This...is...Jakarta!

Selamat datang dari kota yang terkasih- Jakarta! (welcome from the beloved city!) It's a little bit more crowded, noisy, and different than Tangerang, or my other cities, but I'm certain I'll grow to love it just as much as my other cities. (Wow, if that doesn't sound missionary cliche, I'm not sure what does.) My companion is a super short elder from Bandung. His name is Elder Suryono and he goes home in August, so my job is to work with him in the Jawa Barat zone and keep him from trunking himself out. We live in the same house with Elder Litster and Elder Rogers really close to the church here. We'll be covering two "wards", and by that I mean the Jakarta 2nd ward, and the Jakarta 3rd ward, which is just the English speaking ward. We share the entire city with the AP's, the Sister Trainers, another set of sisters, and the elders in our house. Yep. It's great fun!

We ride angkots, buses, or the busway system. We haven't found a good housing complex to proselyte in yet, but we do get plenty of opportunities to talk to people in the buses. Like one time we were talking to this one guy (from Medan! woot!) about the Kitab Mormon, and this lady sprang to her feet from her chair and said "That book is false and not true!" We calmly explained that nope. It's not. But she was still pretty fervent in her quest of stopping us in "corrupting" this youth. By the end, the Medan guy wouldn't take the Book of Mormon, but wants to meet with the missionaries in Bekasi sometime. There are some weeeird people in Jakarta. But some great ones too! We went to Stake Conference this past weekend and heard lots of talks from lots of great people. Elder Suryono said that all the past conference themes have been about member missionary work. I'm a fan of that. :)

I'm at a new warnet and can't figure out how to send pictures. But I'll figure it out later and send some next week. 

They do have Memorial Day here, just on a different day. I forget when... I think August maybe?

Ha ha! Oh Sister Sheffield. Elder Suryono and I went over to the Lucherini's apartment with the sisters last night and it's so weird but great having sisters back in my district. My companion is hilarious! He was Elder Heiner's trainer back in Malang last year, and at that time, his English was awful. But now it's super great! I guess continuously training new missionaries does that to you. But he still says some funny stuff. Like when he said we should be careful we didn't go down to "H-E-double stick hockey". I'm excited to serve with him!

Oh! So I actually rummaged through my stuff at Senopati (the mission home) and found some extra shirts I had actually saved. I don't know the status of the package, but I don't think you need to worry about sending shirts anymore. Unless you already did. And if so, no worries. :) Just send the fruit snacks. :)

Yep. I chatted with Elder Wood at Stake Conference this last weekend, and Tangerang is a tough place to whitewash just because it's huge! And he did come from a paradise in Manado. The word on the street goes that they had some ridiculous number like 15 investigators with baptismal commitments up there in Christian land. But Tangerang is a great place. He'll be happy there.

New prayer list: add Pak Dxxxxx. He's a doctor from Manado who's come to church before and has a lot of potential. We're meeting with him tomorrow. 

Elder Seth Barrus

Perpindahan (Transfers!)

It was so great to skype with you all last week! No worries, it didn't make me trunky at all. :) Just good to see you all. Ha ha! And actually eventually talk back. (It took us 90 minutes to actually connect so we could see and hear each other. Finally just waited for one of the other elders to finish their call so Seth could borrow their headphones.)

It was kinda tough at the beginning, but the last 5 months in Tangerang has been really enjoyable. President Donald called up last week and said I'm moving to... Jakarta! My companion will be Elder Suryono from Bandung, who was actually Elder Heiner's trainer. My companion, Elder Sutadiyono, is moving to a quaint little village called Magelang in Jawa Tengah. Elder Sutadiyono and I have been companions for the last 7 months. Crazy long, but we've had so many fun memories and experiences together, it's gonna be weird to split with him. But he's gonna be a great missionary no matter where he moves! (I asked about the last names being so similar.) There's a Sutadiyono (my companion now) a Suryono (my future companion) and a Sadiyono (Elder Murphy's companion). They're not very creative with their names.

            So this is me saying goodbye to the lovely city of Tangerang. It's been quite the fun ride, Tangerang. 

We were definitely blessed this last full week to meet some new people that the new missionaries can work with. All 3 new investigators we met were Batak, a tribe from Medan. Ahh yeah! Each time, we approached their door, after asking where the Christians lived, and explained who we were and what our names are. Every time they see "Barrus" they get really excited and invite us in because "Barus" is a tribal name in the Batak Karo region, so they automatically assume I'm from their family. I've never been quite so grateful for my Barrus heritage before. Ha ha ha! 

Mas Hxxx can't yet commit to a baptismal date yet, but he still wants to learn with the new missionaries. He knows it's all true, but it just hasn't... clicked yet for him. Brother Wxxxxxxx just needs time. He'll come around one day. 

      You see some weeeeiird stuff in Indonesia. Elder Canfield and I were on a split last week and passed by this                          awesome Elvis Presley- like chicken. Ha ha! He's got quite the flop going on. 

Joseph Smith said ".. the time has gone by when (Mormonism) is looked upon as a transient matter, or a bubble on the wave, and it is now taking a deep hold in the hearts and affections of all those who are noble-minded enough to lay aside the prejudice of education, and investigate the subject with candor and honesty." We had an investigator text us last week saying his knowledge of the Gospel conflicted with the Book of Mormon, so he couldn't keep learning. This was even before we had a chance to follow up with him to see if he had even read and prayed about it. If anybody has a pure heart in searching for the truth, God promises to make the truth of it known to that man if he does his part. I testify that it's true!

Elder Seth Barrus

PS  Right! Package- so Elder Heiner's CTR Clothing white shirts have been incredible. It's like they're made out of titanium or something. Could you throw 1 or 2 of those shirts in the package? And fruit snacks. I can't find those anywhere. But I am moving to Jakarta and they say you can find anything in Jakarta. So we'll see. :) 

Note to Future Wife

Happy Cinco de Mayo! There is zero Mexican culture here in Tangerang, but there is this random Texan that sells Mexican food, so we're gonna go celebrate after we're done emailing. Woot! 

We got to experience a lot of Javanese culture this last week. You remember Mas Bxxxxxxxx? He married Sister Dxxxx in accordance with the government on a Thursday. Then in accordance with Jawa Culture,  they had a traditional Javanese wedding on Saturday. Which means lots of big hair, tons of makeup, swords hanging out the back of the guys' shirts, smashing of eggs, cleaning of feet, weird jawa dances, funky music, and lots of tofu and tempeh. It was sagat fun!

This is the Javanese wedding. Check out Sister Dhian's hair! Note to future wife- no need to go all out like this.

​

We also started this English class with the new program Sister Gong made in Hong Kong that uses mormonmessages and songs and starts and ends with a prayer. We're getting a lot of member support with this new program. Here's a picture! (It was after the wedding, hence the cool Jawa clothes.)

Mas Hxxxx didn't come to church because he's still a little afraid to talk to his boss and see if he can have Sundays off, but we had a great week with him last week. We watched the Joseph Smith film and he really liked it. We also had a fantastic lesson with Brother Wxxxxxx. We taught the Restoration in full, (even used some of Al-Quran to explain the relationship we have between God), and ended by giving a commitment to pray and come to church. He totally agreed to pray about it, but he kind of set us straight and said he'll come to church when he figures out it's all true. And with other investigators, I'd be kinda doubtful. But since Brother Wxxxxxx is really that kind of guy who will do what he says he will, I have total faith that he'll come one day. It was also his birthday last week, so we went to the Harvest and bought him a triple layer chocolate cake and surprised him. Only to find out he can't eat chocolate. It makes him throw up. Oops... 

Sounds like you had a blast with the other missionary moms! Sometimes we missionaries think that "missionary moms" is a cult, because you know things even before we do... Ha ha! That's fun that Elder Murphy's mom is coming up! Tell her that her son was my favorite companion in the MTC. And favorite white elder in Surabaya. And also my favorite Mexican in Medan. I love that man. 

To answer your questions:

1. I like Missionary Mall socks. My CTR Clothing socks are getting random holes in the toes. But the missionary mall ones are holding up great!

2. The best way to send audio of General Conference is on a flashdisk. But no worries, we've been downloading the talks on Elder Canfield's flashdrive lately and listening to them after we email. An Ensign magazine with all the talks would be just perfect. 

4. Right! Mother's Day. There's been no official word, but you can plan on skyping 9:00 am here Monday. If it changes, we'll be given permission to email again. But plan on that. :) And yes, rumor has it that we only get to skype for 30 minutes. (But we're having Zone Training Meeting this week, so should get the official word then.)

In Omni 1:26 we read that we should come unto Christ and offer our whole souls unto Him as an offering. We don't need to sacrifice goats or sheep anymore, but we are asked to sacrifice our whole souls as an offering. And as we do so, we'll find He will deepen our joys, expand our understanding, and strengthen our spirituality. 

Elder Seth Barrus 

Chicken Feet and Mukjizat (Miracles)

So much to talk about... and yet no idea where to begin... So we'll start with PLD! The Jawa Barat zone plus the Medan district all met together in Jakarta with President and Sister Donald for our once a month meeting. It's kinda like General Conference, where all the missionaries expect some big new thing. But this time, President Donald just emphasized things that he's asked us to do in previous meetings, and if we aren't doing them, encouraged us to do them now. He also brought out the new mission "motto" or "theme" or whatever you want to call it. "Obedience is the Price, Faith is the Power, Work is the Commitment, Love is the Motive, Spirit is the Key, Christ is the Reason. And One More Contact before going home." Coming up on my year mark, it gave me some added purpose and motivation.

As for investigator work, we had a huge miracle happen yesterday at church. You remember Hxxx? He's the one who knows it's all true, but can't come to church because his boss never gives him Sundays off. So yesterday as we were getting ready for Sacrament Meeting, we were pretty surprised to see none other than Hxxx walk in the doors! Last night he prayed to God telling Him he would come to church on Sunday and if he felt something, he would stay and keep learning. And he had an awesome experience! He decided he'll just face his boss tomorrow, but it's a testimony to me that whoever puts the Lord first will have all other things fall into place, maybe not according to what we want, but I think the Lord's will is better than our own. :) We're meeting with him again later today and will follow it all up.

A fun resource for Gospel learning is the Bible Dictionary (if I'm not wrong, written by Elder Bruce R. McConkie.. Someone correct me if I'm not correct). This last week, I read the entry on "Prayer" and learned this: "Many of the so-called difficulties about prayer arise from forgetting this 'father-son' relationship. Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves and others blessings that God is already willing to grant, but that are made conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them." So my invitation of the week is to make your prayers more heartfelt and to truly search out the will of God. 

Misi adalah enak! (The mission in delicious!)

Elder Seth Barrus

This is a chicken foot, or "ceker" (check-air). It's actually quite delicious. If it's boiled correctly, you can bite at the joints and pull the talons off and suck the skin and meat off the bones. If you were wondering..

This is my becak shirt Elder Costner bought for me in Medan. And to answer your question Mom- no... we haven't taken the Christmas tree down yet..

Two more pictures from PLD (Zone Conference). One silly and one serious. It was a great meeting!

Rats and a Snowman

For Easter here, everything Christian kind of shuts down. Starting with the Thursday before Good Friday, most Christians here in Tangerang went to their church and it continued every day until this last Sunday. Everybody had work off too. Is that a thing in America? 

This last week was great! We caught 2 rats in our house, made some oriental omelettes (thanks Bishop Gardner), and taught a lot of investigators.

This is rat #1. We baited him with some great cake sort of thing we got from a less active member. Great for mouse bait, not so great for the ol' stomach.  

We also finally met up with James! He texted us last Tuesday when Elder Canfield and I were on a split and said he was ready to finally meet up. Instead of waiting until another day, we set up an appointment for that same day. We were expecting an embittered, kind of angry man, since he canceled his membership about 2 years ago, but instead we met up with the most humble, open, ready to repent man I have ever met on my mission. As we helped him understand the process of repentance and the role of the Savior's Atonement in his life, I think I'm finally starting to truly understand the immense impact the Atonement has on everyone's life and the lasting peace that will come as a result of accepting it. We also taught Brother Wxxxxxx about why we consider Jesus as our Savior this Easter season. We invited him to church, but he still is exercising his free agency and not coming.  Timing is a funky thing. 

This last week was chalk full of experiences in teaching about Christ and His Atonement, but I think my favorite was when we met with Pak Ixxx. He's a new investigator we found while searching for someone else's address. We started by sharing an Easter message and made this really fun transition to how there are other witnesses of
Christ's resurrection... in the Kitab Mormon! He's going to Vietnam these next couple weeks, but he wants to read the testimony of Christ in the Americas while he's there. 

Is it still snowing in Utah? If not, it's snowing in Tangerang!!! Ha ha! Just kidding. There's this "Snow World International" building next to a big mall here in Tangerang and inside the building is a winter wonderland. Last PDay, we trekked on over there and holy schnikies it was cold!! This is me chillin' next to a Pak I met.  

In Preach My Gospel, there's an entire section devoted to "developing Christlike attributes". Elder Ballard encouraged every member to get a copy and study it. If you're confused as to where to start since maybe you aren't a full time missionary, I encourage you start here. As you develop Christlike attributes, you'll get the Spirit. As you get the Spirit, you'll be able to hear the promptings of how you can share the Gospel with your friends and family. Happy Easter! Tuhan Yesus Kristus telah bangkit biar kita semua bisa bangkit satu hari nanti. "Dia tidak di sini, Dia telah bangkit." (The Lord Jesus Christ is risen so that we can all rise one day. "He is not here, He has risen."

Elder Seth Michael Barrus

General Conference in Indonesian

Conference was great! The Tangerang District watched it with the local Tangerang members here in Indonesian and as much as I'd like to say my Indonesian has improved, the General Authorities of the church use pretty formal words which makes for some pretty funny and hard to understand Indonesian phrases. I feel kinda bad for the translators. Luckily, the stake president was reading the talks in English during the sessions, so I just looked over his shoulder and read them in English... There were two talks that really stuck out to me--the one from President Uchtdorf about how we need to be a more grateful people and Elder Michael Teh's talk about how the Lord has a way of refocusing our priorities in times of calamity or tragedy. He then asked a great question "Why do we devote our time to things that are so fleeting and inconsequential?" Good question. After devoting these 2 years to the Lord, I hope this is something I can apply in "normal life". 

Elder Sutadiyono and I were praying that Brother Wintolo would be able to come to at least one of the sessions, but he didn't come. So after our 6 o'clock appointment on Sunday we swung by his house and just chatted with him about how much he missed out on... Ha ha! He's good though. We taught him last week again about how Jesus Christ fulfilled the law of Moses and a little bit about the Kitab Mormon. For whatever reason, I feel like my work here in Tangerang isn't quite yet done. We're starting a new 16 week English course we got from the area headquarters in Hong Kong and from the looks of it, it's gonna be an awesome tool to help members invite their friends to come and do missionary work. 

We rode a train to Zone Training Meeting last week and took this fun picture of us waiting for the train.This Muslim lady is wondering where these weird Bules came from. Elder Sutadiyono and I have started to contact more and more Muslim people, not with the intent to convert them to Christianity, but so that we can understand them and their culture better.

I promised to send a picture of our new bikes and here they are! Parked right next to a "Womens' Parking" sign. Oops... No crashes yet worthy enough to report. Elder Sutadiyono and I have taken great fun in shifting all the way down (or up?) where we have to pump our legs super super fast just to go 5 feet, and then we race home the last stretch to our house. Ha ha! Fun stuff on the mish.

This is an Alfamart. You will find these EVERYWHERE, sometimes placed right next to an Indomart. It's just your basic local convenience store. We do most of our shopping here. You just can't find milk here though... at least not quality Smith's or BYU Creamery milk. We've taught one of our investigators, Mbak Rxxxx, in front of one of these Alfamarts. 

Real quick before I finish, we've met with a new investigator, his name is Bxxxxx, he's 13 years old and he's ready and wants to be baptized in May. The Lord is definitely preparing the hearts of men to receive His message. I dunno what we're doing, but He's blessing us. Hope everyone has a great week! 

Elder Barrus

This Week in Pictures

I sure hope everybody had a great General Conference weekend! We have to wait for the translation and hopefully get to watch it this Saturday and Sunday. To switch things up today, this week's email will be in pictures! 

Like I said last week, we went to the beach for Pday! I'm a huge fan of Indonesian beaches because of the emphasis on modesty. It was super fun playing in the sand and taking dumb pictures. This is the Tangerang District. Me, Elder Canfield, Elder Heiner, and Elder Sutadiyono.

Angkot picture! The stock at the mission office is currently out of Kitab Mormons, so when my comp and I ride angkots, he carries around a Chinese Book of Mormon, and I carry my teeny tiny copy in English. 

French Toast! We have to wait for the General Conference CD to arrive in the mission office in Senopati, where it will be copied onto flashdisks and sent to all the wards and branches. So even though we don't get to watch Conference until next week, I made some General Conference french toast anyway. And my shirt has totally shrunk since buying it in Medan. Three cheers for missionary sleeve tans! 

Here is where I get to talk a little bit about the investigators. This is Brother Txx. Yep. Like "pohon" or "tree". He's gone through so much change it's incredible. He texted us last week saying he wanted to meet more often. So we sent his information to the Jakarta elders and they've been able to meet with him more than just the once a week at church that we've been doing. He said he prayed about the Kitab Mormon, (Finally!!) but hasn't received an answer yet. He'll get one though because that promise isn't from us as 19 year old kids, but from an All-knowing God. 

The prayers and fasting for Brother Txxxx Wxxxxxx have paid off. This last week, we planned on teaching a little bit about Joseph Smith's prayer and inviting him to church again. Right before we wanted to begin, he asked us two questions: why we consider Jesus "Lord" and why Ishmael wasn't the promised line. It's the first time he's actually asked us questions and we had an incredible lesson because of it. Your prayers for him will be much appreciated.

Mas Bxxxxxx came to church and was confirmed! He's still got a lot to learn as far as membership in the church goes (don't we all?) but he's got a solid foundation. And that gift of the Holy Ghost will help, too. We are teaching another new investigator, his name is Mas Hxxx, and he's awesome! He became interested with the church because he listened to some David Archuleta music and heard something on the internet that he was a Mormon. At this point, he knows the church is true and he wants to be baptized himself. So wherever you are David Archuleta, a random missionary in Indonesia is thanking you. Mas Hxxx's only problem is that he works every single day from 6 am until 2 pm. Church starts on Sundays at 8 and goes till 11. We're encouraging him to ask his boss for Sundays off. Even though it seems impossible, anything is possible through the Lord. 1 Nephi 3:7.

The Lord continually blesses those who continually hold fast to what He asks. Hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Seth Michael Barrus

                                 On top of the "Living World" overlooking the city of Tangerang.