CANTIK

Woohoo!This week has been fantastic as far as appointments go…we met with Chern, and although we never get that baptismal date, I always feel like she’s REALLY starting to understand the gospel more and more, which hopefully puts her that much closer to baptism. I actually learned a big lesson this week about following the promptings of the spirit… as I was preparing for the lesson on Friday morning, I had this feeling that we should talk about something else, but since I know Chern (she’s definitely “Asian” if you know what I mean…and if you don’t, ask someone who does), I knew that probably wouldn’t go over too well the day of, so I just went forward with the plan (we're learning from the Gospel Essentials manual, so she reads before we come over, and then we discuss). Well, in the appointment that day, she said something that went back to the subject that I’d been prompted to teach earlier… and I knew then that I had truly ignored the promptings of the Lord, who knows best how to help Chern. And here I am, the messenger who is supposed to be his mouthpiece… so that was disappointing to me, but I have repented, and now we have changed tomorrow’s discussion to what I was prompted in the first place. We’ll see how that goes…

Cherie has been AWESOME this week. We met on Saturday, and had a great lesson about the Restoration with the Orton’s and PJ. The Orton’s basically gave the lesson for me after we watched the movie, saying everything that I’d wanted to…so I just put it in the “challenge” form, and she agreed. Her family is starch Catholic, and her mother lives with them, watching their son, and so…well, we’re finding out that that’s the biggest obstacle for Cherie right now to overcome. She says she knows the church is true, but she doesn’t know if she can face her family, and especially break her mom’s heart. I’ve been putting myself in her situation, and I can definitely understand how hard that’s going to be. Her family (extended included…they’re VERY close) has supported her through school and her entire life (and again… her mom LIVES with them), and so it really is hard for her to overcome that. But her mom is gone with her son for 2 weeks to the Phillipines, so we’re trying to really focus on her knowing where God wants her to go right now, so that when her mom gets back, she’ll know more solidly what God wants, and she’ll hopefully have the strength to do whatever she needs. She came to church on Sunday, and then we met again last night, and discussed the Plan of Salvation. Again…I felt prompted to say a lot of things that I hadn’t planned on (about the PofS AND especially other things), so hopefully there was at least something there that helped her find her answer. They are seriously the cutest little couple…man alive! And PJ’s been really good about church, and he’s really working on doing what he needs to to get to the temple next year. So we’re working with them…

Besides that, all the Indonesian’s we’re teaching have been out of town, so it’s been a bit of a slow week again, EXCEPT FOR ZONE TRIP!!!! Monday we went to the beach, and it was SOOO much fun! I personally still would’ve preferred to ride the elephant at Taman Safari, but the beach was a close second. We went to the beach on Jawa that is closest to Krakatawa (that is totally and completely spelled wrong, but it’s the volcano that erupted and was so huge that it separated Jawa from Sumatera… yes, president told me the whole story. Haha, he’s lucky I love to hear all his stories, cuz all the other missionaries just say “yes president” then leave, but I love to hear about all his knowledge of Indonesia), and it was so nice. Maybe not completely clean, but better than what I’ve heard about Ancol. It was hard to not swim when we first got there, but Heavenly Father is a very understanding and loving Father, so he sent clouds after lunch that cooled things down and helped me to not be tempted to jump in the water. Haha. It was fun tho…funny story. So after all the pics were taken, we went and changed into more comfortable clothes, and when I came out, most of the boys were playing football in the sand while all the girls were just watching. Well…LAME! I was seriously so disappointed, and no one wanted to play…so I watched for about 5 minutes, and then I felt like I was in that scene from the Sandlot, where the nerd jumps off the diving board, and says “I can’t take it anymore!” while watching the lifeguard chick…haha, I just stood up, walked onto the beach, and told the closest elder to me that I was going to play, and which team he wanted me on. Well, it took a bit of warming up (I don’t know if they thought I was serious or what), but they actually started passing the ball to me, and I caught almost all the passes :P haha, but when I caught the ball, I couldn’t go anywhere, cuz they couldn’t touch me… so that was lame, but I got to play so whatevs. It was fun, and I was sweaty and sandy when it was over. I loved it!

Lunch was good…sloppy joes with fried rice, haha. Then somebody started a game of soccer, and some of us got bored, so we took a stroll down the beach…which was TONS of fun. And we got a ton of fun pics with the whole group. It was interesting, tho, cuz about half the elders with us are going home today, and so they were TRUNKY. So we had some fun with that. When we got back to the picnic area, everyone was packing up to go, and we went home. So that was kinda sad…I’m not gonna lie, after a “normal” day, planning for Tuesday was REALLY hard. There were actually a few tears from the sisters in Bandung about the thought, I felt so bad (apparently things are really hard down there right now…), but I’m feeling better today so no worries :) the work moves forward, and the more days I’m here, the more likely I am to meet someone new who is ready and waiting to receive the message of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I am so incredibly grateful for my calling, for my opportunity to serve in Indonesia. I really have been so incredibly blessed here…I have so many new friends who have become my temporary family, and I know that I will always be close to them, even when I’m on the other side of the world again.

I was telling Cherie last night…I KNOW I’m here for a reason. There have been too many “accidents” in the last year to make any doubt in my mind about God’s plan for me vanish (knee, mtc group, visa problems, being comps with Sis Lie, and MANY more). I’m here for a reason, and I’m gonna work hard so that I can look back and KNOW what that reason(s) was. I love you all, and thank you again and again for the support and love. I look at all these people who go through their lives in this gospel without the support of their families, and I have no idea how they do it…I am SOOO blessed. Loves!

~Sister Sara