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.