One thing I have learned on my mission is that sadness never lasts too long! As we hold out and keep moving forward, a miracle or just something small and great will happen that changes those worried, or sad feelings with joy and peace. As a missionary, you have this new, overwhelming love for all people, and especially those you teach. Yesterday our amazing family that we're teaching didn't come to church. I was giving a talk and so I was sitting on the stand just watching and waiting for them, but they never showed and I was pretty down about it. I really didn't want that to have any effect on me having the spirit with me as I spoke to our ward though, so I said a prayer and everything went great. After church we received a text from the dad who said they were so sorry they couldn't come to church (the mom was sick). We had an appointment to go over there that night and as the appointment got closer our fellowshiper and back up fellowshiper and back up back up fellowshiper cancelled on us haha. Anyways we went and the mom had cooked my favorite Indonesian food for us and we shared the restoration with them again because we don't think all of them fully understood it yet. It was the most powerful lesson I've ever been in. My amazing comp who is still learning Indonesian was so sensitive to the spirit and at the end of the lesson she asked "We have been asking you to pray about this, to know if it is true, have you done this?" They all (in a kind of an ashamed way) said no, not yet. We testified and read a scripture about how the spirit will come into their hearts and minds and answer their prayer. We invited them to kneel and pray right then and ask, and the dad led the prayer. It was the best prayer I've heard an investigator offer and one of the strongest feelings of the spirit I have felt. It strengthened my own testimony of the truthfulness of this message. The six of them will be baptized on the 5th of October. I love the gospel, I know it is true, I know the Christ lives and he loves us, His Father hears us and answers our prayers and He will answer yours if you will but ask. 

I love you,

Sister Reilly

Hastening the Work!

Great things happening this week! Pak Johans family is still progressing like crazy and I love them so much! The mom pretty much challenged the three youngest kids the other day to go on missions, it was awesome. She went around and asked them one by one, are you willing to leave everything and serve God?? haha! Yesterday they texted us after church and this was the text (they can speak english pretty well, this is from the youngest daughter) :

"Sis my uncle whose name dewa want to learn about the gospel with sister reilly and sister chapman...if sister reilly and sister chapman want to call him this is his number:..." 

They are awesome. Later tonight we are having a family home evening with them at a members house, it should be great. Also, this week one of our contacts took us around to every one of his Christian friends and had us teach them, it was about half of our day just going from house to house with him, telling all his friends about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ...it was awesome. Imagine if each of the members did this with the missionaries...are you ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ or are you willing to open your mouth and share it with everyone? I hope we can all be like Paul when he wrote this in Romans 1:16 

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth;"

The power of God unto the salvation of every man has been restored to the Earth, we have it, and we must share it! I love my Savior, I feel overwhelmingly blessed that He is willing to let me take a part in HIS WORK. The call has been given for us to all take part in His work, will we answer to the call to HASTEN the work or will we continue in the way we always have? I know that as we pray to be lead to those who He has prepaired, He will, and we will be able to see lives change, families change and our own hearts will be changed in the process! 

I'm tanner than the Indonesians... :)

The coolest fam ever! (three of Pak Johans kids)

This was going on outside our house yesterday..

LOVE,

Sister Reilly

SUCH A GOOD WEEK!

Ibu Juhartono was baptized yesterday! I know this sounds a little relief society president-ish, but my heart was literally filled with joy as I saw Pak Juhartono baptize his wife yesterday, there is no better way to describe it. One of my favorite parts about being a missionary is getting to hand our investigators their towel as they come out of the baptismal font, that sounds strange, but seeing the look on their faces after just being baptized is something I will never forget. Pak and Ibu Juhartono's eyes were both filled with tears as they walked out of the font and I just felt like there was light radiating from both of them! Families can be together forever! What made the baptism even better was that Pak Johan's family came! I talked about them in my email last week. They came to church, even though Pak Johan is still really sick. They ended up leaving after the second hour and we thought they went home, but they just went to go get Pak Johan medicine and then they came back and stayed for the baptism also. ALSO, we went to their house on Saturday night and we taught them about the word of wisdom and on Sunday the mom was like "ya we've all stopped drinking tea and are going to follow the word of wisdom from now on" I seriously love this family so much, we are super close with the three daughters and the mom wants us to literally come over and teach them everyday. Last night we brought a member and her daughter who use to go the same church as them and she gave an awesome testimony about how this gospel has blessed her family. I LOVE THIS WORK. I love the scriptures and my i love my Savior and know without out a doubt that when we serve our brothers and sisters we are serving HIM and we will be blessed beyond measure because of it. THE GOSPEL HAS BEEN RESTORED.

Love ya!

Ibu Juhartono's baptism

My fav baby in Indo!

Sister Chapman and I walked about 6 miles to bring this man back to his home yesterday he has been hit by and car and was "wheel-chairing" himself all the way home.

Pak Johan and his family!!! (besides the youngest brother) and on the left is a member and her daughter

One of our awesome investigators Inri, she is a friend of one of the members and is great!

one more...cleaning rice!

Sister Reilly

LIGHT!

I AM SO GRATEFUL TO BE A MISSIONARY! I want to share a simple experience from this week. We were proselyting and met Pak Juhan. He is a father of 5 and they are a Christian family. He told us that nobody else was home yet and that we could come back when his family was there, but before we left he said, will you pray for me please? We said we would say a prayer with him right there, and we did. Anyways, the next day we were super busy and had a lot of appointments, but I just kept getting this prompting that we should go back to that family that night, so we moved our schedule around and went there. WOW. We had given the father a restoration pamphlet and the whole family had read it. The first thing the father asked is for us to explain more about Joseph Smith and how he could get a Book of Mormon. We taught about the restoration and they were all just focused in on every word we said. The Spirit was so strong and we both just felt this overwhelming love for this family. I could just see the light in their faces. After we left Sister Chapman asked me...does our love for these people just continue to grow the longer we are here? I said YES! The longer I have been here, the more I love every person we meet on the street, teach, and even pass by. I can see the light in them and the potential they have as a son or daughter of our Heavenly Father. They are my brothers and my sisters. I love them and I love every day, every second I get to serve my Heavenly Fathers children. THIS is what life is about, I feel a light in my life that I have never felt so strong before and I see that light grow in others as they come to love this gospel and embrace the atonement of Jesus Christ more fully in their lives. The gospel is LIGHT. 

the house and our awesome neighbors

my comp, borobudor, and this awesome family we've been teaching!

I love you!

Love,

Sister Reilly