29 October 2018

My Week:

For whatever reason this week seemed to be a mix of frustrating and funny. Let me explain:

As a missionary making daily contact with each person being taught is crucial, especially in a place like Tangerang where many people have irregular work schedules. This week there were multiple days that despite our best efforts, daily contact could not be established with the people my companionship is teaching. Resulting was a decreased number in lessons, and poor follow up with people who are in the process of making big changes in their lives.

At one point I was so frustrated that I asked my companion “Why do these people even have phones (plural because in Indonesia it is common for one person to have more than one phone) if they don’t ever answer them?” Elder Suranto and I kept giving our best efforts and making the best of the situation.

Aside from being a bit frustrating, this week has also been funny. At the end of a lesson someone asked to take a photo with me. While Elder Suranto was taking the picture this person kept shouting “You have no skill. The picture doesn’t look good. Take another picture.” Not sure why this guy was so serious about having his picture taken with me, but it was really hard to keep a straight face while he was yelling nonsense.

While teaching English Class, I came to the realization that while most of the students could understand what I was speaking in English, they had no idea how to spell. In the spur of the moment I turned English Class into a spelling bee, grabbed a dictionary, and made the students write down words as I spelled them out.  What happened was a fun game where the word “gravitate” was spelled “jreiteti.”

Yesterday in Sacrament Meeting a new member gave a talk. What was supposed to be a five minute talk turned into a fifteen minute talk as this new member, who is 17 years old, told of how he spent 8 hours in a single day playing a video game and that he promises the ward that he won’t play video games again. Then he started talking about a dream he had, a natural disaster, more about his video games, and on again. A good half of the congregation was keeping down laughter during the talk.

My Week:

It has been a week since General Conference, and I am learning more and more from the messages presented. I invite everyone to continue to study the recent words of the modern prophets and learn from them. I know that God has spoken to us, and that he continues to speak to us through President Nelson.

Elder Allen

22 October 2018

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.

15 October 2018

My Last Two Weeks:

All has been well. Elder Nelson and I finished our time together in Tangerang. He had served here for six months and was a bit sad to leave. I have now been in Tangerang for a month now, but I feel that I don’t know my area all too well. After all, my current area is over ten times larger than the size of my past area in Solo.

My new companion is Elder Suranto, picture located below. He is from Jogja and has been on his mission for nine months. I feel that the two of us could end up spending a good amount of time together, which is something that I am excited for. It has been six months since I have last served with an Indonesian companion.

I won’t try and go into too much detail for these last two weeks. At this point it seems to hard to digest. When each day is filled with so many activities and so many new faces it can be difficult to recall all that has happened. I will say that my last two weeks have included the following: playing basketball on President Mackay’s birthday, exchanges to Bogor and Bandung, the best haircut of my life, teaching English class, sending humanitarian supplies to Palu, the city hit by a severe earthquake, and of course meeting the people God has prepared.

Spiritual Thought:

You reap what you sow.

Is that true? The answer is yes; sometimes. I taught and taught and taught while in my first area, Surabaya, and for all my effort, for all the sweaty days I spent finding, twice I had a people at church. While in Solo I prayed fervently for inspiration and vision on how I could better direct the missionaries serving in the province. The revelation did come, and no sooner did I begin to put it together did I leave Solo to serve in Tangerang.

Did I reap what I had sown? No. But was it sown? Yes. Although I was not there in person when it happened, three of the people that I had taught and found in Surabaya joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints through the ordinance of baptism and confirmation. And although I was not there to personally teach the missionaries in Central Java, the plan that my companion and I had created was taught to the missionaries and proved successful.

From these experience I have learned that it is not always meant for us to personally reap the rewards of everything that we sow. All of us do things in the now, expecting quick results, when we often forget that the thing we hope for will come later. What we need to do is give our best efforts in all things, and trust in the Lord’s promise that all things will work out for our good.

Pictures:

Sowing up bags of supplies to send to Palu.

An English class that I taught while on exchanges in Bogor.

A truck that I buy my fruit from.

Elder Suranto and I.

A common street vendor selling groceries.

Playing basketball

1 October 2018

My Week:

Everything was pretty good this week. I went on exchanges with another missionary  in my zone, Elder Eddington. He is currently serving in Bandung, which is a 5 hour train ride away. To be nice I bought fried rice for him and his companion. He threw up no less than five times. Our exchange still ended up being a success, as we found and taught new people.

Zone Conference was this Friday. It was shortened to one day; we all felt the power of what was being taught. I felt somewhat bad for President Mackay as he had to run in and out of our training to interview missionaries. My interview with him was great. The lessons that I have learned while on my mission are more valuable to me than any worldly possession that could be offered.

Questions:

Q: Do you have any rats in your apartment?

A: NO. Elder Nelson and I keep our apartment clean. No rats.

Q: Are you safe?

A: Yes.

24 September 2018

Funny Experience:

I had the ambition to make a barbell at my house. With the help of a member, I secured a long metal pipe, two buckets, and cement. The finished weight of the barbell was 150 lbs. I was really excited to work out with it.

The first day I used it happened to be leg day, so I put it across my back and started to squat. After finishing the first rep, the bar snapped across my back, and the cement buckets fell to the floor. Thankfully nothing was damaged other than the barbell and my future weight training. A picture of the broken barbell can be found below.

My Week:

On Wednesday I had a meeting with the stake president. It was a great opportunity for me to learn how I can help support the members here in their callings. It was also interesting to see the difference between the stake in Jakarta compared to the stake in Solo.

One of the harder parts of the week was when it rained. Elder Nelson and I were right about to go outside of the house when it started pouring down rain. With doubting for a moment we went back inside, put on our rain jackets, and started to head out. Just as we were going to leave the house, we got a text message saying that the person that we were going to go visit would not be able to make the appointment. That made it a lot harder to be as excited, but we left regardless.

One night on our way back to the house, I got my first flat tire in over a year. I have been very proud of how well my bike has been lasting. To fix the tire I walked my bike five minutes to the nearest auto shop where they patched the tube for 8,000 rupiah, or about $0.55 USD.

Something that has been on my mind recently is the importance of knowing what God has in plan for us. I used to tell myself, about the future, that if I truly put my mind to it I could become nearly whatever I wanted. Now I know that with work, we can become everything that God has planned for us.

One of the ways that God shows his love for us is through his plan. For each of his unique children, he has a unique plan. He has given us gifts and talents to help us achieve our divine destiny. He has given us scriptures, which tell us what we should do. He promises us the Holy Spirit, who shows us what things we should do. He speaks to us through prophets, who guide us to our Savior Jesus Christ.

Does God really have a plan for you? The clear answer is yes! I know that this is true. God will provide a way for all us, his children, to achieve what he has planned for us in this life. What is left to us is our capacity to work. Work is the means that we change, repent, and become more like God himself and his son Jesus Christ.

Questions:

Q: What are some new words that you learned this week?

A: ENTAH which means something like be it or whether it is. I also learned REMPONG which means picky or choosy.

Q: What did you do for service this week?

A: We had planned to teach english class at another institution, but at the last minute they cancelled on us. That doesn’t happen very often, but it meant that we didn’t have any planned service for the week.

Q: What is your apartment like?

A: A lot better than any of my previous ones. Elder Nelson and I keep it really clean, and it is just the right size for two people. There is space in the kitchen to cook food and work out, our study room is spacious, and our bedroom is small enough that it stays cold all night long.

Q: Is the cost of living in Jakarta comparable to other areas?

A: It is probably one of the more expensive cities to live in. Manado was also expensive though.

17 September 2018

• Monday

• Went shopping. Bought some american pancake mix that was really cheap. Also bought two kilos of mangos and two dozen eggs. I use the mangos and eggs for smoothies.
• Taught a lesson to someone from Manado. That was fun, although he wasn’t too interested in our message. He told us that he won’t be leaving his church.
• Gave a lesson at Family Home Evening at our Bishop’s house.
• Tuesday

• Worked hard today. Talked with a lot of people.
• Met this 15 year old kid from an island called Nias. He was really cool. We gave him a Book of Mormon.
• Wednesday

• MLC. It was really good.
• In coordination with a manado-ese member from my new ward, I got a big box of bananas from the missionary in manado who attended MLC. These type of bananas can only be found in Manado and are typically friend then eaten with chili sauce.
• Thursday

• A good day.
• Friday

• Exchanges with Elder Putra. I haven’t seen him since I trained him this spring. It was really cool to see how much he has changed.
• Followed up with the kid from Nias. He had already read the first four chapters in the Book of Mormon. We met with his family and set up a time to teach them later.
• Saturday

• Attended a graduation for a school that offers free schooling for people who dropped out of school. It was a well planned event. Had I been in a position to make a large financial donation to this institution, I would have done it in a heartbeat. We teach english to the students of this school. They love the missionaries.
• Sunday

• At church I gave a talk. Elder Nelson and I got a ride home with a member family. On the way home they took us to a few members’ houses where we gave a short message.

Questions

Q: How close are you to Jakarta?

A: A twenty minute bike ride, and a forty minute train ride away.

Q: Are you serving in a ward?

A: Yes.

Q: Do you use technology when you teach?

A: We have a kindle tablet that has some videos loaded onto it. The extent we use it in our lessons largely depends on the situation.

Q: Do you ever cut your own hair?

A: No. Haircuts cost $1.00 USD and include a nice head massage at the end.

Q: How do local members help you with missionary work?

A: The principle of working with members is the same. They find people for us to teach. At times they also help us teach people, and invite us to accompany them on their ministering visits.

3 September 2018

Elder Darby and I were working harder than ever this past month, but the results that we normally see weren't coming. We had been playing the same cards for a while, and we decided that it was time that we ought to get a new hand. 

This week was the last that Elder Darby and I were going to be serving with one another. We redoubled our efforts into the work, and raised our expectations. For two days we left our bicycles at home so that we could talk with EVERYONE that the Lord was going to put in our place. Some days we were tired, and others we were more excited, but we never failed to give it our all.

By the end of the week it was looking like not much was going to be changing. Most of the people that we had met with seemed indifferent to the great news that we were sharing with them. While we were speaking to them about a solution to their personal problems, an avenue to free themselves from the effects of their wrongs, many seemed to worry more about how their friends or family might view them if they began their journey towards Christ.

It wasn't until the end of the week that we started to realize all of the blessings that God had been giving us. The blessings didn't just come on Sunday when we had two people come to church, but rather throughout the entire week as we gave selfless service to God's children.

Below are pictures of three families that I have grown close to during the four months I have spent in Solo.

27 August 2018

On Thursday Indonesia celebrated one of its many national holidays: Sacrifice Day. Cows and Goats were sacrificed at the local mosques, and the meat divided up between the neighborhood. Elder Darby and I weren't able to see the sacrifices on Thursday, because we went on a ward trip. Our ward rented two big buses and we went to a lake. It was a great time to get to know the members more and hear their stories.

On Friday we went to a local elementary school and watched the school's sacrifices. They had bought two cows and two goats. Everyone was involved. First through fifth grade watched as the animals were killed, and the sixth grade class got to cut up the meat. Everyone took it home to be cooked later.

As Elder Darby and I have been working in Solo, we have seen how willing the Lord is to hear our prayers if we will humble ourselves and ask. We have been serving tactfully and efficiently, but that does not always bring the results we hope for.

I have been praying not just to have blessings handed to me, but also so that I can have a vision. A vision of what I am capable of. A vision of how to best help God's children in Indonesia. A vision of what I need to change about myself to become a more effective tool in God's hand.

And God grants it. Miracles come in abundance, and for that I am grateful.

Questions:

Q: What skills have you learned during your missionary service?

A: One of the more tactical skills I have developed includes navigation. As fact due to being assigned to rather large cities, each companionship of missionaries typically covers a decently sized area. I am in my smallest area I have served in, and it covers 10 square miles. Being able to navigate all of the roads in very important. City planning is also a fairly new concept to Indonesia, and as a result, there is not much structure or organization to how the roads are laid out.

Q: What is something that you learned to love on your mission?

A: Waking up early. I like to wake up at 6:00 am and start my day. In Indonesia; however, six is not very early. Most people here, including children, wake up before six, some before five.

Pictures of the Sacrifices below:

6 August 2018

Monday and Tuesday Elder Darby and I were in Jogja on exchanges with the missionaries there. We biked back on Wednesday, then had a really busy day in front of us. On Thursday we flew out to Jakarta to attend a meeting. Flew back Friday, and since then we have been up to our necks in all sorts of missionary stuff.

This week Elder Darby and I have taught a lot of people what will most likely be the last lesson they will hear from missionaries. We love the people we serve so much, but not all of them respond the same way. I am comforted in knowing that success as a missionary is determined not in how many people accept my invitation, but in how I personally extend the invitation.

Questions:

Q: How do you find most of the people you teach?

A: I want to say that we find them by our own efforts talking to people in their neighborhoods, but I know that isn't fully true. When we are working hard enough, and are in tune with the spirit, God will lead people to us. On my mission this has been in the form of people cold calling us, showing up at church, yelling at us on the road when we pass by, and many other ways.

Q: What occupations do most people have? 

A: Lot of people have jualans, which just means they go around selling something all day. They work really long hours and earn just enough to live on. Sometimes they will sell food, or clothes, or anything that they can make enough money on.

Q: Is it common to have a college education?

A: No

Q: Do you teach English classes in Solo?

A: Yes

30 July 2018

Last week I didn't send out an email because I flew to Jakarta and back to renew my documentation.

Since Elder Hansen has gone home, I've been in a trio for a week with two other Elders. Since them we have had transfers, and I am now with Elder Darby. He and I began our missions at the same time, and already know one another well. We get along great and have a whole bunch of new ideas that we are excited to try.

My time in Solo has been really good. I am getting to know the members and area quite well. Something my mission president has been emphasising is the importance of staying excited in anything that we do, especially missionary work. After reading the quote " You can often gauge a man’s desire by whether he hates his alarm clock or considers it his best friend” I decided that I would wake up every morning with a spring in my step. I have really come to realise the importance of a good morning schedule. After jumping out of bed (literally, I am on the top of a bunk bed), I get right at my day. No more being lazy in the morning.

Questions:

Q: Where do you get your questions from?

A: From you. If you have a question or two that you would like me to answer go ahead and send them to me.

Q: Where do people get baptised in Indonesia?

A: In the church building.

Q: What are the meal times?

A: People here eat at the same time we do in America. Although it is common here for smokers to only eat breakfast, and then smoke and drink black coffee for the rest of the day.

Q: Are there breakfast foods?

A: Hard no. Anything you eat for dinner here (rice) can be eaten for breakfast as well (rice again). Missionaries always cook breakfast at home; I typically cook some eggs and eat it with toast and juice.

Q: Do most people in Indonesia have a smartphone?

A: Yes. In fact it is quite common for Indonesians to have two phones; one smartphone for playing games on and the second a dumb phone for business. There has been quite a push in the mission lately to get smart phones for the missionaries. Everyone in Indonesia has a smartphone, but no one uses any service plan other than data. Whatsapp is used for almost all communication; without it most people can neither text nor call.

For P-day today Elder Darby and I biked to Jogjakarta (Jogja), a 40 mile bike ride. Here is a link of the route:  Bike Route. We biked to Jogja and we will be having splits tomorrow. On our way to Jogja we passed a Buddhist temple and took some picture.