Maayong hapon! Here's my next lovely letter for the week!
June 27th, Monday, we visited the Deladia family today and had a little FHE with them! They invited the Liston family and we all had a lesson, played a game, and had some dinner. It wasn't anything too big, but it was a good way to bond together and have fun.
June 28th, Tuesday: Today we taught Brother Anjelo Sachnanas. I'm not quite sure what we did could be called a lesson, because all we did was sit down and ask him some questions. But a lot of the questions were really good, thought provoking questions that really got him to dig down deep and tell us what he wants in life. It was really awesome! He opened up and we actually got to get to know him and his concerns a little better. We then visited Brother ArAr and Brother Arnia Pocong. We taught them about missionary work and how they can more fully spread the Gospel. Brother ArAr really wants to serve a mission but he's really nervous. So we're taking things slowly with him and having him slowly work with the Elders so he can get used to it all. We then taught Sister Brina about faith and the importance of it in our lives. Her faith is pretty strong, but it was still a good reminder to her about how to more fully use her faith, and strengthen it.
June 29th, Wednesday, Sister Paget and I visited so many people! There's too may to count. haha. But I'll just mention a little bit about who we visited. We taught Brother Elmo, recent convert, about testimonies and how we can strengthen then more. We taught Brother Robert and his wife (investigators) about the Restoration, it was kind of just an overview. We then taught Sister Anatali (member) about family prayer and why it's important to always have it with our family. We taught her younger brother (investigator) about the Godhead because he struggled to understand it. He's kind of slow when learning so we had to take it slowly and repeat ourselves a few times. And then we shared with Sister Rosalie (investigator) about obedience and why it's important to be obedient to God's commandments, like going to church.
But the best lesson out of the whole day (the lesson that started our day off great and pushed us to get so many lessons) was when we went tracting for new investigators in this gated community, which is actually not allowed unless you have permission to enter, but because we're white, the guard had a little crush on us and let us in! It was awesome. Every house we went to, nobody answered or accepted us. We even had one lady swear at us and tell us to leave the subdivision. We were tempted to give up and just leave before somebody called the security guard, but then we went up to this one home and yelled, "Ayo!" to get the people's attention, and this lady came out! Sister Paget and I kind of just froze because we were scared that she'd swear at us as but she was really nice! She let us come in, gave us water, and a snack and then talked to us. Sister Paget leaned over and asked me if she was a member, but she wasn't! She had friends that were LDS and really wanted to hear our message. We shared with her a bit about what we do at church and about eternal families and she was REALLY interested. She LOVED listening to our message. We had her pray at the end of the lesson and she even cried while praying and thanked God like 5 times for sending His missionaries to teach her and her family. It was SO AMAZING! It's kind of like those stories in The Book of Mormon where a whole city is evil, but it's that one righteous person that saves the whole city from being burned. After teaching her, Sister Paget and I quickly walked away so she couldn't hear us scream for joy because of how happy we were that we had found her. I'm so excited to see her again!
June 30th, Thursday: Today is the day that President and Sister Tanner get on an airplane and fly back home to Utah. Their mission is now over and we now have a new mission president! Today Sister Paget and I visited an investigator, John Johnson, and gave him The Book of Mormon and taught him a bit about where it came from and what it is. We taught Sister Marlett (less active) about agency and how we can use it for good and always choose Jesus Christ over Satan. We then taught Sister Renalyn (investigator) about the plan of salvation. She had been taught it before, but it was a good reminder for her. We then visited Sister Brina and Brother Gino Liston, and had taught them about faith/repentance, and the restoration. We had quite a few lessons today as well, so I just wanted to mention a little bit about what happened.
July 1st, Friday: After Sister Paget and I got done planning for the day, we got ready and started heading out the door . . . and that's when the fun began. Boom: it started pouring rain! Whoo! I love rain because it's not so hot, but at the same time, it kind of sucks because you get drenched, and so does your bag. But even though it's raining, the work goes on. We ended up teaching Brother Juanies and Sister Rosalie (dating) about the Godhead. Sister Rosalie has been an investigator for a while but this was Juanies' first time and it went really well! He struggles with drinking and has a BAD past, but really wants to change. It was really awesome to be able to teach him because he was really receptive to our message.
July 2nd, Saturday: Today was interesting. The last couple days have been rainy. Which for me is good because it's not so hot if it rains. But this day was BAD. It literally flooded the streets! The moment we walked out of our door we were drenched. Even if you had an umbrella and poncho you still got soaked, that's how strong it was. The streets flooded pretty badly and so we had water up to our knees. Usually in America, I don't think I would be worried about water all the way up to my knees, but here, it kind of scared Sister Paget and I because there's SO much garbage that floods the streets, and then if it rains, all that garbage is floating, and it's so gross. Sister Paget and I kept joking about how many diseases we were contracting every time we stepped into a puddle of dirty garbage water, but it's actually a very serious matter because people get worms in their feet and I don't want worms in my feet! But so far nothing has happened to our feet. That's because God loves us!
We were able to visit Sister Ana and Brina Liston, and teach them about baptism and reading the scriptures. It was pretty nice because we just stayed in the same house but taught different people because there's lots of members/recent converts in that family. After teaching them, we had to travel in the rain again and went and visit Brother Juwarsi (investigato)r. But the way we went to get to his house was really hard! We had to walk through mud and floods; and then there was this bamboo bridge that we had to cross, over a river (which was now flooded) and then we had to step down into this HUGE puddle of muddy, garbage-water in order to get to his house. The whole time Sister Paget and I were jokingly crying on the outside, but truly crying on the inside. But it was worth it because we hadn't taught Brother Juwarsi in a while and he really needed to hear our message. We taught him about charity and love because he mentioned that he had gotten into a fight with his younger brother and had said some mean things to him. But I know that Brother Juwarsi is a good guy and wants to change, so he'll take into consideration our message.
July 3rd, Sunday: It's church time! Today it did not rain as badly as the other days. Not only did it not rain badly, but we actually got to teach some people today! It's kind of hard to teach people on Sundays, because in the mornings we study, and then we go to church in the afternoon and don't get out until around 5 p.m. But we visited Sister Anjie, a recent convert, and taught her about getting a patriarchal blessing because they really are a blessing in our lives. She was pretty excited to hear that she can receive one. After teaching her, we visited Brother Junior and taught him about prophets because he seemed a little slow and that he didn't seem to get the message that we taught last time. His girlfriend was there also and she's "Born-Again." She kept telling us that we were prophets because we preach the Gospel. We had to tell her like 6 times that we are far from being prophets. It was an interesting lesson. After them, we visited a recent convert, Brother Glen, and taught him about the plan of salvation. He hasn't been coming to church and has forgotten about the plan of salvation. So it was a good reminder for him. We also had Sister Brina and Sister Cressele work with us, and they were really good teachers to everyone that we had taught this day!
July 4th, Monday, HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!! Here they don't celebrate it, but Sister Paget and I are excited and are going to celebrate it tonight! Today we had a district activity and went to this place where they give you fishing poles (which are really just long sticks with string and a hook) and they let you catch fish! After you catch the fish, they cook it for you any way that you want, and then you get to eat it! It was seriously the best. I caught like 4 fish on my tiny little stick fishing pole. Everyone in the district caught a lot of fish and we grilled them, fried them and had some soup with the fish. It was so delicious and definitely worth it! It was actually a pretty good way to celebrate some of the 4th of July!
I love you all! Amping!