Even when I'm in Indonesia, I can't escape the tyranny of East High School. Haha! Oh, and I heard Highland won Freak East! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYY! Hail HIghland HIgh, da da da da da da da daaaa! On our way to Klaten, a city just outside of Jogja, we rode a bus! WE got to see all the rice fields and actually got to see mountains. If you closely enough, you can see the base of Merapi, it's HUGE! You can actually see it from Jogja, but because of the smog or clouds, we only saw it for the first time this week! I have an analogy for that, maybe I will share it next week if I have time. This is the Winoto family. They just came back from the temple in the Phillpines. They live an hour and a half away from the church and they still come to church every week and for other church activities. They are AMAZING! Me, Sister Anotonio, and Sister Atin on our way back from teaching some new investigtors.
Sorry I can't write a lot to day, my hour's already up! Till next time! Sister Stringham
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Sorry there aren't any pictures here this week, both Sister Antonio and I forgot our card readers at home.
This week has been fairly well, not the best, but that's okay. This week there was a bomb in Jakarta. We in Jogja don't know much of what happened, but I know there was a bomb in a mall and there are a few casualties. We are ok, Jogja is far away from Jakarta, but we still have to be really careful, can't go to places like McDonalds or western-type places. But it's ok, nobody has acted strangely or done anything out of the ordinary in Jogja. This week we tried finding people, because there's no one to teach! What we do is go to a neighbourhood and ask the neighborhood's leader if there are any Christians that we can teach. So far we've tried and haven't really found anyone super interested yet. In one neighbourhood we were told by a very angry man not to come back again "Jangan ke sini lagi"! and threatened us, Even though we already had permission to go there. It's ok, we won't go back, we won't risk it. Yesterday as we were going to an appointment, I couldn't breathe! I kept breathing and breathing and it felt like no air was filling my lungs. I freaked out a little bit, but once we got to one of the member's home, Sister Atin, I rested and my breathing stabilized. I'm ok now, my chest is just a little tight. I called the mission doctor and he doesn't know what's happening with me, from the syptoms I gave him. Tomorrow we are going to the doctor. I hope it's nothing too serious. I almost fainted! Today we bought batik to make into dresses, it's going to be so cool! For those of you who don't know what batik is, look it up, it's so cool. It originated where? JOGJA, super awesome and super cheap here. I'm really excited. I hope everyone is all good in Utah or Europe or Madagascar or Texas or wherever you may be, stay safe and always remember who loves you the most. (answer=Heavenly Father) Love you all more than anything, Sister Stringham Well, it's officially been 3 months since I left home, time's gone by so fast! This week we've been trying to find new people to teach, but it's hard! Most people work all day and then once it's night time (only 6 pm) and people come home, it's not very safe to go into the neighborhoods and contact. So, we've decided to go through the whole ward list and go to everyone's house and get referrals, hopefully we'll find someone to teach! We can go to the same people as we have been, but we don't have any super interested investigators right now and yeah... we have very few people to teach. So that's been our week, searching. I've been asked a few times about the members in Jogja. This is one of my favorite members, her name is Sister Wuri. She's a returned missionary and she does make up for weddings. If you son't know how cool that is look up Indonesian wedding makeup. Her husband had a stroke sometime ago and is very limited in what he can do, she's a great example of a faithful, charitable person.Many members are so loving and are always willing to help the missionaries. Many members have to go a far, far way to come to church, because it's like a whole state coming to one church. I love this ward, they are so nice to me even though I can barely understand what they say to me! These are 2 of the missionaries that are BRAND NEW! That's right, I'm not the newest missionary in Indonesia anymore! They knew pretty much everyone in my zone at the MTC and so we had a lot of people to talk about! They are doing great, they're both seving in Malang, a very cool city, but there's no sisters there! They're also white-washing, so they're first city is going to be hard, but they'll be great. It was cool to meet them, I've been praying for the new missionaries for a while and I've been so excited to meet them and welcome them into this amazing place. This is the most important part of any email I will ever send. REUNITED AND IT FEELS SO GOOD! Since it was zone conference, we got all of our packages, and the new missionaries brought over Yechbar Vahl and some awesome notes from Sister Ahlstrom, Sister Leydsman, and Sister Shoendorfer! I love you guys!
ZTM (Zone Training Meeting) was in Solo, and it was cool to see all of the missionaries in Jawa Tengah Zone. The amazing thing was, I could understand almost all of the Indonesian spoken, if I could concentrate hard enough. Last ZTM I couldn't understand one word, and now it's almost everything, it's so cool! It's crazy how much you can learn in just a month. This week we celebrated New Years Eve! Wow, 2-15 has gone by so fast! I can't believe all the crazy things that happened this last year. I graduated high school, I worked at an amazing store, I went on a MISSION, and so many other great people and adventures made 2015 a great year. 2016 will be so amazing to. This whole year will be spent serving the Lord, doing what missionaries do. It's going to go by so fast, and a year from now, I'll almost be home! I hope all of you had a great New Years. I slept. WE had to go home early because it can be dangerous being out late on a night like New Year's Eve, but we got home all right, but there was so much traffic, it was like 4th of July traffic the whole way home! This is me, eating Cumi, aka squid. IT's so good, it basically tasted like a fish stick in a curly fry form, it was ENAK, delicious. And yes, I cut my hair, really short, because I've been so hot growing my hair out. Ah, I feel so much better now! This is Brother Punijo. He lives a far ways away, but I love going to his house because it's outside of the main city. When we go to his house, I feel like I'm home because it's wide open, there's not a lot of people, it's green! IT makes me happy. We also ate RAMBUTAN! The greatest fruit on earth. It's that hairy fruit on the table. It tastes kinda like grapes, and when you open the fruit, it's white. It's so yummy, I could eat rambutan all day! We got stuck in the rain, so we found shelter as soon as we could. It usually rains everyday, but for the past few weeks, it hasn't rained very much, it's felt kind of like Utah heat. A couple days ago, I got super tan because it was super sunny, there were hardly any clouds in the sky. I like the rain though. When it does rain, it's usually for a few minutes and then it's done, so we were trapped for only a little while before we went on our way. The woman behind Sister Antonio is Sister Atin, she's a favorite of the missionaries because she always cooks food for us and goes on visits with us, she's super awesome, even though for the most part I don't know what she's saying. :o Sister Nainggolan was transferred to Solo on Wednesday, she'll do great there. So now it's just me and Sister Antonio, and it's been the first time I've been in a companionship, since I've always been in a tripanionship. It's taken some getting used to, but I think it will be a good companionship, we'll be doing some great things in Jogja together!
INDONESIAN TIDBIT Fast food places here are different than in America. They are more like a Sizzler's or Olive Garden type of restaurant than a cheap place to get food like in America. They have nice tables and decorations and they look very modern. The food still tastes the same, but places like KFC, McDonalds, and Pizza Hut are really nice places to eat here. Bagus! Till next time, Sister Stringham |
AuthorHOLLEY STRINGHAM: Salt Lake City, born and raised; returned missionary from the Indonesia Jakarta Mission.; a simple folk aimed on changing the world Archives
October 2017
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