And I"M STILL IN BOGOR!! I'm not transferring again! That means I'll be in Bogor until the middle of April. That means that I'll have spent half my mission in this beautiful rainy city. Which is honestly fine by me because it's fun knowing literally everywhere you are going, knowing literally all of the members, and getting to be in the rain all the time. We went to Jakarta on Thursday for splits with the STLs and the heat was horrible. I'm so glad I can live in the mountains where its only hot for like 3 hours during the day and then at 4 starts a crazy thunder and lightening storm and then it just pours for like an hour. Sister Rowntree actually shivered a little bit yesterday in the evening. Bogor is great and I'm glad if I have to have one city forever it gets to be Bogor.
We got permission from President to go to Bekasi to see ........... get baptized! This Sunday in all of the Asia area we had a broadcast from Salt Lake. Elder Gary Stevenson, Elder Donald Halstrom, Elder Brent Neilson, and Sister Marriot all spoke to the members here. It was so cool to hear their comments about the area we are in. The conference was all of the countries in Asia except for the Philippines, Japan, and Korea because they have their own areas. In the area here there are 37 stakes and 30 districts. It is so cool to serve in a part of the world where literally all of the members can be considered pioneers of the church because it is so new here still. I love the faith of the members here. ................. baptism was so wonderful. All of the members were so excited and so receiving of her. There is a new member who was just baptized last June who is her same age, and the Elders have another investigator who is a young adult Sister too that is getting baptized on March 19. So they are already best friends. It was definitely God's plan to help ............ get work in Bekasi because he knew there she would have the best support system with friends her age. Everything is in God's hands and he will provide the best opportunity for all of His children. That's about all that was really exciting this week. A lot of people weren't home this week or were busy so getting lessons was kind of hard, but hopefully we can better this week and be able to meet with them again. I hope you had a great week and that this next week is great too. Love you! Love, Sister Davis
0 Comments
Wow what a week this was! It was literally one of the coolest experiences of my life.
Wednesday we met at the church with the members to carpool to the meeting for Sister Linda K. Burton. She is the general Relief Society President. It was absolutely pouring in Bogor, which was kind of crazy driving in the rain like that. We got to the church way early and just got to talk to the members. We talked with Brother Burton a little bit and that was cool at the beginning. Then we had the meeting. Sister Rowntree and I were in the Choir with Bogor sisters, so we sat in the FRONT ROW! It was like I just got front row seats to a concert of a celebrity, but hearing the word of God. It is literally a missionaries dream. Sister Burton is just so sweet. She travels for like 3 weeks and has meetings non-stop where she is the most important person there and everyone is there to listen to her. She must be so exhausted but she doesn't even look it. She is just a pleasant, lady-like person. You don't even really get anxious around her. I felt like I should be anxious but I really wasn't. The Bogor sisters loved it when she called the choir angels. She just lit up the room with calmness, peace and the light of Christ. Elder Funk who is he Asia area president from the Seventy was traveling with her. He was one of the first 24 missionaries to serve in Indonesia and opened quite a few cities. He still knows Indonesian too. He was so comfortable here and you can still tell Indonesia is definitely his favorite place to visit between all the countries he is responsible for. Wednesday night we slept at Senopati in the Mission Home and then we had a missionary devotional with all of them again. They mainly focused on us becoming servants of the Lord. I can look at my notes and remember what they said, but honestly what is so much more important is the peace and happiness I felt with them. I felt that really, this calling of being a missonary is the most important responsibility we have on this earth. Without it, people around the world will be in darkness, and many won't be prepared for the second coming of Christ. That is why we are here and why we have been blessed as members of the church. We need to prepare the church and the world so that Christ can come and be our ruler. It is a huge responsibility but we can do it together. The coolest part of all the days was to be able to sit at the same table as her during lunch. I hope President posted all of the pictures from the meeting with her on Facebook because I don't have any. There was no time to take pictures when we were hearing from a servant of the Lord. There were just 8 sisters on the table, eating Indonesian food and hearing from her experiences and answering the questions she had for us. It was like all the other missionaries in the room didn't even exist. It was just us and her at the moment. She shared about how us as Sisters don't need to think we aren't as good as the Elders or that we don't matter as much. There are many people that get baptized because Sisters taught them, because Elders don't connect in the same way. She talked about how when she is in councils with so many important people with masters and doctorate degrees, how many times she is the only female. She used to feel that she didn't need to say anything, but she got braver and realized they really needed her. They might have special degrees, but most of the time they don't know what it is like in most of the normal callings of the church. They have never served as a primary teacher or a relief society teacher. They have always been stake presidents and doing all of those so called bigger callings. They need the perspective of a normal woman. She just got her degree in Elementary Education from the University of Utah, has been a mother and grandmother and has been faithful in her callings. That is all. And that is what they need. We all have things to contribute to the work, and Sisters need to step in and share what we have because it is of worth. She wanted us to make sure that later when we are in councils in wards and stakes, we need to speak out. And maybe it will be weird for the men for a while, but it will get normal. We now know how to teach because of our missions and we need to share these skills we have. It literally was the coolest hour of my life. I felt her passion and love for the Lord and the church. She knows how important our callings are and she wants us to magnify it always. As far as the rest of missionary work it was pretty good this week. We finally found 4 new investigators! A couple from contacting and a couple referrals from members. One is named ....... and she is 19. She is really cute and she has come to church the past couple of weeks. Her brother in law is a less active member that used to be really strong. Hopefully we can help her and our other investigators learn and come unto Christ. .......... is also still getting baptized this week! We hope we can get permission from President to go and we will just have to wait to see what he says. Transfers are this next week so you will know if I am going to endure to the end (at least for a couple months) in Bogor or be moving to Jakarta (because thats the only place that doesn't ride bikes) Oh yeah! Elder Sukarlis who was in my district in Solo got a Pilonidal cyst the past couple weeks! He had to come home to Bogor for a week and then this week he is going to be assigned to an area that doesn't ride a bike. That's good I went first when I had mine because now they know what it is. My experience with it in Solo helped them catch it early enough and he doesn't have to have surgery. Love you! Have a fantastic week! Love, Sister Davis Selamat Pagi semuanya!
This week was kind of normal in a lot of ways, but I'll just share a couple weird things that happen in the normal lives of missionaries. So last week the pad lock on our front gate to our house finally got so rusted that the key couldn't open it... So for 2 days we had to climb over the gate really awkwardly, and people always gave us really weird looks. We tried to break the lock one evening and Sister Rowntree was being really loud banging it, and the lady across the street kept peeking her head out of her gate to make sure we weren't doing anything crazy. It was way funny haha. Eventually we went and bought a hammer to bang the lock open. That was a wonderful moment when we finally got it off haha. We had a couple experiences trying to meet with new people to have new investigators. One of them was ........ She is like 75 years old and goes to a church here in Bogor that has 3,000 members! That's insane! She is super devoted and the whole time during the lesson she would just agree with whatever we said and then say "Puji Tuhan" which means "Praise the Lord." She interrupted us twice and just started praying to the Lord and it was way funny. We thought it was going to be fine to go back, but then she called us like 2 hours later and asked for Rp 200,000 in Indonesian money, which is quite a bit here... So that's when we pretty much have to decide not to go back, because we know they're usually not sincere... So that was pretty disappointing. Another one we went to was ......... We met her on the bus last week. She is 16 and Catholic. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she gave us her address and was so excited to meet with us again. We tried to call her but she gave us the wrong number, so we just decided to find her house from the address. Well we miraculously found it, but when we got there, her parents were way confused on how we knew her name and where her house was. She came up right then on her motorcycle and had a terrified look on her face. She kind of pretended like she didn't know us because I could tell she was embarrassed. Her parents were nice like all Indonesians are, but the look on her mom's face definitely meant that she was mad... We shared a little message from the Book of Mormon about Jesus and then we left... It was a way awkward situation and we felt bad for ........... Hopefully her parents aren't too mad at her... .......... baptism is planned for the 26 of February in Bekasi, so we just have to pray everything works out with that ward. It's been way hard to coordinate everything so we just pray everything works out. This Wednesday there is a meeting with Linda K. Burton, the General Relief Society President in Jakarta! Wednesday night it is for all Relief Society sisters and Young Women. We get to be in the Choir again too. Then on Thursday morning we get a devotional for just the missionaries and her. I'm way lucky I get to be in West Java right now so I can go! It'll probably be the closest I've ever been to a general authority. That's about all for this week! I hope you have a great week. Love you so much! Dengan Kasih, Sister Davis So this week was Pld (Pertemuan Latihan Daerah) which is just Zone Conference :) It was really awesome! At our Zone Conferences we go on Thursday morning and have Interviews with President and we have a meeting about more temporal needs with Sister Rowley. After that we all go to the Church in Jakarta and do a Cuci Motor Gratis (free motorcycle wash). After that we sleep at the mission home. Then the meeting starts on Friday morning. We usually have a lesson from Sister Rowley, the APs, and one of the Zone Leaders. Then after that we watched the missionary broadcast. It was so amazing and it was so cool to hear them talk about the new missionary schedule and Key Indicators. We are really now doing the best we can, using our time the wisest, and focusing on those things that really matter the most in helping bring people to Christ through His gospel. After that we eat lunch and then have another training from President Rowley. It is just a day full of focusing on how we have become better, and now what we have to do to become even better.
I love the new missionary schedule! There is so much more time all around. Time is used doing the things that are most effective and at the right time. We get to come home earlier because night time appointments are harder to find in Indonesia because everyone is already in their homes at 7. We get to leave earlier in the afternoon when everyone else is outside. We also don't plan at night anymore, which makes sense because half our plans usually fall through by the time we call all the people in the morning and then have to plan again. The great thing is that if we want to, WE CAN GO TO BED AT 9:30! Literally it is so much easier to get up getting more sleep and I feel so much better throughout the day. It is just evidence of how the Lord will adapt his work according to the circumstance. I'm so grateful for the church and how their just so sensitive to everyone and every culture. I loved the baptized we had last week! It was really awesome and she is so great. One of her sisters who came to her baptism is interested in meeting with us if she comes back to Bogor, so we're really excited about that! There are also a few people we contacted this week that we are focusing on. Most of our investigators are eternal investigators, so we need some fresh people in our buckets. Also we figured out why ____ didn't come to church last week was because she was working in Bekasi on Saturdays and Sundays, so she just got an apartment there this week and she went to church there yesterday. Her baptism date is in 2 weeks in Bekasi, so we're really hoping we can get permission from President to go. She is really awesome. I'm so grateful to have endured in Bogor through the tough times and receive these blessings :) That's about all the time I have! Love you all and have a great week! Love, Sister Davis |
Sister Jacqueline DavisSister Davis is currently serving as a missionary in the Indonesia Jakarta Mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. ContactMission Address: Sister Jacqueline Davis Indonesia Jakarta Mission Jalan Senopati 115 Kebayoran Baru Jakarta 12190 INDONESIA Email: [email protected] Prepare to Serve Link: http://preparetoserve.com/indonesia-jakarta-mission Learn more about the LDS Church:www.lds.org
www.mormon.org Archives
August 2017
|