Indonesia week 2

I am learning a lot more of the language now that I am fully immersed into it. For me, the hardest part has been creating a good sentence structure. Literally translated, most of the stuff we say doesn't make any sense. For example, the phrase :satu sama lain" means 'one same other', but has the same meaning as 'each other.' When my companion and I are asking if we are at the right house, I would ask "ini benar rumah pak ____?" which translates to 'this true house Mr ______?"

When I talk, I often make mistakes. A lot of the time the Indonesians give me a chance to repeat myself, and if I say something wrong again, they will look at my companion. Even if they haven't heard him talk yet they will just assume that he is fluent only because of his skin color. The people here think that just about everyone who is not white is from Indonesia. They even think my 6'4" Tongan companion is from Indonesia, where the average height is only 5'4".

I am really liking Indonesia. The people here are awesome. Just about everyone is willing to talk with us, even if they aren't interested in hearing a message about Jesus Christ. The food here is really good. I eat out for lunch and dinner every day. Meals usually consists of rice, chicken, and sombal, which is a very spicy chili sauce that I really like.

There are so many things to write about my area and the country that I can't even begin to start writing. Just about every aspect of our life is influenced in some way by either the missionary work or Indonesia. If you ask my to describe something for you each week, I will be able to. For example, if you asked me about how we pay for food, I would say the following: Each day I take 50,0000 rupiah with me for lunch and dinner. Most of the time I don't come close to using all of it. One weird thing about Indonesia is that we rarely pay for things first, like in America. For instance, if I was ordering from a McDonald's in the USA, I would place an order, pay, then they would make it for me. Here we place an order, eat, then pay. I still think that it is really weird to start eating without paying for my food first. There is a food place near the church that we eat from on preparation days, and they are familiar with the missionaries. What we have been doing is placing our orders, then going into the church to start emailing or playing table tennis (the best!!!). Then the food lady will walk our food into the church, and start yelling for us. We then get it, she leaves, and we eat. We then pay around two hours later after we have finished emailing.

There are a ton of people in Indonesia. I don't think I have ever seen a place with so many people! Unless there is a river along side of the road, there are stores or houses lining both sides of the road. This makes it pretty convenience to contact other or find a place to stop and buy water.

With street contacting, most of the time we find a place in the shade, and sit down and talk with others. when my companion and I are wanting to contact in neighborhoods, we will always visit a specific home first. Each neighborhood has a Pak RT, which is similar to a neighborhood government official. We will go and talk with him, tell him about our message, then ask if he is interested. Most of the time he is not. We then ask him for the names and addresses of others in his neighborhood who are interested in our message. He will give us the names of all the Christians in his area. Then we go and find souls.

Attached are pictures of me about to head out of proselyting, and two plates of food:

MTC Tour Video

While Justin was at the MTC (missionary training center) in Provo Utah new buildings were completed and opened for use. Below is a video that the Church put together showing the new facilities and showing what missionaries do at the MTC. Justin appears in the video for a few seconds when they show where missionaries can get haircuts. He appears at the 4:19 mark of the video.

Surabaya

Indonesia is real now. When I got my mission call, in the MTC, and even on the airplane Indonesia was only a distant land that I had heard stories about. 

I got to Indonesia on Monday morning. I stayed in two different places until I flew out Friday morning to Surabaya (pronounced Sir-a-buy-a), which is my first area! While I was in Jarkarta for those first few days, President and Sister Rowley did some orientation training with us and introduced us to Indonesia.

My trainer is awesome. His name is Elder Lasalosi, who is a Tongan from Australia. We share our house with an Elder Sutadi from Indonesia, and Elder Siddoway from Idaho.

The language here is different from what I was taught in the missionary training center. The people here shorten a lot of words, have a lot of alternate words with similar meanings, and they talk really fast. With some people I just smile and nod. I don't know much of what they are saying.

We ride bikes in my area. The traffic here is crazy. There are a lot of cars, and a million motorbikes. Somehow no one gets into wrecks. There aren't really traffic laws. It is really just a question of how brave you are, and how much you trust others to not hit you. The traffic is also pretty slow; when we are really booking it on bikes we can keep up with traffic.

Here are some pictures I have taken here. The first is of a meal here. It is rice, sombal (red sauce that is really spicy), sweet potatoes, and green beans with tempe (soy bean stuff). The second picture is a pano of a Taman (park) that we visited. A girl came up to me there and asked to take a picture with me. That was the first time that has happened. The people here really like Bules (gringos). When we are riding in Gongs (any street smaller than the street you turned off from), the kids will always shout "hey Mister" at me. It is hard to describe Indonesia. I have already been here for a week and I love it. The work is hard, but good.

Elder Lasalosi and I have been teaching a few investigators, and contacting lots of people. The Indonesians here are all really nice, and they like to chat with Bule (gringo) missionaries, but we have a hard time getting them to follow up on commitments. It just really shows how much faith is required to change ourselves, and align our will with God's will. 

I don't have a lot of time to write, so I apologize in advance if I do not have the time to write you back. I can only write for one hour each week.

Here are some pictures of someone I was talking with in an Angkot (small bus), and some good Indonesian food :

From first few days of training in Jakarta:

 Getting in a little exercise:

Arrival

Justin safely arrived in Indonesia on Monday July 17th. Here is a photo of the group of new missionaries in Jakarta with mission President Rowley and Sister Rowley.

The Last Supper

Here are some pictures. We wanted to have a party in our room, so I scrounged together two extra tables and some chairs. We had seating for 19 elders in my small room.

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Here is a pictures of my district, the new Indonesian district, and our teacher Sister Wheeler who is the Veech's cousin:

I'm Leaving for Indonesia!!!

Today at 3:00 pm my visa arrived! I will be flying out at 7:45 pm on Saturday. Since it came with such a short notice we are allowed to email home.

I am really excited to fly out to Indonesia. I will be taking three different flights for a total of 22 hours in the air. I really want to try and share the gospel with others in the airports and on the plane. And eat some Cafe Rio in the Salt Lake City Airport. 

I have been praying for the last two weeks that I will be able to meet someone in the airport that will be ready to hear about the message of the restored gospel. I am prepared to open my mouth. I have really been trying to follow the commandment to "treasure up in your minds continually the words of life" (D&C 84:85). I know that if I do this, I will have God's promise that "it shall be given you in the very hour, yea, in the very moment, what ye shall say" (D&C 100:6). If you are interested in reading more 'open you mouth' type scriptures, check out D&C 33:8 and the rest of D&C 84:85.

Here is a picture of my district holding our flight plans:

Last Week @ MTC?

This Tuesday in our Devotional we heard from Elder Bednar, who is an apostle. Also in attendance were nine other apostles. It was really cool seeing all of them. He started off his talk by sharing the following scriptures:

John 1:1
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Alma 32:28
28 Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me.

Alma 32:41

41 But if ye will nourish the word, yea, nourish the tree as it beginneth to grow, by your faith with great diligence, and with patience, looking forward to the fruit thereof, it shall take root; and behold it shall be a tree springing up unto everlasting life.

The greatest gift God can give us is Eternal life, which is living with our Father in Heaven in a perfect and resurrected body. To receive this gift, according to the scriptures, we must let Christ come into our hearts. The prophet Alma explained this to those he taught by using a seed as a metaphor for Jesus Christ. He testifies that if we are willing to give him a place in our hearts, and nourish that seed until it springs up into a  tree, we may receive Eternal Life. The question then, is How can I give place for Christ in my heart, and nourish up his gospel unto everlasting life? Alma answers that with diligence, patience, and enduring to the end, we can eat the fruit of the tree, which is Eternal life. I pray that we may all come to allow Christ more room in our hearts, and with all  our diligence, patience, and enduring to the end, he will bestow upon us this gift.

This week we have all been looking forward to leaving for Indonesia. Monday was supposed to be the day that we were going to fly out of Utah and into Indonesia, but our visas have yet to arrive. As of today, it looks like my group will be staying here at the MTC until our visas come, which looks like it will be Wednesday. The last group of missionaries headed for Indonesia were in the same situation, and they ended up staying an extra 10 days. I hope that I will not have to do the same.

Not much different has been happening around here. Still learning a lot. The language is really coming along. I know that I will be able to learn so much more in the country where everyone actually speaks it. I am really excited to fly to Indonesia, and serve the people there. I know how much they need the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

Thanks so much to everyone who has been writing me. I really like hearing about everything you all are doing, and I especially like seeing pictures. Keep up the good work and keep writing me.