The morning of the accident my companion and I awoke to our mission president banging on our front gate. He told us the news, and then asked both of us to pack a small suitcase. We moved to Solo for a week, so the Elder Putra could be with his family during this difficult time. I was on splits with the local missionaries there while Elder Putra stayed with his family.
Throughout this experience I have recognized the many tender mercies of our Heavenly Father. God in his infinite greatness and wisdom has prepared a way so that our family relationships in this life can be brought into the eternities. How loving is our Father in Heaven!
Returning from Solo, Elder Putra and myself have renewed our commitment, as the great missionaries of old, to lose ourselves in the work of saving souls. No sooner on our arrival back to Surabaya have we committed an investigator to baptism, then learned that we would be moving this Tuesday, together, to Malang.
Malang is a two hour train ride away from Surabaya, but a very different place. For one I will be moving from the hottest city in my mission, to the coldest, but still missing out on the chances of a white Christmas. I am excited for the opportunities this transfer will bring me, and anxious to experience more of Indonesia outside of my first and only city, Surabaya.
In other news, I will be leaving behind three amazing investigators who all have baptismal dates (one of which is pictured below), a sister in my district recently contracted Salmonella, it continues to rain every day and occasionally flood (also pictured below), that one volcano in Bali finally decided to erupt, everyone is talking about Jerusalem, and my love for this work continues to grow.
I apologize in advance for the lack of responses in the coming week. The next time I will be using the computer I will be using my time to facetime my family. But don't get discouraged if I don't write you back. I love all of your letters and I read all of them.
Elder Allen and Elder Putra
