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

Such an awesome weeks in Jogja! I'm training a white girl...that's definitely quite the experience, but I'm loving it. We are the same height so we definitely stand out around here. So yesterday at church we had 9 non members!! The best part was that they were not all our investigators either, members brought their friends and it was awesome, our gospel principles class was full :). The members in Jogja are the best, I love them so much. Living in our new house has been interesting, but good. The neighborhood isn't quite adjusted to two tall white girls living next to them yet, when we are studying there is a bunch on little kids looking through our windows and calling out for us haha! And people think it is so great that me and Sister Chapman run every morning (Indonesians typically don't run). Everyday when we leave our house everyone around asks us, where are you going? Come to my house! Indonesians are the best.

We visited one of our investigators this week, Pak Mahatmawadi (we met him 3 weeks ago) he had finished the entire Book of Mormon (including the topical guide) and had started over and is in 2 Nephi..we were shocked! Earlier that morning when Sister Chapman and I were planning we role played giving the baptismal commitment and I told her if she felt the spirit telling her to, to give the baptismal commitment to Pak Mahatmawadi when we met with him. It was her very first day and she is still learning Indonesian, but she did it, and he accepted...it was awesome. She is going to be an amazing missionary. We are really excited about the work that is going on here. 

This week I was reminded again and again of the importance of eternal families. Almost all the churches here teach that when we pass away, and go to Heaven we are not going to know each other, we are not going to be with our families again. When we are able to testify of the truthfulness of eternal families, it gives people hope. I know that families can be together forever. Because of the blessing of temples of God, we can be sealed to our families for time and all eternity. I know that this is the Saviors church and this gospel is the way for families to find true happiness in this life and for eternity, I have seen how it has changed families and how it has changed me and will continue to change me. We can become better everyday through the atonement of Jesus Christ, hearts can be changed, families can be changed as we become perfected in Christ. I know these things are true and I know that all who have these truths have the responsibility to share it with all! I love you all!

Love,

Sister Reilly

Great week...but still no camera so no pictures, sorry

{For those of you who don't know, Sidney got her purse stolen by a motorcyclist who snatched it while driving by. Her camera and flash drive with all of her pictures on it were in there so that's why she hasn't been able to send pictures :( ...}

So I forgot to tell you guys something from last week! Sister Jibson called me before she left Malang and told me that Pak Yakub's wife is getting baptized! I didn't tell you guys a lot about the situation with his wife when I was in Malang because it was a pretty sad story, but basically she was having an affair with someone else, and they were just still living together for their son, Brayen. She was always super nice to us when we came over, but never wanted to sit in on the lessons. Anyways, Pak Yakub put that picture of the temple that we gave him above their bed and I guess after a while she started asking about it. Long story short, now they have cleared everything up and they have been going to church as a family and she is getting baptized, and they have the plan that they are going to go to the temple with Sister Jibson and I in San Diego. Man, when Sister Jibson was telling me about her I just had this overwhelming feeling of joy come over me. THAT is what missionary work is about. Having families sealed in the temple for time and all eternity. I could just feel the spirit through the phone as she told me about them. Also, another spiritual experience from this week. We were prosoliting and met a new family and something that the mom said really touched my heart. She said "I am not smart, I know that, but Christ makes me perfect." It was so simple, and so much better in Indonesian haha, but when she said that I could just really feel the spirit. Their living conditions were really not good, but they just had this light about them. Ibu Juhartono is still doing good, but their is some sad and happy news about Mas Afif (that golden investigator), He had to suddenly move to Solo for him work, but he's already met with the Sisters there and had completely stopped smoking and will be baptized in Solo and Sister Toegono will get to see him be baptized because she's moving there tomorrow! Sad that I won't be able to see it, but what's important is he's getting baptized! One of our other investigators, Pak Yohanis also has a baptismal date and is trying to stop smoking...please pray for him! He went three days without smoking and then yesterday he smoked, but I know he can do it! Okay, that's enough for this week, I will buy a new camera today so their will be pics with my new comp next week! I love you all and I love this work :)

Love,

Sister Reilly

Changes in Jogja!

So the other two Sisters have left and we got two new Elders here. I've only met on of the new Elders so far, Elder Toefunga. He's a HUGE Polynesian from Hawaii, he's awesome! Me and Sister Toegono will be together until next Wednesday, and we are moving houses next Monday! It's definitely way different being in a house with just me and my comp, a lot less crazy, but it's been good and calm...maybe that's a good thing for me (I was almost always the one making things exciting in the house) haha! The work is going good! We met an awesome new family this week. When we first contacted the dad he was super harsh, but he let us in his house. I asked his how many kids he had and he was like, what does that have to do with anything, if you have a message to share then just share it. haha! Anyways after about like 5 minutes in his countenance just totally changed and he told his wife to come listen and he just had these awesome questions and comments! We were just shocked! By the end of the lesson they were asking when we could come back and also telling me that when I go home not to forget them and to bring my family to meet them! Talk about a 180! The things the spirit can do!! It can truly touch peoples hearts. It is THE ONLY WAY to teach and share the gospel with others. Speaking of...Ibu Juhartono has a baptismal date!! August 30th! We are sooo happy :). AND Mas Afif has gone from smoking a pack a day last week to as of yesterday 3 cigarettes! We gave his the goal to stop completely on the 16th and we are going to talk to president Donald, but hopefully he will still be able to me baptized on the 23rd! Our new member, Pak Muji has some struggles this week! All his kids got together and don't want him coming to church or us coming to his house anymore. We went over to just explain to him what his kids said and he had no idea. Anyways, he was just like...well if a member can't take me to church anymore and if you guys can't come visit, I am still going to come to church every week! I will take a taxi or some other form on transportation, but what is clear is that I'm coming! ...He is LEGIT!! Also, church yesterday was so great because 5 of our non active members that we have been teaching came to church!!! THIS WORK IS THE BEST. I love it and I love you all! Please pray for the work here and especially for Mas Afif and Ibu Juhartono! They need all the prayers they can get :) The church is true baby!

Love,

Sister Reilly

Indooooooo

Yup, I'm still loving it! This week we met an awesome new investigator, Afif! We ate at this little stand on the side of the road and before we left I just happened to give a restoration pamphlet to one of the guys that was working there. He had on jeans with holes all over them and looked like he hadn't slept in days actually. Later that day he texted us and said he wanted to know more about what he read in that pamphlet. Long story short, he is from a different island and was Muslim since he was a kid, but he moved to Java about 6 years ago and started learning about Jesus Christ and started going to church. He was often moving to different cities for work so he had to keep going to different Christian churches and he said he was just so confused because all of them would teach different things! Anyways he came to church yesterday and cried after sacrament meeting and said he knew he had found the true church, what he was searching for...can you say GOLDEN? He's awesome! He has a baptismal date for the 16th of August!! Also, the other day we just happened to swing by a members house that lived in an area where we were proselyting and she had one of her friends over, they hadn't seen each other since high school and they happened to meet on the street the other day. We ended up teaching her a little bit about our church and yesterday she came to church and the Sister who brought her bore her testimony, it was great! We are going to keep working with her and her family! Ibu Juhartono is awesome! We are teaching her and also her younger sister and they are both awesome. Pak Juhartono received the priesthood yesterday and is helping both of them learn and prepare to be baptized! We are getting a new house!!! I'm so excited! So my companion and also the two other sisters are moving out of Jokja. On August 20th it will be me, my new companion that I'm training and then 4 Elders in Jokja. We are moving out of the house we are in and moving into a smaller house. President Donald is having us find the house, so we've been looking around and we found a perfect one :) It's clean and it's right in front of a big rice field and coconut trees, I'm excited...no more rats, hopefully :) I can't say enough times how much I love my mission and am grateful for the miracles I see everyday! FAITH is the key!! I know without a doubt when I get on my knees with my companion and PRAY WITH FAITH to help us find those who He has prepared, help us reach our goals, fill our mouths with what we need to say, and lead us by His spirit, HE WILL HELP US. I know it, and I see it everyday. I love this gospel, it is true and it is the answer to every question\problem. It is the way to true happiness! If you have not yet heard about it, go find some missionaries and let them tell you about it...if you already have it, go find your friends and share it with them! Shout it from the rooftops baby!!

Love,

Sister Reilly