Elder James in Indonesia: Yogyakarta Week 20

Me in front of H.S. Silver, where I purchased my custom-made ring.
Yogyakarta is known for it's silver.

Happy New Year Everyone!

I cannot believe that it is already 2014! This year has gone by really fast, and as I look back, I remember all the great things that happened and the experiences that I have had. I am so glad that I made the decision to come out on a Mission. It has been a great experience. I really like celebrating the new year, because I can make new goals and resolutions for my personal progress. Making goals is such an important part of Missionary work, and I have really learned the importance of making goals if we want to improve. I really hope all my goals are achieved this year! Here are a few cool things that happened this past week.

A random parade we saw on New Year's Eve

For New Year's Eve, we were obviously not allowed to be out late, but we still went to our Ward's party for a few hours. Many members came, and there were some cool activities.

The food for the New Year's party... DOG!!

They brought food for everyone, and the main dish was dog. I tried a little bit, but eating too much of it just makes me feel really weird! So I mostly just ate rice with some sauce.

Tugu, the center of Yogyakarta on New Year's night.
This is around 9 pm, as we were heading home, and it was already so crowded!

We headed home a little after nine, but to get to our home, we had to pass the busiest area in Jogja. The roads were full of people, and we basically had to walk with our bikes in some areas. When we finally got home, our power was out. But it was only our house, so we had to call the electricity service to help. Since it was New Years, they did not come until 1:30am, and I had to stay up and wait for them. Without power, we do not have any way to escape the heat, so I could not sleep anyway. But they got it fixed, and I went right to bed with the AC. It was a unique New Year's Eve for sure!

Our District playing 'ninja warrior' when our
Ward Mission Leader didn't show up for the meeting.

One funny thing that happened on New Years day, was that our Ward Mission Leader slept through our scheduled meeting with him, so we played games instead at the church for a little bit before getting back to work. That night, we ate with the Sisters at Raminten, my favorite restaurant here, to celebrate the New Year. It was really crowded, but we still had a fun time. It was really hard to teach our investigators on that day, because they were all busy for the holiday.

The ring that I got myself for Christmas.

My Christmas present to myself was finally finished this week! I had a custom ring made with Javanese writing engraved on it. It is near pure silver (92.5% silver and the rest copper), and really cool. Jogja is actually known for it's silver, and I thought that would be a cool souvenir from my favorite city so far. I had it engraved with my initials on the inside, and Javanese writing on the outside. I was originally going to do CTR in Javanese, but it was way too long, so I had them engrave a word that means "honor." I got a few other little things for others, and myself- but I don't want to buy too much, because I worry about taking it all home!

Wearing our Christmas shirts

With the investigator I mentioned last week, he is doing really good. We taught him about the word of Wisdom the other day, and he committed to follow it. If he continues to learn, come to church, and not smoke, he will be baptized this month! I know he has been prepared by the Lord to receive this gospel. He has already introduced a friend to us who wants to learn, and he has a desire to become a Missionary like us later in life! I am so amazed by him.

Eating with Sister Sheffield and the other Solo missionaries at ZTM

Another cool thing that happened was the Zone Training Meeting in Solo. We took a train there, and were able to meet with all the Missionaries from the Zone. It was really nice to see them all, and there were some new faces as well. We made a lot of goals for this new year, and I have really been trying to focus on those this week. President Donald is really good with giving us goals, and helping us progress. This year will be a good one for Missionary work!