I made some Gimbap! 

Here is a photo with one of my favorite members here!

Bakso (meatball soup)

The irod rod!

a Papuan family we met with out in Salatiga

Another giant lizard called a Tokek that we caught. It got in our room and we couldn't sleep with that huge lizard on our wall! 

Here is a star fruit and dragon fruit that we had one night. Quality.

 

We caught a lizard with a huge tail! Fish on fish on!

"The Lord will provide a way when there is no way."

I have always believed this quote throughout my life and my mission, but this last week I had many miracles given to me by the Lord. 

Every missionary experiences days where they are scheduled for a super busy day, and then all of their appointments fall through and nobody can meet and they have nothing to do. 

My companion and I had a couple of those kind of days this last week. One day in particular, we went to a new member's home and then we had no plans at all besides proselyting the rest of the day. Everybody in the whole city left to go back home to their home towns. They do this every year around fasting month. Nobody could meet with us this whole week. My companion and I had no idea what to do as we went out on our bikes into the city. My companion wanted to take a quick pit stop at the church to go to the bathroom, so we went there. While he was in the bathroom, I got a text from an investigator and he said he was in town. I asked him if he could meet at the church with us and he came! We had a great lesson on the Law of Chastity and found out that he is doing a lot better on keeping the Word of Wisdom. We were really happy about that. 

After this lesson, we still had nothing to do so we decided to ride out bikes down one of the main roads here in Semarang. As we were riding down the lonely road, a man on a motorcycle honked at us and we looked over to see that it was one of our ex-investigators. He invited us to come over to his house and we happily went straight there. We taught him about Charity from Moroni chapter 7 and he received it really well and wants to come back and learn with us again. He knows this church is true. 

The next miracle happened almost immediatley after we left our investigator's home. We got a text from a sister in the ward who's family is part-member. She told us to come on over tonight! We were amazed! As we were heading over there, we noticed some dark clouds above us. My companion said it is going to rain super hard in a minute or two and that we should just head home. So we texted the member and rescheduled with them for tomorrow. It then began to start raining super hard and the streets were flooded. We grabbed some food nearby where we were at and biked the rest of the way home in the flooded streets. 

The Lord provided for us with things to do the whole day. I know He did this for us because He loves us and because we put in the faith to go out and work, even when there was nothing for us to do. I know the Lord loves us and will bless us if we are obedient to His word. "Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ never force obedience because obedience must be chosen." I am grateful for His plan for me and the plan of salvation for all of His children.

Love, Elder Litster

Me eating frogs for the first time! They are so delicious!

Chicken feet I ate for lunch at a member's home!

The Elders from Bogor and I together in Solo.

Hey everyone! 

This last Sunday we met with a guy who is from China or Singapore. He knew very little Indonesian so we taught him in English. We met with him at the church and he told us that he has wanted to learn about our church because of a coworker of his who is from Arizona and a member of the Mormon church. he said that his coworker was "different" than the others and that he didn't smoke or drink alcohol. I always like like this because it shows how important it is for us to live the gospel and share the gospel through our example. And because of this faithful member we got a new investigator in Jakarta, Indonesia. 

When we taught him in the chapel, he asked, " you are missionaries of this church, right? Why should I join your church? Convince me why I should join this church." We answered him by giving him the message about the Restoration and Joseph Smith. 

The lesson was going just alright, nothing too exciting for him, until the First Vision. I explained to him about Joseph Smith and how he was searching for the truth. Joseph Smith prayed and then saw God and Jesus Christ. I recited the First Vision to him and the spirit was very strong. We continued on and taught him about the Book of Mormon. He wants to learn more and come to church after he gets back from Australia in a week or two. 

Thanks for all your prayers and support.

Love, Elder Litster

This last Fast Sunday was awesome. God always answers our prayers and is helping us with our missionary efforts. We went to English ward this morning and the we went and greeted the Indonesian members as they came in until their 10:00 meeting sacrament meeting started. Part way through the meeting, an older man came in and sat down near the front of the congregation. After fast and testimony meeting, my companion and I went and talked to this man. he explained to us that he had come in contact with the Bekasi Elders and he got a pass along card from them. He lives closer to the Jakarta South building so he came here for church. He also told us that he is Buddhist. We were very surprised to hear that! There is only tiny population of 0.05% people who are Buddhist in Jakarta!  The majority is 95% Islam. He joined Buddhism while he was in Japan for 6 years doing college. he is planning on going to America next year and he wants to learn about Mormons and join the Mormon church in America. After the three hours of church were over, we taught him about the Godhead. Having a Buddhist background, we had to go slowly as we taught about who God is and how Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. We were happy to find out that he believes in God and that he prays to Him every night while doing meditation. We asked if God ever answers his prayers. he said often times He does answer his prayers by helping him to know when to choose right or wrong in decisions he must make. We then identified to him the role of the Holy Ghost in giving us guidance in our lives. At the end of the lesson we asked if he knew hot to pray and if he could close the meeting with a prayer. He told us he doesn't know how to pray to God properly. He had us write down how to pray and we showed him a pamphlet as well that teaches how to pray. He was still a little nervous about it so Elder McCleary invited me to pray first and then he could pray afterwards. He agreed. After I prayed, he said his prayer and thanked our Father in Heaven and then asked that he will be able to meet Mormons in America next year. After the meeting we made a return appointment for Wednesday evening this week.

We also painted a members home this week, fixed a couple leaks in member's homes and had our house smoked out for mosquito season coming up.

Love,

Elder Litster

Zone Conference with some of the Elders.

The big city of Jakarta!