Indonesia is GILA!

Looking bedraggled after 25 hours of traveling, arriving at the airport in Jakarta.

President and Sister Groberg

First lunch in Indonesia

Apa Kabar and Hello from the great land of Indonesia!!

To make the recap not so boring, I'll skip all the flying and stuff, because no one should be in a chair in the sky for 13 hours at a time. :) We arrived in Jakarta on Wednesday, (without our baggage. Lame.), slept at the mission home, and by Thursday, the missionaries assigned to the Jakarta area left with their companions.  The rest of us have to stay in the area until our Kitas arrive (permission to stay in Indonesia temporarily). So Elder Kyle and I have been staying with the AP's, Elder Yarkasi from Yokja and Elder Lee from California, here in the Mission Home for the last couple days. 

But! Exciting news! I fly out of Jakarta to Jawa Timur tomorrow to my first assigned area: Surabaya!! Everyone's been telling me it's super hot and I'll be riding bikes the whole time. #weightlossprogram. I'll be in the same house as Elder Murphy (companion in the MTC) and Elder Hasibuan. And my companion's name is Elder Hendro! Elder Yarkasi has told me that neither Hasibuan nor Hendro speak ANY English. I'm pretty stoked for that. :)

Indonesia is GILA SEKALI!! (Incredibly crazy) From the "ankots" (a minivan-like taxi with maybe 13 people squished in), to the "bajis" (three wheeled motorcycle box things), to the crammed busses in the middle of Macet (traffic), Indonesia is a tad bit different than West Jardan Utah,  to say the least. :) But the second night we were here, we went out and got a wrap with rice, chicken, tempe, and this green sauce thingy and it was soo good! The food here is amazing! A little spicy and a little crazy on the stomach, but definitely pretty good. 

So on Saturday, we went out to tract out a referral from China and so we hopped on a bus for three hours to a "little" town outside of Jakarta, took an ankot for another 30 minutes, and then walked another 15  minutes.  Aaaaaaaaand she wasn't home. It was kinda frustrating, but the scripture that says to "leave the 99 and find the 1" has taken on a totally new meaning. I was thinking about the positives from the whole experience (because it's lame to be pessimistic) and I thought "maybe that's how God feels with us sometimes." He goes the extra mile in wanting to bless and help us, yet sometimes, we reject his help. Even when he's knocking on the front door! (Or in my case, yelling "Permisi!!" from outside the gate) So I have made a goal to try and see the Lord's hand more in everything that I do. Happy ending to the story: we ran into two ladies on the bus and one invited us over for a lesson and the other wanted to come to English class! The Lord works in mysterious ways everybody. :) Look for His hand, and you'll find it. 

Church was awesome!! I didn't understand a single phrase they said! I think that Sister Anon (lady who knows Mary Ellen) spoke about the Word of Wisdom. I did catch that. And Elder Yarkasi taught about the Fall in Sunday School. And in Priesthood we talked about strengthening the family. But other than the main topics, no clue. I did get to play piano for sacrament meeting though. :) It was fun to be reunited with the ivory keys again! But it was a testament to me that the Spirit and the Church is the same no matter where you go. 

Wadu, this email's kinda long. But I'm extremely excited to be in Indonesia!! Thanks for the prayers because as much as I'm loving Indonesia, the teaching is kinda tough. It's good for me though. :) Once the teaching starts happening, I'll let you know, but as for right now, Sampai terus minggu! 

-Elder Barrus