Beruntung :)‏

Whew…where to start this week, huh? Well, zone conference is good. As usual, it was inspiring, and actually EXACTLY what I needed. Pres had Elder & Sister Paul from Honk Kong come and talk to us…a psychiatrist and nurse. They talked about stress and anxiety, and it’s effects on a mission, basically telling us that what we’re feeling is normal (I think maybe cuz pres was sick of telling so many missionaries the same thing, but no one believes him cuz he doesn’t have the PH.d). they talked a lot about how to bring down the stress level…which was basically to just remember that everyone has their agency, and as long as we do our very best, that’s good enough. Which…I think was good, but I also thought they should’ve pointed out that we’re supposed to always STRIVE to become perfect, even tho actually becoming perfect is obviously not possible. But whatevs…it was good. Pres talked about death, cuz his 91 yr old mom died the week before (sorry dad…he already had a pre-need plan for her at another mortuary…but I tried :P). it was good, and definitely gave me a good boost for the last week… cuz I NEEDED it.

The sad news for the week is that Indri’s baptism is off. Hopefully just postponed, but most likely off. I’m not gonna go into details, but we’re not quite sure how much of her story is true, and we’ve spent the last week chasing after her. So now we’re done chasing, and ready to get back to work… which means contacting because we don’t have ANYBODY. I’ve been REALLY frustrated lately because we can’t seem to get ANY appointments with any of our contacts, while Sis and Sis Mongan have at least 2 or 3 every day. I know we’re not supposed to compare ourselves…but it’s kinda hard when we go thru our entire contact list and not a single person will meet with us, and they try 5 people, and get appointments with 4 of them. Ugh. Ya…I’ve been frustrated the last few days, and possibly a little depressed. But I’m trying to push thru that and just keep talking to people, and keep worrking to try and find those people who WILL listen to us. Actually… I have a testimony that that will happen, just from our experience yesterday…here’s the story.

Yesterday we had nothing, so we went to a big mall out by Chern’s house where Sister Mongan said there are a lot of Christians. But, we found that there aren’t any good central places to sit and find people to contact (other malls have fountains in the middle of them or some place that you can just sit and wait for people to sit next to you to start a conversation), altho sis lie did contact one person, which was totally awesome. I think I just hate shopping without a purpose too much to be good at it..but anywho, we left there and were sitting the bus station for about an hour, and I had one Muslim lady who invited me to her house just so she could have a bule there, and another Christian lady who I think I scared somehow (luckily sis lie contacted her later…ugh), which got me thinking about how I’ve been here for 3 months…and I’m totally sick of people who either hate me because I’m a bule, or are just overly excited to be talking to a bule in Indonesian…where all they want is pictures and to touch my skin (yes, skin DOES feel the same, no matter what color it is, people :P). it’s fine if that happens and I get a good contact out of it every once in a while, but…ugh, I was just really frustrated. So I prayed and asked Heavenly Father to help me to find some good contacts, and find someone who could help bring my spirits up. On the way back to our usual proselyting areas, I had the thought that we were passing by Ibu Agnus’ house, one of the 2 lessons we’ve taught with our contacts, and it’d been over a month since we’d been able to meet with them cuz they’re always busy. So I told Sis Lie we should go there and just drop in. she didn’t like the idea at first, but she finally gave in, and we went…and it was AWESOME. We just followed up with them and shared a scipture, but they had a lot of questions, and the father has been praying about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, and he’d read almost all of 3rd Nephi… not to mention that I understood FAR more this time than the last time. So we tried to answer all his questions, and even Ibu Agnus was more involved in this lesson than she had been in the last (she was REALLY quiet in the last one, but this time she read scriptures and asked a few of her own questions, so that was really good!). so then I was able to go home feeling FAR better about things. Thank goodness I have a Heavenly Father who hears and listens to my prayers, especially when I need them the most!

Another funny story…while at this mall, I was looking at movies, and I found CHURCHBALL! And then I freaked out. Lol. Who would’ve thought? Churchball in Indonesia? I was gonna buy it for Sis Lie, but it was a bad copy so I didn’t…but I just thought that was a funny, random thing to find here.Today we went to the national museum for pday, and that was fun. Remember that picture that steve found on the internet right after I got my call, mom? I now know that that is a tribe in Papua, and the reason behind their “dressings.” Haha, I told sis about that, and she just laughed.

I met with Chern last week, and I had Bro Hunter come as well, since I wanted to hear about their trip, and plus I think it’s good for him to be there every once in a while. We had a good discussion on our eternal families. But now we’re going to focus on her testimony of Christ. She comes from a Bhuddist background, so I don’t know that she has a true understanding of Christ and His Atonement…and without that…ya, why would you get baptized? So we’re really gonna be working on that the next few weeks, and hopefully that helps with her. Bro Hunter is such an awesome guy…and I know what her getting baptized would mean to him, so I want to help them as much as I possibly can to become the eternal family that they both want! I’m meeting with both Chern and Cherie this weekend, so hopefully those will keep being regular weekly appointments, and I can help both the families become eternal. I feel like that’s a lot of the reason that I’m still here in Jakarta…to work with these two families, and I’m so grateful for that opportunity. Sis lie is always really nervous to talk in them, but she does a good job, and she understands most of what’s going on.

One of the elders told me that our Singapore “trip” has been moved to March…so I should still be here for both the zone trip AND Elder Nelson! Woohoo! I’m so excited! I especially excited for Elder Nelson. I read a talk by him that I’m going to have Chern read about Christ and His Atonement, and…holy cow. Definitely the words of a man called of God. It’s gonna be a great experience to be here when he comes and visits Indonesia, and I’m grateful I get to be here for that.Well…time is running short. But time is also going by fast. I’m almost at 5 months now…almost 1/3 done! Craziness. But I’m grateful for this experience, and especially for family and friends who support me so much. I know your prayers truly are answered when it comes to me…cuz I’m still here, still kicking, still working hard. There’s no way I would be able to do any of this without the support of all of you. So thank you so much…I love you all so much! Have a good week, loves~

~Sister Sara