Whitney

Selamat malam semuanya! Sister Mongan and I just got back from visiting with an old investigator of some already-returned-home sister missionaries. Her name is Ibu Josephine. She is so nice and so receptive. Her teaching record said that she’d been taught lessons 1 and 2, but that was a while ago so we mainly wanted to follow-up. She still reads the Book of Mormon and wants to learn more! She also invited her friend over to listen in on the lesson because her friend had heard some bad rumors about the church, all of which were not true. But as soon as her friend met us and had the rumors cleared up, her questions answered, she was very open to hearing more about the church. So two new investigators! Before we left, Ibu Josephine gave us two bags of these cracker-type things and bracelets! Indonesians remind me of Japanese people that way, they never let you leave their house empty-handed, always giving of what they have!
So one of our current goals is to teach 20 lessons a week…that’s 3 a day and 2 on Sunday. I don’t know how other missions are, but for Jakarta especially, that’s a LOT! But Sister Mongan and I have proved that hard work pays off. Everyone says Jakarta’s the hardest area, but the Lord is blessing us and we’re working with a lot of investigators.
Today for P-day we went to the Museum Nasional. It had tons of statues from old Buddhist temples and lots of Indonesian cultural artifacts. It was really interesting! I would love to someday visit many of the islands in Indonesia; they are all so different, each with their own traditions, beliefs, and culture.
Oh yeah, I don’t think I mentioned this before but 2 weeks ago I gave my first talk here! I was so nervous, but I think it went ok. I spoke on Moroni 7:15-19 (the Spirit of Christ). There’s a really cool quote in Preach My Gospel (I forgot who it’s by) and it talks about how everyone is given the Spirit of Christ and so when we teach them about the gospel, it will ring familiar to them. We all chose this plan: to come to earth, gain a body, be tested, live the gospel, prove faithful, and endure to the end. Really, we as missionaries are only reminding our brothers and sisters of what they already knew and committed to do in the pre-earth life. Kind of a cool way to think about it.
Anyway, everything’s great here…hope you all are doing great too!
Love you all and thanks for ALL of your support!
Dengan Kasih,
Sister Okamoto