May 11

Yet another week goes by here in Suriname and there continues to be
new experiences abound! Just the other day me and elder Orton attended
a crazy Hindu festival hosted by close family friends of someone in
our ward! They have a tradition where they throw a huge party for
their newly born baby and everyone gathers around as they play music,
dance, and shave the baby's head!! It was pretty crazy! Me and elder
Orton couldn't stay very long but I tried some new Hindu food which
was pretty interesting. They make these weird donuts but in place of
sugar or being sweet they fill them with a lot of spices! It was
strange at first, especially because they still call them Donuts. It's
nothing like any donut I've ever had but I decided I liked them. Me
and Elder Orton have been working on finding more people lately, we
found out our area is being given to sisters next transfer so we're
trying to grow the teaching pool so that they have people to see when
they get here! We're losing 4 elders next transfer but getting zero
new ones! :O There's a lot of speculations on where everyone is going
to have to go to fill in the gaps but we won't know anything for sure
until transfer calls this weekend, which you guys will probably here
about next week! I'm hoping I get to be companions with someone from
my MTC group, and seeing as how there's only 8 elders left in this
entire country I think my chances are pretty good, but I'm keeping my
fingers crossed! I felt bad for my littlest sister, Sydney, because I
have not yet named an animal after her, so last night while we were
skyping I decided to name the Gecko that runs out of our drain every
time we shower after her. He's a tiny little guy and super fast, I try
to catch him pretty much every night but he always evades me... -_- If
I have any success in the future with that i'll let you all know. I
also took a pretty sweet picture of some flowers, I know that's pretty
lame compared to the sloth picture last week but come on guys give me
a break I'm trying. I loved skyping with my family yesterday!! It was
so great to see all of them and I was so glad to hear how well they're
all doing, marley has a sweet setup and gets a 25% discount where she
works while Jesse is finishing up his rotations to be a physicians
assistant! Bailey is doing well in High school and I saw a clip of one
of her concerts she had for a class in school and she did amazing!
Sydney has taken up golfing and from what it sounds like will probably
be much better than me by the time I get back home! I'm also grateful
for the chance I had to wish my Mom a happy Mother's day!! She's the
best and has done an outstanding job raising her only (and best) son.
My parents deserve some sort of medal or something, I'll put it on my
list of potential souvenirs. That's about it from this guy, I hope you
all have a stellar week and you'll hear about my transfer call and
where I'm going next week!! Mi lobi yu <3

 'Sydney' the gecko

 A different view of his kitchen.  I told him to do an extra good job cleaning because they are being transferred next week, and Sister Missionaries are moving in to their apartment. 

The Hindu party.