Well this officially marks the 3rd time that you have not sent me an email or sent me an incorrect letter since I have been on my mission. A little ridiculous seeing as how I haven't even hit my hump day yet! I probably won't ever hear from you in 4 or 5 months when I am about to come. And I will probably have to catch a taxi ride from the airport to come home. Did you write to Bevan this week and just forget you had another missionary? I hope everything is ok and this is just an email error or something... Really I'm going to bet that the reaction from mom when she realized you forgot to send me my email is going to be pretty funny. Good thing I am strong and I guess I can wait another week to hear from y'all. Thanks for all the blog post by Annie, Deborah, and Hannah. I can't believe how big those girls are getting. I miss them a lot. And Viola and Ezra are both pretty darn cute. I'm glad the Rangers are doing good and I'm cheering for them here in Indonesia. I bet the Tigers have no fans here!! Well I hope all is well at home. I really have no idea. I better get an email from everyone next week to make up for it.
Well, the highlight of the week was definitely general conference. That extra week that they make me wait here is pretty killer. But it was a great experience and the talks on missionary work definitely made my day. It was a nice thing for me to see how much I've been able to progress language wise over the last 6 months. Seeing as how last conference I didn't really understand a thing and was a pretty discouraging experience, I was looking forward to know if I have really learned anything and guess what I have. I was pretty much able to understand every single talk. When they would start telling stories it was a little hard to follow seeing as how there is no guarantee that I know that vocabulary, but overall I was pleased to understand it all. However, at the end of the weekend I did have a pretty big headache from all the concentrating. My goal for 6 months from now is to be able to listen and understand as if it were in English. We will see. My favorite talks were the two talks by President Uchtdorf, on Saturday and then in the Relief Society session. I also loved President Monson's talk of course. And a new temple in Provo is pretty exciting. I actually don't know what the other temples were because the interpreter decided to cough during that point and not interpret it. Rude! I also have no idea about this new Relief Society book. And I'm sure it will be another year or so until the translation is completed so I guess I will wait until I get home.
Well this week I had a fun experience when on Sunday night we received a text message from a professor at a university here in Malang that had just come back from spending a week in Provo and SLC touring BYU, the MTC, the Humanitarian place, and attending a few sessions of conference. He was so impressed with all the hospitality of everyone he met and all the things that he saw he wanted to meet the missionaries here. So we went out to lunch with him on Monday. There is pretty much no chance that he will convert, he is pretty hard-core Muslim (he has been to Mecca twice). But he is just one example of how hard the church is trying to make good bridges between the muslim world and mormon world here in Indonesia. This guy was also pretty funny. When he was talking about his opportunity to meet president Monson, we all commented on how cool it was and he said well of course I had to meet him. I don't have the opportunity to meet my prophet so I guess the Mormon prophet is the next best thing. And as we were driving to the restaurant he pointed to every mosque we passed and said it was a Muslim temple. Basically he made all the jokes that we as missionaries want to make but don't because we don't want to offend anybody. And I was shocked too, I passed up the opportunity to order a steak at the restaurant and opted for a traditional Indonesian dish, Nasi Rawon, which is my favorite. I guess this mission is changing me.
Well as for investigators, Floren continues to be going well. She should get baptized this week if she can get out of a school function. School pretty much goes 7 days a week here so it is kinda hard. We are partying she can get baptized this week, but if not I guess next week will suffice. In the big span of things one week isn't too long. And her testimony she bore to us after general conference of President Monson and all the things she learned in GC was a pretty powerful moment for me.
Ibu Hermin is pretty much awesome. We love her. She loves reading the Book of Mormon, saying it is so much easier to understand than the Bible. Needless to say the Indonesian translation of the Bible is pretty hard to understand. We are meeting with her again tomorrow and hoping she will come to church this week.
Well I love you all and miss you all. I hope you will remember to write me next week. I'm assuming you didn't really forget me... I hope. I love this gospel and know that it is true. I love that we have prophets and apostles on the earth today to give us guidance and direction. It is truly a great blessing in our lives. I know this church is true and love teaching people about it each day. Love you!! Have a great week.
Love,
Leah
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