10 February 2007 – Saturday

A full day off before us – it should be interesting. I woke at about 5:45 and decided I really did not want to go to the gym. I know that it is not the right attitude to take about exercise but it is how I have been feeling. I say to myself that I will go later in the day – but later never comes.

Not only did I not feel like exercising but after being up only a short time I wanted to go back to bed and sleep some more. I think that comes from not exercising. I did get up and make a word list that I am determined to learn today. One of the sisters at the mission home told Elder Cheney – one of the new missionaries – that he needed to learn 10 new words each day. I think Elder Cheney is the type of missionary who will have no trouble doing that. I would be happy to really learn 5 new words a day.

There are things we need to do today. We need to go through our piles of receipts and put them into personal and those that should be reimbursed by the mission. I then need to learn how to fill out an expense sheet so that I can get reimbursed. Also we need to pay some bills. President Jensen said they would like us to pay off our lease in 13 months instead of 16 so we are going to pay 10 million a month instead of 8.25 million. I am not sure why that is but it does mean the last three months we will not have much in the way of expenses.

It was a strange day – it never felt quite right. We spent a lot of time during the day studying Indonesian, paid some bills, and got a few other things done, but we never really did anything that was really missionary work. I do not plan to have this kind of Saturday again. In the future I think we will at least take a cab to the office and be available just in case someone drops in for help. We could also work on our English lessons.

The problem is that at the apartment it is too easy to turn on the TV or get on the computer. I know that we should have better discipline and as our mission goes on I imagine we will but all in all I think it would be better to go into the office on the Saturdays we are not traveling.

Olivia’s blog is great – it becomes a living scrapbook. From what I saw there, I think she learned to clean her room from one of her relatives.