I love you more than...

...the smell of bookstores and new books!

May 18 2014

How's it goin? Apa Kabar?

Sounds like school is almost over which means crazy tests, fun parties and long nights of work! Home work and trek work and work work. I'm praying for you all!

We went to Solo on Monday and it was a blast! It felt like going home or "pulang kampung" if you're Indonesian. We went to one of my favorite families for Family Home Evening on Monday with a ton of members from the Banjarsari ward! Tuesday I went with Sis. L Fisher on splits and we got to visit Kartika and Reza! They look more beautiful than ever and I think they are still doing so well in the gospel. It was fun to be with the Solo missionaries again at Pak Jon's (our favorite eating place after English class) since I used to be in that district with them all! There are moves this week so everyone has been gearing up for that. But being with Sis Fisher was seriously awesome! Her language has gone leaps and bounds and I just love talking to her. She always says things that just stick so well for me :) and technically I'm her mission nenek (grandma) haha

Wednesday when we flew back from Solo we were both feeling a little under the weather so we took a quick nap before heading out to visit Vita. She is still doing well so we just did a follow-up with some of the church standards and commandments.

Thursday was our legit sick day. Sis Allred and I keep going back and forth who is sicker since Manado. That was 2 weeks ago! So finally on Thursday the Mission Presidents wife, Sister Donald, told us that we just needed a day of rest and recovery so that we could heal already! It was like a cold/flu-ish sickness. We were so bored of our little 1 room apartment but we were oh so obedient and stayed in all day. That is seriously killer as a missionary, but I did get some letter writing done. And we have felt so much better after that day!

Friday we had our last DDM (District Devotional Meeting) or according to our District Leader "District D Mccleary") before this district gets split up. Elder McCleary and Johnson are going to different cities but in our same zone. Sis Edwards is going to open a new city for sisters in Surabaya! Can you believe we have more sisters than areas?! She is going to have a blast. Sister Simon will have to return back to the Singapore mission sadly. And coming here... will be (drumroll please....) SISTER MANURUNG! Haha she will be companions with Sis Suryani (her mission grandma) and also Elder Barrus will come replace Elder Johnson as Zone Leader and Elder Rogers will be our new D.L. and our facebook techy. P.S. theres a "Mormon Indonesia" facebook page now! And our A.P.'s have a facebook account... how cool is that?

Another fun thing on Friday is that we tried to find a referral that was given from Mormon.org.  So far we have been given 4 and none of them have actually worked... but we kinda maybe found this address of the apartment and there was a Harry Potter sticker on the door! We are so hoping she will call us back when she finds our card :)

Saturday- we had one of those days where our plans changed every hour. People in Jakarta are so busy and usually can only meet on weekends. We went out to our farthest appointment (Sister Bella) so it was a lot of shifting plans and riding busses. We also ended up teaching the oldest daughter of a member family. The was all baptized except for this one daughter since she lives out on some island with her husband and daughter. Hopefully she will be curious about the church... We also met with Mima, our 7th day Adventist investigator. Haha she likes to teach us and so we didn't have a lot of time to teach. Hopefully next time.

Sunday we had a member of the Seventy come to our Sacrament meeting and President/Sister Donald came as well. It was a full house in our ward with a ton of the  investigators the Elder’s brought, all our new members and quite a few less-actives. Sister Donald even said something like "oh it was nice to see kids in your ward. That's the first time I've seen so many!" We had a pretty spiritual day at church with the “Finding Faith in Christ” video. Then meeting with Vita (who keeps pushing her baptism farther and farther back. She now wants to be baptized on the date of her mothers passing away. But that is in October! Sheesh!). Another highlight for me was teaching that daughter from the member family (her name is Heny) about Pemulihan (restoration). Sometimes I feel like the spirit is so strong and you can just look them in the eye and bear simple testimony like, "I know and I promise that Joseph Smith really saw Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father." Even if they don't feel anything at times like that, I feel it. It's like my testimony is getting strengthened the second the words start to appear in my head and come out of my mouth. That is the power of truth coupled with the Holy Ghost. Oooo gives you the chills! :) Funny part of the day was when we were heading off to find a referral and we ran into Sister Bella and a newly-active brother from our ward. So they invited themselves to be our guides and went with us on the 4 hour excursion to find this referral. Well we couldn't find it, but they were running around asking all the neighbors and getting into arguments with the community leaders and it was hilariously awkward and endearing. It is hard to contact while we have members with us but they were so kind to help and they got so excited about being with us. I love missionary work!!!

Sister Allred and I are telepathic twins this week. We seriously are on the exact same brain wave for everything: investigators, food, ideas, stories, scriptures, lessons... gotta love companions!

A scripture for mom since she loves little things (AKA Indonesia mission!)

Isaiah 60:22 "A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation: I the Lord will hasten it in his time."

A scripture I found and love about the blessings of restored gospel!

D&C 128:19 "Now, what do we hear in the gospel which we have received? A voice of gladness! A voice of mercy from heaven; and a voice of truth out of the earth; glad tidings for the dead; a voice of gladness for the living and the dead; glad tidings of great joy...."