Whirlwind Week

The whirlwind known as "the week of mission wide zone conferences" is fast coming to a close. We left from Jakarta last Tuesday morning at 4:30 am for Solo and just returned to Jakarta last night at about 9:00 pm. Sooooo here's the rundown by day:

Garuda Indonesia Airplane

Tuesday: Flew with President and Sister Donald plus the Sister Trainers on a Garuda Indonesia flight (which actually won the award for the best cabin crew worldwide in 2014. Pretty cool eh?) to Solo where President started doing interviews and the rest of us ate, proselyted, and then played futsal near the church. After that, we played a game of basketball with a few of the Elders and a team of random Indonesians who were actually really good. We stayed at Elder Murphy's and Elder Canfield's house (remember them?) and then attended the conference the following day. 

Solo Zone Conference January 2015

Wednesday: The conference itself was awesome! Elder Simanungkalit and I gave a presentation (complete with a powerpoint showing lightsabers coming out of our daily planners) about how detailed goal setting and effective planning will help us achieve the mission standards of excellence. We took 30 minutes from our training to role play a daily planning session, which was about as exciting as watching grass grow. But hopefully, taking time to do something like that showed to the missionaries the importance of it. Elder and Sister Lewis taught about the importance of family history in retaining new members. (Side note: their grandson plays basketball for Woods Cross. Remember who coaches there now? Yep. Coach Walkenhurst. Small world.) We took a 4 hour train ride to Surabaya as soon as the conference was over. 

Surabaya + Manado Zone Conference January 2015

Thursday: Same thing as Tuesday. Got to see Elder Heiner, Elder Blaser, Elder Headrick, Elder McCleary and others. We played basketball at the church before playing futsal. 

Friday: Surabaya + Manado zone conference. With a little variation, it was the same as Solo. President asked, "What is your vision?", because our vision affects the goals we set, and is the motivating factor behind all the little things we do as missionaries. He also taught that "where there is no covenant, there is no ordinance". Our own obedience to the covenants we make through ordinances will determine the amount of guidance and blessings we receive as a result of making those covenants. After the meeting, I went with Elder Martineau and President Donald to teach one of his investigators and a less active member. It was raining pretty hard by the end of that, so President called for an emergency McDonald's run before dropping us off at the house. Ha ha! I love President Donald!

Elder Getter and Elder Headrick in Malang

Saturday: We got to spend the whole day on splits finally doing missionary work! I went with Elder Headrick. And I don't think I've ever said anything about him, but he is a hero in my eyes. He teaches well, contacts all the time, uplifts and loves his fellow missionaries, and he stands firm for obedience. And he's full of integrity. Every worthy quality you want in a person, you can find in him. We spent the day teaching a less active, waiting for the pouring rain to stop, and then taught a long time investigator whose name is Yudha. We watched the restoration film with him and then asked if he had ever prayed to know if Joseph was a true prophet. He said no. Without even thinking twice, Elder Headrick got onto his knees, I just followed suit, and we asked if he would ask God right then if Joseph Smith was His prophet. After going over the prayer pattern, and after I prayed to show an example, Yudha offered such a sincere prayer. And after he prayed, we didn't say anything, until he said himself, "I feel good." He accepted a baptismal date for the 14th of February. It was a really cool experience I'll never forget. I can't really do it justice in writing. After English class, I ran into Lidya again. She's cool and doing great! After a quick interview with Elder Headrick, we found a place that sells an old favorite of mine: pisang keju. Good stuff. :)

Pisang Keju (Grilled bananas topped with cheese and chocolate sprinkles)

Sunday: We went to church in Surabaya Barat with Elder Sutadiyono (remember him?) The church over there is really serene. I attached a picture below. Again, I'm serving in the most beautiful place in the world. The Williams invited us over before our flight took off for some quality Bule food. 

Church in Surabaya Barat

Elder and Sister Williams--great mission couple!

Yeppers. While I'm thinking about it, here's some additional highlights:

• I gave out a Book of Mormon to a Malaysian man who knew about Mormons from Donnie and Marie Osmond. He was a Muslim man. His wife was wearing the hijab and all, but he was still interested in learning. 
• There were about 30 or 40 people all preparing to "naik haji" or go on their pilgrimage to Mecca on our flight from Surabaya to Jakarta. I've never felt safer. :) (The Air Asia flight that crashed December 28th originated in Surabaya.)

Well, I think that's about it for this week. Aleks is getting baptized next Sunday and so we'll be gearing up for that. :)  He just called this morning saying his mom and dad are both coming. Yay!

Elder Seth Barrus

Indeed. Thank goodness for Sister Donald. She is an amazing woman. And hilarious! You would think that a mission president's wife would be all spiritual and full of scriptural knowledge (which she is) but she's also soooo funny! She reminds me a lot of Becca in her mannerisms. 

C'mon mom. Ironing my shirt has been a whole mission thing. Since we don't have a dryer, we have to iron our shirts after hanging them out to dry. Even here in Senopati where we have a dryer, I still iron them out of habit. 

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. :)

Most Beautiful Mission in the World!

This last week was chock full of small little miracles that added up, much like the tiny flecks of gold in the ol' prospector's pouch. Can I just list them? It's easier that way.

- Aleks is getting baptized on February 1 now instead of the 8th! Because of that crazy Air Asia plane crash, all Air Asia flights have been suspended till further notice or something. His parents were planning on going to Melbourne for a business trip on January 31, but you know what their flight was? Air Asia. So they're not going now till the 8th. Which means they can come to his baptism and Elder Simanungkalit will still be here to see it. We taught him from Elder Oaks talk about how to live in the world with differences. "Loving Others and Living with Differences"

- Do you remember Rony and Toyo from Medan? Well, Toyo and his mom, Mary, moved to Aceh for some reason, leaving Rony in Medan. (It's kinda crazy up there in Batak land.) According to the elders, he was just living in the old house.  But they tried swinging by his house one day, and there was just dirt. Apparently the house had been leveled a couple days ago. They had no contact with him. And in a place like Indonesia, that's a very easy thing to do. Elder Barlow told me of the situation through a phone call when he called in his stats, and I began praying that the situation would turn out OK. And that Rony would come back to church. Well, Elder Barlow informed me yesterday that Rony woke up and felt like he had to go to church. So he put on his white shirt and tie, rode an angkot the hour and a half there, and attended church and wants to become active again. That made my day!

- Brother R, a new member we're working with, paid his tithing for the first time. He used to be Muslim and his entire family is still Muslim. But he's one of the most active members in the Harmoni ward. 

- We were sitting with S P (a new investigator) and S (a new Chinese investigator) at church yesterday when all of a sudden, members started poking us in the back asking if we knew the two Papuan young men who just walked in. We did! We had met these two Papuans on a busway last Thursday, gave them a Kitab Mormon, and invited them to come to church with us. They didn't pick up their phones earlier before church, so the fact they were able to find the Harmoni church on their own was astounding! They want to get baptized, but will be going to Surabaya soon because they work on a fishing ship. Or something like that. Nonetheless, we're stoked. The Lord is truly hastening his work wherever He has missionaries. We're just His tools. 

- I've been sick with a sore throat and stuffy nose this last week, but we still were able to find and teach a new family of 5. We had an address of someone who had wanted to meet before, but his phone number was no good anymore. He lived close enough, so we trekked out to his house on foot and ran into his not-so-excited wife. The guy's name is David, and he wasn't home at the time, but we called him using his new number and he came home right away. He was so excited to receive a Kitab Mormon and while teaching the first lesson he received a baptismal commitment. Which his wife immediately replied with "Kamu sudah dibaptis!" or "You've already been baptized!" After a few awkward moments of what David was actually getting himself into, and after some explaining by us, he still wanted to get baptized, and even his wife wanted to as well! They have 3 little kids and they actually live closer to the Tebet church, so we gave their information to the Elders there. 

Beautiful weather here in Jakarta!

I've said this before, but I get to serve in the most beautiful mission in the whole world. It was about 75 degrees, with a cool coastal breeze, and sunny the entire week last week. It was aaaawesome. I'm gonna truly miss this place when the missionary department says I have to go. (I still don't know when that will be.)

We taught this man named Chris. He's from Oklahoma, but somehow found his way to Indonesia, married a Manadonese woman, and has three kids. He's learned with the missionaries before, but he had a really cool story. Long story short, he got me thinking a lot more about my own personal testimony of Jesus Christ. I really am out here for Him. I'm not trying to score heavenly points in this eternal contest, but out of gratitude and love for what He's done for me, I'm out here for Him. Just a thought.

Hope everybody has a great week! 

Elder Seth Barrus

PS Thanks for the sheet music. I'm printing it off as we speak and we might sing it at the next zone conference. 

That's so weird Natalie's already home, I guess just because I wasn't around to see her off. Tell her hi for me. 

I sent Nate an email today. Yikes. That's pretty scary to hear about his dad. Nate comes home in April, about a month before I do. (No. I didn't check on my release date yet. President is in Bali this week with Sister Donald, so we probably won't get to ask him this week either. Or next week because of PLD's.)

Selamat Tahun Baru Dua Ribu Lima Belas! (Happy New Year 2015!)

Whilst most of the world was partying away the night last Wednesday, the Jakarta Elders went to the Harmoni ward for a short meal and chat with the members, and were home by 9:00 PM. But we set our alarms for midnight (rebels!). I woke up to what sounded like a war outside with all those fireworks going off. I said "Happy New Year" to Elder Simanungkalit, and then went back to bed. Ha ha! Elder Jones made some tasty real Mexican burritos for dinner, so that was a nice touch. It was a fun way to celebrate the last new year of my mission.

Quick update on the investigators: Pak E is cool. He's like 82 years old but is sharp. He finally got a new phone, but we had to swing by his house when he happened to be there to find that out. He still remembers John Smith and how he saw Jesus, so that's good. We're teaching this former JW named D A. He's got this wicked lazy eye so you never know which eye to make contact with. But he's down for being baptized once he feels all his questions are answered. Brother B committed to come to church on the 11th of January (which it originally  because Aleks wanted to get baptized on that day, but after meeting him, it was pushed back to the 8th of February because of his family. Not sure what we're gonna do with Brother B. Let you know next week.) We talked about the Atonement with him and the Spirit was really strong. But it made me realize how much the general Christian out there does not understand the necessity of the Atonement. We went a proselyting around Grogol (Fun name eh?) and found 3 little Muslim kids who sat down long enough to learn about the Plan of Salvation. Their mom gave us permission to do so. It was fun! We found another Batak man named Pak S. He's super hard headed, but he accepted the Book of Mormon. 

Aaaaand Aleks. He chatted with his parents and they don't want him to get baptized as "quick" as we were planning. I keep thinking "Quick?? He's been an investigator for 2 years!" But Aleks is being a bit firm and set a date for the 8th of February. We had a good lesson about the Law of Chastity with him. There was a "Cottage Meeting" at President's house where all these investigators and new members were invited for a short meeting and some food. President invited Aleks and Derry to share their testimonies and what sacrifices they've had to make during their process of conversion. Derry is kind of shy, so to share his testimony in front of 30 some people was prolly nerve-wracking for him, but he did a great job. He's grown so much in the gospel. It's been really really fun to stay in the same city as him and see that growth.

Some of the investigators and members at President's house for the "Cottage Meeting"

There are many people in Jakarta who haven't heard about the Restored gospel yet.

I can't really think of what else I need to add. Except that we fasted as a mission for this new year that the hearts of the Indonesian people might be softened to hear and recognize the Gospel when it's presented to them. We have some pretty high goals set and my MTC group gets to be a big part of pushing it forward. Thanks all for your prayers and support. I feel really blessed and humbled to have so many people, family, and friends who share the same beliefs as I. Sampai jumpa! (See you!)

Elder Seth Barrus

Selamat Hari Natal! (Merry Christmas!)

Christian's baptism from Jakarta Selatan

I figured I just talked to everybody this past week, so I'm not sure of what else I should say. Except for this: Do you remember Christian from Jakarta Selatan? It's the guy who came to church 3 times before he had time outside of church to meet with us and actually learn about the Restoration? Yea, that guy. He got baptized yesterday!! Because it was still in our district, we got to go and see it. And even though I wasn't a main part of teaching and nurturing him, (that was Elder Wood and Elder Sutarno. Great missionaries), it filled my heart with joy to see him make that covenant with Heavenly Father. That was most definitely the coolest Christmas present ever.

Flooding in Jakarta. It's the rainy season!

On this region of the world, we don't get snow. But we sure do get some heavy rainstorms. We went out to try and follow up on people we found who are interested, but just weren't at there house or didn't have the time to meet right then. We turned onto the street with all their houses and found that the street had becometh a river. The rainy season is well upon us, as is the flooding season here in Jakarta. 

Ingrown toenail surgery. Ouch!

I went to a hospital and had my ingrown toenail removed. That was pretty fun. Picture attached below in the doc's office.

Aleks came back from a vacation to Bali and told us his mother gave him permission to get baptized! Yay! We're on schedule for the 11th of January, so here's praying that it all works out OK. Other than Aleks, a lot of our investigators returned to their hometowns for Christmas and New Years, so we're waiting for them to come back. 

"The Gospel of Jesus Christ opens the path to what we may become. Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ and His grave, our failures to live the celestial law perfectly and consistently in mortality can be erased and we are enabled to develop a Christlike character." - Elder Christofferson. 

The birth of Christ was a miracle. His life was a miracle. And His death along with His resurrection were miracles. And because of Him, our lives can be a miracle. We've been watching "He is the Gift" with investigators and while we proselyte and I really enjoy the invitation at the end to "Embrace the Gift." Each of us decides whether or not to receive it and to be changed by it. The choice is ours. 

Hope everybody had a great Christmas and a great new year this coming week! 

Elder Barrus

Pictures from Christmas Day at the Mission Home, courtesy of Elder and Sister Lucherini and Elder Jones.

Cookies courtesy of Elder and Sister Fryer

Playing the card game, "Presidents"

Not sure what they're doing in this pose. Hot chocolate??

Mission Tour

(This is the email we received last Wednesday.)

Pripun kabaripun? (That's Javanese for "How are you?")

I'm just shooting off a quick email to say I am indeed alive after not emailing last Pday as a result of the mission tour with Elder Funk. We got to go on lots of splits with missionaries, the two of us picked up Elder and Sister Funk in a taxi, we attended District Conference in Surabaya,  attended a zone conference in Surabaya, rode a train out to Solo and then attended the zone conference there, and just got home from a flight back to the populated land of Jakarta.  Yep. I'm not sure how to explain it more abbreviated than that. But I can just say that I hope when I die, that Heavenly Father lets me watch this past week over again. The spirit that Elder Funk and President Donald bring is indescribable. Once I get a chance to actually sit down and pound out a true email, I'll include more details.

Salam kasih, (With love)

Elder Seth Barrus

(And here's this week's email.)

Well huh. I've never had to do a recap of two weeks in an email before. At least I don't think so. I think I'll just do a day by day recap. Here we go!

12th Dec - We flew to Surabaya with President and Sister Donald. We split with the Surabaya Zone Leaders for most the day. I went with Elder Blaser and taught 4 lessons while just proselyting around the church. President was caught up in traffic out in Sidoarjo, so he asked Elder Simanungkalit and I to go pick up Elder and Sister Funk at the airport. Talk about nerve wracking! We rode a taxi from the airport and got to sit knee to knee with a general authority. He mostly talked about his experiences when he was a missionary here in Indonesia. 

13th & 14th Dec - District Conference in Surabaya. I split with my former companion, Elder Sutadiyono and caught up with each other about what's going on. He's having a great time in Surabaya, even though it's super hot. President Donald called a new district presidency, with Brother Kingwi as president, who was baptized by Elder Murphy's dad back in 1980. Small world,eh? 

While in Surabaya, I got to meet up with the first investigator I got to teach and baptize.
You remember Lidya? She's still super active and awesome! 

15th Dec - Surabaya Zone Conference. The missionaries from Manado flew down and I got to catch up with Elder Heiner. Sister Sperry and I translated for the entire meeting from English into Indonesian. We mostly focused on effective ways to find, how to teach more effectively, and why being exactly obedient is important. After the meeting, we all rode the 3 hours on a train from Surabaya to Solo. Twas the first time I've ever step foot in Central Jawa. 

16th Dec - Solo Zone conference. Elder Simanungkalit took my place to translate so I got to focus a lot more on the meeting itself. Elder Funk is a soft spoken man, but invokes the spirit when he speaks. I was kind of hit in the face with some personal revelation I've been thinking about for a while. In the church, there are things that are true, and there are things that are expedient. Sometimes, as missionaries we focus too much on true things, but not necessarily needed. Like Joseph Smith was 14, lived in New York, his grandfather fought in the Revolutionary War, things like that. And then there are things that are expedient, like he prayed to know which church to join and Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him, and they need to be baptized to show their faith. I split with Elder Canfield after. He's one stud of a missionary.

It was Elder Canfield's birthday during MLC. So Elder Heiner and I bought him a cake.

17th Dec - Flew back to Jakarta after spending the day with the Zone Leaders in Solo.

18th Dec - Final Zone conference in Jakarta. I felt the spirit most strongly this last meeting. It's interesting how I followed the same meeting three times, but got different things out of it all three times. It's a testimony to me how the Lord truly teaches us according to our needs. Elder Funk left a blessing upon us that if we're faithful and do all the things asked of us, the Lord will open doors for us that weren't opened before. It was a little bit more detailed than that. But the spirit was very strong during that part. 

Not to bore you all with that, but just so you know we weren't just having fun the last two weeks. Although we pretty much were... These last two weeks were very uplifting and inspiring to help me know what I need to do to be a better missionary. 

These last 3 days, we went out Christmas caroling to some of the semi active members. And one of them came to church yesterday! Even though our busway bus broke down and started smoking out of the engine on the way out to Tanjung Priok, we had a great time spreading that Christmas spirit. 

Last experience I want to share before signing off, yesterday I went out with Elder Prayitno just proselyting. We left right after church at 1 pm and spent the whole day proselyting trying to share messages about Jesus Christ. We taught one lesson. About Jesus Christ. To a Muslim man. Ha ha! Needless to say, the citizens where we proselyted weren't too receptive to our message. But! On the ride home, on the last bus before we needed to get off, I sat next to and contacted a man who hadn't been to church in 4 months, had never heard of the Book of Mormon, and was excited to learn more sometime. It's a small miracle, but I know that the Lord works miracles among us usually after we first show our faith. 

We've been sharing Christmas messages with people these last couple weeks, centered around the video that you can watch at www.mormon.org/ind/natal. Jesus Christ is the greatest gift our Heavenly Father could give to us as His children. I hope we don't just share about Him only at Christmas time, but all year round. He's applicable and needed every day of our lives. Hope everybody has a Selamat Hari Natal!! (Merry Christmas) See you soon when we skype!

Elder Barrus

Christmas Came Early!

And by that I mean, spiritually. No mom, your package hasn't arrived yet. And Sister Sheffield hasn't swung by Senopati either, so I haven't even gotten the new shaver you sent. But, this past weekend was Stake Conference for the West Jakarta Stake! It's the second time around for me in Jawa Barat, but this time, we had 2 special guests--Elder Funk and Elder Chang, who came to address all the members and missionaries. Elder Funk is from the Hong Kong presidency and has come to Indonesia before. And Elder Chang is from Malaysia. I can now say I'm fluent in Malaysian as well. It's pretty much the same language as Indonesian, just replace all the "you"s with "kamu" and "mobile" with "kereta" and you're fluent. I was asked to translate from Indonesian into English for the Sunday session for all the English speaking members. It's hard! Not to mention intimidating, since a general authority was listening in. I said this last time when Elder Funk came to visit Indonesia last January, but I can see and feel the joy and love he still has for the people of Indonesia.

The mission tour starts with district conference in Surabaya Friday and so I'm looking forward to being with and learning from him. Two of the people he baptized came up to the stand during the Saturday session and taught about the importance of true conversion to the Gospel in order to attain exaltation. After 41 years, these two good members are still active and strong in the faith. I told Ivan after the meeting that I expect him to have 13 children and 45 grandchildren when I come back 41 years from now. Ha ha! It was a spirit filled weekend to say the least. I'm not sure how things are going to work out for next week's email since next Monday will be the zone conference in Surabaya, but I'll let you know for sure how the mission tour went as soon as I can. 

Last week, we found and taught a new investigator. His name is Pak Erwin (don't get him confused with Brother Erwin from Jakarta Selatan. Even though they're both Batak.) We were supposed to have an appointment with him earlier this morning, but he wasn't home. But last week, after we taught him and were waiting for the bus to come by, a big fat dude with a goatee rode by on his motorbike, flipped his helmet up and asked in a thundering voice, "Are you guys the JW's???" Elder Simanungkalit and I looked at each other, shook our heads and said back "No! The Mormons!" The dude replied with a sound of disgust and drove off. I would just like the world to know that yes, I am a Mormon. And proud of it. Our choir is better than anybody else's in the world. Which is actually a thing of importance to other churches here.

Remember Pak Budi, Sister Lely's husband? We went over there last week, taught about the plan of salvation and the importance of the temple, and at the close of the lesson, we challenged him to kneel in prayer right then and ask God sincerely if the church is true. After a 30 second prayer, he opened his eyes and said "that's all." We didn't say anything and he then closed his eyes again and offered a silent prayer. For 15 minutes. We didn't know what to do other than just pray our hearts out that he was feeling the spirit as much as we were. At the close of that, he told us he felt he should stay with his old church, but that he was coming to Stake Conference this weekend. Hey, he wasn't even considering coming to church at all at the beginning of the lesson, so I count that as progress! He didn't end up coming to conference because his aunt died in Bogor... But we both think it's a turning point for him. 

The soon to be preachers from Nias were "busy" all of last week and so we didn't get a chance to follow up with them at all.... I was super bummed about that. But we'll keep trying to contact them and get a return appointment. 

Pak Barus was sick this last week and William was asked to go to his mom's church yesterday so we kind of layed a solid goose egg as far as progressing investigators go. But Aleks came to stake conference! We all wore suits to the meeting and I was graaaaateful because it was freezing in the stake conference building. I swear, it must've gotten down to 60 degrees in there. Aleks leaves for Bali this week and won't come back till the 27th or something because of his birthday, but he told us he will text us when he is going to talk with his parents about him getting baptized. He's already "of age" at that point, so he's going to go ahead and do it anyway in January, but he wants his parents to know about it. I promised him we'd pray and fast for him on that day. I don't think he's going to get kicked out of the house, but you never know how his parents are really going to react.

Elder Simanungkalit, Aleks, Elder Barrus

I attached a picture below with Brother Wintolo looking all studly in his suit and the tie Elder Sutadiyono and I gave him for his birthday back in April. Seeing that family all complete and active fills me with such joyness and goodness and happiness, I kind of get the sense of what D&C 18 is talking about. It's interesting in Indonesian because the translation reads "the worth of souls is expensive in the eyes of God". Heavenly Father considers us each the most expensive and worthwhile item he can spend his time and effort on. And because of that, he truly weeps when that person is broken or rebellious or unrepentant and rejoices when before mentioned person returns unto Him, repentant and willing to receive His gospel. I've been blessed with the opportunity to see both sides of the coin, with people I've had the chance to see baptized go inactive and lose out on those blessings as well as see others stay active and I get to see the light that comes into their life. This is the case with Derry. The amount of light that's coming into that young man's life is a testimony to me about the life changing effects of the Restored Gospel. I told him in kind of a "immediately to the point" way yesterday that he's come this far and experienced so many blessings, there's really no going back. Maju Terus dan jangan mundur! (Onward and do not back down!) I think it's true for us all, no matter how long we've been members. 

Hope you all have a great week! 

Elder Seth Barrus

Elder Barrus, Brother and Sister Wintolo

PS The package you mailed isn't here yet. Sister Sheffield should be coming by sometime this week and giving me the package you gave her. I'm getting excited for the razor!! 

I don't have a bug. I'm just not gaining weight. Not sure why. 

Tell Jeff Rollman hello for me as well as the rest of the BYUtv crew. I miss those guys. Tell Mike Olsen that he's pretty cool I guess. :) 

I don't know when I'll email next week. But for sure on Christmas I have 40 minutes to skype with you and the fam. So we'll catch up then. :) 

Not sure what this picture is. Maybe traffic in Jakarta?