Mama is Using Her Spy Skills

Emily wasn't able to send pictures with her most recent email from the cyber, but have no fear--I have pictures.  She probably doesn't realize how many pictures have been taken and posted of her. Maybe she will be happier not knowing. We are grateful to the Bairds and Vermeerens for taking pictures and sharing them so we can see that bright smile and know she is okay.

First, pictures from the Trinidad Port of Spain Mission Facebook Page:

On their first day in Curacao, they took a hike and received some training and instruction.

The very next day, the new missionaries traveled their areas. Emily is serving in Suriname.

Here are some pictures from vermeerentrinidadmission.blogspot.com.

Suriname airport pickup:

Making cookies at Vermeerens

Yep, I know that goofball:

 The following pics go back to arrival day. This is her new companion, Zuster Woolsey.

So happy to see her reunited with her MTC companion, Zuster Tulaga. I think the 4 sisters share an apartment across the street from the senior missionaries.

Like I said, I pulled these pictures from the Vermeeren blog. Usually, Sister Vermeeren posts, but this day, two Elders helped out with hilarious captions. The caption to the following picture was "Zuster Mergenthaler with her moped."

And here's our first email from Suriname. I'm not going to edit her typos. This letter has a little more detail than the one she sent to everybody because I think she ran out of time on the everybody email.

I'll be in Suriname for Christmas (to the tune of I'll Be Home for Christmas)

I'm in Suriname, baby!! *crowd cheers

Hello jullie!!! I have loved reading your emails. As soon as I started to read all of them I realized how much I miss you guys and want to give ya a huge hug! Suriname is AMAZING. I have had so much happen. It's kinda hard to explain this place, but I'll do my best. The second day I was here, one of the Elders asked me how was liking Suriname. I said "there's a lot of starving dogs, naked babies, and potholes...I love it!" It really is like a slightly more modern Africa. There's parts of town that are really nice right next to houses that look like shacks strewn with garbage...and people live in both! There are a lot of dogs. A LOT. They're all diseased and you can see their ribs. It rains a ton here and we just bike right through it. It's awesome. srr,here' gonna be a lot of spelling mistakes this because I'm trying to write fast and we are in a Cyber.

We are teaching like 10 people right now (actually probably more because I haven't met them all yet) and we have 4 baptisms on Saturday! I am PSYCHED! I will tell you briefly about each one. Rajon is a 14 yea old boy and son of a recently baptized Raymond. He is such a punk, I love it. He has a very sweet and strong relationship with his Heavenly Father. His prayers are so special to hear. Bianca and Migarfio are mother and son. They live in a super poor, dangerous place. The first time I went through the rusty gate, I was met with like 20 tiny kiddos asking if we had any food. I only had one peanut buttr cup.....I wanted to give them each one and a hug. It made me sad to think about how hard their life was going to be. We went into Bianca and Migarfio's house and taught about the temple. It was such a special lesson. We talked about how the temple is where God is. Migarfio then said he can't wait to see God and thank Him for everything he as I broke down at that point. They live so humbly! It was such a beautiful experience to see one of God's elect sons following him in the midst of so much darkness. Bianca can't read, but she still "reads" her Book of Mormon every night by looking for God and Jesus Christ and words she can recognize. Their faith is so strong. The last being baptized is Chubby. His real name is super long and I can't remember it. He is amazing--very intelligent and also a crack up. I haven't had a lesson with him yet, but I will this week definitely.

I have definitely had God with me this week, as I think back on it. As a missionary it is hard to feel worthy and adequate for the important work to which you have been called. Yesterday it was a little bit of a rough day and rained super hard. We fled to a little alcove so we could do our comp study before our last lesson. There, my trainer, Zuster Woolsey and I both kind of broke down. She had been feeling unworthy and inadequate as my trainer. It was a sweet moment as we both felt a confirmation of how through Jesus Christ's atonement, we can become all Heavenly Father needs us to be. We then went to our last lesson that day, which ended up just being with a member. Because we had that experience in comp study, we were able to testify so strongly of the atonement and it's power to change. I felt the spirit so strongly.

Another thing about Suriname is you get cat called. all. the. time. It bothered me at first and sometimes I would yell "We have a beautiful message about Jesus Christ" back at them, but now I just ignore it and keep trying to find those special people haha. Also our apartment is super nice. We live in riches compared to most people we teach. Also, one guy we met this week asked if I wanted to be his girlfriend. I politely declined and told him about the restoration ;)

The two people I have been inspired to talk to this week have been Hindu..the hardest to talk to just because they have no basis in Christianity. It's kind of become a joke between me and my trainer (who is AMAZING OUT OF HER MIND BTW) that the Spirit is leading me to all the Hindus hha. We talk to everyone we can. I worry a lot that I miss promptings to talk to people, but I definitely have followed the strong ones. Something just makes me hop off my bike and talk to certain people. It is so cool. I absolutely love being a missionary.

Also, about my trainer, she's been out for about a year, she went to BYU before, she's so amazing and gorgeous, she is from a really small town in Utah, and she has taught me so much. The other day I did my latin accent for her and she paused, looked down at her desk, and then looked back up and said, "sometimes you're a little interesting"with no trace of joking on her face. I thought it was the funniest thing haha. She got into a huge bike wreck at the beginning of her mission and almost died, so she's a miracle child.

Dutch is going awesome. I can't understand only probably 46 percent, but language has never really been an issue because the spirit helps you understand what people really need. I have adjusted my accent a little. They also speak Papimento and Sranan Tongobut most speak Dutch. We only ran into one lady that was only Sranan Tongo. My cmp hasn't learned it, so we just gave her lots of smiles and a pamphlet haha.

Also ya'll should think of questions you want to ask me for Christmas! I get to Skype for 45 minutes at 1 pm Utah time (which I think is Arizona time too). I love you BUNCHES! I will write down all the questions I have for jullie too.

Love

Emily