Apa Kabar (How are you?) 

I'll start from last Monday.  P-Day Was awesome!  We went to this place (taman mini Indonesia indah).  It is an Indonesian park and has all the cultural cool places and buildings in the park.  So I basically I saw all of Indonesia in one day!  The park was empty,  but on the way there we had to take a tour bus except it was very way old,  (oh look there is a kitten that just walked into the internet cafe and jumped on my lap !  A cute little guy!)

DANG!!!   I scratch this kittens head once and now it won’t leave me alone.   It’s jumping all over me and my key board and sitting on the computer.  Too bad I can’t teach this little guy my message!

Anyway,  on the bus I bought some gorengan,  it means fried things.   The beauty of it is, it’s cold and you have no idea what it is you're about to eat.  It’s always a surprise!  At least until you can fully understand what they tell you it is, and that's not me yet!

 Once we  got to the park we just did what anyone would do, looking around and what not.  Then our friend Danny showed up and he’s got a car thank heavens.   So, we left the park and he asked us what we wanted to do.  He speaks perfect English because he went to  BYU Hawaii and we met him in the ward.   I said,  let’s go somewhere crazy ... so we went off to this little mountain village a few hours away and we hiked up into the jungle to these awesome waterfalls !!  We explored them all around them.   It was really high up so the whole mountain was foggy and misty and raining and COLD like 60 degrees,  which is  amazing when it’s usually 90 degrees.  Then he told us about this pond with fish, little fish that eat the dead skin off your body, so we wanted to try it.   It was weird and crazy!   You stick your feet in the water and about 60 fish come up and start eating your feet! After that we went to the "best nasi goreng" in town (fried rice)  It was pretty good!   After that we went to get roti something.  I forgot but it translates to burnt bread.  Anyways it was great I got  chocolate banana cheese milk bread (they all had cheese) anyways it was awesome and tasted so good!  It had been raining all day (thought I'd add that  :) lol   Then we went home and went to bed!

Tuesday- Pretty normal day ... normal morning routine and then Hasibuan and I went out proselyting . No luck with anything, but still trying . (slalu coba)  try always!

Wednesday -I went on my monthly split with Mendrofa. We went way out of town to go visit a new member and  he wasn't home. Then we went and visited a few non active members then we went proselyting.  It was a cool day cause there was the thickest blanket of fog over the whole town the whole day ! Well we weren't having any luck so we decided to walk through some little villages or something.  Idk what you would call them and I played a little bit of fut-sol with some kids about 11 or 12 years old and they owned me!  So we invited them to English class. Then on our way home we just sat at the bus stop and would talk to whoever would sit by us .... so here I am sitting alone at a bus stop cause Mendrofa is on the other side and a group of teenager guys come and I heard one say "look a white guy!" (but in Indonesian).  They sit by me and are saying,  "I wonder if he understands me"? and I was like "ya saya mengerti kalian".   You should of seen the looks on their face! So I asked what they were doing and what's up?  We talked for an hour!  Turns out they are all Muslim but want to come to our English class!  I also learned some Arabic from one of them so that was cool.  Then we went home and we decided to walk instead of the bus.   It was 6 miles!  Good little work out.

Thursday We have an investigator she's a Muslim girl who started coming to our English class and now is taking the lessons! We had a lesson with her today and she came to church last Sunday.   A lot of new people showed up too! I've been passing out cards like crazy!
This little kitten is still hanging out with me !  Except it's sleepin in my shoe now (we have to take our shoes off) I wish I had my camera!

Anyways yeah English class was good Thursday.

Friday- Got sick again bad-_- so me and my comp just studied all day and the other Elders did  as well because of how hard it was raining. 

Saturday & Sunday - I was just was a missionary, nothing new or strange.  Pretty normal .  Sorry no pictures!  I'm working on the camera thing.  Thank you for all of your prayers, love and support.  They really do help me!

Love you all - Elder Jones

 

Week 10 - Bogor

“Screaming Lizards”

Hi Everyone!  Another week in Indonesia!  This place sure is different than Wickenburg!  Last night we had some kind of huge lizard in our yard that screams and is supposed to be poisonous; they are all over the place.  Scary!

Monday was p day and we went to the botanical gardens it was way cool! It’s basically a jungle park.  We spent about 2 hours there before we left. We were just randomly looking around at all the stuff when suddenly we see a tall white man in the distance?!? And so we walked toward him to see what he was up to .  It turned out to be President Donald!  How funny right?  He and his wife and a mission couple were also touring the gardens that day but neither one of us knew that the other was going!  After that we just walked around the town looking at stuff.  We went to the store that evening and I bought some "sort of healthy" food.   On our way home I bought dinner off the street cause it looked promising (cheese burger).  Then it turned out to be a thin slab of bologna with hot sauce called sambol, with a cucumber.  Oh well!  I tried!

Tuesday- it was  dang hot and we had a few lessons fall through so we went looking for new people to teach.  No luck.  Spent the whole day going back and forth places to find the people that would "be there" but weren't .  It was a rough day.

Wednesday - We had a lesson with a lady.   She has been taking lessons a while and I had led on the lesson for the first time and I think I spoke very well! I’ve been praying that my Indonesian would get better and it has been! Which is pretty cool. We invited her to church! She said she’d come! She didn’t.  Hopefully next week.
 Thursday-  I forgot ... sorry lol
Friday (way weird)

 Ok so we were walking home after teaching English class at the church and its way dark already and the road we walk on behind the church doesn't have street lights that work right?? And it was raining pretty well. Well were walking and no one is out except us... surprising right?? Well out of nowhere we hear like the worst screaming ever!  Like someone is getting murdered, it was horrendous and it was a man’s voice and it was coming from a car 30 feet ahead with all its lights out . Hasibuan and I sprint up to it with a flash light hoping to help with whatever was happening, and we can’t see in his windows cause they are limo tinted, so I started yelling HEY?!? ARE YOU OK?? OPEN THE DOOR!! and he is still screaming and Hasibuan was yelling too on the other side  but nothing, then we hear sirens go off and  we can make out a few of the things he was saying and I didn't understand what he said but Hasibuan did and it wasn't good.  So my comp is like we gotta book it outta here!   So him, me, Mendrofa and Hobbs got out of  there quick! We never found out what actually was the full story... but it was sketchy.
Saturday - So after we got home Hobbs and I went to the store and went to buy some food. When we got to the front of the store this random guy comes up to Hobbs and I and starts speaking English.  He wanted us to come to the Indonesian college in Bogor to speak English with the students.   While he was talking, his daughter runs up to hear the conversation with the "white boyz" and I’m trying to listen to Elder Hobbs, when this girl, who is about my age, starts touching my arm and shoulder!  Weird!  She says, “where you from”,  in Indonesian.  So I turn to her and say, “ America, but why are you touching me? That’s weird!”  But the conversation was in Indonesian and when I said, “That’s weird” (Itu sperti ahne) I accidentally confused a word and said " Itu sperti mati" which means, “It’s kind of dead” I felt like an Idiot,  so I explained my arm was not dead and I'm new to Indonesia and still learning ha-ha .   By this time Elder Hobbs had just finished talking to her dad - then he leaves.  Well turns out the dad and the daughter didn’t know each other!  So she was some random girl who just came up to us, but she got a pass along card!
 Then we were shopping and this guy comes up to me saying, “Photo? Photo? Photo?” (Because I'm white) anyways he got his picture as well as a pass along card ha-ha like all the people who wanted pics after.  Then we went home!  We got ready for bed and its 10:30 p.m.  and I’m not tired at all but everyone else was out! So I kept trying to sleep and kept trying to sleep still not getting tired I look at the clock and its 11:45 p.m.   I'm like geeez? Why can’t I sleep so I got up to get a drink then got back in bed.  Laid there still for about an hour and a half so it like 2:15 a.m. and I’m still wide awake and I’ve been trying to sing hymns in my head so I fall asleep (just like church) and I have to get up at 6:30 anyways!    By 2:15 a.m.  I was on the song " Have I done any good" and I’m thinking about that question and I think ,  Nope I haven’t because this day started two hours ago and I’ve been in the same spot since, so I decide FINE I’ll get up!
So I get everyone’s white shirts and pants and shoes and I take them up stairs quietly so I don’t wake anyone up.  I ironed all their shirts and pants and polished and cleaned all their shoes then got each one of their clothes and hung them up on a hanger, with pants and shirt and tie and belt and nametag and their pens.. So they were like little packets for them to just grab and put on! They looked nice! So then I took them down stairs and put them in their closets hung up with shoes under it.  By now it’s almost 4:00 a.m. so I still have lots of time, so I went back up stairs and organized each of their desks, then swept upstairs !! Now it’s about 5:30 a.m. and  I write a nice note with a scripture for them saying "when you do all you think you can do, you learn you can do so much more" then I put (2 Nephi 32:8) then set each one on their desks!

So then I went down stairs to boil water for the bucket showers (21 pots till it was warm) so they don’t have to take a cold shower.   And I made them all oatmeal for breakfast!! Ha-ha and then they finally wake up! And see I’m already up and I say,  “hey guys I got you all breakfast!!  And I heated water for the showers!! So we don’t have to take cold ones!!”

They said oh... cool.  They see the house is spotless and ... no comment, they see the shoes and said... you polish our shoes? I said yeah! If there is mud tell me and I’ll clean it again... I couldn’t see well in the dark... they said “nah”.   Anyways no one said anything about anything the whole day.   Oh well though,  that was my good for the day :)   I wasn't tired until 6 p.m. that night.

Well I’ve gtg now,  I love you all and I’ll talk to you soon.  It will be Monday before you all know it!  Have a good night!  It’s weird to think I’m already out here and it’s already 3 months since I’ve been gone!! I love you guys! Bye!

-Elder Jones


Questions we asked Tyler

Courtney wants to know what language you think in?  Usually English, but then I try and translate that sentence in my head into Indonesian. That goes on for about an hour then I have a mental melt down!
How are the mosquitos?  Are you taking malaria pills? Bigger here! No we don’t have them.   We can get dengue fever though .
Who lives in the house with you and where are they from? Hobbs is from Slandia Baru New Zealand.  Mendrofa is from Medan, Indonesia.
What’s your favorite day of the week? Ha-ha I don’t have one they are all good.
Are you feeling settled in? Yeah a little bit. I cut up a few church magazines for some wall decorations ha-ha
Did you buy a guitar? Yeah I play church songs.
Do you have any pets? Yes we have 4 fish in a pond which I Fish. "Catch and release lol”
What is church like? Same except less people and way more lingering around and talking afterwards.
How is the language coming? Pretty good I think!
What is your favorite Indonesian food? I forgot the name. It’s obviously rice with beef soaked in coconut milk for a few days and this yellow curry poured on it with cucumbers.
What is the thing you miss most about America? Food... girls...my mustang, the temperature (no humidity) ,  sour candy,  Mexican food!)
 What are your plans for P-day? Going to this place with all the cultures of Indonesia today!
Did you have Zone conference this week?  No, Once a month.

Week 9 - Bogor

WEEK 9 – March 17, 2014



I haven't been dry since I’ve gotten here... either dripping sweat or rain I feel like I’m going to grow mold! Way different climate than I’m use to in Arizona. We don't have a dryer for our clothes and we’re supposed to hang them up but the air is so wet that they don't dry.

I wake up and I have the hope for my favorite time of day which is.... around 4:00 pm and it becomes windy and rainy but a light rain and it becomes like a cold 75 degrees and were on our way to a good lesson ... Or when we finish a great lesson and that’s the weather... I love this certain place in the city where it overlooks the whole city... It looks like a picture out of a movie.... I get up and hope that that day is the day I’m able to testify to an investigator in Indonesian and they feel the truth.

I found the Ford dealer in Jakarta and Bogor... I'm going to go in and take a look... I’ll take some pics for you... the models here that are big is the fiesta and the Everest and the Ranger... all the car dealers here have like 4 story buildings as their dealership and all cars are inside which is pretty cool. I’ve seen a lot of big companies here like Goodyear and a bunch of manufacturers... I bet after college I could get a pretty good job here if there wasn't room for me at the dealership :)

The food we looked up online before I left... well they have that here but only people with money get to eat
it. We only eat street food which doesn't get refrigerated ... the chicken and fish sits out for days as well as
everything else. They don't sell veggies on the street that I’ve found yet, only in the store which is pricey. They have hard boiled eggs that are soaked in vinegar and chili sauce which isn't too tasty... they have krill (the little fish minnows) that are dried out then soaked in that sauce again which was weird at first but alright now. They also have tiny diced fried and soaked chunks of random animal fat but that's not too bad. I ate a chickens head as well weird huh? We eat dinner and lunch and breakfast with our hands at houses because silverware is too expensive. Occasionally we get a spoon ha-ha!

God is definitely watching out for his missionary's though which is comforting. Seeing things and doing things no kid my age in America will probably have to ever do is tough. This mission is so much different from any mission I’ve heard of.

If you’re wondering what you should read in the scriptures Read (3 Nephi 17)... That's what I'm reading right now and it’s great. Try and read the whole New and Old Testament! As well as the Book of Mormon again. My morning personal study is 1 hour of Book of Mormon then in the evening, for nightly study I read the Bible.

So Monday after I emailed last week, we went home and we packed and slept cause we were so tired. Tuesday we had a Zone training meeting in Jakarta at 10 am We had to get up at 5 to make it on time and we rode the train and holy cow there was sooooo many people like maybe 300 people in one train cart... it was so hot and when the train would slow down everyone would squish forward cause it was slowing down and the people at the front would yell cause they were getting crushed?! freaking insane ... anyways once we got there I got a Slurpee from the only 7/11 and it was great :) after the meeting we went to eat then went home on the train and the way home wasn't that packed thank goodness . I pretty much miss the little town of Wickenburg ha-ha I’m not use to a place that has so many people yet ... Wednesday we moved all day and we had the clean the old house. The new house is closer and better though! It took forever to get settled in but now we are and I like it.

Friday night we taught a Sister F. We have been teaching her for a while and Friday night I asked her if she
wants to be baptized and she said yes!! How awesome right!! So her baptism date is the 28th or 29th!! My
comp and I are pretty excited! Hopefully everything follows through!!

Saturday Jeeez It rained all day and I’m the only one who loves it ha-ha Except being wet when I have to walk around! I accidently slept in late on Saturday and it set my day off on the wrong start but everything got better thankfully!! Except I did my laundry and hung it up outside on our line ... well it rained and they are soaked again oh well ... I tried my first guava!! It was pretty dang good!! I wish the fruit here was in America too. It’s so good!

So anyways this week I ran out of money and the past two days I only ate rice and water and I had a thing of ramen... until we had an appointment last night and the family gave us some food!

Questions we asked Tyler:

How are you going to play your music on the USB stick? yeah we have a speaker we plug it in.
Do you have the little speaker I sent you? yes thank you :)
How do you get around? We walk or ride angkots.
What town is your district leader in? Bogor... there are only us 4 elders in our district.

Do you have weekly district meetings? Every Tuesday.
How often do you have zone meetings? Once a month first Tuesday of month.
Where are zone meetings held? In Jakarta chapel
Do they have a McDonald's there? Have you tried it? Yes and yes it’s pretty good but way more expensive.
Where do you usually eat your meals? On the street off these little carts that look like this.

Have you ever eaten with the members? Yes I did last night we had rice and deep fried idk what and we ate the inside of some tree and we ate minnows
Have you heard about the airplane that went missing? Yeah I heard about that ... it’s hard to read the newspaper!

What crazy thing did you eat this week? Minnows, intestines, trees!
Do you like your new apartment? Yes its nicer... bucket showers still.
Amanda really wants to know when/if you're getting a monkey? I have to go to Surabaya or Solo for monkeys ... they aren’t in Bogor.
Do you miss kitty? (She misses you) yes because all the cats here are mean, so keep kitty safe.

Thanks,

Love you talk to you soon. - Elder Jones

Week 8 - I'm still Alive!

I’ve come to find out that Indonesia is almost like Europe regarding church work... very lucky if you get at least 2 baptisms over your 2 years ... it’s very hard work here as well as hard outside conditions.

So last Tuesday I gave out my first book of Mormon to a lady on the bus that my comp was talking to and anyway I thought I heard her say I'm interested in your book and your church my family could use help ! So I jumped right in and gave her a book of Mormon and a pamphlet for the plan of salvation! But when I gave them to her she just looked at me weird ...turns out she said I’m not interested in your book or your church and my family doesn't need your help... awkward lol
We are teaching a lady named Ibu Inging which is going pretty good! She lives in a little house by the river it’s awesome! As soon as I get my camera I will take `1000000 pics!!
So that same day I was with my companion on the street eating rice, when some guys were like “hey come try some sate” ... so I’m like "When in Rome" and I go eat it! It was pretty good until I found out it was chicken intestines... the lesson I learned is never ask what something is!  If it tastes good, that’s enough!
Traffic here is insane like New York has nothing on them here!! And dang there are so many Muslim people here! There are places called red zones in our mission... and it means a well-populated Muslim extremist area and its very dangerous for us to go there .. Strictly off limits!
I was asked to introduce myself this Sunday in front of everyone in sacrament ... It was pretty rough and a blow to my confidence ha-ha but it’s still all good.

I got a haircut Saturday and it was great!! They do an awesome job! It was only a dollar and I got a back massage! And they give you a scalp massage then pop your neck ha-ha it was scary at first but felt nice :) I wish I could just go explore the jungle today!   I caught a huge gecko on the wall Wednesday in the rain!!

Questions we asked Tyler:

So how strict are they on your computer time? The computers shut off after an hour.
Where do you email us from?  Library? Internet café? They are called warnets little room filled with old computers.
How did you run out of water? All we have is a 1 gallon jug hah like the blue water things.
Tell me about the ward? The ward is about 70 active members who are strong! Bogor has a great ward!
What other missionaries are close to you? None we’re all alone out here!
Do you see them often? Nope.
What are your plans for p-day? We’re packing our house because were moving closer to town because we are so far out of town... we move Wednesday
Are you over your food poisoning? Ha-ha... nope!
How long has your companion been out? He goes home in May.
What do you do on your p days? Last p day I UN packed... this p-day I pack!
How’s your apartment? The new one’s nicer!
Does it ever stop raining? Yeah 11-3 it usually doesn’t rain .
What’s the coolest thing you’ve seen so far? Like 60 people packed into an angkot and on top of it driving!! Ha-ha
I saw a man with no legs on the street begging for money and he fell off the curb into the street and just couldn’t get up so many people just drove by but one man got over to him and picked him up and gave him money and sat him down ..The man with no legs was crying. Because he was so grateful that someone helped him... shoot I was getting teary eyed myself... people have it so hard here!
How is the language? It’s going good...I can’t complain... I met a guy who spoke Spanish so we talked in broken Spanish which was awesome!!!!
What’s a typical day like? We wake up and everyone is grumpy for 5 min then we have Morning Prayer then we are good and we study till 11am then go eat off the street and then proselyte or service or lessons until 9:30 p.m. then we come home and do what we got to do to get to bed by 10:30.
Are you writing in your journal? Yes I’m really trying I promise.
How often do you get mail? I haven’t even seen any yet so please tell everyone to write me!
Have you had anything else stolen? If so it wasn’t important enough for me to notice ha-ha.
How’s that volcano by you? It’s an old one but it’s at stage 2 and stage 1 means evacuate town I guess .
I miss home I love you guys!!! Bye :)
Elder Jones

Week 7 - Jakarta and Bogor

Arriving at the airport in Jakarta

 

 

Hello!!! The plane ride was waaayyy long too ... It’s weird being ahead 14 hours!!

 

 I made it here alive surprisingly!  I live straight up in the jungle!!  I’m just gonna tell you what pops in my head ...

Touring around Jakarta as we first arrived

 Sooo today I was on a bus and I sat by a guy with a guitar !!   I knew how to play what they were singing and playing SO I played for them and they sang and made money on the bus!! How funny right? They sell guitars all over here ;)  $15 I may or may not have bought one ....

Yup!  That's the toilet...

 

I have cold water bucket showers every morning and night ha-ha it's  ... well it builds character!

Street food that probably got me sick :(

OHH here’s a story... So once I got here everyone went straight to the street food ... Long story short I got food poisoning soooo bad I had to go to the hospital... I was puking up blood and straight up water stools and brown pee... I was literally dying... So I called president and he was said go to the hospital ASAP!  It was  9:30 at night and we live up in the jungle forest and it’s hard enough to get there in general ... plus that night it was POURRRING like I’ve never seen before .  Anyways bishop came but traffic was so bad we didn’t get to the hospital until 11 p.m. not to mention it was a sketchy hospital... like if you think Mexico is bad?? No,  not compared to this one... long story short I puked and had the runs and headache for the next few days the doc gave me some medicine he said I got bad virus ??  The doc was only 35 dollars ha-ha cheap! (this was Saturday night ) so they told  me to sleep all day Sunday so I did.   I’ve lost 10 pounds since I’ve been here .  Eating rice all day!

 

 

 Oh we ran out of water right ? lol well I didn’t know how to brush my teeth so I did it with coke :) yeah wasn’t too bad . I made oatmeal with boiled strawberry soda !! Now that was good though!!We ride things called oncoats (angkoats) with sweaty stinky people jam packed ha-ha but it’s all good.  We have helped a lot of people since being here!! Everyone smokes here!! I could qualify as a pack a day smoker with all the second hand smoke here!! Ha-ha they smoke in buildings in busses in stores.  well it’s raining again :) I love it!! And I love it here the people are so humble and so great!! Always smiling... you don’t have to have things to be happy... just a positive outlook.

"Two men behind bars one stares at the mud the other looks up at the stars"  I like that quote !

 

 

Eating Lunch

Service 4 flood victims @ church

 

 

Oh and after that note! I got pick pocketed today and my camera was stolen :( sooo Idk what to do about that .. No  more pics I guess ;(  The internet here is very on and off .. Sometimes it works other times... not so much!  The power shorted out so I’m having to retype my email -__- I’d say more but I’m outta time :(

Oh can you send me all music on a usb stick? efy music church music even radio mellow music!! Please? We can listen to it!! But I don’t have any ;(

Bye!!! Talk to you soon :)

-Elder Jones

Questions we asked Tyler:

How long did you stay in the mission home?  Only one night then I was transferred to Jakarta temporarily until I got my visa (kita)

Did Elder Wills and Peterson arrive about the same time you did? Yes they got here an hour later

What was your initial reaction to first being there? I walked off the plane and it was like a wave of hot water in my face lol

Can you understand the language somewhat? Ha yeah everyone says I’m pretty dang good for just getting here!

Who is your companion? My comp is ELDER HASIBUAN from Indonesia!! Doesn’t speak a lick of English lol

Where are you assigned? I’m assigned to the good old town of Bogor!!! How funny! You said (while sitting in the office) "I hope you go to Bogor first! ... The volcano in our town just got deemed dangerously active ... cool huh!!

Did they tell you how long you’ll be there? I’ll be here a solid 6 months

Do you like the food? I like the food but my body doesn’t... makes me sick

Who are you teaching? Idk all their names yet

Do you have jet lag? nahhh I’m good

Did you meet Elder Heiner or Sister Sperry yet? Yes me and Heiner talked a lot he’s in my zone ... I also talked to Sperry a lot too

Are you dying of the heat? I’m dying of sweat

Was the picture of the mattresses your apartment? Yes... nasty huh?

What’s your apartment like? Ummmmmm

Where did Davies go? Medan

Where did Wills go? Surbaya

Was everyone excited to get new missionaries? yes we're popular hha