Goodness!

Wow, awesome week! So on Thursday my comp started feeling super sick and she had to run out of a lesson and throw up, that was defs an awkward situation...but the family seemed not to mind or think it was too strange..that's Indonesia for ya! haha! Anyways my comp got up on Saturday and just felt super bad and said she didn't think she could go out. I have never stayed home since I've been out and some part of me just wanted to tell her to toughen up and just go out and the Lord would bless her hahaha...but then I though...what would the Savior do? Sometimes I have ask myself that question haha. Anyways we ended up staying home until our 5 o'clock appointment and then went out, she slept all day and I read alllll day. It actually turned out to be a really cool experience. I read about half of Jesus the Christ and I was sitting on our front porch and our neighbors kept coming by (they are almost all muslim) and asking me what I was reading and how I could read for so long and not fall asleep. Our neighbors are awesome! BUT, what made this week awesome was Saturday. President Donald is in Jogja until Thursday and him and sister Donald went out with us on Saturday. They went to the Johan family with us and it was the coolest lesson ever!! Pres told his conversion story and we also had another member with us who is the same age as the oldest daughter and she also told her story. President is super good with his Indonesian now and the spirit was SO STRONG. It was just what they needed. The oldest daughter finally just opened up to us and started crying and said that she knew this is what she needed to do, but that it is the hardest decision she has had to make. Almost all her life she didn't get along with her younger siblings and she was always praying so that she could change and then at there church she got the calling to teach Sunday school for the kids and it has literally changed her and blessed their family and she feels that she is leaving them and leaving something that is good. That was hard for me to hear, but we told her that sometimes God has us leave something GOOD, to receive something GREAT. I talked about my choice to serve a mission and we promised her that as she follows what the spirit is telling her she will be blessed beyond measure. We invited them to fast for fast Sunday yesterday. After gospel principles they had to leave church, but about 30 minutes after leaving they came back while we were in Relief Society and found President Donald and asked him when they could stop fasting...haha! President Donald and Sister Donald love them and so do I. I have so much love for that family, words cannot describe. Right now we have the most progressing investigators I've had all my mission, the Lord is blessing us and I am so grateful to be doing HIS WORK. 

Moroni 10: 16 For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God.

Look at the fruits of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints and judge. 

Yesterday was the sacrifice day for the Muslin people, so there was cows, goats and sheep being slaughtered all over the streets!  Our neighbor keeps bring us tons of meet! This is goat...yummmm! Did I tell you how good horse tastes??

Kasih dan Hormat,

Sister Reilly

be happy!

I know your bored of hearing it, but another great week. A couple cool experiences from this week. At the end of a great lesson with the Johan family we expressed that we knew it was not going to be an easy for them to leave their old church because they were strong in the church and had lots of friends there, but we promised them that their family would be blessed and God would help them as they followed the truth and the Holy Ghost. They paused for a minute and then the dad, Pak Johan said something that was so powerful "our family is not strong in our church, we are strong in Jesus Christ" and they want to follow HIM. They have found HIS church. Yesterday after church they asked if the Elders could come and give Pak Johan a blessing because his heart disease had come back. We went over with the Elders and as they laid their hand on his head the room was just filled with the spirit, I felt it and I know that everyone that was there felt it. The plan is for the six of them to be baptized on the 19th of October because of conference. If all goes as planned the Elders should have some of their investigators also getting baptized with them, good things are happening in Jogja! We have also been teaching a pastor of a small church here and his son and they are AWESOME and accepted the commitment to be baptized...we will see how that goes! This week my comp was struggling a bit and getting a little stressed with the language and we talked a lot last night about just enjoying the ride and being happy! One thing I've learned since becoming a missionary is that we are all going to have trials, times that are hard, people that let us down, and things are almost never perfect or just the way we want them, but it is our choice how we deal with things, our attitude and prospective is OUR choice. Are we going to let these things get us down, or are we going to put a smile on and just say "come what way and love it." I know that no matter what trial we are given, it is for our growth, and as we come to the Savior with our troubles, our sorrows, our mistakes...we will be given strength and peace of mind and heart. Men are that they might have joy! I know that the greatest joy comes through following our Savior and living His gospel to the fullest. I am so far from the person I hope I can become, but i know as I pray and try to become better and more like my Savior everyday, and help those around me do the same, I can some day become like Him. We can become perfected in HIM! THAT is the beauty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I love you all, I need your prayers, but more that that, the people I am serving need your prayers, please pray for them! :)

Yes, I know I live in paradise. 

The rat is for you mom...these are our stuffed animals here

Me fixing my bike...this happens often :)

A few of our investigators

Dengan Kasih,

Sister Reilly

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