Solo (Week 57)

 

WOW!!!!!!! Oktober is almost done...where is the time going!?!?!?!?!! This week was awesome with PLD and a baptism and we are just stoked to keep working hard! Unfortunately I found out I'm going to be moving  come early November but it'll be a good change and a new opportunity to work hard! Well here's the week :) 

Senin: just a normal nice pday. We went and saw a none active member who's kid is SO SMART, He's three and already knows a little english. nuts! 

Selasa: we tried going to all sorts of places but not many worked out...that's ok people have agency. We did get to meet with the Sigit family and they are just awesome. The father has so many awesome questions! Now we just got to get them to come to church to get answers to all those questions! 

Rabu: We had interviews with President Donald. It's always so great to see him and Sister Donald. They are such great people and I know for a fact they were called of God to serve these amazing people in Indonesia :D The bules got to play basketball which was way fun even though they were all 6 feet taller than me....I'm a lot more comfortable playing with the Indonesians who are more my height  :) 

Kamis: We had our PLD meeting with the president and the aps. It was really good and we learned how to be "Full Purpose Missionaries." We are working hard to find, teach, baptize and confirm, RETAIN and reactivate! Retention and reactivation are two of the hardest parts of being a full purpose missionary. But we are working hard here in  Indonesia! The members really make all the difference in these areas of missionary work. So DEAR MEMBERS...WORK WITH THE MISSIONARIES!!! Help us out! We all need to come together to help our brothers and sisters stay on the true and right path. The path that leads to eternal happiness. They need our help!!!! We have to work together to bring God's kingdom to all. EVERYONE NEEDS THIS GOSPEL!!!!! God loves all His children, that has been manifest to me SO many times on my mission...please help Him to spread that love. 

Jumat: We went and taught the park again :) Those people are so great, really. So humble. We also went to a missionary farewell for 3 missionaries that will be coming to Indonesia. They leave for the MTC this week :D at the end of November we will have 98 missionaries!! WE ARE GROWING!! It's so exciting to see this work grow :) Also we learned in PLD, that the mission has gotten 104 baptisms so far this year, compared to around 70 last year. WOOT! TEMPLE IN INDONESIA HERE WE COME!! God remembers His children even on the isles of the sea in this wonderful country :) And this growth is why it is so important to have help from the members for retention and reactivation.

Sabtu: Regular hard working day :) I could really feel the Spirit in our lessons and that is always such a great feeling :) 

Hari Minggu: we got denied 6 times but I wasn't even mad becasue IBU SUMARSIH GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We thought we would still have to wait untli next week so it was a great surprise to learn that she would be able to be baptized this week. She was so happy she said she wanted to do it again :) We love her so much and it was such a blessing to see her get baptized :D 

 

I love missionary work! I love my life! I love this country and I love God. I know this church is true and God the Father loves you too!MAJU TERUS GEREJA INI BENAR!!

LOVE,

GO AGGIES!!!

Sister Sperry :) 

 

Solo (Week 56)

WOW! Another week...gone. Well we'll never see that one again!

It's still hot but the word is that the rainy season should start here soon. Sister Zabriskie and I are so excited we can hardly stand it....PLEASE!!!!! 

In other news CONFERENCE WAS AWESOME!!!!! There were spiritual round house kicks and karate chops and it was just all great. That was really the highlight of my entire week and I don't have much time so I'm just going to write about that...

I Have two favorite talks. 1 was from Jorg K. (I don't know how to spell his name). He was one of the 70 who spoke and he was the one who talked about having confidence before God. That was an awesome talk! And I feel like it's pretty easy to apply. I like how blunt he was and how he just was all, hey, just do it! He spoke with a lot of power and it was just awesome. I really felt a lot more enlightened after hearing that talk.

Then there was another one that was given in Portuguese I think? It was the one about patriarchal blessings. I loved it!! Are you living in a way that you are fulfilling your patriarchal blessing? Wow what a question! That's one I'm going to keep asking myself throughout my life. Patriarchal blessings are special gifts given to us for our benefit. They are like maps for our lives and will give us the little extra guidance we need. I've received a lot of guidance from my blessing even here on my mission. I'm so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father that has provided us with ways to know His will in our lives. He cares about us, loves us all, and knows who we TRULY are. Who we truly are! Have you ever thought about that? He knows who you truly really are. He remembers things about you in the premortal world that you've forgotten. He knows you truly and you can bet He is going to provide the way to fulfill your true potential as long as you stay true to His teachings. He really is our loving Heavenly Father and we are in reality His children. 

I hope everyone enjoyed conference and are now enjoying what we've learned into our lives. have a great week everyone full of spiritual punches and round house kicks.!

"Everybody was kongfu fighting....WAH!!!!!"

love,

Sister Sperry :) 

 

Solo (Week 55)

Sugeng enjeng! (I don't know if my spelling is right but that's good morning in javanese!)

I hope you all absolutely loved conference!!!!!!!!! I can't wait to hear it :D like really...Sister Zabriskie and I are pumped. 

SELAMAT IDUL ADHA!! Or happy sacrifice day...yesterday! The masjids were full of stinky cows and goats and they were singing all night. I tried to stay as far away from the masjids as I could so I didn't have to see any of the sacrifices but a masjid is hard to avoid here. We did get to taste a little afterward though and I have to admit it was really good! 

Hey how many of you put your testimony of facebook? hmmm?!

Senin: We watched women's session of conference which was AWESOME! it was such a great session and I can't wait to hear everything else.

Selasa: While we were with Sister Donald the other week we found a family that had an old Kitab Mormon. We gave them the new translation and then visited them again this week. The first thing their kid said to us when she came into the house was "I really like the stories from the Book of Mormon." ...US TOO!!!! We were so shocked but overjoyed! They were a bit busy with work at the time but we made an appointment to go back the next day. And...the power went out everywhere in the city and I think Jogja and Semarang too! I don't know why...I just went with it ;)

Rabu: The family we visited were awesome! The father had some really awesome questions and we are so excited to get to know them! Like I said before, Solo has so much potential it stresses me out sometime. We gotta help these people!!!!! Also we had a teaching like Alma moment. Alma 32 is where he preaches to the poor. Well we found ourselves in the park this week, preaching to the poor! It was very humbling. I want to help these people so badly and I know that the gospel can help them! We're praying for The Park!

Kamis: We had an AWESOME zone meeting in Jogja that got us super pumped. We made great goals and are super excited for good things to come. Good things are happening in Indonesia!!

Jumat: Mukjizat demi mukjizat! (Miracle after Miracle) It all started with an Oreo run and led to...

-someone asking for a Kitab Mormon
-someone willingly giving us a referral without us asking
-Sister Lisa came with us and was just awseome (she leaves for her mission here in Okt 22)
-Ibu Eni, without us really pressing the matter that hard, said she wants to be baptized (she's the one that starting thinking about it right after we invited her...and she says her family supports her! it was a shocker but it just shows you we don't do this work, we don't convert these people, God does!)

And one of the ladies from The Park got shoes so she could come to church. I about cried.

Sabtu: just more miracles. E'ry day! God is Great!!!

Hari Minggu: 2 people came to church! The lady that got shoes and she thought that we might have forgotten so when we showed up to pick her up for church she started to cry. It was so tender and I am so blessed to be here at this time and meet these people. She's getting over a stroke so she can't really walk or speak very well. But she's such a sweet lady and I know God loves her dearly and boy so do we!

Man, missionary work is just so great. I'm so grateful for this opportunity. If you haven't posted your testimony to facebook yet don't worry I'm giving you a second chance ;) (because God gives me second chances all the time!!!) Post it and send me a picutre ya?! 

Thank you for all the support and love and have a great week!

love,

Sister Sperry :) 

Solo (Week 54)

Dear World,

Wow another week has flown by! I thought I got the virus fixed on my memory card for fotos but...I apparently didn't...so once again there will be no picutres even though I got some good ones...sorry ya?! Well here's how the week went...

Senin: We went over to the Lewis's and wrote about our Grandmas. I have some pretty cool Grandmas so that was fun :) I love learning about family history work and doing so!! Get on family search and do it ya?! 

Selasa: It was a good day! The woman that doesn't understand all that great is progressing pretty well! It's so fun to meet with her because she gets so excited about things and then she's SO excited to be baptized because she knows she'll be clean just like her shirts when she washes them ;) She's just too cute!

Rabu: I went to Jakarta!! I flew out with a couple of Elders from Solo and got to meet some of the new elders that came in. It's a good looking group and this mission is going to thrive. I think we've hit 90 missionaries!!! WOOT!!!! The mission is growing!!! I also got to meet up with my twin, Sister Olsen and hear about life in Jakarta. She says Jakarta is hard and it's even harder because she's a sister training leader and has to travel all over the mission! But it sounds like she's up for the challenge and her and Sister Sheffield are doing well. So good to see all them!

Kamis: I got my visa renewed, spent the afternoon with the old MTC gang, and no one has changed a bit! Haha we all just picked right back up where we were before. It was fun to hear mission stories from everyone and just to be "a district" again even if it was just a couple hours. Then I headed back to Solo and I'm glad to be back :) 

Jumat: Awesome miracle! So we've been going to this nonactive members barber shop to try and help him come back to church. He's served a mission and he's just an all around great guy, but he likes to joke around. Luckily I have always been picked on for being gullable and have learned to overcome it and can outsmart his jokes! HA! He thinks I'm really smart, even though I'm not all that smart. Anyway there was one of his friends at the barber shop too and the friend just so happens to be Christian who is looking to answers to a very important question. And we so happen to be representatives of Christ serving to try and help people find those answers...coincidence I THINK NOT!!! We explained the Book of Mormon to him and the best part was the member HELPED us explain church and the Book of Mormon. IT WAS SO COOL!!!!!!!! Even though a lot of it was in Javanese I could still understand the member's testimony of the Book of Mormon and was happy to see that he still has one and knows where truth is. We are still working on trying to get an appointment with the friend but I have faith he'll find his answer through reading the Book of Mormon. It's such an amazing and great book! It's the word of God! 

Sabtu: We ran out of bread and peanutbutter and us bules can't live without the two so we went out to buy some. Before leaving we prayed we would be able to find someone who wants to hear our message. Not even 5 minutes later, before we even walked into the store, a lady starts speaking to us and invites us over to share a message! God answers prayers!!!! He was just waiting for us to ask and then He would provide. Man prayer is cool! We met with her and she had some good questions and some odd questions but overall it was a good meeting. :) We are such blessed missionaries! 

Hari Minggu: Church was not quite as heartbreaking as normal because we had people come!! YAY! The woman who is slow to learn actually was able to participate in sunday school and boy was she excited to do so! Good things are happening in Solo. :) 

I want to just invite you all to do a little missionary work, because it's fun. And here's how...

So the mission has been pushing a lot to use facebook. Facebook is acutally a great tool for finding people to teach. The Bishop gave a talk on this a little and asked the members to be careful with what they post on the internet so people can see that they are members of the church. And I want to invite you all to do the same. As members of the church I want to ask you to post your testimony on facebook, take a picture, and then send it to me! It doesn't need to be long and beautiful, just what you believe. Stand as a witness of Christ! And Helps others find Him. I know that when you do this, your testimony will be strengthened. And so will mine, and possibly many others! Go ahead, try it :) 

I love this work! I hope to get tons of pictures of testimonies this upcoming week. Go share the gospel!

with love,

Sister Sperry :)