flying Dad's big kite at Porter Park in the springtime
in KC! :) There are so many kite flyers here. Do we still even have Dad's old
kite?
So this week was amazing! It was seriously a great week!
Haha but it is so funny how my emails sound either happy or sad all depending
on how my Monday morning went and this morning we got stuck in traffic with an
annoying taxi-driver trying to drive us in circles to get more money so I am
warning you in advance if I still seem tense. Haha but don't worry, I didn't
even yell at the taxi driver, just told him off kindly :) Don't you love being
a missionary!
Well we went to Medan last Tuesday! It was a good flight
and the airport was so nice. We then got in a train to go to the city then got
in a sidecar of a motorcycle to get to their house! I think the only
transportation we DIDN'T use that day was a boat and a bike!
Wednesday I got to go on splits with Sister Zabriskie
from St. George (not sure if they're related to the Ogden zabriskies) and a
soon-to-be-sister-missionary Mei. We had a lot of fun! I loved getting to work
with Sis Zabriskie and since I was with her a month or so ago, her language has
gone leaps and bounds! Medan has a lot more Christian people but we didn't have
time to get to all our appointments. We did get to try durian though! Haha
seriously the weirdest fruit ever and it smells terrible. It is covered in huge
spikes, then you chop it in half and have to take out the slimy pieces fruit
with a big old pit in each one. It's like custardy tasting with a little bit of
stink to it. Definately takes some getting used to. We went out with the
mission couple too. Medan only has 4 elders, 2 sisters and a mission couple out
on that entire island of Sumatera and they only see visitors like once every 3
months so it can seem pretty lonely.
Thursday Sister Believe packed us a lunch of fried rice
and apples and cookies. She is so sweet to us and it was so good to see her
again. Sis Believe goes home a month after Sis Allred, so this might be one of
the last times to visit her! Oh wanna hear something funny? In the taxi on the
way to the airport, guess what song came on? The end credits song from Anastasia!
"Love is the song and I wanna keep goin, life is the river I wanna keep
flowin" (actually I don't know the words at all haha) but Sister Allred
and I were like "we know this!” Oh and our flight attendants put on a show
for the kids since it was their last day of school. I think I want to be a
flight attendant some day. Getting off the plane I was feeling SOOO congested
and sneezy and ringing ears after the flight so I took a Benadryl then took a
nap!
Friday: I got your letter with all the pictures! LOVED
IT! The photo strips and the picture of Andrew & Dad wrestling were my
favorites :) after District meeting I finally made a trip out to the doctor.
Sis Manalu (the RM) went with Sis Allred to our appointment then Sis Suryani
and Sis Manurung went with me to the doctor. HOLD IT! DO YOU REALIZE I met
every single one of my companions this week? Except Sis Jibson but I saw her
just a couple week ago! Whoa! The Jakarta district alone is made up of sisters
that have alllll been my companions at some point! Haha sorry. Mission life is
so weird and things like that are really exciting. I love that here, at least
in our mission, the missionaries all know each other so it feels like a family.
And after they go home you still see them all the time! It was fun to spend a little
bit of time with Sis Suryani/Manurung as we tried to convert everyone in the
health klinik :)
Saturday: we visited a member (which is sooooo rare in
this ward since they all live a million miles away) and it took about 2 hours
since the traffic right before fasting month is insane. The medicine I have
makes me drowsy though and so we were a little out of it when we visited. Funny
story! I was giving the closing prayer and I wanted to say protect this family
from "worldly influences" which would be "dunia
wi" but I said "dunia roh" instead which means
"the spirit world" Haha so I said "please protect this family
from the spirit world... sorry! the worldly influences". Darn medicine
haha. Later we met with an investigator at her shop. She has a hard time
focusing mainly because she just loves Americans. But one funny thing is that
here people like to show off us missionaries as their bule friends by taking us
to really bule places to eat and buying us food. So we got a free meal at Pizza
Hut! (that is like a nice sit down restraunt here.)
Sunday was the official start of Rhamadan (idk how to
spell that... the Muslim Fasting Month). It was a really "sepih"
(quiet) day in Jakarta and even at church. No investigators, no new members. I
taught the lesson and there were only 2 other class members besides Sister
Allred and our Ward Mission Leader. Oh and the AP's flew to Bali to baptize
some kids... I know right?! The nice thing of fasting month is that no one
likes to be out and about during the day while they're fasting so traffic is so
quick!
But we realized that we didn't meet very many
investigators this week and we taught almost NO lessons. (I'm going to whine
for a second so you know what a missionary's thoughts sound like) After feeling
so busy this week how can we have almost no lessons? How is that possible? OK
ok so maybe we were traveling for 3 of the days and maybe I was sick and yes
the traffic was terrible but come on! Where are our investigators? How come no
one came to church? Leli is not really progressing like we hoped. And Vita--
well we decided to not contact her for a week and wait for her to talk to us so
she would realize what she was missing w/o the gospel and she didn't... until
just this morning actually! Isti, our golden investigator who wants to be
baptized decides to not answer any of our messages or calls. Even our new
members are all out of town. But this week will of course be better than last.
I am feeling healthier and we will have more time in our area. Sister Allred's
only goal is to have faith. Whew, we can do it! I keep going back and forth
with thoughts like "Don't worry, just have faith, it'll all work
out!" and "Come on! What else do you want from us?! Just get baptized
already!" Especially with Sister Allred's mission clock counting down, we
are feeling some pressure to see some baptisms.
I love this gospel more than anything else and it breaks
my heart to pass by so many people every day that don't get to feel this peace
and joy from the gospel. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet called of God
to bring back every fruit and blessing of the gospel into this last
dispensation and that the Book of Mormon is scripture that was preserved for
our time. I know that this work will continue to progress even if we don't and
that someday, everyone will acknowledge Christ as the Savior.
We are having Mission Leadership Counsel tomorrow and
*drumroll please* we are going to get our group facebook account! Haha
bring it on!
Have fun at the cabin and don't break any noses ya?
PS did I ever mention that my old investigator from
Jogja got baptized?! Atin! Remember her? She finally got baptized! Hooray!
Quotes of the week:
"Faithful people have high expectations" -Me
;)
"True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes
and behaviors. The study of the doctrines of the gospel will improve
behavior quicker than a study of behavior will improve behavior."
-President Boyd K. Packer
Give everyone my love for me! Take a ton of pictures and
send them to me! Joshua stop being so huge. Samuel stop being so cool! Andrew
too.
<3 Sister Sheff
