Thanks for the birthday package! I got it at Senopati (the mission home) on Tuesday, but didn't open it until Friday night. What more does a missionary need than fruit snacks, Lectures on Faith, the conference Ensign, a new journal and new socks? Best Birthday Ever! Also Mom, thank you for forcing me to learn piano because now I play in the Primary for the Indonesian ward and sometimes for intermediate special musical numbers in sacrament meeting. It's been really fun! Thanks for helping me develop my talents. :)
Tashakor! That's Persian for "thank you". Yep. Tell Maria I met some of her relatives the other day. The sister missionaries here in Jakarta met some Afghans on an angkot and invited them to English class. They're not doing much here, so we invited them to come play futsal with us on Saturday night too, all 5 of them. Their English is not that great yet, and my Persian isn't quite up to par yet, so communication between us is pretty rough, but the ol' body language and hand gestures work. Sometimes. One of them is interested in reading the Book of Mormon because it's about a family that left the Middle East searching for a better life. We've got some in the house we'll give in English, and I know it's already translated into Arabic, but does anybody know if it's translated into Persian yet?
Split of the Week: Tangerang district with Elder Wood from Ogden! It was super fun getting to visit all my old investigators and running around Tangerang again. We met up with Mas Heru too! He still doesn't quite get it yet that he needs to come to church and put all that belief he has about our church to work. But one day he'll come around. Elder Wood is from my MTC group and just a fantastic missionary! He's got such great faith that I hope I can apply in my own work.
Investigators: We got 3 of them out to church yesterday! Txxxxx, Hxxxx and Brother Exxxxx all came and the ward really rallied around them. We took Hxxxxx and his girlfriend out to dinner after meeting at the church. He's Muslim, but he feels that this church has such a deep understanding of God and what He wants of us. He's been an investigator for about 7 months, but just hasn't "gotten it" yet. We're praying with and for him all the time so he'll get his answer. Also! We had an appointment cancel, which made time for us to go visit Brother Erwin. He still smokes 2 cigarettes a day, which is way down from what it used to be, and we went through the baptismal questions and explained how that's the only thing holding him back from feeling ready to be baptized. The Spirit was really strong and he committed to be baptized on the 27th of July! He's got such a strong desire that I know Heavenly Father will help him feel ready. Bryan hasn't picked up his phone. And when we had an English ward member call him, he said he's busy this week, and hopefully he'll come next week. Not sure about that guy yet.
Thanks so much for the "Lectures on Faith"! Something I really like from that is how everything we do is an act of faith. We use a light switch, having faith that the light will turn on. Sure we've had experience with it before, so that strengthened our faith that it can happen again. We pray with the faith that God will hear and answer our prayers. We eat food with the faith it will give us nourishment. It's especially true as a missionary. Everything we do is an act of faith, and as we continually exercise our agency to do the things God has asked us to do, we will gain experience and more faith.
Selamat Ramadan!
Elder Seth Michael Barrus
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