80 Degrees at Berastagi

Medan District at Berastagi

This morning we trekked on up into the mountains to take some pictures at a Hindu Temple--Berastagi I think, and by the time we got there at about 8 oclock in the morning, it was hot. Like Utah in the summer hot. My apologies for not enjoying the snow like the rest of you. I'm taking a break for a while.

To answer your question, Lake Toba was incredible last week. Really nice to get out of the city. I have picked up a few Batak words like "Horas" which is like "apa kabar" and "maulihate" is "thank you". That's about it. Most of the people just mumble when they speak it, so I haven't made an effort to learn it.  But apparently "Barrus" is a tribal name here from Karo. Anytime people ask my name, they start speaking to me in Batak. After seeing my pasty white skin, they backtrack and try Indonesian again. Ha ha! But it's pretty great,.

Medan is still great! Txxxx and Rxxxxx are right on track to be baptized this coming Sunday. They invited us to their Christmas program dealio by their house this Saturday. They came to church yesterday all on their own and the youth have really welcomed them in. Even though all their friends at school are confused at if Gereja Yesus Kristus is Catholic, Protestant, or Charismatic, they still are stalwart and are choosing to make their first covenant with their Heavenly Father. We taught them about Tithing, Fasting, and The Atonement last week and they both just ate it up. There was one funny moment though where we had a really spiritual moment talking about the Atonement when all of a sudden their mom jumped into the conversation and asked "Bang, I want to ask you: can a person really be forgiven of ALL their sins?" We replied with the proper steps of repentance, anyone can be forgiven. She answered back with a sigh of relief and said "Good. Because Rxxxxx was a naughty child growing up." Ha ha!! They're all so great! We're focusing right now with her two sons, but eventually, we're gonna try to get their mom to come to church too. I love this work!

For other important investigators, Elder Sutadiyono and I have 3 investigators, all studying law at the local university, who went home to the island of Nias for the month of December, so we won't get to teach them until January. But when they come back, they all said they want to continue learning and Axxxx expressed a desire to be baptized. We just have to wait...

Life is seriously really good right now. I'm probably the happiest I've ever been on my mission and it's not because of the baptisms, even though that adds to it. I'm happy because I'm doing what the Lord wants me to do. I'm learning that there are two types of obedience that a missionary can have and they get two different results. The first is compelled obedience like we learn in 1 Nephi. Laman and Lemuel obeyed their father and went to the Promised Land. Why? Pretty much because they were compelled. I mean, if my brother shocked me with some lightning power, I think I'd go too. The second type is willful obedience. This means searching out God's will and following it, even when you don't understand why. As a missionary follows this pattern of willful and cheerful obedience, he is blessed with joy and the Spirit. No one can be perfect, but as we try, the blessings come.

Horas!

Elder Seth Barrus

Thanksgiving and Lake Toba

Horas Bah semuanya!  (I think this is some kind of greeting in Batak Toba--a different language used by the people who live near Lake Toba.)

Nope. I haven't learned any Bahasa Batak, but we did end up going to Lake Toba for P-Day yesterday. Really really green and really really cool. It was about a 4 1/2 hour drive in the Tuckers' car, but it was really nice to get out of the city into the mountains. (The Tuckers are a new couple here. They got here about a month after I came here. They are going to serve in Medan for two full years. They're pretty great!) We hopped on a ferry that took us to the middle island where we looked at a couple museums, bought some fun batak things, and took some really cool pictures. Heavenly Father had a lot of fun creating Lake Toba. 

Beautiful Lake Toba--the largest volcanic lake in the world.

The island in the middle of Lake Toba--Samosir.

P-Day was fun, but I really enjoyed last week a lot more! We met up with Toyo and Roni a couple of times and they are ready for baptism. We talked about the Word of Wisdom and they have no problems giving up tea, and they're cool with whatever we tell 'em to do. They even invited one of their friends when we met last Sunday night. Teaching them is pretty much a huge blessing. Ha ha! Fun story: they didn't come to church yesterday and we didn't find out the reason until later. Their mom explained she got really industrious and washed all of Toyo and Roni's shoes the night before Sunday. Toyo got all ready to go with his shirt and tie and saw all his shoes soaking wet. His mom explained that he became really mad at her because he was going to church, shoes or no shoes. She wouldn't let him come because, heaven forbid, coming to church with no shoes would be embarrassing to her. But she explained she's seen so many changes in both her sons that she might be interested in joining herself if she can quit smoking. We've been working with her on that.

Thanksgiving! The Medan District all went over to the Tuckers' apartment for the famous Turkey Day which is nowhere to be found in Indonesia. Sister Tucker couldn't find a turkey that was reasonably priced, so she bought steaks for all of us. I'd say that's a pretty fair trade off. Ha ha! We had vegetables, rolls, mashed potatoes I made using the recipe mom gave me, (you should be proud of me, Mom) and even pie. Pumpkin and apple. After feeding ourselves, we watched 17 Miracles. For the first Thanksgiving away from home, I thought it was very enjoyable. 

Check out those creamy potatoes!

This Church is true! Even though Indonesians have a hard time accepting Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon because it doesn't take place close to their home, I know that they can receive a testimony just like us if they choose to pray about it. Prayer is Power. With Thanksgiving passing, let the Christmas season begin. See you all next week!

Elder Seth Michael Barrus

PS  Ha ha! Yeah. I have gained weight. I've got a pretty nice gut. I haven't noticed it until I looked back at pictures in Surabaya and I looked pretty skinny. At least in comparison now. Tell Matt I'll be able to push him around when I get back.

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

All of my short sleeve white shirts were dirty, so this is me wearing my long sleeved one trying to act cold. Brrrr!

We got ready for church yesterday and walked out the door to a thin layer of this fluffy white stuff. My first reaction was that the Second Coming is nigh and upon us as we speak. At church, President Rxxxx explained that there was no need to get so excited. It was just volcanic ash from Mt Sinabung erupting or something. Nonetheless, the song never specifies how to have a White Christmas; whether it's snow or volcanic ash, it's all the same right? Haha! Just as a precaution, we get to wear these sweet dental masks whenever we go out on our bikes. 

(This is a picture of Mount Sinabung. Eight more eruptions occurred on Sunday, closing the Medan airport. Don't worry though, the volcano is about 55 miles away from Medan where Seth is serving.)

We'll be going to Elder and Sister Tucker's apartment for Thanksgiving and cooking dinner. President Donald gave us permission to switch our P-Day from today to Thursday but still email today. 

As far as the actual missionary work goes, it was a pretty mysterious week. Mysterious because from Monday to Thursday, we had pretty close to zero success. It was awesome. Appointments fell through, we couldn't teach Toyo and Roni the whole week because their mom was out of town and didn't want us over when she wasn't there, and our bikes kept breaking causing us to have to cancel appointments. Humbled me pretty hardcore. And frustrated me. Elder Sxxxxxx and I started flipping through the Area Book just calling up every one that had a number and name. 

But, we ended up having a really great day Saturday that culminated in us meeting Bang Axxx and Bang Exxxx. Do you remember Bang Pxxxxx? He used to live in a kos with about 15 other people and we happened to have one of their numbers. We called him up and met last Saturday and weren't quite ready for what ended up happening. We talked about the Restoration and invited them to church to witness a baptism. Bang Axxx was the only one that came, but after the service, I asked how he felt and he said "senang". (happy) I was kinda joking when I asked if he wanted to be baptized himself. He laughed and nodded and I didn't think about it again. Later that night, we met up again to follow up with him. Bang Axxxx brought up the baptism and out of the blue said "I know that many churches follow Christ and try to do what's right, but I felt that baptism in your church is the best way." Man, that's why being a missionary is so awesome. You can have an absolutely depressing couple days, still work hard, and then have one thing happen that makes everything better. They both are from Nias and are going home to see their family during the month of December. But they want to meet starting in January and be baptized then. 

I'm humbled again and again in realizing this is the Lord's work and as I work through His ways he's given me, I will find success. It's like the account in Luke 5:5-6 where the fishermen, soon to be apostles, were trying so hard to catch fish and couldn't for whatever reason. As soon as they tried the Lord's way, they had so many fish it sank their boat. We had 66 people come to church yesterday. President Rico said that's the most that's ever come since May of 2012. The Church is true!! 

Youth from the branch after a futsal activity. This is why I love Medan so much. There are SO MANY YOUTH! 

President Rxxxxxxx, the Medan branch president. He and his wife Exxxxx are so great and are a big part of why the church in Medan is growing so fast. 

I wish I could write about everything that's been happening. Or describe how the last 3 months have been in Medan without using any missionary cliches. But anytime I try to do so, I can't come up with the words to describe how great it is. That's why the last 3 months have been quite literally the best 3 months. I like being a missionary. It's fun!

Syallom!!

Elder Seth Michael Barrus

Look out! The outside of the durian fruit is quite sharp--making it bad for you both inside and out. Stinky!!!!

We gave some white shirts and ties to Rxxxxxx and Txxxxxxxxxx. You should have seen their faces--they lit up like a Christmas Tree! They were so excited! I know you can't tell by looking at them. I promise, they really do smile and laugh. It's just an Indonesian thing when they get their pictures taken. They don't smile.  

Where Is Winter?

Selamat Pagi Semuanya!

The sun is shining. And it's not snowing. That's about it for the weather report from Medan today. As far as a missionary report, things are going great! It's funny how the Lord blesses His missionaries as they do what they're supposed to be doing. 

I told you about Txxxx and Rxxxx last week right? Total miracle that we found them. It's been another miracle in the sense that they have been prepared by God to receive the restored Gospel. We taught them the Plan of Salvation and The Gospel of Jesus Christ last week and the whole time we've been teaching them, it's like we're teaching an "investigator" from the MTC. Seriously. They both keep their commitments, read their homework, and say "Yes" to anything we want them to do. It's awesome! Elder Sutadiyono gave them a baptismal commitment for the 15th of December. Even though BP moved and things aren't working out with Axxxxxx (our other investigators), the Lord still blesses His missionaries with people to teach. With Jonathan, Josh, and Micah all in Utah right now, I really feel like Txxxxx and Rxxxxx are my little brothers. I've grown to love and appreciate them so much especially since their situation is so difficult. Yet they make the best out of their situation and even smile about it. I'll take a picture of them this week and send it the next. 

Do you remember Sxxxxxx from Surabaya? Elder Hendro and I gave him a baptismal commitment for the 27th of September but it never happened because he never came to church, that rebel. But, I got a phone call last week from his mom, Ibu Yxxxxx, who said he wants to be baptized and wants me to fly back to Surabaya and do it! I asked President Donald and he said "nope". No surprise there, but some fun news to get.

Fun story: we met up with this guy who is a self proclaimed "pengInjil" or preacher. He hasn't been to church in 14 years because he believes that churches are built by man and when the Savior comes again, all the churches will be destroyed. So what's the point of coming to church? He's a little weird. We got to talking with him and he said he had just gotten out of prison. We were kinda surprised to hear that. He explained that he tried preaching about Jesus to our good friends, the Muslims, and that he preached with such great power and testimony, they had no other choice but to throw him in jail. Ha ha! There's some weird people here in Medan. But they're mostly good people, I promise.

I've been thinking a lot about the doctrine explained in Alma 37:6-7 about small and simple things. Sometimes we get so caught up in thinking about the big picture we get depressed and forget about the little things we should be doing. It's great to have a goal in mind to give you motivation. But if we expect to see the big things happen automatically, we'll constantly fall short. We hear this ALL THE TIME. Yet, it's so important to our well-being. Read your scriptures every day. And pray every day.

Makasih banyak atas dukungan anda dan doa-doa anda! Saya tahu bahwa kerja ini adalah akibat dari saya, Allah, dan bantuan anda. Sampai minggu depan! (Thank you so much for your support and your prayers! I know that this work is a result of my God, and your help. Until next week!)

Elder Seth Michael Barrus

Pacman tire

Weird yet awesome week. Update on the investigators first: We met with A last week and he seemed pretty serious about his baptismal commitment, but he didn't come to church yesterday. So we're going to have to push his date back. And that's okay. Yang penting, dia siap.(Importantly, he is ready.)  Our other investigator with a baptismal commitment seemed really serious about his date last Tuesday when we met. When we tried calling him to make sure he could meet on Saturday, he said he had already moved to Surabaya. Say wha...? He was so golden too! Oh well, we gave his info to the Surabaya Elders and hopefully he still progresses there.

New investigator though! Last Monday, we had two appointments cancel on us. So Elder Sutadiyono and I were scrambling to find someone. We looked through our phone and found a name "Ibu Tidak Tahu Namanya" or "Woman that doesn't have a name." What the heck, we tried anyway. She sent us the address of her "house" which we thought was on the east side of Medan. After biking the 30 minutes out to to what we thought was her address, we called and she said she lived on the west side of Medan. Dang. So we backtracked and tried finding her again. After getting lost and kinda frustrated, I told myself, "Just change your attitude Elder Barrus. Because if she's this hard to find, she'll become that much more of a great investigator." So I did! And we finally found her by 8:45 PM. Enough time to give a Book of Mormon and see her situation. Her name is Ibu M. She used to be Charismatic, but the church moved really far away and she hasn't been to church in a year. She has two sons, Roni and Toyo, who are really interested to learn from us. Her husband passed away 14 years ago. She doesn't seem too interested, but she basically gave her children to us. They're really cool too! I'll fill you in later when we know more after this week.

H received the Aaronic Priesthood yesterday! And he's still great! He invited his friend to come to church yesterday and he came!

Elder Sutadiyono is a great companion. We were biking over to Elder and Sister Tucker's apartment to help them set up their internet last Wednesday, when he got clipped by a car and fell to the asphalt. The driver looked out and then drove off. I was in front and turned around to see him walking up the sidewalk with a bent tire and broken pedals. I asked him if he was okay and he said "My tire like Pacman now." Ha ha! And he was right! The rim was all bent. He ended up being okay and there were a bunch of security guys lounging around that helped him fix his bike (because his comp was a bule). And we were off again. Great companion Elder Sutadiyono is.

I think durian is looked at as a challenge for missionaries to like. The stuff is trash. It's 15,000 Rupiah for just one fruit and why anyone would want to spend that much to throw up is beyond me. Even the Indonesians all said after eating it "biasa aja" or "it's normal." Gross. it needs to be against the Word of Wisdom. There's a story that went around the mission where an elder ate a ton of durian and received the sensation like he was "drunk". Needless to say, after 8 pieces of durian, I told my companion to stop. Ha ha!

No matter our position in life, we all can accomplish the things we've been asked to do through strength in the Lord. Romans 4:20-21. There's my spiritual thought.

See you all next week! (We haven't felt any effects from the typhoon. Btw.) Prayers go out to all the people affected by it though.

Elder Seth Michael Bule Barrus

PLD or Zone Conference
President and Sister Donald are in the front on the left after the Indonesian couple
and Elder and Sister Gong are to the right of them.
Can you spot Seth?

Email yang dikirim dari Elder Barrus setiap minggu

(The heading means "Emails Sent from Elder Barrus Every Week".)

Elder Murphy, his companion, Elder Broberg and Seth in front of their house
in Medan waiting for a taxi to the airport when Elder Broberg was transferred.

No one here in Medan knows about Halloween, so all of the bule (white) missionaries put together a Halloween activity last Thursday that included a lesson about Family History (ghosts/dead people... get it?), musical chairs, jack-o-lanterns made out of watermelons, bobbing for apples, an egg roll race, eating masakan padang, and eating lots and lots of candy. Because what else are you supposed to do on Halloween? We had a great turnout and had a lot of nonmembers come too! I'll attach a few pictures later. 

As far as the actual work of God goes, H. was confirmed yesterday! I've got such faith in him especially after he got up and bore his testimony that he knows this Gospel is true because of how many changes he's made in his life. Man, he's awesome. He's really willing and ready to fully embrace this gospel. We talked about what's next after his baptism and confirmation and brought up receiving his own endowment in the temple, receiving the priesthood, and maybe even serving a mission.

We put President Donald's challenge to the test (about how teaching the Atonement invites the Spirit) with one of our investigators named A. We taught him after English class and held up a picture of Christ in Gethsemane. He actually had only a small idea about what happened there. So we read the account in Luke 22 together and just waited for him to explain to us how he felt. I expected him to be confused or ask questions but instead he asked "Brother, saya mau menerima awal yang baru. Bagaimana saya bisa melakukan itu?" or, "Brother, I want to receive a new start. How can I do that?" Probably the goldenest (not a word) question I've heard so far on the mission. We invited him to be baptized on the 24th of November and he accepted.

God has been so generous to us as missionaries here in Medan in placing so many prepared people in our paths. Reminds me of what the Lord explained to Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon in D&C 100:4 where we have really been called to this place for the salvation of souls. Not by chance or luck, but called to this place. I know that Jesus Christ suffered for me and my sins and that's why He knows perfectly how to help me and the people I teach. I'm so grateful for that and want to share it with everyone. But we'll start with the good people of Medan first.

I've started sleep talking... Elder Murphy said he got up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night one time and as he walked back in, I sat up and said "Hi, kami misionaris dari Gereja Yesus Kristus dari Orang-Orang suci zaman Akhir. Kami percaya bahwa keluarga dapat kekal selamanya." If I start proselyting in my sleep, is that a good sign?

Tell Micah I watched the little 5 minute clip on mormonnewsroom.org  about the 100 Years of Scouting program and saw him helping another scout up a wall or something. I saw Eric, too. Tell him hello for me. :) Tell Ricky thank you for his letter too. He sent me one about three weeks ago and I haven't had time to get back to him yet. Is he doing okay? He's in Colorado right? Oh, my glasses are okay. I use them all the time for personal study and companion study. But I can't wear them while I ride my bike. I can see better without them while riding. I'm wearing them right now as I email...

Well, better sign off. We are going out to buy durian. Apparently it's durian season for Medan and only in Medan can you find good ones. Apparently. They all STINK whenever I bike past them! 

Elder Seth Michael Barrus

Durian

Regarded by many people in southeast Asia as the "king of fruits", the durian is distinctive for its large size, strong odour, and formidable thorn-covered husk. The flavor is described as a rich custard highly flavoured with almonds

The edible flesh emits a distinctive odour that is strong and penetrating even when the husk is intact. Some people regard the durian as pleasantly fragrant; others find the aroma overpowering and revolting. The smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust, and has been described variously as rotten onions, turpentine, stale vomit, skunk spray and raw sewage. The persistence of its odour has led to the fruit's banishment from certain hotels and public transportation in southeast Asia.

(from Wikipedia)

I Don't Even Know Where to Begin!

All the elders and sisters serving in the East zone---so Medan, Jakarta, Bogor, Bandung, Bekasi, and Tangerang came together for a big missionary meeting with President and Sister Donald as well as the Area President over Asia, Elder Gong and his wife. It's called PLD. It was probably one of the most faith-promoting and excitement-building meetings I've ever attended. Elder and Sister Gong brought a great spirit with them and you could definitely tell they were called to be an area authority over Asia at this time. They emphasized truly caring for the people we teach and meet. They emphasized the Book of Mormon and how every person accepted Jesus Christ before coming to this earth. The Book of Mormon will help them realize that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is really Christ's Church and God's Kingdom in these the latter days. President Donald emphasized that when we ask for referrals and get help from members, to ask them about their goal of building a temple. Because it's a universal goal for every member in Indonesia to build a temple. They just don't quite know that it involves quite a bit of work on their part for it to happen. But it'll happen! Ahh, I wish everyone could have come and taken part in the meeting. It was crazy cool!

Last week, Elder Broberg and I flew to Jakarta, where he started his new area, and I picked up my new companion, Elder Sutadiyono from Bogor. He's cool! He wears these thick red glasses and is a total hipster. But a hard worker. I'm a fan of that. :) We flew back Thursday night and started work Friday. Not that cool of a week as far as teaching goes, but there was a lot of preparation and progress. We even gave a new investigator a baptismal committment for the 24th of November. Yay! God keeps blessing us, it's cool how it works. His name is B.P. and he's originally from the island off of Sumatra, called Nias. He has the most "real intent" of any investigator I've ever taught. We'll see how things turn out over the next few weeks.

Even cooler was this last Sunday where H made the decision to be baptized with the proper authority from God. He's such an example to me. About 5 minutes before Sacrament meeting started, he hadn't shown up yet and I started to get a little worried. Then he showed up with about 10 of his friends behind him, ready to come and support him. He had invited almost every single one of his roommates and a few of his college friends!! Medan is going to grow. It's got so much potential!  This last Sunday, not only H was baptized, but C, a 14 year old girl from a part member family, as well as S, Elder Marsudi and Murphy's investigator. Is this how South American missionaries feel all the time?? Elder Gong mentioned something as we talked today that made me realize the divinity of this work. He mentioned that if Indonesia is going to grow, it will take Energy coupled with Focus and Faith for the work to move forward. As much as I can work hard and teach a million lessons a week, the work won't go anywhere if I don't invite God's hand into the work we do here. 

I'm being plenty blessed here, I hope you all are being equally, if not more, blessed. To end this week's letter, I bring up 2 topics that will always invite the Spirit into lessons. The first is obvious because it's the First Vision. It's something that is so true, it's almost impossible for someone to deny if they really listen to the Spirit. The other is the Atonement. I hadn't really thought of that before until we role played with Elder Gong teaching about it in 5 minutes. I am so grateful for my Savior and His Atonement. I likewise have a testimony of the Book of Mormon because it testifies of Christ, who I know is the Redeemer of all mankind. So that means the Book of Mormon has to be true. I wish you all could "come and see" the great work that's happening in Indonesia right now. But maybe just "read and think" from my emails. Whichever. 

Elder Seth Michael Barrus

(Answering Mom's questions):

1. When did you find out you'd be training? 

I learned there might be a possibility I would be training from President Donald's email a few weeks back. I just didn't think it would be this fast. I thought he would wait until December for the new Americans to come in. 

2. How is your new companion?

Elder Sutadiyono is great! I apologize for not sending pictures, but I'm emailing in Jakarta and don't trust the warnet here as far as viruses go. Next week!

3. How were your first few days with him?

First few days were great. His bahasa's good. He comes from a strong family in the church.

Sounds like the fam had quite the Halloween! There's a ward Halloween party this Thursday hosted by the missionaries and members. WIsh us luck! I think Halloween might be a cleaner holiday. Hari Raya Idul Adha was gross. It turned all the disposal rivers brown and red. Gross right? Sadly, we don't live close enough to the Masjid (mosque) to get any of the meat. But that's okay. We eat pig meat pretty often here, so i get my meat fix. 

Love you mom!