Miracles and Suriname

Bonjour,

We had a great week. Zone conference was awesome! We all drove three hours in a van to the river and then got in a boat, rode across and then took a taxi three hours to the church in Paramaribo. We were with the two sisters in Suriname, Sister King and Sister Johnson. We went with them to visit a member and then hung around the church building for three hours while they had a correlation meeting.

The next morning we got up, a member picked us up and we went to zone conference. We only had half a zone conference because we skyped into the zone conference with Elder Zivic the week before. We talked a lot about what he said. We talked a lot about Captain Moroni and his confidence in the Lord and his belief in their sucess in battle. We are Moronis. It is our confidence and the Lord and our belief that we will baptize and find people to bring to Christ that makes it all possible. French Guyana is a living testimony of this. French Guyana used to only get one or two baptisms a year, nobody wanted to go to French Guyana. Now the attitude has changed and we have a strong belief that we can find and baptize and French Guyana is one of the highest baptizing areas in the mission. Faith is so important.

We left right after zone conference. We only spent about twenty-four hours in Suriname. All of the missionaries bring big empty bags with them to Suriname because there is a store there that sells American food. We didn't get the oupportuity to go but the Elders did. They brought back so much food.

Before zone conference the assistants to the president challenged us to do inspired contacting and they promised us that we would find people to teach. We went out contacting last week and saw miracles. Sister Riley has been looking for a certain less active family in our area for a long time but has not been able to find them. We knew what street they lived on and that they are Brazilian but that was all the info we had, and the street happened to be one of the biggest in the area. We went out and started talking to everyone we saw; at about the fifth house we stopped at, the lady said there was a family across the street that might be them. A boy came to the gate and said he didn't know the family. We asked if we could come in and ask the other people who were their neighbors. Turns out it was the family we were looking for, the boy was a friend and just didn't know their last name! We found them! We talked to their son and he was excited about the church! We continued to contact and found a man who had been looking for us. He had gone to church in Africa but since he had moved to French Guyana he had not been able to find the church. So many miracles! The Lord loves all of his children and is looking out for them.

We also ran into some Temoins (Jehovah's Witnesses) and I held their umbrella for them as they tried to Bible bash with us, but Sister Riley kindly explained our beliefs and bore her testimony; It was an interesting experience I will never forget.

It's funny that you mentioned mosquitoes, Mom, because they are all over here. A lot of people here have chikungunya, but don't worry I wear lots of bug spray. They don't seem to bother me as much, but when I first got here I looked like I had chicken pox on my legs because I had so many bites. You don't know mosquitoes until you have been down here, they are huge.

I love it here and I love the people we are teaching. The church is true and we have a Heavenly Father who knows each one of us and he has a plan for us. I know this is the work of the Lord and it is so important, bringing people to the light of Christ. I love you all. Until next week.

Lots and lots of love,

Sœur Banks

Me and Sister Riley

Boat to Suriname

P-Day

P-Day