one more week!

I cannot believe that next week is christmas! i'm SOOO excited to talk to you all! i've been trying to figure out the best way to do things, but you'll get from my other email that i'm not completely sure since the time difference is so huge, and i wanna be able to talk to carter too. but yay! one more week!

things really don't seem like christmas here...there are a few decorations around, but not much. i've only felt like it's actually december in a few of the member's homes that we've been to. so it's kinda weird to think that christmas is only a few days away, but i'm definitely looking forward to it, especially talking to you all!

so this week has been CRAZY. sis was in the hospital for a few days, and then pres took her and sis mongan to senopati to stay...but sis mongan got sick of not doing anything, and so now she's pulling a 3-some with me and sis lie, which has been both good and bad. good for lessons, cuz she actually knows what she's doing, but bad for contacting, cuz the other 2 just talk all the time, and i still get nervous about what other people are going to say back to me that i'm not gonna understand. which is really no excuse, but we're all trying to be better. i told the other 2 that we CANNOT sit by each other when we're in the buses, cuz then we don't talk to anyone else. it's also been good because my language is always improving as i spend more time listening and talking to both of them. my language still has a long ways to go, but i'm also getting more and more confident with myself (but still not enough that i like talking to other people like i'd like to feel).

my english appointments this week were both good and bad. chern's went pretty good, but her nanny lady didn't show up that day, so she was ticked about that, and the baby was good for the most part, but at the end he got really fussy, so i just cut things short so she could go put him down. but it was a pretty good discussion, and we'll continue that at our appointment tonight. i'm also gonna be going to an english class after that that chern's husband is teaching at the hotel he works at, so that's gonna be fun.

my appointment with pj and cherie was AWESOME. sis rhondeau came to jarkarta a day early for the baptism (we'll get to that later), so she came with me to the appointment, and she helped SOOO much. we met at a ward member's house, too, so it was good to get all of his input as well. it was really awesome...we just read an article from one of the old conferences about faith, prayer, and the family, and it was interesting how much pj especially opened up about how he feels about the church. i'm gonna see if i can work with that tomorrow at our appointment...speaking of which, they didn't come to church on sunday (total bummer after the amazing lesson we'd had the night before), so i called them yesterday to wish them a merry christmas and happy new year in the phillipines, and pj ASKED ME if we could meet one more time before they left friday afternoon. i'm taking that as a REALLY good sign. now if i could just get them to church...

Sunday was florentina's baptism, and it went well. i didn't really know what was going on, and what i needed to do, so sis rhondeau and i just talked for most of it. florentina's funny...she has a crush on all the american elders, and always talks about how "cocok" i'd look with them all (that basically means "perfectly matched"). when she was practicing with elder lewis the hand grip and dip into the water, she said "seperti mencium!" ("Like a kiss!")...ya, sister rhondeau and i got a pretty good kick outta that.

monday was zone conference, and it was great for the most part (the rest i didn't understand :P). we sang the olive tree, and it was SOO pretty. i love that song. we also had all the sisters from bandung come stay with us (there are 6 altogether), so it was a bit like a party sunday night. i had fun (altho i didn't understand much...most of them are from java, so they were speaking javanese). at zone conference, i had to lead in our purpose in indonesian...and i think i said 1 word with everyone else. i know it, i just can't say it fast like everyone else. still working on that. i also had to intro myself and tell about my family...that actually went better than i thought it would. there were some good talks given and advice, but the best part to me was when pres went over a few different rules...things i'd always wondered about, but no one knew for sure. we were all given schedules for every day of the week (PRAISES!!! NOW I KNOW WHEN WE CAN AND CAN'T BE IN THE HOUSE!), and we went over a few other rules as well. so...ya, sadly enough, that was my favorite part of the whole day. course it's cuz pres speaks mostly in english, so i understood it, but i'm just glad to have some guidelines now.

we've visited a few members this week, but really most of last week was spent traveling to the hospital and senopati, and back home again. pretty crazy stuff. i did get the christmas package from the AZ allred's (THANK YOU SO MUCH!), but when i realized it was a christmas package, i refused to open anymore of it, and pres walked in at that point, and made fun of me for it ("you're in indonesia, even christmas day isn't gonna feel like christmas day. just open it now."), but i figure the more presents i have to open on christmas day the better. i have all my presents at senopati, so when we go there for lunch i'll be opening them all :) thanks again!

and now it's OFFICIAL....i've been waiting to say this for weeks...CONGRATULATIONS ZACH AND ADDI!!! i'm so excited for you both, and can't wait to see all the fun pictures from the wedding (yes jean, i'm expecting a letter with lots :) i'm not asking too much, am i?). best of luck to you both, i'm excited to get to know you better, addi, when i get home. just know that zach is one of my favorite cousins, and you best be takin care of him, k? oh, side note...last night i was writing in my journal, and guess what i found? my debit card. ya. i didn't think i'd lost it. it was a page behind where i was looking for it before! can you believe that? ugh. total sara moment, but whatevs. at least i know all the money is safe. i dunno if you cancelled the card or just took all the money out, mom? let me know...if it still works, i'll keep using this card, if not i'll keep using my other one.and last but not least.....SELAMAT ULANG TAHUN, BAYI SAYA!!!!! (happy birthday, my baby!). the big one seven, eh? i remember that age...haha, that was a fun year. i hope ya have a good one!

well...thats about it for now. thanks for all the letters of love and support...they really help me so much. thanks also for your prayers...i KNOW they've helped me so much here. there are so many things that could make me frustrated or hold me back from giving my all, but then i think about all of you praying for me, and it reminds me that i hafta do my part, since you're doing yours. i'm so grateful for this gospel and the opportunity i have to share it with the people of indonesia (as far and in between as they are :)! i've already learned so much...i can only imagine what another 14 months (not that i'm counting :P) is going to do for me. loves to you all!

~Sister Sara

update

Before i forget...i'm not getting connie's emails anymore, so connie either start sending them to me again or mom please send those with your letters? i haven't heard from her since i got to indo. i also didn't get carter's email today...so ya, please send both of those.

apa kabar, keluarga saya?!?!? oh the berita (news) this week is...well, there's a lot. so i'll try to fit it all in.

So we went to monas and the big mosque in the middle of jakarta last wednesday (thats why you got the email early mom...we usually email at the end of pday, but cuz we were doing that we emailed first), and that was really fun. we met up with the elders for a little bit before they had to go home, but i'm more convinced than ever that Islam is the LDS church gone astray. we just have too many similarities. anywho...i'm sure you'll see pics soon, we had some fun there.

after our trip, we all headed to the other side of Jakarta to see Chern, the lady who is married to an RM and has been coming to church for over 2 years with him. honestly...i have no idea whats holding her back. we had dinner, and then all we talked about churchwise was if she wanted us to start teaching her again (apparently since they moved to that part of jakarta over a year ago, they've only had missionaries over once...a few weeks before us...RIDICULOUS!), and she said she did, so we'll see where to go from here. i really have no idea what i'm doing, even in english, but i'll just let the spirit guide me with her. we didn't get to meet with the other couple (PJ & cherie) that's kinda in the same situation (except the husband isn't an RM) because it ended up being the same day as the branch christmas party, but we have an appointment for this saturday...and on sunday i quickly got asked by sister orton to teach cherie right before sunday school, so i pulled something together quick, and it actually opened up a lot of doors for us as missionaries understanding what's holding her back from being baptized...it's her husband. so i guess we'll really hafta start working on PJ being a stronger member of the church, and hopefully that'll get Cherie baptized so they can become an eternal family soon! the bad news is, they both are leaving for holidays with their families in the phillipines and australia...so hopefully i'm still here when they get back, and we can REALLY get going then.

so funny story...the other day sis lie and i were sitting at the house while it was raining, and she kept talking about all the boys i must have back home (btw, i don't think i've said anything about how OBSESSED these people are with being white. i've never been called "cantik" so many times in all my life. it's seriously ridiculous...and i hear it most from sis mongan and sis lie. i told sis [yes this is still sis okamoto, yes there are 3 brand new missionaries here in jakarta, yes it's crazy, but yes we're still alive] that if i go home and ever start feeling ugly, i'm just gonna buy a plane ticket to indonesia and walk thru the streets so men can cat call to me, and go to church so all the women in the branch can tell me how "cantik" i am), and i finally was like, WHY do you think i have boys back home? i've already told you a million times i don't, i don't know why you keep talking about it...to which she replyed by getting up and pointing to all the pics of me and my "boyfriends" - lol the one of zak and kel that kel sent me from san fransisco (she thought kel was me), and the pic of us 4 siblings walking up that hill together, and i'm next to ben. lol...so that was pretty funny. i had to explain to her that they were both FAMILY. lol...i was expecting her to point to the pic i have of me and the guys on their scooters, but she didn't look twice at that. haha. really made me laugh.

FLORENTINA'S BAPTISM IS SUNDAY! i'm so excited! we've been meeting together to get her ready for the interview on thursday, and last sunday a girl from the english branch got baptized so sis lie and i took florentina to that so she could know what to expect - except that it was a VERY american baptism, and the indo baptisms are quite a bit different (baptized one week, confirmed the next, not to mention that this one was at the orton's house in their pool, which is quite a bit different from the church), but it was really good. i think it really helped her to calm her nerves. i had no idea how nervous she was for the baptism until she started asking questions, and i explained everything, and after the baptism and confirmation, she just said "it's that easy?" and i said...yup, no problem. so that was really fun. plus i love the english branch, and i got to know a lot more of the members at the baptism. i love the indos, but i now know that there is NOTHING like being able to just talk to people who speak the same language as you!

so sunday sacrament in the indo ward, sis millecam gets up at bears her testimony...in indonesian! she's one of the senior service missionaries here, and she wants to learn indo SO bad (we're actually a lot alike in that aspect, except that i get a lot more practice to learn than she does :( ) so she can talk to these people that she's serving, and we found out after that she's been working on memorizing her testimony for a while now, but she felt on sunday that she NEEDED to bear her testimony, so she just took her book right up there with her and read it for us. it was by far one of the most INSPIRING things i've ever seen. the indo's were crying. that's how touching that testimony was. she is so amazing. i was just sitting in the crowd before that thinking about how i should bear my testimony, but i was scared of saying something wrong or forgetting words...and then she just gets up there and does it. oh...i love her!

so we have zone conference next monday, and sis talked to pres about us singing The Olive Tree for it...and we are. i LOVE this song, and i'm so excited to sing it! we've practiced it a few times, and it's just so pretty. i wish we could perfect it more, but we don't have the time. too bad. but it'll still be pretty.

SOOOO, the exciting news for the week is that monday morning, about 5 am, i woke up to sis rolling around in her bed, then getting up, half hunched over, and walking outta the room. when she came back in, i asked her what was wrong, and she just fell on the bed and started twisting and turning, saying how bad her back hurt. sis mongan didn't want to, but i called pres, and we took her to the hospital...she has a kidney stone! 5 weeks into the mission, in indonesia. sounds fun, ya? haha, not really. so we've been switching off taking turns at the hospital with her since monday, and she'll hopefully be released tonight, but maybe not til tomorrow. unfortunately, thats cut down on our proselyting time, but as far as appointments go, it hasn't been too bad. she got zapped yesterday, and luckily one of the best kidney doctors in indonesia is at this hospital that we're at...which is also a REALLY nice hospital. i don't even feel like i'm at an indo hospital when i'm there...it's nicer than some american hospitals. so i've decided that if i hafta go to the hospital ever on my mission, NOW would be the time, while i'm in jakarta. who knows what the other hospitals look like in the other cities...

so i got the sports update this week with letters from amy and rocha. sounda like a pretty crazy season. thanks for the sports update dad (i only read that part today...i'll read the rest when it comes :). it sounds like this season is gonna be a rough one, which makes me both happy and sad i'm not there (happy to not hafta deal with it, sad amy has to). but as is life. hopefully the team itself is getting along. i miss my girls!

so...language update. i have 2 indos in our house has helped me SOOO much. even florentina complimented me the other day, and said that my language has improved a lot. so that makes me feel good and a bit more confident about speaking. however...i'm still a LONG ways from being fluent, and that makes it difficult with sis lie ... a lot of the times. she doesn't speak much english (whereas sis mongan does), so we're kinda teaching each other, but sometimes my patience is short when she talks too fast (which is most of the time). needless to say, it's difficult, but in the long run it'll help me a ton. it already has. she's also informed me that i'm too much of a tomboy and i need to wear my hair down more because it's more "cantik." ya...she's more obsessed with my looks than i am, which could be a good thing, we'll see. but i'm trying to have fun and enjoy our time together, because we both have SO much to learn.well...i think that's it for this week. as always, i love and miss you all dearly! loves,
~Sister Sara

Just another week in Indonesia :)

Halo Keluarga saya di amerika! saya rindu semua anda!

(Hello my family in america! i miss you all!)

So...what a week! we'll start with Thanksgiving, because that was really fun. All the missionaries in the zone went to the mission home for lunch, and we watched a movie and stuff too. we were supposed to play soccer in the morning, but it rained really hard, so a few of us sisters just went over to the Millecam's house (they live in a little 3 room house behind the mission home) and helped sister millecam with food and decorated her christmas tree while we listened to christmas music. it was really fun.dinner was great...just like in america, except there was lots of really good fruit and of course rice. it was REALLY good tho. after dinner, we watched October Sky. not gonna lie...i'm not sure who decided on that movie, but it really wasn't the most appropriate missionary video. i think up or some disney movie would've been a bit more appropriate (october sky swears A TON i found out...). but, all of us from america were pretty sad after it was over, because all of us felt like we were just watching the movie in america...and then it ended and we were still in Indo. which is a good thing...but it makes ya a little homesick. but ya...it was really fun. i'm glad to hear your thanksgiving was good, too. i have a feeling we'll be spending thanksgiving with the mudrow's from now on, just cuz our family doesn't do much for it anymore.at the end of the day, sister rhondeau and sister christensen left with other groups cuz they've been transferred. i miss them both, but things aren't too bad with the 4 of us here in jakarta. which brings me to my next piece of info...

SOOOOOO. i think i'm basically like a trainer right now. after only 3 weeks into the mission. pres marchant split me and sister mongan up, and i'm with sister lie, and sis is with sister mongan. so..basically, you have me, someone who is pretty well rehearsed in the gospel and can answer almost any questions someone has, BUT i can't speak the language. then you have sister lie...who is gung-ho, really excited about being a missionary, but who was in jakarta for 2 weeks before going to the mtc in the phillipines, and still doesn't really know what she's doing. so basically this is how i feel about things...we can both find people to teach. but neither of us is good enough to actually teach people, and so sis mongan has to basically babysit us with everything, and we ALL go to lessons together, and she basically teaches all the lessons by herself. it really is completely ridiculous. BUT the good news is that we're in jakarta, where we don't teach hardly at all, so it's not as big of a deal as if we were in Solo, teaching 10 lessons every day. AND my language is already improving a ton. lol. yay for good news :) but ya...it is rough when it comes to lessons, but we're working thru all that, and for now we're just trying to find people.

i've decided that since i can't talk to the indo's well enough, my new focus is going to be on the english branch here. there's a sister in the ward who has given me about 3 names of part-member families, and so i've set up appointments with 2 of them for this week. since i can't do much in indonesian (especially with a comp who also has no idea what she's doing), i'm just gonna go and do what i KNOW i CAN. and that's teach in english. i hafta travel farther, but it's definitely gonna be worth it to actually teach. sis lie and mongan don't wanna go to those lessons with me, tho, so sis and i will be doing all of those by ourselves i guess. my first appointment is tonight with a woman who is married to an american, and she's been coming to church every week for 3 years. ya...i have no idea why she's not baptized yet, but i've talked to her husband about it, and we'll see what i can do to help her take the plunge. i've been thinking about what i can talk to her about all night (she's had all the lessons 2 or 3 times, so as far as teaching those go...we'll see). tonight is basically just a 'get to know you' night, but i have a lot of ideas on how i can try to help her.

i'm sorry about losing my debit card! i honestly have NO idea where it is. at least no money was taken out of my account. i had it in my bag one day, and the next i went to put it away, and it was gone. but all my money was still there. so...ya. we'll see if it ever turns up, but i feel a lot better now that it's cancelled. so friday was some muslim holiday where they sacrifice a cow and a whole bunch of goats, so we went and watched that. and yes... i have video. i was actually really surprised that i wasn't more grossed out by it. but it was definitely one of those "historically interesting" things that, if there were more mosques in utah, my teachers would prob assign us to go watch. sis marchant said when they went and watched it, she asked someone in charge why they do it, and they said they didn't know...they've just been doing it for 7,000 years and it's tradition. isn't that interesting that, ya, Abraham had sacrifices, but now the meaning of those sacrifices is completely lost, and now the only reason they do it is cuz it's tradition. i thought that was really interesting.

oh, i almost forgot...I GAVE AWAY MY FIRST BOOK OF MORMON!!! i've made it a new goal to always have a bofm with me at all times with my testimony written in it to give to people if i feel like i should. it's not something that sister mongan does, so i never learned it from her, but it's something that i think is worth the extra weight. it also helped that i bought i mini-Alkitab (Bible) so i wouldn't hafta carry my big one around. anywho...ya, this girl on the bus that i met, we ended up talking a lot about the church (hee hee...i like how i can direct people in that direction cuz that's about the only vocab i know..), and i handed her the bofm, and after i was done telling her about it, she handed it back, and she was so excited when i told her that it was free. i tried to make an appointment with her yesterday (well...i had sis mongan try. my indo is still awful and i don't understand what people are saying, especially on the phone), but we'll see what happens. ya never know in this place.things really have been good here. like i said...it's hard having all 4 of us always together, but i just don't trust sis lie and myself without sis mongan there to make sure everything is going alright. luckily, we all get along, and we enjoy the time we spend together.

yesterday it was raining, so we were in the house for a few hours, and sis and sis mongan decided to decorate the house. then they found some decorations, and they made a tree out of one of our water tubs, and wrapped the tree-like wreath stuff (i'm not explaining it well, but we have it at our house...it's like the fake tree rope stuff...?) around the tub, and we put the lights and ornaments on that that sis millecam gave us. it actually turned out REALLY well, and it didn't cost us a dime! haha so we're ready for christmas around here :) i DO love december!

well...i best be off. i love you all so much...thanks for all your prayers and support, you have no idea how much it means to me. i know that's the reason that i'm doing as well as i am. i'm a very VERY blessed person. loves!

~Sister Sara :)

:)

Well...I don't even know where to start with this email. i guess i could just start by saying that, yes, it was ANOTHER whirlwind of emotions this week, but of course wednesdays always seem to make me feel better about things.I feel like just as i'm starting to be ok with not speaking this language fluently, something happens that makes me wish i did, and i get frustrated all over again. i was better this week than last week, and i try to listen to people as much as possible, but my vocab is just SOOO intensely limited, and i rarely get time for language study cuz of different things that come up, which only frustrates me more. but it is coming. i really do just need to be patient and keep working on expanding my vocabulary (altho i should probably learn more useful words rather than "curse" so that i can say "curse you" to my companions :P...kutuk anda, in case any of you were wondering)... but it'll all come in time, i know it.

last friday we taught florentina, and we set a baptism date! hopefully she'll keep all the commandments, and come to church twice so she can be baptized on December 13...and hopefully i'm still here for that. we taught her again yesterday, and i taught about prophets, and it was AWFUL! i was absolutely embarrassed by the time i was done cuz i just kept saying the same things over and over again, and none of it was what i wanted to say. luckily, she asked a question at the end of the lesson about prophets, so i got to sort of redeem myself with my answer, and sis mongan really helped with the explaining. THEN after the lesson, sis r told me that my testimony at the end was really powerful, and she knew i'd been talking with the gift of tongues, because she's never heard me speak that well or powerfully before. so there's another testimony that Heavenly Father DOES bless us when we're trying to be what he needs us to be, and we humble ourselves. she's great, and i'm excited to see her become a member.

Indri is actually here at the warnet place with us...we've been trying to meet with her ALL week, but traffic was bad or she couldn't meet up with us...stuff was happening, and she's been crazy busy just getting ready to go, so we didn't think we'd get to see her again, but last night her flight got cancelled so we met up today, and got to bear our testimonies one last time before she heads to America. She's so awesome. she bore her testimony for us, and afterwards sis r told me that she said she had to go home last week to share the Book of Mormon with her family, because she wants them to feel the happiness and change that she's felt thru reading it, and she wants to become a missionary so that she can help other people feel that happiness as well. like i said...she is SOOO cool. while we were at the church, a crew filming some video for missionaries coming to Indo were there, and they interviewed all of us, and i guess Indri's testimony was really strong about Joseph Smith...something that we didn't even really know about. ugh...she is so awesome. i'm gonna miss her, and THE MISSIONARIES IN SOUTH CAROLINA HAD BETTER TAKE CARE OF HER!

Thanks for the email about spencer dad, but yes...it was too late. however, luckily for spencer, we share the same name AND i'm tall, so when they saw my name at the end when they were shaking our hands, they said they had a tall missionary in their mission named hewlett, and when i asked if his name was spencer they said yes, and we were all joyous in happiness of both knowing the same person. it was a precious moment. spencer...you were a VERY lucky missionary. bishop mcmullin was absolutely inspiring, and so was sis. mcmullin. it was great being able to listen to them.

speaking of people that are here who other people know, jean i met your friend and we took a picture together. haha she's totally awesome and cute, but she won't tell me any bad stories about you cuz she says friends as good as you guys don't share that kinda of stuff... so be happy you have a good friend like that ;)

So a sister left our mission this week after travelling around indo with her mom, and they came and visited us on monday...oh mom. she was just SOOO american and definitely a mom, and it really made me miss you! plus it's always nice to know EVERY WORD that someone is saying to you. haha.

speaking of transfers...so get this. we found out that sis r and sis christensen are getting transferred, and that sis lei, who is the phillipines mtc right now, will be joining us this week when she gets home. so...let's count...1,2,3 BRAND NEW missionaries in jakarta with sis mongan. and 2 of us CANNOT speak indonesian worth a crap, because we've been living in a house with 4 americans and 1 indo for the last 2 weeks. yeah...i'm not happy about it, i don't understand it, but i have faith that i will learn from this experience, and if nothing else, at least my language will get better cuz i'll always be with a native. but i'm still not happy about it. it's just retarded when there are 18 sister missionaries (thats the record for indo btw :), and only 7 of them are american...why not split us up a little more? i will learn great things from this...

so tomorrow is thanksgiving, and i'm SOOO excited for it. we're going to senopati (mission home/office) at 7 am, and all the missionaries will be playing soccer, then we'll all go back to the mission home to shower and have a huge thanksgiving lunch with all the missionaries in the zone. all of us newbies are still in this zone, so it'll be good to see all elder hall and allen again. plus i have a few other friends that i've made over the last few weeks... i don't understand much of what they say, but i know they're talking about me when they say "tinggi" so that helps. i just nod my head, and say "ya, saya tahu saya tinggi." (yes, i know i'm tall). all the guys here think i'm the coolest thing in the world...partly cuz i'm tall and play basketball, partly cuz they can say whatever they want about me in indo or with slang and i'll have no idea what they're saying, but i'll still just smile and nod my head. now i know what it's like to unintentionally be the ignorant blonde.

alright...so i think that's all for this week. PLEASE keep praying for me. especially for the trials that i KNOW lay ahead with our little group here in jakarta. there are days that all i can think about is how long 18 months is, but then other times i think to myself how i need to enjoy every minute i have here because it's really not gonna last long enough in the end. i love you all very much and pray for you every day. I know this church is God's church, and that the only way that we can truly become happy is thru following its teachings. Loves!

~Sara

What a week

Keluarga Saya~

Man alive, seriously...where do i start? sorry i'm gonna write in no caps because i'm lazy. this week has been such a whirlwind of emotions and experiences, but i'm grateful for each and every one of them.

Last week i started feeling homesick whenever i looked at pictures of the family or anything. i got dad's letter on friday, and when he talked about taking a walk around the neighborhood i literally started crying. yes...that's how bad it was. however, i think of a lot of it had to do with the language and the feelings of inadequacy that i feel as i try to learn it...i've found that's it's really hard to have no idea what's going on around you, especially in lessons where you know if you knew what they were asking or saying you would have so much to share with them. i just didn't feel like i was progressing one bit, even though i've been working really hard to learn it. but, hopefully i've moved past that point and i feel a lot better about things. it really is true that Heavenly Father helps us when we're doing the things that we should be and we look to him for help. i prayed more in those days than ever before in my life, and i've seen a huge difference in my ability to remember words and understand more of what other people are saying.

This last week we've been working a lot with Indri, and we're hoping that we can have her basically ready for baptism by the time she leaves here on the 24th for South Carolina. Catherine said she'd make sure she was taken care of, so i'm excited to hear what happens with her! Indri is really amazing...she's even been bringing her cousin (we think...) with her to the last few lessons, and i think they're both progressing very well. We had her and her cousin come with us to FHE at Elder Subandrio's house (he's a member of the quorum of the 70, and he seems like a really amazing guy...sis Rhondeau thinks he's the future of indonesia, and that if this country experiences anything good, it's because of his faith. so ya...i'd like to get to know him a bit more :). we watched the Finding Faith in Christ with her on friday, and after when i was supposed to bear my testimony, i just bawled. literally.. my face in my lap, bawling. the spirit was so strong, and after the rough few days before that i'd had, i felt God's love for me and God's love for Indri, to the point that my emotions were again all over the place. i finally calmed down and bore my testimony, but wow...it was such a testimony to me that i AM where i'm supposed to be right now, and that i'm NOT alone. anyways, indri really loves learning about the church, and loves everything we teacher her. oh....i seriously love her so much, i pray every day that she won't get lost in South Carolina. We don't talk a whole ton cuz my indo is bad and her english isn't great, but i give her a big hug every time i see her to try and let her know that i care. hopefully she feels my love with that :)

Sis. Rhondeau had another lady she'd taught a few months ago that just randomly showed up to church one sunday, but she hadn't heard from her for a few weeks, but we finally met with her yesterday, and apparently she just wants to join the church ASAP. I guess everytime we meet with her, she just wants to know how quickly she can join. we're gonna teach her the 3rd lesson this week, and then we'll see what happens after. hopefully that'll be a baptism tho...Jakarta needs it. they haven't had a baptism here for about 6-12 months.

the girls in our house have been sick a lot (except me and sis mongan...we've managed to stay healthy the whole time) and it's been raining a lot here, so i've had a lot of time to study words and write a few letters. mom...bad news. that expensive umbrella we got doesn't hold heavy rain AT ALL. i was soaked the other day when we got back cuz it just leaked all over me. but oh well. i still thought it was fun :)

this weekend we have the bishop mcmullin coming, so that'll be good. indri and florentine are both hopefully coming, and all the missionaries from the zone are coming as well, so i'll get to meet all the other missionaries. i really like the missionaries that are here, they're a lot of fun and they like me cuz i'm tall and play basketball. haha, they all wanna play now. that's one thing i've learned here...the indos LOVE basketball, which makes me even cooler to them. haha.

next week is thanksgiving, which thank goodness we haven't gone to grandma's for a few years, otherwise i'd prob get SUPER homesick (we'll see how christmas goes... i'm gonna miss my family!), but it's gonna be lots of fun. pres and sis marchant aren't going to be here, so the service missionaries are in charge of dinner (sister millicam is SOOO awesome...oh and btw they're from vernal and know clark and they say hi :), and it's gonna be a ton of fun. i hope i'm here for christmas too.

so funny story...i was putting my pics of our family up, and i had the pic that jean sent me of the whole hewlett bunch, and one of the indo sisters yells out "that's a WHOLE branch? she thought it was branch, so when she realized it was my family and they were all active in the church, she kinda freaked out. but i thought that was totally awesome. sis mongan also wants me to bring that pic to our new member's houses when we teach about the temple because i told her about the temple trip we do every year. mom...read my patriarchal blessing and you'll see that this is fulfillment of prophesy :) anyways...just thought was cool. i love my family!

so i realized on sunday that tryouts were prob last week. how are my little sophs (now juniors...ah i can't believe they're growing up so fast!) doing? i'm guessing their first game was either this week or next? also, fill me in on the coaching situation. ugh...i still feel awful about the timing of things with that, but let the girls know that i'm thinking about them all the time.

Today we went and did "service" at a hotel, handing out translation headphones. all day. 5 sisters. ya...we basically just sat and ate food the entire day. lol, welcome to service in indonesia, ya? haha it was fun though, and i worked on a lot of vocab. between sis mongan and sis rhondeau, i'm learning SO much. sis mongan is such a great trainer, and has been teaching me everything i'll need to know to become the best missionary possible, and sis rhondeau helps me understand the language a lot better. again..heavenly father is looking out for me, and there's no way i can let a single moment of this transfer slip by me because they could make or break me later on.

Well...i think that's all. it's been a whirlwind of emotions of a week, but the last few days have been SOO good. emily richardson told me that the best part of her mission was at night when she'd be so dead tired that she'd just fall on her pillow and not remember hitting it sometimes. last night was one of those nights...i was so out of it cuz we'd worked/taught all day long, and it was definitely one of the best feelings i've had thus far on the mish. i love this place...i love the people, i love the girls i live with, and i'm really starting to love the language. there is no place i'd rather be than here (altho coaching does come FAIRLY close ;). this is where i'm supposed to be, and i can already tell that i've become a better person for everything i've learned thus far...and we're only 2 weeks into the field. haha. thanks again for all the support and love. i know i've always been blessed, and it's something that i'll never take for grantite. i hope everyone has a great week. LOVES~
Sister Sara :)

November 11th--add on

My first day in the house, i did 2 of the things i was looking the most forward to doing...i ate dinner with my hands (it's wonderful...i never wanna use utensils again!) and squatted to go to the bathroom. i also got to "shower," which is just dumping water over your head, and that's definitely my favorite part of the day. every morning and night i have my "mandi" and dump water all over myself. holy cow....i dunno any better feeling with this heat. it's really not as hot as i'd expected, but i've heard it's worse in the other cities cuz the pollution here is so bad. so we'll see what happens. i actually wouldn't mind staying here til after Christmas, but again...we'll see what happens once we have transfers. It's pouring outside right now, and apparently that's what i have to look forward to for the next 4-6 months...yay! haha. it's gonna be awesome tho, i'm excited.

Indonesia Address

Sister Sara Hewlett
Indonesia Jakarta Mission
Jalan Senopati 115
Kebayoran Baru
Jakarta 12190
Indonesia