Yesterday ........ got baptized! It was kind of crazy the things Satan threw at her this week but it was nothing for her faith.
Wednesday we had her interview and everything went good and we had an awesome lesson about how Baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost and the Sacrament all work together. It was so great. During that lesson she told us an experience she had the night before. One of her friends for a long time came over to her house and talked with her for 5 hours trying to convince her not to get baptized. She brought all this anti mormon information and just kept talking forever. But she was stronger than that. She did exactly what us as missionaries did. She just said that she had learned and she knows that it is true. She told her friend that if she wanted to know the truth she had to read the Book of Mormon too. She invited her friend to her baptism and to church so her friend could see for herself. It was a pretty intense experience, but it's fun to see that Satan had tried a bunch of little things, and he couldn't think of anything else so he just sent someone to throw a wave at her and she already had her foundation on Christ instead of on the sand, so there was not even a budge that would make her fall. I love how converted she is. There is no way she is going to fall away. It is already like she is a member. Sister Burton, General Relief Society President, is coming to Indonesia on the 15th and Bogor is doing the Choir. Saturday morning me and Sister Rowntree had to go to the church to fill up the font. It overall took 5 HOURS!! Goodness that was crazy. And at the end it started to look greenish and on Sunday we were kind of scared because it looked way gross and dirty, but Brother Denny who baptized her said it was just a chemical in the water so we got less stressed. haha baptisms are awesome but so stressful of all the stuff you have to do before hand. Her baptism on Sunday was so great! She invited ......... to come and they came at 10:00 and stayed for all 3 hours of church and then the baptism. They loved Gospel Principles with Sister Rowntree teaching because she is so expressive and fun. There was a strong spirit at church and I really loved seeing that. I hope they opened their hearts to receive the Holy Ghost and a testimony of their own that our church is doing something great. They usually like baptisms right after church so that all the members can go, and pretty much all of the members stayed. It was so awesome. As with other investigators, we have ........ who has a baptismal date for 3 weeks from now. Her situation is kind of weird because she lives in Bogor but on Saturdays and Sundays she lives over an hour away. So she is planning on buying a little apartment that she can stay in on the weekends. So we don't really know how the whole baptism thing is going to work with her interview and if we will even be able to go, but hopefully we will! This week I spent a lot of my studying on Conference talks. I have almost read all of the Liahona from this last conference. But the talk that really stuck to me this past week was from David A Bednar. It's really cool that your stake president gets to spend time with him so you can learn from him as well, because every time I hear his words I always learn so much. From May of last year about "Always Retain a Remission of your Sins" He talks about the importance of the first 3 ordinances of the gospel, Baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, and the Sacrament. Before that I knew that they were important. I knew baptism is a commandment and we have to make a covenant and we are free from sin and that the sacrament is a renewal of our covenant and that we have the Holy Ghost with us. I got all that, but I didn't really know WHY. Elder Bednar explains it so well and it has brought a whole knew meaning to the doctrine of Christ for me. He talks about how Baptism after we have had faith and repented, is the initial cleansing of sin. After that cleansing of sin, we are then clean enough and worthy enough to have the Holy Ghost with us. The Holy Ghost is a great gift that leads and comforts us, but way more than that, we have to have the Holy Ghost with us because he is the one that cleans and sanctifies us as we partake of the sacrament. We repent and partake of the sacrament so we are worthy to have the Holy Ghost with us so he can cleanse us from sin. With out the cleansing from the Holy Ghost every week, we are not clean and cannot enter the presence of God. Through out faith and repentance, we are worthy to have the Holy Ghost with us that will continue to cleanse us that will make us worthy to enter again into the Celestial Kingdom. The first principles and ordinances of the gospel aren't just rules God set in place so we would obey them, but they are laws that follow the laws of the universe, that through them we can use the atonement of Jesus Christ to make us clean and worthy to enter into the Celestial Kingdom. I also read the talk "The Doctrine of Christ" in this last conference and I learned even more about it. I invite you all to continue to learn about the doctrine of Christ, because that knowledge will help us more in this life and in the next life than anything else. Wow this is a long email! I hope you endured to the end and got to this point. haha I love you all! I know the gospel of Jesus Christ is true, and that His atonement is real for all of us. I hope every week we can learn and become more like Him. Love, Sister Davis I'll just get right to it because I already gave it away in the title. ...... IS GETTING BAPTIZED!! This past week on Wednesday ...... called and wanted to talk to Sister Roylance. She asked if Sister Roylance could come back from Solo in a couple of weeks to her baptism. She wasn't super specific in that, but we kind of got the gist of what was going to happen. I'm really sad Sister Roylance had to move before, but I saw a picture of her in Solo and she looked happy :) Anyway, We met with her on Saturday morning, and she told us that she wanted to get baptized on January 29th. We talked about the baptismal questions again with her. On January 2nd, the first time we really met with her and had a great conversation with her but we hadn't really taught her that much, we also went over the questions because she asked. At that time there were still quite a few questions she didn't believe yet. It was so cool to read every question and hear her say "percaya" which means "I believe" after every answer and have her explain what they mean to her. She just spent the whole time testifying to me and I just learn so much from her every time. To close the lesson we read from Mosiah 18:8-10, and it was just perfect. She said it was exactly what her feelings have been and that is exactly her desire.
After that lesson we went home to study because we met her in the morning and I read Alma 26 again, the first time that chapter meant anything to me, I was studying the scriptures for my Book of Mormon class in college. I had just finished reading all about the conversion of the Anti-Nephi-Lehis, and then I read that chapter about Ammon and how his feelings are. At that time I just wanted to feel what he felt. He describes the happiness he feels in bringing those unto Christ after working so hard and patiently waiting for the miracles to come. At that time that is exactly what I wanted to feel. I just wanted to feel that happiness that I hadn't had yet in my life. As I read this section again, I know that Heavenly Father has answered my prayer to have this desire. In verse 16, he says "I cannot say the smallest part which I feel." I can so relate to that. I can't even explain the joy every time I meet with her and see her at sacrament. When it was announced in Sacrament meeting that ..... was getting baptized next week, the whole ward was just so excited! You could just feel and see the smiles of everyone here. It is really such an awesome experience here in Indonesia to see how much of their lives are influenced by the missionaries and how excited they get when someone else in their country comes to find the truth. So, be excited for some more pictures! Now that we are in Bogor 1 and 2, we have tons of work to do! ...... just got confirmed yesterday so that was really awesome. It's great to see how he has changed. ..... is also an investigator from Bogor 1 that has a baptismal commitment that we just have to help her see how important it is to come to church and then she can get baptized. She was the one who searched on LDS.org and sent in to the mission office for missionaries to come to her house, so that is also really awesome. Also Sister Rowntree is awesome. Her language is so good even though she is new and she is not shy at all. She is literally so much like Tara. She is so sassy and has a fun crazy personality, but that helps her be a hard worker. Every day I am reminded of Tara. I probably had Tara as a best friend so I knew what to expect with Sister Rowntree as a companion haha. We are doing great together. I love it in Bogor so much, and I'm so so so glad I get to be here for at least 6 more weeks. I'm kind of jealous of the snow just because the weather gets boring here, but it is also nice having it always the same. I love you all and I hope you have a fantastic week! Love, Sister Davis Yay! I'm still in Bogor! We have been waiting for news ALL WEEK LONG and FINALLY the APs called on Friday and said Sister Roylance is moving to Solo 2 and I am staying in Bogor! I'm going to be companions with Sister Rowntree and finish her training and we get to work in both wards! So I started in Bogor 1 and 2, left to Bogor 2, and now I'm going back to both. Hopefully the members don't get sick of me here. There have been officially 15 missionaries that have left Bogor since I got here, and I'm the longest one. I'm lucky to be in this great city for so long.
...... is still doing great :) we met with her a few times this week and finished the lessons. She has already started reading the Book of Mormon again and said she wants to be baptized. For her it is just a question of waiting for the right time. She feels like she has been going to the Catholic Church for 13 years and she wants her family to know that she isn't just playing around, but that she knows these things are true. Her family isn't Christian either, so she just wants to make sure they support her decision. She said she has already made a date in her heart, and I believe her. I'm so glad I am still going to be in Bogor and I can see her get baptized! The past two days Sister Roylance has been sick, so we have stayed at home. Now I have a lot more sympathy for Sister Winanto because she was at home bored for a week with me and I was just barely 2 days! Crazy! So the other Sisters had a baptism while we were at home. We couldn't go to church on Sunday because she was sick so we missed it. His name is ....... His mother's heart is really opening, so we are going to work with her a lot as well as keeping him excited since he is a new member. They also have an office referral named ...... who is really great. We have the potential for 3 more baptisms for this transfer, and that makes me so excited. I also got your letter mom and the one from John. Sister Newbold sent me a birthday card and I got the card the stake presidency sent out to all the missionaries. I'm glad letters are getting to me! So keep sending them! That's about all for this week. Hopefully this next week we will have tons of success and hopefully I can be the trainer President hopes and expects I can be. Love you all! Have a great week! Love, Sister Davis This week was my Birthday week! It wasn't much, but the Lord definitely blessed us with an amazing miracle.
Monday after emailing, I was still a little down. The past few weeks have been pretty hard, and I felt like I was doing the same thing every day without knowing what I needed to change to have success. But this week we definitely found success from our labors. On Monday evening ....... made an appointment for ....... to meet with us. We met her at ...... house and taught about her questions. That lesson she was different. She was so happy, was so open with her questions, and she even asked "How many times do I have to meet with you?" After that I got brave and asked her if she wanted to be baptized. She said she wanted to learn everything we had to teach first and then she would pick a date. We taught her about temples and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The next day after district meeting we ate lunch with her, and then after that we taught her about a couple of commandments she had questions about. Then Wednesday evening she called and our appointment had fallen through so we met her AGAIN and taught her about the whole restoration (yeah it's a really weird order to teach the lessons but she had a lot of questions that made it go in a weird order haha). At the end of that lesson she told us the story about the beginning of her conversion to now. A few months ago, she decided that these 13 years she has been going to her church she has just been the same and focussed a lot on work and not enough on God. So she started really studying the Bible on her own. She had a dream/vision (a lot of Indonesians receive revelation by dreams). She said Jesus came to her and he told her to "Follow Me" and after she woke up, she then wondered, but how am I supposed to do that? A little while later she ran into a friend. They had been friends in school like 20 years ago. He invited her to come to church and she accepted. After a couple weeks coming to church and being explained why she should meet with us, she decided to meet with us. Sister Roylance helped her download the Gospel Library App on her phone. At the end of the lesson on Wednesday we asked her if she had read from the Book of Mormon, because we knew she had read from the Gospel Principles book and from the pamphlets, but we kept forgetting to ask her about the Book of Mormon. She said she was in ETHER! IT HAD ONLY BEEN TWO WEEKS! That's insane! She says every time she gets bored and has a break at work or anywhere she reads the Book of Mormon on her phone. We literally sit in lessons and she pretty much teaches herself. That's not even an overstatement. When we were teaching about tithing she told about how someone who gives just a little but gives faithfully can receive more blessings than those who just pay because it's nothing to them. That story is literally in the pamphlet and she hadn't ever read it before. She is the light of my mission right now. I just get so happy every time I am around her. We only have two more lessons to teach and then she can get baptized. We really are praying that a miracle can happen and she can get baptized before transfers, but if not she probably will be baptized within the next two weeks after. I know that I was best friends with her in Heaven. I can just see me saying to her as she came first to this earth that I promised that I would find her, and that we just knew we would have such a happy reunion. I am so lucky and blessed to be the missionary that gets to help her in her life. She is a Kingdom Builder, exactly what President Rowley has been asking us to find. If you can't tell by this letter I am just ecstatic about this experience that has made a huge impact for the rest of my life. On Saturday it was my Birthday! It's kind of hard to do things on your birthday when it's a Saturday on a mission, but it was still good :) The other sisters in the house ordered J.Co which is an awesome donut shop and they also bought me FROZEN YOGURT!!! IT WAS AMAZING!! I never thought I would be able to have any on my mission but I did! We also went to Taman Safari again (3 times, no big deal haha) so that was really fun today. Even though the orangutang tried to bite me while it was sitting on my lap, but that's okay haha :) I hope you all have an awesome week! Thank you for everything you do and all the support I always receive. LOVE YOU SOOOO MUCH!!! 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
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August 2017
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