Bandung Week 6

Our district outside a University where we teach English

Selamat siang!

Well, this week has had some crazy occurrences. It has been quite tiring as well and we haven’t been able to do much teaching. But every week is different, which keeps things interesting for sure. I really hope that I will help this city progress in relation to the work here. Here are a few cool things that happened this week.

On Monday we did not do anything really exciting, but we got the house cleaner than ever. We filled a huge cardboard box with trash and old things that were broken around the house. It feels so much better to be in a clean house! We were able to relax and hang out as a District, and that was fun enough.

We also visited Thomas in Sukabumi again this week, and I am so impressed with the amount of progress he is making. We taught him about the different parts and organizations in the church, which is a fairly complicated thing, and he understood it perfectly. He said that as a policeman, he understands the importance of organization and leadership. I know he will become a great leader in the Church someday. Whenever Missionaries are stationed in Sukabumi, they will have a great member family to support them!

The other days of the week were not too successful in lessons taught and people found, but we were able to visit a descent amount of non-active members. One of which was describing the various trials he has had since becoming a member of this church, but testified that he does not regret it. I read D&C 121 with him, and it really touched him and his wife. I know that section is not just for Joseph Smith, but also for all of us when we are going through any kind of trial. It will all be for our good in the end.

Our Zone after Zone Training Meeting

Our Zone met together in Jakarta on Friday, and we had a good meeting discussing the progress of all of our investigators. It was good to see all the Missionaries again, and eat together. The meeting was pushed back, due to a few Elders being sick, so we had to rearrange our travel plans. We tried to reserve tickets by phone to take a small van home, but they were all full for that day. We tried other methods, but none worked. I knew there was a train leaving later, so we decided to try that. We took a 2-hour taxi ride through Jakarta traffic to the train Station, and made it before the departure. But, it was completely full. It was already fairly late at night, so we had to travel to the Mission home and stay there with no clothes or anything. We bought train tickets for 5am the next day. After going to sleep around 2:30am, we woke up at 3:30am and left by taxi at 4am. We made the train, and finally were back in Bandung. All of us were dead tired, but had to move on with the day.

We had a surprise when we arrived home—water was coming out the bottom of the door of our house. When we opened the door, there was about 2 inches of water all over the bottom floor. We had left the water running, and it flooded the entire house. This was not a good sight, since we had to clean up as much as we could instead of relaxing before Conference. We had to leave before it was even gone. But now it is fine, and not too many important things got wet. On the bright side, the floors are really clean now!

Saturday Conference was great, and I was able to stay awake which was a miracle considering the little amount of sleep I got. We had downloaded it in English, so Elders Mangum, Loudon, and I all watched it together. All the talks were great, and I am excited to read them later. 

After the sessions were over, we went with Pak Hendri, a long-time friend of the Missionaries, and helped him with his college English class that he teaches. It was a good experience, and there were many questions about our beliefs. He took us to his house, and we ate delicious Teriyaki Steak and other food. He is a great guy.

Sunday Conference was even better, since we got a good night sleep the day before. (After cleaning up all the water on the floor.) I especially liked Elder D. Todd Christofferson's talk on the resurrection of Christ, and how it relates to the Restoration of the Gospel. He is such a good speaker, as are the rest of the Apostles and Prophets. President Monson's last remarks were also noteworthy, that we should take the talks into our lives, and become better because of them. I, for one, will try to do a little better while I am on this Mission, and do my best to use my time wisely. We can all improve, and if we continually do so, God is for sure happy with us.

Thank you all for your support, and I hope you have a good week!

-Elder James

This is my shirt collar. There are white collar workers, blue collar workers,
and then there are missionaries - brown collar workers!