance of fasting and the Sabbath day, and how to teach it to our investigators and less actives. We also ate some Surinamese food which was quite delicious!  Rice, egg roll things, fried bananas, and something like mozzarella sticks.  I forgot what the bananas were called in Dutch, but in creole its banane pesé and they eat it here too.

That night Elder Santos and I went with Elder Staley to visit a lady that he baptized, to teach a lesson.  It was about the scriptures and feasting on the words of Christ, he translated back and forth for us.  Elder Santos and I sang a hymn in French for her, but the coolest part was at the end she asked for a blessing of comfort and I got to be a part of the circle. That makes 3 languages in which I have been a part of giving blessings.  Man it felt so cool even though I had no idea what Elder Staley was saying.

It was cool to meet the Gubler's.  I didn't get too much time to talk with them but I saw her taking pictures of me.  I'm glad she sent them. Sister Gubler looks a lot like Paula.  I also was able to see Nick.  He seems to be doing great as well.

The next day we made the long trip back and now we are back into the swing of things!

So that wraps up most of that, on to the questions! On y va!

How are you treated by the people there?  Do you ever get treated poorly?

Haha sometimes! The best is when someone opens the door, sees us, swears or something, and slams the door.  That hasn't happened too often but I always start laughing afterwords.  Most people here think we're Témoigne Jéhovahs so we usually have to clear that up first.  Most of the ridicule doesn't come from our religion, but rather out race.

How are things going with your new companion?

Oh man its great!  I'm tired so often now but its great because it means I'm finally working hard! Elder Miyasaki and I are very different but we get along well!

Any new investigators?

We've been getting a lot of work done with contacting its been super!  The one I'm probably most excited about is Mdm. St. Aubin, my first street contact ever.  I contacted her on my own a LONG time ago but Elder Maoni and I never saw her after that.  Finally just on Saturday we were able to get back in contact with her and share a lesson.  The coolest part is that she was understanding what we said, her and her husband Ernest.  Usually people just repeat what we say and you can tell its going in one ear and out the other, but they were all repeating what we said then retelling us in their own words, making sure they understood. man it was good!!

How is your apartment, bathroom etc.  Is it better than what Jordan had?

Yeah its pretty upscale.  We have hot water and I think the water is clean on the French side but I still only drink filtered water.

Have you had any good food this week?

Pres. D'Arbreu is a butcher and he gave us this big 'ol bag of steaks and we cooked 'em up this week.  I've gotta say, I'm become quite the chef if I do say so myself.  Evelyne, une ami de l'église, is going to make us banane pesé some day this week I think, so I've been eating well!

Have you gotten the letter to make you legal in the country yet?

Still working on it haha!  We actually had to go take x-rays a while ago and now we need to go turn in the results and after that I'm not too sure what else we need to do but we should have it soon enough!  The x-rays were super awkward... I had to stand up on this pedestal with my shirt off and my face plastered against the machine.  Elder Fraley was really funny about it, he was critiquing all the procedural problems haha.   I think that these papers are for all of the French countries so I would have had to do them on any island and since they are all a part of France it works for all of them, even France I think.

I wasn't able to get a camera in Suriname, and things are really expensive here in Guyane.  So, maybe it would be best if you could send me a new one.  I was going to send some pictures today from Elder Miyasaki's camera, but it's not working in the computer.  Maybe next time!

Je vous aime ma famille!! have a good week! Things are really going well for me down here and I love it!

Avec amour,
Elder Call

Pictures and an email from Sister Gubler

My sister-in-law, Paula Call has a sister that's serving with her husband in Suriname.  Last week Braden went there for zone conference.  They were able to meet and she sent this email and these pictures.  I'm so grateful to know he has people looking out for him, even 3,000 miles from home!

Dear Paula

I thought you might enjoy these pictures of Elder Call.  Everyone that I've talked too has said what a great missionary he is.  He said I look like you and it was fun meeting him. We are leaving for St. Lucia on the 31st of the month.  Some of the pictures didn't turn out well.  The lighting in these buildings are not that great.

Love
Jolynn

New companion, Elder Miyasaki

With Elder and Sister Gubler

At zone conference

A new companion and a fresh start!

Bonjour ma famille!

C'est très différent ici en Guyane! D'abord Elder Fraley et moi sont plus tout seul et j'ai reçu un nouveaux collège missionnaire!  Well I'll leave the French there so I can write faster.... haha.  But things are going awesome down here and I'm really starting to have fun doing the work!

I think I'll just start where I left off last time! So All 4 of the missionaries drove to St Laurent du Maroni to the Suriname border (oh by the way we are going to zone conference on Wednesday, in Suriname, just thought I'd slip that in there in case I forget later on... but I'm super excited, and I'm certain that its zone conference this time) anyways, we dropped of Elder Maoni and Santos to cross the river in the canoes and Elder Fraley and I had to drive back by ourselves, which is why we stopped and took pictures along the way.  We had to stop at a checkpoint and I was super worried about it because we weren't sure what to say and I forgot my I.D. haha  But luckily they just waved us through.  We stayed at Elder Fraleys residence while it was just us two.  Most of the time we spent in their area because they had a lot more set appointments and people to see and, well... we didn't.  But I felt great with Elder Fraley.  I know that the Lord helped me out with the language a ton!  Without that we would have not done too much haha! To be honest, I took over a lot of the lessons and I was able to understand a lot, it was cool!  Also, we were contacting and as we were about to get into our car I waved at a guy across the street and he said that he didn't want to talk to us, so we just got into the car.  But as we were about to leave he waved us over and gave us some mangoes that he had just picked and we got his information and everything.  Then that night we were teaching a lesson with this family that I had contacted before, we went over most all of the restoration and Book of Mormon and I gave one to them to read.  I'm not sure if they've gotten any farther because they are in the other area, but at the end of the lesson they handed me a big 'ol "Pistec" which is creole for watermelon. haha.  It didn't look like a watermelon but sure enough when Elder Fraley and I ate it the next day, by ourselves, it was a watermelon. You may not believe me but it was actually really good! haha!
Braden doesn't really like watermelon so this is a surprise!

On Wednesday Elder Fraley and I drove to the Guyanese airport and picked up Elder Santos with my mystery companion.  I didn't get a transfer call or anything telling me that I was staying here or who my new companion would be, which I hear usually happens every transfer.  But when we got there I met Elder Miyasaki.  I love the guy!  Me and him  are going to change things here in Cayenne!  I've been doing A LOT of work and I'm super tired a lot of the time but I love it!  Since Elder Maoni and I honestly didn't get so much done we had to start doing a lot of contacting so that we could get some lessons.  We contacted 41 people in half a week!  It was the best!   The goal I had set with Elder Fraley, since we had to do weekly planning while it was still just us two, was 15... Now that we have some contacting in I think we'll start getting some lessons with some people!

Here are some things going on with the people we are teaching.  Eveline, I don't remember if I've talked about her before but she is Haitian and about 40 years old or so, its really hard to tell age here.  She has come to church once before but doesn't have a car or bike and so she hasn't been coming for a while.  She has a hard time reading and also a hard time understanding our lessons so we've been going really slow. When we invite her to be baptized she always says "no no I'm not ready" or the creole equivalent even though I feel like she is, or at least it would help to set a date and we could get her ready.   But the last time she said she would be ready in 2014, haha its not great but its a step forward!  She also said the next time we see her she's going to make us banane pesé.  I'm excited.

Elder Miyasaki is from Hawaii and he's been out 7 months and we are getting along great!  Also we are working hard, its the best!

About conference...we missed the first session because we were driving to and from St Laurent du Maroni. Then Elder Fraley and I went to the rest but we watched it in French and it was really difficult to understand...

I got the letter from Kenzie and Sabey two weeks ago or so and I got one from.... oh man I forgot her name, if I had the letter with me I would know but she lives in Shadow Mountain and she sent a letter that went to the MTC and they forwarded it to me.  It was really nice, next week I'll tell you her name and I want you to thank her for me.

I love you all so much and things are going great here! Je vous aime!! Merci beaucoup pour toutes vos prières et toutes vos lettres!

Avec amour,
Elder Call

The President's visit

SO this week has been a little hectic. The President came and Elder Maoni and Elder Santos went to go pick them up from the Suriname border because its easier to get in that way I guess.  So Elder Fraley and I went through about half a day together.  That was P- day (Monday) Then when the President came we had a meeting where he talked a little about companionships getting along and the importance of it.  Then he went into the big project ideas.  He told us that he is planning a big celebration in 2015 where there will be a huge talent and culture competition throughout the lower countries and Trinidad because of the 25th anniversary of the opening of the mission here.  I think we are the only ones who he's really told that to.  So I think we are supposed to be focusing a lot on big influence projects and to be honest its a bit intimidating.  Then that night we had one of the assistants come with us teaching.  I was able to translate everything for Elder Dohrman the assistant.  At the end of the day the president gave a fireside to the branch where he introduced the Celebration to everyone and also told them that they have been given a budget that can be used on any service, humanitarian or any kind of project of the branch's choosing.

In the morning we had interviews with the president.  My companion is going to be moving to Trinidad.  Elder Santos had to go with him, so for the last 3 days Elder Fraley and I have been the only 2 in all of French Guiana and its been crazy to say the least!

We are going to be on our own until Wednesday and we have to cover both areas.  Honestly my French has never been better though!  We're going in and teaching all the lessons on our own and setting up appointments and what not.  I'm not going to lie its kinda stressful and I very often have trouble with the language but we are fine so don't worry about us. Haha  I never expected something like this to happen on my mission let alone the first transfer!  Honestly though we are doing great together!

So I will be getting a new companion on Wednesday.

Oops outta time!

I love you so much!!
Avec Amour,
Elder Call

These pictures are in Sinnamary, on our way to take Elders Santos and Maoni to the Suriname border.

A bonus letter in the mail this week!

Cher Famille,                                                            

This is kind of a test to see how well the mail works and how long it takes to get there, if it gets there at all.  I've heard that it is easier to send letters than to receive, so I guess this is a way to see! So I'm writing this on Monday the 16th, I'm not sure when I'll get to sending it but I'll put that date on the letter before I send it.

So things are going good for me.  I just got back from a bike ride through the rainforest.  I was covered in mud because there was a ten minute downpour.  This was really a downpour, we got as much rain in 5 minutes as Logan gets in a whole day of rain.  I wanted to take my camera but I didn't because I didn't want to ruin it.  There were a lot of cool things that I wish I could have shown you.  Maybe some other time I can take some.

This place is super cool.  There's the city right on the ocean with some little shack towns around about, then nothing but dense rainforest.  The ocean isn't too much to look at, it's very dirty, there are a lot of cool rocks jutting out of the ocean.

I really wanted to talk about the people I've met in this letter.  Most everyone on our side of town lives in little shack cul-de-sacs (which is a French word) There are aluminum fences along almost every road, it reminds me a lot of Oaxaca.  Every so often is a door or gate that leads to a kind of courtyard where usually everyone in the cul-de-sac hangs their laundry to dry.  There's about 5-10 doors around about the center, all to little "apartments" which are about 2 rooms, 1 with a T.V. and chair, the other with a bed.  That's with the more poor side (Baduel) which is where I spend most of my days.  I have gone to other towns that are a lot nicer, most of them follow the same courtyard layout but there are less buildings and they're bigger.  We drive out to Bulutu often to pick up Amos, who is the only one in the Young Men's program in the entire country I think.  On Monday (the night I started this letter, I've had to split it up) we drove all the way out to Degrad des Cannes, past this really old fort that I'm sure you (mom) will probably research.  If you learn anything cool let me know!  According to our map it's called "Fort Diamant".  Anywho, we went out there for a family home evening with the family of Seour Cladinette, she and her family play volleyball and other games like that with us on Thursdays of Fridays.  We try to invite as many youth as we can find to come, a lot are Amos' cousins and friends, but they've only been there once so we haven't taught any of them yet.

Wow, I got super side-tracked there...a lot, well something funny is that even with the poor living conditions everybody has a pretty nice car, and everyone and their dog has a scooter...Something I've noticed is that they all have the same type of car.  A little compact car, with a hatchback, you almost never find a trunk in the back of the car, it always has a hitch or whatever you call those. Just look up Peugeot, Renault, or Citroen and you see 'em.

So this letter is taking longer than I thought, it's turning into more a journal now haha!  It's Monday September 23 and I just barely got back from picking up that first "Greenie Package".  Thanks so much!!  It's great!  So it looks like packages work, but letters must be a different story because I still haven't gotten my stuff to get me legally into the country.  I have 90 days from when I got here, but it's taking a while.  Elder Fraley got his and we applied at the same time, so I'm pretty sure I did everything right.

I have that picture of all the guys after Seminary graduation and it's cool thinking how everyone of them is in a different part of the world doing the same work.  It's going to be real cool when we have the Alma 17:1-5 reunion and swap stories like in Alma 27:16-20.  I just hope that it'll be like that, and we will all be proud of the work we've done and be able to say that we did all we could and regret nothing.

I know that this church is true and the work before me is/will be tough but like Nephi I have been born of goodly parents, both in heaven and on earth.  I have you guys that taught me so much and have prepared me for this work, and I also have my Father in Heaven who has called me to this work and who gives no commandment unto the children of men save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.  I also feel really connected with Alma on his mission.  My favorite parts are Alma 5:44-46 where he bears a powerful testimony to his people before he leaves and then in Alma 29:1-9 where he states his desires or goals of his mission.  That's what I feel like and want to be like.  I know that this is the right thing for me to do.  Something really cool that I've read in my scriptures often during my reading sessions is in St. John 2:1-9.  Now this may not be how anyone else that read it saw it, but when I read it in verses 3-5 it talks about Jesus' mother.  Jesus hadn't performed any miracles at this time, nobody even knew he could perform miracles yet, but his mother believed in him.  When they needed a miracle she knew her son could do it, and to me it sounds like Jesus says, "But Mom!  I'm not ready yet!"  But with the pushing of his mother he accomplished the first miracle, even if it was only turning water into wine, but we all know greater things followed.

Now I know it's a stretch, but we are supposed to liken the scriptures unto ourselves...so I just want to thank you mom for pushing me!  I love reading the letter from APTC and feeling the confidence you have in me.  I haven't done anything particularly amazing yet and I don't expect to be performing serious miracles, but thank you so much for believing in me!

I love you all so much and I hope I didn't get too "gushy gushy" on you! haha

Avec Amor,
Elder Call

Splits with the members!

Bonjour ma famille!

This week was really interesting but I think I will cover most of it with the questions!

Something really exciting that happened this week was that we went on splits with some members this week.  I did NOT feel ready for that, but it went really well I think!  So me and Frère Official took the bikes and went to two rendez-vous while Elder Maoni and Amos went to two.  So basically I had to find my way around using only French and when I taught the lessons I didn't have Elder Maoni to do most of the talking, in fact I had to do most of the talking.  Frère Official was there to help me when I visited Eveline if I couldn't understand the Creole or she couldn't understand my French.  I can usually understand Creole, at least what they are talking about, but he really helped a lot.  Then after that all the other people I had plans to see or had set as back up plans weren't home, so Frère Official told me about of one of his friends that apparently had seen the missionaries once.  So I had to introduce to her most of what I was there to do, we call it "how to begin teaching" and I think I did OK.  I was able to get a next appointment so that's always good haha!

Right now Elder Fraley and I are chillin' together while the other two Elders are driving to pick up the President and his wife from the Suriname border.  He's doing a routine run around the islands and countries, which I really don't think happens too often.  I think he will talk with the Branch Pres., check up on the mission, he's giving a fireside at the church tomorrow, and other than that I really don't know.  But Elder Fraley and I are just going on exploring adventures and what not together, its great haha!  The two greenies left all alone to run around the country!

 I got the package! Thanks so much its awesome!  I didn't have to pay for it but they dropped a message on our mailbox and we had to drive a ways to DHL to pick it up, but there was another box of mission supplies we had to pick up there anyway so it worked great!  I picked it up last Monday!

The only real new investigator this week was Guerlin who was Frère Official's friend he told me about, but I felt good that I contacted her on my own.  I also street contacted this lady named Saint-Abin (something like that, not sure how to spell it) but we haven't gotten a chance to really talk to her yet.

We will watch conference this weekend but I'm not sure how its going to happen.  I'm really excited though!  I've heard conference is a lot cooler as a missionary!  And no I didn't hear that the priesthood session is going to be on TV, interesting.

I actually got fed a TON this week!  It was the best!  We got fed TWICE yesterday!  We broke our fast at Presidente D'Arbreu's house and also that night at Soeur Anthony's.  She's from Georgetown (Guyana) and has Indian ancestry, so she fed us some Indian food!  It was delicious! We had Roti with curried fish, man it was good... haha  She said she might teach us how to make it one day!  Also on Saturday I found out it was Elder Maoni's birthday and the Barnet's gave him a birthday party with cake and everything!  It was a pretty good week.

When was the last baptism in French Guiana?

I actually have never asked and now I really want to know... I'm going to ask when the others get back, remind me next week!

I know there used to be a branch in Kourou that was closed.  Are there members that live far away, and are they able to come to Cayenne for church?

Sadly there are members that just can't come to church.  There isn't much we can do and its a big worry here, they are outside our mission bounds and there isn't a church that they can go to, so they are just on there own for now and its really sad.

I have read my patriarchal blessing a lot and the part that really struck out to me at this time is when it talks about prayer and how there will come a time where the Lord is the only one I can turn to.  I feel like that has come true already and I really have been praying a lot and I've received so much help from my Savior I can't even express all of it.  I read Mosiah 24 the other day for our reading schedule and it talked about the burdens of the people being lightened by the Savior because of their constant prayers.  Their burden was never removed but it was made light afin qu'ils could lift it.

I love you all so much and can't wait to hear from you again!  I loved the picture of Bri in the convertible haha!  I'm sure she will remember that forever and she'll still be talking about it when I get back haha!  Which is weird thinking that I've already been out for about 4 months! Crazyness! in a month or so I'll be about 1/4 done!  What the?!  haha its going fast!  My first transfer ends next week and we find out on Friday if anyone is flying out or stickin' around!

Sadly...I think he's calculated wrong.  He's almost been out for 3 months!  Seems like 4 months to me though!!

I love you all!  Make sure pepper doesn't hit too many walls, maybe she needs one of those walking sticks for the blind!

Avec amour,
Elder Call

Eating a Star Apple

Elder Maoni's birthday party at the Barnet's

A dead fish Elder Fraley and I found on the beach during our exploration today

A monkey on a wire

Our moms are friends!!

Bonjour ma famille!

Elder Fraley and I had a good laugh when we heard that our moms are best friends now!  We enjoyed telling everyone haha, we're also really bummed about missing all the Aggie games.  Too bad about the USC game, I hope it wasn't too bad.  It sounds like things are VERY different back home which is super weird, but I guess that's what happens when every guy leaves on a mission.

I almost started to tear up when you said you started reading the Book of Mormon everyday since I left!  Its so cool that your doing that!  As a mission we have a schedule to finish the whole book of Mormon every 2 transfers, I think?  Well we are supposed to finish it by around my birthday, the exact day I haven't memorized, sorry.  I actually taught a lesson about reading the scriptures LAST NIGHT.  Elder Maoni wasn't in a good mood so we didn't have anything planned when we went to go see the Barnet's.  After a couple awkward minutes I decided just to go for it and begin teaching.  I told all the kids to grab their scriptures and asked if they had been reading.  I then asked if they had been "studying" their scriptures.  I then, by myself, gave a whole lesson on how we can use the Scripture Guides to answer questions we have and that we can learn things for ourselves through reading and studying.  Elder Maoni didn't say a word and I felt great about the lesson! Also yesterday, I found out I had to teach Sunday School!  I had maybe 30 minutes to prepare and Elder Maoni disappeared right as it was about to start.  So I had to teach about free agency to 3 members and 4 or 5 investigators that were there, by myself!  Elder Santos helped me along with my French when I needed it, but mostly I had to get the people to talk and stay on topic. People here love to talk, the hard part is to get them to talk about what you want to talk about.  A lot of the time we go to a lesson and the person decides they want to teach us stuff, most of it false doctrine, or they go off on the most random stuff.  The worst is when its in Creole and I have no clue what they are saying, I get the main idea, but the details slip me.

Yeah, my hair is short, sadly that's the longest guard we have so... I'll have to figure something out I guess haha!

On to questions!

How was your week?  Did anything fun or exciting happen?

We had an exchange with the zone!  All 4 of us!  I went with Elder Santos and let me tell ya, we did a lot of work.  Haha it was great!  I was helpful in the lessons and explained both the Book of Mormon and the Gospel of Christ, I felt really good!

The package was sent last Tuesday.  Any word?

I got a message that it got here, I just need to go pick it up!

Do you do much service?  Maybe that's something you can do when you don't have anything else to do.

We haven't had to many opportunities, we changed a tire for one family haha but I don't think we have done much else, I'll see if we can get something going though!

What did you do last week for p-day?  Any fun plans for today?

Haha it was a muddy ride through the rain forest.  Right at the start it down poured big time!  It lasted maybe 5 minutes but the trail was a river!  I wish that I took a pictures of the trail but I didn't want to get my camera ruined, which probably would have happened, we were soaked!

So when is zone conference?  Is it the same time as transfers?

It turns out that we don't have a zone conference.  The President is just coming to French Guiana for, I'm not sure what exactly, maybe to talk with the Branch President and the rest of the branch. I really wanted to go to Suriname though... The transfer ends Oct. 6 I think.

How was church yesterday?  Did you have a lot of people there?  Do they have a piano and does someone play?  Maybe you should play!

There were quite a lot of people at church yesterday!  Yes there's a piano, yes someone can play, and no I don't plan on learning anytime soon ;)

How is the French?  Do you speak it with your comp?  Is it getting easier?

I try to speak as much French as I can, Elder Maoni speaks really fast and doesn't like to repeat himself so I miss a lot of whats going on haha.  But I can tell I'm getting a lot better at understanding

Sorry no time for more!  I think I got all the best ones already!

Love you all so much thanks for the emails and prayers!!!  I'll look for the letter that was sent but I still haven't gotten my letter to become legal in the country yet, and I think Elder Fraley got his about 2 weeks ago...

Talk to ya next week!
Avec Amour,
Elder Call

Pictures of our bike ride last week!