Itu adalah Mukjizat (It's a Miracle!)

I've had a strong testimony ever since I got out into the mission field that this is truly the Lord's work and we as missionaries have the opportunity to be His instruments. It's been confirmed again and again throughout my mission, including this last week. Things are starting to look up as far as the work goes now with Christmas and New Years over, all of our investigators and members are returning home. We met with one investigator, his name is Mas Txx. He's a 19 year old college student that lives pretty close to the mission home. He's a referral from another investigator who said that his mom wants Tio to have "good influences in his life." I would agree with her that missionaries are some of the best. Haha! We followed up what the other Elders had taught and he told us he believes the Book of Mormon and the Bible to support each other. He did a side by side comparison, using footnotes (who uses those outside of members of the church??), and reading every day. He hadn't yet prayed about it, or come to church, so we encouraged him to do so. 

Since we're still crazy new and don't know any of the members or the area, we've been meeting with as many members as we can, trying to establish some kind of relationship between us and the members. Haven't got any referrals out of it yet, but as members see us truly caring about the work, they'll want to help out. The ward has a goal to get 7 baptisms for the year 2014. I'm a fan of that goal. :)

Here's the miracle of the week. We had Zone Training Meeting in Jakarta last Friday with all of the Jawa Barat Elders and received new mission goals for the entire mission. Long story short: it's much, much higher than what we've been getting. It's gonna take a lot of faith and help to get there, so Elder Sutadiyono and I decided to fast this last Sunday that we might eventually reach those goals on a consistent basis. We just weren't quite ready for the miracle that occurred. 

None of our investigators committed to coming to church, so we sat all by ourselves at Sacrament meeting.At the end of the meeting, all of these members started coming up to us asking who those investigators were at the back of the chapel. The thing is: we had no clue either. We ended up teaching Gospel Principles to three investigators that had come. There was one that was a referral from a member, which is awesome! His name is Tri. The other two are an Ibu and her daughter. They used to be Catholic but weren't satisfied for one reason or another and wanted to search for a new church. They had heard from a friend that there was a church close by Alam Sutera, which is the same area as our church. They asked around and eventually found our Church, not quite the same church they had heard about, but they came and sat down in the middle of Sacrament meeting. After all of the meetings, the sisters from the Relief Society came up to us and told us that these two ladies had said "When we came in, we realized we entered a different church than we were looking for. But now feel we have found a better one." God is still a God of miracles and will continue to work them according to His children's faith. And faith is always pointed towards the future. We just have to work in the moment we're given. 

Thanks for praying for me and my companion and our investigators by name. I just read Elder Gifford Nielson's talk, and it made me grateful for a family that already does that. I know we've been blessed as a result of your prayers. Thank you! Hope you all have a great week and that you keep looking for missionary opportunities yourselves! Allah menyertaimu sampai kita bertemu lagi! (God be with you til we meet again!)

Elder Seth Michael Barrus

This is how we proselyte in Angkots. President asked us to carry
around a Kitab  Mormon and put it in a place where everyone can see it.