October 20, 2014--Mother :)

Elder Sinaga & Elder Paskett

Wow I love you so much most wonderful mother of my very own whom I am so blessed to have :)

This was a pretty not-too-bad week. Actually, it was really amazing :) Pak Bernard got baptized on Thursday. Afterwards, he was saying to me (in English): "wow, I feel so good." He was confirmed yesterday and enjoyed church and classes and everything. A few of the members have been really good at being his friend and I am soo grateful for that :).

With Pak Bernard, 10/16

<< As you can see with Pak Bernard, it ended up being a little awkward, because I was willing to let him borrow my white pants, but then with the other 2 baptisms that were going on that day (an 8-yr old and the wife of a member), there weren't any extra pants and I ended up having to wear the jumpsuit that was way too big. No big deal ;) Although my embarrassment was not helped when a member jokingly remarked to me, "Elder, di sini bukan bait suci". ("Here is not the temple.") I explained how there weren't any extra pants. It was a wonderful experience to baptize him, though. I spent quite a while making sure I had the words memorized.

I think reactivation is rather difficult. I wish I felt like we were having more success with that. But at least for now, we're building relationships with member families and inviting them to come to church--I think as we're patient, the fruit will come. They need to see our love though you know?

As for people to teach, we have found a few this week :). Hopefully things will continue to work out with them. One of them was from the area book and we've been trying to meet with him but no success until yesterday!! And when we did meet him, we came with a member and he was super friendly and excited to meet us and liked meeting with the elders that were here before us. We re-shared the first lesson about the restoration with him because he forgot much of it in the months between Elder Sinaga and I and the missionaries who met with him before. It was a pretty good lesson. He seemed to understand when we asked him questions and we felt like we were all friends and it was great! He responded positively to our commitments to read and pray about the book of mormon--in 2 Nefi 31 specifically. We extended the invitation to be baptized. He explained that he believes that Joseph Smith is a prophet, and he believes that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. However, as we had read from Ephesians earlier in the lesson, "one faith, one lord, one baptism"--and seeing as how he was already baptized in his other christian church--he had already had one baptism and therefore didn't need another, according to that scripture. Awkward sekali. ("very") I don't think he totally understood about the apostasy and priesthood authority. But we're going to try to keep meeting with him and clear things up about that.

Elder Paskett & Elder Sinaga

Yeah, so through English class, we try to make contacts, but we haven't had much success so far because for some reason, most of our attendees are children. We talk to their parents afterwards but sometimes they don't come with their parents and they're in a hurry afterwards. We haven't had any teaching appointments come from english class yet--but this week we met a family while we were riding an angkut home from Pak Bernard's house and they were excited to attend class and seemed interested in our message a little bit. Hoping to have some success with them!! :)

I really want to see Meet the Mormons!! We haven't had a chance to and I don't think that we really will here in Indonesia--but semoga! ("hopefully") You'll have to buy it once it comes out and I can watch it when I give you that hug :). Also, did you know, movies here are only 50 cents?? It's pretty awesome.

I'm glad to hear that everyone is doing well and that Maddy is excelling at cross-country--it seems I have taught her well ;). Also, we were meeting with a member family this past week, Brother Budihardi and his wife, and they said their son (who's named Risky) was recently married to a young woman by the name of Madoka Yamasaki, who is from Fukuoka, and they both live there right now! Yamasaki is probably a pretty common name in Japan, but is there a chance you or dad knew any members named Yamasaki with a young daughter, Madoka? Because if so, that's awesome!! Just let me know :)

Keep being strong and remember every day to build your testimony up through sincere, heartfelt prayer. There's so much power when we pray to our Father. He really just wants to hear from us. I feel his strengthening power when I kneel in the mornings and thank Him for the opportunity of that day. I know He's listening. Anyways, love you all!!!

Elder Paskett

Elder Paskett & Elder Keller, I presume

^...what we call "The Jungles of Bogor." There are pockets of space like that that are usually in little bowl-type valleys that just look like jungle. It's very pretty.

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"Berani Coba?" literally translates as "Brave try?", but means, "brave enough to try?" We were trying durian fruit, which is the most disgusting-smelling fruit on the face of the planet. It's not too bad though, I like the taste of it. :)