4 DAYS AND I'M OUTTA HERE!‏

Apa Kabar, keluarga saya!

My, how the weeks have gone by! In a little over 4 days, I’ll be on my way to Indonesia! We got our travel plans last Thursday, after I’d already written, but we fly from SLC to San Francisco around 8:30 on Monday November 2, then go from San Fran to Hong Kong – which is a 6 hour flight, then it’s from Hong Kong to Jakarta – another 4 hour flight…and get to Jakarta 2 days later, since we lose a day flying there. So what will be 1:15 pm in Jakarta when we land on November 4 will still be November 3 for all of you back home. CRAZY!!!! From there, we’ll meet with the President Marchant for a few days to get all of our visa info and stuff taken care of, and then it’s off to wherever I’m assigned. AHHHH!!!!! I’m so incredibly excited, but I’ve also never been more scared of anything in my life. This is going to be such a huge change (especially since I still don’t understand a lot of the language), but I know that it’ll push me a lot harder and be a lot more rewarding out in the field. But AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is sad too though. Half of my district is going to Malaysia/Singapore, so they leave Tuesday, along with the entire other district that’s going to there too. They have 10 people, and 3 of them are the other girls in my room. It’s really sad to think that I might not talk to some of them again, but hopefully that’s not the case and we stay in touch. Hopefully.

Anyways…moving on. Last Thursday we had Zone Conference, where a few of our teachers taught us about a few different principles. It was so good. They seem so much older and more mature than me when it comes to the Gospel, but one of the other Indo teachers is 4 months YOUNGER than me that taught. I just don’t think about that part ;) But it was really good, and some of the elders were talking about one of the talks where the teacher talked about being aware of what you’re doing in these other cultures that we’re going to, and he talked about the missionaries getting kicked outta Thailand for a long time because some stupid missionaries thought it’d be cool to take a picture of themselves as the head of an ancient Buddha whose head was no longer on the body. Apparently the missionaries in my district didn’t understand the severity of that action, because they were saying they didn’t understand what the big deal was…so I tried to explain to them that if a statue of Christ didn’t have a head on it, how would we feel if people from other religions were making of it and taking pictures with their heads on Jesus’ body…I dunno that they really understood how disrespectful that was, but I think they got how disrespectful I thought it was, cuz they didn’t talk about it anymore. Haha.

This week we’ve had several opportunities to teach, and it’s amazing how the Indonesian is really coming along as we teach. I’m remembering words a lot more, and although it certainly doesn’t make complete sense, I know I’ve come a long ways in 8 weeks. Sis and I have also been able to teach a few lessons in English (just to see what we add into those lessons to make them better), and those have been really fun, but they also show how much work I need to put into my Indo lessons… cuz I’m hardly personal at all in Indo, whereas I share several stories about my personal life when I teach in English. So I’m working on that.

Ugh. Sorry…I just got to my page about the TRC. I’d forgotten about that. So…Sis and I felt good about what we were gonna do Saturday in the TRC, but when we got there, neither one of us could really understand what Andrew was saying. We seriously spent the whole time trying to figure out what he was saying…once we’d figure out one thing, he’d say something new that we had to figure out. It was good cuz it was completely realistic and he was really just trying to give us an simple way to ease into the lesson…we just didn’t have any idea what he was saying. So by the time the lesson was done, we’d only gotten to faith in lesson 3. Ugh! He did tell me that I did the best job of trying to bring things back to the lesson, though, so I felt good about that. We did forget to bear our testimonies again, though. I really need to stop doing that…you can’t forget that!

Also last Saturday, when we went to the Old People building to clean more rooms, the girl in charge informed us (“oh woops, I didn’t tell you last week?”) that all the sick people had been staying in that building the week before when we’d been cleaning, but that that day they were all gone…but we were gonna be cleaning all their rooms. Holy cow. They were seriously so gross. Apparently they “bomb” all the rooms after sick people leave, which somehow kills all the bacteria, but they didn’t take out any of the masses of bags and boxes of leftover food from I swear weeks before…so Sis and I got to pick all that crap up and take it all out to the trash. Seriously tho…food from WEEKS ago is completely nasty. Just FYI in case anyone was wondering.

Our devotional on Sunday was WEIRD. It started out really good with this family singing a few songs and the grandma talking about the importance of music…and then the grandpa gets up and starts talking about how you can “prove that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet with science today.” He showed like 3 video clips that were “proof.” Don’t get me wrong…it was an interesting topic, but I didn’t think it was appropriate at all for a MISSIONARY devotional. Aren’t we going out to teach people that they need to know the Gospel is true through a small thing called THE SPIRIT?!?!?! That’s just my view on it tho. Sis liked it.

We had a meeting for international missionaries Monday night. Haha, it was awesome. I’m seriously going to the coolest place. If I’m ever put in Jakarta, it’s gonna be completely nasty and gross, but everywhere else…yeah. I’m pretty lucky. The dr was talking about all these precautions we need to take, how we can best take care of ourselves, and how to know if something is really wrong. I noticed that everyone in the room was going to a 3rd world country. Haha. I’m so excited.

Tuesday was awesome! We had Elder Perry come speak to us, and although it was no pounding Elder Holland talk, it was still extremely good. I didn’t realize he’s 87 years old or SOOO tall! During choir practice they were setting up the cameras, and they kept standing on boxes to make sure the camera would be right on him. Super cool. And he seemed SOOO nice. He took the time to say hi to a few people before and after, and was just so sweet. Loved it!

Part of my new language study plan is to listen to talks in Indonesian and try to understand what’s going on. HOLY COW! I have such a long ways to go. I pick up words along the way, but as far as actually knowing what the talk’s about…not a clue. I’ve started to read along as I listen, and that makes it a lot easier, but I’m still slow reading. The translator goes so fast, and I’m still 2 sentences behind working out something that was said earlier. But even just in the last few days I’ve noticed how much better I’ve gotten doing that. So it’s coming :)

Yesterday I hosted again…and made sure the girl I hosted was in the right bedroom. I hope. Haha. Her name was Sister Stope I believe, and she’s from Park City. She said she knew who Lizzie Kilbourne is, so that was cool. There were a lot of sisters that came in yesterday though. Yay for the sister missionaries!

Today Sis and I went and learned how to put makeup on in a small class the MTC has. They don’t announce it though, because they only have so many samples that they can give out. Ya, don’t worry…I have in my bag right now $200 worth of makeup! That’s more than I’ve probably owned in my entire life combined. Crazy stuff. I guess NuSkin donates it all the MTC, and then there are 2 sisters whose calling it is to help the sisters learn how to put it on and stuff. We’ll see if I can make myself look this good every again… if not, I can at least say that I have $200 worth of makeup that I could TRY with, haha.

Anyways, things are really good here on the homefront, but the next time you hear from me it will be FROM INDONESIA! Thanks again for all the prayers, love and support. I love and miss you all! Loves,
~Sister Sara

2 weeks!

Keluarga Saya,

Halo, apa kabar? Things here at the MTC are good. Basically the same old-same old. Aaaaand I just realized that I forgot my journal, so this is most likely going to be my shortest email yet.

Thanks Mom for sending all the missionary cousins emails to me…I was reading Justin’s last one, and it made me laugh to see his English grammar because Bro Ross keeps telling us that that’s exactly what happens when you speak Indo. So you can look forward to my emails being understandable but not at all good English. I know I’m looking forward to it because it’ll mean that I’m completely focused on Indonesian, and hardly even think in English anymore. I can’t hardly wait!

I also got the family newsletter this last week. Steph & Heath… CONGRATULATIONS! I couldn’t believe when I read that you guys are having another baby, but that is SOO exciting! Keep me updated on if it’s a boy or girl and everything else. And if anyone else gets married or pregnant, definitely let me know. I don’t wanna come home to people I didn’t even know existed before!

Last Friday we did this cool thing in class where we asked our companion 2 questions that we’ve always had about the church that our companion had to answer by using the Book of Mormon. Sis had some pretty easy questions about prayer and stuff, but I gave her two that I have legitimately wondered about several times throughout my life… 1) Why can’t women hold the priesthood? And 2) Why can some men in the Bible have many wives, but others can’t? She actually did really well in answering both questions, and, if any of you are interested in reading what her answers were, you can look up 1) Alma 13 & Mosiah 4:19 (basically that things are done in the way Christ set them up to be in, and were also done in His similitude, and women were a part of that, just not in a “they need the Priesthood” sorta way) and 2) She gave me Jacob 2:24, 26, 30. I don’t remember what those ones said, but I remember being very impressed with how she answered them. So if you ever get asked those questions, those are great scriptures to use to help you explain :)

Saturday was the TRC, and it was crazy. Bro Leo invited 2 ladies who are here at BYU from Indonesia to come and be our investigators, so 2 companionships went in and taught them both the first lesson, and the last 2 (which Sis and I were in) were follow-up appointments. It was really cool to hear the language spoken by a native, but it was also super hard because the girl we taught (Adis) used a ton of slang, and we aren’t taught slang here… we get to learn that out in the field. Haha she even told us flat out that we NEED to learn more slang. But the appointment went pretty well I felt, except that I hardly understood a word that she spoke. Sis had the Gift of Interpretation while we were in there, and knew almost everything that they were asking and/or saying. It took me about 30 minutes before I got used to the different accent and speed, but I started picking up on more words and enjoyed myself a lot more towards the end. 2 more weeks…man alive, I have SOOOO far to go!

In the RC on Tuesday, Sis got a chat with an interesting lady who is going through a divorce and is trying to figure out if God exists or not. We talked to her for about an hour, tried to answer all her questions while bearing testimony of God’s love for her and His desire for her to be happy, and at the end she agreed to meet with missionaries. It was a really great convo…actually, she was asking about the Mayan Calendar, that new movie coming out, and said she was worried that it was true. Luckily for us, I’ve always been amazed at the accuracy of the Mayan calendar, so I knew exactly what she was talking about, and told her that we just need to live our lives like tomorrow is going to be the end of the world, because then we’re better people every day :)

Yesterday, our district got to be hosts for all the new missionaries! It was really fun (plus we got outta the classroom for a few hours which NO ONE is going to complain about), but there weren’t very many girls so I only hosted Sister Hall from AZ going to Albania. SOOOO sad/scary story. Yes I’m a little retarded, I know. I thought the whole hosting thing went really well, but after I was thinking about it and I’m not sure that I put Sis Hall in the right room…simply because she is in a 3-some, but the room I put her in only had 1 free bed in it…so what are the possibilities of her NOT being in a room with her comps? Slim? Yeah…that’s what I thought too…after. So I was going to check to make sure she was in the right place last night, but I’m such a wuss and couldn’t get myself to! I even stood outside her door, but then lost all courage that I may have had. So hopefully everything got worked out if I did put her in the wrong place…I’ll really hafta go check on her tonight.

After dinner yesterday, Bro Ross had us teach each other the first lesson IN ENGLISH and with everyone as who they were…missionaries in the MTC rather than investigators. It was incredible to note the differences in what people said, stories they shared, etc. when it was done in English. Sis & I didn’t get a chance to share cuz we ran out of time, but the Spirit was incredibly strong. Then Bro Ross asked us what differences we noticed between our Indo lessons and what we’d just done…all I could think was how PERSONAL everything was in English. Everyone said how they felt, they shared what the most important part of the principle they were teaching was to them, and it was just… incredible. A HUGE difference from “God is our loving Heavenly Father. He blesses us with families. Prophets help lead and guide us to do what God wants us to.” How much more heartfelt and sincere is my testimony when I can share it in English rather than just trying to figure out sentences that I know in Indo before I share them? It was a really great lesson to me, and I’m really gonna be working on being more sincere and following the Spirit a lot more in my teaching over my last few weeks.

Alright, well I wanted to give a little shout out to everyone who has been writing me letters…this week especially I’ve gotten a lot of unexpected letters that have completely made my days! Most of the letters I pull out a few times during the day just cuz I wanna make sure that I didn’t miss anything when I read the letter the first time, and I think about all the things I wanna talk to that person about when I write them on P-day. Letters seriously are so awesome here on the mish, and I’ve been so blessed to have so much support from all my family and friends. You guys are all the best! Thanks so much!

The church is true…I know it more now than I’ve ever known it before. I know it’s true because I’ve asked my Heavenly Father, and He has enveloped me in His love to let me know that it is. And because I know that He knows that I know it’s true (sorry about the confusion…it makes sense if you read it a few times ;), I know that I have to go out and share my testimony with the people of Indonesia. I’m so blessed to have so many wonderful friends and family. I think about you all daily, but do so with a smile on my face because I know I’ll see you all soon enough. Have another great week! Loves~

~Sister Sara

PS we get our flight plans this week! Probably today or tomorrow, so next week I’ll have all the info for my flights to let you guys know about! I’ll most likely be leaving around 4 or 5 am, tho, so you might need to be ready for an early phone call…

MTC pictures

"My personal favorite is the pic of my vacab words. I have about 2 more sheets of paper (the highlighted words are ones I either know or have already on the notecards), and about 50 new notecards--the big thing of cards on the bottom are the words I know. It's growing daily, but not near as quickly as I'd like. But its fun."
"These are the girls in my room. We always like to dress special on Sundays. We've been wearing the same colors every week, but last week Sis. Goodwin (the blonde) came up with the rainbow idea. Its my favorite so far."
"...I really love the girls more and more in my room. We have a lot of fun with each other."
"The guy in these other pictures is the guy from Indo who came..apparently Bapak Pasaribu just raved about us after he left.."


"...also the girl in black is Sis. Brammer, going to Helsinki..."

Satu Lebih Minggu (one more week)‏

Keluarga Saya,

Well, another week has come and gone, and they keep passing faster and faster. This week it FINALLY hit a few of our elders that WE LEAVE IN 3 WEEKS and that we need to really start getting down to business working on this language. It feels like I’ve been in here for months, possibly even a year, but at the same time I can’t hardly believe that we have less than 3 weeks left here. There was a talk a few weeks ago where the speaker talked about getting too comfortable in an area, and what happens when we get too comfortable, which is why the mission has so many moves in it…to keep us on our toes and out of our comfort zones. Well, in 3 weeks time I will DEFINITELY be out of my comfort zone again. And yet I’ve never been more excited for something in my entire life…this really is the opportunity (kesempatan :) of a lifetime, and I feel incredibly blessed to be spending my service time in Indonesia. Woot woot!

Well, the biggest news as of right now is I FOUND KEELY LAST NIGHT!!!! I looked for her all day yesterday, whenever Sis and I were out and about, and even looked in the windows of all the rooms where the newbies have some investigator skit thing, but no matter what I did I couldn’t find her! So last night I set out on a mission to find her, and after searching the whole 4th floor, calling her name loudly in the hallways and showers, I grabbed Sis (we can only not be with our companions on our own floor) and we went down to the 3rd floor, where I did the same thing in the first bathroom, then moved into the last possible bathroom she could be in. I saw a girl wearing a “Keely outfit” so I stared at her for about 30 seconds (and yes, it most likely looked completely stalkerish and creepy) until I was sure it was her… then there were hugs and tears and smiles and everything else you can think of. Ok, so not really tears, but we were both SOOO excited. I felt bad, cuz we talked for about 45 minutes after that just catching up and seeing how the day had gone for her, and Sis had to hang around for the whole thing. If we were on the same floor, we quite probably would’ve talked for a lot longer, but Heavenly Father knows what he’s doing and separated us. Anywho, she’s doing pretty good for all of you who know her, and for those of you who don’t know her…she’s my best friend, and I get to spend my last 3 weeks with her here at the MTC, and I’m so excited! We’re gonna go have lunch with her today, but I dunno how much I’ll be seeing of her after that. Not much, I’m sure :(

This week, the teachers just keep stepping up the intensity of the language. They talk more in Indo, explaining activities or whatever we’re going to be doing in Indo, as well as Bro Ross won’t tell us anything about the girl he’s dating unless we ask our questions in Indo (and then he answers in Indo, so I usually hafta ask someone else what it is he’s saying so I’m up aware of what’s going on there ;). We had a planning/goal meeting on Tuesday (which we do every week), and I really worked a lot on getting more language put into the class. Nobody else really speaks up about stuff like that, except for Elder Lang, who basically rejects any sort of language use anyone comes up with. He hates it when he doesn’t understand what’s going on, so he doesn’t want any of our time to be used in speaking the language. I was actually really surprised at how adamant I was to get more SYLs in our class (SYL = Speak Your Language – there is absolutely not English taught when we’re doing this during class, and if anyone DOES speak English, they have to do something in front of the class in Indo, like teach a principle or recite the First Vision). It’s definitely not my favorite thing, but I just know how much it’s going to help us when we get to Indo, so I gave all the reasons why we needed to have SYL at least once a day, and everyone else in the class got behind me, and Elder Lang’s complaints were dismissed and we now have SYL every afternoon except Pday, when we have it at night when we have class. I’m still lost most of the time when we have it, but at least I’ll be used to not understanding things when I get to Indo ;)

Saturday’s TRC was pretty good. No one was showing up in the beginning, so Bro Ross texted everyone, and by the time we started, there were more than enough. Sis and I had 2 investigators with us. We were supposed to talk about food at the beginning with our two investigators, Sean and Andrew, but it was hard because I don’t know any food words yet, and we were just told 20 minutes before that that was what we were talking about besides giving the 3rd lesson. So this week we’re talking about clothing items, so I’m already working on knowing words for that so I can actually communicate this week. Anyways, the lesson went well, a little bit longer than we should’ve gone, but I think lesson 3 is my favorite lesson to teach. It just makes sense. Course the other 2 do as well, but I really do like teaching Lesson 3.

Sunday, we had Sister Johnson from the Relief Society General board speak. It was an INCREDIBLE lesson that really hit me hard. Yes, I had tears in my eyes basically the whole time. Mom, I tried getting a little not to you (from me to Sister Johnson to Jana to you), but there was a lady right before we met Sister Johnson who informed us that it was rude to ask any special favors from her… so instead I just asked her to tell Jana to give you a hug for me. Hopefully you got it…if not, I tried!

In sacrament I was informed that I would be speaking on prayer. Of course this week was the week that I didn’t really prepare a talk like I normally do, and I’d just quickly thrown together a few scriptures that morning, but I think it went pretty well. I talked about the Lord’s prayer, Christ’s example in prayer, and then I told everyone about how much praying I’d been doing as I’m trying to learn this language, and I know that it’s been through prayer that the language is slowly starting to come.

I read all the Priesthood session talks this week, and WOW. Those talks were definitely great ones. I especially loved the first. It’s sad to see how communication between parents and kids isn’t really there anymore…myself included. However, I do look back on a few situations that I had before I left, and the help that I got from you, mom and dad, and hopefully when I get home we’ll talk a lot more about things going on in both our lives. I know it’d be really beneficial to all of us.

I got a package from Kel the other day. Yum yum, everyone on our floor was eating all the “chocolate stuff” (apparently most people don’t know what rocky road is, but they loved it after they tried it!) and rice krispie treats (THANK YOU for making them the good kind of rice krispies…I love that kind!), and of course skittles are always good. You’re the best and my most favorite sister in the WHOLE WORLD! :)

For choir at the fireside this week, we sang “Be Still My Soul,” and wow…I’ve always liked that song, but I think it’ll forevermore have a special place in my heart. The words are incredible, and I couldn’t ever put anything as eloquently as the guy who wrote that. I can’t wait to listen to it by the MoTab again…it’s always been a favorite on that one CD we have!

Well there really isn’t a whole lot else to say. Things are going well, the language is still come slowly but definitely coming, and it’s just crunchtime now. Whatever I don’t get now I’ll hafta get in Indo, and that could be a good thing or it could be a bad thing…we’ll just hafta find out. Anyways, I love you all and hope things are going well for everyone. I know what I’m doing is what I need to do, and that I’ve become a better person for every day I’ve been here…I can’t even imagine how different I’m going to be when I get home. SAYA MENGASIHI KAMU SEMUA!!!!!

~Sister Sara
(that’s my happy medium :)

Counting Down... 4 weeks til we leave!

Apa Kabar, keluarga saya! Saya tidak dapat percaya hari ini adalah Pday lagi!

Alright, translation..How are you doing, my family? I can’t believe today is Pday again! Haha…yes, I have picked up one or two words while I’ve been here ;)

It’s been a really good week…there were a lot of things that made it good, so I’ll start at the beginning.

Friday morning, we had some guy walk into our room during personal study and literally just start bashing on how dirty the room was, how we needed to clean it up, and that we weren’t even close to “being ready for today.” All of us, including Bro Leo, were completely confused and pretty much thrown off by this guy just walking in and telling us how awful our room looked. We were all like, what are you talking about? The guy then goes, “the guy from Indonesia that’s coming this morning! This room looks awful, you need to clean it up before he gets here!” THIS totally threw us all off, and then we all started talkin at once, saying “What guy!?!?” Finally the guy gets it, and says “oh, you don’t know?” Apparently there was a MAJOR guy from Indonesia speaking at BYU the following Monday, but he wanted to come to the MTC and see what it was about while meeting the missionaries going to Indonesia. Now, when I say a major guy, I mean this guy is THE MAN who signs our passports that allow us into the country as missionaries. So yeah…pretty major. Anywho, we all cleaned our room and then started working on things to say and/or ask for the next hour while we waited for him to come. He showed up around 10 am, and we all got up and introduced ourselves, and where we were going. Lol, it was pretty funny with the Malaysian missionaries because he just looked at them with disgust when they said where they were going. He asked us a few questions, and we asked him a few, and then he looked directly at Elder Blissett (who is our district genius when it comes to speaking/understanding the language) and asked him why he wanted to go to Indonesia on his mission, and why he was doing it. Well, the interpreter somehow came around to the fact that Elder Blisset is going to Malaysia, so then Bapak Pasaribu switched his attention to the person sitting next to Elder B. who he KNEW was going to Indonesia…ME!

Not gonna lie…I freaked out a bit in my head when he asked me the same question. Elder B. is the genius in the class…I’m the one sitting in the corner picking her nose. Not literally, but that’s about how opposite we are. We have this bang bang game that we play, and if we’re doing it tournament style, everyone wants to go against me in the first round cuz they know it’s an automatic win :( sad, but really true. Anywho…so yes, I was really nervous when he asked. But, I had a calming assurance within me as I simply said (almost perfectly…), “Saya tahu bahwa gereja ini punya memberikan saya dalam kehidupan saya, jadi saya ingin untuk membagikan bahwa dengan orang-orang dari Indonesia,” which, translated means I know that this church has blessed me in my life, so I want to share that with the people of Indonesia. Nothing profound, but I felt good after I said it, and I hope he felt the spirit of it as well. It was a really cool experience, and I hope that I represented the church well as I did so. I have pics… I’ll send them next week after I get them developed.

As everyone knows, conference was AMAZING! It’s been a while since I’ve watched all the sessions, and I’m SO glad that I did. Yes, my butt was sore, but my heart was also definitely full by the end. Well… and the beginning. Haha the whole thing was just incredible! A few highlights…Dad, I didn’t think that Elder Nielsen sounded familiar, but I figured the likelihood of 2 missionaries from Finland were pretty rare, so I told everyone that HE was your companion…sorry! But at least you knew him. It makes me not a complete liar ;) he gave a very inspirational talk though. I actually don’t have any notes on the talk, because I didn’t want to miss anything! Very good. Of course, Elder Holland’s testimony of the Book of Mormon is SURE to go down in history along with…crap, I forgot his name for a sec, but the apostle who bore testimony of the savior, “That I won’t know any more than I know now that He is my Redeemer and Savior.” That’s always been one of my favorite testimonies, and Elder Holland’s goes right with it. Like I’ve said before…If he’s not pounding on the pulpit, he’ll be pounding on your heart. Loved it! I also loved how a lot of the first few talks seemed to focus mainly on love…Love for God, love for mankind, love for one another. And that WE’RE loved by Heavenly Father. Did anyone else from the Hewlett side of the family LOVE how Elder Eyring talked about the No Empty Chairs? I felt the most amazing spirit as he talked about it, and I thought about that reunion we had with Grandma and Mom doing that fireside. What an incredible family we have… it made me think of our temple visits we do every year together. How many families in the world can say that EVERY SINGLE MEMBER of its family is worthy to go to the Temple of the Lord to do service with one another? Think about it…the only reasons people in our family don’t come to those is because they’re on missions or taking care of little ones. So, that said…I know that next month my mom is putting that together, and I hope that EVERY SINGLE PERSON in our family who is able to will go and participate, because there are very few people in the world who get to experience that opportunity. I love our family! Anyways, it was a great conference, although I’m SUPER jealous that ya’ll gotta go to the cabin. I’m definitely excited to go do that again when I get home!

This week I finished the Book of Mormon, and started a bit on the New Testament. I’ve never read it all the way through, but I’m excited to do it now. I’m also reading Jesus the Christ, which is INCREDIBLE. I seriously love it, and suggested it to all :)

Now that we’ve basically learned all the grammatical stuff that we can in Indonesian, Bro Leo and Ross are really hitting us on being able to understand and speak the language better. Which is great if you know what they’re saying. But like I said earlier…this language is taking me a bit more time to get, but I have noticed a HUGE difference in my understanding from Monday to yesterday. I definitely have seen Heavenly Father’s help in this language. The first week I think I memorized like 10 words, but now I’ve worked my way up to the point that I can say almost my entire prayers in Indonesian (I’m sending a pic of all my study materials…you’ll DIE!), and it’s still growing daily… so definitely an answer to MANY prayers. I go off into the halls most of the time to study, cuz the people in my room will talk the whole time and I can’t just goof off…they get mad at me for not playing the games and stuff with them, but I don’t learn anything doing those games. I learn by getting new words and finding associations with them, then going over them again and again. Funny story actually. To serve in Indo is “melayani” and I was trying to come up with an association when I thought of Melanie Goates, and all the service things she’s done…haha so she’s my association there :)

The language is definitely coming along, but so is my humility. I don’t think that I’ve ever been as humble about something as I am learning a language. There are times when it’ll hit me really hard that, HOLY COW! I’m learning a whole new language! And it’s only been 5 weeks! What a blessing it is to see the hand of the Lord in my life as I work hard to accomplish this one thing here (this language), so that I can go out and serve Him and accomplish many other things the way that He wants it done because of learning that language. It’s gonna be awesome!

I had another lady in the RC (AGAIN the last call of the day) who I bore testimony of the difference she’d feel when the missionaries brought her the DVD that she’d ordered. She said that she needed to feel something different, and she hoped that they would come over soon. As Connie always says…I pray that the missionaries in these areas are doing their jobs so that these people can be blessed.

Sis O. and I have taught a few times this week to different people in Indonesian, and the lessons just keep getting better and better it seems. We still have a LONG ways to go, but the language coming along is REALLY helping our lessons a lot. I’m also getting better and better at what I want to say, so I don’t have to rely on Sis O. helping me through every lesson like I did before. Now it seems to be a lot more equal, which is AWESOME and something that a few weeks ago I didn’t think was possible.

I’m sorry to hear that Asiata is out AGAIN. That totally blows! The U will pull through though…I can’t hardly wait to hear how the BYU/Utah game goes. That will be a super good game. Dad, keep the Jazz scores coming in, and let me know how my Matty and Paul are doing.

MOM!!!!! Wow, it feels like it was forever ago so I almost forgot! THANKS A MILLION FOR THE CINNAMON ROLLS! Funny story… well not really funny, mostly gross. But we ate all those rolls you sent us in about…24 hours. Literally. I got them from the post office right before gym on Friday, so about 11, and then they were gone by Saturday night. There are 5 girls in my room, we are the only ones who ate them, and we absolutely DEVOURED them. And they get more and more excited whenever they hear I’m getting a package because they know they’ll get to eat whatever goodness is within them all. Haha. The cornbread was yummy, we had it today for breakfast while we did laundry. Thanks! You’re the best, seriously!

Also that day I got a big ol’ package from Sash and Anth…thanks you guys! SOOOO sweet of you guys to think of me like that! Definitely made my day :) and the treats have been great for class, and were SUPER nice to have during conference. You guys are the awesome and I love you!

Anywho, I best get going. I hope everything is going well for everyone. I’ve always found it interesting that President Monson asks the church to pray for him, but this last conference as he did so, I felt like if HE could do it, then I could do it…SOOO please pray for me, that this language will continue to come easier and easier, and that I’ll have the Spirit with me that I need in order to teach by it. I love you all and miss you more than you’ll ever know, but know that what I’m doing is what God wants for me. LOVES!!!!

~Sister Sara

Pictures from the last days of the Hewies in the MTC together

Elder Kaleopa, Carter, Sara, Sis. O.
Sara said, "Yes, I did hug him…and yes, we DID get a dirty look from the girl that was their “travel leader” or whatever. Even after she found out we were siblings, she had this look on her face like we were the spawn of Satan. Oh well. I was ok with it. Plus it’s a cute picture ;)"
Elder Hewlett and Sister Hewlett
I think Sara took these as Carter was leaving the MTC
Carter and his MTC companion

Another week

Halo Keluarga Saya! (Hello my family :)

Another week has come and gone here at the MTC. I’ve been noticing that the days blend a lot more, and there really aren’t too many things that happen anymore that either surprise me or are enough to take notice. So this could be a super lame email because my journal has had a super lame week. Sorry!

However, today is a pretty significant day, besides being pday. I’M OFF MY MEDICINE TODAY!!! So guess what…now I can play bball in gym and tell you about it! Haha, mom please don’t be mad…lol I’ve only played twice! But I had to! And I didn’t get cut once. Not that that justifies it, but…well, I figured that twice in an entire month is pretty darn good. Usually I just go and run and do my exercises…which by the way, I’ve worked my way up to 20 minutes around the track! I run between 2-3 miles on the track in 20 minutes, so I figure I’m doin pretty good there. I didn’t think I’d be able to run without music, but I just recite the First Vision in Indo while I run around, and it keeps me busy for the most part. I’ve almost got it down now :) I also noticed just this week that they have records here at the MTC for free throws and 3 pointers…so I will be focusing on that from now on. I have to have one of the employees come and watch me, but I got 8, then 7, then 11 the other day before I missed and had to start over. But that’s not too bad…I hafta beat 21. And now I have 5 weeks to do it, so I WILL be doing it! And after the free throws, I’ll be working on the 3’s (I hafta beat 13 there). Can I just say that I LOVE basketball? Now all those free throws and 3’s I’ve shot over the last 10 years of my life will REALLY have an effect…a record at the MTC! Haha. I guess if they can’t count at state, they might as well count somewhere else, right?

We’ve been working on Lesson 2 in Indonesian all week, and it’s finally starting to come along. We found out that we can draw pictures as we teach (duh!), so that really helps us remember what we’re supposed to be talking about as we go along. Especially with the Plan of Salvation (Kesalematon Rencana…yes, the language is finally starting to stick now, so I’ll randomly be putting the Indo word after the English one if I feel like it’s significant enough :). I’ve been working on specific words all week that I need for my lesson, and it has taken me all week to get them to stick, but they’re sticking, and I’ll be darned if they go anywhere. I’ve worked out a pretty good schedule to help me remember words that I’ve learned and I need to remember, and then also words that I knew at one time, but have forgotten because it’s been a few weeks since I’ve looked at them. They go back to the “learn” pile. I should send a picture of all the words I still need to learn. I have about 100 or so words that I know without having to think too hard now, but I have about that many on flashcards still, while I have about 4 pages of about 100-130 words on each of words that I still need to learn. And the list just keeps growing… I haven’t even really started working on communicating with people yet (ya know, the stuff past “hey how are ya? What do you like to do? Where are you going?”…I can ask those questions, but then once they answer…I’m lost!). I figure that if I can get the lessons down, then learning how to talk to people will come a lot quicker when I’m over in Indo. Might not be true, but for now that’s all I can handle! We started on Lesson 3 yesterday, but this is a lot of the same vocab for the most part, so hopefully it’ll go well…we’ll see.

Saturday we were in the TRC again, and this time we only had one investigator show up. It was Jackie! :) So that made me happy, but it stunk for all of us because our teacher had to be an investigator, and then we split up into our Malay and Indo companionships, and we had 4 people teaching each of them. The hardest part was when Jackie would ask a question…Once we figured out what she said, we all would try answering at once, then we’d all stop at the same time, then no one would talk for a minute because we were waiting for someone else to say what they’d be starting to say just before. At least when it’s just Sis O and I, I know she’s going to answer, so I just let her unless I really have something that I want/need to say. But with the other 2 guys in there, things were a little bit crazy and overwhelming. AND I wanted to talk to Jackie more, but it wasn’t the same with the guys in there. The lesson went well tho…it was different, but it went fine. But after we’d closed (Jackie said the prayer, which was AWESOME to hear in Indo…they’re so fast and I have no idea what she said for most of it…but I’ll be there soon!), the first thing Jackie told us was, “You guys need to make sure to bear your testimonies at least at the end of the lesson, if not in other places along the way as well.” WE FORGOT TO BEAR OUR TESTIMONIES! We were so concerned about doing the lesson with 4 people, that not ONE of us remembered to bear our testimonies! I was pretty embarrassed about that, but AGAIN…it was a learning experience, and I pray that I’ll NEVER forget to do that again.

We’ve been working on a lot of vocab since I got here, but now the teachers are changing the focus from us knowing words to us being able to LISTEN and understand what people are saying with the words we know and will continue to learn. It’s been hard! They read us from the children’s BofM with the pics and stuff, and I rarely have any idea what it’s saying, except that I know the story so I’ll just guess what it’s saying, and sometimes I’m right (the pics help with that too, haha). We also listened to a General Conference talk…AHHH! It was a talk on service, but none of us had learned the word in Indo for service, so we were all SOOOO lost by the end. It was ridiculous. And fast. And holy cow. But I felt better when Bro Leo said it was especially fast because the interpreter had to keep up with Elder Oaks… He said most normal people don’t talk that fast. About all I heard or understood was kita (we), Gordon B. Hinckley, Thomas S. Monson, BYU (all are said just like in English…that’s why, haha), Keluarga (family), Allah (God), and a few others. So ya…I actually almost fell asleep cuz I’d given up, but then I tried to refocus on picking out the words that I knew. But it was hard for sure. But I’ll be able to understand it soon….

The RC wasn’t anything too special this week. I got to chat (IM) with someone from Turkey who was Muslim, though. That was cool. He wanted to read the BofM, but we don’t have it completely in Turkish yet…total bummer, but I showed him where he could get more info in Turkish. Elder Lang had an interesting chat with someone… this guy found like 2500 graves in Iowa, and they were all buried in some different way, so since it’s along the Mormon trail he wondered if we have some sort of special way of burying people (which apparently we kinda do…dang, I worked at a funeral home for a year, and I didn’t even know that most Mormons are buried facing West? I pretty sure West, but it might be East, in significance of looking forward to the Second Coming…Dad, you can inform me more of if there are any other burial things I should know about…). It was a totally weird chat, but we laughed about for the rest of the day.

The firesides on Sunday and Tuesday were both really good. Sunday was a guy named Robert Swenson (the Director of Missionary Services), who talked about how a mission is like a kite. But he didn’t go about it the way I would’ve expected. He started out talking about that darn string, and how it just holds us down from flying even higher, and then he said that those things were kinda like our mission rules, companions, language, etc. He asked us if we felt like sometimes we just couldn’t talk the way we wanted to in the language we were speaking, how some of the rules just seemed so stupid (not gonna lie, I automatically thought of the no music rule…), or that our companions just hold us back from doing what really want to do or maybe we just don’t get along as well so it’s not very much fun. Then he changed it around, and he said that the Lord will speak for us through the Spirit as we’re trying to talk in our assigned language, so really that’s a string that keeps us attached to the ground. The mission rules really actually keep us more focused on the work we’re supposed to be doing, and also keep us safer from the adversary and other problems we could run into…so that’s another string attached to the ground. And our companions? Well, even if we don’t get along, we’re told to learn, love, and appreciate those we serve with. He really emphasized the learn part, because they are a different person with different experiences who might help you in one way or another, whether you notice it or not. So there’s another string attached to the ground. Then he said that with all these strings (he actually had about 6 or 7 examples of various things, I only summarized 3), we create a rope, and that rope makes it much harder for the kite to “fly higher.” But when you fly a kite, and the string breaks, what happens to the kite? Sure, it MIGHT fly a tiny bit higher without the string attached, but in the end, it’s the string that keeps the kite flying. Without it, the kite just crashes to the ground and breaks. COOLEST ANALOGY EVER! He said that without all those things to keep us flying, we would just be falling to the ground. Which is why it’s so important that we remember to follow all of the council from PmyG and our mission presidents, because that’s what’s going to keep us flying. I loved it!The other talk was by Stephen Nadauld, who is the President of Dixie and used? To be in the Quorum of the Seventy (he might still be…but they made it sound like he wasn’t). He gave us 4 steps of the Trial (or Trail) of Faith: Teach simple principles, Desire to believe, Take action, and Receive a witness. Then you start over with a new principle. It was really good too.I saw Elder Nielson yesterday in the cafeteria. I don’t think he was as excited to see me as I was to see him. I asked when he came in, and he said last Wednesday, so I told him how surprised I was that I hadn’t seen him before then. He said he’d seen me at one of the firesides so he’d tried to get my attention, but I’d just ignored him. Sad, huh? I obviously just hadn’t heard him, but oh well. We’ll see if I can get more out of him the next time I see him. Kel was asking about the RS General Meeting last week, so I guess I’ll tell you about how conference is going for us here at the MTC. We didn’t get to watch that meeting, because they’ll be showing it to the sister missionaries during the Priesthood session on Saturday night. All of our classes for Saturday have been cancelled, and we’ll just have some personal study time between the sessions on Saturday and Sunday. I’m sad I haven’t watched all those talks, but since Kel told me about the 2 talks that she liked the most, I’ll be paying the most attention to them, haha. Jean wrote and told me about how amazing General Conference is here, though, so I’m pretty excited. My butt will be sore, but my heart will be full! ….possibly not appropriate (tidak pantas), but it’s a true statement, ladies and gents. Those seats in the main gym are HARD! Oh ya…for all our meetings we meet in the gym, and they have bleachers that come down, and between those and the seats they set down on the floor, they can fit about… I wanna say 2500 missionaries in the gym? I might be over emphasizing that, but that’s gotta be pretty close to accurate. Anyways, it’s a lot of people, but those are always the best meetings.Well, time’s a ticking, so thanks for all the letters that I’ve been getting! It’s great to hear from everyone, and find out what’s going on in everyone’s lives. It sounded like Kel and Zak had a good showing at their open house…gotta love our family and all the support we get from them! I love you all, and I pray that all is well with each of you. I know this church is Christ’s church, and that He runs it from on high. I know that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God, and I am SOOO excited to listen to him, along with other prophets, teach what needs to be taught to help me become a better person/missionary. Thanks again for all of the support! Love ya!

~Sister Sara :)

PS. On a side note, my district has started calling Sis O the mom, and me the mom dad…I’m not quite sure what that means, or whether it’s good or bad, but it certainly makes me laugh.