09 February 2007 – Friday

Our first really peaceful day in a couple of weeks. I slept in again until 6:30 and so no gym. That is 7 hours of good sleep and I think I needed it. About 7:00 I was at the computer when a call came through from the Mitchells and of course while we were talking to them, Bob called. It is great to see and kind of talk to our family. We must however be careful not to let our Skyping them turn our minds away from why we are in Indonesia. I do not think that will happen because even with some stressful moments we are truly enjoying serving here.

We spent 45 minutes reading from Kitab Mormon. Each day we seem to be able to understand more and more. I also think my ability to read the Indonesian out loud is improving. After companion study I did some more personal study on Patience and Charity.

Sam came for us at about 10:30 and we went over to the mission home. One thing about our call is that, other than those missionaries who live there, we get to the mission home more often than any other couple. This gives us a chance to meet with all the wonderful Indonesian people who work there and of course with the A.P.s and the office missionaries.

Today we were there for the Jakarta, Raya district meeting and for Mary to meet with Sister Jensen and the district music committee. We also were able to make sure that Cliff Rees did get paid today.

The district meeting went well. If we are there, Jakarta, Raya usually conducts their meeting in English. One of the Indonesian missionaries does not have very good English but they translate for him. I gave the spiritual thought – I told how I was studying the lesson on obtaining Christ like attributes and that I discovered that I could not just have one of them. That to have any one of the attributes I needed to develop all of them.

Elder Decker gave a short lesson on how to ask good questions when teaching the gospel. I pointed out that while it is important to follow the directions in TMG that the first three lessons should be taught in order, that the missionary must be also open to changing the order if moved by the spirit. Elder Decker read a section from PMG that said exactly that. I also mentioned that we must have the spirit to truly teach the Gospel – that when we do not have the spirit we become Gospel salesmen and not missionaries.

While we were there I met with President Jensen and asked him for some help in how I could help the Tangerang district to stop being negative. He shared some thoughts from TMG and said that he was going to talk about that in the next Zone Conference. I asked if it would be OK for me to go out with the missionaries and actually experience what they experience on the street. He said that would be fine and that since he was president, that I was the first senior couple to ask to do that. I am sure that some senior couples are already doing that in other areas – he just has not heard about it. However maybe I will be the first in Jakarta to spend some time riding the buses with them. I do not plan to spend a full day – just two or three hours to get the flavor of what they do each day.

Later he asked us both to come in and talked to us about inspecting one of the Tangerang missionary residences. He wanted us to make sure that some modifications that were supposed to be done by the owner had been done. We mentioned that we would be going out on Monday and would not only check but bring back pictures so he can see for himself.

For lunch I had Sam walk down to BYU and got lunch for us. It is only the second time we have eaten off the street but I think that as we find more places that are safe to eat that we will do it more often. Total cost of two very filling meals – neither of us could eat all of our food – was a total of 70 cents.

While Mary met with the music committee I tried to study, but I kept falling asleep. Since it pretty much out in public I felt strange so I got up and walked around. I can not understand how I can be sleepy so soon after sleeping for 7 hours.

We went to the University to teach English but they did not know we were coming. I think that many of the staff was still trying to clean up from the flood – the elevators were all under repair – and so there were not enough people there for classes. David – the manager was there and said that there would be one next week. I told him that it was good of the University to provide shelter for the flood victims and he in turn thanked us for providing some meals. I told him that it was really Elder Subandriyo and President Jensen he should thank.

With the cancellation of the class, there was little to do but come back to the apartment. On the way into the apartments, I picked up a free copy of a new English newspaper that seems to have started up. In it was an account of the finding yesterday of a body of a murdered woman among the trash under a bridge. It was almost across from our office in the Selatan chapel and we had seen the crowd gathered around the body on our way in. Mary did not actually see the body, but I did. At the time I supposed that she had died from the stress of the flood. Other than when Dona died it is the only recently dead body I have seen. I am pretty sure it is the only murder victim that I have seen. There are few reported murders in the papers. I do not know if that means there are few murders or that they are so numerous that unless something is unusual about the murder they are not news.

It was strange to be home so early. I took a nap – not a very restful one. By the time I got up it was time for dinner. Mary fixed omelets – about the only meal we actually cook it seems – while I heated up some rolls that sister Leishman left in the freezer. She makes great rolls. After dinner I washed the dishes that had accumulated.

The rest of the night I tried to work on Indonesian and PMG – I can not say that I learned a lot but I did try to not just sit around all night. I think the hardest part of our mission will be times like this when we have hours to fill – we must learn to fill them with activities that causes us to grow and become better missionaries. It is too easy to fill them with watching TV or being on the computer. At least it is too easy for me. In PMG it says that what we do when we are alone tells us what kind of person we are. I think that it could be modified to what we do with our spare time tells us what kind of a missionary we are. I think I would give myself a B for tonight.