Selamat Natal & Tahun Baru!

well it was so fun to talk to everyone on sunday, it seriously just put me in the right mood....not that i've had much here in malang that doesn't put me in the right mood, but i loved getting the updates and especially planning for march :) and yet it's getting just too close....

anyways....so it's been a week. sunday we went to Bro Jon's house (the same one sis rhondeau talked about), cuz his son wanted the missionaries over for a "fruit party" - so we went, and after we got there, sis peggy's entire family showed up....3 of her 4 siblings, and her mom. from what i'm getting with the stories, the sisters first met bro paulus and his mom, taught them the first lesson, and then their mom and her youngest son went back to bali, where they live....and then from bro paulus, somehow they got connected up with sis peggy. anywho...i'd talked to elder meek about what i was planning on doing with bro paulus (he wants to stop smoking, and he has questions about the priesthood....what better match is there to help him understand the priesthood AND stop smoking?!?!), and elder meek took the opportunity to talk about the priesthood, and the apostasy, and why joseph smith is so important...but then it kinda just opened a can of worms with bro paulus (now i know why it's better that the sisters go over there...he's not as forceful -or rude- with us as he was with elder meek), and that got the youngest brother involved, until we basically just left feeling like we'd only worsened the situation between their family...so yesterday we (the sisters) went to where peggy's mom was staying to help her feel more at peace with us, and especially to ask us any questions that she might have. altho everyone else basically just stayed away from us, peggy's mom and bro paulus talked to us the whole time, and we left feeling a lot better about things. she DID have a few questions they wanted to ask us, and so we got a lot of her misunderstanding out of the way...however, she's still not all that interested in the church. but at least she can support peggy a lot more.

we just got back from an appointment (our pday is on saturday this week...) where the mom hasn't eaten since yesterday, and her little daughter hadn't eaten since she ate just a tiny bit of rice this morning. man alive....it's things like that that just make me wanna cry here. the worst part was, we went to go buy some food, but she wouldn't let us....she said she just needed a friend, someone to pray with, and we had done our part. holy crap...this lady has 4 daughters, the 3 oldest work, her husband does who knows what (she said he goes out searching for money all day, and yet he rarely gives her money for food), and the 3 oldest give what they make to their dad, not their mom....so where all that money goes, i have no idea (but i HAVE heard he likes to drink...), but they just sleep in their tiny little one-room shack all day, cuz they have no where to go, and if she goes anywhere, the mom hates making people feel like they hafta give her food....oh, and i forgot to mention that she's forbidden to work for other people. so she has no way to get money, basically, for her and her daughter to eat. seriously...it's ridiculous. most of the time, people ask me for money, and i just automatically get turned off, but with her....i was OFFEREING her food, but she wouldn't take it. crazy crazy...we taught her to pray and read the scriptures to know how to overcome this, and that she needs to think more positively. ugh...it's hard to see people like this.

and....i dunno who i'll be visiting come next week. friday, my new comp is on her way to malang, straight from the philipines MTC. her name is sis sari, she joined the church in Hong Kong, is 27, and fairly tall. she's from the solo/jokja area. i met her while i was in Jakarta on my way here (she was getting ready to go to the philipines), and she seemed pretty cool. i'm hoping we get along...not gonna lie, i'm pretty nervous about being a trainer, but i'm hoping she'll help me stick with a good schedule. i'm REALLY hoping she'll get up in the mornings so i can go running....ugh, i miss running so much. anywho...we'll see! but i'm also excited to be in charge (not the jr comp for the first time...) with someone who i can help shape, and who can help shape me. it'll be a good 2 months, i think :)

oh, and i asked pres for bikes for the sisters here in malang (i'm sick of angkots and walking far, and only getting a few appointments a day when we COULD get more), and he's pretty sure that'll be ok! so i'm FINALLY gonna get to ride a bike! i told sis lie, i'm not gonna make it to solo (they have bikes there), so i'm bringing all that i want from solo to me here malang :) haha. oh, did i mention that i ate dog yesterday?

anywho...it's been a biasa week...nothing too extraordinary, except that there have been a lot of people in the hospital (one with a high fever, another who got splashed with burning hot water....ya, her face did NOT look that good....), christmas was good, i ate too much, sis lie told me yesterday that my stomach is getting big (i told her greg is back...and that she needed to go running with me in the morning, but she said she liked me better with greg than without....ugh), i'm old now....like, seriously, i feel like an old lady, but whateverlah...and ya. i'm just happy to be here in malang, and it's fun getting to know the branch members.

and that's about it. i love you all! thanks for everything, enjoy the new year, don't party too hard, go to bed at a decent time, and remember...the Holy Ghost goes to bed at midnight :P haha. loves!

~Sister Hewlett

Sara's return date...

Just to let you know...

Sara completes her mission March 1st

and will be returning home with my parents the 11th!

Ee....GROSS!!!!

ok, so this week has been pretty good, i feel a bit more productive, but can still certainly improve is several areas. I FOUND MY NEW PAK SIREGAR HERE IN MALANG! seriously....sooooo cool. his name is pak paulus, but i've already started calling him bro. paulus, cuz i know it's just a matter of time for the guy. he's so intellectual, he has such a view of whats wrong in organized religion, and yet still understands the need for it....and is just FUN! and he speaks like a preacher, which just adds to why i can compare him to pak siregar. they're just fun people, people like that who will listen to what we have to say and try to digest it. however, bro paulus has one thing that pak siregar never had...a desire to know for himself, and "switch the religion that has been passed down for generations by my forefathers" if what he finds is true. HAHA, so cool. so here's the story...sis rhondeau helped a family here get baptized right before she left, and she was working with several of that family's own siblings, and bro paulus is the brother of the wife of that family, sister peggy. so....there's already a good foundation for bro paulus with family who is newly on fire, and from what i've heard, has a SERIOUS testimony about this gospel that's amazing. i just wanna build on that, and help bro paulus' own family get that testimony and make the commitment themselves. it's my new goal with the time i have left here in malang. we're meeting tomorrow to talk about the priesthood, cuz he still doesn't understand how EVERYONE can have the priesthood, since with the catholic church, only the priests and/or workers have the right to that kinda stuff (especially stuff like the sacrament and forgiving and stuff....). so i've been preparing for that, and i've found TONS of answers in D&C84....thta's a FANTASTIC section, it's been a few years since i've read the whole thing myself. but anywho...it's gonna be fun with that family, i can already tell. tell sis rhondeau i'm gonna try to build on that foundation that she's left for me :) i know she'll be happy to hear that.

so....wanna hear the GROSS story for the week? cuz that's exactly what it is. so monday morning, i'm out pruning the bushes with my new shears that i bought on saturday, and i'm all cutting happy goin at these bushes, and i'm just standing there cutting, when the next thing i know, i'm falling....and then next thing i think is, crap...i just fell?!?!?! how did i fall? and as my mind is going over all this, i finally start thinking about what i've fallen in, and i think....wait, the bathroom is right behind me, this goes toward the street.....and THAT'S when i feel the water that my feet are in....but it's not JUST water. AND I KNOW THAT. so i jump out screaming my head off for sis lie (between yelling "gross, gross, GROSS" in between), she comes out and is like what, then sees my legs, and i tell her to grab the hose FAST, and she keeps asking questions, and FINALLY gets the hose from the back, and while she's gone, i'm dry heaving cuz i smell all the crap, and it's all over my legs, and i'm just totally grossed out and just want it all off of me, and so lie finally comes out with the hose and just hoses me all down.....until all the crap from that stupid sewer line area was washed off my legs. ew. it seriously was SOOO gross. then langi comes out, and the two of them start laughing their heads off, and i'm part laughing part crying, and after i finished cutting the bush up, i went in and showered about 5 times. with LOTS of soap. then....yup, i got mad at lie for not taking a pic of me, and i took a pic myself of my scratched up legs, the hole, and then filmed the hole as i retold the story. so it WILL live on. GROSS.

so its official...i'm gonna get fat in malang. its a good thing i'm only gonna be here for less than 3 months, cuz these members are CRAZY. friday night all us missionaries (elders included) went to a sister's house is THANK GOODNESS going to malaysia to work this week, cuz dang...she made tons of food, then told us that we had to eat it all before we went home. and she was serious. WE COULD NOT GO HOME UNTIL WE FINISHED IT ALL. the elders had prob 5 portions, i had 2, the others had 3, and there was still leftovers. so....haha, i went outside to stretch my stomach, and the chunky (haha, dad, you're gonna laugh at this...the "chumly" for sure) neighbor kid was in his window looking out at the crazy bule doing weird stretches in the front of his house...and i had the spirit whisper what needed to be done...so i asked the kid, he agreed, i went inside, and without the sister knowing, i took this kid a PACKED plate of food stuffed as much as it could handle, and you should've seen the kid...he was so excited! seriously, the happiest chumly i've ever seen, possibly. all he could say was, oh thank you, thank you soooooo much! you would've thought he hadn't eaten in months. however, elder meek thinks the kid is just used to getting food when the missionaries go to this sister's house....which may be right....i'm gonna hafta ask the other sisters about that. but it was hilarious.

the other appt wasn't as bad cuz we didn't HAVE to eat everything, but it was served in courses....like a little here, a little there, each time you thinking that it's over....that there's nothing left, so eat just A LITTLE more....but nope, then comes out the next course. luckily, we were pre-warned by the elders, and so we didn't eat too much that i felt like i was gonna throw up all night. but seriously...the members here are really great, and love to invite the missionaries over. tonight we're gonna celebrate a little christmas with a member, then have another invitation for later in the week, and it's just crazy...and not all the same people. in jakarta and bandung, it was always the same people, but here it's always different...so that's nice.

anywho...i'm about outta time, so i'll stop here. but i love you all, i know it's another christmas apart, but this christmas i'm not homesick at all (haha...cuz i know i'll be home in no time :P ), and just missing not being with you...but everything else is still good. it's the most wonderful time of the year, and i'm so grateful i get to spend in with the people of Indonesia. they've taught me so much about Christ....honestly, i've learned more about Christ from muslims here, i think, then i would've EVER thought. it's incredible how GOOD these people are. anywho...i love you all, have a very merry christmas family and friends that i won't talk to sunday, but to mom, dad, kel, zak, and ben....TALK TO YA LATA!

Loves,
~Sister Sara

Selamat Datang ke Malang

well, here i am in Malang! i really do hate moving areas... having to learn a new city, trying to contact people with no idea where anything is ('where are you going?" "oh i'm going to blah-blah blah blah" "oh....right....i'm new here, so i have no idea where that is." - it's SUCH an awkward conversation...), and just following others isn't exactly my forte, but it's good. right now is the learning process, and as far as i can see, malang is gonna be a good place.

i'd heard a few rumors about the house and things going on in the branch here, but i'm still trying to figure out what's true and what's not. for example, "the house in malang is the best house the sisters live in!" ya....false. i don't think it's anything more or less than the other houses, EXCEPT that it has a little flower area in the front and side of it that was FULL of weeds when i got here. i was completely disgusted with that, so every morning i've been spending about a half hour or so weeding it out, and it looks pretty good (thanks mom for teaching me to weed :P). this morning i had more time, and after about 45 minutes sis lie and langi came out and helped me, and we talked about what we wanna plant there. hopefully i'm getting them a little more excited to focus more on the front of the house, and making sure it LOOKS like a place where Christ's servants live. not where a bunch of bums off the street live. it actually looked really good this morning, and by next week maybe i'll have it all cleared out and we can plant some new flowers (yup, it WILL take me that long, cuz there is not one piece of dirt showing....it's all completely covered in weeds).

sis lie and sis langi get along really well, which is fun for me to join in....we all get along, but i'm trying to help them focus more on contacting rather than always laughing and talking to each other while their in the angkots. i know sis langi is still new, and she still has a huge fear of talking to people (that whole language barrier that i knew so well in jakarta), but she REALLY wants to talk to people, and i've noticed a big change with her in just the last week. she got her first indonesian contact last night! so i was excited for her.

sis rhondeau was here before me, and they had a ton of investigators (got a family baptized the week before her parents got here!), and so they've turned most of those over to us...so we spent the last few days trying to get a hold of them. but the problem is, nobody's been home. i was surprised to hear that sis langi still hadn't taught a single discussion in indonesia, but monday we passed by an elder man who was weeding, and i offered to help, and that led to him asking us what church we were from, and he knew we were the Mormon church, and i asked if he'd read the BofM yet, and he said no....and the next thing we knew, we were in his house teaching the first discussion. langi was completely blown away, and nervous as could be, cuz it'd be weeks since she and lie had practiced giving the first discussion....i felt really bad (she just kept looking at me, saying "i dunno what to say..." and i tried to help her, but you can only tell someone so much to say before it's better if you just say it yourself...), and so now i'm pushing that we practice the discussions for our comp study every day. langi really is so excited and stoked about doing the work here...she just hasn't had someone REALLY showing her the way. i don't want lie to feel like i'm taking over her compship...but i also don't want us to not be effective when we teach because of something that we COULD work on, but we're too lazy to. that's not what missionary work is about. we'll see what happens with the guy (i think he thought we were going to force him to try and believe what we believe cuz he kept saying that we can't force our beliefs on him....), but it was a good lesson to learn from.

sis rhondeau and sis lily's families were here until sunday, so it was fun to be around LOTS of bules after i hadn't been around any for basically 4 months. sis rhondeau's mom has a letter for you guys...sorry you just got my package and all my pics, so i didn't know what else to send. but it's a piece of my love :)

so here's 2 stories of inactive members here that totally opened my heart last week - the first one is sis yuni, who married a muslim, but has joined the church and has a VERY strong faith in Christ and this restored gospel...but her husband has no idea. EVERYTHING has been done behind his back, because if he finds out, she knows he'll tell her she can't do it. so she basically lives a lie, solaking (praying) 5 times a day, and everything else that is islam....but when she gets time where she's all by herself in the house, she reads the BofM, and saturdays we meet in her mom's house to have a little spiritual building. SOOO dedicated, and you can feel her testimony so dang strong when you're there. her mom is muslim as well, but not fanatic (most of sis yuni's family is christian, and her little brother is even a member in jakarta), and just SOOO dang cute. she doesn't like us coming and going fast...she just wants us to chill the house with her. haha....so cute.

the other sister is sis nursiam, who is a nurse and works every single day, and takes all her holidays on sundays when possible so she can come to church, but she only gets 1 or 2 holidays every month, so she doesn't get to church much....but she said before they started these new shifts, she used to get off at 2 pm, and then she'd fellowship with the elders and sisters everywhere... she said she'd helped find TONS of people who eventually got baptized, which is totally cool. but the saddest part is that her family is all muslim, and her son (who was a member long before she was) married a fanatic muslim girl who won't let him go to church. sos poor sis nursiam is the only faithful member in her family who truly, TRULY loves Christ. sooooo cool.

anywho....so things are still new, we still don't have any REAL investigators, but we've contacted a few that are potentials, and i'm hoping this compship'll get moving more in the right direction so i'm busy busy busy here in malang! i'm sick of shopping :P but it helps a lot to have a greenie who's still fresh and excited to work. we'll see what this next week'll bring!

oh, and spiritual thought for the week is "the darkest hour always comes before the dawn" - this is my dawn, and it's only gonna get lighter from here :) i love this gospel....i'm so grateful for the testimony that i have of it. i'm grateful that i have parents who raised me with the truth and values that they were taught, and which have helped me SOOOOOO much more than you'll ever know here in indo. i know Christ lives, and i know this work is the most important work in the world...which is why i'll NEVER give up. i'll keep pushing until the end! i love you all, thanks for all the love and support....until next week!

~Sister Sara

KEBEBASAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

well hello hello - i'm emailing you from my hometown, jakarta! i just got here this morning, and am going around with the sisters here until my flight for tomorrow leaves for MALANG! that's right...I'M GOING TO JAVA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! now, many people might be wondering, but you've been in java for the last year, but no no no, how wrong you are....west java is an indonesian version of america. but from what i hear, Java is where you actually see the CULTURE of indonesia. and i'm going there! i'll be in a 3-some with sis lie and sis langi (a new bule who's been here for about 2 months) until the new sisters come at the end of december. yay!!!!! i'm seriously so excited, you have no idea.....i loved bandung (the city), but it's certainly time for me to head out :)
so this last week was that...another week in bandung. sis mongan's uncle died, so she and bajodo headed to jakarta to attend his funeral (surprised? haha.... i was too, but that's my mission....) and i was with hasibuan for 2 days, and it was actually lot's of fun. hasi is an incredibly clear teacher, and is good to get the point across, and MAKE SURE they understand (i usually just talk, but she asked a lot of questions, which i liked). we taught one of my newer contacts about the Plan of Salvation, and hasi shared a scripture from the BofM (we hadn't taught the restoration yet, so she didn't know much about it except the short history i gave before they read the scripture), and ibu rosa then said, "wow...i really feel the power of this verse. this really is the Word of God. Can i learn more about it?" totally cool....so i made sure jo and i went there again before i got transferred...yesterday we went and gave the history of Joseph Smith and the BofM, but that wasn't as clear to her, i don't think. she liked the example of Joseph asking for an answer, and then receiving the answer straight from Heavenly Father and Christ (which she said, lol, "Joseph Smith was visited by 2 beings when he prayed for an answer, and i recieved 2 beings when i needed to be spiritually uplifted as well, cuz here you two are!" so cute), but i don't think she quite grasped "the only true church with the keys of the priesthood." hopefully bajodo will do a good job of teaching her and her daughter more...they live DANG far from the church, but are really cool, so hopefully. ibu rosa's daughter, tasya, almost cried when i was leaving, and gave me a bracelet with a pic of her to remember. so sweet. i love the indonesian people!
so a lot of other people i was trying to get in contact with didn't happen, so it wasn't the most exciting week...but we taught Ibu Dina for the last time, and it was a pretty good lesson about the foundation and "building" of the church. i got it from the primary handbook thing (hee hee, they gave it to us as the mtc, but i hadn't looked at it until i had to play the song for the primary program, then i noticed this...it's got some good ideas in there for investigators!), and it's where the foundation is prophets, apostles, and of course, Jesus Christ. above that, you have the Holy Ghost and priesthood, then ordinances and Revelation, and at the top is the scriptures. i think ibu dina is a little at that point of "holy cow, they are getting forceful" but then i have sis bajodo tellin her every week "we're not here to add numbers to our congregation, we're here to let people know about the BofM" so she doesn't get too offended, but then i'm thinking, "no, we ARE trying to get people baptized, and she needs to KNOW what has to be done for her to recieve these blessings"...but ya, that's my life. well not anymore...haha, i'm going to malang!
so i'm happy today, i'm going to malang! this week i've learned that God really does answer prayers, and that there really ARE people out there ready to hear this message IF THE MISSIONARIES WILL GET OFF THEIR BUTTS AND GET TO WORK! it's as simple as that, really. pres groberg this week sent out an email about how we need to start PLANNING where we're going, have a destination in mind, DO things that are worth while...not just wander from here to there. and then find people along the way! i love all that he's doing here to try and change the slump that happens so frequently. a lot of people face challenges on their missions... i've decided mine here is to NOT be able to do all that i know i can to do this work....trying to overcome other people's characteristics while trying to maintain the ones that i have that are so greatly needed in this mission. terlalu semangat untuk melakukan pekerjaan misionaris? bisa ada itu sewaktu di misi? i think not.
so that's my week! next week i'll be writing from malang! i love you all! have a great week, and enjoy getting ready for christmas! from what i've heard, malang has a more Christmassy feel to it than jakarta did last year, or even what i saw in bandung this last week. malang is like the capital city for catholics, so it should feel more like christmas this year...whether that's good or bad, i'm not sure, but either way i'm excited! i love you all, thanks for all you do for me! loves~
~Sister Sara

minggu terakhir di bandung?

well, another week come and gone - GILA!!!! and you met with steffi! isn't she great? elder subandryo said that she was there, and before i could even get the words out that you guys needed to get together, he said, "hey, she needs to meet your parents!" then he said he still had dad's email, so i'm assuming you guys heard from elder subandryo to know how to get a hold of steffi... so fun, i'm so glad that you guys get to meet the wonderful saints that live here in Indonesia so you get a taste of what who i work with here. sis steffi helped me and sis lie find inactive members when we were first put together (and had no idea how to contact, teach or anything else), and while she deals with health issues that are pretty serious, she's always just so faithful and smiling and always looking for ways to help others. it was hard to get anyone to help us while i was in jakarta, but sis steffi was ALWAYS willing. you were truly blessed to meet her.
so this last week has been another week. we got an appointment with this lady and her teenage daughter, and i was all excited to go and teach them, cuz they seem super cool and LOVED us when we met, but when we got to their house, the mom told us her story (which is good to know), and then told her daughter that she wanted her to tell us her problem with her boyfriend, and get a second opinion on how to handle it...ya, it was a long story and was basically just the usual relationship where the two aren't talking to each other, so they're all confused and crying and hurt feelings and "i think you hate me," "no, you're the one that hates me" (all thru texting, btw, which is ALWAYS the wrong way to handle fights), and i felt like i was back home talking to my friends about their boyfriends....which is FINE, i have no problem with it, but it left us with no time to talk about the restoration or anything else... just give our opinion and advice about how to handle the problem (TALK!!!!), and that was it. i think that happened cuz we now tell people we're "bembina rohani," cuz that's whats on our kitas, which basically means spiritual tutor......but missionaries PREACH....so i think that might be where they were a bit confused, but we're going back this week, and will try to actually get a lesson in this time. and possibly go earlier so we have more time. haha. i love indonesia. anywho...it actually just makes me laugh now, but at the time i was a TINY bit peeved.
saturday was quite a day...we found out that pres groberg was coming to bandung that day, and so we CLEANED....all morning. well, the indos did a lot more than i thought was needed, but the house looked DANG good afterwards. but, after that i tried getting appts, and no one even answered, but we found out that no one had cleaned the church yet (they JUST started the program here where the members clean the church, and the guy who usually organizes it was sick), so me and jo went to the church and cleaned the whole thing ourselves. it was a FULL day of cleaning, but i felt better about that than walking around a mall, so :) the other sisters picked up pres and sis groberg, and then they went to an inactives house, and after that we all met up and had dinner together. it was fun.
sunday was awesome, cuz sis groberg is SUCH a spitfire! she seriously makes me so happy....she's everything a mission president's wife should be - just so excited to go out and do the work, and working hard to try and understand the language. it's not coming as fast as she'd like it to, i know, but by the time she goes home she'll have this language down. as soon as church was over and president had interviewed us all, she was ready to go, "where are we going to go? who can we visit? we have the time, so let's get going so we can visit as many as possible!" haha, seriously, she made me so happy. it's nice to have someone else around who feels like that. so jo and i went with them and the branch president and his wife to visit one of the inactive members, and then they dropped us off to go to ibu dina's while they went to go visit others. my favorite is that they didn't have their own car or driver - they rode cititrans here (thats what we ride when we go to jakarta - it's just a direct route that they have here if you wanna go to jakarta or bandung), and then rode the angkots and walked with us - they wanted to take the angkot to go home saturday night, but sis mongan talked them into taking a taxi so they wouldn't get lost. haha. but ya...thats what i love - they're here WITH us missionaries, they want to know what we DO so they know how to help us. it was fun.
our visit with ibu dina was a bit of an eye opener for me last week - i'm seeing more and more that we've been too soft with her..she doesn't understand the restoration, and that this is GOD'S church on earth, and i tried to be as bold as i could without hurting her feelings when i told her that her baptism was not done with the Priesthood, which means it won't hold later on in Heaven.. after that, she started saying that, according to her, the guy who baptized her had the power of God, and that it's still good.....so me and jo have talked, and we have to go back to trying and explaining about the restoration again. i gave her HW this week to read from an article about joseph smith from the liahona - i'm hoping if she reads that, she'll be able to understand better the role of Joseph smith, and WHY he's so important in the Church Of Jesus Christ of LDS. it's a slow process - but hopefully we can get there.
yesterday we FINALLY just went to one of our inactive's house (i usually call, and there's always an excuse, but we haven't gone to her house yet cuz she works in the hospital as a lab tech and has weird hours), and i prayed the whole way there that she'd be there, cuz that morning had been a bit of a rough one for me, and i just NEEDED to feel the spirit and like i'd accomplished something that day - and my prayers were answered! she was there, and we had a great lesson, and she cried as she told us about her situation (married a Muslim, kids aren't allowed to come to church, got offended by a text from one of the sisters last year and hasn't come to church since), and we just invited her again to remember her testimony and come back to church. she's definitely one that needs strengthening thru the members that live around her - so i'll be talking to pres santoso this week about that. she's awesome, tho, and i was SOOO happy to finally meet her, and again was reminded that i have a loving Heavenly Father in Heaven who knows what i'm doing, and is helping strengthen me every single hard step of the way. i really am SOOO blessed.
monday night we did FHE with the family that was inactive when i first got here, but have since been active almost every single week, and sis hasibuan (we were on splits) talked about the conference talks, and how we need to keep reading those, and not just read from the scriptures, cuz those talks are SPECIFICALLY for us in this day, and are what Heavenly Father has revealed to our prophets today about what WE NEED. it chastized me a bit, and yesterday i started reading the May liahona again (we haven't gotten the november yet), and it really has strengthened me SOOO much. yesterday morning i was NOT in a good mood, and certainly didn't wanna go out or do anything, but then i read julie beck's talk about the handmaid... something like "by my handmaids ye may know me" or something like that, and there was no way i could read that talk and NOT take responsibility for what i'm here to do... and so i got up and got back to work. and MAN ALIVE am i grateful for that. i know Heavenly Father watches over us, i know he sees the hardships we suffer, and while maybe our problems aren't solved the way we want them to be or in the time we want them to be, but He will ALWAYS strengthen us to endure, and to ENDURE WELL, which means still doing what we're supposed to. i'm not sure how much longer i'll be serving here in bandung, but MAN ALIVE am i glad that Heavenly Father sent me here to use talents i never thought i'd be able to use, face problems i never thought i'd have to face, and yet still have the strength to go on and DO HIS WORK. i certainly have had my times where i'm down and it's taken a long time to get back, but i think i needed those humbling times so that i could FEEL that, and so that now i can know that i DON'T want to be like that anymore here. i told president groberg on sunday that i want to work HARD these last few months that i have, and hopefully he'll help me out with that. i know these last few months are going to be a gift from God, cuz REALLY, i should be going home next week if i hadn't gotten hurt, but there's a reason i need to be here, and i'm gonna make sure i work hard to find out what that is.
anywho...sorry, now i'm going off, but anywho i love you all, thanks for the love and support and prayers and everything else. i'm beyond blessed to have the support that i do back home - i've known that for years, but it's even more realistic here. THANK YOU! have a good week, loves~
~Sister Sara

Pernikahan, Ke Jakarta...sibuk terus!

well...i can hardly breathe right now...i forced jo to come email as soon as we got home so you wouldn't worry going 2 days without an email again...but we're cuttin it short emailing this close to curfew :P but know i love you mom, and this was for you :)
it's been a heck of a week...last thursday was AWESOME and exhausting, and i had a headache at the end of the day. we taught pak johan, whom we haven't taught in about 2 months cuz i don't really see him progressing, he just likes to compare different religions, but i wanted to see how much of the BofM he'd read...and it turns out that he hasn't read any. ugh. but he actually asked us about what our church believes about death, so we bagged what we'd planned to teach, and had a good discussion about the plan of salvation. he was good, talking about how almost every church has the belief of the middle part of what we believe, but the rest is totally just our church - which made it possible for me to bear testimony to him that we only know about the pre mortal life and life after judgment day because of living prophets who live on the earth today. it was probably our best discussion yet.
and then we went straight to bang hapen - who SERIOUSLY gives me a headache every time we teach him....he just has so many questions, and doesn't understand anything that we try to discuss....he's intelligent, and knows his Bible, but he wants too much PROOF from the Bible, and there just isn't any about the BofM....so it's frustrating and just almost too much work to try and discuss things with him. i always just get to a point where i just shut up and stop talking, cuz nothing i say he seems to understand. but it was still good to meet with him, cuz it's been about 2 months since we met with him as well.
i also took team pics with my widyatama girls! and guess what....they gave me my very own, widyatama jersey! we all dressed up in the uniforms, and after i gave them back the jersey i'd borrowed, and they were like, no, this is for you! i'm still touched by them...seriously, they are so cool, and mom and dad we're gonna go out to dinner so you can meet them all!
and then saturday was THE WEDDING....the wedding that millions have waited for for 10 years. haha, mbak ade and mas budi FINALLY tied the knot on saturday, and guess who were the bridesmaids that got to dress up with the bride/? haha, yup, us missionaries. holy cow...it was so fun! i got to dress up in kebaya (the "special event" clothing), and everyone was freaking out about a bule wearing kebaya. and i'm not gonna lie---the other girls had their ridiculous, white make up on that makes them look completely unnatural and not at all as pretty as their natural color is---but i asked to have the "natural" look, and i was quite pleased with the result. you'll be getting the pics around this time next week....i left a package at senopati today that a lady from the english ward is gonna send thru the embassy (which puts it at the same price as sending you a package from cali...sweet, eh?), and it has 2 cds of pics, with the wedding pics on it. you can use that at the ward party, too, if you want :). anyways, mbak ade was beautiful, and after he washed off his white makeup, mas budi didn't look half bad, either, haha. funny story...write that one down for when i get home. he deleted the pic i took, so i don't have proof, but i promise it happened.
sunday was awesome too...we fasted with Ibu Dina, and she was SO proud that she fasted, cuz it's been 6 years since she's done it, but she "felt so strong, and God helped me not feel too hungry all day!" she's seriously such a sweetheart. i love her so much. after we ended our fast together with dinner, we talked a bit about how she felt about the Bofm, and she said she's been reading it, and she knows it has the purpose as bible - so i explained that that's the Holy Ghost, helping her know that, and that sometimes he works in a process, and if she keeps reading, she'll become more and more sure of the divinity of the Bofm, and that along with that will come a knowledge of joseph smith, who she still struggles with. but little by little we're getting along with her! we also talked a lot abotu her family, and what she can do to help them open up more to Christ (that's what she wanted to fast for). she's amazing,a nd i love her so much!
tuesday-thursday was spent in jakarta - and man was it full and awesome and just good to get out of bandung for a few days (which dad, it's BAWN - DUNG, not BANG-DUNG. i dunno why that couple told you that was how you say it, cuz it's definitely said the way it's said). tuesday was great - i went on splits with one of the sisters in jakarta, and we taught raz! she's doing SO good, and it was so great to hear about her trip to australia, and how much she's grown. she said the closing prayer, and i told her i could see an improvement in her prayers even in just 4 months....not that they were "bad" before, just more "flowy" if you will. she was more sure of herself, and it was really cool to see that. she's planning on getting baptized in january in australia, so i'm gonna stay in touch with her, and make sure that happens :)
it was also nice to see in jakarta a lot of what's happening there - the missionaries are using the english branch TONS more now, and almost all their investigators are referrals or girlfriends/boyfriends of members. sis suryono, who is from bandung and left to start her mission about 1 month after i got here, is super excited about the work, and we spent most of the 3 days together - she was telling me all about a lot of the people i helped with, and she said, "what i've noticed from serving here after you left is that EVERYONE knows you - you must be a really good contactor, cuz everyone knows about the church from you." that made me feel good, and like i really did do something with my time in jakarta. she also said it was weird to be with a bule who actually says hi to the creepy guys that always yell stuff at us as we pass by - i told her they're people too, and i don't feel like they should be ignored. i'm not gonna go outta my way to talk to them, but if they say hi to me, the least i can do is say hi back. it made me feel a lot better about how i conduct myself here.
wow, this is getting too long and my time is almost up, but at the meeting we had with elder pratt, i basically got my butt spanked. everything he said, i knew was true - i see it in my own house, i feel it in my heart every day...us missionaries ARE NOT DOING ENOUGH here. i don't have time to go into details, but he certainly opened my eyes, and i'm just hoping i'll be able to apply what he and his wife taught - altho part of me also feels like i just wasted 15 months of my mission riding up and down on buses trying to find people. but i was a really good meeting... i just dunno how much of an effect it'll have here in bandung :(
today was thanksgiving, we gave thanks by having pday at the church, playing american football and soccer, with a tiny bit of basketball at the end. then we ate a SWEET thanksgiving dinner at senopati, complete with apple and pumpkin pie at the end. it was short, sweet, and fun. basically just nice to not be the only bule for a few days.
anywho, we just got back from jakarta, and i'm tired and my time is about up - so i love you all! thanks for being wonderful, and have another great week! loves~
~Sister Sara

ps mom i got both the packages - my chocolate and the cards (holy cow, kel goes to A TON of work for those things!), and my christmas package. i kinda wanna open it now if there's anything i'll be able to use before christmas like you had last year, but i also like to save it for the surprise of having it on christmas day...what do you think? thanks! love you!

Choir picture

The choir girls! (we only had 4 guys, so this was basically the whole choir :) )

kelemahan manusia sy

well, last week was a whole bunch of running around getting stuff for the halloween party...and then it rained all morning and almost all afternoon saturday, and i KNEW my numbers were gonna be low...which they were. most of the branch didn't come, only 1 investigator showed up, and half the people at the party were the 2 families of the primary presidency there for the childrens program on sunday. so....ya, i overplanned. A LOT. but for all of us that went, we had fun, and it was good. at first i was pretty disappointed and actually frustrated, but then i had a quote from PMG come to my mind that goes something like, "no effort exerted in service is in vain." so that actually made me feel better, and enjoy the party more. i was a black cat, and jo was an angel. it was fun.
as far as appointments go this week, nothing too exciting...we finished the Family Proclamation with pak siregar and his wife, which he agreed with all of it, so there isn't anything to report on with that....we read 3 nephi 11 with ibu dina, and talked about authority and power - but of course we hafta be soft, so we didn't directly say anything about her own personal baptism, but i think next week i might go into further detail about that. little by little....
monday we met with the prabowohadi family again, and they're good to sit and listen to us, but when we challenged them to pray that night with a prayer of gratitude, not ASKING for anything, only giving thanks, the dad made it perfectly clear again that they're in their church for good. and yet i still feel like if they would just TRY what we give to them for challenges, he'd feel happier in his life....i dunno. they're a GREAT family. but he won't do anything we ask them to. we gave the mom a hymn and childrens songbook, so i'm hoping she'll read and sing those, and that'll help her understand our church and its doctrines more. i feel like if we can touch the mom, the dad'll come along eventually. we'll see. i talk a lot about temples and eternal families while i'm there tho...
so the other day during personal study, i had an idea hit me so hard that i immediately did as it said....draw a pic of the tree of life, and THATS how we can help our inactive members find their testimonies again. which is pretty interesting, cuz 2 of our 5 families are already active again...and the other 3 are hard to meet with. but maybe this'll help me in the future? anywho, so i drew the pic, and then found the references that describe the meaning of each symbol. then, i drew 4 different people - for the 4 different types of people found in 1 nephi 8 - those who are lost the entire time, those who taste of the fruit but are ashamed, those who taste of the fruit and rejoice, and then those who are in the building making fun of those eating of the fruit. it's pretty cool, and i see now that that was certainly the HG working through me. i still don't know when i'll use it, but hopefully it'll be something that'll touch other's lives.
yesterday we tried on shirts for a wedding this weekend - a couple in the branch are getting married (after 10 years together...holy cow! yup, that's not too unheard of here...) on saturday, and us sisters are the welcoming committee, and i'm also helping by playing the piano for it. i'm not gonna lie....you're gonna LOVE pics of these outfits. weddings here use clothes that are STELLAR and BRIGHT and AWESOME. i wanna make myself an outfit before i leave. maybe i'll do that together with making my own jeans....
anywho, thats about it for the week. today we're going to take pics with the widyataman bball team, so i'm excited for that. it's been a few weeks since we've practiced, cuz they're coach is busy with other teams. and next week we're off to jakarta to meet with pres pratt, a member of the 70, and then we'll have a small "thanksgiving lunch" on thursday before we go home. yay!
this week i've learned that the HG is strongest with us when we follow the commandments. when we don't follow those commandments, the blessings are taken from us, along with the HG, and without Him, i can't do this work i'm suppposed to be. so marilah....let's all follow the commandments better this next week so we can be more worthy to recieve of the HG and blessings that come! i love you all, thanks for the support, and I'M GONNA BE AN AUNT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! loves~
~Sara

Bersiap-siap untuk Halloween!‏

ah, i'm soooo glad you got to meet so many Indonesians! now you understand why i have so much love for these people - they truly are the salt of the earth. Haha, and good they knew who i was...i think i'll forever more be known as "that tall sister."

this week has been a whole lot of preparations for this halloween party on saturday... we're getting things together, slowly but surely. i started iyt basically been doing most of it myself (because 1-it's too hard to explain games, and supplies and everything so that the others will understand..it's just easier to do it myself, and 2-no one else seemed too excited about things). however, since we've started shopping for things, and i HAVE had to try and explain everything to Jo so that i can get what i need, she's been getting excited as well, and is planning on being an angel, as well as made a "happy halloween" sign to hang up. she's really good to me, and although the language barrier hurts us a lot of the time, she's patient with me, and i especially like to see her getting all excited about this. the other sisters aren't AS excited, but they did buy masks at the store yesterday, so that means they'll at least participate :P haha. today for pday, we're gonna try to make caramel apples and sugar cookies (notice the word "try" - cuz i'm not sure how it's gonna turn out....), so we'll see how that goes. friday and saturday we'll be decorating and getting all the last minute things put together.

sunday, jo and i helped with preparations for the primary program next week... so cute, but CRAZY! only 9 kids, but man there were kids EVERYWHERE. after they were done, we announced the halloween party again, and you should've seen the kids! haha, they were SOOO excited, and one of the kids (Jay...SOOO dang cute) wasn't talking to anyone in specific, just anyone who would listen, how he was going to wear his batman outfit, and his wings were going to look like this, and he'd be able to run around with the wings flying in the air, etc etc....haha, so cute. we were also trying to get them excited about inviting friends to the party...so hopefully they do. i've already got 2 of our close neighbors to come - one is like our mom here, Teh Ita, and then Oma is our landlady, who has 2 little grandsons that live with her....i've also given flyers to all of my english classes! so i told pres santoso (the branch president) i'm hoping for at least 50 people....he raised his eyebrows at that number, but i'm REALLY hoping we reach it. it'll be fun :)

sunday, jo and i helped with preparations for the primary program next week... so cute, but CRAZY! only 9 kids, but man there were kids EVERYWHERE. after they were done, we announced the halloween party again, and you should've seen the kids! haha, they were SOOO excited, and one of the kids (Jay...SOOO dang cute) wasn't talking to anyone in specific, just anyone who would listen, how he was going to wear his batman outfit, and his wings were going to look like this, and he'd be able to run around with the wings flying in the air, etc etc....haha, so cute. we were also trying to get them excited about inviting friends to the party...so hopefully they do. i've already got 2 of our close neighbors to come - one is like our mom here, Teh Ita, and then Oma is our landlady, who has 2 little grandsons that live with her....i've also given flyers to all of my english classes! so i told pres santoso (the branch president) i'm hoping for at least 50 people....he raised his eyebrows at that number, but i'm REALLY hoping we reach it. it'll be fun :)

sunday we met with Ibu Dina, and she's still good...we taught the gospel of Jesus Christ, which she agreed with, but this week i want to focus more on the power and authority that's needed, especially with Baptism and recieving the Holy Ghost (yes, things are SUPER slow here, and we have to take things slow so that we don't offend anyone). we'll see how things go...

Wednesday we met with one of my contacts, and she was super cool....she took us to a restaurant she used to work for, and then showed me off to everyone, haha. we didn't really have the environment to REALLY talk about the first discussion, but we did a simple explanation of the BofM...we still hafta follow up on that this week.

thursday was pak siregar.....oh, my favorite of all favorites. lol. we read "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" and would you believe in 2 1/2 hrs, we only got thru 3 paragraphs? i didn't think it'd be possible, but he wants an explanation for everything. first, it was that the family is central to God's plan for His children (why? how do you get that idea? don't you know that we're here to praise his name?). we read from Genesis, and after about 1/2 hr, he understood and actually agreed with us. woohoo! then it was that we're created in the image of God (don't you know that God doesn't have an image? that what the scriptures say is just symbolism so we can try to comprehend his image?)...ya, that one he could understand our belief, but couldn't agree. THEN, it was the resurrection...which i never realized, is really NEVER explained in the Bible. only in the BofM (i was reading that happiness book from elder ballard friday after we'd met with pak siregar, and so now i have added info to share with him this week). crazy crazy. but he thought our spirits go to some place to wait for the resurrection, and when the resurrection comes, our spirits go up to live with God. no body. cuz the body is not holy enough. so what about Christ? didn't he have a body when he was resurrected? why wouldn't we get the same? cuz He is the Son of God...we're just man. yeah.....like that. however, one of my biggest triumphs was when he actually started to agree with us...that, ya, it DOES make sense that the resurrection would be bodies of a PERFECTED FORM that are returned to our spirits. man alive...so fun, pak siregar. i truly do cherish every opportunity that we have to meet together.

anywho...that really is basically it. what have i learned this week? jangan dengar desas-desus. it was a real happenin' week. i finished Revelations today, and holy cow...the last few chapters are awesome, i understood them cuz it's so flat out, but the middle chapters were hard....i wanna go back and try understanding them better. but hey! i finished the New Testament! woohoo! now i think i might start with the old testament....i've read a bunch of chapters there that have connections with the new testament, and there is SOOOOOO MUCH INFO there. and i've got 4 months to read it! haha. anywho, all is well in paradise here, hope all is well back home (is it cold yet? it rains literally EVERY DAY here, and yesterday it rained all day long...holy cow), know i love you all, and thanks so much for your prayers and support! loves~

Sis Sara

dan kelebayan sedang mulai....‏

wow...another week has come and gone, and what did i do this week? seriously....time is going by so fast, it's hard to believe i've already been out this long!

this weekend we said goodbye to sister simanjuntak, and hello to sis hasibuan. me and jo are still together, and mongan and hasi have to figure out bandung on mongan's 10 days experience here....haha. but, actually mongan has been sick since last thursday, and jo hasn't been feeling very well most of the week (apparently siman was sick in jakarta too...so i dunno if they all ate something that i didn't, or what, cuz i've felt fine...), so it's actually been me and hasi most of the time since she got here. but it's good...she's fun, and it's nice to have someone new. she was the one sister that i hadn't met before, so now i've met all the missionaries except the new one in malang from Hong Kong. she's very sarcastic, which i like, and she helps the atmosphere in our home be cheerful in a better way than it was before...at least that's my feelings. hopefully things continue to go well :)

at ENHAII last week, i played this stupid game that we'd always play in seminary for "getting to know people," and they LOVED it. it was hilarious. i have video of it....we started with shapes and colors (4 shapes and 5 colors), and the person in the middle would say "i wanna sit in a seat with a GREEN (or star shape, or whatever they wanted) color," and then anyone with a green colored shape had to get up and switch seats....haha. then we moved on to where they had to use their own english, and come up with new things....like, "i wanna sit in a seat of someone with brown eyes." it was hilarious, and they loved it. then, on monday, i gave them a "HUKUMAN" or punishment for speaking anything except english in class....haha, they had to sing, "i'm a little teapot" in front of the class, and THAT was hilarious. one class actually liked singing it, so they did it lots, but the other class was SOOOO careful not to say ANYTHING AT ALL just in case they did say something not in english. it was so funny. i love these classes.

ibu dina was an appointment that hasi came with me to....and she totally took over, and helped give ibu dina another testimony about joseph smith and his divine calling as a prophet of God. it was so great, and the spirit was really strong, and so i invited ibu dina again to church....and got shut down again. she said she wants to, but it's a problem with time, and she's apparently got a lot of service to do with her church right now...so she said hopefully next month. ya, hopefully. but she's still trying to figure things out with joseph smith, and i dunno what else to do to try and help her...but i'll keep praying and hopefully come up with something.

yesterday i taught the 5th and 6th grade classes at a contact's school for an hour each, and that was cute. i'm not gonna lie...i really hate how i get treated like a celebrity just cuz of my skin color, but these kids were SOOOO excited, there's no way i can't not be excited to meet them as well. ALL the kids were running up to me to shake my hand, and the first class i taught had about 40 younger students outside the room, looking in thru the windows and door, taking pictures. ridiculously cute when they're so small. the kids are smart too...i'm always impressed with how well people here know english. it's definitely gonna be a major language spoken here in another 10 years.

now, my major accomplishment for the week...also yesterday was english class at the church, which usually only has 1 or 2 students if i'm lucky (the last 2 weeks there wasn't anyone), but i changed the time for the class, hoping it would allow more people time to get off work and still get to the class in time, plus i've given pass along cards with the info on it to EVERYONE i meet, and yesterday i had 4 students! and then i got home, and had one other guy call and say he'd come, but the door was locked (i have no idea what door he went to, but it obviously wasn't the right one....), so i should've had 5 students! hopefully this'll continue, and i'll build up the class here to have about 10 or 15 students. thats the number that i think is best, so they'll ask questions and can do more activities together. anywho...so ya, i was proud of that.

this week i've been reading Revelations....and the more i read, the more confused i get. but, it's amazing what our church has done to help us understand the scriptures better....footnotes are INCREDIBLY helpful. i also found D&C 77, which made the first few chapters a heck of a lot easier to understand than before. so, my thought for this week is how fortunate, how BLESSED are we to have a living prophet on the earth today? someone who can lead us in the right direction, and help us TRULY understand the Word of God...not with our own, human mind kinda way of thinking, but with the direction from above. joseph smith helped me A TON to better understand with his revelation in D&C 77, and i know that wasn't just given to TELL us what it meant, but to HELP us with the meaning. it also doesn't answer all the questions that you get reading from Revelations, but it helps you start in the right direction...and because of that, i've been led to better understand the rest of the book. i'm still not done, but i've enjoyed searching out the scriptures to find the meanings.

oh, btw, did i mention (no i did not...) that we got our first contact in a month last week? actually, i got 3, but HALLELUJAH! holy cow...mom, remember when you were talking about the different kinds of missionaries, and how every missionary is most likely each kind of missionary at one point or another of their mission? well....ya, i agree. last month was a hard month for me, and i dunno why, but it has taken me this long to really get outta it....hopefully it doesn't happen again. but i can definitely tell that a different atmosphere at our house is helping things. i just hope it continues!

anywho, thats it for me...we got an appointment later, and i still hafta do my college application, so i'll ttyl, and i love you all! have a great week, loves~

Sis Sara

akhirnya...‏

well, it's certainly been a week! it started with us teaching Ibu Dina last week, and we read 2 Nephi 3 with her, and tried to help her recognize that the seer spoken of in there is Joseph Smith. She doesn't seem to have too hard of a time believing that the Book Of Mormon is scripture, but she still has a hard time with Joseph SMith. so we're trying to help her with that, and our goal when we meet this week is to find out ALL her concerns so we can help her overcome them...and basically to just make sure that she really is interested in the gospel. we passed by her warung (food stand...she makes THE BEST chicken) on tuesday, and so i ate, and then we offered to do the dishes (she won't let us pay), and she always fights us on it, but FINALLY she let us do them....and it was SUCH a personal victory for me! i know that if she can see that we WANT to serve her, we don't just want to come and eat her food and then be full of broken promises...but that we're sincere....oh, i just know if she can see and feel that, that she'll be able to feel Christ's love that comes thru this gospel! so one step down....hopefully we can help her with Joseph Smith now. she went to jakarta last weekend for a nephew's wedding, and i was totally bummed cuz i was hoping she'd stay and go to district conference, but she didn't. we'll see....

friday i got ANOTHER class at ENHAII to teach english to. the teacher who's coordinating everything is combining the other 2 classes (fridays no one comes cuz they all go home for the weekend) into one for fridays, and then after that i'll teach this other class that will be going away for their "training" in international hotels across the world. their english isn't as good as the younger kids i'm teaching, but hopefully we can see some improvement over the next few months.

saturday and sunday we were in jakarta, and man alive! i forgot how much i miss elders and bules! elders are nice to have around cuz they don't create too much drama and are just fun, and i miss REALLY talking to people in english. no need to translate or ask meanings of certain words....just talk, and let it all out. saturday night the choir sang, and they did so good! my piano skills weren't too shabby after 3 months of practicing the same 2 songs over and over again (altho i still messed up a few times, but nothing serious! :P). but i was shaking super bad. we had a lot of people come and tell us how good it was, and especially the bule members were impressed with "count your many blessings" where we did verses 1 &4 in indonesian, but 2&3 in english for them. i had a few tell me that it meant so much to hear a hymn in english sung by indonesians. so i was happy with it :) and yes, we looked TOTALLY awesome in our pink flower skirts and black shirts. i have pics i'll send eventually. it was so fun to see old friends, and catch up on everything! basically i just miss all the fun i had in jakarta, with missionaries coming in and out. but thats life. sis lie stayed at senopati, and is now in malang with the new american sister (she's a highland ram, dad, from sugarhouse....and DARN PROUD TO BE A RAM, in her own words :P haha i laughed. hopefully you get to meet her), and is pretty worried about them going there without knowing the area, the other's language, or anything. haha. sounds like us in jakarta, if you ask me.

tuesday we went to Prabowohadi's house again...and they are SOOO nice, but he was pretty straight forward (in a very indonesian/javanese way :P) that they weren't interested in learning more. as he was talking about how the mormon church seems to be just like the catholic church, i had the distinct feeling that i needed to share with them that our church may SEEM the same on the surface, but when you find out more about us, we're certainly not...and the one thing that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has to offer that no other church can even come close to offering is an ordinance that binds families together for eternity. then we got interrupted, which might've been best cuz the dad was getting a more and more defensive the more i talked, and so while he was getting his new aquarium situated in the front room, we talked to the mom about temples and marriage in the church, and then she asked about songs in our church, and i had just HAPPENED to think that i should bring my little mini hymn book in indo along with me for a different appointment, and so we were able to sit at her piano and sing the 2 songs that we sang at district conference....and then she was all impressed that i could read music, and i was all impressed cuz she plays by feeling, and so it all ended in smiles and all was well. but i'm not gonna lie...i'm pretty frustrated with this guy's little bro thats in america....first he didn't tell the family ANYTHING about his "new religion," and then he calls last week like i requested, but only to ask if we'd come by and then talk about how i live REALLY far from philadelphia, where he lives. ugh. it'd be SOOOOO much easier if he would testify himself, and ask his brother to learn, rather than putting all the weight on us missionaries. we can only do so much! but oh well....we might try again next month.

and thats as exciting as my week gets. sis simanjuntak left this afternoon for jakarta, and she'll be released next week....so right now it's just the 3 of us here in bandung, and sis mongan got a headache from us hiking yesterday, so we've been inside all day. hopefully this isn't my next week. sis hasibuan should be getting here sometime next week, i believe? me and jo'll still be together, while mongan and hasibuan get to figure out bandung together. we'll see how it all goes. yup. i'm still the only bule in bandung. i'm not gonna lie...it's pretty lonely, but i'll just appreciate other bules in my house that much more when i get transferred or someone comes here :)

what i've learned this week is how to repent. i realized that i criticize so many things that the other sisters do, but how much of the white handbook do i not follow? i actually read from the white handbook for my personal study on tuesday, and found A LOT of things in there that i'm not too great at following. so i have a lot progress before i'll become the type of missionary i want to become....but i'm working on it! one of those things was to call the other missionaries by their full name...as you can see, i'm still not perfect. but too lazy to read over this again and change all their names. plus my time is up. anywho...REPENT! become better every day! thats why we have days...so if we fail one day, we can sleep and then have the next day to succeed! i love you all, and have another great week! loves~

~Sister Sara

satu minggu lagi di firdaus :P

well...haha, another week of highs and lows, and the work keeps pressing forward. things always start with the mornings...usually, if jo and i have good mornings where she gets up and studies and we have a plan for the day thats set, our day goes SOOOO good, and i'm always in a good mood. but those days where i end up doing my studying alone....i always have to work harder to be more patient, and not let satan get the best of me....and that's a glimpse into my life here in bandung :P
so sis christensen moved last wednesday, and i'm not gonna lie....i was scared to death about how things were going to be with me here alone, but it hasn't been too bad. the companionship hasn't changed at all, except they don't have chris to blame everything on....now it's on their own heads, fully. it's actually a lot better, actually...i guess now that i don't have a "friend" (haha) they notice when the 3 of them are having their own conversation, and they'll usually include me in somehow. so while conditions haven't really changed too much, at least they're taking more pity on me :P
ahhh! haha, i just looked at my planner and it reminded me about pak siregar last week....holy cow. he's SOOOO close to the truth, and yet SOOOOO far away! we discussed joseph smith for 3 HOURS!!! it was literally ridiculous, but he's my favorite investigator to discuss things with, cuz he has intellectual questions, and i get to learn from finding the answers; not to mention he's just fun to "discuss" things with, cuz i give him our beliefs, and then he says, "well that makes sense, but that's probably only because of this..." and then comes up with his own reasoning that DOENS'T make sense. like the 3 prophets mentioned in the New Testament in Acts...."well, they were obviously older than John the Baptist, and so they were prophets BEFORE him, but he was still the last NEW prophet before Christ was crucified." haha. seriously? he's just fun. and Joseph Smith is absolutely radical saying that ALL the churches were wrong....and how does he have the guts to say he saw God and Jesus Christ? yup....all fun questions that just make me happy to share the answers with him, and then a tiny bit frustrated when he just doesn't get it, especially because he's using his own reasoning instead of asking God directly (which we've told him i dunno HOW many times to do, not to mention reading the BofM....what is everyone's fear with a book? it's just a book! if you read it, it's not gonna kill you, especially if it really is the Word of God...which is most certainly is!). anywho...he's fun. mom and dad, i might let you meet him just for kicks when ya get here.
so this new English class i'm teaching 2 classes for at a university 2 times a week here is SOOOO fun. we did "news broadcasts" on monday, and they are seriously so hilarious and cute. i LOVE being able to really talk in english (with a nice campur...uh, mix of Indo in there as well). the best was when one of the kids said something about being tired, and i said, oh ya me too, and then he goes, "well let's just sleep together!" AAAAAAAAHAHHAHA i was almost on the floor crying! you have no idea....the culture is SOOO different from america, they're still so pure and that kinda stuff is NOT what usually goes on here, and so to this kid, that's just what he meant, you sleep and i sleep. but in the western world? haha, ya, so i told him to be REALLY careful and probably NEVER EVER say that to any bule he meets. but they're fun, and i'm getting new ideas to apply to the class to keep it fun and entertaining. hopefully it's working!
so we watched general conference this weekend, and WHEW! not gonna lie...the indo wasn't too difficult, but i still just don't get the full meaning outta the talks like i would if it was english. there were so many good talks it's hard to pick any one, but my fave line was elder oaks with his "texting is an addiction"...haha, ya i've used that the last few days with jo, and i've actually noticed her tone down a tiny bit with her texting...hopefully that keeps up. i also had all my questions answered that i had, so that always makes me happy and helps me move forward :)
so we followed up with Ibu Dina on the Plan of Salvation, and i dunno if we just taught it really bad or she just needed a week to digest it or what, but we basically gave the whole thing again... but this time she participated a lot more, and had questions and testimonies and all sorts of input on it, which was really cool. the hardest thing for her right now is that her family is Muslim... pak budi is her only child, plus all her grandkids, so she's scared they're not going to be saved, cuz they don't believe in Christ. she loves them so much, and i have a strong feeling that she likes meeting with us cuz it gives them a chance to see Christianity....better than them only seeing her go to and from church every sunday. i seriously love her so much, and i know she'd be such a strong member of the church, her faith is SOOO strong. but we also have to help the others, and their interest seems to be ever decreasing....so i dunno. i'm praying to know what to do...hopefully that inspiration will come.
as far as things go here, i'm doing TONS of service, but it's all in the middle of the day, so it's hard to get to appointments cuz they're far from the places i'm doing english and basketball at... but our potential investigator list is also decreasing. i dunno if i'm just becoming less and less effective here at contacting or what, but i haven't gotten much these last few weeks. i dunno, but i definitely see now the blessings that Heavenly Father gave us when we first got here, with absolutely NOTHING to start. but i'm also happy with this service, cuz it's fun and hopefully it'll help those we're serving want to learn...if not now, then at least in the future.
i know that this work is important, and that was confirmed by President Monson's call in the saturday morning session to every worthy member of the church to serve a mission. his testimony strengthened my own testimony that this is God's work, but he needs our help....we hafta be willing to do our part. i read a great talk by elder eyring in the january 2009 liahona about our role is sharing the gospel...absolutely inspirational! i just wish i could do more here in bandung....but so many factors apply with that. so i'm learning to be patient, and just pray that Heavenly Father will remember the intents of my heart later. but He will, cuz He's perfect like that.
anywho, i love you all so much, thanks again for the support, love, and prayers, you're all the best and i hope you have a great week!

~Sister Sara

pictures...

"Yach-Holding a leopard that's real, and alive, and heavy, and growled at me--but was prob too high on drugs to attach me :) ....hopefully...."

"This is possibly as close to Bali as I'll get for a few years :) Taman Mini June '10"

"Me with the "pioneer mothers" of Indonesia--aren't they beautiful?!"

"My new friend Ramah--cute, eh?"

biasa aja....

well, this week was alright...last week we headed up to jakarta for zone conference, which was GREAT. thanks mom and kel for the packages! the shirts all fit mom, and the hewlett shirt is totally awesome, what's it from? there wasn't a reunion this year, was there? i basically had to say goodbye to sis and elder millecam, since they're going home on the 19th, but hopefully i'll get to see them for a few minutes tomorrow while they're in town for a closing ceremony with one of their projects. i'm really gonna miss them....they've literally been my fill-in parents while i've been here. mom, i dunno if they're gonna have a homecoming or not (elder millecam said they weren't, but i never know with him...) but you can email and find out, but if not the next time you're in roosevelt visiting grandma, you HAVE to meet them. they'll be friends for the rest of my life.
there were 11 missionaries that gave their farewell testimonies at zone conference on thursday....crazy. literally about 1/4 of the mission goes home this month, and there are only a few new missionaries coming, so we'll see how things go with that. us sisters are changing, with 2 going home next week, then 2 more at the end of the month, then there's a new sister coming from provo today. sister chris is going to jakarta today, and she'll spend her last week there. so i'll be the only bule here in bandung with the indos.... :) and that's all i'm gonna say about that.
pres and sis groberg really focused their talks on obedience. they reminded me of a few rules i'm not so good at keeping (carter, i have a hard time not holding little kids too!), and hit on a lot of other problems going on at our house. i said something to sis christensen about how inspired pres groberg must be to hit on them all, and she just said, he's not so inspired as much as he gets told by others whats going on, and so he KNOWS whats going on. but i still think he's inspired.
last week i had a guy call from a university wanting us to come teach english there for about 20 students....so sis chris and i went last week, and it's gonna be a REALLY fun class. they're all students in school to work at hotels (i didn't know you had to go to school for that....), and most of their english is pretty good...so we can actually have fun learning english, not just learn words and repeat them over and over again, like we do with the class at the church. BUT, my time is REALLY gonna be taken up now with english class since i'll be the only bule here...we agreed to teach 2x a week at this college (which i REALLY think we'll get at least 2 or 3 investigators from!), plus once a week at the church, and then i have bball once a week too. so we'll see how things go. i'm just scared of doing too much service, and not having enough time to teach! we'll try it out this week, and then re evaluate if we need to.
i just got an official date for the halloween party from pres santoso, and its gonna be on nov 13....HOPEFULLY i'm still here, haha. if not, oh well....whoever takes my place will hafta head it up. i'm thinking that when siman goes home, another bule will transfer here from jakarta, and then it'll be easier to divide things. we'll see!
this week we taught the plan of salvation to ibu dina....pak budi didn't join in this week. we'll keep trying to help him, but it's hard when one week he's interested but the next he's not. i know ibu dina sure worries about him...she asked us again this week to "help save my son!" i dunno how much of the Plan of Salvation made sense to her...she was pretty quiet the whole time, but this week when we follow up, and hopefully after she's read her HW, she'll be more comfortable with it. she's such a sweetheart, my next goal is to get her to come to church with pak budi....it's really far from their house, and especially if she goes in the angkot, but if pak budi can take her on the motorcycle, it's less than half the time....so i'm gonna work on getting pak budi to come! i know if he'll agree to come, ibu dina will be right there as well. pray for us!
tonight we're going to meet with pak siregar, the preacher...haha, i'm excited. i always love meeting with him, cuz he has GREAT questions that are SOOO easy for us to answer with the BofM and revelation given to us from our latter day prophets. but i just need to help him understand that there ARE prophets after Christ so he'll give Joseph Smith the time of day. we'll see. i know Jo doesn't enjoy us meeting with him too much (she knows he's wrong, but she rarely knows how to answer him cuz he speaks so harshly....she hates batak people, from medan, cuz they are really harsh and hard headed people, but the bataks are my favorite cuz they HAVE QUESTIONS!), but i think even if he doesn't go anywhere, maybe we can help some of his students at that school want to learn more. today may be the last time we meet, but hopefully not.
well, there's not too much else to talk about. i've been learning a lot this week about humbling myself, allowing Heavenly Father to shape me into the person he needs me to be....i always get caught up in this thought of, 'i'm already doing all that i can, there's nothing more i can do,' but then Heavenly Father always wakes me up and shows me where my weaknesses are....and that has happened a few times these last few weeks, so i'm REALLY trying to just do the best that i can do, and especially being more patient and HUMBLE. hopefully it'll become a new characteristic for me....cuz i feel like here i can be patient and humble for a week or two, but then i get fed up, and blow up, and nothing good ever comes from that. so i'll keep working on my patience and humility, and you all can look back at yourselves as well, and see what characteristics of Christ you're missing in your life at this time. i love you all, thanks for all the prayers and support, you're the best! Loves~

~Sister Sara

Minggu yg lebih baik

This week has been a little tougher on the investigator side of things. we're trying to figure out which of our investigators are the most effective/interested, but it's difficult to know. we met with pak johan on saturday, though, and we officially put him in the "simpan" or in other words, wait a few weeks and see what he thinks after he reads the BofM....he hadn't read it at all since the last time we'd met 2 weeks before cuz he's reading a world religions book that he has to return this week. AND he hates religions that think they're the best, and refuses to go to any church....which, ya, isn't exactly the best foundation for us to build on with Joseph Smith restoring God's one and only church to the earth again. but i still think he's cool.
Pak Budi and Ibu Dina read the BofM!!!!! they read Alma 32, and absolutely loved it, and we had a really good conversation about faith, and being humble, and especially grateful for all the blessings that God's given us. Budi prayed, but not every day...so our challenge for him this week is to pray every day, and we're texting him every day to remind him. it's definitely little steps with this family, but i can already see a huge difference since when we first got there. i feel like every time we show up, they all have the weight of the world on their shoulders, but by the time we leave, they seem so much happier and ready to take on the world....it's amazing to see that kind of a change, and know that you really are helping someone. hopefully they feel that as well.
a guy called our cell phone yesterday to see if i'd teach an english class on fridays for about 20-30 people at a university about 30 minutes away...which i'm excited about. i seriously can't teach english, but i'll do my best....but this is gonna be an awesome place to get referrals, that i'm sure of. the english class at the church is really not doing good....last week there wasn't anybody that showed up, and this week there was only one.....so hopefully with this english class, we can get more to come to the other one.
basketball is a little on the awkward side right now....the coach wanted me to actually PLAY for the team, and was going to go through all the holes to get me permission (and who knows how much money that would've cost), and so when i told him that i couldn't play competitively, i could only help coach if it was for real games, he wasn't very happy about it.....so there we go again. i feel like if i give anything, people always just expect more and don't understand WHY i can't give more. so then they're offended or sad, or whatever ya wanna call it, and things just get awkward. hopefully this doesn't last too long tho.
this week as i've been studying the talk that you sent mom, along with other things i've been reading, i've been noticing how much everyone talks about the House of Israel, and decided to answer those questions she asks, but with my patriarchal blessing instead of the entire BofM. amazing the things that are in there. it really does help to see the importance of the House of Israel, even though i know i still don't understand the importance of it as much as i need to. but i figure thats something that's more in depth, and i can study it more when i get home. but, as i was reading my Patriarchal Blessing, i thought about how it really has shaped my life in the last 7 years. it's been so important in helping me know what to do with this big decisions that i'm making at this time in my life. even with things just like exercising....usually, i start exercising again cuz i've read my patriarchal blessing. so...spiritual thought for the week is get your patriarchal blessing, cuz you have no idea how much it's going to help you in your every day life, and especially with those big decisions that come along. i have a firm testimony just from my PB that Heavenly Father knows and loves me, and i know anyone who reads theirs will be able to feel those same feelings. what a blessing it is to have the knowledge that we have about this restored gospel, and what direction that gives to us!
oh, so funny story real quick...last friday i was doing my laundry, and the dryer was acting all funky, so i had sis lie come and help me figure it out...and as she was fixing the thing, i felt something on my foot, and looked down to see a rat running across my feet!!!!! AHHHHH gross! yes, i immediately screamed, freaked out, ran to the kitchen, continued freaking out, and then washed my feet with soap and water to try and clean the dirty rascal's germs off me. all the while, sis lie and jo had no idea what had happened, and kept asking me what happened, but i was too busy freaking out....so when i finally could control myself enough to talk and told them, they laughed for the next 1/2 hr straight....i think cuz it's not in my nature at all to act like that, and they'd never seen me like that, so it really surprised them. haha. i thought it was hilarious tho.
anywho, that's my week in a nutshell....i love you all so much, and pray things are going well! i think it sounds like from all of our emails we're all missing each other quite a bit....which means we all need to refocus a bit, and work even harder so this precious time we have apart will be all the sweeter when we get back together. i love you all so much, and have a good week! loves~

~Sister Sara

Sedang nanggis...‏

this week was ok...last week we met with the preacher Pak Siregar, and had a lovely discussion that started with Joseph Smith, and evolved into how prophets were only before Christ, and after Him there's only apostles, and how the Bible says that John the Baptist is the last prophet....it was quite enjoyable. haha. altho at the time i didn't have an answer for why there are only apostles mentioned after Christ, i now know that there are several instances in Acts especially where prophets are mentioned, and for the first time realized the true meaning of an apostle as a "witness that Christ lives" - ya, g'der there's no apostles before Christ cuz he hadn't been born or resurrected yet. and no...there is no verse in the bible anywhere that says John is the last prophet. and yes, i gave him Mormon 9:7-15 as his homework. we were supposed to meet yesterday, but when we went there, he'd just left for some service thing that had just come up, so we met with his wife instead...poor thing has so many problems right now, and she just spilled a whole bunch of them out to us. BUT, she always hears answers to her problems spoken of thru the Bible from her husband, so she wasn't too excited to hear any of our scriptures, but we tried. i had us all pray kneeling together, so maybe that'll help...we'll see.

sunday was awesome...basically, we showed up to Ibu Dina's house, only to find that she had a reception to go to, and they'd tried calling earlier, but we were at church...so while ibu dina and her 2 granddaughters went to the reception, we stayed and talked to Pak Budi...and sis bajodo was totally key in with the spirit, and read a scripture about prayer, which then opened Budi up to explain why he doesn't pray anymore, and we tried to help him see the blessings that START when we pray, and hopefully we helped him. i gave him Alma 32 as his HW, and when i checked up on him yesterday, he'd already read it (which is HUGE), so next week i'm hoping to hear his thoughts and feelings on faith as well as prayer.

the choir sounded awesome on Sunday! i think pres santoso asked a few members to join, cuz we had a 5 more people there than usual, and they made a HUGE difference...the quality and unity exploded, and the notes are FINALLY starting to be where they're supposed to be. Heavenly Father has answered a whole lot of prayers of mine (and i'm sure others) for that to happen.

monday we met with a referral from Temple Square, and she was pretty cool...she's muslim, and basically just wants to know what sets us apart from other churches, even though she doesn't know too much about other churches...but she said all she knows about Mormons are that she's rarely met a Mormon who wasn't a good person, and that the Osmonds were mormons (she said Marie Osmond's kid committed suicide? kasihan sekali...). she went to english class at the church for 3 years while she was in high school over 30 years ago, and when she visited her friend in bountiful in july, her interest in why we "think we're the best" of all churches came up again...so we'll see if we can meet again, and i was thinking sharing the Plan of Salvation with her. she's single, and not too prone to families...but if the Spirit touches, He'll do miracles.

i don't have much else to say....we have zone conference next week, and i'm BEYOND excited to meet with other missionaries, especially bules. a nice, normal conversation in english would be greatly appreciated really soon. anyways...thanks for all the support and love, i miss and love you all~
~Sister Sara

Satu minggu lagi di firdaus‏

and another week comes and goes :) so Lebaran was great...apparently it's where you go to somebody's house and eat and talk all day. there were other people who brought food over, so i think it's a bit like Christmas, but without the presents. it was fun tho, we went to Sis anas's house, and i found out that 3 people who i thought were all separate families are actually the same family...2 sisters (with a different dad....ya no wonder i didn't know!) and their mom. haha. i felt really retarded after i looked at the photo album, but it was also funny...haha. the food was good, and in bandung especially ive been trying to get a little more used to the spices they use here...and slowly but surely, it's working. i doubt i'll come home a "spicy food lover," but at least i'll be able to eat spices without feeling like my tongue is gonna fall off.

saturday we went to an inactive 10-yr-olds house...whose parents are both non-members. when i heard about san-san, i was surprised to hear someone would let their child get baptized into a church without being a member first, and i'm still really surprised by it,but it's kinda cool. apparently the whole family was learning about the church about 2 years back, and they loved everything the missionaries taught...but they don't "cocok" with the members here (don't fit well...), so when the missionaries asked if San2 wanted to be baptized and he said yes, they were ok with it (the dad told us he still likes to read the BofM, and was happy to get the new improved edition). but after he got baptized, they got sick of the members and it's been a good...year maybe since they've been to church. and they live far, so there's no way san2 can come by himself, so i guess the missionaries go to stay in contact and help san2 remember what he learned with the missionaries before. the parents are really nice, but the dad is batak,and if they like something, they like it, if not....ya, they don't, and that won't change. so we'll see. but interesting story...

sunday we didn't meet with Ibu Dina cuz apparently where she lives is the center point for all the towns around bandung, and one of the members didn't get home until 4 hours after church (usually only 1 hour) because of traffic in that area. so we called and said we'd try for next week. mom, i've been waiting to find someone good to give this testimony from Wes Ridd to, and i'm gonna give it to Ibu Dina this week...and i wanna send a pic, but when they sent the letter they didn't write the return address, so please send me julie's address? thanks! last week we went to help at her warung, and i felt so bad...we got there at noon, but apparently the busy time is in the morning, and so ibu dina had been there by herself all day, and by the time we got there pak budi was coming to switch her...so we washed a few dishes and helped with the one guy that came,but that was it. i just can't wait to meet again this week...she's such a cool lady.

the choir is...coming...along...haha. nah, they're good, but with so few people, and especially inexperienced people, it's a little hard. but we'll keep trying, and hopefully it'll be ready in a month and a half.

sis groberg called this morning (i love the groberg's....they're so awesome, and especially sis groberg is SOOO involved, it's nice to have her if we need anything), and we talked about a few different things going on here in bandung with the work, and i mentioned to her that i wanted to put together a halloween party, and we talked about a few different ideas, and i think i'm gonna go for it. but mom, i need ideas! for food, for games, for everything. i wanna make this something that EVERYONE can come to, and not feel pressured at all with religion. we can invite all our investigators, and the members can invite all their friends to come. just fun and games and food. so now i just gotta get jo excited about it,and we'll be set :) the ideas i have for games are donut eating contest, cake walk, apple dunking, beanbag toss, and a big cardboard picture thing (frankenstein, dracula, etc) where people can put their heads and we can take pictures. we certainly can't do everything, but i'd like to get the best ideas and run with them. it could be really fun!

anywho...that's about my week. we really haven't done a whole lot this week, with rain and stuff, so i just keep plugging along :) thought for this week is... Does God change? ever? no, he's the same. ALWAYS AND FOREVER. and i found the best answer for that question in Mormon 9:7-15. its so true....he is the same, and anyone who preaches differently DOESN'T understand the scriptures. so read the scriptures and figure out for yourself if God changes, or if this truly is the restored gospel brought to this earth again... for the last time, nonetheless. just some food for thought :)

and thats that....thanks for all the support and love and prayers and everything else! i love you all and pray for you. hopefully all is well, and everyone is enjoying the fall time. i am :) it's just like fall here with the rain, and i wear jackets and sweats whenever i'm home :) i love sweats....anywho....loves~

~Sister Sara