2/29/16

This week has been extremely long. What seemed like a very promising week on Monday, quickly became a week that felt very unproductive. I mentioned last week that we had a number of new appointments set up for this week, of which none of them actually happened. We couldn't get in contact with any of the people who gave us their cell phone numbers, and the ones who gave us their addresses when we showed up they no longer wanted to meet. And then on top of that we had some regular appointments cancel on us. On Sunday we we were on our way to the Salim family (I've met with them every sunday since I've been here) and its about a 1 and a half hour trip. Anyways when we were within 15 minutes of their house they canceled on us!

 

Really the only bright spot of this week was Pak Iwan. We met with him at the same less active member's home. Anyways we were teaching the Plan of Salvation, and our member started to go through the Jehovah's Witness doctrine. I was so angry and I didn't know what to do, so I kind of just sat back in my chair for a second and wished evil upon the member. But then the coolest thing happened, Pak Iwan started teaching our member! Its so cool to see just how prepared he is to be baptized . It was the best thing that could have happened.
 

Other than that this week was pretty boring. It was really hard being the only one in my companionship that knew anything about our area, and the people we teach. Other than that I just hope we have more success finding new people next week, because the days where we are just our contacting are getting pretty old. I just feel so lost, everything we try doesn't work. I just hope this next week we have an easier time. 

Minggu Yang Paling Baik

This week was extremely busy, we had 3 days where we left the house before 8 and didn't get home until almost 10. It was very tiring but this week has probably been the best week of my mission so far. We finally have people to teach and that's very exciting, and we have one baptismal commitment.  It was such a good week to end my time with Elder Bills. Elder Bills has moved to Malang (East Java) and so now I have a new companion Elder Supriadi. He's about 5 feet tall, and seems very excited to be here. He's also very new to the mission, he's only been out for 4 months, making us the missions's youngest companionship.

Well first off, Pak Iwan accepted the invitation to be baptized. It was honestly the craziest lesson. It was taught at a non-active members home, who is really only believes in Jehova Witness teachings, plus we had Brother Roger with us who doesn't speak any Indonesian. So during the lesson we would take turns teaching and translating. So the whole time we were both speaking, and it felt really chaotic. It was probably the most physically tiring lesson I will ever teach, but the spirit was so strong in that lesson. And at the end he accepted the invite, and I can't think of many other times in my life I've been that happy. So Pak Iwan will be baptized on March 20th.
 

Then other than that we have another investigator that recently returned from her home in Flores, Mbak Vita. She is so close to being baptized. She pics up everything so quickly, and has already finished the Book Of Mormon, and is starting it again, her only problem is she has to prove that she can remain active, because she doesn't know if she wants to live in Bogor or move back to Flores. And other than that we got a bunch of less actives to church, which was good because we've been working with a lot of them for a while.
 

The only down part of the week was one guy we meet with about every other week died this week. He's from America, and he's here because he met his wife on a online poetry forum, weird yeah. But anyways he only had one leg, and I don't know his whole medical history, but I know he's been on bed rest for like the last 7 months. His funeral was very sad, after his wife had poured the pine oil on him she saw us standing in the back and came up and shook our hands. When she shook both of our hands she stopped and cried on our shoulders for a little bit. I will miss meeting with him, he really was a weird dude, but he loves the yankees. And he is really a good guy, he would just tell us over and over that he didn't care that he was bed ridden, as long as he could make his wife laugh he was happy enough.
 

Other than that everything is about the same. We started contacting using Mosiah 2:17 to explain why we are here, because what we were doing before the people instantly lost interest. But when we read that verse with them they are more willing to listen to what we have to say. So we have a lot of new appointments and I don't know yet if they are for teaching or if we're going to be doing a lot of house cleaning, but we will see!