OK – for the next few days I will be posting the journal I have written over the last 35 days. I will post them in order so you can follow how we have been doing. Hopefully once I catch up I will be able to stay current.

26 Decemeber 2006 – Tuesday –

It has been a somewhat frustrating morning. We have not been able to make any connection to our family in the states. We have tried any number of times to get the right combination from our apartment but nothing worked. So we are going to go through our first Christmas ever without any contact with our family. It really does not seem like Christmas when you do not have your family or at least are able to talk to them.

I woke at 1:00 am and really never went back to sleep did doze but there is just too much to think about. Finally got up at about 6:00 and went to the gym where I spent about an hour either walking on the treadmill or doing some light exercising. I must remember to take my glasses, some water, and something to read.

At 9:30 we went to the office with the Leishmans – they have made a nice small office but there seems like there is little to do. I will have to find something more to keep us busy or I will go crazy. I did not come to Indonesia to sit around waiting for people to come in.

It is now some 7 hours later and I must repent of the words I typed above. Although they do not have many people coming in the Leishmans have not been sitting around throughout their mission. In fact if we accomplish as much as they do, our mission will be a success. However I hope that I will find some ways to increase the number of people who are coming to us for help in employment. Also we would like to get PEF up and running fairly quickly.

One of the things the Leishmans did was to find out about a great program of classes provided at very reasonable prices by the government for people to learn technical and mechanical skills. I am sure they will be just the thing for PEF loans. Even if they take a series of classes, it will only cost $200 to $600 – which is a lot of money here, but nothing like thousands would be. I want to look more closely at these schools and see if people can get jobs when they completed them.

We went to KFC for lunch – it is a short walk from the office – and our two complete meals for under $4.  On the way back to the office I bought a papaya that must weigh 5 pounds for $1.10. It should be breakfast for at least three days and probably more.

After closing the office we went shopping at the big general store – kind of the WalMart superstre of Indonesia – called Carrefour. They have just about everything you could want including live fish that you take home that way. This makes for really fresh meat. I bought some fried rice and some noodles – total cost 95 cents – that will make a nice dinner for the two of us.

During the day the Leishmans told us about their horror story of the first two months they were here. They had to drive 90 minutes each way to the office – they got dropped off at their apartment and they were on their own. They found that they had no sheets or other bedding. And from there things got worse. It was two months before they even started to be comfortable.

I mentioned to sister Leishman that it seemed strange but I did not really miss home. I did wish we could have at least said Merry Christmas to each of our family members but other than that Christmas in Indonesia was great. When we got to the office this morning we were able to send an email to Tom telling him how to call the phone there. Not too much later we got a call from Tom so we could wish them Merry Christmas and then one from Brian – I was really glad to hear from him because he does not have any family to be with on this special day.

27 December 2006 – Wednesday

I am glad that there is a gym in the complex because I can just go down and workout. I find that I can do about 40 minutes at about 4 mph and that burns 300 calories. To keep my mind from going numb I took a vocabulary list along and during the workout I was able to get 15 words memorized. By the time I was done, sweat was just pouring off me but I felt really good. I am going to be down to 71 Kilos by my birthday.

It was great to jump into the shower and soaked for a long, long time. But even though I rinsed off with very cold water, I could not really cool off. It did not help that Mary turned off the air-conditioning because she was too cold to eat her breakfast.

The rest of morning until it was time to go to the office I had breakfast of part of a huge papaya that I bought yesterday. It was really ripe and delicious.

The trip to the office was uneventful and other than sister Leishmann teaching a three hour English class to a young man who wants to go to BYU but can not pass the English test. He has been trying for a while but just can not get the 70% required.

While she was teaching Sam, Elder Leishman and myself went to the bank so I could exchange some US for Rupiahs but of course that part of the bank closed 10 minutes before we got there. But I have enough to get us through until tomorrow. On the way back to the office we stopped at the KIA dealer and found that we could buy a new KIA van for about $17K and they would guarantee to buy it back in two years for 82.5% of the purchase price. That would mean we would get back all but $3200.00 which is less than $200 a month for car expenses and they guarantee the car from bumper to bumper for 100,000 K. The problem is that I am not sure how guaranteed the guarantee is. Elder Leishmann suggested that one of the Indonesian businessmen who help with Employment could go and negotiate for me.

Just before we left the office I called Elder Kane on his cell phone. I caught he and Traudi coming home from visiting one of the recent projects that had been finished. It was a path that led from a small village to the school high up the mountain. Before the church stepped in and provided the concrete to make the path, the children had to wade through mud to get there. Often it was so bad they could not make it. With the concrete, the villagers were able to provide the labor and now the children have a safe and dry way to get to their school. Dan said that it was the perfect kind of project where we were able to help the people help themselves.

We arrived back home at about 3 pm and there is little to do until tomorrow. Until the Leishmanns go home, we can not do much different from what they are doing. But I am going to put together a plan for what we might do.

My thought is that we will go to the branches in the evening and be available for the members to come in. Maybe if we are available when they are off of work more will take advantage of our opportunities. So during the day we will be at the office – we will go by taxi – and in the evening we will be out in the branches. I think we will also go on some Saturdays.

The Leishmanns have done a great job in getting things moving, now we must figure out how to make ourselves more useful to the members. I can not imagine that there are not more people who would like to take advantage of our services.

I am also going to enjoy working with the young missionaries. It seems that the work is very difficult in one area and that the missionaries are getting discouraged. I am thinking that perhaps if we advertise in the area that we are going to have English lessons each night from 7 to 8 or employment resources will be available that we can get some non-LDS to show up.

All I really know that like LeGrand Richards the Lord did not send us here to not be successful. We just have to find out how to do that in the Lord’s way. He must have a plan for Indonesia and we are a part of it. I just pray that we figure out what part we are to play.

Mary continues to read from the Book of Mormon and other books in Indonesian. She is getting very good at it and I am sure it will not be long until she is reading 80% of anything that is written. I will be happy to be able to read well in 6 months and speak well in a year. I am not sure that will happen but I am going to keep trying. I want to be able to teach the workshop in Indonesian. Or at least part of it.

We did our first load of washing today. First we had to hook up the water and then I forgot to hook up the drain so it would not. The crew came and fixed that. We found out that the 3 foot by 8 foot room that we thought was for storage was really a maid’s room. I can not imagine how anyone could live in there – and without any cooling system. All for $40 a month plus meals.

On the way home today we took a trip down a lane of shops – think of a strip mall in a slum – where just about anything you could think of was being sold. We did not stop because the Leishmanns did not feel safe, but Mary and I agreed that if we had been there alone with just the driver, we would have made a number of stops – especially for fresh flowers. I think we will become well acquainted with that area during our mission.

I took a nice 2 hour nap in hopes that I can stay up late enough to sleep until at least 5 am tomorrow. So far – it is now just after 9 pm – it has worked. Dinner tonight cost about $1 – we had mie and nasi that I got from the store yesterday. The mie – noodles – were quite spicy and the nasi goreng was pretty neutral. Mixed together they were just right.

For the last few hours we have been watching TV. Mainly we watched the local Jakarta station which of course broadcasts in Indonesian. We can only catch a word now and then, but I think we need to do this each day so we can start to hear the language. I am surprised that I do not find it frustrating but it seems like we are making at least baby steps in learning to hear the language. I am sure as we continue to read, learn vocabulary, watch and listen we will find our abilities increasing. I believe as we do this the Lord will bless us with a gift of tongues that will fill in the gaps.

We also watched the recreation of the bombs that blasted Bali some 4 years ago. It was on the National Geographic’s station and was quite well done. It showed some of the people who were caught in the blast but survived, how it occurred, the investigation, and the capture of those who did the planning.

All in all it has been a good day. Not that we accomplished much in the way of missionary work, but we are starting to get into the swing of things.

28 December 2006 – Thursday

I am trying to get something for the third time today. The other two times were lost when I somehow selected everything and then erased it. This time I am going to save often along the way.

I woke at my accustomed 2 am but for once went back to sleep for a couple of hours. I hope it is a start towards actually sleeping all night. From 4 to about 5:30 I worked on language. Not that I got much done but at least I put in the time and tried. I keep praying for help and I know when it is important for me to use the language it will come.

At 6:00 I headed out for the gym and found elder Leishman out walking the track. I walked with him until we got to the gym and then we parted ways. I spent a good 40 minutes on the treadmill. I found that the best way to past time was to sing church songs. The problem is that I do not know enough of them – and I make mistakes on those I do know. I will have to take a number of songs with me next time. I took a word list but not the one I wanted. For some reason I could not get interested in the one I did take.

I worked up a really good sweat and then did some sit-ups. Not many because I still hurt from last time. But if I keep this up I think I will start dropping the pounds – or in this case kilograms – and feel better. I wonder if they play racquetball in Indonesia?

Home to a long hot shower and then a papaya breakfast. I am thinking about taking a short nap before getting dressed to head out for the day. No nap – I tried but could not fall asleep.

Today was a busy day – at least a long day. We went to the office and dropped off the sisters. Elder Leishman needed to get his hair cut and while he was doing that Sam and I went to the bank so I could exchange some money. It was a very interesting experience. First we had to wait for a teller to write up the exchange. We filled out a form, gave I.D. and the young lady had to get a man to OK the transaction. Sam explained that all the checking was to make sure there was no errors. Once that was approved we had to go downstairs to get the actual cash. Once again everything was double checked, approved by another man and finally the cash was counted three times before it was given to me. Obviously time saving and customer satisfaction is not part of the Indonesian banking system.

When we got back to the office we actually had someone come to get help in finding a job. He is over 40 so it may be hard for him to get one. But Elder Leishman helped him the best he could and he seemed to leave happy. The other visitor we had was a member of the district presidency who had been out tent looking. I mentioned I would be happy to help out in that area.

At about 2:00 we closed down the office and went to the mission home. We were almost able to get to our email account but it just could not make that last move. So we have now been out of touch with our children for since Monday.

While we were there we met Sabandrya (?) and had a nice talk with him. Later we talked with President Jensen and found out that it was not our going to be trained in Salt Lake that got our mission changed but because he did not want a couple in the office. He is really happy with the missionaries. We found that at one time we were scheduled to be full time prosylyting missionaries and then it was quickly changed to employment. I asked him some questions about some ideas I had as far as changes in what was being done in employment and he thought they were all good. I think he likes the idea that I would like to take the office to the branches instead of having them come to us.

We also talked about cars and it seems we will probably end up spending $12,000 buying a used Toyota. We should be able to sell it for about 80% of what we bought it for. This means we will end up spending about $125.00 a month instead of $400. That will make up for the extra we pay for rent.

From the mission home we went out to a missionary district meeting where we got to meet with 5 missionaries of the Tangarang district. They included Elders Roper and Tiemann who we already knew from the MTC. They are just the same as they were then only already seasoned missionaries. The district meeting seemed to me to take a little long. I spoke up a couple of times with suggestions.

After the meeting we all went out to eat at a Steak and Shake place the missionaries knew. We told them they could chose anything on the menu and it almost blew there mind. Everyone had steak, french fries, and a shake. Some of them had two steaks. The food was quite good – especially the gravy and potatoes. Elder Lieshman and I split the bill – a grand total of just over $41 for the 10 of us.

The ride home seemed long so I tried to go to sleep. I think I came close but I am not sure. By the time we did get home both Mary and I were dead tired. I have stayed up writing in this journal while Mary is happily snoring away. I am going to try to stay awake until at least 10 with the hope that I will sleep for 6 hours straight.

This has been the most interesting day of our mission. I think once we have the office to ourselves things will get even better. The only downer is that we can not get even an email to our kids. Hopefully they will get the damage done by the earthquake fixed so Indonesia can get back on line.