Ok. I have a ton to say and not much time. So here goes nothing.
TRANSFER CALLS!!!!! I am transferring to Munder and will be blanking the area with Sister Christiansen! I am so excited. We will have the time of our lives. Sister missionaries have only been in Munder once and that was only for a transfer a while back, so that’s cool. I am going to miss Tammenga though! We have some really cool members and amazing investigators. I am especially going to miss Cheyenne. I have photos to send if I have time. Some of the elders got crazy transfer calls, but you can read that off of facebook later. Like one is going to be blanking with a mini missionary as a zone leader. President Egbert likes to keep things very interesting!
I also got my package. Thanks mom! That came super fast. I am now an official Suriname sister missionary because I have Chacos. We may have already eaten like all of the food. What can I say. My companions don’t eat anything but hummus and smoothies. I am so hungry all the time!!! That was a nice post card from Ambs. I want to collect post cards, so keep it up!
On Friday we had a lemonade stand in the city to try and contact people. It was interesting because people were more interested in our message than the free lemonade. I contacted about 10 people with Sister Ashcraft. (We got to be companions for a few hours! I love that girl. I miss having her as my companion.) The problem was that all of the people we contacted live in areas where we don’t have any missionaries. What the heck!? We even contacted someone from Cuba.
Yesterday I gave a talk in Sacrament. Everyone was so nice! I got many compliments on my accent, and Cheyenne was like “I don’t get it! You have been here so short, yet you are good at dutch!” I pointed to the sky and I was like “It’s not me. It is definitely God.”
We taught a lesson with Cheyenne’s mom, Matilda the other night and it was a complete miracle lesson! She told us basically her whole life story. She led it up to being in a taxi and asking God what he wants her to do about her life. She lives with a man that is way younger than her and he mooches off of her. He is also Cheyenne’s dad. She wants Cheyenne to have her dad, but he really isn’t a good influence. So, Matilda tells us this story about how God told her she needs to start living a peaceful life. She asked us what she needs to do to be baptized, and she is willing to do whatever it takes. She is so cool! She has a long way to go. She has to kick her boyfriend out, or marry him (which isn’t likely). She has to stop smoking and drinking. She needs to come to church even though she works until 5:30 am to support her family. Ya… It is going to be a while, but I will be in another area! I wish I could be there to support her!
Yesterday we taught a lady who only speaks Sranen Tango. That was interesting. None of us know how to speak Sranen Tango. We drew everything in the sand to try to explain it. We basically said “God loves you” like 500 times. So you know, that was fun!
Mom! Sister Tjong Ayong! We work with her brother all the time. He comes with us to lessons, and we are also teaching her other brother to prepare him to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood. Small world! They are an amazing family. Such a strength to Suriname.
That is so cool that Todd and Andrea want to adopt those three kids and that they are taking the missionary discussions! Man life back at home is going to be so different!
You all look so great in those photos. I feel like Lex is looking more and more like me everyday. Or maybe that was just that photo I saw. Mom, your hair is way pretty. Looking good for an old woman. Just kidding. 50 is still young!
Love ya lots! I will try to send photos, but no promises!
-Zuster Jorgensen
Man oh man. I have such a good feeling about this transfer with Sister Christiansen. We are already the best of friends! Here are some of our adventures. We have had so many already! First of all we are both new to the area. All of the Suriname areas are very different. Munder is the city. Look up Paramaribo if you want. That is my area. It is so much fun! There aren’t any areas by the ocean. The water in Suriname is all brown and green and not at all pretty. The Wanica area is the Jungle area, and Tammenga is kind of like a suburb. I thought I was going to get hit by a car in Tammenga? Boy it is a miracle that I am still alive after riding around in Munder. (That reminds me, yes mom we bike everywhere).
On Wednesday we get dropped off at our apartment, and we have no idea what Munder is like. We open the area book to see what’s happening, and guess what. In the whole book there is one “investigator”. We read the description. It literally said “For lack of a term we call her an investigator. She is always home, so when our appointments fall through we visit her.” Great. Thanks Elders. We are in a new area with 0 investigators. Then we decide to look at past investigators. None. We are literally starting from ground zero. We have seen a bunch of miracles though!
One time when we were lost, we stumbled into this really cool neighborhood, so we decided to go contacting there the next day. We had such a good feeling about it. We walked down two streets. First person we say hi to runs up to us from her yard and apologized because she was holding a beer. She was very excited to see us, and we have an appointment with her tomorrow! The next person we greeted ran down her stairs, opened up her gate, and set up chairs for us immediately! Her name is Grace. She is amazing! She introduced us to her family, and they want to sit with us later. We gave a really brief intro to the Book of Mormon and gave her a restoration pamphlet. She told us to come back the next morning. When we got there, she had read the whole pamphlet! NO ONE READS THE PAMPHLETS! Man she is awesome. We read the Introduction the Book of Mormon with her, and she asked so many good questions. She then said she wanted to come to church without us even inviting her. Grace is cool. After Grace we walked two houses down. Two houses. We met this cool family, and we have an appointment with them tonight! The Lord is blessing us.
We both are new to the area, so we get lost a lot. Every time we leave the house. Somehow though we end up where we want to be. For example, one time we wanted to find the elder’s “investigator”. (The one they left for us) All we knew was the street started with an M. We were riding around, and we ended up by this really cool wooden catholic church. Maybe you could look it up. It’s blue and yellow in Paramaribo. We called the elders to see if we were going the right way, and they basically said we were in the completely wrong area. So we start riding around looking for any street with an M. Finally we find one, and we pull up to house 25. It is totally her house! How in the world did we get there?
Scary story! We had a referral, so we went to the house to try to contact them, and there is this big group of guys sitting out front. We were just like “Ok we’ll ignore them”. We start Kloping (knocking) and the guys all come up to us and say the people aren’t home. Long story short, they started calling us spies. This one guy said “You look innocent, but when I look in your eyes I can tell that you are a spy.” I was laughing at first, but then this group of like 15 guys probably all in their late 20’s completely surrounded us. We started feeling a bit uncomfortable, but then this car pulls up and traps us even more against the fence. They all started swearing at us. IT WAS SO SCARY! Sister Christiansen hopped on her bike and got away, but of course that is when I start to be really uncoordinated. I get on my bike and start weaving through the guys and one hops in front and goes “Hey, you’re pretty cute. Can I have a hug? Will I ever see you again?” I just yelled “I sure hope not!” Then drove away. It was pretty dark by then, and we just wanted as far away from there as possible, so we just kept riding down this street. Next thing we know, we are by Palmentuin. (The place with all the palm trees in the pictures I sent). That is like the farthest corner of our area, and we have no idea how to get home from there. We keep riding, just trying to find something familiar. We were so lost! Luckily, the zone leaders gave us really good directions when we called! We got home safe and sound!
Another interesting thing about Munder is that there are a ton of different languages here since it is the city. The lady with the beer that we contacted only speaks Portuguese. Another guy we teach only speaks Spanish. Maybe by the end of my mission I will know a little bit of a ton of languages!
We had an appointment with some members, and they have two daughters on missions right now. One is in DC and the other is in England. We were looking at photos of the one in DC and there was this one of her and two blonde girls. Has Courtney Jenkins gone to DC recently? Because the photo looked like this girl named Brielle Griffin from high school, and Courtney. I could be completely wrong, but if I am right, what a small world!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEXI AND LANDON! Eat lots of cake for me. Especially if it’s ice-cream cake. I would kill for a piece of that deliciousness.
General conference is the missionary vacation! We all go to the Tammenga church and watch it. They have it in Dutch and English, so I will actually understand it! I absolutely loved the woman’s conference. It was such a boost! Especially since Elder Uchtdorf spoke. He is my absolute favorite! I can’t wait to read the talk!
I should really get going now though, I love you all! Have so much fun this week!
Love,
Zuster Jorgensen
From Trinidad With Love 