20 February 2007 – Tuesday
I forgot to set the alarm and woke at about 6. I did not go to the gym…lazy I think. However I did remember that we were to visit a member’s uncle with the elders and I was not sure we ever really made the appointment. It was too early to do anything so I wrote myself a big note. Later this morning I made a number of phone calls and it is set up for this afternoon. I thanked the Lord for reminding me of this … I need all the help I can get.
For my personal study time I read about the need for the spirit in missionary work from PMG. As I read the section and took the self-test on prayer I realized that this was another area I needed to work on. So along with patience and charity, I now am working on improving the quality of my prayers. This means I first pray in Indonesian and then in English … this way I can cover all the things I need to pray about. Also I need to take time to listen to what the Lord has to say as and after I pray.
Jim was on line so we had a rather strange but very good ‘talk’ with him and Olivia. We got to see them and they see us for a short time. However our connection here is so slow that it is almost impossible to really hold a meaningful Skype call. For some reason our sound to them becomes mostly static. We solved this by me using the written chat feature while Jim talked. It is really great to be in contact with our family.
We then read Kitab Mormon – we are in the Isaiah section of 1st Nephi and it is really hard to translate it into Old Testament language – of course it was also difficult for them to translate the English into Indonesian. The words and concepts of the OT do not move well into Bahasa. But we plug along and usually come close.
When we arrived at the chapel I realized that I had left my keys back at the apartment. Luckily the custodian came and could let us in. Or at least let me in because Mary and Sam had to return a computer desk that could not be assembled correctly. I ask them to stop on the way back by the apartment for the keys.
I was just getting the computer up and running when first the air-conditioner turned off and then a few seconds later the computer and lights went off. I went looking to find out what the problem was and found that they were replacing the whole electrical service. It would have been nice if they had warned me so I did not have the computer turned on.
Anyway I sat in the office alone with only the light from the window to read by until Mary got back. Then the two of us sat there reading from the Kitab Mormon until it was time to leave for the mission home where we were to pick up the missionaries and the member to go see the appointment I had forgotten about. On the way we stopped at BYU and picked up lunch…I am becoming a big fan of that place. It is amazing how much you get to eat for 40 cents.
Jemmy’s – that is the name of the member – ‘uncle’ lives in a very expensive home in a very good neighborhood. He is 72 years old and is very well educated and well read. He speaks Dutch, English and Indonesian very well. We had a nice visit in English and then we found he was interested in asking some questions about the LDS faith. I told him that the elders were specialists in answering questions like that. He was happy to find that they spoke Indonesian. He said that while he knew English, when it came to discussions about things of the mind, it was better to speak in a language you are completely comfortable with.
Elder Decker did most of the lesson – the investigator did a lot of the talking. I soon realized he knew a lot about the bible and also that he was a spiritual person who took religion seriously. When it got to the part of the discussion that talked about the First Vision, I bore my testimony of the truthfulness. I mentioned that I had been to the sacred grove and knew that Joseph had been visited by God and Jesus Christ. I also told him I was a convert to the church and had taken the lessons. I told him that no amount of reading or discussion will finally convince anyone to be baptized. That it was only when you prayed and the Lord answered that you would know. Mary joined in with her testimony and I thought the spirit was very much with us.
Later he started asking about why we were called Mormons and it reached a point where I thought he was confused and elder Decker was not really answering his questions. I told him that there was never a ‘Mormon’ church and that it was only a nickname that other people called us because the full name of the church is quite long. Which is why we often call ourselves LDS. After that he seemed to understand. We could have stayed there for days but we had other things that needed to be done so the elders set another appointment for Friday. We can not be there, but I think elder Decker will do fine.
We dropped the elders and Jemmy’s wife – he had to leave earlier for another appointment – off at the mission home. I forgot to write earlier that when we were at the MH for the first time, the office elders mentioned that they had just bought a 2 Gig memory stick for $19. Since most of the ones we bought are full, I asked if they would get a couple for us. I gave them $50 and they happily went off to bargain. When we got back to the office, I found that they had gotten 2 of them for $35 – Elder Allred loves to bargain. So after they loaded a short movie they had made about the flood on one of them I took them both and left.
We were able to spend about an hour at the apartment before leaving for an appointment to talk to a university class about English. Actually we were told that we would be asked questions and we would just answer them. Sam said it would take an hour to get there so we left 90 minutes early just to make sure.
Once in the car I almost immediately fell asleep. About 40 minutes later I woke up and looked at my watch. I asked if we were almost there and Mary pointed out that we were only about 3 k from our apartment. I thought she was kidding me until I looked up and saw what we call ‘This is the place’ monument still in front of us and I knew she was telling the truth. We were in the middle of the worst traffic jam that we have experienced so far – even worse than the one the other night.
We ended up taking well over two hours getting to the university and the students were patiently waiting for us. The next hour and something went by quite quickly. They were a very good class and after we told them something about us and why we were in Indonesia, I spent most of the time talking to them about how to prepare for getting a job, I told them about the importance of networking, about the careers that seem to be the most likely to lead to a good job, and a little about self-employment. Some of them had very good English and all of them seem to be able to follow what I had to say. Afterwards Mary said that I did not really give her a chance to talk – she is probably correct.
The trip home took less than 45 minutes – about 1/3 of the time it took to get there. The total length of the drive was about 25k – 17 miles. So it was a long but rewarding day – one of the best we have had in Indonesia.