11 February 2007 – Sunday

I slept in until almost 6 – it is getting to be a habit. My mouth looks really bad – it should draw a lot of comments today. Yesterday I forgot to mention that both of us got our hair cut. They tend to cut hair a little shorter here but I like the way mine looks. Mary statement was that ‘it will grow out.’ One thing is for sure it is a lot easier to take care of this way.

We read for about 45 minutes from Kitab Mormon. Mary is able to pretty much translate what is being said – sometimes we miss key indicators of who is talking or the tense which throws us off but other than that and forgetting words we really should know it goes well. It is harder to translate articles or talks because, unlike the KM, they do not often repeat thoughts or phrases.

We went to church at Jakarta, Raya. Elder Cheney was there in place of elder Thomas. When we met on Friday as a district, I missed that they had changed. Everyone of course asked me about my sore lips. I am not sure everyone understood but they appeared sympathetic. Sacrament meeting was about obedience. I asked Elder Decker not to translate but to be available so we could ask him the basic idea of what was being said. It worked out pretty good but I think I should asked for a few more ideas.

As I listen more words are starting to stand out. The problem is that they do not instantly – or even very quickly translate into something I understand. However each week gives me hope that in the future I will at least be able to pick up enough to understand what is the core of the message.

We then went to the Gospel Principle’s class. They had two investigators and that is great. I wish Tangerang would get a few. Elder Decker taught the class by having individuals read part of the lesson. When it was over I mentioned to him that on Friday he had taught a good lesson on asking questions so that you know if an investigator understands what is being taught but he did not put it into practice for his lesson.

What made this more interesting is that for PH they had the WW Leadership meeting for all the branch leaders and it was on being a good teacher. It was in Indonesian but I could follow much of it because Elder Holland wrote things on the board. One of the important things that he mentioned was to make sure the class members had a chance to participate by asking good questions.

It lasted for 90 minutes and was going to go on after that but since it was in Indonesian I decided I should come home and watch the whole thing in English. I am sure that the mission must have a copy of text – or perhaps they have an actual DVD.

I have been praying today that I would not come down with the cold that it seems like I am getting. There is too much to do for me to be sick. The problem with my mouth is enough challenge – I am hoping that by next Sunday it will be pretty much cleaned up. Unfortunately I do not think my faith is strong enough because I can feel the cold moving up my throat to my nose. I wonder why colds are often announced that way – they germinate in the throat?

We took naps – I took a fairly long one and Mary took her normal short nap. When I woke my mouth was itching and my so was my throat. I think that is not fair!

Mary fixed spaghetti – it was really good to have a homemade dinner. We also finally took the time to go through the receipts and divide them between those we need to be reimbursed for and those that are personal and can be taken off our taxes. I still find it hard to believe we are allowed to take all of our expenses from our mission as a tax deduction.

We spent some time cleaning up the apartment so that when the cleaners come tomorrow they can give the all the surfaces a good cleaning. It will be interesting to see how they can spend 3 hours cleaning – but for a total of $6 no matter what they do I can hardly complain.

It really does not seem right to be around the apartment for so long. If it was not necessary to give Sam time off to attend his own branch – they seem to be busy all day Sunday – and do personal things, I would just as soon spend Sunday visiting less-actives or something. Maybe in the future we can go to the office – we can take a taxi that far – and be there in case anyone would like some help looking for a job. That sounds like a good idea – at least we can give it a try.