Merry Christmas!

Selamat Hari Natal semuanya!

This wee was a fun week! We met with some more nice investigators and got a couple more people committed for baptism in the upcoming weeks. The work in Tangerang has been picking up and it is cool to see and be a part of it.

Christmas was awesome, mostly because I got to Skype my awesome family! It was great to see them and hear their voices. Isabelle sounds likes a teenager and Luke sounds like a bear haha. All of my siblings are getting older and changing, well except for Sabrina, she is pretty much the same I think haha. We ended our Skype call with a prayer and it was the first family prayer I have had in a long time and it was really nice. I have such an awesome family and I love them so much! 

Well after we Skyped we took a taxi to the mission office in Jakarta and had a little Christmas party with all the missionaries in Jawa Barat, the mission couple's, and the mission president and his wife. We ate a lot of really good food and played some games. All-in-all Christmas day was great, except that there was no snow again this year.

Yesterday in Church Brother Pri and Sister Veronica got confirmed to be members and received the Holy Ghost. That is always a spiritual experience. 

Yesterday we were out and about and we found a person who learned with missionaries a few years ago and I got her number so we can visit her again, that was pretty cool. Then later we met a man who recognized us and talked to us, turns out he is already a member and was baptized a long time ago in another city far away, but then moved and didn't know there was a church here for a long time. So we reconnected to him and met his non-member wife. We invited them to the New Year's party and to church, hopefully we can meet again with them soon!

Today we are going to go ice skating at one of the malls here and then we might have Carl's Jr for lunch if we feel crazy enough. 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

- Elder Hymas

Baptisms, Threesome, I'm Transfering

Hello,

Selamat Hari Natal! Hanya beberapa hari lagi dan aku bisa Skype keluargaku! 

This week was a fun and a busy one! One of the Elders in our house got a call from the APs last Tuesday and they told me he was going to move to Bandung the next day. We were pretty surprised because we thought the moves were happening on the 30th of this month. So Elder McKeon moved last Wednesday and now I am in a threesome with Elder Anderson and Elder Gagarin. We have been working hard and spreading the Gospel.

Last Saturday our ward had a Christmas program get together thing. Usually these programs are at the chruch but the other ward was using the chruch so we did our program at another location. It was a fun time and we just ate and sang songs and hung out. It was way more santai than the Christmas party last year in Solo. We had about 11 non-members come to our christmas party and they all had a great time. We are teaching 2 of them tonight, a girl named Dheandra and her mom.

 It is kind of a cool story how we met Dheandra. Well the first time we met here it was like 4 months ago and we were in the other area in Tangerang. It was late and we were going home, we passed by a convenience store and this girl called to us in perfect English and asked who we were and if we needed like a drink or something, we said we were fine and we were going home and then we went home. We thought we were kind of dumb because we didn't talk to her or get her information but I had a feeling we would see her again. So fast forward about 2 more months and we already changed areas to the Tangerang 1st ward. We were contacting in a mall and this girl comes up to us and says hi and says she knows Elders and wanted to take of picture of us, so we were like okay sure why not. She took a picture of us and then left and we felt dumb again because we should have talked to her more, and we didn't even realize she was the same girl we meet 2 months ago. Okay so fast forward about 2 more months, we are walking in a place called Flavor Bliss, which is a place with a lot of restaurants. It was late and we were about to head home when this girl sees us and stops us. This time I recognized her as the one we met at the mall. Anyway she then tells us that she is actually interested in learning with us about Christians and gave us her info. So she came to our Christmas party and sang for us there and had a great time and now we have an appointment with her tonight, hopefully everything goes well!

We also met with Sathees and Skyped with someone in Australia who is from Sri Lanka and was also a refugee. They mostly spoke in their native language Tamil to each other so I didn't understand much but they talked about temples and the Book or Mormon. Sathees enjoyed that.

Yesterday we had 2 baptisms in the Tangerang 1st ward. Pak P. and Veronica got baptised! It was awesome to see them make that step in their lives. 

This morning I got a call from the missino president and he told me that I will be moving on December 30th. I will be the District Leader in Jakarta. My new companion will be a younger missionary named Elder Atkinson who was in the same MTC group as Elder Anderson. We are going to be white washing that area together haha that will be the 4th time I have white washed an area... I'm pretty much a pro at it now. I will have the APs, the ZLs, and the sister training leaders in my district haha so that pretty much makes me the most powerful missionary in the mission because I am their leader. Anyway so that will be a fun new chapter in my mission. A sad thing is that I will no longer be riding bikes becuase they just ride busses and angkots in Jakarta. So I better start working out. I hear that my new companion Elder Atkinson is a big strong guy so I'll work out with him. 

Well that is about it for this week, I hope you all have a very merry Christmas!

- Elder Hymas

Mission Tour with Elder Wong and Elder Pon

Hello all,
This was a great week. Last P-day I got a hair cut and sent my family some letters. Today for P-day I don't think we are really doing anything. It looks like it is going to rain soon, it is cooler today because of that so it is nice.

Last Wednesday we went to Jakarta for a Mission Tour meeting with Elder Siu Hong Pon and Elder Chi Hong (Sam) Wong. It was an awesome meeting! And those too seventies are pretty funny people. Elder Hong has a really dry hilarious humor. I learned so much from them about really focusing on your goals and getting them done! More often than not I make goals but right when I walk out the door I forget about them or other thoughts about food or rain overpower. I am trying to not forget what I went out to do and see it done. I also learned a lot about persistence and relaying on the Lord through prayers if you want something done. They tell us that they have plans to make another Stake in the Jakarta area if we get a few more members. That would be one step closer to getting a temple here! They also talked to us about the importance of working with the members and the church leaders.

Yesterday Brother Sathees got confirmed and is now an official member of the Church. Next week on the 20th of December our ward should have 2 more baptisms. Pak P. and Veronica will be getting baptized and I am really excited for that.

Two days ago one of our investigators was singing and she invited us to go watch so we stopped by. It was actually a nice event and she was really really good. She is putting out an album in a few months. She is a pretty busy person though so hopefully we can find some more time to meet with her soon.

This morning we played basketball in our neighborhood as a district. We played 4v4 and my team wasn't doing so well at the beginning but we pulled out the win at the end with a 3 pointer, pretty sweet.

Well that is about it from me this week I think. I hope everyone has a great week!

- Elder Hymas

Me and Santa and his Friends

A snow box in a mall

Sathees Baptized, and one more is closer

Hello, apa kabar?

Well like every other week, this week was awesome. We started off our week contacting people at malls and on the streets. We were told we can't say we are proselyting anymore, we contact, we don't proselyte haha. We got some good contacts and handed out a few Kitab Mormons. One time we were at a book store looking at these tiny Alkitabs (Bibles) when a worker came up to talk to us. We said we were looking at the mini Alkitab because it was pretty cute and funny. It turns out he is Christian and the only Christian worker in the store. So we talked to him about the Book of Mormon and our Church and he was pretty interested and took a copy. I thought that was a cool experience. Another time we were sitting at a bench in a mall and these two dudes came and sat next to us, they saw our Kitab Mormons on our laps and asked us about them. They ended up liking it and taking two copies from us. They also told us they were members of a band that plays at that mall every Tuesday and invited us to watch them in a bit, so we decided why not and watched them. They were really good. One of them bought us some tea so that was awkward haha.
We also met with an Investigator Pak P. He is progressing really well and he really likes me a lot. We watched the Joseph Smith the Prophet of the Restoration movie with him and he loved that movie, he even cried. He is determined to get baptized either this Sunday or the next because he might be out of town.
Yesterday at church my man Sathees got baptized and I had the honor of baptizing him. This gospel has made him so happy when he really needed it. We also had Pak P. come to church with us and watch the baptism.
We also had a zone meeting in Bogor again last Friday and it was cool. The APs came to the meeting as well and Elder Hayes who was in the same house as me in Solo is an AP and he told me that I will most likely be moving on the 30th of December but don't know quite where. I might be DL in Bakasi. It has felt like my time here in Tangerang went by really fast. But I have seen some cool miracles here.
Today I need to get a haircut, mail a package home, and eat some lunch. We are going to the other Elder's house (My old house) and we might play some games or bake some cookies.  Well have a great week!

- Elder Hymas
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Elder Anderson getting a drink at IKEA

A band we saw at a mall, we gave Book of Mormons to 2 of them

Me and Sathees from Sri Lanka