My Week:
Monday
- Spent a lot of time cleaning the house. After getting it really clean, Elder Suranto and I packed up and headed to Bogor for companion exchanges there.
Tuesday
- I went on exchanges with Elder Montoya. He has been in Indonesia for seven weeks now but his Indonesian is already really good. I was impressed with how fast he has been able to learn the language. We worked hard that day.
Wednesday
- Travelled back to Tangerang and had District Council. Prepared some for a meeting on Thursday.
- Taught a member family. Really hoping that as we teach them they will feel the spirit and return to activity within the gospel.
Thursday
- Had a meeting with the President Mackay and the zone leaders from the other zones. We discussed that needs and challenges of the Indonesia Jakarta Mission, and set some good plans to help the work move forward.
Friday
- Worked out at the mission home.
- Had another awesome interview with President Mackay. We talked about the future of the zone. The Lord has some big plans.
- After arriving back in Tangerang, we taught an English class then ate dinner with a member family.
Saturday
- Found time to do some weekly planning. I know that without good planning I cannot do the most good.
- Teaching three lessons took up the rest of the day. Because of how big my area is, three or for lessons is really the most you can fit into one day. Much different than in Solo, where I could teach up to six or seven lessons in a day.
- Today was the most frustrating day of the week. We paid our electricity bill, and it was super expensive. Then one of the people we planned on teaching told us he would be 30 minutes late. That 30 minutes soon turned into 90 minutes. We met with him, but didn’t have time to teach what we had planned.
- There was a decent rain storm going on when we were teaching at our last appointment. We came home to find that a tree had fallen onto the front of our house and the floor was covered in water on the first and second floor. It took a lot of time to clean up but thankfully nothing was damaged.
Sunday
- I was really excited to meet with someone that I had contacted on the train two weeks ago, but at the last minute she cancelled. Disappointing as it was, we were still able to go out and find some cool people.
Questions:
Q: With Elder Suranto, your Indonesian companion, do you speak very much English?
A: Elder Suranto is very good speaking English. We have agreed to speak English on even dates and Indonesian on odd dates. For me, now that I have been in Indonesia for over a year, I feel about as comfortable speaking in Indonesian as I do in English.
Q: How do the members in Indonesia watch General Conference?
A: We watch it in the church building from a projector. It is translated live in Salt Lake City, and we watch it the week after. To be honest, most of the time the live translation isn't the best, although by the time it gets published in the Liahona it is good.
Pretty traditional Indonesian painting that I am standing in front of.
