Puji Purwanti wanted to demonstrate her commitment to her new faith, but doing so led to a loss of business as she refused to sell her baked goods on Sunday.
An angry customer asked, “Are you saying you left your family faith and have become Christian?” After the confrontation, the customer stopped purchasing Puji’s baked goods and told others in the village to do so as well.
Puji lost most of her business — a difficult test after returning to her homeland of Indonesia from Hong Kong, where she had joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints only months before. She wanted to pay tithing — the practice of Church members giving the Church 10 percent of their income — and attend Sunday worship services. But now she did not even have the means to pay for the 10-mile bus ride to the nearest Latter-day Saint church building in Magelang.
Struggling to survive, Puji continued to pay tithing and often walked the 10 miles to Magelang on Sundays.
Several months later the customer who had rejected her returned and said: “Your cakes are sweeter and bread is fresher than others’ in the village. I know you are a Christian. But would it be all right if you would sell to me again?” Puji’s business blossomed.
In nine months Puji had saved enough to begin her volunteer service as a full-time missionary for the Church. She is currently serving in the city of Solo in Central Java.