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 :)
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