Tuesday, December 27, 2016

WEEK 3: WOAAHHH HALFWAY THERE

WOO0000AAAHH LIVIN ON A PRAYER (literally hajahhahahjah) 

Hallo keluarga!! How goes it?? Hope you all had such a wonderful Christmas! Sending you all my love from afar:) I pray you all got to feel the Spirit of Christ and continue to remember Him not just during Christmas, but every day.  Thanks to my sweet sis, Bren, for sending me a pug sweater and pug socks and thanks to one of my best friends, Sisi for sending me a calendar with pics of all of your pretty faces and pugs hahaja:,) Happy tears overload! 

3 weeks in the MTC, and 3 weeks till ye olde sweet motherland- INDONESIA!!
Wahhhdooo!!! (My new favorite word haha, means Wow in Indo) Ahh my heart is
so happy here, I really feel the Spirit so strongly so often and the missionaries here
are the greatest.

1) Woke up on Christmas morning to a WHITE CHRISTMAS HAHA CHRISTMAS MIRACLE INDEED IM TELLIN YA THE LORD ANSWERS PRAYERS!! But really, it was unreal. A Southern Californian and Australian as comps + snow = a lot of slipping and falling (on my end haha) and laughing crying of pure joy and excitement
Now- imagine this: a brown girl unknowingly speed walking to a pile of snow to throw a snowball at a friend.. Suddenly, she slips before grabbing a snowball, slides across ice in front of everyone and their mother.. And let's just say I am grateful we have all gone through the temple and know what covenants we have made hahahaha. A few scrapes and bruises on my leg that will scar will remind me forever of the MTC. :)))) 15 seconds later, a friend of mine came over to laugh at me, and then she slipped in the same spot hahaha good times. 

2) Elder Oakes spoke to us on Christmas!! It was amazing. And David Archuleta sang to us that night. You can say my heart was melting all day!! 

Something I loved- Elder Oakes said, "Take what you have put it on the alter, do the best you can, and the Lord will use you." The Lord has given each of us specific strengths and weaknesses. And as I'm learning more and more every day about myself and how I can draw closer to Christ and help others come unto Christ, I am understanding that I am not good enough! I am not perfect, and I am not the best in the language yet, and I don't know everything. But I am trying! I am giving Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ my all. I know He recognizes our efforts in all that we do. And I know that the Lord makes weak things strong(Ether 12:27). 

The beautiful thing about Jesus Christ and His Atonement is that because of Him, He will make up for what we can't do. And I am so grateful for Him! His perfect love and example to each of us. I am so thankful to wake up every day and literally wear his name on my name tag and represent our Savior, Jesus Christ. 

3) (que Where is the Love by the Black Eyed Peas) THE ANSWER IS FOUND AT THE MTC HAHA. So much love is felt here. I feel God's love through the things I'm studying- my scriptures and through prayer, and I feel His love through the people I have met here. I feel His love through hymns and music, and the Spirit testifies so strongly of that love. I feel His love as I'm learning and studying Indo and I feel His love for the investigators I'm teaching and because He loves us, I love too! I love LOVE haha. 

Look for God's hand in your life! I know that if you take the time to be grateful for the little things and reach out to help those around you, you will feel God's love! He is there!! I love being a missionary and I love being able to learn and study and feel the Spirit. This is where I need to be! 

Saya tahu bawha Yesus Kristus dan Allah hidup. Saya tahu juga bawha mereka mengasihi kita dan mereka tau kita. Mereka mau kita jadi bahagia dan saya tahu injil Yesus Kristus benar! Injil ini akan membantu kita jadi bahagia dan merasa kasih Allah!!

Saya mengasihi anda <3 

dengan kasih, 
Sister Ratunuman :) 

Indo class feat Thai elder



                                                 The Indo/Malay/Thai District / my fam here :)



                                                                HAPPY BROWN SISTAS



Goodbye pt 1 to the Thai elders

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

WEEEEEK 1: MAMA I MADE IT!!!


Selamat pagi!! 

Hello my sweet fam & friends!! Tis I, Sister Ratunuman! And I have made it through the first week of the MTC!!! Can I get an AMEN?!?!? Yeahhhhyaaa!!!!

For those of you who don't know what the MTC is.. It's the Missionary Training Center located in Provo Utah and all missionaries report here first. I'm here for six weeks since I'm learning Indonesian and HOLY SMOKES, MTC is so crazy/fun/happy. I absolutely love it! 

1- Last Wednesday I entered the MTC.. That morning I missed my flight (hahahhahah California traffic is no bueno) and a then a miracle happened!! The lady at Delta Airlines was LDS and she asked me where I was going. Me, the hysterical weeper that I am, told her (in broken words) I was reporting to the MTC for my mission and she found the next flight, booked me on it, and WAIVED THE FEE!!! So I just hopped on that flight and maybe kinda arrived to the MTC two hours later than expected haha! Shoutout to my Ptown friends for picking me up & taking good care of me:)

2- MY COMP IS AN AUSTRALLIAN VERSION OF ME HAHA!!! She is so funny. Her name is Sister Nuku. We make fun of each other 24/7 and we have a ton of fun, we work really hard, and teach really well together. I am convinced we are soul sisters. We try to copy each others 'accents' and she's really weird/funny as well which is just what I need!!! She says the funniest things..and she gets confused with American money and the purpose of pennies and dollar bills. She always says "cheers" and I always thought she was randomly saying cheese all the time hahahahhaha

3- My zone is amazing! The group of missionaries in our zone are going to: cambodia, thailand, indo, vietnam, singapore!!! SO COOL AND SO FUN!!! My district is also hilarious. It has been a week and we feel like family. 

4- I WAS REUNITED WITH MY BFF ZUNDEL SHIMAI IN THE CAFETERIA!! LEMME TELL YA, HAPPIEST MOMENT AND LOTS OF HAPPY TEARS SHED. also we were reunited with our Swig Regular- Chris the MTC worker!! Shout out to my swig fam- you know who I'm talking bout!

5- The Gift of Tongues is real!! I taught my first lesson IN INDONESIAN the third day i was here to an investigator (someone learning/interested about the church). And we taught out second, and third lesson this week too. The first time was rough.. but the second and third were amazing. I know that through faith and prayer, the Holy Ghost will inspire you and teach you the right words and phrases! it is magical!!! My Indo class is unreal too. I understand my teacher, but speaking and grammar is something I have to work on. It's only me, my comp, and Elder Nielsen, and we all help one another and laugh at each other when we mess up ;) 

6- I have felt God's love so immensely in so many different ways. I know with all my heart that this is exactly where I need to be. I need to learn, work hard, study, read my scriptures, pray, and do more and more everyday in order to draw closer to my Father in Heaven. If you feel lonely or afraid, please get on your knees and pray! God will give you that peace and comfort! he is real, He knows you, and He loves you!!! 

My time is running out, but I love it here. One thing I ask for you to do is take the time to do something more- read an extra chapter in your scriptures or pray a little longer and pour your heart out to Heavenly Father- and I know you will draw closer to Him!! I promise you that!!! This gospel is amazing! 

Saya tahu bawha Yesus Kristus hidup dan Bapa Surgawi. Bapa Surgawi mengasahi dan tahu anda!!! Saya tahu bawha injil Yesus Kristus benar!!! <3

(Sorry Mom & Dad & Indo friends if my Indo is a little rough, IM WORKING ON IT!!) 

Saya mengasahi semua anda dan SELAMAT NATAL!!! 

1- P town friends




2- Chirs & zundel shimai - SWIG<3



3- indo class!!!




                                         4 & 5 - MTC friends