MAYDAY, MAYDAY there are 2 crazies running around Jakarta! Those two crazies would be my companion and I. :) Elder Hariyadi as well as my former companion, Elder Panjaitan and others finished up their mission this past week. It was pretty weird to see them go. On Tuesday, my new companion arrived. His name is Elder Tuttle AKA Elder "Turtle" to the Indonesian people and to President "Private Tuttle" from the MASH series. He comes from a family of 9 and he falls at number 6 of the Tuttle Bunch. Him and I actually have almost similar stories back home. He was born and grew up in New York until he moved to Utah where as I was born and raised in Colorado and then moved out to Virginia! We flip flopped. I am super excited to work with him!
Where do I begin with what happened this past week?? SO many cool things took place and I think it was because of our hard work and diligence. We will start with one of the member referrals that we received. On Thursday, this member set up an appointment for us to come and teach some of her family members that asked to meet with us. President Donald came along with us....he drove...I navigated, pretty impressive team you might say. :) We showed up and the referrals actually could not come. This member's husband was there who is also not a member of the church but has been learning for a while. We started talking with him when the referrals showed up! It was a miracle for all! We taught about the Restoration and they took it in very well. They said they have been searching for truth but have yet to find it. They were unable to come to church this past week because of transportation but the member came up to us and explained that they took one of the old motorcycles and have been working on fixing it up so that they can make it to church!
Next up, Mike and his beautiful family! On Saturday night we were walking into a mall to meet other people. Waiting out front was a family of 6. We walked by and debated on talking to them. We initially didn't talk to them and walked in. As we made it in, we both turned around and both had the same feeling that we needed to go talk to them. We walked back out and introduced ourselves. They knew exactly who we were. We got to know the family and learned more about them. As we were talking, we noticed they knew a lot about the church. Turns out he used to be a Pastor and once dated a member of the church. He expressed their fear when we walked by the first time but gave his great gratitude for us taking the time to turn around and talk to them. They had 4 little kids and it was such an awesome experience! It was a very beautiful family. We were able to share a restoration pamphlet and gave our numbers.
As we have been going crazy in the city, we have been just opening our mouth with everybody! We ended up talking to people that were highly interested in coming to church yesterday. They both didn't come because of work meetings but it was cool to just right away invite them to church. We will contact them this week and hopefully they will be able to come next week.
On Friday afternoon, we were sitting in McDonald's doing a little planning and getting a little snack when more miracles happened! A guy from Spain who saw us walk in followed us and introduced himself. He works here but knows who the missionaries are because they often go by his house in Spain. He just asked us questions about our lives here and from there we were able to teach just some small and simple truths. We only talked for about 5 minutes but it was short and powerful. As we went back to planning, more people interrupted us. One of them showed us pictures of him and his friend in front of the Oakland California temple. We stopped planning and taught about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. It was a pretty busy day just in that one spot. Lots of miracles!!!
Saturday morning as we went out, we passed by a man sitting on a bench in front of some ATM's. We stopped to take money out and also we took a seat next to this guy. We talked for just a little bit and he told us how his daughter who was only 15 or 16 passed away not even a year ago. We talked about the Plan of Salvation and how families can be together forever. The Holy Ghost was super strong. We exchanged numbers and went on our way. He called us last night asking when we could meet again. We will be trying to meet with him this Tuesday. Elder Tuttle and I have walked by that very spot where we met him many times since meeting him.......there is no bench there.
Our long time investigator came to church yesterday and we were able to teach him after church. It was such a great lesson. We are seeing miracles EVERYWHERE!! We are talking with anybody in sight and just seeing miracles happen and so many more that I couldn't write in here. Lots of good things are happening!! I know the church is true!
Elder Hayes
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| Going home!! |
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| Former Companions |
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| At a member's house and a bunch of his friends that listened to our lesson!! |
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