Saturday, July 12, 2014

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!"







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