How are things going there in the good USA? I hope the kids are enjoying being in school again. I can't believe Mom, or someone she sends, won't ever have to pick someone up from Good Elementary? Did it ever get torn down and rebuilt or not yet? And is it weird to not have someone starting BYU and having to help someone move in? But I guess Simon and Annie are still up there so Provo isn't totally without David Blake children. Phew!! Just think next year Malan will be heading up there with me, how exciting that will be!! I hope everyone continues to be doing good and enjoy their new schools. Hansen and Rebekah write and tell me all about it and your teachers and if you are getting lost or not and how riding the bus is, I wanna know. And Rebekah, not to scare you or anything but my worst moment of my life was riding home from the bus in the sixth grade. So my sisterly advice for you is if you are feeling sick after school just purposely miss the bus and have Mom come pick you up. And Malan good luck with you calc 3 class, that is so awesome! I wish they would've done that when I was there. I'm sorry I won't be there to help you with your homework!! And the Living Room looks great. I like the color, I approve. And I lost the bet with myself that the living room would still be in disarray when I come home, darn!
Well right now I am actually in the city of Solo, which is in the center part of the island of Jawa. Don't worry I didn't get transferred or anything, but we had a mission tour meeting with Elder Perkins of the 70 and Asia Area President and his wife yesterday. It has been quite the trip. We left Monday morning for Malang on a bus, which at least had air conditioning and a toilet (but never used it) for supposedly 7 to 8 hour bus ride. About 10 and a half hours later we finally made it to Malang. I guess the bus company didn't take into account the stopping time for Prayer into the schedule. And the bus ride would've had Malan pretty sick the whole time, just to give you a picture of it. But we made it to Solo just fine to have a wonderful meeting with Elder Perkins, and after seeing him and talking to him about his responsibilities I don't feel too sorry for Dad and your long day of meetings on Sunday, sorry. But, it was a great meeting all about helping investigators keep commitments and helping them progress faster and more effectively which is something I definitely have needed to work on, so I'm excited to go back to Malang and improve in that area and do better. Elder Perkins actually used to live in Dallas, at Preston and Belt Line for like 7 years before he moved to Asia for the church, so for all I know Dad knows him and Elder Perkins already told Dad everything I just told y'all, because we all know how those general authorities like to tell the family stuff before I can! I'm very grateful for that experience and a great opportunity that I never would've had if I hadn't served a mission. But now after I finish emailing we get back on a bus and head back to Malang. So this P-Day is pretty much spent on a bus. Pretty Darn exciting let me tell you. So I won't have any time to wash our clothes. Which by the way mom, we do have washing machines, but no dryer, and I'm pretty sure though that it just swirls my clothes around in dirty water so I never actually feel like my clothes are clean, but that's ok!! But I will be back to Malang tonight and ready to work hard again tomorrow!!
Our investigators are doing good, but aren't progressing as much as we would like. They are all still really busy because right now in Indonesia is like Christmas time in America with the end of Ramadhan coming up, lots of people go out of town and spend time with family, even if they are Christian. But we just continue to pray that they will still want to learn and progress when they get back.\
Pamela is still doing really good and coming to church, but still hasn't gotten permission to be baptized. Heavenly Father really wants this girl to learn patience through this experience. Hopefully she is willing to endure and keep progressing until she can get baptized.
Yusi wasn't able to come to church this week because she was out of town and we don't know if we will be able to meet with her this week. We don't quite know what we need to do to help her because we feel like she is only doing this because her Mom wants her to and not for herself and we are wanting her to do it for herself. Hopefully when she comes back in town we can start again with her and she where she is at.
Floren and Vito are doing ok, they come to church and attend the meetings but seldom want to actually learn with the missionaries because their mother is always with them and they don't feel too comfortable and their mother doesn't want them to learn alone which I think is the best solution to the problem so we don't quite know what to do with them and how to help them the best. This week we are hoping to help their mother understand how it might be good to really let them do this themselves and learn along and see where that goes.
We met a women this week Mbak Puput who has great potential and has a lot of good questions about religion and how it can bless her life and family, however her whole family, including her family, is pretty hard-core Muslim and we aren't quite sure whether it would be safe for her to learn about his church with us which is really sad because I feel like this gospel would help her so much, especially considering the poor circumstances she lives is, it is pretty sad. We are praying for her a lot this week and see what happens this week.
Well I'm glad everyone had such a great week and is doing good. Enjoy school and enjoy the quiet Mom!! I love you and miss you all!! I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful family!! And say hi to AJ for me that is crazy that he is home already, those two years went by fast!! And tell him each week I try to make my emails as funny as his, but I fail!! One of my mission goals! Have a great week!! Love you!
Love,
Leah
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