August 28, 2014--Two MTC Weeks!

Hello most wonderful mother whose cooking I most sorely yearn for,

It already feels like I've been here for months. Just like you were saying. I've totally noticed the gift of tongues too, both helping me and my companions.

There are no sisters in our district, just 9 hunky-dory Elders :). Our zone has a few sisters, but as zone leaders we're not really in charge of them since they're sisters. As zone leaders, we welcomed the Elders going to Madagascar, and one of them, Elder Cooley, he kept calling me Legolas on the soccer field when we play. I guess I should have played soccer in high school ;).

I pray for you every day, too! I pray for each member of the family, by name. I've been worrying about Landon, praying some extra prayers in his direction, I hope he's doing alright! And I'm glad to hear that Maddy knows people in her classes. I've been praying for her too!

We had our first round of Japanese Encephalitis shots on the Thursday after we got here. We'll get the second shot on the week before we leave, I think.

I totally got Jarom's picture and I hung it up in my room :) It is SUPER awesome!!!! :D 

Okay, and if you do ever send me a package, I need one thing rather desperately, I'm realizing: a picture of our family. A kind of recent one would be nice. Just something that is small enough to fit in my scriptures or something. But I'm realizing it would be very very useful to have to show the orang-orang Indonesia and talk about families. So if you guys could work on something like that, I would be hugely grateful.

We get a weekly stipend of $6 on our MTC ID card that we can spend in the bookstore, so I've been able to get most things I need with that. So I'll be able to get a sharpie to label stuffs.

Anyways, on to the good stuff. You have to tell Kyle Wintersteen about this, but one day, we were feeling kind of stressed, and I figured it would cheer everyone's spirits if I read them a prophecy (I told them it was about Indonesian food). I found the scripture because Kyle left a note in my scriptures on that spot. It's Jeremiah 4:19-21. It begins, "My bowels, my bowels!" Hahahaha we were probably laughing for a good five minutes. Some of us were crying. It was really funny :) Thank you Kyle!!!

Something I figured out today that is really cool is about the word for Savior in Indonesian. "Juru" is a word that means "someone who is skilled at something". So a "juru bahasa" is an interpreter (bahasa means language). Selamat is the word for "safe". Keselamatan can be translated "salvation" or "safety". The word for Savior is Juruselamat, or, "one who is skilled at saving". Jesus Christ is truly skilled at saving us. He gave His whole life so that we could live again, and I'm so grateful to Him for that. He's here in the work. He directs His work and He wants us to invite others to come unto Him. Don't ever be afraid to talk to others about Him because He is skilled at saving us from our fears, too :)

We watched a recorded MTC devotional from a few years ago by Elder Bednar called "Character of Christ".  After watching that, Elder Bednar almost ousts Elder Holland as my favorite apostle (if we're allowed to have those). He talked about the natural man in us, and likened that to the cookie monster, who always wants cookies, NOW!, and once he gets them, he devours them. Then he talked about Christ. Part of Christ's character is that He's "always turning outwards". When He was most discouraged or at His very lowest, He would heal someone's ear or ask for angels to minister to someone in jail. His talk made me feel so selfish, but also made me want to change so so bad and be so much more loving. I love my Savior Jesus Christ and I'm so grateful that He always turns to me, even when I let Him down. I know He lives. I know that anyone else can know that too, through prayer.

Love,

Elder Paskett

orang-orang = people 

bahasa =  language

juru = skilled

selamat = safe (from Arabic "salaam")