Selamat Tinggal Andre

So this week was pretty good, well expect for yesterday, but I will talk about that in a sec. This week Elder Anderson and I worked hard like usual. We proselyted lots and tired to find some new investigators. We found a few people and we are going to follow up on them this coming week.

This last Wednesday was the Muslim Sacrifice Day. So there were public sacrifices all over the place and we watched one and it was pretty gross and bloody. They will tie the cow down and then slice its neck and drain all the blood. I got a video of it so if you want to see it you can ask to see the video when I get back home haha.

We also had a party at the new home of one of the members in our ward that day and we blessed the house. Then the next day we helped them move in all their stuff into their new house. We have done lots of service lately.

So yesterday my old companion from Magelang called me and told me that my old investigator and newly baptized member named Andre passed away yesterday. I was pretty sad about that and a little shocked. He was only about 30 years old and he was an awesome person. About 2 weeks before I left Magelang he got sick and didn't really get much better until I left. Then I guess once I left he still didn't feel better and went to the hospital with a super high fever and what not. Then I got the word yesterday that he passed away. They tell me he died of Tuberculosis. Pretty sad news.

Okay so that is about it for this week. Hope everyone has a good week!

- Elder Hymas

Teletubbies in front of our house

The Tangerang District 

Some kids following us while proselyting

Me and Elder Green

Elder Anderson and I

Me and Elder Paskett

So the Mission President just called and told me that Elder Anderson and I are going to move areas together to the Tangerang 1 ward and I am going to become the new district leader here. So the moves are going to be next week. These were like last minute moves to haha. So that means that we get to teach those great investigators that we found and had to give to the Elder Tangerang 1 elders haha nice.

Aduh, Punggung Saya Sakit

Hello everyone!
This week was a good week. We meet with Keluarga Tumpak again and they are doing awesome. We gave them over to the other Elders, I am sure they will be fine.

Earlier this week I got a text from someone in English and he said he wanted to meet this week. So of course I told him we can meet. It turns out he is a white guy from America and he was baptized a few years ago but then requested that his records get deleted because of some problems with the members or something. Then He moved to Indonesia to get away or something. But ever since he moved he has had this feeling like he should go to church again and he knows that The Church of Jesus Christ is the true church. So he built up the courage and contacted us. He wants to learn the lessons all again and repent. He was a cool miracle. But he also lives in the other Elder's area haha so we had to give him over to them.

Our focus this week is to find some good investigators in our area so we don't have to keep giving them away.

We went to one of our investigators place the other day and we only met with her for a sec and he husband comes marching over and usually he gets really mad at her and yells at her for meeting with us but this time he came up to me and pretty much told me to get out of here and don't come back. So that was a fun experience and I am scared to go back there now.

We continued helping with the Eagle Scout Project painting the orphanage. It still isn't done yet so they are going to work on it again later, I think they bit off a little more then they can chew haha.

We also played futsal the other day with some members and investigators and that was really fun. But now my back hurts really bad for some reason haha no fun.

Well today for P-day I think we are going to go to a mall that I haven't been to yet and eat at Carl's Jr, so I am pretty excited for that of course. Hope everyone has a great week!

Here is a baby werewolf I met while proselyting.

-Elder Hymas

Lazer Tag Master, Keluarga Tumpak, and the Roach Slayer

Hello all,
My week was really good, besides the fact that it is still super hot here and we bike like 40 miles a day, but that is just the sacrifice I am willing to make for this wonderful service.

Last week for P-day we played Laser Tag at one of the malls here with the 8 elders in my district. We played 3 games and it was pretty fun actually. We were still dressed up in our white shirts and ties so we looked like the Men In Black with our space vest and space gun. So out of those 3 games we totaled up the player with the most points and the highest hit/miss percentage. Anyway needless to say Elder Hymas was number 1 in both categories. All my training at Laser Storm is paying off.

So last week Elder Anderson and I met a nice guy at a convenience store. His name is Pak Tumpak and he was really interested in us and when I told him about the Kitab Mormon and offered to give one to him he received it with a smile on his face. We then went to his house last Wednesday and had a very wonderful lesson with him, his wife, and his 5 year old son Wisdom. We taught them the message of the Restoration and about the Book of Mormon. The Spirit was really strong and his family was very happy to hear our message and it all went very well. I invited them to go to church will us on Sunday and he said he would try. Well yesterday he was there at church with us and I believe he had a great time. He is a pretty golden investigator. Okay but here is the somewhat sad news. He doesn't live in our area. He lives very close but not quite in our area. He actually lives in the other wards area, so I told the other elders who are in charge of that area about him and will probably hand Pak Tumpak off to them this week. I would have liked to help teach him but it doesn't really matter who does it, as long as he gets it haha. But that was a cool miracle this week.

Today for P-day we are going to go bowling with the elders in our district. It has been a long time since I have been bowling so I am not expecting to be number 1 this time but we will see.

Training is going well. Elder Anderson is a great elder who has his heart in the right place. He still doesn't quite have the language down yet but that does take time. He has made a lot of progress though.

Oh and this morning some guy gassed out the gutters in front of our house and caused many many cockroaches to escape into the safety of our house, oh how wrong were they. With some Hit spray in one hand and his shoes on his feet, Elder Green took the challenge these roaches presented and came out on top. Those roaches were running around our house in the dozens, it was madness. In the end we prevailed and the number of cockroaches that Elder Green exterminated was 63. Quite a memorable morning this was.

Okay have an awesome week!
- Elder Hymas

Us and the orphans

Elder Green the Roach Slayer

Week 2 In Tangerang

Hello all, wow this week flew by quite fast. We are starting to understand the roads and our area a lot better. It really isn't all that complex just everything is super far and that is what makes things hard. In Magelang we never had to plan for the time it takes to travel from place to place because everything was so close. But here we will spend most of our day on our bikes and it makes us nice and tired and sweaty haha. We have met with some of the Investigators here but not all of them, some of them are hard to meet with and live far away. We have also made some new investigators and hopefully all goes well with them. Elder Anderson was sick this past week, probably from riding bikes all day and the food and the new environment. Pretty much every missionary gets sick the first few weeks in the field here in Indonesia. This ward isn't the biggest ward but it is bigger than the Magelang branch. The members here are awesome and help us out a lot. We have visited a few so far and are trying to visit more. Yesterday we went to a member's house for dinner and to share a message. He lives a good hour or more bike ride away. So the road on the way there is really crowded with a lot of motorbikes and cars. And a motorbike hit Elder Anderson's bike and broke his bike. Elder Anderson is okay but the bike is busted and we are going to try to fix it today. The guy riding the motorbike just rode off and didn't say anything. So we walked to bikes to the nearest Indomaret and called Brother Looky, the member we were going to visit. Luckly he has a big white van he calls the BMW (Big Mormon Wagon) and he picked us up and was able to take our bikes with us too. So anyway that was fun and now we gotta figure out how to fix his bike, hopefully we don't have to buy a new one cause that is expensive.
We keep truckin' along and spreading the gospel while we are doing it.
Oh yeah we also had to go to the mission office again in Jakarta earlier this week because Elder Anderson and his group from his MTC had to get their kitas.
Okay have a great week everyone,
Love,

Me and Elder Anderson

The Elders in my house

Elder Hymas

Chapter 3 Tangerang

Hello,

 Tangerang is great! It is really really big and riding bikes all around and getting lost is tiring haha. Training is a blast! Elder Anderson is awesome and is a great elder. He is from St. George Utah and went on his mission right out of high school. His Indonesian is really good for how new he is. I am trying my best to be a good example to him and help him out the best I can. It is hard training and whitewashing a huge area at the same time but we are figuring it out. Oh and our monthly allowance is having problems so we don't have any money for this month yet haha so that is nice. Out church is in a building that is for stores and stuff. so they just bought a couple of the lots in that building and made a church out of it. It is actually pretty big inside and looks like an actually church... in the inside. But on the outside it just looks like stores or something. And we can't have out church sign out in the front so there are just the letters O S Z A (orang-orang suci zaman akhir) which is the Indonesian version of LDS. 

It takes a good 40 minutes or more to ride our bikes to the church from our house haha and Tangerang is really really hot. Yesterday we wanted to go to a member's house after church. He lives pretty far from the church, it took about 2 hours to ride our bikes from the church to his house I think haha we were pretty tired after that, but the member was awesome! He told me that when I shared our message he saw and heard our mission president, President Donald when I spoke haha that was quite the complement. 

Oh yeah and there is a McDonald's right next to the church so we ate there after English class last Saturday.

We haven't been able to meet with any of the investigators here yet, I have contacted a few and tried to meet up but it just hasn't happened yet. Getting from one place to another here takes a long time too on bikes haha. But according to the area book the investigators we have a pretty new and have potential so we will meet them this week. 

Today for P-day we just went to a mall and ate frostys and Wendy's and I bought a new pen. Pretty fun stuff. We have an appointment at a member's house later tonight for family home evening together, their daughter just got back from her mission in the Philippines yesterday, pretty cool. 

We spent a lot of time lost these past few days here so I would often ask people on the side of the road for directions and then tell them about us and the gospel and our English class. Most of the people were just interested in the English class but they were all really really nice to us and helped us out. 

Well that's about it for this week, 

- Elder Hymas

Last Week in Magelang

Well this was my last full week in Magelang, after a short 7 months here I will be moving. I will be flying a plane to Jakarta on Thursday and then probably taking a bus to Tangerang and I will be serving and training in the Tangerang 1st ward. One thing that I have heard about Tangerang is that it is really hot there haha not like Magelang where it is actually pretty cold compared to the rest of  the cities.
Yesterday was my last time at church in the Magelang branch. I bore my testimony and the Spirit was really strong. Most all the members are pretty sad that I am moving, and I am a little sad too to leave them but I am excited to begin this new chapter of my mission in Tangerang.
My old investigator named Pak Gunawan who I have meet with for many months is planned to be baptized next week. It is too bad that I won't be here to see it but I am happy that he finally decided to get baptized. I have a feeling that Magelang with continue to grow fast and will be a ward and have a church building of its own by next year. That would be awesome for this branch.
This week I am going to visit some members for the last time and say goodbye before I leave. I hope I helped this branch grow.
Today for P-day it is just Elder Setijawan and I because Elder Tufaga and Elder Tubbs have to go to another city to report their visas and passports to the immigration office. So Elder Setijawan and I might hang out with some members and do something but we are not sure what yet.
Well have a great week and choose the right.

- Elder Hymas

President Ari and I

 Sister Tini, Brother Dadang, and Elder Hymas

 Brother Mahar, Sister Debora, and Elder Hymas

Selamat Hari Kemerdekaan! One Year on My Mission!

Selamat Hari Kemerdekaan semuanya! That means Happy Independence day everyone! August 17th is the Indonesian Independence day so there are Indonesian flags everywhere and people are playing games and having parties. This is their 70th year of being independent. The people here prepare for this day like week in advance, they sure like their Independence, who wouldn't? So we are having a little party at the mission couple's house later this afternoon with the members and investigators to celebrate.
Also a few days ago on the 13th of August was the year mark for my mission! So I had to go back to Jakarta to renew my visa. All the missionaries that were in the MTC with me went to Jakarta too. It was nice to see them all again and hear what they have learned and experienced. Some of them I haven't seen this whole year. I had to get to the airport and fly to Jakarta and take a taxi to the mission office all by myself. It was weird having no companion for a bit haha. I saw President Donald in Jakarta and he told me that I am going to be moving to Tangerang in like 2 weeks and I will be training a new missionary named Elder Anderson from St. George Utah. I am pretty excited to move and train.
Elder Tufaga and I worked hard this week. We have been working a lot with an inactive member bringing him around on lessons with us. He is awesome and is glad to help us teach investigators but it is tough for himself to go to church, but we keep working with him.
I heard that Taylor Forsyth and Hunter came back from their missions. Pretty cool, crazy how time flies.
Have a great week!
- Elder Hymas