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.