Sugeng Riyati!

Craziness in Indonesia! Today was hari raya in Indonesia, the end of the big Muslim fasting month. Last week I said it was compatible to Christmas, but now I think it's like Christmas, new years, thanksgiving, and the 4th of July put together! Last night the streets were filled with people wearing their prayer clothes, chanting in Arabic, playing drums, shooting off crazy fireworks (including little kids shooting off fireworks) and segala macam. It was fun! This week we did a lot of proselyting and met some really cool new people and we've also been focusing a lot on Ibu Juhartono and her sister also! Pray for them pleeease :) Sorry I have no time to email anyone back :( I love you!

Love,

Sister Reilly

Miracles Every Week!!

News: There was an earthquake last week, but more importantly...Pak Muji and Pak Juhartono were baptized on Saturday!!! We've been praying so hard about Pak Juhartono and what else we needed to do to help him feel ready to be baptized. He was so ready, but he just kept telling us, not yet. We taught a really powerful lesson with him on Friday and then church last Sunday was awesome and Sister Toegono and I prayed and fasted for him on Saturday so that he would be able to feel the spirit telling him he was ready to be baptized. We always meet with him on Tuesday at 4, but we couldn't get a hold of him without a phone to confirm our appointment, so we just went over to their house at 12 and his wife, Ibu Juhartono said he had been up all night reading...then Pak Juhartono came out and said that he was just about to call us and see if we could come over earlier and we just showed up! We sat down and the first ting he asked was "when is the next baptism?" Long story short, some things happened and he just started studying the scriptures for answers and he said the whole time he was reading he just kept having this feeling/hearing a voice in his head saying "your ready" Ah, I love this work. I Love my Savior and I know that God is real and is a God of miracles! Ibu Juhartono didn't feel ready to be baptized on Saturday, but I have no doubt she will follow Pak Juhartono and hopefully the rest of their family as well. It was one of the coolest baptismal services I've been at. President Donald has asked us to try and hold baptismal services on Saturday rather than Sunday so that they can be confirmed the next day in sacrament. The reason baptisms were on Sundays here was because members would just not show up on Saturdays, but so many members came to support Pak Muji and Pak Juhartono, it was amazing! The chapel was almost full! (the chapel is small but still!). This week Sister Jibson sent me this awesome talk on the atonement that just blew my mind. I've also been reading "Jesus the Christ" and I feel like we can continually learn and study about the atonement. It was, is and will forever be the single most important event in the history of the Earth. Everything we do should revolve around that event. I get to be a representative of Jesus Christ here in Indonesia and invite others to fully partake of His atonement and see how it can and will change their lives as well as their family's life. This is Christs church, we have a prophet of God who lives and receives revelation from God for His church and for mankind. This is truth. I know it and I will do everything I can to help others know it. 

Love,

Sister Reilly

Every week is great!

Awesome week! Pak Muji is getting baptized next week and we are so excited! He is such a stud in an old body! The ward is excited and love him! They also all love Pak and Ibu Juhartono and have been awesome with fellowshiping with us to help them set a date to be baptized! We've also been teaching a referral from our new member Sister Atin, his name is Hengky and he is from Papua. He does not speak very good Indonesian, so we have to teach really simply and slowly and repeat lots of things, but he is awesome and has such an awesome desire to learn and know the truth. He told us a story about how when he was really young a helicopter landed in his village in Papua and they had never seen anything like it. People came out of the helicopter and gave them Bibles in Indonesian. None of the people could read Indonesian, but somehow God provided a way for them to be able to understand the Bible and learn of Jesus Christ. That experience has guided his life and he knows that God can always provide a way for His will to be done. Hengky is a super shy person, but his testimony of the Savior is so strong and can be felt when he talks! I know that God will provide a way for him to be able to understand and receive the truth of this gospel. THIS IS TRUE and true seekers who are willing to humble themselves and ASK GOD, will know it is true. I know that this is Christ's church that has been restored to the Earth through a modern prophet. I know that is true more than I know anything else. I know and I am willing to do anything to help those around me know. I have tasted of the fruit and it has filled my soul with joy! (1 Nefi 8) This is still my fav mission scripture... 

Alma29:9 

"I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy."

I love you all!!! 

Love,

Sister Reilly

Bulan Puasa!

Selamat pagi semuanya! SUCH A GOOD WEEK! Definitely the most unique birthday I've ever had! I told two of our favorite investigators my birthday was on the 1st last week and they really wanted us to come over to there house with all the missionaries on that night. Pak Juhartono used to be a chef for one of the hotels in Yogya so he's a super good cook! He taught us how to make the best nasi goreng and we all ate together, it was way fun! Also, the other sisters made me a cake and we ate cake for breakfast :)! So this month is "bulan puasa" (fasting month) for the Muslim people. It is like the month of December for Christians. They wake up at 4am every morning and eat and then go pray in the mosque and then don't eat until about 8pm at night. Then the first day in June they have a huge celebration and slaughter cows in the streets and eat together! Oh Indonesia. So this month ALL the food places are closed in between those hours so we pretty much ended up fasting also! I've lost about 8 pounds in one week because there's nothing to eat around here haha! It's also like Christmas time for Christians because suddenly all the mosques are full, like how a lot of people will start coming to church around Christmas. 

We have some of the most awesome investigators right now! This week we started teaching a family of 8 and they are the coolest family ever! Later I'll take a picture with them, but ya we are way excited about them. Also Pak and Ibu Juhartono are still great even though we cannot get Pak Juhartono to set a date to be baptized. He really doesn't want to feel like he's rushing baptism but he knows he is going to baptized soon, he's just waiting for a spiritual confirmation on when...that's hard for us to disagree with, we are just praying and fasting for him and doing everything we can to prepare him and his wife to enter the waters of baptism. 

Okay, PAK MUJI. Coolest old man ever! We met him a few weeks back and he has a baptismal date for next week and is so ready! He is probably 70 years old and out of his whole family only he is Christian. He said he has been praying his whole life for God to direct him to the truth and help him be a good person and he knows that God sent him us! One of the members picks him up for church each week and all the members love him. A lot of them know him because he actually helped build the church! I'm sending a picture of him this week! 

Okay one more...Ibu Madiono! We went to contact a referral that was SO FAR AWAY last Sunday and he wasn't there, but we met this lady and gave her a Book of Mormon and said we'd come back the next Sunday. We went there yesterday and she had read until 1 Nephi 12 and had all these great questions about Lehi's dream and the Book of Mormon. A bunch of the family came in and we taught them about the restoration and it was a great lesson. Then they asked if we would sing for them, so we sung and I played the guitar that they had there. They could feel the spirit and they asked if we could keep coming back and next time write out and photo copy what verses we are going to share, and which songs we are going to sing haha! Also, one more thing she said really touched me, she asked if I would explain Mathew 10: 34-39. Especially the verse where Christ says that we need to take up his cross and follow him. I love those verses. I told her that the meaning of those verses is that we need to love Jesus Christ more than ANYTHING. More than our parents, more than our children, even more than our own spouse. If we lose our life for the Saviors sake, we truly will find it. When Christ made the walk with the cross on His back before he was crucified was probably one of the most brutal walks ever. He was being spit on, yelled at and had a burden so heavy on His back...but he did it for US. We have to be willing to take up His cross also and follow Him, even when it seems like the hardest thing to do. He who loses his life for HIS sake truly shall find his life. I testify that that is true. Christ lives and this is his LIVING church on the Earth today. Okay I've written way too much...but I'm just so HAPPY! Thank you so much to everyone who sent me emails for my birthday!! I'm sorry if I don't have time to write everyone back because I wrote such a long email! I LOVE YOUUU!

Sister Reilly

It was Atins birthday two weeks ago (our investigator that was just recently baptized) We surprised her for her bday!

Birthday

One of the members of the family of rats that lives in our house...I had to kill it with a broom last night while the other sisters were screeming from on top of the table "Kill it Sister Reilly!"