I have to start out with the bad news that next week I do not get to email, I only get to skype mom, dad, and the others at the house! But I'm sure that my dad can update you all!
Things this week have been HOT!!! As for some of your questions with the rain, it had been raining pretty hard. When it rains it's basically like when there is a Hurricane passing Virginia! In solo, there hasn't been any major issues thank goodness. A lot of the flooding happens in the bigger cities!!! It would not surprise me if there is a lot of landslides.
I did get the package and we had fun going through that. Hopefully later today I can get my package sent off and who knows when it will get there. There hasn't been any nativity sets, not even in the malls. A lot of people ask about the traditions here. Basically every church has their own parties and make invitations and all that good stuff but as for Christmas only the malls are decorated and the insides of houses. Other than that you will not find a whole lot of Christmas here. Last week we went to the mall and they have Christmas music playing. Not that a lot of people understand it, they love it!
Yesterday, I did meet the Shefield family. Sister Shefield finished her mission about three weeks ago and came back with her parents. They seem to loving it here!!!
The story yesterday goes like this. On Friday we had a meeting with the ward mission leader and he got a phone call and he said that the youth speaker for Sunday won't be there so he asked if I could give a talk. I agreed to and asked what the topic was. He said that he didn't remember and would text me the topic. Well, Sunday came around and I hadn't gotten a topic so I texted him and didn't get a response. I showed up at church and asked am I still giving a talk and he said yes! I was like oh crap!!! I asked what the topic was and he gave it to me and in sacrament I was able to prepare and thank goodness the topic was pretty easy, Jesus Christ. However, it shows to go how far I have come with my language. The fact that I was able to give a talk in Indonesian with little preparation is the spirit at work right there.
The missionaries are given responsibility to sing at the ward Christmas party which will happen on Christmas Day! The Indonesian Elders heard Jingle Bell Rock and that is like their favorite song now and that is what we are singing next week. It is fun to teach them how we do things in America and they love to hear and learn about it because here it is just different. Elder B really was grateful for his birthday card and says thank you and hello!
As far as lessons go this week it was average. We went to one of our investigators house and their pendata was there (I forgot pendata in English, you'll have to translate) and I was like oh crap he is going to want to just thrash the church. But after a while of just talking I just had like a strong sense of courage and faith and asked if we could share our message with him. He told us that he had to leave and that he didn't have time. Well, maybe 20 minutes later we left together and he didn't want to hear any message. It is sad to hear some of the things people say and then just not even want to listen. I didn't care that he went to school we wanted to teach. Elder Boenari and I think he was scared! :))
Well, I better go, I hope everything is going well for you and I can't wait to talk to you all soon!
Elder Hayes
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| An Indonesian Birthday tradition - Flour and Egg on the head! |
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| The Charlie Brown Christmas Tree that we sent. |
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