Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Halo Orang Putih!! Hello White Man!

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Halo!
Well, just about one week or so in Indonesia and so far I absolutely love it! It is absolutely insane here, traffic, people, trash, hot, humid, more traffic! But I definitely am loving it thus far!! Right now, I am serving in bekasi which is basically a suburb of Jakarta, but by suburb I dont mean American suburb because in a lot of ways it is crazier than jakarta. But I have two companions right now, Elder Adams from Oregon and Elder Sutarno rom Solo ( Central Java). Bekasi is a VERY muslim part of Indonesia. Imagine that you're in Utah and you see a church on every corner, except here they are mosques which include calls to prayer 5 times a day. One of which is at 4 in the morning, It ALWAYS wakes me up. Bekasi is actually hotter than Jakarta is, I know this because right now I am back at the mission home because we needed to fill out some paper work and it is definitely "colder", if you can call it that.
Because Bekasi is very muslim it is very very hard to proselyte, honestly not really anyone wants anything to do with us. But we often try to talk to anyone and invite them to English class. right now the main means of transportation is an angkut, which is like a VW hippie-van that has seats along the sides in the back that they pack full of people. They are everywhere too along with motorcycles. So many motorcycles!
I feel like I have not learned the language at all, it just sounds totally different here. They say it will take a month or two to start getting comfortable with it at all, I have been a little reluctant to speak because I can't understand but I am trying to force myself to speak.
We have gotten to teach quite a few lessons, the thing is that our area is huge. we have an investigator named anggun . Anggun is dating a member of the ward, named Samuel. The interesting thing is that Anggun has been taking discussions for a long time, wants to be baptized, but her family is muslim and wont let her until she lives on her own for awhile and other things too. She is also from a city maybe 2 or 3 hours from jakarta which is a very radical muslim city that christians, especially white, arent very safe in. so she comes in on the weekends for church and also to be taught. Hopefully things will work out so she can be baptized!
The ward is awesome here and pretty much all of the people are too. They think it is so funny to see a white person. most people dont really know english besides " Hello Mister, How are you? My name is..." so I hear that a bunch every day along with " Orang Putih (white man)" or Buleh which is a littl more slang/ rude. It is fun tough and the kids are hilarious!
But I don't really know what else to say besides that next wednesday I will be moving to a new area, manado which is on the Island of sulawesi which is the northeast part of Indonesia, close to the Phillippines. I dont really know if i will get mail up there if anybody tries to send stuff... but the address is the mission home address which I think you have in the book that came with my mission call.
But I love you all and I hope all is going well for you back in the states. I probably forgot so much stuff I wanted to tell you but there is just a ton of information.
It is amazing, referring back to the church here, that so so far away from where the Church was restored, there are members and wards and a stake! It was such a testimony to me that this is the Lord's Church on Earth once again!
Have a great week! It sounds like your trip was amazing I am jealous big time!
Love,
Kevin

Monday, June 20, 2011

Pictures from the Mission Home!

These pictures were sent to us by Pres. and Sister Groberg. I have no doubt that Kevin is in for the experience of a lifetime!!!
This is Pres.& Sister Groberg
At the airport with Pres. Groberg.

First traditional Indonesian lunch- they ate it with their hands.
MTC Buddies!

I have included the email we received from Pres. Groberg. As he said, this is a challenging mission, so PLEASE remember Kevin in your prayers and if you have a chance send him a letter. Feel free to contact me and I will give you the "pouch mail" instructions. That would be the cheapest and easiest way to write him. I am sure that mission rules are that email is for family only. Thanks for your support!

Dear Brother and Sister Johnson,
We want to inform you that Elder Johnson has arrived and we are excited to have him serving with us in Indonesia. His group had an adventure getting here including a cancelled and missed flight and 24 extra hours in Los Angeles. They are here now and temporarily assigned in areas around Jakarta while their Indonesian visa/identity cards are being processed. Within the week they will receive their first assignment.
Indonesia is a challenging mission and new missionaries have quite an adjustment initially. Your faith, prayers, encouragement and letters will help. Soon they will settle into the routine and begin to appreciate the wonderful people here and realize the amazing opportunity that is theirs to serve the Lord in Indonesia.
Enjoy the pictures of their first two days.
President and Sister Groberg

Sunday, June 19, 2011

The "Elder" has Landed!

The drama behind Kevin's phone call was UnBeLiEvEaBlE!!!!
George and I had a belated 30th wedding anniversary trip planned and were leaving on the 13th. Now we knew that would be NEAR the time Kevin would be leaving and therefore calling home BUT we had NO IDEA that it would all be happening on the same day AND at the same time! I was heartsick about it for a week. I was more concerned for Kevin not being able to talk to his parents than I was me getting to talk to him. Ok...maybe I was as bummed for me as I was him. The forever optimist, George kept saying it would all work out. I prayed so hard that SOMETHING would happen for us to be able to connect. Well, it wasn't looking good because our flight left for Chicago at 7:05pm and that would be the time that Kevin would be getting through security and then to a phone booth. He was scheduled to leave SLC at 8:30pm. I could hardly bear it!!!
Well,we were on our way to the airport and my cell phone rang...I was out of my body because it was a Utah area code. Sure enough it was ELDER JOHNSON!!! He was able to get to a phone sooner than he thought, which worked out perfectly. He sounded so great! He was happy, excited, nervous, and READY! It was so hard to hang up that phone! So off we went to the airport for our trip. WELL...our flight was cancelled...we didn't end up leaving til the next day AND Kevin was able to call again and we talked for about 30 more minutes. I am convinced that it was a tender mercy from the Lord. It could have turned out so differently. The story does not end here. Kevin was also able to talk to Jeffrey, which was so good for the both of them. We figured Kevin was on his way to LAX the whole evening. The next morning, after landing in Chicago, I had a message from Kevin, that they also had flight problems! Their flight out of SLC was delayed which caused them to miss their flight to Hong Kong. So he spent the night in LA and was rerouted to Tokyo and then to Singapore. What an adventure that must have been. The long of it...he landed safe and sound and was one TIRED missionary. But as you will read in his email, he is so happy to be there and is ready to get going! That "optimist" was right again! Just a side note. We had a fabulous time on our trip, which was made possible by an answer to prayer and a phone call!
June 16, 2011
Hello Mom and Dad!
This will just be real quick, but I thought I would explain a little bit about the trip... Flight cancelled in Salt Lake, so we got a different one but it ended up being late so we missed our flight from LAX. We stayed the night in LA, then flew to Tokyo and then to Singapore. From Singapore we flew to Jakarta! This place is crazy! there are people everywhere, they are all very friendly and it is SO hot. I am feeling pretty jet-lagged today. It feels like it should be a ton later than 6 pm right now! WE were able to do a little bit of proselyting, I went with another elder and rode the bus for an hour. It seems like they speak a completely different language than I was taught! But I am sure it will get better with time. We will be getting a temporary assignment for our first week here for our local visas to go through which will allow us to go all over the country, and then after that we will get our longer assignments.
I believe P-day will be wednesday so I will here from you all then!
Love ya,
I hope all is well!
Kevin

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

He's On His Way, June 13th!!

June 7, 2011
Halo Semua Orang!
Well... the flight plans have arrived:
we leave Salt Lake City at 830 pm on the 13th, fly to LAX, leave LAX at 1130, fly to Hong Kong, arriving at 530 am on the 15th. Then we leave Hong Kong for Indonesia and we will arrive in Jakarta at 1 in the afternoon! It is going to be one killer of a flight, but in a way I am looking forward to it.
I don't know how that will all work as far as calling goes... I am going to buy a calling card, and my branch president said I can pretty much call anyone in the family, just not talk for too long! So i dont know exactly how it will all work with those going to Chicago, so just send me a dear elder in the next few days letting me know what you want to do!
It is pretty hard to not be totally excited now, that is for sure, but there is plenty of work left to do! in the past week, and this upcoming week, we are teaching two "investigators" a.k.a. our teachers every day! It has been some very excellent practice. One of them is a Catholic and the other is Muslim, so we have gotten maybe a little bit of a taste of what religion the people over there will be! It is amazing how similar Islam is with our religion. They believe in Adam and Eve, Moses, however they believe that Jesus Christ was only a prophet, and not our Savior. The way they live, well at least they're supposed to live is very very similar to ours as well. It is like Preach My Gospel says, many people can be inspired to teach their people to live in a good way. but teaching has definitely been one of my favorite parts of the week.
The other thing that was awesome was on sunday, since it was fast sunday, we had mission conference. The main topic that I got from it was how amazing the First Vision is! It was awesome. The First Vision is something that really does set our Church apart, and it validates that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God, and that Thomas S. Monson is our Prophet now. The Bible also teaches the Our Father in Heaven calls His prophets through visions.
Hmm just to answer some of the questions you asked Momma, at times I feel good with the language but at times i dont. This week our teacher had us talk to one his converts in Malaysia on his computer. It was super awesome to talk to her, but also made me realize how much practice it is going to take to learn the language and speak well. But she gave some great advice to us and really stressed " Jangan takut berbicara" or dont be scared to speak! So I will definitely not let myself be scared to speak!
I have made some awesome friends here, especially with some Elders in our zone that just left yesterday for Madagascar. Two in particular are Elder Wilson and Elder Fryer who we have already decided we will be meeting up some time that first summer we're all back. We are going to try to keep in touch over the next two years two, it will be awesome to talk with them.
I think the hardest thing for me so far had just been the nature of the MTC, a ton of work all day, mostly in a classroom. Just in the past few weeks I have started to get really antsy to just leave and be able to teach real people, because usually the things we do just gets me so excited for it!
Hmm as far as the package goes, i really don't need much maybe a few packages of razors? And I might need to send my backpack home this week along with a few other things because apparently we are allowed only one carry on for our flight and the backpack will count as that, and also our teacher said we wont want a back pack over there because EVERYTHING will get stolen out of it. He recommended just a small side bag instead that you can walk in big crowds with and have it in front of you... I am not sure how I feel about having to carry a man purse, but oh well. I feel bad because the backpack is SO sweet, but I will certainly make use of it during school afterwards.
Well I am about out of time! So I just want you all to know how much I love you and I hope all is well. Tell Dad to start feeling better. And if you need to send anything/ tell everyone if they want to send anything to make sure it gets here by Saturday, otherwise I might not get it! Dont forget to let me know about calling on Monday night!
I love you all so much. The Church is True, and Thomas S. Monson is a Prophet of God on Earth today!

Love,
Kevin

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Another Apostle Visits the MTC

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Halo Keluarga!
Bagaimana kabar anda?
All is well here at the MTC, just workin workin workin... It was funny that yesterday was memorial day, I used to get so excited for it during school but it was not different from any other day this time around... Nonetheless hopefully it was sebuah hari libur yang sangat bagus! haha
Well the highlights of the week arent many... I am suffering from part-timers these days so I have a bit of a hard time remembering last week. Or maybe it is just being busy busy busy all of the time! But we were blessed with the opportunity to hear Elder Nelson speak last tuesday! It was so excellent. He spoke a lot on obedience and the blessings for obedient missionaries both during the mission and after. The thing i liked most from all of it was that he emphasized also a lot on what this Church is founded on, which is our Savior Jesus Christ. He said whenever some one asks what we believe there is a simple 4 word answer to give back, " We follow Jesus Christ". It really is as simple as that.
Well we are just about done speaking english in the classroom/ as a district... which means we will all more than likely have a headache all day because it is a hard thing to do! But it is definitely great practice and I would be a liar if I said I don't love the language, no matter how hard it is to say stuff at times!
Sorry this is a bit of a shorter email, I just dont reallyk now what to say! But we should be getting our travel plans this thursday or friday, so I will be able to let you know next email about calling! Also that means if anyone wants to send me anything they need to make sure it will be here by saturday the 11th, or I won't get it!
Welp,
saya tahu bahwa Gereja ini adalah benar. Saya tahu Yesus Kristus menderita bagi dosa-dosa kita agar kita dapat menerima pengampunan bagi dosa. Saya tahu pendamaian-Nya satu-satunya cara kita dapat kembali kepada Bapa Surgawi Kita. Saya Tahu bahwa Saya dipanggil oleh Yesus Kristus untuk mengkhotbahkan Injil-Nya!
I love you all,
have a most excellent week!
Sampai nanti,
Kevin

p.s. I am going to be sending a few things home in a box so be looking for that!

He Loves the Language!

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Halo Keluarga!
Apa Kabar!?
It is pretty crazy that I can now say that I will be on the plane if not in Indonesia three weeks from now! I am so excited!
But of course, there is much work to be done here! It has been another week of lots of work and what not! I feel bad because it seems like I write about the same things every week, but oh well, boring details will just have to be good enough for you! It really has been a great week, we are just keeping ourselves as busy as possible!!
The focus is more and more transferring from english studies of doctrine, teaching etc... to Indonesian studies of doctrine and teaching. It is pretty frustrating when we realize we have to teach one of the teachers, but we don't really know how to say any of what we plan to teach that day. That was the case yesterday, but we survived so it is ok.
There are huge changes coming this week though, our zone is getting 28 new missionaries tomorrow. It is going to be out of control! Elder Smith and I have been enjoying being the only people in our room, but unfortunately that is all changing as we will have roommates! But our branch president has really been stressing the importance of being an example to the new missionaries, 18 of which will be going to Malaysia (which speaks pretty much the same language as Indonesia), so it will be important to show them the ropes. Also, we are most likely not speaking any english in our room for the first few days just to drive them a little bit crazy! so that ought to be enjoyable to freak them out a little bit. The Malaysian sister missionaries that were here when we arrived tried to do it to us, but we are now about at their level of speaking when they left the MTC, so it will be far more enjoyable.
The weather down here has been typical spring weather, sunny for an hour, pouring rain for the next few, but i might as well get used to the rain now!
I wrote a letter to Hayden Richards the first Pday here and I got one back from him this week, he is hilarious! It was really good to hear from him though and he gave me some good advice! It sounds like he is just doing so well over there!
I swear like half of the guys in my BYU ward are here now, with a bunch more coming the next few weeks! IT has been really fun to see them though, just a little hard to remember to call them Elder!
It sounds like all is well in Boise though! Congrats to Jeff and Laura on the big move!! That is excellent! Hopefully all goes well with Dad's endoscopy!
I have finally remembered to give you my mission scripture! IT is a different one than I thought at first, but it really hit me when I read it last tuesday!
it is 2 Timothy 1: 6-10
Hopefully that isnt too long!

I love you all!
Have a great week!!!


I love you All