(strong in testimony concerning this Gospel,)
Ibu E is great!! :) This week we had stake conference in Solo. So, we rented out a bus and we left from the church in Magelang at 6am to get to Solo before 10. Ibu E and her 3 kids came to Solo with us! She also asked us if she could invite a friend, so her muslim friend even came too (with her son who is the same age as one of Ibu E's sons). So that was pretty cool. Ibu E's friend said she would be happy to meet with us too, so we are going to start teaching her this week. People who are happy learning the gospel like to share it with their friends! :) yay! We didn't have a chance to invite Ibu E to be baptized this week, but we have discussed it before and we hope that this upcoming week she can make the commitment.
This week we had some health challenges. One day I just had the most violent case of hershey squirts I have ever had, all day. I also felt super weak and listless. So I took some diarrhea medication and waited it out, but it wasn't getting any better, so we called Sister Donald and asked her what to do. In her great wisdom she advised that I go see a doctor. So we went to the hospital, and to make a long story short, they took a feces sample and found that I had some sort of stomach infection. So they put me on an antibiotic and gave me medication for anti-diarrhea, anti-nausea, anti-stomach pain, and something else to take as needed. I finish up the dosage of antibiotic today and am already feeling a lot better. That put me out of commission for a few days this week, but we still managed to get some teaching done.
Going to stake conference was probably the highlight of my week this week. President Donald gave a great talk about not being offended and staying active in the church. That was very fitting for this stake. I still remember back when when I was in Solo we had a ward of around 65 active members, but the ward list had a good two-hundred members listed. Pages and pages of inactives. My favorite talk was the last one, given by the visiting general authority (a 70 whose name I still don't know). He spoke in English, but an Elder helped give a sentence-by-sentence translation. He talked about how many people say the gospel is hard. He said that the gospel isn't hard. Life is hard. With or without the gospel, life is hard. But the gospel gives us the strength and the farsightedness to endure amidst life's challenges. He said how challenges come to us because God trusts us and wants us to become better. Sometimes people complain because they feel "I am doing all the right things, I am keeping all the commandments, so why would God let this challenge happen to me?" Sometimes it is precisely because we are doing the right things that God gives us a challenge to make us better, more capable, to purge us. He also said that sometimes we are disappointed because challenges can come from the church itself, from other members who are perhaps insensitive or unkind. He said that the church is like a hospital, we all come here for healing. He asked, "If you were sick, would you leave the hospital just because someone else in the hospital had a different sickness than you?" Of course not! His remarks were spot-on for me and I hope for a lot of the other members in this stake as well.
I want to send you some pictures so you can see some of our adventures this week! Love you past the dark side of the moon,
Elder Paskett
XOXOXOXOXOXOXXXOXOXOXOXOXXOOOO
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| This is a place called the chicken church. Cool right? |
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| Me and Elder Nonne in the boonies, taking a selfie. |
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| Some pictures of the bus ride to Stake Conference! :) |
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| Elder Nonne and I in the boonies again. |
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| Me on the bus to stake conference with two of Ibu E's kids. |
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Elder Nonne and I teaching in Ibu E's house.
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