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More Spying on Zuster Mergenthaler

Of course, I have updates about the rest of us and pictures to share, but I'm having such a hard time keeping up. It's so much easier to peruse the Vermeeren blog for pictures of Emily, copy, and paste. 

Most of you have heard by now that missionaries now have permission to make phone calls home on their p-days. What a wonderful blessing for so many missionaries. Unfortunately, our missionary doesn't have access to technology to initiate a video or voice call. She has just over an hour at an internet cafe computer to read and reply to emails, compose an email to her immediate family and her mission president, and write a general email to other family and friends.  She calls the computers at the cafe "dinosaur computers." They don't have a camera for video chats and the speakers don't work for voice.

For a few weeks, she has sent us texts through Google hangouts and it's fun to be able to communicate in real-time that way. She does the best she can with the time she has to keep us updated and stay connected, but we still miss her dearly and know we are not hearing about much of her everyday challenges and experiences.  A couple of weeks ago she said she needed some money, but wasn't able to tell us the funny story behind the need. We put some money in her account, but she still hasn't used the money. There are a lot of little things like this that make us feel disconnected. We often end our conversations quickly with a lot of unanswered questions.

But she is very good at sharing her testimony and the joy she feels serving as a missionary. We are glad for that.

So, here are a few more pictures swiped from the Vermeeren blog. Once I get our taxes done and hopefully catch up on a few things for church and around the house, maybe I can share what the rest of us are up to also.

Paramaribo Branch:






I love their pink bike bags:


Grocery shopping:
Paramaribo District Meeting:
See, she can wear pants:
The pants thing isn't new for her like it is for many sister missionaries. Pants were part of her packing list.

Valentine treats from Sister Vermeeren. She made them for all of the missionaries in Suriname.






At a special broadcast from Elder Soares who was in Curacao.
Zuster Tulaga and Zuster Mergenthaler are sweet friends since being companions in the MTC. I sure hope they get to be companions again.
Suriname missionaries. Zuster Mergenthaler is one of four sisters in their area.
Oh, look!! They got to be companions for a day on Immigration Day. Not sure what Immigration Day is, but looks like they got some time in an air-conditioned car. Yay!

The rest of the pictures and comments are straight from Sister Vermeeren.
a stop on the way back to say hello ....

a Pancake lunch....





Restoring companionships ....


Our Sweet Suriname Zusters!







Then they happen to borrow my camera.....





Love these fun ladies!

And that's it!

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