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 :) 

Solo (Week 53)

Halo semuanya!

So not much news this week because poor Sister Zabriskie was sick most of the week. She was throwing up and all that fun jazz. But no worries because she's all better now! 

Even though we didn't go out much this week I realized that my teaching and my missionary skills are actually progressing!! I've reached a year in Indonesia now and I went back and read my journal from when I first got here, and I can actually see progress! I know it's come by studying the things of the gospel and when our knowledge of the gospel deepens and gets better so does our testifying. I can tell that I testify with a lot more strength now! 

Saturday was the first day we could really go out and we worked hard! And all of our lessons felt AWESOME! Sister Zabriskie and I have reached a new level in our missionary work and it's exciting. The Spirit was present and Solo is filled with so much potential it's ridiculous! We are working really hard to accomplish our goals. 

There's one miracle that I'd like to share. We've started teaching a woman that can't read and knows better Javanese than Indonesian so it's really hard to teach her! Us and the Elders have switched off going to see her every day and guess what...she can pray! It's like a really short simple prayer but she can do it!!!!!!!! We are working hard to help her understand the importance of the gospel. Also members are AWESOME! They know javanese so they explain everything we can't. It's been a huge blessing to have willing members around.

Well I hope everyone has a great week! Learn the gospel, study the scriptures each day, pray each day and I know you testimony will deepen and you will feel closer to Jesus Christ and our Father in Heaven. 

I love being a missionary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Love,

Sister Sperry :) 

 

Solo (Week 52)

Selamat Pagi dan Selamat Hari Senin! 

It's been a pretty great week! Same ol' same ol' lovin the missionary life. Some of the silly highlights of the week are:

We have a new breakfast favorite, it's Salju Pelangi (Rainbow Snow (snow rainbow if literally translated)) It's yogurt with granola (ya it's taken me a year to find granola) and fruit loops :D enak! 

There are therapy fish here that eat the dead skin off the bottom of your feet and IT TICKLES SO MUCH!! I couldn't help but scream!

Apparently I just live in a world of analogies. Sister Zabriskie says I have really good analogies. Hey thanks :) 

The week has just been the same old but I wanted to talk about a few things that I've learned. 

1) FAMILY IS SO IMPORTANT!!! Man we have learned a lot about temple work, family history work, eternal families and all that these past couple weeks and it's just amazing! I've really come to appreciate the hope that comes from God's perfect plan for us and our families and that we really can live together forever when we are righteous and do these ordinances with the power and authority of God. Family is such a beautiful thing and Satan is going to do all he can to destroy it! As long as we keep centered on Jesus Christ and His teachings I promise our families will be fortified and will achieve eternal glory together. There is a bright hope in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, even for those family members that might seem lost. Never give up on them! Trust in the Lord in all you do and He will guide you. Love those that may be swaying from the path and I promise they will remember that love here and in the next life and if they chose to come back that's going to be a huge helping factor! 

2) SATAN IS REAL! He is evil. He will do everything he can to keep us away from the Beautiful and Perfect Plan of Happiness that God has created for us. He speaks to us through the gaddianton robbers in 3 Nephi 3-5 (especially ch 3. It's kinda really creepy and gave me the heebie geebies...). I like these chapters because good wins and I hope all of you know that even though satan is tough and evil and has a power that is strong his power doesn't even compare to the power and goodness of God. Good will always win! I know that to be true and I know the FULL truth will always be stronger than satan's half lies. 

3) Missionary life is not for these 18 months aja. It goes BEYOND that to the rest of our lives! My time here as a fully time missionary is just training for the rest of my life. Missionary work doesn't stop after this!

I know all of these things are true and I say them in the Name of Our Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ, amin. 

I hope you all have a great week! Try Salju Pelangi...it's so good!

With love,

Sister Sperry :) 

Solo (Week 51)

Wow is it really September already!! Time flies when you are serving the Lord. And having fun! I wonder how the 3 Nephites feel about time...? well here's how the week went!

Senin: Us and the other Sisters made Gado-Gado for our pday and cookies which we absolutely enak sekali (Thank you mother of Sister L Fisher for the recipe!). Then we had a family night at Sister Tuti's house with her and her familiy. I don't know if I got this story in my email last week but it's a pretty cool one! So they are preparing to go on the big temple trip next week (I'm so excited for these people and wnat to go SO BAD!) and she had a problem with trying to get ordinances for her siblings. Sister Lewis, one of the Family History Missionaries here, put me on the case to try and figure things out. She also said that if I did it I would get on her expert list and then I'll for sure be called as a Family History Consultant when I get home...Well I figured it out!! It took a while but I finally was able to figure everything out and got the ordinances printed so she can take them to the temple. I've never felt like such a hero before! Sister Tuti thanked me about a million times and then invited us over for dinner, and I could really see how much this meant to her. Eternal Families are so important! And I've really gained a testimony about temple work and missionary work being the same great work. So lets all go work!!! 

Selasa: We went on a "Anggota Tidak Aktif" hunt (nonactive members). We found a lot of members! That was nice since me and my companion are still learning the area. All the members helped us out a lot! Man am I grateful for the Solo Members. 

Rabu: We went on splits with two girls from the different wards here. They are awesome! I went with Novi who is waiting for her call to come. She is going to be an AWESOME missionary and I am so excited for her to get her call. I hope she gets called to Indonesia so we have an opportunity to work together.

Kamis: Just one of those hard working days where God gives you blessing and sends you people to teach! We are really working towards are goal to help the mission with it's goal and God is really helping us! It's amazing. We are just meeting people right and left that we believe we can help recieve this gospel. Man are we blessed missionaries! I imagine it's from the prayers at home so THANK YOU!

Jumat: We started out the day right with singing the Aggie's fight song on our run. That got us pumped for the day. Then we got a call that a new member, my investigator from Jogja, was in Solo! Pak Darno! It was so great to see him but he had some sad news, he is moving to Sematra in an area that doesn't have a church yet. But I have faith that he'll be just fine and he'll move back here! We also met with one of our favorite people, Gabrella. She's preparing herself for baptism too and is really turning her life around. We really admire her!

Sabtu: Man Saturday was busy! But that's just how we like it! The funny story of the day was our "hit and run" Book of Mormon. We were visiting a person that we had contacted before and asking her if she read the pamflet we gave her. She said ya and then we tried to give her the Book of Mormon but she didn't really want it. We finally convinced her to read a few verses. Now you need to understand the teaching style with her is WAY different so what we did after was totally appropriate. We opened to the verses, handed her the book, and then ran! She laughed but didn't try and give it back. That's a good sign! Hopefully she'll read more of it after that :) Haha the funny ways God works ;) 

Hari Minggu: sundays are hard! You put so much effort on trying to get people to come to church and then...they don't come. But no worries! We'll just work harder to get them there this week!! 

If you don't want to go to church, then that means that you REALLY need to go! Going is not hard! You just have to swallow your laziness, pride and anything else that's keeping you and go! I cannot even describe the blessings that come through church attendance. Trust me, you'll feel a lot better because you went!

sorry for the long email. Have a great week yall!

Love,

sister SPerry :) 

This is Elder Hayes from my parents stake. Here's to Ashburn!