Wow. This place is different. I cannot find words that are adequate to describe how different it is here. Everything smells different, I'm practically breathing in water, the roads are so full of cars all the time it's insane, I think I'm gonna die everytime I ride my bike or even just cross the street, this call to prayer plays at like 4 AM and wakes me up (it is sometimes very pretty and sometimes very not), I can't understand half of what people are saying, and I don't feel comfortable doing something as simple as starting up a conversation with someone. It's a little overwhelming. By the end of the day, I feel exhausted. Mind and body. It gets hard to focus on what my companion is saying and planning is a doozy.
I am assigned to the city Bogor. :) Bogor is south of Jakarta, a couple hours by train. Supposedly it rains a lot here (although I have yet to see it). My companion's name is Elder Sinaga. He is from Medan, and he joined the church only about a year ago. He's been on his mission for 4 months, and Bogor is his second area. We're both new to the area which makes it tough. Most Elders from my mtc group are not yet in their assigned area because before they can travel by plane from Jakarta they need this thing called a "Kitas". It's an Indonesian government identification card. I will get mine sometime this week. Because Bogor is so close to Jakarta and I didn't need to fly, I get to start in the area where I'm actually assigned. It's pretty exciting :) In Bogor, there are 4 Elders. Before Elder Sinaga and I arrived, there were only 2, Elder Supriyanto and Elder Keller.
Our house is pretty nice (compared to many other houses here). We are blessed because we have both a showerhead and a toilet. Instead of toilet paper, we use a sprayer. The sprayer is much better than a ladle and your hand, though, so I am content :) There is running water, but it's always cold and it's not safe to drink. We have to call the water-man who brings us big jugs of bottled water, or we have to boil the water first. It's crazy different here. The food is almost all spicy and I have a low tolerance for spiciness. But, I'm trying to eat it and gradually gain a resistance to its painful power. The cabe here, chilis, they make me cry when I eat them because they are so hot. I had one on my first day but no more after that. :)
Investigator-wise, Elder Sinaga and I are so far at 0-2, depending on your classification of "investigator". This week, we're planning to visit lots of people in the area book and proselyte on our way to their homes to hopefully find more. On Saturday, Elder Sinaga and I were able to visit one ex-investigator named Alvin, who had lots of questions and seemed very interested (at least when I could understand him). We can't visit him until the second week of October though so we'll just see how that goes! Our other investigator is Pak Yedi. (Pak means Mr. basically). Pak Yedi is muslim and lives in a home which is "only sederhana, only sederhana", in his words to me. [sederhana=simple] It is a very small very simple home (a hut really) and he had us teach him outside on little plastic stools. His wife brought out some tea but we couldn't have it and I felt bad about that but then she brought out some water which she had just boiled and it was scalding but we drank it anyways. I'm not sure if Pak Yedi is really interested or just wants to convert us to Islam, but we had a pretty good discussion with him. Hopefully we can visit him again :)
Anyways, out of time here in the internet cafe (which costs about 50 cents an hour to use), so sampai minggu depan and love you mother!! :)
Elder Paskett
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