Yogyakarta Week 15

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I am so happy to be emailing again, but unfortunately, I am almost out of time, and I will not be able to write as much as I usually do! I wish I had more time to email, but we are just a little busy today! I hope everyone had a really good week, like I did. I have really learned a lot, and I am so grateful for the many blessings that have been given to me over the course of this Mission. Here are a few of the cool things that I did this past week.

The beginning of this week was not that great, since none of our investigators were home. We tried so hard to teach many people, but for many reasons, they all could not be taught. This makes a Missionary feel pretty down, since teaching is the best thing to do with one's time. But towards the end of the week, things started to pick up, and we had some great lessons. I really feel the spirit when I teach, and I love seeing the change in the lives of others.

Thanks to Sister Sheffield, this Thanksgiving was great. She found a great place that serves Turkey, mashed potatoes, and gravy. 

We all ate there as a District, and then had pie afterwards at the church. The food was all so good, and we all had a great time together. 

It was a lot better than last year, when I just had KFC. It sure is nice to be in a District with Sisters!

My companion and I took a trip to Magelang to do exchanges with the Elders there. The city is really small, and it is up in the mountains, so it is much colder than Jogja. I went with Elder Watson to his appointments, and we had a great time. The first one was super far! We biked for about an hour and a half through the woods and rice fields. There were a lot of hills, but it was very scenic. We both took some really cool pictures. It really made me love Indonesia, and how pretty it is.

For P-day today, we played futsal with the Elders from Magelang and Solo. It was a lot of fun, and I am still sweating from it! The heat is so bad sometimes! We then ate at a member's house, who wanted to treat the Missionaries who are moving. The ones who are moving are Sister Sheffield and Sister Manullang. I will miss them a ton!

Thank you all for all the support and love you give me. I am so grateful for everything that God has given me, and I hope others can receive similar blessings as well.

-Elder James

My companion eating at our regular padang place

I've been learning some Javanese and learning how to write it. It's pretty fun!

Thanksgiving pie with my companion

A nice lady selling vegetables

Sisters Allred and Manullang contacting a man on the street

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

A beautiful sunset in our area-I was so happy I was in a pretty place to catch it.

A lizard we caught at our house-we eventually let it go. 

A deep well outside a member's house.

A HUGE ant that we saw at a member's house-
apparently is very dangerous if it bites you!

News of a bike accident

{I got an email from Sister Sheffield's mom asking how Elder James was doing after his stitches. WHAT?? I asked Rick about it and he sheepishly told me that that he knew that he was in a bike accident, but that Elder James didn't want to worry me about it. That is very sweet, but with this day and age, with the technology we all have, it wasn't but a few days before I found out about it. News travels fast from the other side of the world.}

{I even noticed this cute picture on Sister Sheffield's blog. I wondered why we didn't ever get any pictures from Elder James of their visit to Borobudur with President Donald. That just isn't like him! I guess he was trying to hide the fact that his head was all bandaged up. I hope it heals quickly, and that we get the story of the accident this week.}

Yogyakarta Week 13

Hello Everyone,

First off, I am really sorry if this is a little short. We just came back from Borobudur with a Mission Couple and the Mission President and his wife. We have been fairly busy this week, and I have been so surprised at how fast time is starting to go. I guess I better enjoy it and make the last part of this Mission my best! I will not give a lot of details, but here are a few cool things that happened this past week.

This is our companion study; we watched videos and drank lots of Coke.
My companion is trying to gain weight, so I am trying to help him!

We did not do anything really fun for last P-day, since we all really needed to relax. My companion and I worked really hard to find new investigators, and we actually had a good amount of success. The people here in Jogja are so kind, and they really receive us well.

One cool thing we did on Friday was a trip to Semarang for a Zone Training Meeting. It was so cool to see my first city again, and it seemed just as beautiful as I remembered. It was also really nice to see all the different Missionaries from the area, and visit with them. 

It is pretty far from Jogja, and with traffic it took pretty long to get home. I cannot believe that one year ago, I was new in that city!

President and Sister Donald came from Saturday until Monday to see the city, and visit with our District. President went with us to some of our appointments, and he really enjoyed teaching with us. He was so impressed with my companion, Elder Sadiyono, who is already acting like a Missionary who has been out for a while. I totally agree! We took him to our favorite places to eat, and showed him a little bit of the city. He said it was one of his favorite cities that he has visited.

For P-day today, we were invited to go with the Lucherini couple and the Donalds to Borobudur and a few other places. They were so nice to let us go with them, since they dealt with all the travel and such. I enjoyed seeing Borobudur for the second time, and I really was happy that those who have not seen it yet were able to see it. We then went to a few places that made silver items, which is one of the things Jogja is famous for. We also went to a chocolate factory, and ate at McDonald's together. It was an absolutely great P-day!

I am once again sorry that this is so short. We have to go home, and then get back to work. I hope you all have a great week, and I would really like to hear from more of you! See you again!

-Elder James

A gate at the entrance of Kraton, the old Javanese kingdom.

Eating at Sister Siska's restaurant.

Elder Sadiyano eating his favorite brownie brand.
Like I say, he's trying to gain weight!

Tugu, one of the landmarks in Jogja.

We took President Donaldson to Raminten to eat.

Fried frogs were actually really good!