In Jakarta

This place is nuts! The flight over was great, no problems
at all. I slept for like 8 or 9 hours so the flight was
really easy. It was crazy flying from Hong Kong to
Jakarta. We flew over like Laos and Vietnam and stuff.
It was crazy. We went through customs and everything and
when we got out, there was literally like 500 people
crowding the mouth of the hall. We saw a white lady waving
at us so we assumed that was Sister Marchant. It was her
haha. President Marchant and some people that work here
were there too and we all left in 3 vans. Traffic here is
really crazy. They go fast and drive on sidewalks and
in the wrong side of the road haha. There is a system of
busses here called busway and there are pedestrian bridges
over the roads to get to it and motorcyclers drive up and
onto the bridges haha. The mission home is in a really nice
part of town. It is where all of the foreign affairs people
live. The mission home is where the French foreign affairs
person used to live. It is way nice and has granite counters
and stainless steel appliances. In the back is where the
office elders live.
That night, Sister Marchant made us dinner. It was like rice
and noodles and mashed potatoes and tons of good fruit,
including yellow watermelon…it was kinda strange but tasted
good. We went to this market after with the office elders
and bought small side bags for proselyting. President told
us to go to bad when we got home so we went to bed at like
8. I slept through the whole night and for some reason,
haven’t had any problems adjusting to the crazy time change.
It’s good! This morning was only the second time that I’ve
woken up to hear the call to prayer so all is good. Now,
I’m going to write in bullets so that I don’t have to organize
my thoughts.

1. The other day, we saw a tarzan guy run across the street.
He was running through traffic, perhaps looking for his home.
2. For the next few weeks, I’m working in Jakarta Raya, so
like the middle of Jakarta. My companion is Elder Supriyanto.
He is from Bogor, which is about an hour from here if there
isn’t traffic. He speaks a fair bit of English. He is a really
cool guy and he’s pretty good at Indonesian too! Haha. There
are 6 of us in the house, including my comp from the MTC and
one of the Aussies from the MTC. We have a good time so no
worries with that. The natives in our house are Elder
Supriyanto, Elder Effi Yohanto, and another Elder Supriyanto.
They only have one name here so as missionaries, they take
the name of their fathers. Because there are so many of
us, 4 sleep on the floor. It is air conditioned in the room
where we sleep so it’s so nice for sleeping!
3. The food here is so cheap! Everything is so cheap! We go
out to dinner and it’s way cheap, like 60 cents for a big
dinner. I went grocery shopping and bought oatmeal, 8 eggs,
3 packs of ramen stuff, 4 kit kats, tim tams, and 2 cokes and
it was 5 bucks. Do they have tempe (sp?) at home? It’s like a
soy thing but we eat it a lot here. It tastes good if there
is good sauce mixed in.
4. So we go out on busway a lot and try to contact people. We
pass out a lot of pass along cards and get lots of numbers.
Right now, we have about 5 progressing investigators. Manahan
has a baptismal date for a month from now. He is really cool.
He is a security guy so we teach him in his security station.
Another is john. He is like 50’s, and a little different.
He tries to speak English all of the time and I never know
what he’s saying. Last time he told me “I like rainbows!” and
we was shocked and offended that I didn’t study martial arts
as an extracurricular class in college. He is like a little
kid though so he is soaking up everything we teach him
really well. We’re teaching another guy named Daniel and his
wife. They are really cool, but live 2 hours away on a bus.
Last time we taught him, there was a born-again Christian
concert next door so it was really weird Indonesian
Christian techno haha. He kept saying “Mereka domba domba
sesat!” lost sheep haha. Another investigator is named Steven.
He speaks English really well, but I haven’t met him yet. We
are going to teach him tonight. All of the investigators
except him came to church on Sunday so that’s good.
5. Church was good! Fast Sunday in Indonesia. The building is
really nice. It’s like a strip mall so it’s 4 stories and
doesn’t look like a church from the outside. Inside, it is so
nice and just like a church in the states. The only difference
is the chapel has some pillars going down the middle. I guess
that’s the only way they could do it. I went up and bore my
testimony and introduced myself and people were really nice
afterwards and came and talked to me. There were about 60
people at church by the way. After church, was branch break
the fast! We ate rice and chicken and that soy stuff. I
grabbed a chicken and as I was nibbling my way across the
bone, I came across something really soft. Long story short,
it was the food…claws and all. I almost was tricked into
eating it haha.
6. So here, everyone calls us “meester!” haha. Walking down
the street “Meester meester, my name is!” haha. They speak
English a lot like Spanish speakers do.
7. So I’ve been healthy and all that so far. I don’t know
how long it will last! I eat off the streets everyday so stay
tuned! Haha.
8. I don’t know if you were planning on doing this at all,
but if we receive packages, we have to use our money to have
them delivered to the mission office so it would be better
if you just put money into my account, which reminds me…I need
to call B of A.
9. In our little block, there are 2 mosques so we hear the
call to prayer really well haha. We walk past one of them
multiple times a day.  Everyone is super friendly here, even
as we walk past their mosque.
10. This city is really diverse with everything. We’ve been
to some really nice malls here. Almost all of the people
there are Chinese, because they have all of the money in
Indonesia. The Indonesians look like Mexicans generally. They
all look pretty different though.
11. Jakarta is huge and there are really nice sky scrapers
everywhere, and little shacks everywhere. Public transportation
is just like Nicaragua. People yell and sell things and sing and
try to sell weird cards and comics that nobody really wants
haha.
12. I’ve taught a fair bit already. I also teach English every
Friday night! Not very many people show up so we just play games
in English. The people seem to like it was it’s good.
13. The language is coming well enough. I follow conversations
and testimonies during church and stuff. It’s not easy but if I
try, I can follow conversations. It’s really easy to zone it out
but I know that’s not the best idea haha. By the time we talk at
Christmas I should be comfortable with the language.

How is life and Canada and stuff? It’s weird to be so far away.
Life is a little different here but I haven’t been “culturally
shocked” yet haha. I’ve been able to travel around and see some
bits of the world so nothing has phased me yet. Oh yeah! Walking
over here I saw my first rat! It was dead in the gutter thing.
On the sides of all of the roads is where all of the water and
waste goes. It’s about a foot and a half across and about two
feet deep. It’s filled with trash and nasty “water” and
animals and crap and stuff. Kinda strange but I’m ok with it.
It won’t be fun when I fall in though haha. It hasn’t rained
yet really but I’m excited for that. How was Hayley’s birthday?
You will have to tell me all about Canada and all of the fun
there. Have you heard anything about my friends at the MTC/mission
field? Let me know! I gotta run! Don’t worry about me here. It’s
safe and friendly and I have a great companion. Take care!
See you soon!

Love, Elder B-rett.

Ps- All of the kids pet my arm because people here don’t have arm
hair haha.