November 10, 2014--Already email time again!

Ibu yang sangat terkasih, yang saya mengasihi dan yang saya merindu dan yang saya mau lihat karena anda sangat baik hati dan wondromous dan amazing,

(Dearest Mother, whom I love and miss and wish to see because you are good-hearted and "wondromous" and "amazing.") 

Sister Donald was trying to be funny when she said that This Too Shall Pass. And I laughed at the time, despite the pain :)

Yeah, it's really exciting to have six missionaries here :). Only one is new, it's Elder Sukarno, and he is originally from Solo over in the center of the island of Java (which is the island I'm on). The others are Elder Honda and Elder King, from Australia and Texas, respectively. Elder King is our district leader, and he's been out a little under a year. Elder Honda has been out for a year and a half. I really like all of them, and I think the work is going to pick up significantly over here. Many other areas are getting more missionaries, but Bogor's ward has the most missionaries assigned to it, with 6. Other areas with 6 or 8 missionaries have 2 or 3 wards/branches. Something's about to happen.

So you know how my bike broke twice last week? Well, we went to go fix it this week, and this was a little tender mercy, but the guy who fixes it for us did it this week for free. So I didn't have to pay anymore for it to be working. It was soo nice of him! I think he felt bad because it broke again because he didn't tighten one of the bolts enough when he fixed it the first time. That bike-fixing guy deserves blessings!

This week, we had one really cool teaching experience. It was with this lady from the area book who was recommended to us by the AP, who taught her when he lived in Bogor. We've been trying to meet with her but she couldn't until this week. She is knowledgeable about the Bible and according to the old teaching record, was hesitant to believe what the missionaries said if they couldn't back it up with scripture. Also, her husband died a few years ago (she is only 35ish) so she is a widow. The previous missionaries talked about eternal families. However, she was wary because they didn't have good scriptures from the Bible or the Book of Mormon to back them up. So, we decided to go and teach Pelajaran 2, the Plan of Salvation. We used tons of scriptures, both from the Alkitab and The Kitab Mormon to help her see the evidences that there was a preexistence with God, we will all be resurrected, and about the Spirit World before resurrection and judgment. She was curious and she believed what we said. She agreed to baptism, but without a date for right now. We asked tons of good questions, made sure she understood, and used scriptures and it was honestly just a great lesson where the spirit was there. But the best part was the end. She is Catholic, and so usually says recited prayers. We told her about how Jesus taught us to pray from our hearts and to kneel when we pray. She agreed to offer a kneeling prayer at the end of the lesson, and to say what was really in her heart. Her prayer really touched me. I was crying as she prayed. So was she. She prayed that she would get to see her husband when they were both resurrected, and she thanked Father that she could meet with Elder Sinaga and I. She prayed that she would understand and that she could continue to learn from the Alkitab and Kitab Mormon every day as she studied. It was so cool. There are people here that the Lord has been preparing for years to accept His gospel. We have to be ready to find them, and worthy to teach them.

Here's to a week of success on the Indonesian front and the Idaho front! I hope that you all can share what you know with your friends. I love you guys :) And I frequently use that scripture from Jeremiah, it's a good one. [Mom note: I shared Jeremiah 1:5-9 with him in my letter this week] I hadn't thought of how it could apply to me like that though :) Thanks for that mom :)

Love you!!!!!!!

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Elder Paskett