Well, kind of six months. I really have no idea when my actual anniversary is, but I'm pretty sure I'll be going home at the transfer at the end of September, so we'll just count it as six months and as 1 year left. Every day I am so grateful that I can be here in Indonesia.
Today we went to a place called "Puncak" (poonchak) which means the peak of the mountain. It is the same place up where the Safari zoo is. We went hiking to this tea farm that was huge, and so pretty! You could see all of Bogor from the top. Don't worry, I didn't eat any of the tea leaves so I'm still keeping the Word of Wisdom. I also ate Rabbit Sate, which just tasted like chewy chicken haha. We ate at this place where you could look out and see an amazing view. I just look out and think of how amazing my opportunity is to teach the gospel in such a pretty place. My garden of Eden would pretty much be that place, but also with a beach right next to it haha :) This week with the work was better. I feel less stressed with leading the area now that I've done it for a few weeks. I feel confident about where we are going and I don't freak out as much when plans don't fall through. One of my favorite lessons was with ........ She is literally so amazing and I am so excited for the time she gets baptized, because she is so ready. We taught her the Plan of Salvation on Friday, and I think it was the first time I felt completely comfortable teaching it. It has been a little harder to learn the lessons fast when we don't teach very often, but now that I usually understand what people are saying, it's like I forget that I'm teaching in a different language. It is definitely the gift of tongues to help me understand what they are saying, but it has changed to more of the gift of the spirit to know how to answer their questions. I worry less about not knowing the language and I can focus more on what doctrines I am teaching. It is really amazing to think of my knowledge a year ago. I just barely learned that I was coming to Indonesia. I had no idea I would have experienced what I have. I had no idea I would be totally comfortable walking around, trying to find addresses from the ward directory, and just trusting that eventually I could find what I was looking for. Being a missionary is fun, and I'm glad the Lord has blessed me to feel that way. We had a funny experience riding an angkot this week. Angkots are really jelek (crappy, bad, old), and this one was especially old and worn down. It was completely full and all of us wanted to go back to the train station, so the driver decided to take a different route. There was a huge hill and we were just crawling up so slow, and he just barely didn't make it, so all the motorcycles behind us had to back up so we could get back down the hill and try again. We try again, and it can't make it up again, so half the people in the angkot get out and push it up the hill! We finally got up after thinking we are gonna die. We get to another hill and everyone in the angkot is like holding on to one another hoping we can make it up, because it was even busier and more motorcycles than the hill before. Luckily we made it up and didn't die. It was definitely the most exciting ride in a car that I've ever been in haha. That's about it for this week! OH yeah, next week ........ AND ........ ARE GETTING BAPTIZED!! I don't teach them anymore, but it is still way exciting that I get to see both of them baptized this Saturday, so be excited for those pictures :) Love you! I hope you have an awesome week! Love, Sister Davis Yep! This week my total time in Indonesia is 4 months! It's crazy! I am finally to the point where I can pretty much understand the gist of what people are trying to say. I still don't understand everything, but that stress has gone down, but now new stress has come, because I'm a missionary. Was there ever a time a missionary isn't stressed? Probably not haha :)
This week was overall better than last week I think. I have gotten to the point where I'm not as stressed when things don't work out and I just realize it's not my fault when plans I make don't work out with the agency of others. We had a few days where all our appointments we planned didn't work out, and one time we went to a new members house, ......, she is this old lady who is HILARIOUS, but sometimes when you show up at her house she isn't there... But it's alright :) every day isn't perfect as a missionary right :) We also went looking for a member we thought was less active, but turns out she is very active when we finally found where her house was after like an hour or more of walking and asking people where the address was and if they had any idea who this person was. But hey, we're learning little by little more about Bogor and now we know who she is :) My favorite thing that happened was with a new investigator named ....... She lives right next door to a member and they invited her to their family home evening that we went to on Monday. She is Muslim, and she is really open to learning more about other religions. Right now she is just curious, but that's where it all starts :) We answered a lot of questions about the gospel, a little about the Plan of Salvation and lots of just random things. So yesterday at church the Brother that lives by her told us she wanted to come to church today but she has been sick the past few days. So we went to her house after church and she was so cute again! She loves talking with us and it is really genuine. I love how she is so honest right now about just being curious, and it is really those people who I love teaching, because you know that they are honest when they talk to you. I hope with time the curiosity can turn to faith and eventually to action. We'll see how the next couple of months go with her. This week I have really been struggling to find the balance between following rules just because it is a rule, or following it because I actually like and understand the rule itself. I was reading in the scriptures, and I learned a lot from 1 Nephi 19:10. It talks about how the Savior "Yielded Himself" to complete the atonement. He didn't want to do it. He asked the Father for another way. But he still did it. He knew that that was the only way to bring about blessings for all of mankind. It really hit me that even the Savior didn't "like" all the rules, but he did them anyway. It wasn't until after he obeyed that he loved the "rule" and got to enjoy the blessings that came from it. If I just start to obey every single rule, I will eventually be able to see the blessings that will come. I just have to yield my desire for a while and eventually I know heavenly Father can change my desires to what I want them to be if I rely on him and his atonement. I love what you shared about Stake Conference Mom. I am so excited to be able to learn from your stake president, and I'm glad you share things like that with me. I'm gonna be brave and try to send some pictures. Pray for my memory card please. Love you! Have an awesome week! Love, Sister Davis Selamat hari Idul Adha! Today in Indonesia is a holiday, which doesn't mean much for missionaries, but it's a pretty big holiday here. Today the Muslim people remember the day Abraham sacrificed Ishamel (They believe it was Ishamel, not Isaac) so on this day they do animal sacrifices. The last week people have been selling goats and cows on the side of the road. It is weird what is completely normal here and is totally weird back home. Walking down the road and having goats do their loud human like scream 2 feet away is kind of normal here now haha. I really respect the people here so much and how religious they are. Everyone you talk to has a belief, unlike a lot of other places where people just kind of live their lives. It is so nice to live where every one dresses modest, there is literally no PDA ever, and there are rarely people who are drunk. It is a blessing to live in this kind of environment as a missionary.
This week started with Sister Hyde being sick, so we didn't do much on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. Tuesday we had a member, Sister ......., come and stay with Sister Hyde at home so me and Sister Simanungkalit could go find a new desk and clothes closet for Sister Kaleopa, because the old one was super old from the Elders. Other than that we did lots of cleaning out house, watching all the church videos we had in our house, and not much else. But that's alright because Sister Hyde is feeling a lot better now. I don't remember if I've told you yet, but our house had a huge leak above the stairs. Every time it rained (every night) water would flow down the wall and down the stairs. We had called the person who owns our house to fix it, but he was taking a little while to find someone to come and fix the problem. Well, Tuesday night it rained SO HARD!! Literally it just pounded for like 2 hours. Another leak started in our house, which really was quite big and our stairs were just flooded. Luckily the rain stopped and it didn't rain all night or our house would have been a mess. So that was quite an exciting evening mopping up water so all of our furniture didn't get all wet and moldy. On Wednesday evening Sister Kaleopa came. She is from Brisbane, Australia, but her mom is Samoan. She is literally your perfect definition of an Australian Polynesian. She is really tall and everyone here thinks she looks just like someone from Central Java, so they are really surprised she doesn't know Javanese. This is her third city. She started in Solo 1 and 2 and then moved to Malang, where Sister Winanto is from. She has been in Indonesia for 11 months and goes home in February. I didn't really realize how scared I was to lead until she came and I realized if we didn't have a back up plan, it was only me who had any idea of where to go. So that was kind of scary. Thursday after Weekly Planning was kind of a mess cause all the people I had planned to meet couldn't and I got lost going to one place and I was pretty dang stressed. We eventually found a member who we could meet with, but after that I was pretty scared for the rest of this transfer. But luckily Sister Simanungkalit is still in Bogor so I can call her if I have any questions and she can help me plan who lives close and back up plans too. Especially since now I only have half of our investigators and members to meet with, there is now too much time instead of not enough. Hopefully the next couple of weeks we can build up our load of investigators and find those people here who are ready to receive us. Friday was much better. It was our favorite day of the week before. My favorite lesson this week was with ........ This is the first time we were able to meet with her. She was a referral from Sister Joyce, who is the one who had the accident with the boiling water. ...... used to come to church with Sister ......, but she hasn't come since Sister ..... hasn't come, and she doesn't yet want to go without Sister ......, even though there are members who live by her that want to bring her. We taught about the restoration, because on her teaching record it said she had been taught about the Book of Mormon but not yet the whole restoration lesson. It finally clicked with her that the Joseph Smith story is actually something that happened and not just a story. I could see her understanding and wanting to find the truth. As we meet with her more and more, I know her testimony is going to grow because she is open to the truth. It's still a few more weeks until Sister ...... can come to church, but hopefully with meeting with her more ...... will be willing to come with other members too. Another referral we met with was from Sister ....., ........ is her name and she came to church last week. She was really awesome. She has 3 little kids who were sick so she couldn't come this week, but she seems to have the desire. She is Christian but hasn't been to church in a long time. Hopefully when we teach her more she can feel the truthfulness of our message and will really be able to strengthen her testimony of Jesus Christ. Another fun thing is that we got to go to Primary yesterday at church! This month is on Missionaries so they all wear Future Missionary name tags during class. We shared about what missionaries do every day and why we want to serve a mission and of course ALL 15 of them want to be missionaries one day. Bogor is really an awesome place where they have a lot of youth, so like 7 missionaries are coming from this ward just in the next 2 years. They really are so strong and I can see all those little kids one day really becoming amazing missionaries. That's about all for this week! Hopefully we can find more people to fill our time and find those who are ready to Datang kepada Kristus (Come unto Christ). Kasih, 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
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August 2017
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