October 30, 2017 -"Improve the strength of the Cabang Surabaya Dua ( Branch)"

We started to make additional visits to strong members. With the intent to add members to our action to improve Team. The goal is to help one another to get both Family History ( adding a person to the name & dates & get them Temple ready ) and Proselyting ( centered in & around Kitab Mormon ['The Book of Mormon getting Investigators to commit to baptism ] to work in "Tandem" (concert).

Additionally, we visited 2 families who are hampered from attending Church regularly. Mostly due to distance & other difficulties as transportation and economic reasons. One of the families has a special needs child that for a variety of reasons cannot always attend. We reported that visit to the Branch President with a request to consider allowing us to visit them each month so they still feel part of the Branch. Their 14-year-old boy, Arya, is the one that prods his parents to stay active. His father works all week till late Saturday to provide for his family. They decided to move way out of town. The rent for their very modest home is much cheaper & affordable now. We held an extra Saturday 28 Oct. Fam History "workshop" session. The YM President & a YM member were instructed in Family History & Family Indexing. They both proved to be very skilled on computers. We invited the young man who does not have a computer at home, to call us so we can make a special trip to Church to accommodate him finishing his 4 generations & allow him to continue Family Indexing he really enjoys. Another two members added to our "Team C2".

The 29 October Family History 4 Generations Asia Initiative Presentation was a great success. Branch  President Didit Dwinanto allowed us the full two hours after Sacrament. Awesome ! The Presentation was done on the same date all over Asia. Including Cambodia, India, Japan & Singapore. We did not have the numbers in attendance that we had hoped for, but the ones attending were a super group of all ear members. We asked a very enthusiastic, strong member & only HP in the Branch, to give the presentation. Br. Nestor Sunglao hails from the Philippines.  He succeeded brilliantly. He put together a fabulous Program in word and well put together video clips. The Theme: "Preach the Gospel, Perfect the Saints and Redeem the Dead."  He captivated the eager audience from start to finish with his unique and strong way of teaching. Mom was asked to give her "spin" on Family History. She informed the audience that once you start adding a person to the name & dates, you start to establish a close relationship with that ancestor & often feel their presence in unique ways. We have a very strong core of members and we keep adding, one at a time, participants to the Cabang Surabaya Dua "Team". I wrapped up the meeting, with among others, showing the audience the poster depicting a living person who is beseeched by ancestors to perform the work they cannot do themselves anymore. During the past couple of weeks, we sensed an improved attitude towards the work to be done & some real results already. We hope to carry on & increase the momentum from here on. 

From now on we can make sure to strike a sensitive balance between what needs to be done and the completely different use of opportunity attached to time that is prevalent here. To get things done is, most of the time, done here in a very relaxed fashion as to timing. The carefully building a stronger sharing the Gospel with others, needs to be done on a careful step by step process.

Sister and Elder Schmid.