Skip to main content

I Crashed my Bike in the Goot . . . But All Is Good!!

Hello everyone! Hoe gaat het met jullie? This week was a little sad, a little joyful, a little stressful, a little rustig. I'm loving it out here in Suriname. Some things that happened were...
-I had my first bike crash! It was so funny because I was twisting around to tell Zuster Orchard that I am the bike queen because I've never fallen off...in doing so, I twisted into the mud/rain/pee mix on the side of the road and spoofed it. It was actually in front of a car, so I'm really grateful I wasn't hit because my arm would've come right off haha. It also happened to be in front of a whole group of cat-calling construction workers, who proceeded to laugh and talk in Sranan Tongo at me. BUT this super lief guy came and gave me an old shirt so I wasn't bleeding all over the place.  And I'm a bad missionary because I didn't even give him a pamphlet. So if I ever see that guy again, you better believe he's gonna hear about the gospel, whether he likes it or not. 
-We made banana bread.
-We started teaching 2 young men who are AWESOME. One we met when I had one of those spiritual promptings and did an abrupt 360 in the road to talk to this boy. Turns out he's the brother of a girl they used to teach here...and a GOLDEN elect. Our first lesson was so awesome. He asked a lot of hard questions, but the answers just flowed and he was really being taught by the Spirit. The other young man was a referral from the Elders and said the most heart touching prayer at the end. I was seriously tearing up, and I think he was like "why the heck is this girl sad" haha. Wow, the Spirit is awesome.
-Broke the Rainville record for lessons taught with *DRUMROOOOL* 23 lessons this week! We can definitely teach more next week and break the Suriname record, which I think is in the 30s or 40s.
-We also had some really rough lessons with people who weren't ready to accept the gospel. I made the mistake of reading the whole "pushed to the peripheral" binder and that made me really sad too. The hardest part of missionary work is watching people you love so much reject a message you know could change their life. Good thing God is a God of 2nd chances! If they're not ready now, God's hand is always outstretched. 

Well, that is all the time I have. I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love ya'll!! 
Zuster Mergenthaler


PS: I'm really bad at taking pictures, so this is the only one I got this week...Banana bread is the best! I will take more pictures of the awesome people we teach this week because ya'll need to see their beautiful faces. 


Here are some more pics from the past couple of weeks on the Vermeeren blog:





Suriname Missionaries Zone Conference





and Zuster Mergenthaler...




Picking up Zuster Woolsey for her early morning flight....





Off to the Kwattaweg Zuster Flat....


New Companionship:
Zuster Mergenthaler and Zuster Orchard

Off to the Rainville Flat...



Home Sweet Home



Missions are Awesome!!!!


A Little Bit of Love from Home!!!!






I found out that just after these pictures, as Zusters Orchard and Mergenthaler were biking back to their flat, a crazed druggie threw a huge rock that almost hit Zuster Orchard in the head.  He was in a rage and didn't see them.  Right as they got by him, he grabbed a telephone line and tried to break it.  They were protected from danger, but it was super scary for both of them.
Paramaribo Branch


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Back To School Meanies

 Letter From the Nest August 15, 2025 https://open.substack.com/pub/lettersfromthenest/p/back-to-school?r=48qui&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web One August, more than twenty years ago, at an evening book club discussion, my “older” friends (now I look back and know those women were the age I am now), were discussing the woes and triumphs of back-to-school season. One woman was anticipating her youngest child’s senior year of high school. She said, “For more than two decades, our lives have revolved around the school district’s academic calendar. I don’t know how I will plan my life without knowing about school breaks or holidays.” I remember her bittersweet tone as she anticipated freedom from school schedule constraints but also mourned how those constraints guided her choices. What would she do? Other women joined the discussion, wondering if their kids would have good teachers, if they’d be able to balance volunteering in the classroom, how to streamline school supply pu...
Post a Comment
Read more

My Legacy Stinks

 Letters from the Nest https://lettersfromthenest.substack.com/p/my-legacy-stinks Lately, I have been asking you, “What will you do to make Sunday special?” This is me encouraging you in your worship without giving you a prescribed list of things to do. One thing I do differently on Sundays is that I read a Sunday book that’s “different” than the fiction I read during the week. Usually, it’s a religious book, but sometimes it’s an inspiring biography or narrative nonfiction with an uplifting theme. My Sunday book for the past few months has been “Both Things Are True,” by Kate Holbrook. This collection of essays explores a range of topics, including faith, forgiveness, women’s roles, trials, history, and more. Each chapter contains a dichotomy that fuels the discussion. For example, the chapter on forgiveness explores both the concepts of forgetting and remembering. Last Sunday, I began reading the chapter entitled "The Weight of Legacy," in which she discusses the dichotomy ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Lyme Disease??

Let me just preface this by saying that I am soooo grateful for good health insurance. I have been to the Dr. for the kids lately so often, that I am embarrassed that they recognize our family when we walk in the door. So, here's Ricky's story. A couple of weeks ago he was extremely sick. He had a fever for over a week, complained that he couldn't move his legs, and ended up with an awful looking rash all over his body. We went to the Dr. 2 times for this. The first time, she said, it was a virus and it should run its course. When Ricky was getting worse, instead of better, we took him back in to a quick clinic where the nurse diagnosed him with strep (even though the short test was negative). Well, after a priesthood blessing and antibiotics (which we discovered later that he didn't even need to take--and in fact they may have made him feel worse), he got better. Then, last week, I discovered a new, crazy rash on his legs which continued to grow, turn purple on the in...
5 comments
Read more