Tempe!
Seriously I eat tempe everyday! I
even bought some and fried it so that on Sunday I could still eat it :)
 |
| I was born in the Chinese Year of the Dog |
I'm gonna respond to your email
first today. No way! Elder Oaks came and spoke! Was is just for our stake? Or a
multi-stake thing? I am always inspired by the way the apostles rely so much on
the spirit. And I didn't know he knew Grandma and Grandpa! So wait, he went on
dates with Grandma?! Haha that's crazy!
I'm sorry if I made you worry with
saying it feels like a "real mission." I guess I have just gained
this opinion of other missions in comparison to Indonesia over the months from
hearing and reading about missions from my friends. But it seems that lately,
with this mission president, we are closing the gap. I am not trying to say
that Indonesia isn't a mission, but it is just very different in the way we do
work here and now I feel like we are pushing ourselves more than ever and
becoming more successful.
Piano lessons... haha I am just
going to go ahead with it, and teach. I have no idea how I will find the
time/means and learn music language but maybe the Lord is trying to make me use
my talents to help others too. Yikes-- pray for me!
I decided to order a nice set of
Indonesian scriptures since the old ones are a mess from getting wet. Service
is a mix. We teach English twice a week, Tuesday and Friday nights. We also
clean up a park near the churches on Thursday mornings. No one really knows who
started that, but we still go every single Thursday! The only problem is that
lately we have been doing so much contacting that we don't get much cleaning
done! But what a good problem to have :)
We have new missionaries coming in
at the end of February and they are all bule's. We are really down in numbers
right now and especially with Indonesian missionaries. My companion, Sister
Manurung is really adjusting to the mission life and we have a lot of fun
together. Doing training, I think I am learning just as much if not more than
her! My past companion Sister Manalu goes home the 11th. She is going home-home to Medan (Lake
Toba is actually probably 4 hours from Medan and the church there) for a few
months. It has been a while since she has been with her family and I pray her
dad is going to be humbled to have her come home.
Haha no way! The one family
that I met with in Jakarta and it happens to be one with a connection to Auntie
Amy! Is the whole world this small or just Indonesia? Seriously everyone knows
everyone here. All the members, all the missionaries, every ward in every city.
Give Nate extra big hugs for me for
his mission! Do you know his email address?
 |
| Sister Manurung and I are going to Family Home Evening with Bishop of the Banjarsari Ward |
For my week! We have been really
focusing on Mbah Siswanta, trying to get him to commit to baptism. Even this
morning he texted us about it and we have still been praying and praying and
praying for him to decide to go through and get baptized on this Sunday. But we
had a really neat experience with him. Last Tuesday he sent us this text saying
he doesn't want to learn from the Book of Mormon again since it just confuses him
and all that. So we started to pray and asked the elders to pray for him too.
Then later we met with him and he explains that his son is a member of another
church and says our church is a cult blah, blah, blah. So basically we just
throw out our lesson and teach and testify about the Book of Mormon. There was
this really tender moment when Sis. Manurung bore her testimony about the first
time hearing about the Book of Mormon and how she has grown to understand it.
She was crying, I was crying and our penemanan (fellowshipper) was crying because of the Spirit. But poor old
Mbah thought we were crying because we were frustrated with his "stupidity
and stubborness". So we explained that it was such a spiritual experience
and testified some more and all that jazz. Well two days later we went back and
he told us that he had a dream that night and it made him "100%, no, 200% sure
the Book of Mormon is true" He said he couldn't sleep after thinking about
how he made Sis Manurung cry and was praying all night and got that answer. So
then we are like "sweet, when do you want to get baptized?" but that
is when he gets hesitant again. So now it is up to Heavenly Father's will for
him and we are just gonna keep doing what we do!
 |
| This is what I see...overcast days and beautiful bike rides |
We also have been teaching those 2
sweet little girls, Kartika and Reza. But their dad talked to us the other day
about them getting baptized. He supports them in learning and even joining the
church like their older sister, but he wants them to learn first and thinks
that the date we set previously is too early. So long story short, we went from
3 potential baptisms to... 0. BUT I have no doubt that they are all going to be
baptized. This just teaches me I need to be more aware of God's time frame than
my own. I'll try to get a picture with them all this week.
Weird food of the week? Shark! It
was actually really good! Had like this gravy stuff, which I was about to just
start drinking by itself.
 |
| Sister Manurung had a tuna steak |
 |
| And I had shark for dinner |
Funny stories... ~well the other day I was pushing my bike up this tall curb and
once I got to the top I slid all the way back down and into a mud puddle... so
I spent the rest of the day with half a brown butt... hahaha but it was already
dark so hopefully no one noticed. Mbah Siswanta thought it was pretty funny
though!
~I also was biking past these little
kids the other day and one shouts "Sister Jibson!" and that made my
day haha!
~So we went on bus to go teach an
investigator at her office and got roped into teaching English. It was forever
too and when we wanted to go home, there were no more busses! So we get on this
angkot (like a shuttle) and he starts going
off in Javanese. We had to explain that we don't know Javanese and he says,
"well that's why!" Then tells us he can't take us home but he will
drop us off at one spot and we can hope for another bus to come by. Haha I was
so ready to walk or hitchhike home but eventually a bus came by and we made it
home fine.
 |
| Came to teach an investigator and ended up teaching an English class |
PS Tell Janice that my husband is
going to be SOOOO handsome after all the time I've spent in the rain here. ;)
Oh wanna hear the cutest thing? So to
get to Mbah's house we have to bike up this huge hill that goes on forever and
Sis Manarung has made a goal every week to get better at bike riding. So I get
to the top of this hill and turn around to see her push her bike up to mine
then ask me to watch her bike while she helps this old man push his "becak" up the hill. I had sped right
past him but she goes back and helps him the whole way up.
 |
| Sister Manurung helped this oooollllldddd man push his "becak" up the hill. Christlike service right there. |
OH! I almost forgot! The other day we
felt a 20 second earthquake! Not sure if it made storms in SE Asia but I
thought it was pretty crazy! But there might have been a lot of damage in
Jakarta and Manado especially with all the floods.
Last spiritual thought:
I've had this part of the Emma Smith
movie on my mind a lot this week. Near the end Joseph tells her to write the
blessing she desires and he will sign it before he goes to Carthage. What would
you write?! She wrote this, "I desire the spirit of God to know and
understand myself. I hope to do all the work that I covenanted to do in the
spirit world. That I will be able to comprehend the designs of God without
doubting. I hope to be able to acknowledge the hand of God in all things. I
desire with all my heart to honor and respect my husband. I hope to be able to
retain the place which God has given me at his side." WOW! My new goals.
Food for thought ya? What did we covenant to do in the spirit world and are we
fulfilling it?
Give everyone my love. I am praying
for you all. Grandpa Sheffield especially.
PSS Joshua I will teach you how to eat
like a pro w/o using silverware ok? :)
PSSS I have an announcement... I LOVE
MY FAMILY!
~ Sista Sheff
 |
| These are pictures from Zone Conference last week. I took pictures for all my missionary friends |
 |
| Can you find me? And Elder Woody? |
 |
| Is this where the true personalities show? |
No comments:
Post a Comment