Well...I'd written half my e-mail, and then my computer died...so you're only getting a REALLY short email this week,
maaf, ya?
So Christmas was good, i wrote all about it, but now you just get that we went bowling, ate dinner, watched "The Nativity Story" which I loved, and then Santa came while we did a white elephant. It was fun. I loved all my presents (
Kel, I got your package yesterday...THANKS SO MUCH! I LOVED IT ALL!! you are too cute...the album is adorable, and everything was just awesome. But all the cards were opened, the package itself was basically left open, so PLEASE make sure you guys don't put anything valuable in these packages,
cuz they even checked the cards to see if there was money. Also...Mom, for my June
package,
Kel sent me some foot
nylons, and I know I'm gonna need some more good ones by then, so the ones at Ross are the ones I got and I LOVE them, so send those? Thanks!) Yes I cried when I opened the calendar, I loved it totally and completely! Pres. even said he was gonna take it away if it drew me away from the work when he heard I'd been bawling in his kitchen when I opened it...but I told him it would only push me to be better :P so that was fun.
Yesterday, Sis Lie and I taught our first REAL lesson by ourselves, anything and everything that
could've gone wrong basically did... we forgot loads, we didn't answer all their questions prob in the way that missionaries more
experienced would've, the first vision was AWFUL and ya...but somehow, the Spirit helped us to still get the message across about how important this work is, and the FAMILY (yes, FAMILY...a mom, dad, and 2 teenage girls all sat in on the lesson) loved Joseph Smith, loved the
BofM, and just..oh man. they'd be GREAT members! Hopefully they come to church on Sunday, and hopefully things go well with them. But believe me when I say...I KNOW the Lord makes up for things we can't do when we do all we can with our abilities.
Cuz that lesson
should've been a
totally wreck, but it somehow turned out in the end. It was awesome!
Monday, Sis and I
went the day helping
Florentina with her English books. They're AWFUL, so we were helping her make them more correct. She has this long story at the end
absolutely NOTHINg. She said she got it off the
internet, and I believe it...maybe it's a really good story in
INdonesia, but in English it just doesn't make sense at all. But
whatevs,
anywho, while we did that, Sis
Mongan and Lie went and visited her family outside of
Jarkata. She L
ie is trying to help her family
have a desire to
learn about the church, so I thought at was pretty cool. A good opportunity for
her to
bless her family a
little bit more personally while she serves the Lord.
INDRI IS BACK! She's had a bit of a rough go. She was in S.C. for a month, said sh loved her ward, they accepted her and
became her instant
family (I love this church!), but something happened where the immigration office or whoever told her she needed to come
back to
Indo for 2
weeks, and then she'd be good for the rest of her schooling. So she was
on her way to church on
Sunday, and her wallet, with $300 in it, got stolen. And its just gone downhill
from here. Its just such an awful situation. the guy basically just wants more money, and
sho she's been tyring to get the police to take
Care of him...
Hopefully tomorrow that happens. I feel bad for her. We've already met twice this week,
cuz she wants to learn, but we've been focusing on
strengthening her thru this experience.
Sulit sekali!
For
pday today, we
went to one of the
elder's investigator's house and played basketball and soccer. It was AWES
OME! First time I've really gotten to play since I got her. And May...I have a feeling my confidence in my
ballin' skills is gonna be super high when I come home
cuz I'lol have played against
Indos for 16 months, and then I'm gonna get home and
hafta start from ground zero. Ugh. But ya...
thats my way of saying that
bball isn't really a
sport that
the Indos hafe mastered
over here.
haha. But it was tons of fun, and I was lad we went. So I tried to talk to Pres. about somehow using
bball as a way to
meet new people, but he thinks we need to focus on English classes (getting into colleges and high schools to teach.
Cuz..ya know, we're all SUCH experienced teachers in the
english language). I dunno what else to do. I've actually started asking people
fromt the English branch to let me know if they know of any service that we can help with,
cuz there is NOTHING that I can find otherwise.
Anywho..any ideas you have would be great!
Ah! I almost forgot! So I gave my first talk on Sunday, in Indonesian.
lol. It was great. I read the entire thing, which I HATE when other people do, but I figured that was better than me having to
figure out how to translate when I hadn't
prepared before that. Hopefully it went
ok. I had sis
mongan help me with some of it, but I really did translate the whole thing myself...and there weren't too many mistakes when I
Read it to the other sisters. So that made me feel good. The language is coming. SLOWLY. but it's coming.
Alright, well I best be off..my time is up. I love you all! Thanks
again fort he love and support. I know I'm her for the best reasons possible, and I'm so grateful to have the
support I have,
cuz I
dunno how I'd be able to do this without that. You're wonderful! The church truly is headed by Christ, and I'm SO grateful to help
in the spreading of it to all nations,
kindreds, tongues, and people! Loves!
-Sister Sara
Sis Mongan and I in traffic-possibly one of the worst nights ever. Traffic was so bad, we didn't talk to anyone and I was just in an awful modd-and yet it was still somehow fun :)
Ulang Tahun! Me in a Bajai in Jakarta. They're like mini taxis and they feel GREAT at night with the cool air.
So Sis. Rhandeau saw this advertisement at the Grand Indonesia, and I FREAKED! And this pic just happened to turn out better than I ever would've thought--Don't you love it? I feel like nothing expresses my feelings more than this :)
Pday at Grand Indonesia--it's a huge mall with a level with NYC/Ching/India styled everything. The bathrooms are pretty cool and I have the water/light show on my camera. This the Inda-styled part.
Haha. I get hot sometimes. This was like my 2nd day here :)
This is at Bishop McMullin's fireside with Jean's friend.
Sis. Rhandeau and I with Indri--Love her!
Service project my first Saturday here-These are all the sisters when I frist got here but Sis. Sumarno and Atmi were transferred the next Tuesday. 11/7/09
Me with Pres and Sister Marchant--First full day in Indo (Nov 5, 2009)