The Squater

Well this week was kind of boring because I was super sick. I woke up Tuesday night and just felt like crap. So I went to the bathroom and just started throwing up, and then like 5 minutes later I had super bad Diarrhea. Then I was up the rest of the night with pretty much the same stuff, it was horrible. Then that has pretty much been the story all week. But I somehow managed to make it out of the house everyday, just to sprint to the nearest bathroom once we got out of our little neighborhood.  But because of this I experienced a big faith building moment. Even though its about 75% squatters here I made it a month and a half without having to use one. I guess you could say that I've always been super scared to use one because you have to squat lower than I thought I could because you have to leave your heels on the ground. Anyways I didn't think I could do it. So Elder Bills and I were out and about and I started feeling so sick. So we ran to a Indo Maret and I went straight to the bathroom just to discover that it was a squater! So I proceeded to take everything off because that's what you have to do. And said a little prayer, and I was able to do it! It was incredible. I now have a strong testimony that the lord gives us strength when we need it.
 

Other than that we had our lone investigator come to church again, but this time he brought his friend. It was so good. I have never seen a more muslim looking man in my life, but he's the biggest Christan. His bible is so marked up, and we struggled in our lesson because he just kept sharing verses of why he thinks our church is true. I'm so excited for the opportunity to teach him. I think that all of our hard work is paying off this week, because on Wednesday we are going out to Cisarwa to teach a bunch of refugees from the middle east, and I'm way pumped for that. In the past they've had a lot of success with refugees, and I hope that we can continue that streak.
 

Other than that I just hope I'm healthy again this week because this last week sucked.  Nothing is worse than having to waste time sitting in the house. Two years is so short, and I don't want to waste my time being sick.

Looking for inspiration from Mother Earth

 

The Apostate Missionary

Well this week started off super cool. We were in Jakarta for PLD on Monday and Tuesday, so we just got to look around the city for P Day. It was so fun, first we went to 7-11 (the slurpees are the same here!) then they also had hot dogs, I haven't missed american food to much but, after eating it for two days I miss it so much now. They eat the same stuff hear for all three meals, even though its way good it can get kind of old, the other missionaries say that you just have to get over it. But then we went to the grand indonesia mall, it was so big! Its 56 stories high and at the top there is a place called Skye Bar it was so cool to look over the city, even though we didn't go on the best day it was still a cool sight. After that we returned to Bogor, and we had probably our best week yet! We finally have had some contacts go somewhere, so we finally have someone to teach!

 

First, we taught this huge family from Sumatra, they've been meeting with the missionaries forever but, only for english class, because until recently we were allowed to teach english in villages, but anyways they never really progressed. We had an appointment get cancelled that we were going to because the elders in that area had something else. So we decided to stop by this house. When we got there the whole family was inside. We weren't planning on sharing about the preisthood because thats how this family met the missionaries in the first place because they were given a preisthood blessing. So after we spoke with them we started our lesson, my comp taught the first part and when it became my turn my mind went blank. It was the weirdest thing, because I've been feeling so confident in the language but I honestly couldn't even remember how to say that I was from America! I froze for what felt like an hour, but then the only thing I could remember how to say was about Prayer. So I just started talking about prayer, then the oldest daughter started saying how her son had died this last year, and she was afraid that she would never have any children again. And how her husband was so depressed and said that they were already old and that they would never have children. But then when her son was in his last days she prayed and received an answer saying that if her son died she would have another child. So a couple of months passed and one night she woke up and felt like she should take a pregnancy test and she did so and it came out positive. It was the craziest thing. The spirit was so strong in the room, everyone was so skocked about what they had heard. They all said that before they had heard everything but they thought is was all BS, but now they want to learn more. It was the craziest thing, because I know that even though I was able to smoothly say all of the things I wanted to about prayer, it was nothing special. It was such a cool experience that I will never forget. For PLD we talked about not getting in the way of the Holy Ghost, and I think we realized that we've just been teaching what we think is right, and that we had forgotten to involve the most import person in our planning.

 

Anyways, I will figure out who my next companion will be this next week and I'm super excited. I'm mainly just sick of thinking who it could be, because I keep hearing all of this names and I don't know who any of them are, so I only have to rely on the Gossip. I'm really excited for this upcoming week because we have a bunch on new investigators and  I can't wait to get in and really teach them. I think all of our hard work is finally being rewarded, so now we just have to put all of our focus on trying to touch the hearts of these many new people.

The view from the Sky Bar

 

Me and Brother Rodger and Wolly (our deaf member)

Satu Bulan

Another good week. It's hard to believe that I've already been here for a month. I'm in Jakarta right now, it's weird to think that over a month ago I was just landing in the air port here. When we arrived at the mission home this morning it felt just like it had only been a couple of days since I'd arrived there. I just learned that my trainer Elder Bills is moving in a couple of weeks, which makes me pretty sad.  I was really hoping that he would finish my training.  I still don't know who my new companion is going to be, but I hope its another bule, because I know that having an Indonesian comp would be super tough. This week I went on splits with my DL elder Wiebowo, and it was way hard. He has really good english but we really just used Indonesian all day. It was super tiring, because when people are speaking to me in indonesian I really have to focus super hard.
 

Other than that this week we really tried to focus on becoming better at contacting, so we didn't teach as many of our regular appointments. So we tried some areas neither of us had been. One was a park, and the other this grafetti art corner thing. The park was super successful first we talked with a group of friends from Manado, they were all like 50 year old ladies who were treating us like we were One Direction, it was super funny. They all hung on our arms and one lady stood in front of my and grabbed my arms and made me hug her, anyways before I could pull them away she got one picture, so hopefully I don't get sent home........ jk Then later we helped some college students set up a slack line and really just hung out with them, and they accepted Kitab Mormons but who knows if they really wanted them.  Then the other place we just took pictures with a bunch of people. I don't know its very hard to contact in Bogor.  The people there are Sundenese so that means they are extremely Muslim so they aren't too excited to change.
 

Other than that we went traveling to a super far village yesterday, it was what I thought my mission was going to be like. It was crazy some of the people we met said that they had never seen white people in person, so everyone in the town wanted to come and talk to us. It was cool, but I don't think that it will actually go anywhere cause they would have to travel for 4 hours to just come to church. The only reason we went out was a guy who works in the city and only goes home like once a month, and he was the least interested guy there!
 

Anyways this week was super good, I really feel like if we continue to put a lot of effort into contacting we will find someone who is prepared. Whenever I hear conversion stories here there all super crazy, so I guess I just need to be patient and wait to cross paths with someone who is ready to listen to what I have to say. Other than that its still fun to meet all of these new people, and hopefully I've been planting a lot of seeds for future missionaries to work with!

Sudah satu Bulan!!! (Hampir)

I can't believe that I've almost been here for one month! I never really understood what they meant in the MTC when they said that the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days.  Everyday when we plan I feel like we do so much, but at the end of the week it feels like everyday went by so fast. This week felt super unproductive because we had everyone cancel on us! It's so hard because its part of their culture to not say no, so everyone gives us a false sense of interest. Its even rude to say the word no, they just always say belum, so not yet. An elder in Jawa Timor took that so literally, so he's been extending commitments to investigators to accept the gospel in the after life! So dumb!
 

Anyways I taught english class again this week, but instead of the advanced class I taught the beginner's class. So I taught them Heads Shoulders Knees and Toes. So it was super funny to have like 20 middle aged indonesians singing that song for an hour. But I really love teaching english class because I feel like I can relate to them really easy. Learning a new language kind of sucks, and it can be really embarassing when you screw up, but we just try to teach them to say ngak apa (whatever) and keep trying!
 

Other than that we taught a family of Papuans last night, they are straight from a tribe, but the lesson went super well. I just hope that they stay here long enough to progress, there are so many stories of people like them accepting the gospel but then having to go home cause they can't find work. Its hard to swallow that there are tribes out east that are using the Kitab Mormon but they can't be baptized cause there is no church out there. Papuans are about the only people we are teaching right now, because everyone else here is sooo muslim. That's why it really is so much more important who I am than what I say. That's what I'm really trying to focus on, because I know that some of the people here are ready to receive the message. First impressions are very important here, because in most cases that's all we get. So I'm just trying to focus on always reflecting that I'm a representative of Christ, thats what I try to think everytime I want to sleep on a bus or look like I'm having a hard time, because people are always watching me. So I just need to hunker down and slap a smile on my face and pray that I can be a light for some of these people.