Daily Archives: February 1, 2007

#8 Catch up

16 January 2007 – Tuesday

I actually slept until the alarm went off at 5:30. So I guess I just need to stay up until 11 or so before going to sleep and then I will sleep through until morning.

Normal morning – gym, shower, a glass of orange juice for breakfast, get dressed, and read the Kitab Mormon with Mary for companion study. We are up to 1 Nefi 7 and doing much better. I can get quite a bit of what is going on and Mary can fill in most of the rest. What gets us is where they use unusual word combinations to say what seems simple in English. We figured out what one group of word was supposed to mean each time it is used but we will have to as the translators to explain why those words mean that phrase because as far as we can make out they no don’t make any sense. But of course there are many things in English that would not make any sense to a native Indonesian learning our language.

Today should be rather laid back. Unless someone comes into the office for help getting a job there is nothing on the schedule. Mary will probably practice the piano for tomorrow night and I want to get my hair trimmed for Zone Conference. I want elder Leishman to take me through some things – like what we are going to need for the workshop in Tangerang on the 27th. I am sure once we have done one or two it will be easy.

Tonight we and the Leishmans have a dinner appointment with some members from the Raya branch. We think it is German food – it should be interesting.

This morning after we arrived at the office, elder Leishman gave me all the keys. I guess that means we are about to take over. A little later one of the people we are helping to find a job came in and the Leishmans left to do some shopping. I spent some time explaining about how important networking was and how he needed to expand his network. I re-worked his cover letter for his resume so that it sounded more interesting. I also spent a little time working with his English pronunciation and invited him to come to the English class on Thursday night. We do not think he is a member so perhaps a good contact will be made.

He was in the office for almost 3 hours. Mary worked on her English class material and practiced the piece for tomorrow’s fireside. About the time he left, the Leishmans came back. Soon after that we closed up the office and went to buy some books on job opportunities in Indonesia but when we got to the office they did not have any at this time. I guess I will go back later.

We then headed out to the Raya area and went to the mall where we were to meet for dinner. For some reason the Leishmans wanted to spend almost three hours there. Mary and I were soon bored so after going to a bookstore where I bought a Harry Potter book we found a place to sit and read. We also went to the biggest Ace Hardware stores I have ever seen and bought Mary a nice but expensive Braun hair dryer. Hopefully she will not burn it up.

Another thing she bought was a 2nd grade book that is written to teach Indonesian children to read Indonesian. In the first lesson she managed to fill up two pages with words she did not know. I would have filled up five.
The dinner turned out to be almost worth the waiting. The food was quite good – European style and the best we have had since we were here – and the people who took us were delightful company. While we had been waiting Sam somehow got his hair styled. He looked really strange – like some kind of rock star.

17 January 2007 – Wednesday

I woke at about 3:00 am and never did get back to sleep. I used some of the time to study Indon- esian and some trying to get back to sleep. I got to the gym before it was open so I did three laps of the track. It was probably a mistake because I was so hot that by the time I got into the gym I was not very interested in doing much. But I managed to do 50 sit-ups, 10 minutes on the bike and 30 minutes on the treadmill so I think I had enough exercise for the morning.

We had time to put in a half hour on the Kitab Mormon – we ran into another part that we could not really translate.

We were at the chapel by 8:30 and got to say hello to all the other couple missionaries. I was good to see those who are out of Jakarta – we hope to go visit them in the near future. Zone conference was interesting but I am not sure it was 5 hours interesting. Bishop Burton came and talked and took quesitons for about 45 minutes. Then he had to rush off to meet with more government people. He will be back for the fireside tonight.

The evening fireside was very good. It was well attended by the members of the Jakarta branches. Mary played well the choir sounded wonderful. Bishop Burton talked about his relationship with the living prophets from David O MacKay right up to President Hinckley.

He told about his experience of meeting President MacKay when he was an eight year old boy. His father was bishop and he used to take his sons with him when he visited members of the ward.

One day while Bishop Burton was play a very intense game of stick ball, his father called him to get ready to go. Of course he did not want to but he knew that there was no use in trying to get out of going with his father.

As they were visiting a house where the husband had recently died, up drove a large black car and out stepped President MacKay. After speaking with the widow, President MacKay and Bishop Burton’s father started talking. Unimpressed with being in the same house as the Prophet, Bishop Burton went out and set on the top step of the porch and thought about the great game he was missing.

President MacKay came out of the house and sat beside him. He then told Bishop Burton the story of how when he was a young boy, he went to general conference with his father. After one of the meetings, he was sitting on the front row of benches when President John Taylor came down and sat beside him. President Taylor took off his coat and rolled up his sleeves. He showed young President to be MacKay the scars of the wounds he received in Carthage jail on the day Joseph Smith was killed.  Bishop Burton said that he has never forgotten that experience.

After the fireside, it took about a half hour to get away from the chapel. Everyone wanted to talk to everyone – many especially wanted to talk to the Leishmans who will soon be gone. On the way back to the apartment we were invited to join the Petersons, Van Dongens, and the Leishmans for dinner at the Park Hotel. I was not overly excited about going to dinner but thought it would be the right thing to do.

Dinner was good because of the chance to talk and get to know the couples. The food there is only OK – the fries are excellent – and expensive. We ended up sharing a not very interesting tuna sandwich and then had dessert. I ordered apple pie with ice cream. What I got was a small apple tart with a small scoop of ice cream. Not bad – but also not anything to write home about.

By the time we got home I was very tired but stayed up for a while reading Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince before turning off the lights.
18 January 2007 – Thursday

Managed to sleep until about 5:15. At the gym by 5:45 and put in 45 minutes on the treadmill. Also did 50 sit-ups. However my weight refuses to go down. Not sure why but I must be eating more than I think I am.

We spent about 45 minutes on Kitab Mormon – made it through chapter 7. We found some strange English in one of the verses. Something like ‘the which rebellion.’ That would not work on an English exam.

Only elder Leishman came to the office with us. Sister Leishman wanted to work on her talk for Sunday. I spent 90 minutes or so working on an advertisement for English classes, the class I will teach tonight and the homework for the University course we will teach next week. Mary worked on her lesson for tonight. She also answered some e-mail that we got from Jim and Kristy. S he also checked our bank account and found that the money made it from the states. We can now pay for our car, etc. and shold have enough money for 4 to 6 months.

After we were done with that elder Leishman and I sat around talking about things and Mary took a short nap. We left the office and picked up Sister Leishman and journeyed over to the mission office where we dropped off our lease, talked to one of staff about getting insurance for our car, and then to Hendra about branch lists. I think he will give a complete set for the ones that are our responsiblity.

When we left Sinopati we went to SoGo mall to get some Krispy Kremes for the Leishmans to give as a treat tonight. It is the last time they will be at the English class. I am writing this as we travel to Tanggeran.

The district meeting was done mostly in Indonesian and I was too far from Elder Roper to understand much about what was going on. However when elder Leishman made a comment about praying for success before they went out in the morning. I was prompted to tell them that after they prayed they had to pay attention for the Lord giving them the opportunities and blessings that they prayed for. I told the story of how I was complaining about a leadership meeting when the Lord inspired me to realize that He had me go to meetings to gain a spiritual experience and it was up to me to pay attention so I would hear and understand what it was I was at the meeting to learn about. I promised the missionaries that if they would prepare, pray and work had, the Lord would provide them each day with one spiritual experience that would make the day worthwhile. Later I asked them to write down the experiences that they got each day.

I was happy to see that about a dozen members showed up on time for English lessons. So I decided to start and let the rest join when they came. I thought the lesson went well. I was very excited and spoke much too fast at first but the missionaries got me to slow down. I had much too much to cover but I think the time we spent on the alphabet was well worth the effort. We had about 10 young people and a dozen for Mary’s class. I am sure I will get better as I get more experience. The students in my class range from very little knowledge to some that were quite good.

Since it was the Leishman’s last night, it took some time to get away. The trip home took just over an hour. It would certainly be more convenient to live out that way but since the office is at the Salaten chapel it would not make sense to live out there.

As we were leaving one of the members told me that we needed to learn the bahasa – I told him we were trying and that we were determined to master it within the year. I think the members will respect us much more when we are able to participate in classes and speak to them.



#7 Catch up

13 January 2007 – Saturday

I woke at the early hour of 2 am but sometime between then and 5:20 I went back to sleep. It seems that I am able to function on somewhere between 5 and 6 hours of sleep. At least for a few days and then I have to crash.

Went to the gym and spent about 40 minutes on the treadmill and doing sit-ups. I would have stayed longer but we had to be ready to leave for Bogor by 8 am with the Petersons. We did not have time for Kitab Mormon study so we will do it in the evening.

The trip to Bogor went quickly. Bogor is located in the mountains about 30 miles South of Jakarta. From the little time we were there it seemed much cleaner and cooler. There is a pretty steady breeze that cleans out the pollution of some 4 million people.

The Kanes house was much as I expected. Big and open with a back and front yard – not big ones but at least somewhere that could provide some yard work. The main problem is that most of the house is not air-conditioned.  This means I would not be comfortable living there.

We were in Bogor because Elder Peterson had to sign for 50 wheelchairs that were being delivered to the Kane’s garage. In normal Indonesian style instead of making one delivery in a truck large enough to hold all 50 chairs they had a small pick-up over loaded with half the load and then a two or three hour wait. But this gave us time to catch up on things that they have been doing.

The Kanes are in 7th heaven. They can walk to lots of good places to eat and shop, they have been accepted by the ward, they have a great driver, and they have a lot of good projects to work with. Add to this a countryside that full of green hills and clean sky and you have a perfect location for them.

After the second delivery arrived we all went to lunch at a restro that makes soup at your table. It has become a special favorite for the Kanes. You order what soup you want – a group soup – and there is a stainless steel pot of water on a burner right in the middle of the table. Actually each long table has four or five. To make a long story short we had a soup make of vegies, noodles, and mostly seafood. It was tasty and interesting but certainly not something I would choose to eat very often.

After lunch, we had to hurry back to Jakarta so the Petersons could go to a choir rehearsal. We came home and have basically shut down for the rest of the day. We did spend some time thinking and preparing for our English classes on Thursday at Tanggeran and then a week from Friday at the University. There is a lot more work to do but I think we will be OK.

Nothing much special about the evening. We watched some TV and read some from the Kitab Mormon until Amazing Race Asia came on. As I have mentioned before it is identical to the US one only the area is more restricted and the people are much nicer. However tonight there was a bit of fighting between the two strongest couples. It was too bad that what was probably the strongest team was eliminated because they could not catch a taxi after the last task.

14 January 2007 – Sunday

Our fourth Sunday in Indonesia and I have started out in the dog house. I managed to sleep until almost 5 a.m. when I tried to shave only to find out the battery was dead. I went in to the bathroom to plug it in and the light spilling out woke Mary. She was not happy at all and I kidded her about being grouchy. It was not the smart thing to do. Hopefully she will go back to sleep and wake up again in a better mood.

We have another problem this morning. We are not sure when Sam is to pick us up for church.  By the time we figured this out last evening it was too late to call the Leishmans. Besides the phone seems to be back to it’s non-calling stage. Hopefully it will be more cooperative this morning or I will go over to the Leishman’s at 6:30 and ask them.

I found out that we did not have to be ready until 8:30 so Mary caught a few minutes more sleep and I read from the Kitab Mormon.

We had a full morning and early afternoon at the Raya branch. We did not have the elders interpret for us and we both felt good about how much we could understand. Of course we have a long ways to go and I found that in classrooms where there is no amplification I can not hear as well. I am going to find out next week or the week after to see where I can get my hearing checked.

I have decided that we are going to be part of these branches – not just visitors. I am trying to put together something that will remind me of their name, what they do and about their family. In 3 months I want to be able to meet most members by name and have enough Indonesian to at least say a few sentences to them. I volunteered to pass the sacrament in two weeks. I want to show them that I am servant and a fellow PH holder. However after thinking about it I am somewhat worried that I took an opportunity away from some AP holder.

After the last meeting of the block we had a baptism ceremony. It took about 30 minutes or more to get things set up but it was wonderful to see three people enter the waters of baptism. Elder Metier was able to do all three. A great way to spend the last Sunday in the area – he is going to So Ho on Thursday. They do not confirm the members for one to three weeks – they want to make sure they are committed. I pointed out that this was usually the case in the early church. They wanted to see how the newly baptized person showed their faith before giving them the gift of the Holy Ghost.

After the baptism, a lot of the members met in the entry and many pictures were taken. This was because of the baptism and Elder Metier and the Leishman’s leaving. It was quite a bit of fun and the noise level was really high. There are no sound absorbing materials in the entry.

The spirit of the Indonesian saints can easily be felt. Many of them speak quite good English and almost all of them know a little. If it was not for the language difference, I am sure we would find any meeting much the same as at home. I do notice that the members here do not participate as much as at home but when they do they get quite involved. The sister who spoke in Sacrament had written out her talk but it did not sound like it was read. The brother who spoke – a member of the Mission Presidency it turns out – did it without any notes but with plenty of feeling. All in all it was a wonder Sabbath day.

It took us almost an hour to get home. It was really good to walk into the cool apartment, get out of our Sunday clothes, have something to eat – mainly a fruit salad for me – and relax. An hour later we went over to the Leishmans and Mary sent off some e-mails. The most important was the one to Tom asking him to transfer a lot of money to our account here. Hopefully it will be here sometime Tuesday.

Now it is almost 6 and I have to decide if I am going to try to take a short nap to get me through the evening or just go as long as I can before falling asleep. I think I am going to do the nap route.

Nothing much happened after our naps. I have just finished reviewing some Indonesian before turning off the lights. Hopefully I will get a good night’s sleep.

15 January 2007 – Monday

I managed to sleep in until almost 5:30 and was at the gym by 5:45. I put in 50 minutes on the treadmill and did 50 sit-ups. I was happy to see that I had lost a pound or so over the weekend.

This is our P-day and so we could take the best part of an hour in reading the Kitab Mormon. We were humming along feeling pretty good about ourselves – that is a combined ‘ourselves’ because Mary knows a lot of words I do not – when we hit 1 Nephi 5:21. It had a lot of word and concepts we just could not get our minds around. Even after we had checked the electronic dictionary we were not sure what was being said. It was a good way to humble us and make us realize that we have a lot to learn. But we are determined to master Indonesian and I am sure that with the Lord’s help we will.

One of the things we really miss is an internet connection so we can communicate easily with our children and friends. In two weeks we should be in the apartment with highspeed internet and we can spend much of the day catching up. I have lots to post on the blog – including a lot of pictures.

Sam picked us up at 12:30 and we went over to the mission home to meet the person who would be taking us to buy our car. While we were waiting Mary talked to the sisters in the translation department and found out that they were worried about us because we had eaten off the street. I guess it is something that the senior couples just do not do. I like the food so much that if there was a place like BYU within walking distance of our apartment or the office I would eat there. As it is we will have to wait until we go to the mission office again.

The trip to the Toyota dealer took a long time – it seems they got a little lost. It is so different buying a car here than in the states. There is no bargaining at all – there is a price and you pay it. We are getting a $250 rebate but I think that is unusual and is only because the church buys all its cars there. We ended up paying about $12,500 for the Avanza and we should be able to sell it for at least $9000 when we leave. If so the cost will be about $300 a month. If we can sell it for $10.5 it will be more like $225. Either way it should be less expensive than leasing a car and it is new so the ride should be better. Sam really likes the idea of driving a brand new car.  We put $500 down and can pick it up in a couple of weeks.

On the way home we stopped to eat at A&W. I am sorry to say the burger would not make it in the US. Really overcooked so there was little flavor. I now must try McDonalds and see if they have a good hamburger. If not we will just have to buy some hamburger and cook our own.  They will be expensive but at least they will not taste like cooked shoe leather.

The treat of the day was Baskin Robbins ice cream. It is the real thing – pralines and cream tastes exactly the same in Indonesia as it did in Redondo Beach. We treated Sam to lunch and a cone – I realized that his food cost $4.25 – very expensive for a person who makes $190 a month.

After that we went to a bookstore where we bought more books to use for teaching English. I am sure we can put together a lot of good things from those we have bought. It is going to be a challenge to teach but it should also be rewarding.

Our final stop was the church where Mary practiced a piece that she will play to accompany a choir from the Salaten branch. Sam was supposed to play it but since a general authority is coming he asked Mary to play instead. There are people working all over the building. It is getting a real face lift to welcome Bishop Burton. While Mary practiced I tried to get on line and do some e-mail but I could not even get to AOL mail so I read from the new English books instead.

We made it home by 4:30 – Sam will pick us up for choir practice at 6:30.

Sister Jensen called and told us that the senior couples are going to inspect the missionary apartments.  She gave us instructions on what was expected and how often. If we do it on P-day that means that Sam does not get a day off. Maybe we will take another day for P-day. That would give us a break in the middle of the week. We will just have to see how things work out.

Choir practice ran for two hours or so – much longer than I expected. I was able to spend part of the time sending e-mail from the office. However the e-mail slowed down and so did the links to other sites so I decided to give it up for the night. I listened to some of the choir practice. It will sound fine and Mary was doing a good job keeping the piano soft enough that it did not drowned out the singers. The choir has some good voices but they certainly do not have the volume you get with Samoan or Tongan singers.

Once we got back to the apartment we pretty much did nothing until it was time to go to bed.

It has been a busy and profitable day – hopefully we will have a lot of those in the future.



#6 Catch up

10 January 2007 – Wednesday

No gym this morning. Instead we were out of the apartment by 7:15 and went to a university to observe an English class being taught. We were picked up by two sister members who work for the school. The class was taught in a non-air conditioned room and it did not take us long to be very warm. The teacher has quite good English but his class is so varied that he seems to be handicapped in what he can teach. My only real criticism was that he needed to have the students do more and him less. I found out that they do not give homework – I think that is a real mistake. At least for those who really want to learn English.

Mary and I were asked to speak to the class so they could hear American speech. Mary told them about our family and I talked to them about the importance of learning English well. I gave them some tips – such as reading English out loud at least 30 minutes a day. I suggested that any time they spend on improving there English will make a great difference in how much they would be paid. One young woman was obviously taking in everything I said. You could almost see the spirit of desire in her eyes.

After the class we met with the manager of the school and told him we would be willing to teach the teachers and the staff for one hour each Friday. They said that would be fine. I also told them that anyone coming to the class would have homework to do to be prepared for the class. I said that they would be getting some Shakespeare. Luckily I can go on line and download and get just about anything. I will start with the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet or something like that.

After the meeting we were driven to the office where we spent the next 3 ½ hours doing almost nothing useful. Elder Leishman tried to work on the internet problem but nothing seemed to help. We can not get to PEF so we can not do much with that aspect until they get the line fixed across the Pacific or we get the Leishman’s apartment.

Speaking of that I got an e-mail from Mr Rees saying that the terms of the lease is acceptable and we can sign the lease whenever we can get together. That takes a load off of my mind.

At about 2:45, the two Indonesian members who go are in charge of Employment for the district and area came in for a meeting. We have rough out the schedule for Career Workshops for the year and talked about some other things. They are both great men – Lokita seems to be of Chinese descent and Agus is Indonesian. Both speak very good English. They do the workshops for everyone except the English missionaries.

We got back to the apartment at 3:30 and went over the Leishman’s an hour later. Mary sent a long e-mail off to our list while I talked to the Leishmans. Later Mary joined us and we had a good time talking about their adventures during their mission. They are really a fun couple and have been excellent missionaries. I hope we can do as well. Of course it helps that they have been  here for almost two years and know everyone. Elder Leishman told me it took him a good 6 months to get comfortable. I am hoping it does not take us that long.

We came home to have a simple dinner of instant noodles and then watched a repeat of a ‘Numbers’ episode. I called the Kanes and had a really nice talk with them. They are having a high adventure and are the most positive people I think I know. They have each had a couple of bouts of diarrhea – I guess one of those was quite bad. Elder Kane is determined to bear his testimony in Indonesian next fast Sunday. I am sure he will do that. We are going to ask the Petersons if we can ride out to Bogor with them on Saturday – I would love to see the Kanes and their house.

Now I need to do some Indonesian – I have not really done any today.

11 January 2007 – Thursday

I slept until after morning prayer call – about 4:15 – and after a futile try to go back to sleep I read from the Book of Mormon in English. I am just getting into Alma and the rule of Judges. I know that Mosiah felt that the Lord wanted the Nephites to have judges instead of kings but it seems to me that they would have been better off with a king.

I got to the gym just as it was opening and put in a strong 30 minutes on the treadmill, did 50 sit-ups, put 10 minutes on the bike, and did some upper body work. By the time I was done I felt like I had put in a good hours of exercise. The scale is still not moving downward – but I will keep at it. One thing I have done is to stop drinking real root beer and have gone back to diet Coke. I figured that I was drinking 2 to 3 root beers a day for a total of 500 to 750 calories. With diet Coke I only get 4 or 5. I think that will help.

Breakfast was a glass of orange juice. It is now time to read from the Kitab Mormon.

It was a wonderful and not so wonderful morning. It was wonderful because the internet is again working at the office so we could get the information we needed from PEF files and we could read and send e-mail. It was not so wonderful because there are a number of problems with our property in Orem and Provo. The Orem property has not closed escrow and the people are not paying their rent. The Provo property has some work that needs to be done and it is causing some problems for Mike. Add to this that for some reason the bank does not think our complete power of attorney that we gave Mike includes our bank accounts and it adds up to a big mess. Unfortunately I can do little at this distance so I can only hope Mike and Bob can work it out. I am really sorry that this is putting so much on Mike’s shoulders but I am sure he can take care of it.

We went to the mission home so that Sister Leishman could teach the English class. Mary and I went to BCA to get our debit card, sign up for on line banking, and for online transfers. The latter takes 10 working days to get going but at least now we have a real bank account and a way to easily access it. I will write or call Tom tomorrow and ask him to transfer some money – a sample just to make sure he has everything right and then a major one to get us enough money to buy a car, pay our debt to the mission office and live for a few months. I figure once the car is bought we will need about $1700 or less a month for mission expenses certainly under $2000. At least that is what I am hoping will happen.

After we were finished with banking and sister Leishman was finished with her class we headed off to Tanggeran for district meeting and English class. It was good to see Elders Roper and Thiemann – they are in a tough district but seem to be keeping their spirits up. Elder Thiemann gave a very good lesson on prayer and missionary work.

The English class is a simple one – at least the one for the beginners. Elder Leishman is a very good and patient teacher. I am not sure I will do as well. I do think we need to start the classes on time – it is a bad example for the members to start whenever they get there. But it seems they try to get to the class on time but the traffic makes a big difference.
When the class was on Friday night they use to get more people to class. They changed because Sam was supposed to start a computer class. Maybe we will change it back to Friday night and not open the office at all on that day. I hate to think of the traffic on the way home – it will be terrible. I wonder how classes after church on Sunday would be? We could do it every Sunday because the Raya branch gets out early enough for us to get to Tanggeran before the last meeting was over at one. If we are going to put on classes we need to have them when people will come.

The trip home seemed like it took forever. It did not help that the classes did not end until 7:30. Anyway we came home had ice cream for dinner and headed for bed. I am going to read some from the Book of Mormon – English version – before going to sleep. Hopefully I will not wake until at least 5:00 tomorrow.

12 January 2007 – Friday

We have now been in Indonesia for 3 weeks and I still have not solved the sleeping problem. I woke at 2:30 and did not go back to sleep until sometime after 4. I know this because the morning prayer was being broadcast as I finally dropped off.

The problems at home that Mike has run into kept running through my mind. I really can not let them get to me as I have too many things to do and learn before the Leishmans leave in two weeks. I will call Tom and see if he can figure out some way to help even from 800 miles away. I can hardly wait until we get an internet connection so we can use e-mail and Skype from our apartment.

From the looks of this morning we are in for another bright and hot day. It has been bright enough that even native Indonesians have been trying to cover their head from the direct sunlight.

I did not go to the gym this morning – that is two days this week that I have missed. I decided I would set my alarm for 5:30 so I have time to get to the gym when it opens. I must work out each morning if I ever hope to lose this weight.

Other than that a regular morning with a glass of orange juice for breakfast. We had a good companionship study reading more than 10 verses from the Kitab Mormon. Mary reads about 70% and I do the other 30%. She is getting really good at reading and translating. We are trying to remember to say Kah instead of Kay for Ke – Sah instead of Say for Se – etc. Unfortunately that was not corrected back in the states. People still know what you mean but it give you a non-Indonesian accent. Not that people are likely to mistake us for Indonesians.

We were at the office for only about 40 minutes and then everyone headed for Sinopati and the Raya District Meeting. The meeting went well. Elder Matier gave us our lost translator so now we can each have one. Elder Thomas gave a good lesson about over coming concerns. Since this will be the last time he will be at a district meeting Elder Matier bore his testimony.

After district meeting we went down to BYU for some lunch. I had told the missionaries we would buy them lunch. The Leishmans went with us but when they saw that there were flies around the food they decided not to eat there. I did not care if we got sick or not – I wanted to experience street food. They take a piece of coated paper and make a cone. They lay down a base of rice and then you chose what to put on top. I chose potatoes, green beans and beef. Mary had the same plus something that looked like a big won-ton.

We decided to take the food back to the mission home to eat at a clean table. I started to eat with my hand but switched to a spoon. Some of the Indonesians that work there noticed that we were eating street food and they that was cool. Elder Matier said that when we eat from the street and try to speak Indonesian that we gain respect from the people. We really want to have the Indonesian saints to know that we are here to help them and that we respect their land and it’s customs. Elder Matier said the next time we ate together he expected me to eat with my hand.

The potatoes were quite spicy and the green beans were quite good. The beef was a little tough but it had a good taste. Mary said her won-ton was more like an egg roll. We both ate almost all of our food and now will wait to see if we get sick. Elder Matier said we would not because BYU was one of the best places to eat. From the amount of flies there I can not imagine what the other places are like. We could not linger after dinner so we said goodbye to the missionaries – including sister Larson who we know from the MTC – and headed back to the office.

Suzy our steady employment customer came in and spent something over an hour to send out more resumes. It will take some time for her to find a job because she is over 40 and most jobs are for people under 27.

After we closed up the office we dropped the Leishmans off at Casablanca and had Sam drive us to So Go to shop. The traffic there was light, parking was easy, and there was no waiting in line. We loaded up with goodies from the bakery and from Krispy Kreme as well as necessities before heading home. Unfortunately by that time the traffic had become heavy and it took us 45 minutes to get home when it only took 15 minutes to get there. But I have become accustomed to this and since I do not have to drive in it, I just take it in stride. Of course if the air-conditioner ever goes out that would quickly change.

It was really nice to come into the apartment and have it nice and cool. As long as the rent includes the utilities there is no reason to conserve. But once we start paying the bill, we will turn it off when we leave in the morning.

I forgot to mention that because of Bishop Burton’s visit next Wednesday, there is a lot activity around the chapel where the office is located.  They are cleaning, trimming, etc. I would guess that everything that has needed fixing for the last 6 months will get taken care of before he comes.

It is now just two weeks before the Leishman’s leave and we will be doing everything by ourselves. I am sure it will take some time before we get fully up to speed but I do look forward to getting a chance to try some new things. I feel the Lord sent us here for a special purpose. I do not know if that is to get PEF established, find a way to get more people to come to Career Workshops, find a way for members to find better jobs, or perhaps to find a way to help native Elders get into BYU Hawaii. Whatever it is I pray, that we will be able to fulfill our call and leave Indonesia feeling that have been instruments in His hands for good.



#5 Catch up

07 January 2006 – Sunday

I had my first real night’s sleep since being in Indonesia. I turned off the light before 10 and woke about 5:30. I hope this is the first of many nights to come.

It is fast Sunday and we are going to Tangaran so we left at 7:15. We went to two sacraments, 2 Sunday Schools and one Priesthood/RS meetings. We were asked to bear our testimonies in both sacrament meetings. Mary did really well and I was able to struggle through. In both cases I felt very good about bearing my testimony in Indonesian and I think we surprised people to do even the little we did. One member asked where we learned to speak Indonesian – it turned out that is what he does. I told him we should make a trade – we would teach him more English and he could teach us Indonesian.

We did not use the elders to interpret – I did not understand much of anything but just the effort to understand kept me wide awake and interested. Hopefully in a few months we will be closer to understanding and able to express ourselves better – lebih baik.

They kept a nice pace of testimony sharing. Most obviously had something to say – spiritual experiences, love for their Heavenly Father, Jesus and their families. It felt right to be there sharing the spirit.

I noticed that they do not have a member of the branch presidency stand in the circle when they bless a baby. I mentioned to the district president – President Richey – that I thought the manual called for this. He said he would check to see if that was correct.

When we got home we had a simple lunch of fruit and bread. After that Mary went off to take a nap and I am sitting here watching the Colts – Chiefs game. I am not sure when it was played in the US but it is fun to watch a real football game after seeing so much soccer.

As I was thinking about the importance of Indonesian missionaries learning English so they could go to BYU Hawaii to get an education that would allow them to obtain good jobs, I had what I think is an inspired idea.

I am going to propose that each Indonesian missionary have the opportunity to take a one month intensive English course as an extension of their mission. It would concentrate on preparing them to take the Michigan test, but it would do more than that. It would teach them to read, comprehend, speak and write quality English.

Mary points out that this is a strange proposal from a person who can not really do any of that. She said that my written proposal does not appear to be from someone who has a quality knowledge of English. I pointed out that I am well aware of my weaknesses and that is why I married her. I come up with the ideas and the rough plan and she puts it into acceptable language.

I am excited to show this to Subandriyo and get his reaction. Since he was the one who told me the story that got me to thinking about the subject, I believe he will see the merit in the basic plan.

Mary went through the proposal and made some corrections. I am not sure exactly what she changed but hopefully they were all for the better. I started another page with thoughts about the actual course. Hopefully as time goes on, the plan will evolve into a full blown program.

Elder Leishman called this afternoon and said the missionaries at Raya had found our electronic dictionary and they will bring it to the district meeting on Friday. Now we will have two so we will each have one.

08 January 2007 – Monday

Because I was awake for an hour or more during the early morning, I slept in until 6:30. I almost did not go to the gym but decided that even 20 minutes was better than just sitting around the apartment. I ended up doing about an hour of exercises. I found that if I start relatively slow and build up to 6.3 or so, I do not sweat as much and so I am willing to put in more time. While I was on the treadmill I tried to memorize D&C 4 in English. We have about a week to learn it both in English and Indonesian. Mary will of course do that but I will be happy to be able to do it in English.

As I was finishing up at the gym, an Indonesian man started talking to me. It turned out he is a member of a Christian church that has branches throughout Indonesia. He is a retired politician who was a member of Suharto’s government and helped train the current president. He does not think they learned very well. He has an apartment in Casablanca which he rents out at a very reasonable rate but unfortunately it will not be available until next January.

It has a fairly lazy day. We are sitting here watching the Dallas – Seattle game with the knowledge of how it will end with Dallas fumbling in the last minute of play. But we are also translating Indonesian. I am working my way through the first lesson from the Priesthood manual. Mary is over half way through the Stories from the Book of Mormon.

Earlier we went for our afternoon walk – Mary made it up to a full mile which is good with her knee problem. It did not help that it was really hot.

We did a dozen verses from 1st Nephi – sometimes we can go through a compete short verse without needing to question a word. Often there are just a couple of words we need to look up. I try to look up any word that we are not sure of, even if the meaning can be figured out by context. I like to see the root of the words that the translator chose.

If I could just absorb 20% of the new words that I learn each day into my vocabulary, I would soon be able to understand more of what I read without turning to a dictionary. I could also compose sentences. I think I will set a goal of writing 20 new sentences each day. In that way I will learn by using. Someday I hope to reach a point where I do not have to translate from Indonesian to English to understand what is written or said.

It is now just after 9 pm – it seems like it has been a long day.

09 January 2007 – Tuesday

I woke at about 3:15 and sometime between then and 5:30 I went back to sleep. Batch sleeping seem to still be my fate while in Indonesia.

Arrived at the gym to find it very busy. All the treadmills were filled so I put 30 minutes on the reclining bike. According to the figures, 30 minutes on it uses more calories than 50 minutes on the treadmill. It is possible that is true since I actually have to provide the energy to move the bike and on a treadmill all I need to do is to keep moving. After that I tried to do some sit-ups but my lower back hurt when I tried to stretch out. I think sitting and pushing for the first time in a long time took a toll. So instead I got on the treadmill so I could run my heart rate up to about 130 for at least a while. I only did 10 minutes but it felt good. Unfortunately there was no change over the weekend as far as weight is concerned. I have to remember that it usually comes off in chunks not gradually.

Back at the apartment I went through the normal routine – I had Frosted Flakes for breakfast while watching Indonesian TV and trying to catch at least a few words that I knew. It could be frustrating if I let it worry me.

We had an appointment with a university this morning to discuss how we could help with their English program. Elder Subandriyo set it up and went with us and the Leishmans. Once the meeting got started – there were 6 of us and 8 or 9 from the university, it soon became plain that we were not on the same page. They wanted us to come in and teach their students and we want to come in and work with their staff. Since we are not certified teachers it would be illegal for us to teach students. But we can work with the staff.

I volunteered for Mary and I to go in tomorrow morning and sit in on one of the English classes to see how they teach. Until we see what and how they teach I see no way to make suggestions of how we can help. The Leishmans reminded us that because of our mission responsibilities, we had to be careful about how much time we became committed to the school. My thought was that we had lots of time if we did it early in the morning or on most afternoons. Not to mention Saturday and Monday.

After the school we went to the office where we had a new applicant. I do not feel that we did him much good but hopefully we will get better at this. I am afraid that some applicants have wishes that do not fit with reality. I am all for dreaming but I also believe we need to help them realize that sometimes we are not qualified for the job we would like to have.

After he left we went to the mission office. Elder Leishman had to sign some papers and we turned in a receipt. We found out from President Jensen that the Zone conference had been changed to Wednesday the 17th. Everyone else seemed to know except us.

Now we are back at the apartment and quite tired. Mary is already lying down and I think I will join her for a short nap.

I took my nap but Mary never fell asleep. Even though she nods off in the office at times, she does not seem to need a nap as much as I do.

Sister Leishman sent over a nice pasta salad and some rolls. They made an excellent dinner. She must truly enjoy cooking because she always has something to share. They are both wonderful people. I wish we could get to know them better – maybe when we get back from the mission we can get together.

I have not been able to print out my proposal for the Indonesian missionaries because it is in Word Perfect and of course everyone else uses Word. If I had an internet connection I could paste it into an e-mail and send it to myself and print it that way. But I am not sure when we will be able to do that.  Tomorrow I will take the computer to the office and have Mary re-type it into Word.

After dinner we just sat around watching some TV. Before turning off the lights I am going to read from the Book of Mormon and translate some more of the PH lesson for Sunday.



# 4 Catching Up

04 January 2007 – Thursday

It is almost 10 pm – at the end of a long if not very busy day.

This morning I woke very early and never went back to sleep. So I was out of the apartment and walking by about 5:30. When the gym opened I spent 50 minutes on the treadmill and did some sit-ups and arm reps. Not much yet but at least a start. I need to get some tank tops so I can cut down on my sweating.

When I left the gym I took another man’s keys and did not realize it until I tried to open our door with them. I then had to take them back and apologize. The morning went about normal after that except I took a nice 45 minute nap before getting ready to go to work.

Other than review some of the reports that we will be using, we did not do much. Elder Leishman and I walked to the local store and got some apples. I think we will be doing quite a bit of shopping there. The selection is pretty good and the prices see to be OK.

We then went over to the mission office. Mary watched sister Leishman teach English to some of the office staff, elder Leishman and I took care of some business. Subandrya set me up to buy a new Toyota. It is going to cost us about $12,000 and we should get back at least $9K and we should get back $10K. So it should cost us between $150 to $180 a month for our car instead of $400. But even if we only get $8K back it is still less than leasing.

I talked to Sabandrya about the 15 loans we have in PEF and explained that we had to find them and see what they had done with the loans. I mentioned that Elder Carmack had asked us personally to see it got done and so I intend to do my best. Later he talked to me about personal tutoring so motivated young people could pass the Michigan test. I said we would love to do that – but only if he chose truly motivated students. I think we will work well together – at least I am hoping so.

After the ladies were done, we headed off to Tangaraan for district meeting. Traffic was very good so we got there almost on time. This is the district with our friends elders Roper and Tihman. The district seems to be on an upturn with a more positive attitude. Elder Roper and his companion had a number of weeks when they had 5 contacts. I told them that they were the missionaries that were going to change the reputation for Tangarran as being the worse district in the mission to the best.

We were supposed to have English lessons after the meeting but only 4 young people showed up by 6:30 so we had an abbreviated version that was OK but not much English was learned. I am thinking about introducing Shakespeare to the class – I think having them read it and perhaps even put on an abridged version of one of the plays might be fun. If it works for 3rd grade students in the states, it just may work here.

We were on the road by 7:15 and home just after 8. I turned on the TV and we got to see most of The Amazing Race – Asia. It is a little less exciting than the US one and the people are way more polite. Maybe a little too polite? After that Mary went to bed but I watched the end of Get Shorty II.  It is a fun movie but I must say the acting is not as good as the first one.

Now it is time for me to read a little from the Indonesian Kitab Mormon and try to get some sleep. I am rather surprised that I have not collapsed from lack of sleep.

05 January 2007 – Friday

I woke about 4 a.m. but managed to go back to sleep until almost 6. I quickly dressed and headed for the gym. Met elder and sister Leishman as they were doing their morning stroll. Sister Leishman’s knee must be feeling better.

This morning I never really got into being on the treadmill. I put in 40 dull minutes and then did some sit-ups. I think on mornings when I have to rush to get there near 6, I am less likely to enjoy myself. I believe I finally managed to remember Memilih, Bertambah and Bertahan – I came up with Saya memilih pertambahan  ketahanan saya – I take that to mean I choose to increase my endurance.

After that it was the normal getting showering, cooling off and having breakfast. I splurged and had frosted flakes with banana. I am sure I used up all of my exercise calories with that. But at least it is better than eating without exercising.

Now it is time to study Indonesian…Kitab Mormon.

Once we got to the office elder Leishman and I tried to hardwire the internet connection but without any luck. I left him with the problem because Mary and I had to head for Raya to join the district meeting. The drive went fairly fast but I think in the future we will leave earlier so we are never late.

Elder Metier has been told he will be transferred in two weeks, but he will be able to be part of the two baptisms before he goes. Elder Thomas will leave at the end of the month. We had a very good meeting. They are doing well, teaching 15 discussions a week, and they seem to be working well as companions. We got to take part in all of the meeting. I gave the spiritual thought and some gave some comments about the need for the English speaking elders to work hard with their companion. I explained that the ability of the Indonesian missionaries to speak English may well effect their whole life. Elder Metier said that he never heard it that way. I feel the district is doing well but much of it has to do with their district leader. Working with the missionaries will be some of the highlights of our mission.

We got back to the office at about 1:15 and not do much before the woman came to continue her job search. She chose 8 more jobs to apply for and we are hoping she will get some responses by next Friday.

We then closed up the office and went grocery shopping. While we were at Carrafour I bought a new translator to replace the one I lost last Sunday. We have really missed having one and felt the money well spent. Because it is Friday I expected the store to be really crowded but it was no more so than usual and we got out quite quickly.

I took my afternoon nap – it seems to be something I do whenever I get a chance – and then we went over to the Park Hotel to eat dinner. It is our first ‘date night’ since we got here. It is a beautiful location – the flower arrangements are spectacular – and the food was good but not great. It certainly was not worth the $35 it cost and the $9 hamburger was not as good as what I would get at Wendy’s for $5. Unless it is for their seafood buffet, I doubt if we will go there again.

We came home and watched The Thomas Crown Affair. It is really a good movie – it must be because I have watched it at least four times and each time I have been entertained. Only a good movie with good acting can hold up like that.

06 January 2007 – Saturday

I just realized that we have passed the first month of our mission. We went into the MTC on Monday, December 4. It seems like we have been serving much longer than that. I think that is a good thing. I do wish that we had a good internet connection so we could write and talk to our children and grandchildren. Hopefully by the time we move into our permanent apartment the internet will be back to 100% and will stay that way for the next 16 months.

Speaking about the apartment, I called Mr. Rees this morning and he agreed to lease us the Leishman’s apartment with just a 10% increase in rent. From what I have found from other ads in the paper that is very fair. I will write up a lease on Monday and try to get him to sign it as soon as he gets home from Bali. I feel that this is an answer to my prayers – this morning I asked the Lord to help us contact Mr. Rees and have him agree to rent to us at a reasonable rate. Everyone else I have contacted want about $1350 to $1550 a month while this will cost us about $1100 with utilities. That may seem high but for a nice, secure place in Jakarta it is very reasonable.

I had a normal morning – waking at about 5:15 and getting to the gym soon after it opened. I spent over 50 minutes on the treadmill. Most of it was spent trying to memorize D&C chapter 4 in English. Next comes Indonesian – we need to know it for district meetings with Raya and for mission conferences. It seems they always repeat it in English and Indonesian at these meetings. I seem to be still losing at a regular rate. Hopefully this will continue until I reach my goal and then I can maintain it without so much sweating.

By the time I got back to the apartment and cleaned up, I was really tired so I took a nice nap. I would feel guilty but until we get control of the car, keys and the office there is little else for us to do on Saturday. After I woke up we spent some time reading from the Book of Mormon. I would be surprised if we made it through even once during our mission. But perhaps I am being too hard on myself. Sooner or later the language should start to make sense – at least reading it should. Speaking will come next and finally hearing what native say. I am hoping to reach that stage in a year.

After our Kitab Mormon reading, we went for a walk around the grounds. We really need to do this every day. Mary lasted for 3/4 of a mile – which is good in the heat – and I decided to also call it quits. Between the treadmill and the walk I did about 4 miles today.

Mary really wanted to go to the book store at the mall, so I agreed. The trip there costs about $1.30 – the trip home costs 80 cents. Once there we went up to the bookstore where I got a number of How to Teach English books and Mary got some children’s books. The part of the mall we were in was mostly electronics and furniture. Lots of store selling computer notebooks – all of them much more expensive than in the US. $600-$800 gets you only 256K of memory – 1 to 2 G costs $1200 to $1800.  There does not seem to be any real bargains.

There are a number of stores that sell what is obviously pirated DVD games and movies. $5 gets you the latest and greatest. I avoided the temptation of buying some of the movies that we have not seen.

Before we left the mall we stopped and had ice cream at a shop selling Australian ice cream. It was pretty good but not as smooth as Baskin Robbins and about as expensive. Mary pointed out that the only other white faces we saw while in the mall was at that store. I think it is too expensive for most Indonesian families. We needed a cab to come home and a very nice security guard went out of his way to find us a Bluebird cab. It is the only kind we are told to use. It is a very reputable firm and the driver do not try to rip off the Europeans and Americans. The guard knew that was what we wanted and waved off anyone else.

When we got home we went through the books I bought and found some were poorly done but will make good examples of how not to speak English. There is one excellent book that did not seem to have any mistakes. Of course it is the most expensive but it is the one I would use for teaching advanced English. One of the books is filled with games and activities which we can use. Even the not very good books for teaching English have value for us. They usually have the correct Indonesian example so we can use them to help us with our Indonesian.

Mary took a nice nap – I tried to but was not successful. We watched the end of a StarTrek movie and then had dinner. Omelets and fruit – very good. The fruit here is excellent – the watermelon tonight was delicious – and inexpensive.

I forgot to mention that we did laundry this morning. I am still trying to get use to the idea that we must manually hang the clothes out to dry. While Mary fixed dinner I brought in the laundry and then iron one of mine and one of Mary’s shirts. After dinner I hand washed the dishes. All of these would not be necessary at home. However it is hard to complain since we are living in a beautiful high-rise apartment and for at least one month have complete maid service. I must take pictures of the maid’s sleeping and bathrooms. I can not imagine having someone living here with us.

We did not really do anything after dinner except study some Indonesian – not with much dedication – and watch some TV. I did review some PEF training and looked through some info on a DVD but all in all it was less than a productive night.

As I try to read in the Kitab Mormon I find that I can read about 50 – 60% of the words which is a pretty good improvement over a month ago. Hopefully I will continue to improve. Mary is to a point where she gets about 80% of the words – part of this is because she has been reading Stories from the Book of Mormon in Indonesian and of course some of the same words are used.

It is now 9 p.m. and I am going to try to stay up until 10 so that I will not wake up at 3 in the morning. We do have to get up early so we can be ready by 7:15 to be at our first meeting at 8:00. It is going to be a rather long day at the Tangarang branches.