Elder Seth Barrus

Elder Seth Barrus
Jakarta Indonesia Mission May2013-2015

Monday, July 22, 2013

Surabaya Barat

Selamat Siang Keluarga! Bagaimana kabar anda?!

To start, I've told you about Lidya, our investigator who has a baptismal date for August, and we've been teaching her on and off. She was sick last week and wasn't able to attend church, so we met with her again and created a new commitment for her to be baptized August 25th. She accepted so now I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that she'll come to church at least 3 times before that day!!
I've been meaning to tell you about a member in the branch here in Surabaya. Her name is Ibu Yeni and she was baptized just about 2 years ago. She was previously Muslim, and when she was baptized, her husband essentially disowned her and kicked her out of the house. She told me she was okay with that because she had found the truth. Whenever she shares her conversion story, I think about how much more she's had to sacrifice than me. I've been lucky enough to grow up in the Gospel, have awesome parents and friends and family to support me the whole way.

She's awesome!!! She always gives us referrals and invites us over to her house to try and teach her son, Satria. He's received lessons before and has been an investigator on and off for about 2 years. Elder Hendro and I set a goal to just be his friend because he won't want to come to church unless he feels comfortable. We've been doing that lately, and last week, we decided to invite him to baptism. It was a pretty scary thing considering that he's been invited before. But after teaching about faith and repentance, Elder Hendro gave him the choice. And he accepted!! It honestly just felt right, I'm sure you've had that feeling in Palmyra. It just felt right that we should be inviting him at that time. We are extremely blessed here in Surabaya!!

The reason I'm in Surabaya Barat right now is because the district leader here, Elder Mocodompis, is in the hospital with dengue fever. The sad thing is that he leaves his mission in 4 weeks! Bummer, huh! So right now it's me and Elder Kyle chilling on our P-Day. We have an appointment later tonight to go teach one of his investigators. Since Elder Hendro and Hasibuan were here in Barat yesterday, Elder Murphy and I got to go to church alone yesterday. There was a less-active that he had invited to church who hasn't come to church in 20 years and we picked her up and headed to Gereja. What I didn't quite understand from a phone call from Elder Hendro was that there were two Chinese ladies who were coming to church yesterday too! He wanted me to translate for them! It was weird because I translated into English for one lady, and then she translated into Cantonese to her friend. It was tough, but it was fun! They both had a looooot of questions after, so we took all of Gospel Principles to teach about the Restoration in English. It went really well! I had to keep it really simple since they didn't understand our "Mormon" vocab. But it was interesting, while I was teaching in such basic terms, I had this calm and peaceful, yet strong, feeling that what I was teaching was true. I know my bahasa Indonesia has been improving, but it was a nice confirmation to me that what I'm doing here is completely true with God's will. It also was a testimony to me of the simplicity of our message when it's taught through the Spirit. I've been humbled again and again that the ultimate teacher is the Spirit, not me. And I'm sure you've figured that out in Palmyra too.

Contacting here is really strange though! Murph and I went to the main park here in Surabaya to try and contact and some days we can't receive a telephone number to save our lives. But for some reason, last night we were able to talk and receive information from 7 people/families! It's just a testimony that as we're obedient and faithful all the time, even when times get rough and teaching opportunites are far and few in between, that God will bless our efforts eventually. Even if we didn't get any referrals, it felt right that I should be out trying to talk to people about the Gospel. It's my calling right now!

Es Kolapa Muda is the sweetest thing I've ever tasted. Serious. I think I could live off of that and nasi goreng the rest of my life. And as weird as this sounds, pig tongue tastes really really good. :) But cabe and sambal are probably the spiciest things I've ever tasted in my life. I want to make some for you when I get back in two years. Until then, you can google it. :) Crazy stuff.

Anywho, I love you all! I'm praying for all of you as I keep plugging along here in Indonesia! Saya tahu bahwa Allah akan membantu kita sewaktu kita tanya Dia untuk bantuan. Kita harus merasa rendah hati dan melayani orang lain. :) No matter what stage in life we are in, missionary work is applicable to each and every one of us! I hope you have a great week!

Elder Barrus

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