Elder James in Indonesia: Yogyakarta Week 14

My district at Borobudur last week

Hello Everyone,

Well, as hard as I tried to hide it from my Mother, she eventually found out that I was in a bike accident. I did not want anyone to worry, since I am honestly fine, so I tried to hide it. But thanks to the wonderful Sisters in my District, and their detail-filled emails, everyone knows. I won't go into details on the crash, since I am tired of explaining it, but the important part is that I am okay! My scars are going away, and the pain is almost gone.

A sweet little old lady selling peanuts outside of Borobudur-she had the biggest smile!

Anyway, I had a pretty busy, successful week this past week, and we all did some really fun things. I really love the Indonesian people, and I am so glad that here in Jogja, they are kind enough to let us in their homes, and hear what we have to say. This city has been my most successful city so far in regards to finding new investigators, and we have a good deal of lessons. People just have a hard time with acting on what they know to be true sometimes.

Last P-day, our District was invited to join President Donald, his wife, and the Lucherini Mission couple to their activities. We met them at their hotel, and travelled with them to Borobudur, a silver factory, basket factory, and a chocolate shop. They were so kind to all of us, and they gave us a lot of food. I was able to visit and talk to President Donald quite a bit, mostly about football and how it is more brutal than rugby. I don't know if he agreed. He is such a personable Mission President, and we all feel so comfortable around him. It was a great P-day.

We have a good amount of investigators at this point, but as I said before, they are scared to act on what they know to be true. My companion and I are trying so hard to help them progress, but we cannot take away their agency, and force them to act. It can be quite frustrating, since we know how much they will be blessed if they do what we say, but there is just nothing more we can do. That is why I have been focusing on finding new investigators, so that there will be a broad spectrum of people that have potential. My companion is doing so good with teaching, and it always amazes me that he is still new. He does not act like a new Missionary at all!

Our last District Meeting was a little different, because President asked me to focus even more on the investigators in the meeting. After a short lesson, I had the District, including the Elders from Magelang, get into a circle with our area books ready. We each discussed every investigator that we are teaching at this point, and then we asked for help from the other Missionaries. It was really successful. We focused the entire meeting on our investigators, and how we can help them improve. It was a cool experience, and I am glad President had us change a few things.

I had a really cool experience this past Sunday, which made me see the happiness that comes from the family. Sister Allred and Sister Manullang contacted a guy that lived really far away, and they wanted to visit him. Since he was going to pick them up from the bus station alone, and it was pretty far, they asked us to go with them. We took a long bus ride, and then he drove us to his home from the bus station. He lived really far away, in a little village, and just had a little place to live with his wife and two kids. He was one of the kindest men I have ever met on my Mission. He gave us a little food, and we gave a short message on the family. He was honestly so great, and we will for sure go back there to teach him again. Even though he was really poor, he had a great little family, and you could see how happy he really was. It was amazing.

Well, that is about it for today. I hope you are all doing great, and have fun Thanksgiving celebrations with your families. Our District has some fun Thanksgiving plans, and I will let you all know what we do next week. Thanks for all the prayers and support! I love you all!

-Elder James