Weekly Facebook Video in Medan

A fantastic video posted on Facebook where you can see the joy and happiness these missionaries feel about Jesus Christ and the opportunity they have to share it.

Facebook Song about Christ

Facebook Post by the Branch President in Medan.

Batasi Mendrofa

Be the answer to someone else's prayer. There are many ways a prayer can be answered. The spirit can help you know who, how, and when to help👍 — with Mattias Osthed and Joshua Rowe.

God answers prayers and revelation is real!

Halo kalian! 

Minggu ini sangat luar biasa! Saya telah mengalami banyak mukjizat2 dalam pekerjaan Allah :) We also had the opportunity to meet with 20 + people and about 11 of them are new! It's super awesome being able to help and invite them to come closer to Christ and to receive the blessings that Jesus Christ's Gospel has to offer. 

This week I had the opportunity to serve trio with Elder Cahya Putra and Elder Siregar while I waited for my new companion. Elder Cahya Putra just finished his training here in Medan and is serving with Elder Siregar. Elder Siregar is from Bogor and was called to serve in the Hong Kong mission. He got assigned to serve in his home country while they take care of the Corona virus. He served as Assistant to the President for 7 months and is a stellar missionary. Our first 2 days together we were able to meet with 7 new people and share a message with them. They are all interested. On Tuesday, we had a lesson with 3 people and directly after the lesson we headed to a mall to talk with people. While we were talking with people at the mall I had an amazing experience that I would like to share! We were about to head home and just before we were headed out of the mall I got an impression to go sit next to this person named Sara. He was on his phone and he was reading something. We started talking and we both got to know each other a little bit. He's from Malaysia and he is visiting his family in Medan for a couple days and headed back to Malaysia on Thursday. I later told him about our purpose and why we are here. I could tell he had something that he was thinking deeply about. I asked him how his family is and he said that a couple days ago his father passed away. He's Kristen and was reading the bible seeking help and guidance. He was looking for comfort and for answers. I was able to listen to him and try to comfort him during that time. He said I know God sent you to me to help me during this time! We met him and his family on Wednesday and were able to clarify many of the things that we believe in, share a loving message from God, and schedule a follow-up meeting. They were very interested in our message and were asking many questions. Initially, they were closed off but I know that through the power of the Holy Ghost their hearts were opened and they were receptive to the things that we were saying. We plan on meeting with them again later this week. Elder Siregar turned out to be related to them as well!! He had never met them before and it was cool making that connection. It was a great experience! I'm so thankful for a loving Heavenly Father that answers prayers. I'm thankful that was an answer to someone's prayer at a time of difficulty. 

I'd also like to share another experience I had last week about Inspiration and the power of prayer. Elder Ritchie, my last companion, had met this person named Joshua at the beginning of last transfer while playing frisbee. Joshua can speak Mandarin and also English fluently. Elder Ritchie had met with him several times while on splits with Elders in our zone and district. We were planning on meeting with him last week. He had already been taught twice but I didn't know what he was taught, how he received it, and much about him. During my personal study, I wanted to know what we needed to share with him that day and how I could help him and teach him his needs. I felt like we should talk about the book of mormon, it's history, why it's important, and how it's the keystone of our religion, the spiritual aspek... I had written a lesson outline and felt really good about it. Elder Ritchie and I later had companion study and we both felt like that would be the right thing to share with him. He met with Joshua and we opened with a prayer. After I said the prayer, immediately Joshua asked some questions about the book of mormon! Every question that he asked I had prepared for in my personal study! I was shocked and new that Elder Ritchie and I had received a revelation with God about our lesson with Joshua. This strengthened my testimony on the power of prayer and receiving answers and guidance for others. I know that when we lack wisdom, exercise proper reverence, ask God in faith, have a deep desire, and willing to act on the promptings we receive he will guide us and give us wisdom. (Proverbs 3: 5 - 6) (James 1:5)(Mathew 5:6) (3 Nephi 14: 7) (D&C 42: 61) God answers sincere prayers and I know that as we seek for guidance and direction through the Holy Ghost we will receive it. And revelation might not all come at once maybe it comes little by little but it will come. (2 Nephi 28: 30) I know that these things are true. 

We also had the opportunity to meet with Sister Halawa and her family. She was just recently baptized and received the gift of the Holy Ghost. She is full of excitement and is so happy! During our discussion with her family, we all had the opportunity to bear our testimonies and the wonderful feeling of peace that came over all of us was amazing as we testified. I know that the Holy Ghost was bearing witness the truths of the things that we were saying. As missionaries, we have the opportunity to bear testimony often and it's amazing knowing and feeling that the Holy Ghost working through the other person as well :)

On Saturday, Elder Cahya Putra, Elder Siregar, and I picked up my companion from the airport. His name is Elder Rowe! He is from Virginia and has lived all over the world! He has lived in Ethiopia, Bosnia, Belgium, Croatia, and Utah. His dad served as the mission president in Croatia. He is sweet and I'm excited for the opportunity to serve with him. I'm stoked for this transfer. We have already experienced several miracles and I know we are going to experience many more! :) There were a lot of cool things that happened on Saturday. Our grab driver on the way to the airport lived three houses away from us. We had never met him before! He was Christian and we were able to have a good discussion about our beliefs. He wants to meet again! Elder Rowe and I taught a family and directly after teaching the family we get a grab car to get to our next appointment which was in 10 min. We get in the car and within 15 seconds I was sharing the restoration with him. In the end I asked him how he felt about everything I said and he said that he is interested and wants to learn more. We are going to meet with him in a couple of days. We then had a lesson with someone that was only interested in private lessons for learning English and she wanted our help. It was interesting because when we met with her in person one of her first questions was about Joseph Smith and who he was? What he did?... We had a discussion with her and it was gospel-focused the entire time. We also introduced the Book of Mormon she said she will read and she said she would also come to our church the next day and she did! :) God truly does guide us to the people that are ready to receive the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and to have testified to them of its truthfulness and of the reality of the Prophet Joseph Smith. It was a cool experience seeing that we met those that were prepared in that 3 hour time frame and that all of them were open and willing to learn more. Missions are the greatest.

Yesterday was great. Before church started Elder Rowe and I was able to talk to a family that lived right across the street from the church. Surprisingly they had never been contacted before. We started talking to them got to know them and testified about some of our beliefs. They were interested and wanted to come to our church their whole family came to sacrament meeting and they want to learn more this upcoming week. So awesome to be a part of that wonderful experience. 

If you haven't seen the Ask of God video or Bicentenial year video you need to watch those!  

God lives and Jesus is the Christ and they love you. Have the best week! I also like scripture ini :) Mosiah 2:41

1) First day with Elder Cahya Putra dan Elder Siregar

2) BPK after first DCM of the transfer

3) Pajak Seikambing

4) Goodbye dinner with BML

5) Sister Halawa dan keluarganya

6) Taman Gajah Mada

7) BML

8) Elder Rowe, my new companion :)

9) Rumah Sister Barus

Elder Osthed's Testimony on Facebook

Elder Mattias Osthed's Testimony on Facebook

Facebook Picture

My son is coming to Indonesia!!

Halo semuanya! 

This week was a great week full of many miracles. We had splits and Elder Ritchie and I had an amazing last week together in Medan. Transfer calls were yesterday and a lot of new things will be happening which will be great serving opportunities for all of us. It turns out that Elder Ritchie will be moving to a city called Surabaya and will be serving as the Zone Leader there! I will be staying in Medan and I will be serving as the District Leader here and will be training someone at the same time! I am excited about this opportunity and I know that this next transfer is going to be awesome in Medan!! 

To sum up this week Elder Ritchie and I taught 15 people! A lady through the mud at us and kicked our bikes because we wouldn't give her money so she could smoke haha. We had the most people we have ever had for our English discussion group. 30+ people! Elder Ritchie and I did splits with Elder Vanduren and Elder Schmitt. I experienced many miracles while talking with others and saw God's hand leading us with this amazing work. Many new of our investigators came to church yesterday and Sister Halawa got confirmed. So happy for her and her willingness to follow the example of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

While I was serving with Elder Schmitt we had a cool experience at lunch. We had went to a classic place for lunch that we call Nias. We had ordered our food and we were heading to the 2nd room with open tables Elder Schmitt had entered the second room and right before I was about to go into the room a pak called me over and asked if we could join him for lunch. We then joined him for some delicious Indonesian food. We got talking and he told us that he met with missionaries 10 years ago! He told us that he loves reading the Book of Mormon and that he believes it is the word of God. He said that I know that God led you 2 to me. We had a good discussion and we plan on meeting him again!

Now to the Lady that was very interesting. Elder Ritchie and I were on our way to Gramedia to get some more supplies and on our way there, I say a lady on my left screaming across the road for this rich Chinese guy to give her money. We continued biking and about 5 minutes later we got to Gramedia. We had tied our bikes to a tree outside of Gramedia and when we had got everything we planned on getting. We headed back to our bikes and saw a lady sitting next to our bikes. I realized it was the same lady earlier and I knew that we were going to have an interesting conversation haha. We got to our bikes and she immediately asked for 2,000 so she could buy some cigarettes. She said we had to pay her before we opened our bikes lol! We then started opening the lock and she grabs the lock, hit us, and starts kicking the bikes. While this was going on we were able to unlock our bikes and get away haha. We started walking our bikes away from her and she grabbed some dirt on the road and threw some dirt at us twice. She had a pretty good aim. She hit us both in the face! I was shocked that she hit us spot-on while we were on the move haha.

We are seeing progression with the work here in Medan and it's exciting. I know that this Gospel is true with all my heart. The Book of Mormon is true and Joseph Smith was a true prophet. He saw our loving Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. He was called of God and through him, Jesus Christ's church stands on the earth today. I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us perfectly. They are aware of us and know us personally. I know that the power of prayer is real and that our loving Heavenly Father answers sincere prayers. I am so thankful for this knowledge and I know that through living the Gospel of Jesus Christ we can have joy in this life and in the life to come.

Have an amazing week! I love you all :)

Kasih, 

Elder Östhed

Baptism :)

Halo semuanya! 

These last 2 weeks were awesome! Sister Halawa got baptized yesterday!! The service went well and we are so happy for her and her family. Elder Ritchie and I were able to meet with 17 new people last week! We also went on splits with the Zone leaders and some other elders in our district it was a lot of fun. 

The Zone Leaders in Bogor came up to Medan for splits. I did splits with Elder Smith. He is great missionary. He works very hard and I had a great time serving with him. We finished the night off with some good ol Istabak. Istabak is a 2 inch pancake cooked on one side smothered in butter.  It also has some sweet condensed milk, sugar, coklat, peanut butter, and some more goodness on it.

We met with many great people and some came to church for the first time and some also have a desire to become members of this church. We also met with a woman named Nelly this week. I had met her 2 weeks ago when I was on splits with Elder Cahya Putra. When Elder Ritchie and I met with her this week, we realized that Nelly and her friend work for the Tribune in Indonesia and they want us to share something with her for them to post on their page. That was awesome and it may be an amazing opportunity to share this good news with the people in Indonesia.

We also went to a buffet at the J.W. Marriot this past week which led to some great food poisoning for Elder Vanduren. The first time he has had food poisoning on his mission. He will also be heading home in 9 days! I had splits with him a couple of days ago too. While Elder Vanduren and I were on splits we were talking to some people at the mall and we started talking to this rich guy from china. He had met missionaries 6 months ago and really appreciates what we do. During our conversation with him Elder Vanduran said "I like your watch" and he says "do you want it" Elder Vanduran said "Yes" and the man took off his watch and gave it to Elder Vanduran!! It was a new Rolex watch and it's very nice! I couldn't believe what had just happend. It was so awesome.

We also had a valentine's party and all the elders in Medan taught everyone the kupid shuffle, cha-cha, and more haha. Elder Porter and Sister Porter also came to Indonesia. They had just been released from serving as a mission couple in Medan and had returned to Medan this past week. They visited the people here and left this morning to take a family to the temple in the Philippines. It was fun seeing them.

Yesterday, I got chased down by some dogs on my bike. I think I almost got a heart attack :) that was a fun experience!

We plan on doing a lot this upcoming week. It is also the last week of this transfer! Transfer calls are on this Saturday. We will see where everyone gets assigned to serve!

Love you all and have a splendid week! 

Kasih,

Elder Östhed

1 J.W. Marriot

2 Lapangan Merdeka

3 Sister Leny

4 Monkey

 

5 Offle

6 Sister Halawa

7 Sour Sally