Weekly Letter from the Sick House

This is a professional basketball arena in Malang. Yup. Like the NBA, but about high school size.
 And they let us just shoot around too. :) Indonesia's not that big into basketball yet.

 Apa Kabar!

This last week was pretty boring. Elder Hendro got super sick from something last Sunday, and was sick up until about yesterday. We took him to the hospital last Tuesday, they gave him some medicine, and let us go home. But he couldn't go out at all last week. I  was still able to teach Mas Wahyu, Mas William, Steven, and Howard, and go to district meeting. But that's about it. You can tell Brandon that last week I was thankful for the CD's he gave me right before I left. I would've gone a little crazy without them. Even the Kurt Bestor Christmas CD he gave me became pretty entertaining after a while. That's about it from me as far as last week. The Andersons returned from their visa renewal trip to Singapore, which means we have the use of a car once in a while to go places. Don't worry about us though, we'll get back to work this week and I promise to have a better email next week.

One thought real quick: we taught Mas Wahyu half of the Plan of Salvation last week, and it made me think hard about my testimony of the Atonement. He had never heard about it before and I could see him trying to figure out why it was necessary. I wanted soo bad to convey to him my testimony and knowledge about it and how it's not just for members of the church, but for everyone! But I don't quite have that vocabulary yet. Thankfully, Elder Xiong came along too and used some analogies that helped him to start to process the thought of Christ as a Savior, not just a prophet. We gave him Alma 34 to read and pray about, and we'll follow up this week to see how he's doing. But it reminded me of something Elder Christofferson said in last April's conference. He said that "Our greatest redemptive service will be to lead them to Christ. Without His redemption from death and sin, we have only a Gospel of social justice. That may provide some help and reconciliation in the present, but it has no power to draw down from heaven perfect justice and infinite mercy." Jesus Christ is the message of us as missionaries everywhere. And I think it should be a personal rallying cry for saints everywhere. I know that I'm grateful for my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I know He's my Redeemer and that He lives! 

Sampai jumpa!

Elder Barrus

Seth also answered some questions we sent:

1. Do you have enough money? 

Money-wise I'm good. Stuff here is super cheap and we get more than enough money every month to cover our expenses. It's just when I have to fix my bike, take taxis, or buy something randomly expensive that it gets tight. Also, there's a SUPER crazy tax on any money that I take out from a foreign fund. Could you tell me how much I have in my account right now so I can take it all out if I want to buy some souveniers or batik shirts or something? That way, I'd avoid that crazy deduction. :) Thanks! The sandals were only Rp 20.000, or about $2. The guy wanted Rp 35.000 for them, but bartering is great. :) Brooke would be proud. 

2. Do you have mosquito nets?

We don't use mosquito nets. Just these "Hit" bug repellant stuff that we plug in every night while we sleep. I dunno what Elder Hendro ended up having. We couldn't go out at all last week together, but he's feeling a lot better today.

3. Do you still use your lace up shoes? Do the elastic laces make a difference?

I still use my lace shoes. Only when I know I'm going to places I don't have to take them off. Not a big fan of them... But I still use them. 

4. Where is Elder Xiong from? You said he was a bule, but his name is Hmong--one of the Laotion hill tribes we worked with in Thailand in the refugee camp.

Elder Xiong! He's from Fresno California. He told me he would look up Cody Davis, who's serving there right now as a Hmong missionary, when he gets back. His family lives in Wisconsin now though. Yah! His parents are refugees from Laos and actually went through the Refugee camp in Thailand! I thought maybe there was a chance they met you. But you were a missionary there in 1981 right? They escaped in 1979 or 1980. 

5. Did you ever get your pants repaired?

Pants are fixed. :) 

This is a picture of a bunch of little kids we teach for English class. They're so crazy go nuts! Hehe. Quick story. They're all Muslim, right? And there's one kid there who is super smart and already knows everything I'm teaching. So he wanted to go to the higher class. But the other class hadn't shown up yet. The only other people in the building was the Seminary class across the hall. He didn't know that. He asked if he could go over there, and I said feel free because that class is awesome! You get to learn about Jesus! Oh man! His face just dropped and he wanted nothing of it! He hurried back into my class, sat down, and got out his notes. Some day. He'll learn about Jesus. Just right now, he wants nothing of it.