Bekasi Week 13

       Us eating at Cipto's house, who is an English student

Hello Everyone!

This past week has been pretty strange, because it is the Islam holiday of Lebaran, which comes after Ramadhan. Almost everyone goes home to wherever they are from, and spends time with family. What is difficult, is the fact that many people in this area are from other places in Indonesia, so this area is very empty and quiet. Usually there is a lot of traffic and many people, but this week, there was none! 

It was hard to find anyone to visit, so we mostly went to the homes of members. It was a lot of fun. Here are some fun things that we did. 

Last week for P-day, we went to a nearby mall which is brand new and really nice. They had a little Mummy exhibition, which was pretty cool, but everything inside was fake. But looking around at the mall was really fun. We saw some members there, and they immediately invited us to eat with them. We drove to a restaurant, and ate together. I was so glad that we saw them! They were really nice to us. 

The very next day, we went to the home of Brother Bong and his family. He had a daughter there who was visiting from Texas, where she lives with her husband. Her kids are part Indonesian, but they can only speak a little of the language since they are being raised in Texas. They had been in Indonesian for a long time, and so they were very happy to talk English with me. It was really funny. We ate pizza, which is rare, so I was very happy. 

Although almost all of our investigators were gone, we were still able to meet with a few of them. We had some great lessons, and I was glad that they continue to receive us. We are a bit short on investigators, and the ones we have are not really making a lot of progress. So we have continued to focus on finding new investigators, and I hope we have some success! It is just so hard to proselyte here when you cannot go door-to-door. 

Another family we visited was the Cayono family. They are a very strong, active family, and they invited us to their home. It was very far away, so they picked us up and drove us. We gave a short message on Missionary work, and ate a ton! We listened to some stories from their Missions and experiences, and it was a lot of fun. I am so grateful for the members here!

One new thing this week is that a big move was announced. I am staying in Bekasi, but everyone else in this house is moving. Elder Mulyono is going home, Elder Mongan is moving to Bandung, and Elder Johnson is moving to Manado. My new companion is Elder S.Martoyo, who was my trainer in Semarang! He only has a little bit left, and I am really happy to get the chance to be companions with him again. We will work really hard since we have two areas to cover now. 

For P-day today, we went to Jakarta with some other Missionaries in the Zone, and went ice skating at a very nice mall. It was so refreshing to feel ice and cool air again. The place was pretty crowded, but we still had a really good time. Afterwards, we went to Carl's Junior, which is the only place in Indonesia that has free refills. It is also only in Jakarta, so we took advantage of the opportunity. It was so good! It also was nice not worrying about my drink running out. 

Well, there is a little about my week! I hope you all had a good one as well. Thank you for everything you do to support me, whether it be through prayers or letters. I will update you all again in my next email! Thank you!

-Elder James

Everything was fake in the exhibit, but still pretty cool.

Stuck in traffic in an angkot

Elder Lee built this gym out of concrete, toilets and other random things.
{This does not seem safe at all!}

The meal I prepared; it doesn't look like much, but it was great for me!