SELAMAT NATAL DAN TAHUN BARU!

Well...I'd written half my e-mail, and then my computer died...so you're only getting a REALLY short email this week, maaf, ya?

So Christmas was good, i wrote all about it, but now you just get that we went bowling, ate dinner, watched "The Nativity Story" which I loved, and then Santa came while we did a white elephant. It was fun. I loved all my presents (Kel, I got your package yesterday...THANKS SO MUCH! I LOVED IT ALL!! you are too cute...the album is adorable, and everything was just awesome. But all the cards were opened, the package itself was basically left open, so PLEASE make sure you guys don't put anything valuable in these packages, cuz they even checked the cards to see if there was money. Also...Mom, for my June package, Kel sent me some foot nylons, and I know I'm gonna need some more good ones by then, so the ones at Ross are the ones I got and I LOVE them, so send those? Thanks!) Yes I cried when I opened the calendar, I loved it totally and completely! Pres. even said he was gonna take it away if it drew me away from the work when he heard I'd been bawling in his kitchen when I opened it...but I told him it would only push me to be better :P so that was fun.

Yesterday, Sis Lie and I taught our first REAL lesson by ourselves, anything and everything that could've gone wrong basically did... we forgot loads, we didn't answer all their questions prob in the way that missionaries more experienced would've, the first vision was AWFUL and ya...but somehow, the Spirit helped us to still get the message across about how important this work is, and the FAMILY (yes, FAMILY...a mom, dad, and 2 teenage girls all sat in on the lesson) loved Joseph Smith, loved the BofM, and just..oh man. they'd be GREAT members! Hopefully they come to church on Sunday, and hopefully things go well with them. But believe me when I say...I KNOW the Lord makes up for things we can't do when we do all we can with our abilities. Cuz that lesson should've been a totally wreck, but it somehow turned out in the end. It was awesome!

Monday, Sis and I went the day helping Florentina with her English books. They're AWFUL, so we were helping her make them more correct. She has this long story at the end absolutely NOTHINg. She said she got it off the internet, and I believe it...maybe it's a really good story in INdonesia, but in English it just doesn't make sense at all. But whatevs, anywho, while we did that, Sis Mongan and Lie went and visited her family outside of Jarkata. She Lie is trying to help her family have a desire to learn about the church, so I thought at was pretty cool. A good opportunity for her to bless her family a little bit more personally while she serves the Lord.

INDRI IS BACK! She's had a bit of a rough go. She was in S.C. for a month, said sh loved her ward, they accepted her and became her instant family (I love this church!), but something happened where the immigration office or whoever told her she needed to come back to Indo for 2 weeks, and then she'd be good for the rest of her schooling. So she was on her way to church on Sunday, and her wallet, with $300 in it, got stolen. And its just gone downhill from here. Its just such an awful situation. the guy basically just wants more money, and sho she's been tyring to get the police to take Care of him...Hopefully tomorrow that happens. I feel bad for her. We've already met twice this week, cuz she wants to learn, but we've been focusing on strengthening her thru this experience. Sulit sekali!

For pday today, we went to one of the elder's investigator's house and played basketball and soccer. It was AWESOME! First time I've really gotten to play since I got her. And May...I have a feeling my confidence in my ballin' skills is gonna be super high when I come home cuz I'lol have played against Indos for 16 months, and then I'm gonna get home and hafta start from ground zero. Ugh. But ya...thats my way of saying that bball isn't really a sport that the Indos hafe mastered over here. haha. But it was tons of fun, and I was lad we went. So I tried to talk to Pres. about somehow using bball as a way to meet new people, but he thinks we need to focus on English classes (getting into colleges and high schools to teach. Cuz..ya know, we're all SUCH experienced teachers in the english language). I dunno what else to do. I've actually started asking people fromt the English branch to let me know if they know of any service that we can help with, cuz there is NOTHING that I can find otherwise. Anywho..any ideas you have would be great!

Ah! I almost forgot! So I gave my first talk on Sunday, in Indonesian. lol. It was great. I read the entire thing, which I HATE when other people do, but I figured that was better than me having to figure out how to translate when I hadn't prepared before that. Hopefully it went ok. I had sis mongan help me with some of it, but I really did translate the whole thing myself...and there weren't too many mistakes when I Read it to the other sisters. So that made me feel good. The language is coming. SLOWLY. but it's coming.

Alright, well I best be off..my time is up. I love you all! Thanks again fort he love and support. I know I'm her for the best reasons possible, and I'm so grateful to have the support I have, cuz I dunno how I'd be able to do this without that. You're wonderful! The church truly is headed by Christ, and I'm SO grateful to help in the spreading of it to all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people! Loves!

-Sister Sara