First "letter" from Indo

I have been in Indonesia for a week now, it has been great. It is really hot here. The day after I talked to you(Christmas), they gave us a little bit of a run down of like finance and keeping healthy. Then they sent us to our areas; my area right now is Bogor. I took a taxi to Bogor by myself! That was an interesting experience because I still don’t know the language that well and everyone here speaks really fast so I don’t understand what they are saying most of the time. Our mission though is one of the only missions were each companionship has a cell phone for emergencies. So they gave me one of their back up phones. They called every once and a while to talk to the driver so everything was good. The first week I was in a three some with Elder Torrens and Elder Sryadi. But Elder Suyadi went to Bangdun until my kipas (papers/visa) comes through then we are going to switch places.
My first Sunday was a very interesting one. The branch president speaks English so that was nice. Here in Indonesia they do it kind of like the Hawaiians and how they say aloha, but they say "selamat pagi" and then the congregation answers "pagi". Well it was an overwhelming experience, because I only pick up on a few things they say so most of the time I felt like my head was going to explode. I made it through alright. I had to introduce myself, that was ruff but I tried, so everything turned out alright. That night we ate dinner with the branch president. It was the closest thing I am going to get to American food for a long time. Oh I forgot to tell you the very first night I was in Bogor we were suppose to do weekly planning but we got a call from a family that the elders had contacted and they had come to church once already but hadn’t had any of the lessons, so I helped teach the first lesson the first night I was here.
Well my companion is Elder Torrens, he is from Australia and has already graduated from a university there. He is great, I am learning a lot from him every day. We taught English a couple of days ago. It was interesting because some of them want to learn and others don’t really care and don’t try. I helped them learn but Elder Torrens did most of the teaching.
Most of the food here is fried, they fry everything and there are some really good things that are fried. One is pisang gurang(fried banana). Then there are things that taste good but I don’t really know what is in them.
That is a run down of what has been happening here not all of it but a lot of it. We taught some pretty interesting people. A kid we taught last night, he is catholic, he takes the scriptures for face value. He believed that god, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost are one. Then he talked about how god hasn’t ever shown himself to any one, so why would he show himself to Joseph Smith. Then he said why do we need prophets we have the bible, it is all we need. All his questions were answered, but he just doesn’t have faith. It was interesting to hear them talk. I got most of what he said from my companion after we were done, because I had no idea what they were saying most of the time, so I couldn’t really help answer his questions. My understanding is coming along, and I am slowly understanding more.

Love you guys,
Elder Topham