Sunday, October 11, 2015

Week 67 - Conference, A Missionaries Christmas, Preparing for PLD (Zone Conference)

Hello everybody on the other side of the world! We are getting an early start today, not for any particular reason but just because we want to! :)

This past week has been really good with lots of good things!! I may have mentioned this last week in my email but our last Monday night activity which was a family home evening in Senopati was such a success. It helped just numerous people, including myself feel the spirit and strengthen their testimonies!! We actually some later results that I will talk about from this activity! 

On Tuesday, there was a bunch of missionaries going home so my companion and I didn't really have time to do a whole lot of teaching as our focus was on them. I was actually able to serve at least in the same city with every single one of them that went home, it was great to see. We had dinner together and a little devotional and off they went just in time to get new missionaries in on Wednesday. Our Wednesday focus was on them and preparing for the upcoming PLD meetings that we have. I have no idea how these meetings come together because at this point is is just pieces but we know it will come together. I am excited and will have to give you an update on how they go. We will be starting in Jakarta this week and then next week we will be traveling to Surabaya and Solo to hold the meetings there. I'm excited because I have actually already served in both of those cities!

This past week it rained one night.....IT ACTUALLY RAINED!!! alhamdulillah!!!! It was great to finally great rain. The dust and dirt have been kind of taking over Jakarta lately making it hard to not breath in dust. With that little rain it kind of helped and actually it should already be rainy season but we are awaiting for that to start up here some time shortly!! Jakarta does flood terribly so we will see how that goes!!

It has been a blast to see and work with a few of the new missionaries. We have been going on splits and other things with them this past week. I now know how I was my first week here! :) I was on splits with one of the new missionaries and he actually needed to pick up a few small things right when he got here so we went out. When we were walking on the street there was a guy that was just making it SO OBVIOUS that he was looking at the Book of Mormon. Like it was so obvious I'm pretty sure I was laughing. We immediately stopped and I'm pretty sure frightened him because we stopped to talk to him about it. We explained a little gave him a copy and off he went. We actually met with him the next day and he is so confused out of his mind that there could be another book and just the teachings of a church could be like they are here. He left saying, "I think I need to read this book." It was a miracle to watch someone confused come to the conclusion that he needed to learn a little more.

We finally we able to watch conference and it was AMAZING!!! Just the whole time, the spirit was talking to me and my notes aren't even anything the people said but what the spirit told me. My favorite talk was Uctdorff's talk about how we make living the Gospel too complex when in reality it is easy to live! That talk was just so powerful to me. I also was a fan of the one about asking Heavenly Father what we can do to improve our lives. Thomas S. Monson nailed it about obedience in simple terms and I was a fan about trying to memorize a scripture a week. Just so many great things were said! Conference is a missionaries' Christmas! It was super cool to see the Lord work through others to call the new Apostles, to go along with that the talks really backed them up and talked about the divine calling that they just received and that it is from the Lord. It was also a blessing because we have been working with a new member who is already inactive to really help him. He is a great person just doesn't come to church. He actually came to the activity on Monday and really felt the spirit, we visited him and had a super spiritual lesson and then he came yesterday to conference to feel the spirit again. We have created a great relationship with him. He has been exposed to the Spirit so much this week that it is like a "high" he wants more and more and he is doing the things he needs to do to get it. He shared a story that he sorted out his problems at church and that he would like to be coming every week. We will visit him and next week pick him up. It has been a great miracle to work with him and see the changes that are going on in his life.

It was a great week and we got a lot of things coming up. We are busy and all that! The pictures look great and sounds like people are doing well. Thank you for your support and all!

Elder Hayes

Me and Elder B.

Bro. A!!!!!! Great guy!!
My Styling Companion

Missionaries that went home this week

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