I'm Moving to Medan!

Flying from Surabaya to Medan--about 1700 miles!

Exciting news for the day: I'm MOVING TO MEDAN TOMORROW. There's a huge transfer going on all around the Indonesian mission, so when Elder Hendro got a phone call last Saturday that he is moving to Solo, that was no surprise. I'm excited for him too because he is going to be the District Leader there and train again. Haha! He's gonna be great. I really have grown to love and respect him, and am really sad to not work with him anymore. What was the real surprise was when he handed me the phone after he finished speaking and said it was the AP's. Elder Coleman then told me I'm packin' up my stuff and leaving for Medan on Tuesday! 

Complete surprise! Surprise, and yet a bit sad because I have really grown (key word: grown) to love Surabaya. Yah, it's flippin' hot all the time, you only get to ride bikes, and it's about 90% Muslim, but the members are awesome, the investigators we had were really starting to progress and seem more interested, and that means I have to leave Elder and Sister Anderson. Pretty bummed about that. After that, Elder Murphy got a call from the same AP's saying he's moving to Medan too! Seriously, it's like me and Elder Murphy are "soul mate missionaries". We were comps in the MTC, received our first assignment in the same city, same house, and now we're both headed to the same city to work again. That's gonna be like a 1/4th of our missions! His comp is going to be Elder Marsudi and my comp is going to be a bule, Elder Broberg. Don't know a lot about him yet, but I will pretty soon.

Other transfers that I've heard and know about: Elder Kyle (serving in Surabaya Barat) moves to Manado, Elder McCleary (from Solo) moves to Malang, Elder Heiner already moved to Bekasi with Elder Gil too, Elder Hasibuan moves to Magelang, and Elder Rondonuwo moves to Tangerang. Almost our entire zone will be whitewashed. All the members at church yesterday were pretty shocked because it's rarely happened that all the Elders are shipped out from Surabaya at the same time. Indonesia is really a pretty weird mission because it's almost like receiving a new mission call every transfer. The accents are different, the food changes pretty drastically, members work with the missionaries differently, etc. I'm really sad to leave Surabaya, but I know that Medan is where I've been called to serve now. I fly from Surabaya to Jakarta tomorrow morning, pick up Elder Marsudi, and fly to Medan right after at about 3:00 in the afternoon.

I didn't know any of that until last Saturday, so as far as the work went last week, it was great! We didn't have an opportunity to see Mas Wahyu since he was out of town, but we got to go teach Mas William about the Plan of Salvation. And teaching that specific lesson is something I've stressed about the last few weeks because for some reason, I haven't been able to teach it well in Indonesian. I know it's God's plan for everyone and I know every single place that we go and what will happen, but I struggle teaching it effectively. Reminds me of something President Packer said: "A principle or lesson really hasn't been learned until it can be taught clearly and effectively." To remedy that, I wrote down one or two sentences in brief, concise Indonesian for every aspect of the Rencana Keselamatan and practiced going over it again and again with Elder Hendro in companion study. And I feel that it really really helped because the lesson with Mas William went really well. He asked basic, doctrinal questions and seemed interested in what we taught. The Holy Ghost will only step into our lives and our lessons if we've done all we can to prepare first. The Lord expects us to do our part. :)

That's about it from my side of the Earth. I love hearing how all of you are doing! Keep your emails and letters coming. But even if I don't hear from you, I hope you know I love, care, and hope for you. Terus Maju dan Jangan Mundur!

See you all in Medan!

Elder Barrus

Lidya's Baptism