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.