Elder Seth Barrus

Elder Seth Barrus
Jakarta Indonesia Mission May2013-2015

Sunday, January 25, 2015

While the President's Away...

Holy Cow Steakhouse
President's been in Bali this entire week, so our day to day activities were full of peace and quiet and missionaries chastising us for having not Kitab Mormons to give out to their investigators. The member who sends out orders from missionaries was in Hong Kong this entire week as well, so we had quite a few missionaries ring us up and ask very politely yet firmly why they weren't receiving any copies of the Kitab Mormon. To be fair, we have no control over that since this brother is the only one here in the office that has a key to that door. He came back today though so I'm sure he'll take care of the problem.


This last week was again just the greatest weather a missionary could ask for. Sunny, sometimes a bit cloudy, a nice tropical breeze blowing in once in a while. It made me that more motivated to go out and teach. Speaking of which.... 

Floor Ping Pong!
We taught Aleks last week about the Atonement using an object lesson. We took three cups of water. The first one we mixed iodine in it and called it "Sin". The second one had bleach mixed in it and called it "The Atonement of Jesus Christ" and the third one was called "Aleks". To show how the Atonement works for us, we first poured "Sin" into "Aleks" explaining how all men sin and fall short of the glory of God. But thankfully, Jesus Christ took upon Himself all the sins of mankind. So we took "Sin" and poured it into "the Atonement" and magically the iodine color disappeared. We furthered explained how we need to apply the Atonement if we have any hopes of becoming clean from our own sins, so we poured "the Atonement" into "Aleks" and his "Sins" vanished. For the last part, we explained that all Jesus Christ wants us to do now is offer our whole souls as an offering to Him so we poured the remaining water into "The Atonement" and made that point. In an odd little object lesson, the spirit was still strong. And made me think about my own experiences and testimony of the Atonement. Because of what Jesus did for each of us, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, including all the ordinances, can have power, true cleansing, enabling, and healing power, in our lives. We just have to receive it. Aleks really liked it and is well on his way to be baptized on February 1st.

Solo Zone Conference with Elder Simangkulit, President Donald, Sister Olsen and Sister


We found this American fellow named Chris. He has the most crazy background story I've ever heard. I'll explain when I get home just because of how long it is. But essentially, he was open to receiving the restored gospel if we could show the importance and necessity of the restoration from the bible. In preparation to meet him again, I started thinking about how I could do that and then came to the realization that we couldn't do that. Anybody could twist or turn the verses we wanted to use to support or reject our beliefs. So we came to the realization that it's only through the Book of Mormon can a person receive that witness. So when we brought it up and began discussing about it, he said to us "I testify that the Book of Mormon is not the word of God." Elder Wood and I were on a split that day and we just received the impression that we needed to let it go. We shared our own experiences and testimonies that it is the word of God because if it isn't, what else could it be? Failed theories about its origins and source have been planted, grown, gained popularity, then died as Elder Holland puts it. And that's because there is no other explanation. Even this American man himself, (Chris) said that the truth will stand. Whatever truth it may be, the truth will stand forever. And The Book of Mormon has stood as truth for over 175 years and will forever.

Mission Leadership Conference January 2015 (courtesy Sister Donald)
We meet so many people on buses, on the street, or other random places I don't have time to write about them all and the miracles that happen. But yesterday, I ran into this lady from Washington. She's originally from Georgia, but moved to Portland a while back. Her sister is a member and she herself even has a copy of the Book of Mormon. But she's here just traveling and expressed to me her utmost appreciation and respect for us as missionaries and for our beliefs. Including how well ironed my shirt was. :) Mom should be pleased to hear that. But she's just content with her own beliefs but she mentioned like 3 times while on that bus how much she loves hearing about and seeing the fruits from our church. She's not ready now, but I'm certain one day she will realize why.

Solo Zone Conference with Elder Blaser and Elder Heiner from MTC Group
This church has all those wonderful fruits because of one reason: Jesus Christ is at the helm of this church. I take great strength from 2 Peter 1:16 which reads "we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty." We might not be eyewitnesses of his majesty, but we can be eyewitnesses of the fruits from His church and Gospel. I just thought that verse was so perfect for what I've been thinking about this last week.

Hope everybody has a great week!

Elder Seth Barrus
District Conference Hijinks

P.S. To answer your question: Release date.... Right. President Donald went out of town this last week to Bali to search out a new chapel for the members to meet in, so we had 0 time to meet up and chat with him. I'll bring it up with him when there's time. Sorry to keep you waiting... But you can probably plan for the early part of May.... But not making any promises. :)





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