21 February 2007

21 February 2007 – Wednesday

I slept until 6 and did not go to the gym – that is getting to be a habit and I need to stop. After that it was a normal morning with an hour spent on reading Kitab Mormon. Isaiah is not easy to translate – of course it is not easy to read even in English – but we do our best and then read what it really says. Most of the time we are somewhere in the ballpark.

I did a load of laundry. If we do it every two or three days it just the right size load. It still seems strange to need to hang the clothes to dry. One of the things I am not going to miss about Indonesia.

We had a short Skype talk with Tom. Just checking in about finances, etc. They seem to be doing well. I just wish we had a faster connection so we did not get such garbled speech and we could see them clearly.

We had our first regular day at the office in a long time. This means we were there for four hours and other than a couple of phone calls we did not have much to do except get ready for the rest of the week. I did the agenda for our Friday meeting, updated the Career Workshop schedule, and wrote a proposal for changing our office hours by starting to open on Saturday.

This will mean that some Saturdays Sam will have to drive us to Tangerang, Jakarta Raya or even Bogor but I think it is the only way we can really do what we were sent here to do. We will need to get the phone card so we can have the internet wherever we are. We actually may need two because sometimes the computer must be where we are not… we will just have to work it out somehow. I wrote a letter to Nancy and Neal to ask them what they did as ERS missionaries in Texas that seemed to work. Hopefully they will have some ideas that might be useful here in Indonesia.

We left at 1:30 so we could take a nap before heading for Tangerang and the district meeting.

The drive to Tangerang went smoothly so we arrived early. The zone leaders were there and I thought the meeting went well. They talked about giving and helping the investigator keep commitments. I told them that until their contact felt the spirit they would not really be converted and would have trouble keeping commitments. I told them the story of my own conversion and bore testimony that if they would bring in the spirit that they would have success. I could feel the spirit as I bore my testimony.

As we read from Preach My Gospel I realized once more how important it is for the members to read and use it in their daily lives. Every family that has children should be using it as part of family home evening. They should use it to teach their sons and daughters to use it just as we teach them to use the scriptures. They should learn to teach the lessons – short 3 to 5 minute ones at each FHE. They could use just one section of one lesson as a FHE lesson. Every adult member should be using PMG for their personal study and also use it for lessons. It is an inspired book – almost like a new scripture.

Over the last two days, I have had some good spiritual experiences. Now I just need to figure out how to have them everyday.

The drive home went smoothly and took the normal one hour. My dinner was a piece of bread with peanut butter. I was thinking on the way home how seldom we eat meat. Normally no more than once a day and often not even that. When we do eat meat it is almost always chicken or ham – I think on an average we eat beef once a week at the most.

I am happy to be on a mission with Mary. It feels good and right. I am thankful for our family back home who supports us. For those who are taking care of the finances, apartment, house and soon the yard. For those who pray for us as we pray for them each day. For those who are preparing themselves to serve missions – it is as Elder Bednar said. We need to become missionaries, not prepare to serve a mission. Personal testimonies of Jesus Christ, His Gospel and His atonement, are the greatest power on the earth for changing peoples lives.

As it says in D&C 50. “To what have ye been called? To preach my gospel.” We need to remember that each day and if we do the Lord will provide an opportunity for us to do just that.



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