22 January 2007 – Monday

The start of another week – the last one for the Leishmans. I slept well and woke at 5:20 feeling very good. It was like I had just enough sleep for one night. I decided to go down early and walk the track until the gym opened. I put in a good mile but discovered that I had not brought a towel. I did not want to go back to the apartment and get one so I only did some sit-ups and less than 20 minutes on the bike. But that was enough to work up a good sweat and I was nicely surprised when I got on the scales and saw that I lost about a pound over Sunday. I think I will go back to the gym later in the day.

This morning we are going to go to an orphanage where the Leishmans put in a water system and re-built their kitchen. It is kind of like a last hoorah for them. I would think that they will spend most of the rest of their mission time getting ready to leave on Friday. That means starting Friday it is all ours.

We were gone much longer than we expected because besides going to the school for blind handicapped children we also we home teaching out in the wilds. I thought we were going to an orphanage but it turned out that it was a Christian run school for children who are blind and have at least one more handicap – mental or physical. It was a humbling experience to be there where some 70 students – age 3 to 20 – from lower social levels live and learn. The school is funded by a small tuition – if the family can afford it – donations, and however else they can get money. There is a staff that seems to vary between 30 and 60 depending on the money available. The school is quite clean – at least under the circumstances – and the teachers seem to really care for the children.

Last year LDS Charities gave them a new well, storage tank and helped upgrade their kitchen. We were there to let the Leishmans say goodbye and to introduce us to those who run the school. They are going to make up a list of things they feel they need and we will try to help them. The problem is that the Church is not into providing things that are not related to wheelchairs, water, or neo-natal – at least not at this time. The earlier project made it through because it did deal with clean water.

After the school Sam drove us out to the boondocks of Jakarta – actually it was closer to Bogor than it was to Jakarta – to hometeach a member of the Raya branch. We seemed to drive forever and then Sam drove into a lane that was only about 2 feet wider than the SUV. If someone was walking in the lane, we had to wait until they could get into a doorway or some small alcove before we could pass.

The man of the house was not home but his wife was. It is a nice home by Indonesian standards and they have a small manufacturing business along side. He makes some kind of tool hanger that he sells to big companies. They have a daughter who graduated from a Indonesian university in accounting and now lives in her own apartment. Their son is going to BYU Hawaii and will graduate this year. The mother mentioned that he often called for money and it was up to her to find a way to send it. It was humbling to see this relatively poor family making sure that their children had opportunities that they never would have thought to have.

They live far from the branch and it takes 90 minutes on a motorcycle for the father to get there. The mother can not ride that long so if she goes it must be by public transportation that will take her from 2 ½ to 3 hours each way. She does not go very often but he is quite faithful – when she does it is an all day thing. The faith of the Indonesian saints is amazing to me.

Sam took us home the short way which meant traveling on a road that was basically destroyed. He could not go over 5 miles an hour and had to move all over the road to avoid the worst of the holes. I am not looking forward to doing that each month. Once we got to the main road it was a much smoother trip home. I managed to nap along the way.

Home to eat lunch, watch the end of a movie, and then took a short nap. When we got up it was time to clean up the books and paperwork that has accumulated since we started our mission. We went through and put everything in piles according to what it was about. We then went through and organized the piles. We can not really get this well done until we move in to the apartment and have bookcases. We will also get plastic stacking boxes to hold materials.

The one thing we have not done is go through the receipts we have been keeping. Some will we will be able to turn in for reimbursement and the others will go toward taxes. What we did not find was the amount that we still need to pay on the car – I will have to get that in the next week and make the transfer.

23 January 2007 – Tuesday

Although I woke a couple of times during the night, basically I slept from 10:30 P.M. to 5:30 A.M. Maybe I am finally getting adjusted to being on Indonesian time. The only problem now is that I am still tired after 7 hours sleep.

Made it to the gym in time to get a treadmill and spent a good, hard 40 minutes walking. I got my heartbeat up to into the 130’s and maintained the 120’s for at least half of the time. There is definitely more people using the gym in the morning than when we first got here. I was happy to see that my weight went down to about 83 K but I would not be surprised to see it go up a little today. I have one more week to get it down to a solid 82.5 and I think I can do that.

After taking a long shower, I read from the Book of Mormon in English. I am in Alma where he and Amulek are confronting Zoram. It is a good section because not only is the gospel plainly taught, but both Amulek and Zoram except the truth, repent and become strong preachers of the truth. It shows that no matter what you have done, through the power of the atonement you can repent and find peace. It also reminds me of why we are here – not just to help with employment but to invite others to come unto Christ.

Darn machine ate my typing!

We read the Kitab Mormon for about 45 minutes and we were able to do many verses without looking up more than one or two words and with some we did not need to look up any. Mary pointed out that she can now read a lot of the words and not need to consciously think about them before coming up with the English word. The next step is to start thinking in Indonesian and needing to work at translating the words into English. This is the where the missionaries are – they say it is hard or impossible to teach the gospel in English because it is too much work to try and come up with the English translation. Hopefully we will get somewhat close to that before we go.

At 10 we went over to the Leishman’s – soon to be our – apartment and waited until about 10:45 when the man came to close out the Leishman’s internet. Unfortunately he could not connect ours. Later in the day I called the engineer and he seems to feel he can connect us by giving information over the phone.

We were dropped off at the office at about 11:15 and we have been fairly busy ever since. Not that we had anyone come in for help with employment but we worked on our English, made some lists, worked on Indonesian, and watched the rain come down. It has been raining all day – no complaints because the country needs it – and for the first time we got to see how some streets become big ponds.

The Leishman’s came to the office at about 3:00 and we decided to shut down so we could get some rest before heading out to Tangeraan and dinner with a member family. I think it was originally only for the Leishmans as a goodbye gesture but we got invited as an after thought. The brother is in the district council and the sister is in RS.
The trip out to the dinner appointment was long and wet. At times it was just pouring rain. The traffic was usual but not completely stop and go as it sometimes is. But it ended up taking us about 13/4 hours to get there. I will never know how Sam found the right place.

We did not have dinner at their home because there was no room big enough so we went to her place of business. She owns a beauty shop, health massage, and steam room. Not unlike sister Radmall recently opened at home.

Dinner was very good. It is the first time we have eaten at a member’s home with traditional foods. The fried chicken was as good as I have eaten. There was excellent saffron rice, pressed rice, and lots more things that I do not have names for. There was a dish of thin sliced potatoes that were fried in some sweet and spicy coating that I really liked but could only eat with something else. If I tried to eat it alone it set my mouth on fire.

She had some unusual wood piece which turned out to be a tree that they cut into sections, peel off the outside bark and then hollow out the center. It looks like they have carved the outside but she assured me that it was all natural. That once the bark was off the trunk it dried to the rough texture and different shades. I started thinking of how it could be sold and asked some questions. When we started to go, she gave me a good size piece – I really did not want to take it but they insisted.

We also met two of the brother’s friends from Sumatra. One had majored in English at the university and could speak very well. He said that he had been teaching ex-pats Indonesian for the last three months. I imagine that is a pretty good business to be in.

Elder Roper and Elder Go were also there. Elder Roper is just plain funny and so we had a good time. It turned out that the direct bus to their house stopped at 7:00 so for them to get home would mean they had to walk in the rain to one place, take a bus that actually went away from their house until they could catch another bus that would take them home. After checking with the Leishmans, Mary offered them a ride home with us. They were thrilled.

From how they had been describing their house, I expected to see this run down dump. I was really surprised to drive up to a nice looking house in a very decent neighborhood.  We will not know what the inside looks like until a week from Monday, but I would be surprised if it is not nicer than most families have in Indonesia.

The trip home seemed to take forever but somewhere along the way I fell asleep and after that it was fine.

24 January 2007 – Wednesday

I woke at about 5:00 this morning – a little earlier than the last two days but I still had a good sleep. I did not get to the gym until almost 6:00 and by then the treadmills were in use so I did sit-ups and then spent a rugged 20 minutes on the bike. I do not know if the calorie counter on the bike is anywhere near correct but it certainly feels good to see the number climb so fast. I alternated medium and very fast pumping so that I could get my heart rate up. When I got on the scale I found that another pound was gone. After the big dinner last night, I thought it would be up today. I think I will be below 180 by the end of the month.

Back at the apartment I did the usual morning things – breakfast was a banana and four Ritz crackers. I did some work on the English class for Thursday – I am going to try and get the children more involved. That was a suggestion by Elder Roper last night.

After that we sat down and finished chapter 10 from the Kitab Mormon. I am very encouraged because more and more words are starting to make sense without going to the dictionary. Of course it helps that Mary remembers so many. I need to go back and again read the verses we studied today. I think that way I will remember more. I also find that my ability to read out loud is improving. Hopefully by my birthday I will be slim and able to carry on a simple conversation in Indonesian.

The Leishmans dropped us off at the office and we spent about 90 minutes working on English for Thursday and Friday. The internet was completely down so we could not check either mailboxes. Hopefully there was nothing important in either one.

We took a cab to the mission office. We left early so we would have time to talk to a number of people. Hendra printed off the branch lists we needed and we had a nice conversation about the goals for Jakarta branch for the coming year. I was impressed that they not only set goals but wrote plans on how they would achieve them. I think Hendra will be the way into the confidence of the Jakarta branch. Hopefully I can find ways to help them achieve their goals. They did confirm the three new members that we saw baptized two weeks ago. I am looking forward to passing the sacrament there this Sunday.

We could not talk to the A.P.s because they were off traveling. I think being an A.P. might be fun because the president really allows them to do a lot of work and travel. We had lunch with the staff – that is we ate our apples with them. We were joined by Elder Subandriyo who had to run home to get his dress shoes for our visit this afternoon.

We also got to talk a little with the president. He and sister Jensen were getting ready to go pick up the new missionary couple. Unfortunately he is still feeling bad from whatever he got over a week ago. I hope I do not get anything that bad. However if I did, I would just stay home and rest. Unfortunately that is not a luxury he has.

Elder Subandriyo drove us to our meeting with Raphail Yunianto,  the Human Resource Director of the Media Group that owns the largest TV station in Indonesia and a lot more businesses. On the way I found out that president Jensen sent Subandriyo a copy of my proposal for English training for Indonesian missionaries. He had not really read the proposal carefully so I talked to him about some of the thoughts. Later when we were waiting for our appointment, he had a chance to read the proposal and I think he is interested.  I hope that we will get a chance to at least get a pilot program going sometime the first half of this year.

Our meeting with Mr. Yunianto went really well. We talked some about ourselves, why we were in Indonesia, what programs we were offering to members and non-members alike, and finally we got down to summer internships that they might be able to offer Indonesian students at BYU Hawaii. It sounds as if they might be willing to extent internships to as many Media, Accounting, and Hotel majors as would like to apply. We also learned something about what type of people they were looking for. He mentioned that often an applicant had all the educational qualifications but lacked the drive to be successful. They are looking for self-starters who want to move up in the organization. Obviously that is possible because he appears to still be quite young and has a very responsible position. Now we just need to get things rolling from our side and let BYU Hawaii know that we need applicants for the internships.

Elder Subandriyo drove us back to the mission office because the traffic was too heavy for him to drive us to the apartment. We hoped to meet the new couple but the president was tied up with some kind of problem involving a missionary in one of the branches and we did not want to disturb him so we left. We caught a cab back to the apartment – he took us a different way than Sam usually does but he still kept it down to $2 so I gave him a 25% tip. I am really a big spender.

We went down to the café for dinner – with tip $6.50.  There was one funny experience tonight. This morning I mentioned to Mary that since the door automatically locks it would be easy to lock yourself out of the apartment. This evening as we left for dinner I did just that and so we had to get the staff to let us back in. Next time I must remember to knock on wood.

We spent part of the evening packing for our move and part of it watching a really bad movie on TV. The time would have been much better spent working on Indonesian. That is the time spent watching TV. The packing went well and I do not think it is going to be hard to move on Friday morning. However Friday is going to be really busy because we have to move, go out to Jakarta branch, and then get back for the English at the University. It should be fun. If worse come to worse we will call the elders and tell them we will be late to their district meeting. I do not want to miss it completely because we did not get to go last week. It is not good to miss two weeks in a row. Besides I want to meet the new district leader.

Now it is going on 11 P.M. and I am about to turn off the lights and go to sleep.