Livin' the Life

Hello all.
Well this week in Manado has been good, I am just livin' the life here in paradise, teaching people the Gospel and eating yummy foods.

My companion Elder Setijawan recovered from his illness so I was not trapped in the house this week! This week we taught a few new investigators about the Book of Mormon and the Restoration of the church. One of them accepted a baptismal commitment and is excited to tell his wife and child about our church and he wants to invited them to go to church next Sunday. Manado is mostly Christian but was still cannot go knocking door to door. That is just something you can't do in Indonesia. You'd think because Manado is mostly Christian that it would make the missionary work a lot easier but it just makes it different I guess. Most of the people here belong to the church called GMIM, Gereja Masehi Injili di Minahasa. Every neighbor hood is organized into groups like wards for their church and everybody has strong roots in that church. So teaching people is easy but helping them act and come to our church is the hard part. But it can be done!

So the other day we ate lunch by the ocean. We ate sate tuna (tuna on a stick) it was really really good. There was a man from Papua behind us and I talked to him and gave him the Restoration pamphlet. He is cool but he is like touring Indonesia for a few days and then going back to Papua, and there is not church there yet. He left while we were eating and then when we left later we found out that he paid for our meals, what a nice guy! It wasn't that cheap either. Being a missionary has it's perks because we get food bought for us randomly a lot haha.

Today I got a haircut and after we email I don't really know what we will do, maybe eat somewhere nice. I am thankful I get to serve here in Manado and I love it! I love my Savior Jesus Christ and am just so blessed to have it in my life and to have such an amazing family. Have a great week!

fried bananas, lansa

boiled bananas with sambal

The public transportation here haha

sate tuna

-Elder Hymas-

My companion was sick

Hello! It was awesome to Skype my family for the last time on the mission! Luke, Isabelle, and Chloe have grown so much! Well this week wasn't too exciting, my companion got sick on Wednesday and for 5 days straight he was fevering and sick. So I was stuck in the house for 5 days straight. Just today he is feeling better. We went to the Hospital twice to check up on him and get meds, we spent quite a lot of money at the hospital. So pretty much this week I read lots of church books at home and watched the restoration video a few times, I might have went a little crazy. So yup that was my week! Fun fun. Well I hope Everyone has a good week! Love ya all!
- Elder Hymas

Drinks at pizza hut

Elder Setijawan sakit

Langsa

The 5th and Last City: Manado

So I moved to Manado last Tuesday, it was a 3 hour flight and I landed on time and safely. Manado is significantly different than any of the other cities in my mission. Pretty much everyone in Manado is Christian and there might be more churches here than there is in Utah haha, they are all over the place. The church here is literally right next to the ocean and I live about a 5 minute walk away from the ocean. There are also some mountains and the jungle close by. Oh and at night I can see stars! The first time I have seen stars since I left America!

So the branch has about 60 or 70 people at church each week. Manado is growing and they are looking at changing buildings soon to get a bigger place. We do not ride bikes here in Manado, we would die if we did haha my area is really big and there are sooo many huge hills everywhere, it makes it impossible to ride bikes. So we walk and ride small blue minivans called an angkot. Manado is pretty funny because they pimp out their angkots here with lights and speakers and big subs and they all play loud music haha so I pretty much know most of the new songs out there.

There are 4 Elders here and 2 sisters, Elder Setijawan and I in in charge of the south part of Manado. We visited a lot of non-active and active members this week. They are all awesome and gave us a lot of food. I still don't have my personal card anymore and probably just have to wait until I go home to get a new one, I will have to be hemat from now on. We don't have many progressive investigators right now but I will try to change that soon.

Well the internet here is really slow and I don't have much more time left to email. I am excited to Skype my family next week! Have a great week!
- Elder Hymas

Flying to Manado

My second to last transfer.

Streets of Manado

The Manado District

Our house

Of course if found the McDonalds

My Breakfast

2 more baptisms, The Sickness, My last week in Jakarta

Hello all. This week was a bit of a tough one because 3 out of the 5 people in our house got pretty sick, and yes one of them was me. Usually we only have 4 Elders in the house but Elder Siahaan from Bogor is going home tomorrow and spent the week in our house in Jakarta before he went home. First Elder Hansen got really sick and my companion Elder Fowler stayed home to take care of him. Then the next day I got pretty sick with a fever and a sore throat. I even lost my voice pretty bad too, I sounded like a 90 year old chain smoker. And then shortly after I got sick my companion Elder Fowler got sick too, so we spent quite a bit of time resting up and trying to get better. It wasn't very fun at all but I am feeling good again now! So because of that sickness that went around not much got done this week. We still met with one of our investigators from Iran, he was awesome and I am sad to leave them but I am sure they will progress without me. We also got 2 more baptisms in the Jakarta 2 ward yesterday! Sister Lusiana and Sister Liliana got baptized! They were a referral from a member in the English ward and the sisters did a great job teaching them.
So yes this is my last week in Jakarta, tomorrow I will be moving to Manado to finish off my mission there. I am excited but it is actually kind of scary now because my mission is really coming to a close and it doesn't feel like it should be and it is weird. I am going to do my best though! Some members were pretty sad for my last Sunday in Jakarta, I even got some gifts. It is always sad leaving an area. I grow to love the people there so much and then just leave them. It is though but that is how it goes. I am still happier than ever to serve where ever the Lord desires. Saya akan melayani di mana pun Tuhan inginkan! Today for P-day I am just dropping some stuff off at the mission office before I move, we pick up the new Jakarta DL, and then I will pack and we have an appointment later tonight. Mother's day is in like 2 weeks right? I am excited for that Skype call!

-Elder Hymas-

I am transferring again, I have money problems.

Hello all,
This week has been pretty good, I had a really good interview with President Donald and he told me that I will be moving one last time to Manado! Manado is the area everyone in the mission wants to go but only a select few get to go there. It is on a whole different island. Going from Jakarta to Manado is like transferring from Denver, Colorado to Georgia haha pretty far. I am pretty pumped for Manado, the church there is literally right in front of a beautiful beach and all of the people there are Christian. I am going to be companions with Elder Setijawan again, I was companions with him before when I was in Magelang.

Oh and I lost my wallet a while ago so I have no debit cards what so ever. So now I have no money and no ways to get money. Hopefully I make it!

I picked up my suit a few days ago and it was pretty awesome, it has cool batik inside.

Okay well I got to go to Taman Mini for P-day today. Have a great week!

Elder Hymas

Wallet got stolen, but Conference was great!

Hello all,
This week was.... alright. Elder Fowler and I have been riding the buses around and going places trying to talk and teach people, I am getting a little bored of riding the buses all around though, I gotta find something new to do. We were riding the train on the way home and it was super packed in the train, like we can't even move around on the train. Well when I got off the train I check my pockets and my wallet was gone :( Someone must have stolen it while I was on the train. It is a common problem here. Well now I don't have my mission debit card or my personal debit card anymore haha. I called the person in charge of money and he said he was going to transfer my money to my companions account, so 2 days later we need to take out my money and Elder Fowler couldn't find his card. So now we both don't have our mission debit cards! So these past couple of days we have been spending very little money. I have been living off of like $3 the past couple of days. Hopefully today we get some money. But on a brighter note General Conference was awesome! I watched it in English yesterday and I was happy. We have a refugee family from Iran who are our investigators. We met with them and had a great lesson about Joseph Smith and watched the short movie. We were trying to get them a Book of Mormon in Persian but it was hard. Apparently it was out of stock online and would take a long time to get one. And then one of the members decided to look in his book self and found a Book of Mormon in Persian! He doesn't know how or why he got one but he was willing to give it to us. So that was a cool miracle, I know that the Lord looks out for us and provides. I hope everyone has a great week!

-Elder Hymas-

Hospital Trip again, and Handel's Messiah

Hello all! There wasn't too much that happened this week. I had to take Elder Arthur to the Hospital because he sprained his ankle, they were afraid he broke it so they got an X-ray done. But he didn't brake it, he only sprained it.

We also had a some public affair events this week. On Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday night we watched the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing Handel's Messiah at the church. We invited a bunch of people to it and made it a nice event for people to come and watch. We had a good amount of people there each day and I really enjoyed watching a bit of the performance. Man those people can sing!

 Our Investigator and his family from Iran came to church on Sunday and had a really good time, he also brought a friend to church with him too from Iran. We found some pamphlets about Joseph Smith and an old Gospel Principles book in Persian at the church to share with them so that was a miracle!

I am also having a little ingrown toenail issue again so I am wearing sandals for the time being and trying to take care of it. I might end up having to take the toenail out again just to get rid of it. It isn't that bad right now but I don't want it to get bad.

Love ya! Have a great week!

Some toys I found at the mall

The view from the Hospital

The MOTAB Messiah even