Is it Thanksgiving already?

Wow this week went by very fast, We must have been working hard or something. It still rains every day here, rain is fun though. Nothing too exciting really happened this week, We continue to teach people and try to find people but it isn't the easiest to do that here.

We had a zone meeting this week here and that was good. It is fun to walk around with a bunch of white people dressed up in the middle of Indonesia. Lots of people stare.

Thank you family for sending me that birthday package! I got it last night. I am wearing the new tie you sent me right now. And thanks for the American money, I'm sure I can find use of it here in on the other side of the world haha.

The 2 districts here in Solo are having a big thanksgiving feast later today with the mission couple here. That is going to be awesome and yummy! Anyway, that was about it for this week, Hope you all have a great week!

- Elder Hymas

Birthday Party!

Some Royal guards

Rainy season begins and bats

This week was a good one. My new companion Elder Sadiyono is awesome and speak a lot of Indonesian haha. I have learned a lot this week from him. Elder Boenari is cool too, Indonesians are fun people.

I guess the rainy season has started here in Indonesia because it has rained every single day this week, and when it rains, it pours. It is nice though because the temp cools way down when it rains so It actually feels kind of nice outside. We have had some bats fly into our house and creep around, it is kinda freaky haha.

Elder Sadiyono and I taught lessons this week like usual, we would get a little lost going from house to house because Elder Mangum knew the way around here so I just followed him and now he isn't here! I remember mostly where people live so we have been getting by.

One of our Investigators named Hanung went to church yesterday with us, so that was awesome! I think he is progressing, all we need to do now is help his stop smoking. Smoking is a big problem here, everyone and their dog smokes.

I also got the opportunity to give the gift of the Holy Ghost and ordain the sister's investigator yesterday in sacrament meeting. I was pretty nervous but I think I did a good job. They asked me right before sacrament if I could do it so I only had about 10 minuets to prepare. It was an awesome experience though. She is just so happy that she is a member of the church now.

My birthday was on Saturday too! We went out to eat dinner at a pretty nice restaurant near our house called Steak on Fire. They give you a steak and then they set it on fire in front our you and it is pretty cool. A bunch of missionaries from the 2 districts in Solo where there. It was fun. Afterwards they caught me by surprise and dumped a bunch of flour all over me and thew eggs at me. That is tradition here in Indonesia for birthdays haha. It was fun and really messy!

I forgot my SC connector thing for my camera so I can't send pictures this week but i'll send some next week

Have a great week everyone!

- Elder Hymas

New Companion

This week has been pretty good. It was Elder Mangum's last week in Solo so we went around and taught people for the last time with him and took lots of pictures. My new companion came in last Thursday, His name is Elder Sadiyono. He is a native Indonesian so my Indonesian skills should get a lot better. He knows English pretty well but still learning. He is a really funny guy and I'm glad to be able to work with him. Elder Hayes, who just finished his training, started training a new Elder last Thursday. He is training Elder Boenari, he is also a native Indonesian. So in our house there is me, my companion Elder Sadiyono, Elder Hayes, and his companion Elder Boenari.

We had stake conference this last weekend. We had a 2 hour session at the church on Saturday and then another 2 hour session at a pretty nice hotel on Sunday. The mission president was there so I got to say hi to him. Other missionaries from my zone came too and they all stayed at our house Saturday night. So there was like 16 Elders staying at our house, craziness. We are trying hard to have our Investigators go to church and read the Book of Mormon on their own but it is proving difficult.

Other than that nothing really too exciting happens this week, It is starting to rain quite a bit here now, and when it rains, it pours. There have been a number of times where we have gotten completely soaked from rain while riding our bikes. I have stained a couple of shirts too from the dirty water that flys at you while you ride your bike on the road so I'm going to have to bleach them I guess.

Hope everyone is doing well! Have a good week!

Mangum and I with some members and their neighbors.

me and Elder Sadiyono

- Elder Hymas

Cobra blood tastes different

Things are going pretty well here in Indonesia. It is really hot, but that never changes haha. The work is going along. It is hard sometimes because our investigators hardly ever keep the commitments we make and don't read their homework. A new potential investigator we found last week is kinda interesting. We visited her again this week and did more of the first lesson. Then we asked her if she would follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by the proper priesthood authority. Then she said sudah, which means she already has been baptized. She is Catholic and believes that her church has the proper priesthood authority to baptize. Se we went over how we believe that we are the only church to have the power restored and the priesthood was lost when the apostles died. And she seemed to take it in and agree. Then we asked her again if she will be baptized and she still said she has already been baptized by the right priesthood. It was kinda frustrating so we just asked if she would read the Book of Mormon and pray if it was right. Hopefully she will.

For Halloween we had a district meeting so we changed name tags for that meeting, that was our costumes for the day.

Last Tuesday we had a pretty unusual food. We drank Cobra blood with bone marrow and a gall bladder in it. It tasted pretty different. We also ate the Cobra in a variety of ways. It was good, it tasted like chewy snake.

The transfers are happening on Thursday, My companion is going to Jakarta and my new companion I think is an Indonesian. I forget his name though. It should be cool though, hopefully my language gets a lot better with a native companion.

Have a great week!

-Elder Hymas

Me drinking the blood of a deadly cobra, no big deal

I found a statue of Luke here, weird 

The sister's investigator that got baptized yesterday