Small and Simple Means

This last week was an odd one. Some advice I got before my mission was to focus entirely on the positive and by the end, the positives will most definitely outweigh the negatives. Mas Bxxxxxxxx was sick all last week and could never meet with us, or come to church. Mas Txx couldn't make it to church and as we were talking to his pacar (girlfriend), Sister Kxxxxxx, she mentioned how giving him a baptismal commitment last week made him feel a little uncomfortable. And Mas Txx couldn't come to church yesterday because he was in Bogor. We still had the opportunity to meet with Mas Txx and had a great lesson! We talked about the importance of the Atonement and how he can only receive it fully as he takes the sacrament and is baptized. He still wants to be baptized, but now in March. He has such great faith! He asked about smoking and how it's not in the Alkitab, so is it against the commandments? We answered by reading 1 Cor. 3:15-16 and then explained about the Word of Wisdom. Even though he has no idea why he has to stop drinking tea and coffee, he said he's willing to do it. He's definitely a blessing to Elder Sutadiyono and I. 

For the first time on my mission, I"m grateful for sambal (Indonesian hot sauce). I'm usually down to eat some usus (chicken intestines) whenever I have the opportunity. But when we ate them with the Wxxxxxx family the other night, these ones were just gross. Luckily, there was some sambal which kinda numbed my mouth and tongue, allowing said usus to be swallowed. Desperate situations call for desperate measures. Anyway before that, we taught Brother T Wxxxxxxo from the Kitab Mormon. We read 1 Nephi 8 together and I think it's the first time he's actually read it. He was a little hesitant at first, but once we got into it, showing a picture and all, he seemed really okay with it. We're inviting him to come to church this week...

Not having a lot of investigators who want to meet means we got to do a lot of proselyting. Since we have a rule where we can't go knocking on doors, we resort to some creative means to proselyte. Sometimes we ask "Where do the Christians live?" (Muslims are quite willing to volunteer their Christian neighbors), introduce English class, ask if there's anyone here who wants to hear a message just about families, or sometimes we just start asking people if they know about the Kitab Mormon. If you have any other ideas, feel free to suggest them my way. 

Yay! We finally met up with Bishop Rxxxxx and his fam. Probably the most intimidating
 lesson of my life. They all spoke perfect English. And Indonesian. And Mandarin. 

From Alma 37:6-7 we learn that through very small and simple ways the Lord brings to pass His purpose among the children of men. Pray for small opportunities to introduce the Gospel and it will be given to you. Hidup adalah enak!  (Life is good!)

Elder Seth Barrus

Kittens

We just finished up "mowing" the backyard before emailing.
With some nice hedgeclippers. (This is the "before" picture.)

Yes. Kittens. Elder Heiner and Sutarno came home one day, walked into the bedroom, and found a just born kitten lying on Elder Sutadiyono's mattress, meowing up a storm. There's a small little hole in our roof now where said kitten had fallen. I've seen some really really weird stuff on my mission, but I think that takes the cake. 

Ha ha! Okay. So there was a lot more that happened last week than just raining kittens. Like how we gave Mas Txx a baptismal commitment for the 23rd of February! He knows it's true, he just needs to come to church now to make that happen. We'll see how things roll the next couples weeks. We also met with Mas T when he came to church yesterday and talked about the Atonement. As we chatted, I felt the impression to just give him a commitment. And he received it! If he keeps coming to church and learning like that, he will be baptized on the 23rd of March. Things are looking up here in Tangerang!

We also were able to meet with our favorite Muslim investigator, Mas Bxxxxxxx, and talk about Jesus. It was a really neat experience. I felt like a modern day Paul or Peter because we talked a lot about the Law of Moses and discussed how it was all fulfilled when Jesus suffered in the Garden of Gethsemene and was resurrected. We asked a very specific question and got a very specific answer.  "Do you believe that Jesus Christ is this Savior you're looking for?" and he said something I've probably heard a million times, but really touched my heart. He said "I know that Jesus is my Savior. I acknowledge that and am willing to receive him and his sacrifice. Jesus Christ is the same person all the prophets prophesied and testified about. He is the Son of God." It created a really cool feeling in that house. I add my testimony that Jesus is the Christ, Son of the Living God, and has taken all of our sins, sorrows, and unfair things in our lives upon Himself. All He asks of us is to 1. Remember Him. 2. Take His name upon ourselves and 3. Keep His commandments. That's all and it's something I'll always be grateful for.

We left that lesson feeling really good and then went to another investigator's house who met us outside, gave us our Kitab Mormon back, and said "Saya udah diselamatkan" or "I'm already saved." Dang. It's funny how missions work. Because almost every time I feel really good and that we're making some headway, there's always something that humbles us. But, we just pick up and move on. 

We met our second favorite Muslim investigator, Brother Wxxxxxx, and had an incredible lesson where the Spirit was so strong. At the end of the discussion, we asked him if he wanted to be with his family forever. "Of course" he replied. We then asked if he would be willing to complete the requirements necessary to do that and he also replied "Yes. But give me more time. It's a process." And it is a process. We'll keep meeting and following up with him. Something that Elder Anderson said is becoming more and more apparent: that we have to respect everyone's own timing. Just gotta patient I suppose. Church is still and will always be true!

Terus Maju dan jangan Mundur!

Elder Seth Barrus

Playing futsol with the Tangerang Ward youth.

Selamat Hari Imlek dan Banjir (Chinese New Years Day and Flooding)

Happy Chinese New Year everybody!

Fun week last week because even though the flood didn't directly impact our area in Tangerang, there were still some spots hit pretty hard. Like 2 meters high. Crazy stuff. People have been saying a flood like this only happens once every 5 years, but has now happened for 2 consecutive years. It's truly the last days.

We received some relief supplies from Jakarta last week, which included some rice, hygiene kits, baby milk, floor mats, diapers, and the usual flood relief stuff, and hauled it all into a big military truck which took us and the supplies to north Tangerang, where the flooding is. Yup. The Church is pretty awesome when it comes to natural disasters.

We finally met up with Mas Txx after taking a 3 week break! His phone's been messed up where he can only call or text other people, but can't receive texts or phone calls from them. But we contacted his mom who said for us to come over to the waroeng and teach him last Saturday. It's usually pretty nervewracking meeting up with an investigator you haven't contacted in a long time, but immediately after we started, the fear was gone. He knows it's all true. He reads the Kitab Mormon every day and "gets goosebumps" everytime he reads it. He told us with pride as well that he had been baptized by immersion already... Elder Sxxxxxxxx and I looked at each other wondering who was going to answer that one. Instead of saying his baptism was wrong, we opened up to Acts 8:19-20 and explained how a baptism has to be done by the authority of God, as well as followed by receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost in order for it to be complete. I showed him my own priesthood line (Thanks dad and mom) and he was silent for a second. But then said "Oh. I understand now. I need to be baptized by this authority huh?" Yes! Good question! He's going to come to church this Sunday and hopefully be baptized a couple of weeks after. 

We met with Mas Bxxxxxxx again and followed up on the Plan of Salvation. The Muslim idea of life after death is eerily similar to the Mormon belief. Mas Bambang told us at the day of final judgement, there will be a "Juruselamat" or a "Savior" who will resurrect us all from the dead and allow us to enter "Kerajaan Allah" or "God's kingdom." I felt the spirit so strong as we testified to him that the Savior he's looking for, is really Jesus Christ. We coupled the lesson with a quick introduction on how to pray, how we aren't supposed to pray to Jesus Christ, we pray to Allah, but we're asked to close in his name, as an intermediator. And he accepted the invitation to try it right then and there! Great prayer, but didn't close in Christ's name because I think he's been told since he was little, "this Savior is not Jesus Christ" over and over again that he has come to believe it. We invited him to pray afterwards personally later that night to know for himself, to ask Allah if Jesus Christ is Mas Bxxxxxx's Savior too. The lesson really built my testimony to know that Jesus Christ is our Savior. Without Him, we would be subject to the ultimate consequences of our sins. I know that our Redeemer lives! 

Last quick story: We met 2 people on the angkot, Mas Nxx and Mbak Ixxxx, who invited us over to share the Plan of Salvation. After feeling the spirit really strong, Mas Nxx said learning about this was like a "Pemulihan" or a "restoration" of knowledge. After explaining how he accepted this in the Premortal Realm, we also explained how next time we meet, we'll talk about how Christ's church has been restored too. Fun experience. 

Elder David McConkie said in last conference: "You must stand as an independent witness of the things you teach and not just be an echo of the words in a manual or the thoughts of others." Pretty ironic then that I'm quoting him word for word, but as we're truly converted to this Gospel, we'll stand as an independent witness, no longer relying on the testimonies of others. 

Maju terus eh?

Elder Seth Barrus

Banjir! It was pretty bad the last few days, so when we got there the water level
 had already receded. (Is that a word?) No swimming involved. No worries. 

This is the tent we put all the relief supplies in. 

That right there is some water. In a box. 

Elder Sxxxxxxxxxxx and I standing outside of said tent. 

Imlek! Which is Indonesian for the Chinese New Year. For Pday, we went to a mall and watched these
Chinese performers hop around in a big ol dragon costume on these pillars. Pretty talented. They asked for small donations after so this is me placing some rupiahs in the dragon's mouth. No hand severing happened.

This is President Eko's family. He's a counselor in the stake presidency.Great family!

God is good. Very good. (Allah baik. Sangat baik.)

Selamat pagi semuanya-

There were a ton of things that happened last week that I will remember for the rest of my life. Or at least I wrote them in my journal, so there's a chance right? There's no possibility I can write it all in one letter, but I'll include what I think is important and hopefully it's not so boring for you to read back home, or wher'er you may be. 

Last week was awesome because we had 2 solid investigators tell us to "jangan pernah kembali ke rumah ini." Or "never come back to this house." One of them told us to come by and retrieve the Book of Mormon and Restoration film, because she is Catholic, her parents died Catholic, and she will forever stay Catholic. It kind of was a downer. Sometimes people's free agency is the most frustrating thing to missionary work. But as a result of us trying to be humble, the Lord blessed us with different opportunities than we were expecting. 

We met with Brother Wxxxxxxx and taught about the Holy Ghost and it's role in guiding us to truth. Went well. But no major improvements yet, although they've started to pray together as a family. (In the Christian way).

There's a sister here in the Tangerang Ward that is engaged to a Muslim man. His name is Mas Bxxxxxx. He's come to church before we showed up in Tangerang, and even met with missionaries, but the Elders before us made the innocent mistake of mentioning we have a living prophet on the earth today. Aaand that made him back off because according to him, Mohammad was the "seal of the prophets". Can't be anymore. So he stopped coming to church and it's been tough to get ahold of him ever since. We asked his fiancee, Sister Dhian, if we could just come over to her house while he's there and we could just talk. Turned out to be a really great lesson! We shared about the Plan of Salvation and it was really interesting to see that the Mormon Plan of Happiness is eerily similar to the Muslim theology of life after death. Before a final judgement into one of the levels of heaven, they believe all spirits go to another world to await the judgement. It's called "Alam Roh". We put 2 and 2 together and became like a modern day Ammon teaching King Lamoni because his "Alam Roh" is exactly like what we call "dunia roh" or "spirit world". The only difference is the whole Paradise and Prison thing. Sister Dhian is a stalwart member who comes from an incredible family, and so before getting married to him, she wants him baptized. It'll just take a little time. 

For some strange reason, we're not finding a lot of success with Christians. So another solid investigator we have is Mas Txx. He is the boyfriend of another sister member here. He originally was Buddhist and from Tangerang, but went to a couple of Christian churches when he was in Australia. He's come to church multiple times, and yesterday, we finished up the Plan of Salvation. It's been really really really fun and satisfying to teach the Plan in such a simple and clear way so he can understand. Like when we taught that the Resurrection is not quite Reincarnation. If it was Reincarnation, when would God's plan end? How would we progress and become like Him? We had hoped to invite him to be baptized, but decided to wait. At the end of the lesson he said "Your Church is less extreme than the churches I went to in Australia. Yours makes sense. But give me time." So we will. :) 

God is preparing His children to be taught the Gospel. I know that's true in Tangerang. In a city of 4 million people, (totally made that number up) there's gotta be a few who want to know the truth. Our modern day Prophet President Monson said in last conference: "We are inclined to become impatient for a solution to our problems, forgetting the heavenly virtue of patience is required. The difficulties which come to us present us with the real test of our ability to endure. Shall I Falter or Shall I Finish?" We'll find them. Elder Sutadiyono and I have the faith to do so. We just need to be patient as we work hard. 

Last week was kinda rough, but I've learned that usually in my mission, the worst weeks are usually (or sometimes eventually) followed up with a great week. We're gonna keep trying.

I hope everyone is doing great! Selamat Hari Imlek this Friday! (Happy Chinese New Year)

Dengan kasih,

The Stronger the wind, the stronger the Trees,

Elder Seth Michael Barrus

PLD and Elder Funk

Elder Sxxxxxxxxxxx, Elder Funk and Elder Barrus in Tangerang
(wearing long sleeves because the air conditioning is cold in the Tangerang chapel)

Hello. Hope everyone's doing baik (good)!

Last week was a great motivational week. Like those motivational posters you always see inside high school classrooms, just in meeting form. Last Tuesday was Jawa Barat's turn for PLD (Zone Conference) and we discussed and role played how we're going to accomplish our goal of getting a baptism every 3 months per companionship. Then, since President Donald is the best mission president ever, we watched Ephraim's Rescue and something that really stuck out to me was Ephraim's preparedness. When others were saying "I'll be ready next week or by this Thursday" he said he was ready to act and help NOW. As a missionary, we don't have the time to get worthy and to get prepared because the moments we need to act will always pass us by. Now is the time to get ready and be worthy. Good film.

We met with Brother Wxxxxxxxx last week with his family and for the first time since he's met with missionaries, he showed to us he's willing to try out the Gospel for himself. He committed to start praying with his family every night, even though he himself is Muslim. And even agreed to start comparing the Al'Quran and the Kitab Mormon (The Book of Mormon) to see if it's scripture. Definitely made some great progress there. Slowly but surely, his heart is starting to soften. (Brother Wxxxxxxx's son is serving as a missionary in another area in Indonesia.)

And lastly, Elder Funk came down from Hong Kong to his native missionary land (he served in Indonesia from 1971-1973) to hold a couple meetings with the priesthood brethren and stuff like that. And he also wanted to meet exclusively with the Jawa Barat missionaries. The man is truly called of God to be a General Authority. Seeing the way he talked about how much he loved his mission made me want to work even harder to love my mission the same way. He said he totally forgot about the hardships and the sweating of his mission, and only remembered as people asked him about it. Such an incredible missionary. I hope I can be half the missionary he was.

Congratulations to Cindy, Matt, and Aubrey on the new addition of Tyson to the family! Can't wait to see him!

Terus Maju,

Elder Barrus

Faith

I've known for a long time that my greenie companion has better Indonesian than I do. But something I've also learned is that he also has more faith than I do. We've had two referrals from Mormon.org that we contacted a few weeks ago, but each lesson, they said they're not too interested in us coming back. Elder Sxxxxxxxxxx led out all of last week and he planned on going over there just to see what's up. I'll admit, both times I was kinda nervous we might get chased out, getting hit across the head with an Alkitab or something. Yet both times, they were willing for us to come back and continue the lessons. That's something I've slowly been learning on my mission: to have faith. In everything--investigators, having the faith to find, members, and most importantly, in Christ and His Atonement. And I do think it's because of faith that things are starting to look up here in Tangerang 1. 

We found one Ibu (woman) that we contacted in an Angkot. Her name is Ibu Fxxxxxxx and she is Catholic (because her parents were Catholic, her grandparents were Catholic, great-grandparents, and so on). As we taught her, and after sharing about the First Vision, she said "You two have the Spirit. I can see it. You are telling the truth." Wow. That was pretty humbling because we had just left an appointment with an "eternal investigator" who had said "If you truly knew Jesus, you wouldn't be teaching this 'Mormon stuff'". Ibu Fxxxxxxxx is great! We got her to commit to come to church with a member, but at the last moment, she canceled because I think she's scared of what her family and friends will think. But we'll keep trying and visiting and reminding her how she's felt. She lives with a nephew she took in because his parents neglected him, and she's never married. And so I think she feels somewhat of a responsibility to her parents to stay Catholic. Little does she know that her parents up in the Spirit World are wanting her to learn about and follow the Restored Gospel. 

We gave Mas Txx a baptismal commitment, and he's totally "gung-ho" about it. A slight problem is that he's the drummer for his own church, which meets at the same time as ours. He's currently training someone else to become a drummer too, so I think we'll just have to give him a little time. Mbak Exxx and her mom didn't come to church for unknown reasons and they haven't been picking up their phones, so we'll just have to wait and see what happens there. I really hope they come back into contact with us because they're the same ones who randomly appeared at church last week. 

A Christlike trait I've been trying to focus on is Humility because Elder Randy Funk said in last conference: "'Whosoever is sent in my name shall have the power to open the doors of my kingdom unto ANY nation whithersoever ye shall send them.' In order to have the spiritual power necessary to do that, you must be humble and obedient and have the ability to hear and follow the Spirit." 

On a Medan note, Txxx and Rxxx finally got baptized yesterday! Even though I would give anything to see them get baptized, I know that they truly are two of God's children prepared to build up His kingdom in Medan. Those people exist! His missionaries just need to have the faith to find them. 

Elder Seth Michael Barrus

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.