Turut Berduka cita‏

Another crazy week, but one that was joyfully filled with appointments and new ideas and…man alive, just a good week.

We visited Lena (this is for you, Jackie :P) last week, and she’s doing really good, but when we talked about coming into the fold of Christ (aka the church), she had some really interesting questions, like why does she HAVE to go to our church, since all churches teach good things, along with how come our church is the only church with the BofM. These are very important questions…so hopefully we answered the in a way that Lena could understand and realize that it is VERY important. However she wasn’t at church on Sunday :(

We visited Chern on Friday, and it was another great lesson. I don’t even feel like I’m really teaching Chern…half the time she’s teaching me, she understands the gospel so well. She’s great tho, and we had a great talk. On Sunday, her husband was made the 2nd counselor in the branch presidency, and I’ve heard from a few reliable sources that that was done on purpose…to put an added emphasis on getting Chern baptized. But we’ll see if it works.

I also had pres talk to me on Friday at DDM about putting together a fireside at Senopati for all the investigators in the English branch (which is basically Chern and Cheri, although the branch president says he has a few people he’d like to invite as well), and so I’ve been put in charge of that – woo hoo! Haha, I love stuff like that. I talked to President Donald (branch president), and we picked a date in late April, and I’m trying to decide what else we can do…although we’ll see what happens, and if I’m even still here at that point. But I’m excited!

Saturday, Sis Lie and I were invited, along with Elder & Sister Millecam, to a school that one of the member’s works at, where they had some sort of event…well ,come to find out, it was a celebration of Muhammed’s bday, and we (the Christian, bule missionaries) were the honored guests. Holy cow…this country is CRAZY! But it was awesome, and I had a lot of fun. We did announce our English class, and handed out our pass along cards, and I had one guy who was NOT happy at all, and actually took all my blank pass along cards (we gave all the ones with the info away, so I was filling more out) from me so I’d stop…ya, there was a tiny bit of a miscommunication problem involved, but whatevs. He was NOT happy, and he made it very plain, so I felt pretty bad, but then I had half the school come and apologize after that, so that made me feel better. Now if I could just get Sis Lie to be smarter about the people she tries to become “brave” with, we would’ve been just fine.

I also volunteered to make some new English class cards that have maps on them, so I’ve worked on that a few times this week and they look AWESOME. Definitely putting that in my file of fliers/whatever else I’ve made when I get home. We just gotta get it approved by president now :)

Cherie was at church again on Sunday! So we’re slowly progressing with her, but her mom comes home with the baby this week, along with her brother, and so when we met yesterday I told her the next few weeks are really going to show what’s going to happen with her from now on. It’s such a hard position, and pres just wants me to show her all the examples of people in the bible who chose the gospel over other obstacles, but… well, I just don’t feel right about that. Cuz to me, the family is SOO important, and unless she feels incredibly strong about getting baptized herself, it’s hard to force her to see things the way we see it. Cuz the way we see it is far easier than what it’d mean for her. So we’re praying and fasting for her.

We met a referral Sunday night, and she was really great…she’s going to come to the relief society activity on Saturday, and before that starts we’re going to teach her the first lesson. Sunday, we just met her and gave her the BofM, and kinda tried to explain a bit about that. She seemed pretty excited to read it, and her only question when we were done explaining was, “so does it have stuff in it like the Bible that helps you become a better person?” haha, we answered that of course it does, and she promised she’d read it. So we’ll see where things go with Selin.

We have another appointment tonight with a girl I met last week, Raz, who has PERFECT English and loves to learn about different religions. I’m excited to see how things go with her... she’s only 20 years old, but way more mature than me already, and has great plans for her future with psychology, and helping people understand it better. Yay for new people to teach!

So…funny story about Sis Lie. I mentioned that she broke her tailbone when we went ice skating a few weeks ago right? Well, she did, but it’s been better the last few weeks, until Monday…we were at the church, and she got on the phone to talk to someone, and went to sit down…and missed the chair and landed in a big empty bin….IT WAS THE FUNNIEST THING IN THE WORLD! At first I just asked if she was ok, but then she started laughing…which got me going, and then I couldn’t stop. Actually, I couldn’t do ANYTHING after that. I couldn’t tell the person on the phone to hold on (I finally did, but it took a while of calming down), or help Lie up…although it was an awkward position to try to help her anyways, but still…I felt bad, but it was HILARIOUS. Unfortunately, now I get to hear her every complaint and she walks even slower than before...but maybe that's just Heavenly Father saying that my patience isn't quite where it needs to be yet...joy :)

oh, i almost forgot! we went and visited 2 older members in the branch with Sister Suhendro (my fill-in Grandma here), and we originally planned to do that with regular transportation, which we figured would take all day but whatevs, and then Sister Stefi found out our plan, and volunteered to drive us...cuz she said we'd never get home if we did public transportation. she it actually ended up that Elder Subandryo went with us too, and it was a fun filled ride - but i just hafta say, the gentleman that we visited, with his wife, was the first Indonesian couple to serve a mission, and he'd specifically asked me at the conference with Elder Nelson to come visit him, which of course i promised to do...and he was SOOO grateful for it. he kept telling me how much he appreciated me keeping my promise, and especially for coming with Elder Subandryo (he REALLY looks up to Elder Subandryo a ton)...it was such a fun thing to do. we also visited Sister Suhendro's best friend, so it was cute to see them all excited to see each other, cuz i know that doesn't happen too often. so it was a really well spent 4 hours (vs the whole day :).

well, it's time to head...i love you all, and thanks again for all you do for me. God bless and loves~

~Sara