kelemahan manusia sy

well, last week was a whole bunch of running around getting stuff for the halloween party...and then it rained all morning and almost all afternoon saturday, and i KNEW my numbers were gonna be low...which they were. most of the branch didn't come, only 1 investigator showed up, and half the people at the party were the 2 families of the primary presidency there for the childrens program on sunday. so....ya, i overplanned. A LOT. but for all of us that went, we had fun, and it was good. at first i was pretty disappointed and actually frustrated, but then i had a quote from PMG come to my mind that goes something like, "no effort exerted in service is in vain." so that actually made me feel better, and enjoy the party more. i was a black cat, and jo was an angel. it was fun.
as far as appointments go this week, nothing too exciting...we finished the Family Proclamation with pak siregar and his wife, which he agreed with all of it, so there isn't anything to report on with that....we read 3 nephi 11 with ibu dina, and talked about authority and power - but of course we hafta be soft, so we didn't directly say anything about her own personal baptism, but i think next week i might go into further detail about that. little by little....
monday we met with the prabowohadi family again, and they're good to sit and listen to us, but when we challenged them to pray that night with a prayer of gratitude, not ASKING for anything, only giving thanks, the dad made it perfectly clear again that they're in their church for good. and yet i still feel like if they would just TRY what we give to them for challenges, he'd feel happier in his life....i dunno. they're a GREAT family. but he won't do anything we ask them to. we gave the mom a hymn and childrens songbook, so i'm hoping she'll read and sing those, and that'll help her understand our church and its doctrines more. i feel like if we can touch the mom, the dad'll come along eventually. we'll see. i talk a lot about temples and eternal families while i'm there tho...
so the other day during personal study, i had an idea hit me so hard that i immediately did as it said....draw a pic of the tree of life, and THATS how we can help our inactive members find their testimonies again. which is pretty interesting, cuz 2 of our 5 families are already active again...and the other 3 are hard to meet with. but maybe this'll help me in the future? anywho, so i drew the pic, and then found the references that describe the meaning of each symbol. then, i drew 4 different people - for the 4 different types of people found in 1 nephi 8 - those who are lost the entire time, those who taste of the fruit but are ashamed, those who taste of the fruit and rejoice, and then those who are in the building making fun of those eating of the fruit. it's pretty cool, and i see now that that was certainly the HG working through me. i still don't know when i'll use it, but hopefully it'll be something that'll touch other's lives.
yesterday we tried on shirts for a wedding this weekend - a couple in the branch are getting married (after 10 years together...holy cow! yup, that's not too unheard of here...) on saturday, and us sisters are the welcoming committee, and i'm also helping by playing the piano for it. i'm not gonna lie....you're gonna LOVE pics of these outfits. weddings here use clothes that are STELLAR and BRIGHT and AWESOME. i wanna make myself an outfit before i leave. maybe i'll do that together with making my own jeans....
anywho, thats about it for the week. today we're going to take pics with the widyataman bball team, so i'm excited for that. it's been a few weeks since we've practiced, cuz they're coach is busy with other teams. and next week we're off to jakarta to meet with pres pratt, a member of the 70, and then we'll have a small "thanksgiving lunch" on thursday before we go home. yay!
this week i've learned that the HG is strongest with us when we follow the commandments. when we don't follow those commandments, the blessings are taken from us, along with the HG, and without Him, i can't do this work i'm suppposed to be. so marilah....let's all follow the commandments better this next week so we can be more worthy to recieve of the HG and blessings that come! i love you all, thanks for the support, and I'M GONNA BE AN AUNT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! loves~
~Sara