"Freed From the Burden of Sin"

President Donald called last week, right after we finished emailing to give me my reassignment news. I'll be moving about 20 kilometers--from South Jakarta to Central Jakarta and will be serving in the Harmoni Ward. I'll be living in Senopati at the mission home there and will be living the rest of my days of my mission life as an assistant to the president. My new companion is Elder Simanungkalit. (Out of all my mission companions, I think his name might be the most difficult to say. Have fun!) 

Elder Wood will move up from Tangerang and fill the Zone Leader position in Jakarta. It's actually quite exciting because Jawa Barat is splitting into 2 zones now--Jakarta and Bekasi will be one zone, and Tangerang, Bogor, and Bandung will make up the other zone. It's different, but it will be a great opportunity to have a lot more "hands on" work for the Zone Leaders. The transfers happen on Thursday. 

Derry's Baptism

The Lord has been blessing us sooo much in the last couple weeks and we're quite humbled by it actually. Derry got baptized yesterday!!! I needed to do some quick repenting the other week because I didn't have the faith that he would make the sacrifices necessary to become a member. He lives a train ride plus a bus ride away from the church in South Jakarta, so I had some doubts about whether he could keep that up. Last week in his interview with Elder Sutadi, he committed to coming to church every week after his baptism. He has to work til late at night, so we baptized him after church Sunday. Do you remember Elder Suryono (my old companion)? He came up from Bandung the night before just to see him get baptized. It was really fun seeing him again! I've attached a picture below. Just before going into the font, we did the pre-baptism run through and I noticed a brown wristband I hadn't noticed before on Derry's wrist. He said it's a wristband he's worn for the past 10 years and never taken off. So it was all hard and impossible to slip off, so after asking if it was okay, Bishop grabbed a small knife and cut it off.  While changing afterwards, I asked how he was feeling and he said "Free from the burden of sin". I said, "Kinda like your wristband, eh?" It was a fun little symbol of the commitment he's making for the rest of his life and the life to come. Derry's been such a testimony to me about sacrifice. There's no distance too far, no economical problem too big, no sacrifice too great to know the truth.

Ivan came to the baptism as well. He's progressing sooo well. All the members already consider him a full member, and now when we teach him, we ask him to teach us. And then we fill in whatever's missing from the D&C or words from living prophets. I seriously will miss Ivan so much. I wish everyone could have a chance to meet him.

We went to Brother Erwin's house last week as well and there was a different light about him. I don't how to explain it any other way. You could just feel it. He wore a white shirt and tie to church for the second time too and should shortly begin blessing the sacrament. 

 We did a split in Bogor last week. Beautiful city! I went with Elder Sadiyono. Great missionary. :) 

I'm definitely going to miss Jakarta Selatan. I would have to say I've been the happiest here so far on my mission, Sampai jumpa lagi! (See you again!)

Elder Seth Barrus