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.