Elder Mason Garcia: Letter from 3/12/2012

Monday, March 19, 2012

Letter from 3/12/2012

Hoe gaat het met u? Another week has come and gone. And I am tired. Elder C and i have been working hard. Our mission President invited us to not be content with not baptizing... To not allow ourselves to be content with 99% and, I have really been trying to give it my all. We taught almost 40 lessons this week. But it had such a disappointing end. So investigators have to come to church for 3 weeks to be baptized and of the 7 people that told me they were going to come only 1 did. It broke my heart. I was really set on baptizing this transfer. But now given the circumstances, I wont be able to. Every one of those 7 dates has to be pushed back a week. I know of the power of this gospel. And when people don't want to listen, when they don't keep commitments, it really breaks my heart. It is something I have never felt before. I don't want to be turned away. Not for my sake, but for the sake of those that our passing by on the most wonderful blessings that are only available in this church. And it makes me so sad. My very basic desires have changed. I don't want to be the same person I was when i left. I don't want to do the same things. And I am so thankful for the changes I have seen in this gospel on my mission. And I am so thankful. I can never give my Heavenly Father what He has given me. I have been having a tough time with Elder C. He only talks about video games, movies and comic strips. And I am trying to let all of that go. I have decided to sell all of my video game stuff when I get home and pick up reading. I just want to live a full and exciting life. And I am done spending it playing as someone else. I have really had a stretching week. I am learning so much, and growing so much. But it has been hard. I have never done anything more difficult than I have these past 5 weeks. And I don't know if I ever will. It has been a struggle and sometimes I want to lock my self in a dark room and just sit there. But through diligence and patience i have been able to see the miracles in my daily activities.

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Info on Suriname

Geography

Area: 163,820 square km. The smallest independent country in South America, Suriname occupies a small, tropical area along the Northern Atlantic Ocean coast between Guyana and French Guiana and north of Brazil. Most reside along coastal areas, preserving the rainforest of the interior. Rivers, lakes and rolling hills occupy the interior whereas swamps and plains are along the coast. Deforestation is the primary environmental issue. Border disputes continue over defining the boundary with Guyana.

Population: approx. 490,000

Peoples

Hindustani: 37%

Creole: 31%

Javanese: 15%

Maroons: 10%

Amerindian: 2%

Chinese: 2%

White: 1%

Other: 2%

Hindustani, Javanese and Chinese arrived as workers during the colonial period. Creole inherited a mixed ancestry from African slaves and whites.Maroons are descendents of black slaves who escaped into the interior.

Languages: Dutch is most widely spoken and the official language. Other widely spoken languages with over 50,000 speakers include Hindustani, Sranan, Javanese, and Guyanese Creole English. There are less than 10,000 speakers of Amerindian languages.

Literacy: 89.6%

History

The Spanish first explored Suriname in the 16^th century followed by British settlement in the 17^th century. Suriname became a Dutch colony in 1667 and did not achieve independence until 1975. Slavery occurred until 1863. Workers were subsequently relocated to the colony from India and Indonesia. In 1980, a military regime took over the government and established a socialist government which fell in the late 1980s. Political stability did not return until the early 1990s. A democratic government was instituted in 1991.

Culture

Suriname shares many cultural similarities with Caribbean nations with large Asian and black communities like Trinidad and Tobago. Due to the large number of Indians and Javanese, Hinduism and Islam have also shaped the culture and integrated cuisine from Asia into local foods. High ethnic diversity has not resulted in ethnic violence.

Faiths

Christian: 40.7%

Hindu: 20%

Muslim: 13.5%

Indigenous beliefs: 3.3%

Other or none: 22.5%

Christians

Denominations Members Congregations

Catholic 110,664

Seventh-Day Adventists 3,724 17

Jehovah’s Witnesses 2,317 45

Latter-Day Saints 1,057 7