Pictures...

OMIGOSH!! It's Elder Ulrich!!

Fancy meeting him in Singapore...

What're the chances?

The girls at the beach in Singapore. I'm next to the 2 sisters I was in the MTC with

Zone trip to the beach--The whole missionary force in West Java
Ice skating-Elder Schmidtlein's head got cut off, but this picture is more clear than the other one I have. It was HILARIOUS watchaing the INdos try to ice skate--I had fun :)

This is me shaking hands with Elder Nelson. Feb 26, 2010

Here is my proof that the people here are OBSESSED with bules. The best is the girl in blue sweats wtih white shirt-Yes, I am basically a celebrity here. Only cuz I'm white. These kids were just STARINg at me and talking to themselve, so I went over and started shaking hands and talking with them and they were SO excited. Then the parents wanted a turn and ya, it was almost a most pit, thigs get so crazy :)

This is me with the Millecam's.

A HUGE prayingmantis . Remember the frog in Peru that peed on me after I took a picture like this with him? Well, this bugger FLEW AT MY FACE! I think my heart literally skipped a good 30 betas, it surprised me so bad!

Let the fun begin...‏

well, we got the news today, and it looks like things are really gonna start changing around here...sis is heading to Solo, while Sis Mongan's cousin is coming here. this is the first of many transfers in the next few months, i'm positive. but, this at least helps me know that i now have a 90% chance of being transferred to Malang...which would be awesome, cuz it's cooler there, so summertime there i'm sure is gonna be enak! but, really, i'm the only bule now that hasn't been moved in the last week. i think pres is gonna wait until at least after the fireside that we have planned for next weekend, but...nothing is sure, so we'll only see what happens. sis is pretty upset...they have 2 baptisms planned for next week (we have conference this weekend), and, well, this is the only place we know, so ya. she's not too happy. i'm pretty sad, too...we've never been separated! sis mongan is upset too, cuz she's gonna be with sodjo and her cousin now... sodjo, who is odd and selfish, and her cousin who is about the same from what i've heard. poor thing...we were talking earlier, and she was saying that she just wants to enjoy the end of her mission, but this is gonna a rough way to do that (she's got 3 weeks left...crazy!) also, i just figured something else out...i'm gonna be the only bule in the entire house. so the good news for me is that my language had BETTER improve even faster!

this week has been really good. sis and sis lie were both sick last week, so me and mongan spent friday and saturday basically together the whole time. we visited chern on friday, and WOW. so there were 2 really big things that happened...one, she doesn't understand what a testimony is, and so i tried to explain it, but...well, it's super hard (i found 3 general conference talks for her to read that help explain since then tho...so hopefully that'll help too). but, we discussed it, and we'll keep going over it, and help her see that she really does have one. the other awesome thing was that she was talking about POSSIBLE BAPTISM DATES!!!! however, she wants it just a year before they plan to go to the temple, and her and bro hunter have quite a few disagreements about the weather. she hates cold, but he wants to go New Zealand in the winter for their anniversary. so...ya, we'll see what we can do there. but she's REALLY searching for a baptism date! woohoo!

we got a new investigator last week (valen), and she's really great, but she likes to buy us food. like...A LOT of food. haha. hopefully i don't come home fat just cuz of her...ya ampun! she reads everything that we give her, and has a desire to learn about the church. however, she didn't come to church on sunday cuz it was easter, and she wanted to spend it with her family (which i understand), but the plan is that she'll come to church on sunday, and then we'll teach her after that. so we'll keep moving forward with her!

we watched the restoration with Raz on monday, and she is so cute. she's 21, and really interested in religions and beliefs...and she's quite fascinated with ours, so we're trying to answer all her questions and help her find her testimony. she had this great question about grace and mercy, and how the bible explains that that's all we really need in this life, and if we believed that...so i searched for scriptures, and checked out the bible dictionary, and when she read from the bible dictionary and we discussed it a bit, she suddenly goes, "oooooh...penerangan!" i had no idea what that meant, but i knew it was good...it's like where something just clicks, and it finally makes sense to you. so yay! she said that helped her a lot, and we explained that it's only after all we can do (2 nephi 25:13 i think? it's at least in the chapter...) that the Atonement comes in and takes over so we can return to the presence of God again. she doesn't say a ton when we teach, but when she does, it's always something really intellectual and deep. she's fun, and i'm enjoying teaching her.

we went and got our kitas' renewed yesterday...so i'm good for another year, and don't have (or get?...) to take any more trips outside the country. to answer your question, mom, normally missionaries don't hafta leave the country, they just renew their visas here, but i guess when SL headquarters was doing our paperwork, with just our group they signed us up as extended traveling tourists, and since we were just tourists, we had to leave the country. so...haha, that's just one of the blessings i've gotten to experience because i came here 2 months later than expected. haha...sis rhondea was SOOO jealous. haha, i only laughed.

anywho, while we were at senopati waiting to go to immigration, we got a phone call from the other sisters that sis linda's baby had died that morning...the poor thing had just been born a month ago, but the family is in VERY humble circumstances, to say that least, and linda is a single mother, so...God knows what he's doing. however, the coolest thing is that the baby got her blessing just the day before by the branch president, where he blessed her to be taught the fullness of the gospel by her parents...among other things that were FANTASTIC, but a little odd for the circumstances that poor baby was born into (i only understood/could hear a few things, but i specifically remember hearing the word "parents" and thinking how odd that was, since there's just linda - but one of the sisters in the ward explained it to us while we were at senopati). that's just one more testament to me that the Priesthood is real, and that God knows what he's doing - even when we ourselves are confused by things we say or do, but in the end it's all for the good of His work.

and, well, that's about the basis of my week this week. well, besides the one guy who wanted to marry me (i told him i had a bf in america...i think i might need to start carrying a pic of me with ben or carter everywhere i go...got any at home? that'd help me a bit with some of these guys....haha. harmless, but they really are serious...), one of the elders losing his ring that his mom had given him today at the indoor soccer place we played at (which we spent at least an hour searching before i finally told sis mongan we needed to pray, so she got everyone together, we prayed, and then about another 20 minutes later we finally found the ring..YAY FOR PRAYER!!!), and best of all the man on his phone standing next to me in line telling his friend that i was as tall as a monster (words of sister lie...i didn't know what he was saying, but she told me he called me a monster...i actually found out later that the word actually means GIANT, which is a little bit more fitting, but i still think monster was funnier...we got a good laugh outta that).

i hope you guys enjoyed your trip, conference, and easter! we have conference this weekend, and hopefully we get to watch it all. saturday is for sure gonna be completely in indonesian, but sunday is all english, so i'm looking forward to the insights that i'll get from that. let me know which ones you liked the best! I LOVE CONFERENCE! anywho, i love you all and hope everything is good at home...i love ya! loves,

~Sister Sara

ps when does grandma leave for her trip to scotland? i got a letter from her that she hadn't left yet...

Back home!

Well, i'm back in indonesia, and i LOVE it! haha. i missed all the happy and nice faces all over the place. i might've even missed the creepy guys who spend all their time on the side of the street...well, maybe not really, but i am happy to be back :)

as it ended up, sis and i spent the rest of our time in singapore checking out the sites on our own. we tried talking to as many people as we could, but we didn't focus so much on making that our focus like we had on Tuesday. it was fun, we got to see a lot, and people were a lot more open to listening to us when we weren't stalking them, trying to get their phone numbers. i also got a few new shirts, and i wore my chinese one to church on sunday, and the indos FLIPPED, they thought it was totally awesome that a bule was wearing that here (indos wear chinese clothes fairly often here, but rarely do bules). and yes, i also got a few things for you all...i might just send it home by ship in the next few weeks. we'll see...elder subandriyo had already left before i got home, so i didn't get a chance to send anything home with him, but oh well. as is life. some fun things sis and i did in singapore were: Chinatown, Little India (chinatown indian style - where we actually found the coolest lady...we referred her to the office, but she got SO excited when we mentioned that we believe we have a prophet on the earth today - hopefully something comes from that!), and we also got pics with the merlion and rode the huge singapore flyer (biggest carousal in the world...i dunno if that's the name you'd use for it, but it's a bigger version but the same idea as the London Flyer). so ya...we had some fun :) and altho i felt like a bit of an apostate missionary by the end, it's made me work even harder since i've been back.

oh, and funny story...so when we were in the airport in jakarta waiting to get out, the guy behind us was a bule, so i started talking to him, and he was an italian teacher. so, we talked for a bit (the elders helped me out while sis moved to another line...she must've seen what was coming before i did), and after we all got thru the line, we were waiting for sis, and the guy came over to say goodbye - so he shook the elders hands, then shook my hand, and then pulled me in for a cheek to cheek touching thing that they do here, and apparently in italy too....AHH! i seriously had no idea what to do, it happened so dang fast! and of course the rest of the time we're in the airport, elder hall is going off about how i'm going to be sent home, and la la la, but seriously - i've always wanted to go to italy, but THAT was awkward. i hope all italian people aren't like that. ugh.

Saturday was an awesome day to come back to... we had 2 appointments, and one of them was a girl who started talking to me in the busway a few weeks ago, and we've already met with her twice since then, and we have another appointment for next week. she really likes to learn about other religions, but doesn't really have a set religion for herself - however, i think she's pretty fascinated with our church, so hopefully we can continue helping her. she has a few questions - and not just the usual questions, but GOOD questions, like the one from yesterday was about grace and mercy, and if we have grace and mercy, what does it matter what we do in this life? she KNOWS there's more to it, but i think she's just trying to see what we think about that. so i've been doing a bit of scripture searching this morning, and i'm ready to answer her FAR better than i did yesterday (i just stumbled over my words - i hate it when i don't have scriptures to back me up!). but, i also hafta wait until next monday :( but oh well, i'm excited for it, and to see where things go with her. the biggest problem right now with Raz is that she lives so far away - about an hour or two from the church by busway if there isn't any traffic. so we'll see how we can help that...

we also met with ibu edi and her family again, and discussed Joseph Smith a bit more. we wanted to watch the Restoration, but their DVD player is broken, so that didn't work out so well. they're such a good family, and certainly good friends, but right now i'm a bit frustrated with their progress (cuz there is none really). they like to learn about what we believe, but there really isn't any desire to join our church, i think. so we might be dropping them here pretty soon...which is sad, cuz they really are good friends that are REALLY good people.

sunday, cherie came to church! so i taught her gospel principles, but we aren't meeting this week cuz they have their spring break, and her family is here from the Phillipines, so we'll try to set up an appointment for next week. we also had one of the elder's contacts randomly show up to church on sunday, and we have an appointment with her today. she also lives really far away, so we'll see what happens there, but if she came one week simply after only meeting a missionary, hopefully she'll keep coming!

we tried something different on sunday for our tracting...we walked thru OUR neighborhood. i talked to pres marchant last week, and he says we have too many people who live far away from the church, and he wants us to really start focusing more on getting to know people in the area around the church. so i started with our neighborhood, which was REALLY fun to get to know the people better that i see pretty often. i'm just sad to say that it's taken me 5 months and the idea from my mission president to do. we didn't contact anybody, but we did put out there that we're missionaries, and that we're here if anyone needs anything.

monday, we went with the millecams to visit 2 families in the branch that are a little less well off - one of the ladies is a single mom with 6 kids (one a brand new baby), and so they brought food with them. it was a quick trip for the Millecams, but we stayed after they left and shared a message with one, and i helped write a letter in english for the other. so it was productive. then we met with a referral (Siska) from one of the primary kids in our branch (Krisma. they're friends, and Siska has been coming with Krisma to church the last few weeks). i think i told you in my last email that we got permission (almost begging) from Siska's mom to start teaching her, and so we started really simply with God is our Heavenly Father, and your family is important. we then gave her a picture BofM, and read about the stripling warriors with her. she's 10, and she's REALLY smart, but i'm still afraid that the scriptures are a little bit over her head, so we gave her the first 4 stories in the picture BofM to read before we meet again next week. she seems really excited about learning, and once we get her sitting down (she is a VERY active child), she's really on top of things. her mom and older sister also have a lot of questions for us, and although they haven't sat in on our lessons yet (well, lesson...), hopefully they'll start soon, and they can learn right along with Siska. we already gave her sister her own BofM to start reading from, so hopefully she starts and has even more questions next week.

the rest of the week has been pretty quiet. sis lie is sick (from the AC i think in our room - we've been having a bit of a problem with someone liking the room WAY too cold, and now people are getting sick, people's tempers are flying a bit, and life is great! haha...we've found that if we just leave that one person alone, the rest of us can still have fun together, and it's no problem whatsoever :), so yesterday we only met with Raz, and today we're just going to senopati to try and figure out what we wanna do for this fireside in a few weeks, and then we're meeting with Valen after that. and for the rest of the week, i don't wanna start making appointments if sis lie is still sick...so we'll see what happens. but things are good, and i'm loving life in Jakarta again! i'm SOOOO happy to be back here! thanks for all your love and support, i miss you all so much (i even had a tiny bout of homesickness the other day...yes i still get that every once in a while - but it's gone now, so no worries)! LOVES!~Sister Saraoh, real quick, i guess there were MAJOR changes before we got back with the bule sisters getting moved - out of the 7 of us, only 3 of us are still in the same area, and yes that includes me and sis. so...sis and i still hafta get our kitas before we can leave the city, but after that, everything is up in the air. sis mongan goes home this time next month, and sis, me and lie have all been in jakarta long enough that all of us could get moved, altho that'd be stupid after how much success we're finally starting to have here - but yes, we'll see what happens in the next month. i think i'm at least here until after this fireside, since i AM in charge of it, but who really knows. everything in this mission is NEVER sure. but i'm happy where i am now, and that's what's really important :) LOVES!
Sister Sara

The "Fine" City‏

Well, it's official...i'm here in Singapore writing you all :) as fun as it's been to take a break from Indonesia and experience something different, i'm feeling more and more like it's Heavenly Father's way of saying "Wake up! you're in the best mission in the world!" i mean..as if i didn't already know that, but it's just another wake up call. i'll say more in a bit.

last week was great...we met with Chern, who still is SOOO close to baptism, and had a great lesson with her...the Indo's are altogether this week while sis and i are here in singapore, doing both companionship's appointments, so i'm excited to see how they do with Chern. I told Lie that she was in charge of what to teach and everything (since i always plan everything for our appointments with Chern and Cherie), and so she picked Eternal Families, and i'll find out how that goes. i think it'll be good for Chern to learn from the humble Indonesians who have to work so hard to get to the temple, to maybe appreciate more the opportunity she has to go to the temple with her little family if she'll take the opportunity.

saturday we went to the home of a 10-yr-old girl (Siska) who has been coming to church lately with a member who is her friend, and got permission from her mom to teach her...but her mom wants to learn as well (chee-ya!), because she's already noticed a significant difference in her daughter's attitude just in the last 3 weeks that she's been coming to church. how cool is that? we're pretty excited, and Siska seems pretty excited and loves church. we also met with Celine, who we met last week, and she came to the relief society birthday social thing, and seemed to enjoy that. we taught her the 1st discussion before that started, and everything seemed to make sense to her. i found out that she comes from a Buddhist background, and is basically only Christian cuz her grandma took her to church when she got a little bit older. so she's been looking for a church to join that fits her better, and has been SUPER confused cuz there are so many churches... :) so hopefully she'll keep progressing, and especially reading from the BofM. she's awesome tho. and she went to church on sunday! so we FINALLY have a new progressing investigator! woohoo!!!

Sunday, we packed up all our stuff, and stayed the night at Senopati, then Monday morning we got up early and went to the airport, and here we are in Singapore! here's basically what happened in that short span of our first day here... arrive, wait for and meet sis wing (who was in my MTC group, and had to renew her visa...so it was a fun reunion!), drive to the mission office, meet the elders there...and what do ya know? elder ulrich is serving in Singapore, and will be with elder hall and elder allen from our group this week. it's actually been a lot of fun talking to him about home...yes carter, we've talked LOADS about you, and he says hi. turus, a bunch of the elders left, so we're left up in the air cuz we have no idea what we're doing, one of the elder's invites us to sit in on a Malay discussion he was going to have and MAYBE help teach since his comp doesn't know any Malay yet, and then he leaves 5 minutes into the lesson to give an interview, so Sis and i give the rest of the 1st discussion to this guy. it was AWESOME to be able to give the discussion in a different country with the language we've worked so hard to master, and just feel the testimony that this work really is going forward all across the world, and that i helped it in a small way in another country :) hopefully the guy understood us with our indonesian accents/words.....haha. oh, and i forgot to mention that we got a referral on the plane over! sis and i sat next to a girl from Jakarta who lives in Singapore, but doesn't really go to just one church here cuz she goes by herself, so hopefully the missionaries here will get on top of that one. she was really fun, and i even got to bear a bit of testimony that families can be together eternally.

then we went to the missionary couple's house...which is behind one of the churches here that used to be a mansion, but is now a church....AND the house that we stay in is the "mistresses quarters" from the guy that used to own the mansion. haha. makes me laugh, cuz it's a bit of an oxymoron, but whatevs. it's a SUPER nice house, and the beds are SOOOOOO comfy, and THEY HAVE HOT WATER! i love mandies, but i forgot what it was like to get in the shower and not want to leave cuz it feels so good...

tuesday, we went to the indonesian embassy, and we got to use a bit of our indonesian (I MISS SPEAKING INDONESIAN ALL THE TIME!!!) with the people there. then sis and i went out with the elders contacting...and this is where the fun begins. i HATE contacting here. it is seriously the most ridiculous thing in the world after being in indonesia, where the people LOVE you, and they WANT to talk to you. people here are absolutely cold, and will ignore you as much as possible. it is seriously the saddest thing, and the only people that i talked to were the indonesians! it just happened that the only people that i'd talk to who would talk back were indo...which i think says quite a bit about the people in my mission :) i actually talked to a few other people, but it was mostly just men hitting on me...some things never change, no matter WHAT country you're in. haha, i got invited to go dancing with one guy, and also to spend the week at his house if i ever went to Cambodia. nice guy, eh? lol. but we went back to the house, and met up with the other 2 sisters from our MTC group who are also here for their visa run...so it's been a really fun mtc reunion time. there was also one other elder from our group here, but the rest are coming in next week. there's also a sister that is here from Florida, so she knows emily richardson cuz she did splits with her before she left...so small world.

today was pday for the missionaries here, so we went to the beach out on one of the smaller islands, which was fun, and now i'm SUNBURNED!!!!! i haven't been sunburned in 7 months! because in jakarta, the pollution stops the uv rays from getting to your skin. so...i should've been smarter, but i forget that other places aren't as dirty as jakarta.

anyways, as much as i've enjoyed being here in singapore, I MISS INDONESIA!!!! i miss my people, i miss my language, i miss the food, i miss taking pics with every other person i bump into in the streets, i miss the trash, i miss the smell, i miss my comp. singapore is nice, but i would NEVER want to live here. maybe a few days of vacation time, but seriously...it's such a cold place. whereas, i really think i could live in indonesia at some point in my life. so i told sis last night, i'm here to gain a whole new appreciation for indonesia. and i have it. I'M SERVING IN THE GREATEST MISSION IN THE WORLD! it may not have a whole ton of baptisms, and there might be TONS of Muslims there, but it is such an amazing country, and there ARE people there to be found. we just gotta work hard to find them :)

anywho...i love and miss you all, and hope things are going well at home. i pray for you every night, and know that Heavenly Father is taking care of you guys while carter and i are away serving him. may you all look for opportunities to serve those around you, and PLEASE invite people to come to church with you! i know that you're life, and especially the life of whoever you invite, will be blessed beyond anything you could've imagined. loves!
~Sister Sara

Turut Berduka cita‏

Another crazy week, but one that was joyfully filled with appointments and new ideas and…man alive, just a good week.

We visited Lena (this is for you, Jackie :P) last week, and she’s doing really good, but when we talked about coming into the fold of Christ (aka the church), she had some really interesting questions, like why does she HAVE to go to our church, since all churches teach good things, along with how come our church is the only church with the BofM. These are very important questions…so hopefully we answered the in a way that Lena could understand and realize that it is VERY important. However she wasn’t at church on Sunday :(

We visited Chern on Friday, and it was another great lesson. I don’t even feel like I’m really teaching Chern…half the time she’s teaching me, she understands the gospel so well. She’s great tho, and we had a great talk. On Sunday, her husband was made the 2nd counselor in the branch presidency, and I’ve heard from a few reliable sources that that was done on purpose…to put an added emphasis on getting Chern baptized. But we’ll see if it works.

I also had pres talk to me on Friday at DDM about putting together a fireside at Senopati for all the investigators in the English branch (which is basically Chern and Cheri, although the branch president says he has a few people he’d like to invite as well), and so I’ve been put in charge of that – woo hoo! Haha, I love stuff like that. I talked to President Donald (branch president), and we picked a date in late April, and I’m trying to decide what else we can do…although we’ll see what happens, and if I’m even still here at that point. But I’m excited!

Saturday, Sis Lie and I were invited, along with Elder & Sister Millecam, to a school that one of the member’s works at, where they had some sort of event…well ,come to find out, it was a celebration of Muhammed’s bday, and we (the Christian, bule missionaries) were the honored guests. Holy cow…this country is CRAZY! But it was awesome, and I had a lot of fun. We did announce our English class, and handed out our pass along cards, and I had one guy who was NOT happy at all, and actually took all my blank pass along cards (we gave all the ones with the info away, so I was filling more out) from me so I’d stop…ya, there was a tiny bit of a miscommunication problem involved, but whatevs. He was NOT happy, and he made it very plain, so I felt pretty bad, but then I had half the school come and apologize after that, so that made me feel better. Now if I could just get Sis Lie to be smarter about the people she tries to become “brave” with, we would’ve been just fine.

I also volunteered to make some new English class cards that have maps on them, so I’ve worked on that a few times this week and they look AWESOME. Definitely putting that in my file of fliers/whatever else I’ve made when I get home. We just gotta get it approved by president now :)

Cherie was at church again on Sunday! So we’re slowly progressing with her, but her mom comes home with the baby this week, along with her brother, and so when we met yesterday I told her the next few weeks are really going to show what’s going to happen with her from now on. It’s such a hard position, and pres just wants me to show her all the examples of people in the bible who chose the gospel over other obstacles, but… well, I just don’t feel right about that. Cuz to me, the family is SOO important, and unless she feels incredibly strong about getting baptized herself, it’s hard to force her to see things the way we see it. Cuz the way we see it is far easier than what it’d mean for her. So we’re praying and fasting for her.

We met a referral Sunday night, and she was really great…she’s going to come to the relief society activity on Saturday, and before that starts we’re going to teach her the first lesson. Sunday, we just met her and gave her the BofM, and kinda tried to explain a bit about that. She seemed pretty excited to read it, and her only question when we were done explaining was, “so does it have stuff in it like the Bible that helps you become a better person?” haha, we answered that of course it does, and she promised she’d read it. So we’ll see where things go with Selin.

We have another appointment tonight with a girl I met last week, Raz, who has PERFECT English and loves to learn about different religions. I’m excited to see how things go with her... she’s only 20 years old, but way more mature than me already, and has great plans for her future with psychology, and helping people understand it better. Yay for new people to teach!

So…funny story about Sis Lie. I mentioned that she broke her tailbone when we went ice skating a few weeks ago right? Well, she did, but it’s been better the last few weeks, until Monday…we were at the church, and she got on the phone to talk to someone, and went to sit down…and missed the chair and landed in a big empty bin….IT WAS THE FUNNIEST THING IN THE WORLD! At first I just asked if she was ok, but then she started laughing…which got me going, and then I couldn’t stop. Actually, I couldn’t do ANYTHING after that. I couldn’t tell the person on the phone to hold on (I finally did, but it took a while of calming down), or help Lie up…although it was an awkward position to try to help her anyways, but still…I felt bad, but it was HILARIOUS. Unfortunately, now I get to hear her every complaint and she walks even slower than before...but maybe that's just Heavenly Father saying that my patience isn't quite where it needs to be yet...joy :)

oh, i almost forgot! we went and visited 2 older members in the branch with Sister Suhendro (my fill-in Grandma here), and we originally planned to do that with regular transportation, which we figured would take all day but whatevs, and then Sister Stefi found out our plan, and volunteered to drive us...cuz she said we'd never get home if we did public transportation. she it actually ended up that Elder Subandryo went with us too, and it was a fun filled ride - but i just hafta say, the gentleman that we visited, with his wife, was the first Indonesian couple to serve a mission, and he'd specifically asked me at the conference with Elder Nelson to come visit him, which of course i promised to do...and he was SOOO grateful for it. he kept telling me how much he appreciated me keeping my promise, and especially for coming with Elder Subandryo (he REALLY looks up to Elder Subandryo a ton)...it was such a fun thing to do. we also visited Sister Suhendro's best friend, so it was cute to see them all excited to see each other, cuz i know that doesn't happen too often. so it was a really well spent 4 hours (vs the whole day :).

well, it's time to head...i love you all, and thanks again for all you do for me. God bless and loves~

~Sara

CANTIK

Woohoo!This week has been fantastic as far as appointments go…we met with Chern, and although we never get that baptismal date, I always feel like she’s REALLY starting to understand the gospel more and more, which hopefully puts her that much closer to baptism. I actually learned a big lesson this week about following the promptings of the spirit… as I was preparing for the lesson on Friday morning, I had this feeling that we should talk about something else, but since I know Chern (she’s definitely “Asian” if you know what I mean…and if you don’t, ask someone who does), I knew that probably wouldn’t go over too well the day of, so I just went forward with the plan (we're learning from the Gospel Essentials manual, so she reads before we come over, and then we discuss). Well, in the appointment that day, she said something that went back to the subject that I’d been prompted to teach earlier… and I knew then that I had truly ignored the promptings of the Lord, who knows best how to help Chern. And here I am, the messenger who is supposed to be his mouthpiece… so that was disappointing to me, but I have repented, and now we have changed tomorrow’s discussion to what I was prompted in the first place. We’ll see how that goes…

Cherie has been AWESOME this week. We met on Saturday, and had a great lesson about the Restoration with the Orton’s and PJ. The Orton’s basically gave the lesson for me after we watched the movie, saying everything that I’d wanted to…so I just put it in the “challenge” form, and she agreed. Her family is starch Catholic, and her mother lives with them, watching their son, and so…well, we’re finding out that that’s the biggest obstacle for Cherie right now to overcome. She says she knows the church is true, but she doesn’t know if she can face her family, and especially break her mom’s heart. I’ve been putting myself in her situation, and I can definitely understand how hard that’s going to be. Her family (extended included…they’re VERY close) has supported her through school and her entire life (and again… her mom LIVES with them), and so it really is hard for her to overcome that. But her mom is gone with her son for 2 weeks to the Phillipines, so we’re trying to really focus on her knowing where God wants her to go right now, so that when her mom gets back, she’ll know more solidly what God wants, and she’ll hopefully have the strength to do whatever she needs. She came to church on Sunday, and then we met again last night, and discussed the Plan of Salvation. Again…I felt prompted to say a lot of things that I hadn’t planned on (about the PofS AND especially other things), so hopefully there was at least something there that helped her find her answer. They are seriously the cutest little couple…man alive! And PJ’s been really good about church, and he’s really working on doing what he needs to to get to the temple next year. So we’re working with them…

Besides that, all the Indonesian’s we’re teaching have been out of town, so it’s been a bit of a slow week again, EXCEPT FOR ZONE TRIP!!!! Monday we went to the beach, and it was SOOO much fun! I personally still would’ve preferred to ride the elephant at Taman Safari, but the beach was a close second. We went to the beach on Jawa that is closest to Krakatawa (that is totally and completely spelled wrong, but it’s the volcano that erupted and was so huge that it separated Jawa from Sumatera… yes, president told me the whole story. Haha, he’s lucky I love to hear all his stories, cuz all the other missionaries just say “yes president” then leave, but I love to hear about all his knowledge of Indonesia), and it was so nice. Maybe not completely clean, but better than what I’ve heard about Ancol. It was hard to not swim when we first got there, but Heavenly Father is a very understanding and loving Father, so he sent clouds after lunch that cooled things down and helped me to not be tempted to jump in the water. Haha. It was fun tho…funny story. So after all the pics were taken, we went and changed into more comfortable clothes, and when I came out, most of the boys were playing football in the sand while all the girls were just watching. Well…LAME! I was seriously so disappointed, and no one wanted to play…so I watched for about 5 minutes, and then I felt like I was in that scene from the Sandlot, where the nerd jumps off the diving board, and says “I can’t take it anymore!” while watching the lifeguard chick…haha, I just stood up, walked onto the beach, and told the closest elder to me that I was going to play, and which team he wanted me on. Well, it took a bit of warming up (I don’t know if they thought I was serious or what), but they actually started passing the ball to me, and I caught almost all the passes :P haha, but when I caught the ball, I couldn’t go anywhere, cuz they couldn’t touch me… so that was lame, but I got to play so whatevs. It was fun, and I was sweaty and sandy when it was over. I loved it!

Lunch was good…sloppy joes with fried rice, haha. Then somebody started a game of soccer, and some of us got bored, so we took a stroll down the beach…which was TONS of fun. And we got a ton of fun pics with the whole group. It was interesting, tho, cuz about half the elders with us are going home today, and so they were TRUNKY. So we had some fun with that. When we got back to the picnic area, everyone was packing up to go, and we went home. So that was kinda sad…I’m not gonna lie, after a “normal” day, planning for Tuesday was REALLY hard. There were actually a few tears from the sisters in Bandung about the thought, I felt so bad (apparently things are really hard down there right now…), but I’m feeling better today so no worries :) the work moves forward, and the more days I’m here, the more likely I am to meet someone new who is ready and waiting to receive the message of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I am so incredibly grateful for my calling, for my opportunity to serve in Indonesia. I really have been so incredibly blessed here…I have so many new friends who have become my temporary family, and I know that I will always be close to them, even when I’m on the other side of the world again.

I was telling Cherie last night…I KNOW I’m here for a reason. There have been too many “accidents” in the last year to make any doubt in my mind about God’s plan for me vanish (knee, mtc group, visa problems, being comps with Sis Lie, and MANY more). I’m here for a reason, and I’m gonna work hard so that I can look back and KNOW what that reason(s) was. I love you all, and thank you again and again for the support and love. I look at all these people who go through their lives in this gospel without the support of their families, and I have no idea how they do it…I am SOOO blessed. Loves!

~Sister Sara

Elder Nelson

Whew, another week has come and gone, and WOW…time really is going by too fast. I was talking to Sis the other night, and we were talking about how fast march is going to go by…we have our zone trip on Monday, then a week or two after that we should be heading to Singapore, then a week or two after we get back transfers should be happening… and the clock’ll keep ticking, and the time I’ll be spending in this once-in-a-lifetime country will be up…I really need to stop focusing on that tho…sorry! I just can’t believe how fast time really DOES go by when you’re serving God.

So this week was definitely the worst week for us as far as numbers go, but it was SUCH an amazing week! Especially with Elder Nelson…here’s what happened…Friday morning we went to the church early to practice a song we were gonna sing for zone conference, and then it was instructions from President about what was going to happen when Elder Nelson came, and then we waited…and the second Elder Nelson came over to all of us missionaries, I could literally feel the different spirit that was with him. I was talking to someone else at the time, but I felt something different, so I turned and looked, and there he was…it really was an incredible feeling.

After we took a picture, we all got to shake his hand individually, and that was really nice… but I quickly realized that when he looked at me, I couldn’t keep his gaze very well because THE MAN LOOKS INTO YOUR SOUL! LITERALLY! I could feel it! And I felt totally and completely unworthy…the entire weekend, we talked a few times, and each time I would LOVE to hear him speak, but the second his attention was focused on me, I didn’t feel worthy to keep eye contact…which really can be compared to how we’re going to feel in the Lord’s presence at judgment. This was certainly the closest I’ve ever come to feeling that kind of inadequacy, and it has made me better appreciate the gift of every day repentance that we’re given here on earth…something that I REALLY do need to improve on.

Anyways, so all the talks at Zone conference were great…sis Marchent focused on the need for everyone to repent, especially missionaries (which I leaned over to Sis Rhondeau and said that that was an interesting subject to focus on with an apostle there to witness…but then when Elder Nelson talked, he actually focused A TON on her words, which only made me realize that it doesn’t matter what we teach with whomever…it’s what the SPIRIT tells us to teach that’s important…and for sis Marchent, that was repentance), and Pres’s words on being more brave were REALLY great to hear. Elder Nelson was accompanied with the Elder Perkins, a member of the 2nd quorum of the seventy (I think…) who is over the entire Asia area, and who is possibly up there with Elder Holland for one of my favorite speakers…he was INCREDIBLE. I wonder if he’s ever given a talk in Conference…if not, hopefully he will soon, cuz he really was POWERFUL. So he and his wife talked next, then Sis Nelson spoke (mom and Kel, do you remember when she came and talked with Sheri Dew for some relief society thing in the stake? I didn’t realize it was her until she started talking about how her life had been led several times by questions she’s asked at conference…she was supposed to marry some guy, but from conference felt that she shouldn’t, and a few years later found out he was NOT a good person? Remember that? Ya…she’s an incredible speaker too!), and then Elder Nelson. He spoke about so many different things, but basically what both he and Sister Nelson focused on were that miracles COULD be done in Indonesia, and that we needed to believe in them. They both actually shared my 2 favorite scriptures… 3 Nephi 5:13 and D&C 31:3. and that’s how I know I pick good scriptures to be my favorite :)After zone conference, we headed to Ancol to meet with Chern and Bro Hunter…and MAN was I nervous, cuz this was the meeting that I was going to challenge Chern to baptism. We talked about the atonement, and it was REALLY nice to have Bro Hunter there, cuz he knows how to explain things so Chern will understand better, and it was a REALLY productive meeting. And, when the timing felt right, we read from Acts about how we can show Christ that we accept His atonement…and after she answered by being baptized, I LAYED IT OUT THERE. Yup…my first one on the mish, and holy cow, her reaction was actually pretty awesome (even Bro Hunter told me after that it surprised him, and it was the first time she’s ever acted like that before…which I take to be a good thing!). I asked if she would make March 14 her baptism date, and her eyes got HUGE and she said “March 14?” and I said yes, and then she sat up in her chair and said, “oh no… NOW I’m REALLY scared.” I’m not trying to push her, but I wanted to put a date out there so she’d start REALLY thinking about a date, so I told her to pray about the date, then afer that, we went over a few other scriptures, mostly the talk from Alma to the people in Mosiah telling them what is required before you’re ready to be baptized, and when she said that she wanted all those things, we read the scripture that says something along the lines of, then why not be baptized and receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost? That seemed to calm her down a lot, and she was smiling when we left…so we’ll find out tomorrow when we meet again what she wants to do, and then Sunday Bro Hunter wants us all to fast with her. So that should be good.Saturday night we had relief society meeting with Sister Perkins and Sister Nelson, and it’s really funny how these meetings go with translators, cuz some people don’t understand/answer questions in the way they’re meant, or the translator starts bawling halfway thru the lesson, or someone else answers who just likes to talk and goes on in Indonesian for 20 minutes…to which the translator starts translating into Indonesian. Haha. It was REALLY funny, but also very inspiring. We learned about having questions so we can receive inspiration to answer those questions. It was really good.

At the adult session Saturday night, PJ came but Cherie was “out with friends” and Sister Orton and PJ were both pretty upset about that…but I still feel like PJ needs to keep showing Cherie that he’s serious about becoming active in the church again, and if that means he has to come to meetings alone, so be it. Besides, I think that meeting was almost better for PJ to be there alone to listen to. Chern came with Bro Hunter, but they had Torin there too, so Bro Hunter volunteered to stay downstairs with him so Chern could focus on the talks upstairs…which was SOOO good. I actually made a few people mad making them move around so there would be seats for Chern (one guy said he HAD to sit on the end so he could leave early…then we sat behind him and he stayed the whole time which kinda ticked me off cuz he was so rude about it but…[exhale] it’s over now, so whatevs). She stayed upstairs the whole time until Elder Nelson got up to speak…which was for over an hour, so I was ok with that. I don’t think she would’ve normally done that, but she seemed to REALLY be listening, which I’ve never seen before cuz she’s always so busy with Torin. Who knows there!

Sunday was incredible as well…Cherie came to that, but was taking care of Gale the whole time so said she didn’t get much outta the meeting (but at least she was there?). I talked to her, and we’re now going to meet every week, whether PJ can meet or not. I’d actually prefer to work with her on her own, like I’ve done with Chern, cuz I think she can be more free to ask questions and have the lessons more directed towards her if we do it like that, and she can also feel more free to voice concerns or whatever she’s feeling. So I’m excited to meet with her on Saturday! Chern was there with Bro Hunter too, so it was a good showing. I also had one of the people that I contacted show up… we’ll see how that goes. He is a bit of a “lost boy” – he sings on buses for his living, and lives on the streets. However, from Saturday night to Sunday morning, he said he read the BofM from the beginning to Alma 26. I sure hope the elders are taking good care of him… he was SO excited about everything…but ya know, sometimes I hafta worry about some of the elders, so we’ll see how it goes. Man I wish I could teach men myself sometimes!Yesterday we went ice skating for Pday, and sis lie fell SOOOO hard… I think she broke her tailbone. So that’s been fun the last 24 hours to hear. Haha. Pretty funny actually, but I do feel bad too. I told her to carry around a pillow on the buses, but she wouldn’t…although I feel like that might change tomorrow, cuz today she hasn’t enjoyed going around on buses. The bumpiness isn’t so great for a broken tailbone.

Anywho, that’s about it for the news here. Dad, I had a personal run in with Elder Nelson, where he asked me if I played basketball…to which I replied rushed and nervously (remember what I said about him piercing to your soul with his eyes…I really felt so stupid…) “yes, and you operated on my grandpa, and my dad dated your daughter, Emily.” Haha, he just looked at me, and said something about how he thought I might be “from that line” and then talked about some other things… then before he walked away, he said “Charles Hewlett, right?” I was a bit shocked (changed subjects PLUS remembered the name), and said yes before he was ushered upstairs to start the meetings for the night. He also brought up Margaret Ann Sara Hewlett later that night…after his wife asked what my first name was, and said we were related. Which Margaret Ann is that? Anywho…yes, it was a good weekend, and seems to have carried over pretty well to me and Sis Lie this week. We get along better and better with almost every week, so that’s been really good. This broken tailbone also gives me a good chance to serve her, so I’m grateful for that as well.

Anywho, this is already too long. I love you!

Loves~Sister Sara