hee hee....ia, saya pasti agak TRUNKY sekarang.... :P

well...i don't have much time cuz i took it all making sure we're set for next week, but in short, this last week has been pretty good.... we had goals as a district, and last week i said i was sick of us having goals but then never really trying to accomplish them, so this week if we all reached them, i'd take us out for lunch....i can honestly say that we all worked a lot harder this week, and we all reached the goals, and so friday we're going out to eat as a district. YAY!!! we had to get 2 new investigators, 2 lessons with a member, and find a new place or way to proselyte. it was good.

sister indira or effendi has been SOOO great this last week...i see a whole new light in her now that's she's decided to come back to church. she came on sunday, sat with the members, then after church hung around with them and ate lunch together....she's also been trying to help her family get more involved, inviting them to different activities and coming herself (she came to english class on thursday with her youngest son who came to my elementary class). she's so awesome....i seriously have come to love her SOOO much, and wish i could stay here as a regular member just to help her stay strong...but i guess i'll hafta do that from afar.

one of our new investigators was yesterday, and woman and her husband (who actually just happened to come home when we were talking about joseph smith). we had a nice (haha....) conversation about prophets, and the husband agreed to read the book, and decide for himself if the "fruits" of joseph smith prove him to be a prophet of God or not. with so many of our investigators, they don't go anywhere with the gospel (the interest level just IS NOT there...), but i love them all, and they love me too...which makes it hard when i wanna talk about the gospel, and they switch right back to obama....ya. i'm pretty sick of obama. but that's what's hard about leaving... i feel like all i've given them is a few minutes to talk to a bule....but what they really need is KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE RESTORED GOSPEL!!! ya...mom and dad, you'll see what i mean later.

we FINALLY met with vivi again, and i have some worries with her...not exactly with her testimony, just with how things are at home. i know it's hard for her to live with her mother-in-law, and that sometimes makes it hard for her to really want to focus on learning (she wants to learn for herself, not her m-i-l). but mom n dad, you'll meet her yourselves too. her stomach looks like kel's :)

bro paulus was a bit of joke last week. we had a member come with us to discuss the WofW, but as soon as we started talking about it, he came up with all kinds of reasons why that WASN'T something that jesus REQUIRED from us. it was a super hard lesson, especially cuz my comp "lost the spirit" and refused to say anything the whole time, so it was just me trying to help him. i dunno how much longer missionaries can work with him if he has an attitude like that...which i plan on telling him this week.

saturday is homemaking, and i'm gonna teach how to make caramel :) hopefully it goes well. sunday, i'm "allowed" to go to sacrament, but then i hafta go straight to the airport to go to jakarta....and that's that. tuesday you'll be here, and this dream of mine for the last 1 1/2 years will be over....the dream i NEVER thought i'd dream. so many friends, so many experiences, so much joy, so much pain, so much growth....so much a better person. how does God do it? we think this time we give to Him is so much, but by the end, we're the ones begging for more time, for more growth....because we haven't quite become the person we want to ... there's still so much more growth needed! and yet...when all is said and done, we are what we have become, we are what we have allowed Him to shape us to become....and then the real test starts. the test of, "can you keep this up in the REAL world, where you DON'T wear a nametag and carry around the white handbook and have someone checking on your every move?" i remember elder holland talking in the MTC, pounding on the pulpit and into my heart that "YOU CANNOT COME HOME THE SAME PERSON YOU LEFT! IF YOU DO, THEN YOUR MISSION HAS FAILED!" well...i'm not the same person, so i guess that means my mission has been a success. i'm so grateful for it. for anyone pushing aside this opportunity, DON'T. it will be the best decision you'll ever make. there is nothing that will compare to the time you give to the Lord, there is nothing that will compare to the blessings you recieve, and there is NOTHING that will compare to joy you feel. SERVE THE LORD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, MIGHT, MIND AND STRENGTH, AND YOU WILL COME OFF CONQUORER! (is that a scripture? i know the first part is, but i think i made up the last part.... :P).

and that's that. peace out my friends and family.... i'll be seeing ya'll soon. dalam nama Yesus Kristus, AMIN!

~Sister Sara Hewlett
Indonesia Jakarta Mission, 2009-2011

astajin! waktunya hampir habis...

another week has come and gone...and holy crap, time really is just totally flying here. i have moments where i get all trunky and ready to go home asap, but then i meet with investigators or inactive members, and i think, "how can i leave you?" i also went shopping today, and again thought, "how can i leave this place? the prices are just TOO good!" haha...as long as i have an american wage coming into my bank account :P it's been a bit of a roller coaster week.
so i'm really realizing how many problems this world creates for members of the church...well, for people in general, but because of the knowledge we have, i think it means a LOT more to us....ok...so the wording in this is kinda awkward, but hopefully you know what i mean. last week we visited one member whose son dropped out of college and just sits at home all day until his gf calls and picks him up, and he lives off her, and the mom is so stressed cuz they can hardly afford food much less their rent....and yet she has a perfectly capable son who is too lazy to work. her and her husband work hard, but they are VERY humble people, and if you would add in a 3rd income, it would help them a ton. so she was crying about that while we were there, and my heart just broke for her...i wanted to help, but how do you change someone who doesn't wanna be changed? you can't. so we just tried to help her the best we knew how....
then there's another member whose son has ditched school for the last 20 days....each of those days, she thought he was at school, cuz he'd leave for school in his school uniform, then come home around the usual time, and she had no idea til the principal called and started telling erik (the son) that if he kept up like this, he was a shame to Christianity, which made sis Indira just cry harder...now i'm working with him, trying to catch up on his english and math that he's missed so he can graduate his grade this year...and all because he was ashamed (holy crap my english is so bad...its malu in indonesian, but it has so dang many meanings in english i forget which one is best here!) because he didn't have books, but he was too shy to ask his mom for money to buy the books....but now it's all out in the open, and i think it's actually been good cuz it's really waken up his mom, who isn't active, and now she's decided to come back to church. she sent me a text this morning about how she usually wakes up and cooks breakfast and is just go-go-go all morning long, but this morning she woke up, prayed, felt really peaceful, then read from the scriptures which only helped, and then when her husband was getting ready to go to work, she asked him if he wanted to pray first, and he actually wanted to! so they prayed together for the first time in a LONG time. i got her text, and i literally screamed a little, and threw the phone to sari, saying READ IT, READ IT! haha. i was SOOO happy when i heard that. she's been away from the Lord for too long, and now her kids are getting to the age where she's REALLY gonna feel that. and she knows it. so now she's working to change it.
then ANOTHER inactive member has 5 kids under the age of 15, and we went to her house and SHE started crying because she gets no help from them, and she's basically a single mother (her husband is on another island working, and rarely gets time off to come home) with her own bread business that keeps her cooking and delivering ALL day, then she has to pick up and drop off her kids, and she was just EXHAUSTED. i felt so bad. her 2 oldest kids don't have the best of friends, and she never believes anything they say, she tries to help them but she says its just gotten to the point that she's better off not thinking at all, cuz if she thinks she just worries and then she can't take care of the younger 3....ugh. it's just a tough situation, with no help.
so then, the other day we were talking about the members in the branch, and how if they would help visit inactives, show they care, have a little Christlike love, a lot of our problems and worries as missionaries wouldn't be there cuz the members would take care of it. but they don't do ANY visits, so we have to deal with everything, and it's just ridiculous. this week, i actually wanna meet with the branch presidency and district president to discuss how to help us as missionaries....we spend so much time visiting inactives that go no where that sometimes it all just feels like it's for nothing. even if they do come to church once, they don't have any members that befriend them, so then they don't wanna come again. it's just....ya, a sad situation.
bro paulus was in charge of the activity for the priesthood quorum yesterday, and that just added to my frustration with the branch... he had a few people come and talk to him, but for the most part it was me and sari. THEN, before all the food was ready to go, everyone left to go play soccer....literally, EVERYONE, without any explanation. and we were all left wondering what was going on, and i don't think he was too impressed with it at all. not to mention that the new members (bro jon and sis pegi from sis rhondeau) were with the missionaries the whole time as well, cuz they have no friends in the branch either. it's just hard...no one even really TRIES to talk to anyone they don't know. i understand how they feel, but...at the same time, TALK! sometimes i think about getting a Temple here, and i think, if the work keeps going like this, it's NEVER gonna happen. anyone who joins immediately goes inactive, and then what? no progression. so ya...sorry, i've been pretty worked up about this the last few days.
we did get a new investigator this week who seems pretty cool. we're meeting again saturday. i told sari i think that was the best first lesson i'd ever been apart of. it was pretty good, and he had a lot of really good questions. hopefully he keeps the interest :)
anywho...this week i've been reading about Moses in the Old Testament, and it's funny how i've seen all the movies and stuff, but never actually read it all...it comes together a lot better if you read it :)
and that's my week...i love you all so much! ben, clean my car for me...and my room....and make sure my phone is still in good condition. cuz baby.....you're only getting one more email from me :P haha, loves!~
~Sister Sara

waktunya GILA!!! hampir sampai....

holy crap, another week has come and gone...and yet klapten feels like a month ago, haha. we went to klapten, which is in between solo and jogja, and sis sari got to be with her family, even though her immediate family had all already gone home. i think it was good for her, and especially good for her family to see her, to meet me,and to get a TINY feel for what she's doing. she doesn't say much to them,mostly cuz they just don't care and don't really listen, so it was kinda weird for me...oh, and btw, I'M SO GRATEFUL TO HAVE A FUNCTIONAL FAMILY AND TO BE SEALED IN THE TEMPLE AND HAVE THE BLESSINGS OF THE GOSPEL IN OUR FAMILY! her family is seriously...quite disfunctional. it's pretty ridiculous. there's absolutely no spiritual foundation, which makes it hard for anything else to become a foundation thats good....cuz there is nothing. but it was good for me to get a feel for her life, and why she is the way she is.

this week has been a lot of cancelled appointments, and mostly dealing with members and their problems (loneliness, school, money, etc)...i'm not gonna lie, it's been a bit of a headache since we got back last saturday....but yesterday we did find a potential investigator, and have an appointment to go back to teach (we accidently met (long story for later), and actually wanted to teach yesterday, but the dad wasn't there, so i opted to wait til he'd be there...but then we were gettin ready to go, he showed up and wanted to know what we had to share with them...it was pretty awesome, but time was a huge problem so we made the return appointment).

mom was asking about the investigators from a few weeks back...2 of them have a mom in hong kong who joined, and they're willing to meet and listen,but it's hard to get them to read....and last week they couldn't meet. another couple looked really awesome in the beginning,but now i feel like they're avoiding us...so we'll see what happens (the wife already told us she'd heard rumors about "the mormons")...the other couple was who we wanted to meet with yesterday, but then ended up with their neighbors (the "accidents" above), and the other lady is super far, and we've tried meeting once but she couldn't, and since we just haven't had the time. we've also been meeting with this one lady who's husband died just a few months ago, but she's muslim and doesn't understand ANYTHING, and so it's just super hard to get anything across....and i also feel like she just wants to meet cuz i'ma bule...so that doesn't help much. we've basically just gotta keep finding people....we're on a bit of a dryspell these last few weeks being outta town, but this week we've gotten a few good leads, so i'm hoping next week will especially pick up.

so what have i learned this week? saya punya keras kepala, dan terlalu keras atau diam dengan orang lain sampai mereka marah sama saya. ugh...kampret. haha. translate that :P ya, basically things are getting harder and harder to focus on...i'm really starting to understand the word "trunky" but i'm still working on being focused...it's just hard with other people kinda pushing me to want to go home faster. lol. no worries,nothing huge, just....ya, that feeling of being ready. and yet i still have a few weeks. connie wrote about this feeling...where you feel guilty cuz you wanna go home so bad,but you know you should still wanna serve....haha, at least i have her and megan's experiences so i know i'm not alone. but i just hafta humble myself, and stay focused. that's what i gotta do.....so that's what i'm gonna do.

anywho, thanks for everything, i love you all, i hope all is well, i pray for you all every day,and know that the Lord will protect you! be safe, loves~
~Sister Sara

ps sorry dad.... i sent the letter but forgot to write, happy bday!

ini akan agak pendek...

uh, k, so this is gonna be super short...sorry mom, i'm not even gonna have time to return your email. sis sari just came over to me bawling as i was reading everyone's emails, and apparently her grandpa (who was basically her father) died last week while we were in Solo...and she lives about an hour from solo, so she's a bit upset, and got permission from Pres to go home...so she's lettin me email ya'll real quick, and then we'll be heading there...that'll be a fun nightime trip :P haha, jk, but really, i feel bad....she hasn't had the easiest family life, which is why i think she likes this church so much, and i know this is a huge blow for her.
but, to put things in for this week...solo was nice, i REALLY liked riding bikes, but it's not where i'm at, so it's just like whateverlah. we got home friday, and friday night i played ball, came home exhausted and forgot to take my contacts out, and the next morning my left eye was KILLING me, and pres thinks i scratched something...so i took some pills for that, have worn glasses every day since, and it's getting better every day. DON'T WORRY MOM!!! i still have both eyes, and i can still see outta both of them just as crappy as before :P lets just say i can't wait to start wearing contacts again.
last night was practice again, but i didn't wanna play without contacts, so we just went to watch...but they ended up doing some dancing thing for their warmup, and so i have video of me learning out to hiphop dance in a dress during basketball practice....ask amy if that would EVER fly in utah? lol...i think not, but i AM in indo, so whateverlah.
there's not much else to talk about...not much time either. i'm trying to be a good comp and not take too much time...so sorry, i love you all so much, and hope all is well at home! loves~
~Sister Sara

ps kel, i'll start looking around for those lantern things....i liked them loads too, she had them hanging in our house til the night before she left, then she took them. loves!