Our Mission Experience: Suriname (26 FEB

SURINAME

We arrived in Suriname after a big KLM flight and so the line in
immigration was really long. We waited for over an hour!!

When we arrived in Suriname we called Jake Matthews
He met us at the church!! He is from our home ward
and we have known him for years. He came to visit Suriname
and it was so fun to spend some time with him while we
were here.

Elder Brockbank & Elder Jackman

Elder Hendrickson & Elder Garcia

Elder Hendrickson, Elder Garcia & Elder Seffker

Elder Hendrickson, Elder Baldwin, & Elder Seffker

Sister Mergenthaler, Sister Orchard

Sister Tulaga & Sister Spencer

Elder Groenendijk

Elder Sampson & Elder Newton

Elder Frandson, Elder Sampson, & Elder Newton

Dinner with Jake & the traveling Zone Leaders
President Baird, Jake, Elder Schwinger, Elder Roberts

Elder Wardel, Elder Somsen, Elder Holt, Elder Belnap, Elder Dickey

Elder Millard

Elder Hollingshead & Elder Wardel

Elder Dickey

Elder Wall & Elder Holthe

Elder Holthe

LEADERSHIP DINNER......

The Vermeerens

Sister Orchard, Elder Dickey

Elder Sampson, Elder Holt, Jake Matthews

Elder Andrews, Elder Schwinger, Elder Roberts

Jake Matthews teaching our Suriname leadership a short message
He is a powerful teacher! We were so blessed to have him join us for a short while.

Jake Matthews, Elder Andrews, Elder Schwinger, Elder Roberts, Sister Baird, President Baird, Elder & Sister Vermeeren, Sister Orchard, Elder Dickey, Elder Sampson, Elder Holt

We had a wonderful leadership dinner. It was great to have Jake Matthews join us. With his years of experience teaching missionaries he was able to give some pointers on Leadership that were powerful. We are so grateful for his example to these wonderful young missionaries.

Sister Tulaga, Sister Spencer, Elder Dickey, Elder Somsen, Sister Mergenthaler, Sister Orchard

Elder Millard playing the keyboard
(with Elder Holthe & Elder Sampson behind)

Elder Holthe & Elder Sampson

Elder Vermeeren & Elder Newton

Elder Somsen & Elder Brockbank

Elder Brown & Elder Anderson

Elder Belnap - So excited to be back!!

Sister Baird & Sister Vermeeren

Suriname Zone Conference Lunch
Sister Vermeeren always goes "ALL out"...
Sweet & Sour chicken wings and all the "fixins"

Elder Holthe & Elder Brown

Elder Millard

Elder Huntsman

Elder Schwinger

Elder Anderson & Sister Vermeeren

Jake Matthews

Elder Vermeeren

Back Row: Elder Dillworth, Elder Holthe, Elder Hendrickson, Elder Millard, Elder Anderson, Elder Roberts, Elder Karssen, Elder Wall, Elder Garcia, Elder Sampson, Elder Frandsen, Elder Somsen, Elder Huntsman

Middle Row: Elder Jackman, Elder Wardel, Elder Dickey, Elder Brown, Elder Martinsen, Elder Groenendijk, Elder Holt, Elder Schwinger, Elder Hollingshead, Elder Seffker, Elder Brockbank, Elder Belnap, Elder Baldwin, Elder Newton, Brother Matthews

Front Row: Elder Vermeeren, Sister Vermeeren, Sister Mergenthaler, Sister Orchard, Sister Baird, Sister Tulaga, Sister Spencer

Special Musical Number

Birthdays coming up
Elder Frandsen, Elder Somsen, Elder Huntsman

We have been having a lot of trouble getting "Dutch" supplies to Suriname so these missionaries have
been trying to do missionary work using "Tithing" and "law of Chastity" pamphlets.....
They were so glad we brought down some "Restoration" ones. Hopefully we'll get the shipping
figured out soon. It's hard to do missionary work without supplies. 😕

Institute class and Single Adult activity

We did a Karaoke night for the Activity. It was fun....even President Baird Joined in the singing!!

On the Saturday that we were there we had the opportunity to take a river trip to see a little more of Suriname. We got to go to a place and see some tracks of the sea turtles and some nests. We also got to go see an old Coffee plantation that has been turned into a cattle ranch.

some fishing boats

This was our tour boat

Sister Vermeeren, Sarafina Sichtman, Consuella Verwey

Donny Tjong-Ayong

Elder & Sister Vermeeren, Sister & President Baird

Jake didn't mind that the water was brown, he had a great time swimming in it. The Tjong-Ayong brothers even joined him in their jeans.....😂

Turtle Tracks

A Turtle Nest

A Turtle egg

Fresh, cold, coconuts.
You drink the coconut water out then
break it and eat the fresh coconut.

Winston & Donny (back seat) Tjong-Ayong, Consuella Verwey, Sarafina Sichtman,

This was our sight-seeing buggy....pulled by a tractor.

This man joined us as we were walking back to our boat. He has lived on the plantation for his whole life and was giving us a history. It was really interesting. He then stopped at his house and let us hold his turtles and a baby caimen. We were ready to give him a pretty good "tip" for letting us hold them and then he put out his hat and asked for a "donation" to help take care of his 23 cats.....😂 I love cats so it didn't bother me at all but I think Kyle would have given him more money just to hold the turtles.....lol. He did still give him some money though.