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