First Week in Indonesia!

The plane rides where long! The planes were nice though. I had to resist the temptation of watching moveis and listening to music on the cool touch screens they had. But I endured! We landed in Indonesia and wow! It is sangat panas sekali! (very very hot!) Seriously, it is like non stop sweating until we go somewhere with A/C. I have never before truely appriciated how amazing air conditioning is. Uncle Ken does some good work!

The first night I was super tired so I went to bed at like 6:30. My first area will be in Solo Jebres, and my first real companion will be Elder Mangum. Solo is about an hour plane ride away from Jakarta. We are waiting to go to imigration to get my ketas, which is like our temporary ID here. So I am staying with the APs in their house for the time being and I am temorary companions with one of the APs named Elder Simanungkalit. He is a native Indonesian and he is pretty awesome.

We have taught a few lessons since I've been here. The other elders do most of the teaching becuase I don't know the language that well yet. Most of the people here (and there are a lot) are very poor. Some of their houses are about the size of my parent's closet. It is very different and humbling. The people here are all so nice and accepting. They are also all very very short and small and brown. Unlike me. I stick out here quite a lot haha.

Jakarta is really really big! There is a lot of pollution in the air, becuase of the millions of cars and even more motorcyles here. The traffic is downright crazy, everybody is weaving in and out and it takes foever to get places. We mostly use the buses and angkots. But in Solo I will be biking everywhere, so I will probably die.

The food is really good here, we mostly eat at the carts on the side of the streets. Lots of rice! Although we did eat at Burger King this afternoon, not really embracing the culture but whatever haha.

I'm doing good, still trying to learn the language and all. Indoneisa is very different from America, that's for sure.

Love,
Elder Hymas

My Breakfast

This is an Angkot. Like a minibus

One of my first lessons with Deara

Elder Simanungkalit and Myself

Elder Hymas has safely reached Jakarta.  Here is a photo of  the group that went out with him and their Mission President and his wife.  He looks happy but I'm sure he is tired after traveling for 35+ hours.

Hey good news! We just got the news that our visas came in! So we are going straight to Indonesia after all! What a tease huh? We spent the whole week thinking we weren't going to Indonesia for a while. We were pretty grateful haha.

Last P-day at the MTC!

This week has been a bit harder than the others. My throat has been sore for like a week and a half and it is super annoying. I keep coughing all night. So I have an appointment with a doctor later on today for a check up, to make sure I don't have strep throat or anything. We are all pretty anxious to leave the MTC and go out into the field. Sounds like things are going pretty good at home, that's good. So the last devotional on Tuesday was a pretty cool one! It was the last devotional I would be at here so I was hoping for an apostle or something. I was rather satisfied to see that Richard G. Scott of the twelve came to speak to us. I was in the 2nd row so I was was pretty dang close to him, like 14 feet away! He is getting pretty old haha. He spoke to us about the power and importance of prayer. it was a very good talk and I am trying to say more heartfelt prayers now. A quote that he shared that I liked was about goals. He said, "To reach a goal never before attained, you must do something never before done." That's a pretty cool quote, and straight out of the mouth of an apostle so it must be important.
Oh yeah and none of our visas came in for Indonesia yet so we should be getting a temporary reassignment to somewhere in the US for a bit. We should get that call later today or tomorrow. I was a bit disappointed when we first found this out (which was last Friday), but I remembered that it is not about where we go on our mission, it is about what we share, and that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. So I'm excited to go out and share this message where ever. And hopefully I'll be in Indonesia soon. My teacher said that this hasn't happened for the Indonesian missionaries in like 8 years. He called the travel office and told us that we should be getting them in about 6 more weeks. Hopefully I don't forget much of the bahasa (language) I better keep practicing.
If I find out later today where I'm going for my temporary reassignment I'll try and tell ya. If I find out tomorrow or something, I can call you at the airport right before I hop on the plane and tell you haha.
Have a good week!

Love,
Elder Hymas

I'm doing pretty good, bahasa Indonesia is baik. Saya belajar lebi banyak setiap hari. Saya tahu bawha ingil Yesus Kristus benar. I'm so glad to have the chance to go out on a mission.  I'm ready to leave for Indonesia like today but I can endure 11 more days. All of the devotionals are super good. Most of them are focused on missionaries of course. We have a devotional every Tuesday night and we have firesides every Sunday night. They are pretty much the same thing but the more 'important' people come on Tuesdays. Hopefully we get an apostle before I leave, that would be awesome, but I only have 1 more Tuesday left so the chances are slim. But there hasn't been one here for at least like 9 weeks that I know of, so maybe one might show up?


I really liked one part of a devotional, given by Joseph W. Sitati of the seventy. He said that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the best gift you have ever been given and it is the best possible gift that you can ever give. A lot of the people I am going to teach are going to be so poor I probably won't understand until I actually get there. You will want soo much to give them a better house, clean water, clothes, food, and money. They barely live day to day over there. But the best gift I can give them, despite all the other necessities I've listed, is the gospel. And that's what I'm going to be doing. So that gave me comfort as I listened to his talk and I'm sure it will bring me strength when I'm out on the field.

Kesaksian saya ini.
Saya tahu bahwa Kitab Mormon benar! Saya tahu bahwa Thomas S. Monson nabi yang hidup. Saya percaya tahu keluarga pasat ingil Yesus Kristus, dan saya sangat mengasihi keluarga saya!

Thanks for the package, can't wait to get that! Love ya!
- Elder Hymas

Half way through with the MTC!

This week felt like it just flew by, at this rate I'll be in Indonesia in no time! I love the MTC and it is a great place, but I'm pretty much done with it now haha. I'm ready to go to Indonesia! I'm starting to be more careful with the food I eat here, one could gain a lot of weight at the MTC if they weren't careful.
The language is going well, I am learning more each day. It is pretty neat how much you learn here at the MTC. I know more Indonesian than I know German, and I took 3 years of German. Crazy stuff. The elders in my district are all doing really well too. My companion, Elder Arthur, is doing well. He just got released as district leader last Sunday so he is happy about that.
This last Tuesday we had a devotional given by Don R. Clarke of the seventy. It was a super good talk, about missionary work, like most of them are. One part of his talk really struck me though. It was when he spoke about the importance of reactivation, especially in your own family. He asked all those who have inactive family member, whether it be parents, siblings, cousins, or aunts and uncles, to stand up. Pretty much every single person in the gym stood up, and there were a LOT of missionaries there. I know there are members in my family who have gone inactive and can't enjoy the blessings the gospel brings into their lives. He told us that "If we love them, we need to bring them to the temple". I couldn't stop thinking about this the rest of the night. It is soo important that we go to the temple, and I want all my family to go there, because I love them. Brother Clarke assured us that the best thing we as missionaries can do is serve God and serve and love the people of your mission to the best of your ability. If we do this then our families will be blessed and possibly come back to the church. So that is what I am going to do, I will work my hardest on my mission. But those who are reading this, you need to do your part and bring those to the church, especially your family. If you love them, your brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, cousins and friends, you need to connect them with the temple.
Anyway, I'm glad I am out here serving a mission, I know there is no other place I would rather be. 3 more weeks of the MTC and I'm out of here!

- Elder Hymas