Indonesia Jakarta Mission: December 18th, 2017 Update

Another eventful week has passed in our steep learning curve journey. The longer visits to shopping malls works great. Including "pit stops" at "warungs" where we can sit & take a break for a while before continuing our "MILT" activity. ( Meet Introduce Listen Talk ) So far, one of those Family History investigators, Yan has visited the Church FamHist Room three times already. He will return as soon as he can add 4 names of grandparents. That's the moment he completes 4 Generations of his family & collects his Certificate of Completion. The other three, Srs. Tutut & Sarina will be visiting ( we hope ) after the Christmas holidays. Br. Raymond will be contacted next week.

Some serious changes in the young fulltime Elders & Sisters has taken place. We said farewell to Sister Utomo who has completed her mission and will return to Bali. She is so enormously special. She is a pure Angel sent from Heaven who for the duration of her mission was personified into a special human being. I have never before in my life met someone even close to this young Lady. She always smiles, is always upbeat. She loves everyone unconditionally. If you knew, like we do, her history and personal challenges and set backs in her young life so far, you would be amazed why she is able to function the way she does. We have also said farewell to Elder Wijaya who completed his mission & will return to Bogor. What a great missionary he has been. Sister Bourelle has moved to the other side of town, to the 1st Branch. Elder Palmer will be teamed up with another partner this week. We look forward to working with four Elders. No Sister missionaries anymore for some time ( I guess).

Farewell to Sister Utomo. She is a Real Angel disguised as a missionary. She has finished her mission & goes home to Bali. We will miss her dearly. Other 2 pics are Yan, our FamHist Investigator who came for 2nd session yesterday, Sat
He returns today for 3rd session.

Yesterday another young man, Ayra, was baptized ( baptisms here are conducted after the block on Sundays) He is the oldest son in a family we have visited when invited by the young fulltime Elders on three prior occasions way out of town. Exciting because it feels good to see young investigators being baptized. We foresee a great future for the Branch here as part of the gravitation towards becoming a Ward.

Yesterday Br. ( I call him Brother already) Yan visited us after the block. He added some important names to his 4 Generations after calling some family members for details. Yan, a very positive & great guy has a fabulous sense of humor as well. He kept all of us busy for three hours. Including Elder Hansen, one of the Zone Leaders. Br. Yan asked a few questions about the Holy Ghost. Elder Hansen brilliantly answered them. He even zeroed in on the occasion. He looked up a Church site with pictures and explanation on the subject. Br. Yan surprised us to tell us he met Missionaries before & remembered the Prophet Joseph Smith's name.

Meanwhile Elder Hansen assisted us with helping Br. Yan get more skilled on the computer as well. We leave it up to the young Elders to invite Br. Yan to take the next step. An invitation to introduce The Gospel to him. Fortunately for us at this time Br. Yan has no computer at home or WiFi connection. It means that he is coming back for a while. He indicated he wants to learn how to add pictures onto his family tree, as well as stories. Sister Schmid helped Br. Yan to download the app called: Memories on his cellphone so he can take pictures & transfer those to his Family Tree. We hope that the above will make clear that there is never a dull moment in Surabaya. Apart from the chaotic & hectic traffic and enormous "Hujan" ( rain) downpours causing "Djalan2 Banjir" (flooded streets) we enjoy the Indonesian rich culture and the people here a lot.

Elder and Sister Schmid