Elder Sutadi went home, In a Threesome

Selamat siang semuanya,
This week was a pretty good week, but every week is a good week when you are on a mission. Nothing too exciting happened this week. We went teaching some investigators and new members and inactive members like usual. My companion Elder Setijawan was sick for 2 days so I had to watch over him at the house, not very exciting.. But during the evening the other elders came and did some splits so I was able to leave the house and do some work.
We had a zone meeting in Jogja last Thursday, it was good and I always learn how to be a better missionary during zone meetings. There was a huge group of missionaries going home right after the zone meeting, one of them including Elder Sutadi who has been Elder Zollinger's companion and lived in the same house as me for a while. He was a great guy and he was excited to go home haha. So now that Elder Sutadi went home I am in a threesome with Elder Setijawan and Elder Zollinger until friday when Elder Zollinger moves to Bakasi and Elder Tufuga comes to Magelang. And then we will be in a threesome with Elder Tufuga until Elder Setijawan's new companion fresh from America comes in. But they haven't gotten their visas yet so we don't know how long that will be. I don't quite like being in threesomes, they are harder. But in August I will be moving to a new city and training a new missionary. I am pretty excited for that.
Hey and in one more month I will be one year on my mission and will be on the downhill slide. Time sure does go by fast. I am going to spend my first year on my mission in only 2 areas haha.
We have got a bunch of new investigators and some that want to be baptized but still got a ways to go.
Well that's about it from me this week, hope everyone has a great week!

- Elder Hymas

Me, my companion, and some Magelang members.

after a zone meeting

Eating dinner at Alun-Alun

Climbing up Volcanoes and a Blessing

This week was a good one and a super fast one! I have had a few good spiritual experiences this week. A few days ago on Thursday was Brother Hendrink's birthday. Hendrik is a new member that I baptized a few months ago. He is doing awesome and his faith in the gospel is so strong. This gospel has blessed his life so much it is wonderful to see. I know this gospel can bless everyone's lives individually. My testimony in that has grown even more since my mission. Well for Hendrik's birthday he asked me if I would give him a priesthood blessing for comfort and guidance for this next year. So of course I did. I was a little nervous at first but as I have him the blessing it went so smooth and I didn't feel nervous at all. The Spirit was so strong as I gave him the blessing and Hendrik really appreciated it.

Yesterday was also fast and testimony day, so I decided to share my testimony during sacrament meeting. I shared it about my testimony in the Book of Mormon and how it is the word of God and another testament of Jesus Christ. I always feel the Spirit so strong when I bear my testimony.

Today for P-day we climbed up an active volcano. No big deal yeah? haha it was pretty big and we didn't climb up all the way because it is a good 4-5 hour hike straight up, super steep and just dirt haha. We are not allowed on the summit either right now because someone died up there recently I guess. That volcano also erupted about 4 years ago and the cities close to it had to evacuate. There is still smoke coming out of the top. Well anyway we got super dirty and a little bloody, Elder Zollinger fell and had to get stitches in his hand haha. So all in all it was a good time.

So there are some transferred going on next week. I found out though that I am staying in Magelang until August and then I will move to a different city and train a new missionary! My new companion until then is going to be Elder Tufuga, a big Samoan guy from Hawaii haha. I already know him and he is a cool guy.

Me after the hike and at the national park sign

The volcano, smoke going out of the top

we also made it in the newspaper for doing a service project. pretty cool huh

http://berita.suaramerdeka.com/empat-bule-asal-amerika-dan-kanada-menyapu-trotoar-alun-alun/

Well have a great week everyone!
- Elder Hymas

Late P-Day

Hello!
Sorry today is going to be a pretty short email because we went on a zone trip today for P-day to see a couple waterfalls in Solo and we like just got back into Magelang, and it is 9:20 pm right now so I really need to get myself home haha. This week was a pretty good one, we got some new investigators and we have been helping lots of new members too. I was sick again yesterday with a fever and aches. I didn't feel all that great today but I still went on the zone trip so hopefully I don't get any sicker. Yesterday we had a branch conference at church and about 60 people came to church that day. that is quite a lot more than the 25 that were coming before I got here. They tells us that if we can get 40 people coming consistently they will get a new building and turn this branch into a ward next year. I won't be here for that but it sure feels good to have helped!
Happy Birthday Dad! I hope you have a great day!
Okay I gotta go, I am super tired!
Have a great week!

- Elder Hymas

The Start of Ramadhan, Ibu Jum's Baptism, and we went to Borobudur again

Hello all!
This week has been a good one. A few days ago on the 17th of June Ramadhan started. Ramadhan is a month between the 17th of June and the 17th of July when Muslims will fast the whole month. They fast to commemorate the first revelation of the Quran to Muhammad. They fast only when the sun is out though, so they break their fast every evening at 6 o'clock pm, and then they all wake up at 3 o'clock in the morning to eat again before fasting the coming day. At 3 in the mo




rning there are people who play drums very loud to wake people up to eat and they yell 'Sahur!! Sahur!!!" which means the meal before you start your fast. They usually wake me up in the morning because they are pretty loud and I don't really enjoy it haha. Also because most everyone is Muslim here and they are all fasting during the day, a lot of resturants and places to eat are closed. So we haved to cook at home a lot more.

Yesterday we had another baptism in the Magelang branch. Ibu Jum got baptized and it was a nice event. And there was no one swimming in the pool because they are all fasting so we had the pool all to oursleves.

I got a pretty cool ring the other day from a new member who was an investigator of mine named Brother Petrus. It is a Gold Star Sapphire and it is pretty boss.

On the way to Borobudur, showing off my new Golden Star Sapphire ring that i got from Brother Petrus

Today we went to the huge Buddhist temple today again named Borobudur. It was fun and very hot like usual.

At Borobudur again

I have been reading from the Old Testament lately, it has some interesting stuff haha and a lot of good doctrine too!

Have a great week! Tetap aman dan selalu memilih yang benar!

- Elder Hymas

ZTM in Semarang and already 10 months on my mission!

Hello all,
This week nothing too much out of the ordinary happened. Just the same old teaching the gospel to people that need to hear it. There is a large amount of people in the world that just don't want to hear the gospel. It makes me sad. What makes me more sad is all the lies and junk on the internet about Mormons. It is ridiculous and it corrupts and destroys people's view of the church. I don't understand why so many people will go so out of the way to spread dirty lies about the church. It also doesn't help that the preachers of the other churches are telling everybody not to listen to the white people who call themselves "Elder". The Devil is really working hard to hinder the Lord's work here. But the cool thing is that I know who is going to win in the end.

Okay so last Wednesday we had a zone meeting in a really hot city named Semarang. It was a good meeting and there is a McDonalds there so that was the only obvious choice of where to eat lunch. Yesterday at church there was 42 people who came. That is a lot haha, I hope it only grows. It would be awesome if Indonesia had a temple of it's own. Only a very little amount of members in Indonesia have been to the temple because it is far away and expensive. Maybe if we took one of the 15 temples in Utah and moved it over here that would be nice haha.
Oh yeah I have already been on my mission for 10 months! That seems like a long time, but it flew by pretty fast. 14 more months to go, I hope I will make the most of it!

I hope everyone has a great week! Today for P-day we are going to watch the new Meet the Mormons movie with the mission couple.

- Elder Hymas

Stake Conf in Solo and snakes

Selamat Pagi! Do you think you guys could send me some golden scoop and some chipotle?? haha that probably wouldn't work out very well. It is weird to think that life is still just going on at home without me there. You are kinda in your own little world when you are on a mission. Away from all the distractions of the world and news and media and all that. It helps you focus on the mission, and time sure does fly by.

A good spiritual experience of mine this week is on the power of fasting. Earlier this week we fasted as a district so that we could find the people that God prepared for us to teach, that our current investigators could receive answers to their prayers and gain a testimony, and that the Magelang Branch can soon become a Ward. So we fasted an we immediately started having success. We got 5 new investigators and 2 of which are golden. It just added on my testimony about fasting. I know that the Lord really wants to help missionaries succeed.

Yesterday was the Jawa Tengah stake conference in Solo. So we woke up real early in the morning and rode a bus to Solo with the members and investigators of the Magelang Branch. Conference was great and the theme was centered on keeping the Sabbath day holy.

Oh yeah I also saw a cool snake show at the park a few days ago. It is just some native guys that own a python, an iguana, some deadly cobras including a king cobra, and some other snakes. They lay out a mat and start playing around with their cobras giving them kisses and dancing around with them. It was pretty dang cool. I will send some pictures of the event. Well that's about it for this week. I love you all and miss you! Have a great week!

- Elder Hymas

Naughty monkeys

Hi,
Well this week was pretty good. We are kinda running out of investigators because they are all getting baptized or their crazy! We had to drop 2 investigators this week because they are coco. One of those investigators has been an investigator for about a year already. He usually comes to chruch and some activities but he has some problems. I think he is really depressed and has big mood swings and is really really not clear with us. He told us this week that he wanted to stop learning Mormon and that he almost burned down his neighbors house for some reason. He also called us pridefull and said a few other things.. so we aren't going to go there anymore. But the funny thing was he came to chruch yesterday and kind of acted like that lesson never happened. It is confusing and our relationship with him isn't very good right now haha. There are just some weird people in this city.
Anyway, one good thing though is that Andre got confirmed as a member yesterday at church and he is doing really well and is really happy. All of the few members of the Magelang Branch are so awesome and I love them all, I am going to be so sad when I get transferred.

Today we hiked up Mt. Tidar with the mission couple, the missionaries from Jogja, and one of our investigators. It was fun and we saw some monkies again, those monkies are so naughty, they stole my bag of peanuts.

I didn't really take any photos this week, and I forgot my connector so I'm not sending any pictures, sorry.
Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Hymas