May 23, 2016

Dearest Mother most marvelous,

Our new place is a house. Most people here live in houses, apartments are pretty rare (I think they might typically run more expensive than just buying or renting a house). In Jakarta that's not the case, tons of apartments, but all the missionaries live in houses. It's pretty normal to have the Elders just do all the legwork because there's not really anyone else to do it I think.

This week we had a great time! We got a few promising new investigators this week. We went out contacting with a brother from the branch who likes to fellowship with us and we walked by a few people's houses and they called out to us, so we just started chatting and they invited us in and were totally excited about the book of mormon and coming to our church. So we'll see how things go with them this upcoming week.

Also, church yesterday was a little bit strange because the turn-out was so low. Almost nobody came, a lot of the members were busy. I think we only had around 15 people. But after a few minutes Ibu E and her three kids showed up. They came to primary (the only kids in primary) and 1 went to the youth class (which was just himself and one mia maid). We were so glad they came :) It seemed like they really enjoyed it there! They are doing so well as a family. This week we visited them on Tuesday and then on Friday we had a family home evening at the Jeffery's house. We talked about how to hold a family home evening and also got them started on a family history book :) They had a great time and they love to work on their family history. I really hope that they can be baptized :) Ibu E's husband is muslim, so he has not yet expressed interest in meeting with us. We think that maybe the spirit of elijah can start to work on his heart as we ask for his help with their family history as well. I hope that they will come to stake conference next week.

This past week on Monday we tried holding family home evening with a few less-active members. We just stopped by their houses and shared a little message and asked how they were doing. One of the inactive members that we visit is named Brother S. :) He is the funniest, nicest guy. He has a really cool conversion story where the Elders taught him how to read and then he ended up being baptized. His wife is not a member yet, but we are trying to work with her. Brother S owns a rice field, so every once in a while we've gone and helped him plow his rice field which was really fun. Do they grow rice in the states? I've actually been wondering that and people always ask me but I'm not even sure anymore.

Our eternal investigator, Pak T, who has been coming to church faithfully for over a year now, has been showing some signs of progress. He hasn't wanted to be taught by the missionaries for a long time, he just always comes to church. One day it was raining and we were pulling our broken bikes into the church so we could ride an angkut to our appointment. Pak T had taken shelter from the rain right in front of the church! So, we invited him in and he said sure, so we went in together and we were able to share a little bit about the gift of the holy ghost and how it will be such a blessing to him after he is baptized. He's a really nice guy and he would help us to have another worthy priesthood holder in this small branch.

Anyways, that's all I have time to write. I love you so much momma, talk to you next week!

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Elder Paskett