04 February 2007 – Sunday

It is a good thing today is Fast Sunday because we really did not have any time for breakfast. We did get in a half hour reading the Kitab Mormon before Sam rang the doorbell. We left early because we did not know how bad the traffic would be or if there were any flooded areas that we would have to go around.

It turned out that there was little traffic and no flooded areas. However we did have to go through one area where it was obvious from the debris on the road and a business that was pumping out water in their parking structure that at one time the road had been completely under water and perhaps would have been unpassable. But since the water had gone down we made it to the Tangeran chapel a half hour early and were some of the first people there.

We went to the Tangeran I sacrament meeting and SS. Then we went to Tangeran II sacrament meeting. In the first sacrament meeting we did not have the elders translate for us and we did not understand much at all. Then in TII’s meeting we had elder Roper translate for us and he did an excellent job giving us an almost word for word translation. Unfortunately that mean we know what is going on but we do not really hear the Indonesian words. In the future we are going to ask the Elders to give us a summary of what is being said so we know what is being talked about but we can still listen and try to understand for ourselves.

Elder Roper, his companion and a number of PH bretheren help move a couple of sisters in TII move out of their flooded home. It was not badly flooded but they can not live there until the water goes away. The sisters bore their testimonies of the blessings of having PH help and the Lord protecting most of their valuables. Agus – one of the men we work with in ERS – bore testimony about his recent illness and how he has not been able to fast. If he does not fast the rest of the family does not fast so he ask the Lord to help him fast for today and he has been fine. He spoke of the power and comfort that comes from being a member of the Church and the blessings they have. Another brother bore his testimony of the importance of a 72 hour supply. His family had practiced for an emergency and even though they did not need it this time, they feel safer knowing that it is there if they do need it. The preparations also drew the family closer together.

Earlier I had asked the District President brother Mack how many families who are members had been flooded and he said that they know about 6 in the district but there may be more because they have not been able to contact everyone.

The ride back to the apartment went fast – mainly because I managed to get a short nap. We came home because we needed to change into work clothes and Mary really needed to eat something before we went back to work in the kitchen. I noticed that we have been so busy that we have not been keeping the kitchen clean so I spent some time taking care of that. Hopefully next week we can see what it will cost for a service to come in a couple of times week so that the deep cleaning will be kept up.

As we set in Sacrament today and could not understand much I realized that while we have been reading the Kitab Mormon and learning to recognize words, we have not been trying to speak them ourselves nor have we been listening to any conference talks in Indonesia where we can follow along with the text. I decided that I will do this for 30 minutes to an hour each day so that I can start to understand better.

Now it is time to wake Mary from her short nap and head for the church.

By the time we got to the church things were in full swing. It seems that they did not have PH and RS so people could start working on meals. I must confess that I was not a lot of help today. I would work for 20 minutes and then I would have to cool off. I was never tired, just really hot. Mary hit a point where she had to find a place and just sit for an hour or so. Her back was killing her. Mary and I did help put together 200 or so baby kits with powdered milk, crackers, powder, and baby oil. But there were plenty of branch members and elders to help so they produced some 1400 meals.

I went on one delivery to a kitchen that we had been to before. In fact it was near where I took most of my flood pictures. The last time we were there we could drive out by going over a bridge. The water was about 5 feet below it. Today we could not go that way because the water was about 3 feet over the bridge.

It is great to be involved in this effort to ease a little of the suffering. Especially to see how the Indonesian saints are willing to work so hard in such oppressive heat.  I noticed yesterday that they do not just turn out meals, but that they are make properly prepared meals. That is they cut the vegetables, mix sauces, and no short cuts are taken. They do everything just as they would if it was  their own family meals they were preparing.

We got home at about 8:30 and are so tired we do not even want to fix anything to eat. I settle for a cup of ice cream and some Ritz crackers. Not what is considered a well balanced meal.

03 February 2007 – Saturday

We were going to get organized and clean up the apartment today but the Humanitarian effort is not going to allow us to do that. But a messy apartment is nothing compared to the loss of homes and possessions that this continual rain is causing thousands of poorer people in Jakarta.

Here I sit in an expensive apartment, warm, dry and having just eaten breakfast while they are in some temporary camp wondering if they are going to get a meal today, if they will be able to get back into their home anytime soon, and things like that.

I slept like a rock. The alarm woke me and I was the first one at the gym. I did an easy 30 minutes on the bike – it went fast because I was watching Tom Hanks in ‘Big’ and trying to read the Indonesian sub-titles. It really is an entertaining movie.

Back at the apartment I was just sitting down to write in this journal when Mary yelled that there was someone at the door.Since she was in no condition to answer it was a good thing that I was already dressed. It turned out to be the Jakarta Post delivery person who wanted to collect his money for February. Remembering elder Leishman’s warning about getting a receipt, I had him sign for the cash and he will bring me back a receipt on Monday.

We read from the Kitab Mormon – reading continues to become easier but we still have a long ways to go when it comes to speaking and hearing the language. With the Lord’s help we will achieve our goals to be able to teach in Bahasa Indonesian.

We arrived at the tent kitchen at about 9:00 and the work was already under way. I managed to immediately cut one of my fingers while trying to chop green beans. I did better with onions and soybean cakes. President Jensen arrived with a load of missionaries and they pitched right in. I am sure for some of them it was the first time they had peeled and chopped up so many different foods.

With all of this help, we put together 300 lunch meals. This includes traditional foods based on rice, vegetables, eggs and a small amount of meat. It is wrapped in a waxed paper, tied with rubber bands and a spoon is slid under the band. This an a serving of good water is a serving for one meal.

During the morning Elder Subandriyo asked me to write a short article to send to the Church News and the Liahona – the Church magazine in Indonesia. I wrote the following:

Mr. Saragih:

Here is the story and some pictures I promised to send you. I hope that you can use them in your magazine

Elder William Pier
Gereja Yesus Kristus dari Orang-Orang Suci Zaman Akhir

Jakarta, Indonesia – Saturday, February 3, 2007

On February 1, the worst floods since the disastrous one of 2002 hit Jakarta, Indonesia. Throughout Jakarta, almost 50,000 people were driven from their homes by the quickly rising waters.

By the next morning, February 2, the members of the Jakarta Selatan branch working under a grant from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Charities, had started working on gathering food supplies and setting up a kitchen to prepare two meals a day for 500 of the people who had to relocate to temporary camps. The members of the branch are not strangers to this situation. During the floods of 2002 for over a week they supplied three meals a day for 500 people.

Since it was still raining heavily, a crew set up a large tent for protection and moved in the needed cooking equipment. While the kitchen was being set up the sisters purchased the food. By early afternoon, the stoves were cooking rice and other food was being prepared for cooking. Through the efforts of dedicated men and women, by six in the evening the first load of food was distributed to anyone in need.

On Saturday morning the cooking started early and the members of the branch were joined by missionaries from the Jakarta Indonesia Mission serving in the area. The Elders and Sisters pitched in and did whatever needed to be done. Guided by smiling sisters of the branch, young men quickly learned to peel garlic, cut green beans and other tasks that are not usually part of their missionary efforts.

The work is not easy, the tent captures the heat from the stoves, but there is never a word of complaint. But there are lots of busy hands and smiling faces that reflect the feelings within each person who is helping because they know that when they are serving those who are less fortunate than themselves they are also serving God.

****
By the time it was done it was time to make the first delivery. I went along to take some pictures to include with the article. We traveled to a center that was being run by the Catholic Relief and dropped off our meals. Some of the elders went along and help deliver the food. We were disappointed that we were not able to give any of the meals directly to the people, but realized that our food was only a small amount of what was needed for the many hundreds who were in the temporary camp. We did get to talk to some of the people. Although their homes were covered with up to 10 feet of water and many of their few possessions lost, we did not see any sadness in their eyes. In fact they smiled and talked with the elders. One woman was about 8 ½ months pregnant and she was one of those who were happy to talk and smile.

On the way back to the church the driver stopped on a bridge where we could see one of the flooded areas. What was once streets were now waterways. The humble homes were often buried to their roofs in brown water. I took a lot of pictures but nothing can really show the disaster that continues to be caused.

While we were gone work had not stopped and more meals were being created. I help Elder Subandriyo move a sign that announced our ‘Public Kitchen.’ As I was looking at it I thought that we should have something like that on the vehicles that deliver the food. So I went to the computer and created one that would fit on a sheet of paper. John – the Petersen’s driver – laminated the sheets and taped them all around the delivery vehicles.

I was introduced to a reporter from a magazine that is sent to all the churches in Indonesia. He did not have a camera with him so I volunteered to send him some of my pictures along with the story I had written. Hopefully we will get some publicity from this.

We then took out another 400 meals to a different camp. This one was much larger – there seemed to be 2000-3000 being sheltered. Once again we were only able to deliver the meals and not distribute them. But it did not matter. What mattered was that we were doing good in the world.

At this point I must say that I do not handle the heat well at all. Inside the tent there are six stoves going at once. Add this to the normal Jakarta heat and humidity and it is truly like an oven. I work for a while and then must get out of the tent and cool down. Mary does much better than I do – she has proven to be a real trooper- she has set for hours cutting and peeling. So have Elder and Sister Petersen and the young sisters and elders. Of course the major part of the work is done by the Indonesian sisters and brothers. They just pitch in and work for hours on end. What surprised me was that the married and older men are able to peel and chop vegetables with the best of the women. I guess it means in an Indonesian house the men help out with the meal preparation. The younger men will work but they are also likely to find a place to gather and avoid work. But when they do work they also work hard.

By the time we got back from second deliver the food preparation was over for the day. There was another 170 meals to be delivered but we passed on going this time. I wanted to get home and e-mail off the article and some pictures.

When we did get home, Mary got on the computer and down loaded the pictures I have been taking. I then figured out how to edit some of them and make them available for e-mailing. She then wrote letters and sent them to friends and family. She also typed my article into this computer so I could send it to those I had promised.

While this was going on I ordered some dinner from the little place in the complex. It was the first real meal I had eaten today. They had provided lunch at the kitchen but the traditional food is too spicy for my taste and so I did not eat much. Mary on the other hand seemed to love it. She is becoming a real Indonesian.

We wanted to go to bed but we had to stay up to watch the final episode of Amazing Race Asia. It was the first one here and it was won by a team of two women who worked together. It is the first time that any AR has been won by a team of women. I really liked watching this race because the people are not noisy and quarrelsome as the Americans.

Now I have managed to stay up until after 11. I hear the rain pouring down outside. More bad news for Jakarta and more work for us. Tomorrow we will go to church and then head back to the kitchen to help prepare meals. I am sure we will have a lot more helpers from those who will stay after church.

02 February 2007 – Friday

Today was one of those days when one phone call changed everything we expected to do.

The morning went as normal. At the gym I did sit-ups, bike and some upper body exercises. I was happy to see the scale hit just 81.2 so that means I am under 81 kg. By the time I was through it was once again pouring rain – the season is obviously here. We read the Kitab Mormon for about 45 minutes and then packed up everything we needed for a day at the office and then to teach English class at the university.

Sam came and picked us up right at 9:30. As I was getting into the car he noticed I did not have on my tie. So I of course headed back up to the apartment. Just as I was walking in my cell phone went off and it was Elder Peterson telling me to change into work clothes because we were going to help with providing humanitarian aid to some fo the flood districts.

It turned out my biggest contribution was to help put up a very nice military tent that was about 25 x 50. We really had to do some jury rigging because we could not drive stakes into the concrete area where they wanted to put up the tent. I must say that the Indonesian saints would have gotten it put up without myself and Elder Peterson, but I think it is more secure because of my input. I made sure that it has plenty of support so if a good wind comes up it will not immediately come down. All together it took about 90 minutes or more to get the tent up and all of this time it rained. I was soaked through and through – thank goodness that it is warm in Indonesia.

The rest of the day – from about 1:30 to 6:30 had Mary and I involved in helping to prepare meals that will be given out to some of the flood victims. Elder Subandriyo and his wife was in charge and they are great administrators – they get right in and help with the work. I helped set up the stoves, cut up vegetables, washed pots and pans, and helped make up the food into meals. Mary peeled lots of little onions and cloves of garlic.

I do not want anyone to thing that we worked for 8 hours straight but we did work much of that time. It would not have been bad except the rain stopped and it got hot. Inside the tent there were 6 stoves putting off tons of heat. I could not stop sweating. Ever so often I had to retreat to the office where the air-conditioning would cool me off.

They talked about preparing food for 500 meals but they actually only cooked enough for about 120.  With the number of women there, that was about all they could have done. If they are planning on doing more tomorrow – they seem to be starting at about 5:30 a.m. – they are going to need a lot more people and a lot more food. The main slow point is getting the rice cooked and making up the meals. They need at least four meal making lines going and they need to get lots of rice cooked well ahead of time.

In 2002 they got it down to a science and they feed 500 meals three times a day. I am sure that they will can do this again.

When they ran out of food I decided we were no longer useful. It will only take one car to deliver the few meals they produced. Therefore I asked Sam to drive us home. On the way Mary wanted to stop at KFC to get some chicken. It is fourth time we have had KFC since we got here. Two of them been for lunch during some church event. I did not think tonight’s chicken was as good as that which we had for the CW a couple of weeks ago.

Now I am going to take a really hot shower and try to stay awake until 10:30. Mary is watching Mighty Joe Young…the new one.

01 February 2007 – Thursday

Normal morning – I am sleeping well and often wake up just before the alarm is ready to go off. I did sit-ups, bike and treadmill this morning. I seem to be finally losing some weight – I was very close to 180 this morning. Breakfast is a glass of OJ and a small slice of chocolate cake – and I do mean small. I am surprised how little we do eat each day. I guess we are so busy that food is not important and fixing it is too much of a task.

Back at the apartment I wrote a letter to Bishop Pletsch about out mission. I will try to write at least one a month.

Hello Bishop:

Sorry it has taken a couple of months for us to report in but between the problem with the cable in the Pacific being torn and the fact that we did not have internet in our temporary aparment we have been using our little time on the net to write to family.

I notice that it has been cold there. Here it never gets below 70 and most of the time it is closer to 90. That would not be so bad if it was not for the humidity. It is now rainy season and so it stays in the 80% range most of the time.

We are having a great mission. Our particular calling is to run the employment center, put on Career Workshops keep an eye on two districts of elders, and be shadow leaders to three wards. That requires a lot of running around the city. Due to the ridiculous traffic here, that means we spend a lot of time in our car sitting in traffic jams.

But none of that really matters. What matters is that we are doing the Lords work and helping Indonesia become stronger.

Last Sunday we went to one of the branches and was delighted to see a non-LDS man who we helped at the employment center at church with the elders. While he was at the center I helped him clean up his resume and cover letter and then gave him a quick language lesson. I told him about the free English classes that the senior couples give each week and it seems he went to one. I do not know how it went from that to going to Church but it does not matter.

Yesterday I got another nice surprise. A pilot program that I proposed for helping soon to be released Indonesian missionaries increase their English skills to a point where they can be accepted at BYU Hawaii. I made the proposal because soon after we got here, Elder Subandriyo, the Area 70, told me a story about how a senior sister took the time to help a young man with personal tutoring to pass the Michigan test. He did not do anything but tell me the story. A day or so later the program I suggested just fell into place. Hopefully this program will make it possible for all Indonesian missionaries to acheive this goal.

Without a good education, Indonesians have little chance of getting a job that pays enough to support a family and have any time to serve in the church. Even with a decent education if you do not work for a mulit-national or move up into management in an  Indonesian firm, you will probably be laid off when you reach 42-45.

We also teach English classes. On Thursday we go out to one of the branches and teach about 20 members – few non-members attend but I am working on that. I think we should have more non-LDS than LDS. The missionaries help out with the classes – we need their Indonesian – and so it would be a great help to them.

On Friday we teach the staff at a local University. We just started last week and we are still trying to figure out what they need but hopefully by the end of class tomorrow we will be set.

Did you notice in last weeks Church News about our mission president and his wife being adopted into a very important Indonesian family? We were there and received a beautiful shawl as part of his company. This is a very traditional ceremony and is very seldom done. The last one was in 1979 so it was a truly great honor for them and the Church. A documentary on it was shown on Indonesian TV so Mary and I got to be on TV. Hopefully it will open some important doors for the Church here.

Well it is 7 A.M. and we need to get busy with companion study – we are reading the Kitab Mormon to help with our Indonesian.

Let everyone in the ward know that we are having a wonderful, spiritual time. The senior couples do work that only they can do. One couple in the mission has doubled the attnedance of a branch by working with the less actives. The Bennetts, who only arrived in their area yesterday have already been out with the missionaries and helped them get a fairly new convert who had not been coming to church to commit to be there this Sunday.

I love a statement made at the MTC to our group of senior couples: It is good that you are going out into the world to do the Lords work instead of sitting at home waiting for your birth certificate to expire.

The Chruch is alive and growing in Indonesia.

Peace to you and your fine family

Went to the office at the regular time and worked on my lesson for tonight. I got a note from Cliff Rees that he did not get the deposit on our apartment. I checked with the office and they assured me it was made yesterday.

I know that by being in the office we are fulfilling our calling but it still seems to me like a waste of time. We usually get no more than one person a week – I keep thinking that we should be open on Saturdays. At least those when we are not traveling. But if it is not regular people will not come because they can not afford to pay the transportation cost. Before we leave here I am going to figure out a better way to do this. At least we have plenty of time to prepare for English classes and to study our scriptures – we have not been doing the latter enough.

At 12:30 we left to go to Global Doctors to get my tooth re-glued. While we waited I took a short nap. Mary did not think that was fair. The dentist was a woman and we had a nice conversation about her family. Her son wants to be a chef and she thinks if that is what he really wants to do that is fine. It only took a few minutes for her to take care of my problem and the cost – including a first time administration fee – was $30.

By the time I was done it was time to head for Tangeran and district meeting. The traffic was light so we got there early enough to go to a store to get the right size copy paper – the paper we bought last time is too large or at least to us it is too large. We also bought a couple of briefcases and some other things.

District meeting went too long but we had a chance to talk to the missionaries about trying new and different approaches to the missionary work. Right now they keep telling us how hard it is and it is almost like they do not think they can be successful. I told them my LeGrand Richards story about his mission in the Northern States. I pointed out that they can not change the nature of the people – the only thing they can change is the way they feel and they way they present the gospel. I think at least elder Thiemann got the idea and I believe it will also help elder Roper.

Elder gave a lesson on obedience and while he was teaching I happened to open to D&C 58 which fits perfectly into the lesson. Not only is obedience talked about but the idea that they are laying a foundation for the future. Hopefully it helped them in some way.

English class went well. We started on time and got most of the children involved. The problem is that the young children who do not have parents there are shy and it is almost impossible to get them to really take part. But where there are interested parents who are willing to practice in the home, I believe some good is being done.

There was a young woman who did not have a way home so Sam suggested we drive her. It should have not been out of our way, but because of the flooding it added a half hour to our trip. Some of the roads were interesting to get through – more holes than road. Twice we were directed away from flooded areas by what were just concerned citizens standing out in the rain keeping people from going where it was not passable.

We got home by 8:30 and pretty much collapsed. We watched the end of a movie and then went to bed. Dinner was an ice cream bar.

I almost forgot that while we were driving to Jakarta Raya, we got a call from Elder and Sister Christensen, the area directors for Asia. They are coming to Indonesia on the last weekend of the month and will be here for almost a week. I guess we will be kind of their hosts while they are here – I think we will be having a CW in the East during that time and they will want to come along.

We went to bed about 10:30 and I started to read Kitab Mormon but I was too tired to really get anything out of it. So I just turned out my light and went to sleep. It was a good day for us.

29 January 2007 – Monday

Another Monday that was not a P-Day. Regular morning with the gym, study, etc. We did get to talk to Jim and his family via Skype, but the connection is just not very good. I do not know if it has to do with broadband width or what. Whatever the problem at least we got to see Olivia and she got to see us for a short time. I also spent some time getting the files organized.

We picked up the Bennetts before 10 and we all went over to the mission home where we had a PEF meeting. Elder Bennett set in with us. The committee includes the CES director for the country brother Tandiman, President Jensen, Elder Subandriyo, and Hendra who is head of finance. The meeting was not very productive. The problem with the bank has not been solved and may not be solved. The bank feels they must issue the check to the student and the church is not going to go for that. Elder Bennett suggested the check be issued to the student and the school so that both must sign. Of course there is no check it is a direct deposit and I am not sure how that might be worked out.  There are some things we need to do – mainly sending e-mails to get permission for translation.

After that meeting the other folks went off to shop and have some lunch. I stayed at the office and sat in on the Career Workshop for Elder Ng and Elder Go who are being released. I could not understand most of what was being said but I noticed that once again Lukito talks a lot and the participants do not do a lot of work. I was reading the teacher’s manual and it suggested that it should be 20% talk and 80% work. I am going to have to figure out some way to get more activity and less talking without offending Lukito.

The workshop got over at about 4:15 and we headed back to the Harris’ hotel and then Sam dropped us off at the apartment. We had a lot of stuff to carry up – hopefully some day we will get down to only needing to buy food each week.

Our missionary work seems to be mainly working with the elders assigned to our branches, teaching English and putting on workshops. There is little real missionary work done. I believe once we get settled in, we will spend more time going out to visit the less actives at night. Of course since we can not yet communicate with the people, I am not sure how effective we will be. I think I call the Van Dongans and ask them how they do it. They have been very successful in their area getting members to start coming out again.

30 January 2007 – Tuesday

An interesting day – kind of P-day to make up for yesterday.

I was up at 5:15 – it is really great to sleep a full 7 hours – and headed for the gym at the regular time. Unfortunately it was not open so I decided to walk some laps. As I was walking a middle-aged lady went past me in a power walk. I picked up the pace for a while but did not really want to work up a sweat until I got to the gym. However later she went jogging past me. So I decided I would jog some and then walk some. By the time the gym had opened I had managed to put in about a mile on the track.

In the gym I did some sit-ups, did time on the bike and then switched to the treadmill to get my heart rate up above 120. The bike is great for my legs but it does not get my heart above about 115. After the gym we had a pretty normal morning except I had to go to the complex office to get a form for checking in to the new apartment and then to the cashier to try and work out the problem with return of the deposit. Do to my running around we did not get as much read in the Kitab Mormon as usual.

We picked up the Bennetts at about 9:50 and took them into the office. While we waited for the man from Jakarta Raya to show up Sister Bennett got on the Family History computers. The member arrived about 10:45 and Sam got his e-mail account set up. It turned out he was not really interested in a job – he needed an e-mail address so he could get some money from his brother in the Netherlands. He did ask for some help with setting up a business to export coconut oil. But since he only can produce about 2.5 gallons a day I do not see how he can get enough to be worth exporting. I suggested he get in contact with brother Lukito from his branch and ask for some help. I will check the web to see what the demand for it might be. Maybe we can come up with some way to make it different.

After he left at about 11 we took the Bennetts and went out to Bogor. We went to the Wild Animal Zoo which is much like the San Diego Wild Animal Park. That is you stay in your car and drive through the animal’s habitats. We were able to get within a few feet of tigers and lions. We took a couple of hundred pictures – so many we filled the card and I had to delete some of the ones we will not want to keep.

The Bennetts seemed to enjoy it and I found it OK. I did not have the best seat in the house – I was riding in the back so everyone else would have plenty of room. I prefer that to sitting three across in the middle seat.

We had thought we could also go to the botanical gardens but by the time we had toured the driving part and then went through the walking section it was a little too late. So instead we headed back to Jakarta. As we drove out of the park we came to a section of business that are aimed at the visitors to the WAZ. One of them is a nursery which had nice looking bouganvileas. I had Sam stop and I got one for $6 – half the $12 he first asked.  Mary was looking at a bowl and I can kick myself for not buying it. I think we will go back and look at the wood pieces someday before we leave. I just have to remember to have a good selection of bills with me. They do not like to give change. They always claim to not have any.

Once we were there we dropped off the Bennetts and came home only long enough to drop off things and get some money changed. Then we went back to the Harris Hotel and had dinner with the Bennetts. The buffet but not great. They do not seem to believe in keeping food hot and the fish was not as good as usual. But the desserts were great.

We then waited with them until Ari brought their passports, their kitas, and the contract for the lease on their new home. At least they will have a driver, a car and a roof over their head tomorrow night. They have to leave for the apartment by 5:15 a.m. I told them we would not be there to wish them goodbye.

I am really glad we got to know the Bennetts before they disappear into central Java. I do not imagine we will see them very often but we will keep in touch. I think we did the right thing by making sure they did not have to sit in their hotel room for the better part of a week. They said they appreciated our taking them along and they had a good time. They are going to be great for getting people active and boasting the missionary work. They are will be much better at that than we would have been. The certainly knows the strengths of the missionaries and sends them to the place where they can do the most good.

While we did not do much work in our area of missionary work today, I think we did do some good work in helping the Bennetts start to adjust to Indonesia.
31 January 2007 – Wednesday

The Bennetts should be just getting on a plane to head for their area. I am sure they will have many great experiences there. I woke at 4:30 but dozed a little until 5:30. Worked hard on the bike for 30 minutes. My legs are getting stronger. I seemed to have lost a few ounces and seemed to have hit the goal for the end of January. Hopefully I will do as well in February. I wish they sold Ultra Slim Fast here.

I spent much of the morning organizing what needed to be done today. It turned out to be a lot. It took so long that we only had about 20 minutes to read from the Kitab Mormon before Sam arrived. The first step was to go to the Mission home where we found out that our car would not be ready until Friday or Monday. We also found out that we could not exchange our rental for one of the mission vehicles because they were needed to pick up the new missionaries from the states. We did manage to pay for our weeks rental of the old car we turned in.

So from there we went to Global Doctors to see a dentist about getting my tooth re-cemented. Unfortunately she was not going to be in today so I had to set an appointment for tomorrow. From there Sam drove us to the American Embassy where I got the Power of Attorney notarized. It was getting into Fort Knox. There are a number of steps the car and people must get through just to get near the embassy. I am not sure we ever made it but for about $30 we got it done. The trip back out was just about as difficult.

Next we stopped by BCA where we picked up our code unit that allows us to pay bills by computer. After that we went to Post Office so we could send a letter to Kaden. Their stamps have no glue on them so you get nice looking pieces of paper and use your finger to put glue on them. The PO was not busy at all and the people were very nice. If it was a little cleaner it could be anywhere in the US.

As we were walking in to the building a man who was helping with parking called us Elder and Sister. Since my badge says Penatua and not Elder we decided he might be a member who was not active. Sam is going to tell the missionaries about him and ask them to drop by and talk to him. Maybe we found a lost sheep. It seems like missionary opportunites come up all the time.

After the PO it was time to go to the office where we put in a couple of hours. Mary worked on her English class work and I went through the files looking for things that I might need to know about. I also made the changes to the Career Workshop schedule. I have decided it will be hard to plan more than three months in advance.

At about 2:30 we headed back to the Mission home again. This time we had to wait until the President and Sister Jensen came back with the new missionaries. It turned out there were only 4 instead of the expected 5. One of the Elders got sick at the MTC and did not come with this group. I suppose he will come later – but I do not know if they let them travel alone. We got a chance to say hello to the Elders – they kind of remember us visiting them at the MTC but not really. We were also able to send the Power of Attorney off via DHL and it should be in the Utah by some time early next week.

While we were there waiting I talked to Elder Subandriyo about the pilot for the English class and he said that we would give it a try with the next group to go home. That will be in early May and there will be two elders and one sister. I am really excited about this but there are still a number of things that will need to be worked out. Including where they will live and who will teach them. But if the program is truly inspired and we do all we can do, I am sure the Lord will help us make it a success. Over the weekend I will do more work on the idea and then get both the President and Elder Subandriyo to sign off. I am glad I have over three months to work on it.

We got home about 4:30 or 5 and have spent the evening reading the Kitab Mormon,posting some of my journal on the blog, and other interesting things. We never did get around to really eating dinner.

I was surprised to get a call from Sister Bennett saying that they arrived safely and were in their new home. It turned out that they were immediately put to work by the Elders to help them visit a new member that had not been coming to church. They were introduced to the humble homes of the members – there was only one chair so most of them sat on the floor – and had success by getting him to commit to coming to Church on Sunday. They are going to be a great asset in that area.

They did find one problem. Their driver does not speak very good English and so it is hard to communicate with him. But they found a member who has really good English and he went with them. There is also the Elders who can help out. I am sure they will learn Indonesian rather rapidly. I will call them on Sunday and see how they are doing.

Now it is after 10:30 and it is raining really hard. This apartment is set in a way that the rain hits the bedroom windows so we will be serenaded to sleep tonight. A perfect end to a very busy day. Wow the thunder is really rolling across the landscape and the rain is getting heavier. This means that more humble homes will be flooded tonight.

25 January 2007 – Thursday

It is the Leishmans last full day in Indonesia. I wonder what they were thinking about this morning as they were out walking laps. Even though we have spent quite a bit of time together, we really have not gotten to know them. I am very grateful for what we did learn from them over this last month. I can not imagine what it would have been like to learn everything from scratch.

The alarm woke me – at least it called me out of the semi-sleep I think I was in. I remember hearing some of the morning prayer call and hoping I would go back to sleep. Then I think I went through a period of semi-consciousness before the alarm went off.

I did not do a real workout today. I put time in on both the treadmill and the bike but not a lot on either. It was one of those mornings when I was doing it from habit and my heart was not into exercising at all. I think I managed a total of 30 minutes which is better than sitting on the couch all morning.

Today will be busy. I imagine we will go with the Leishmans over to the mission home, then we have a district meeting and English class. I am not sure I am at all prepared for this evening. I am far from comfortable teaching English to children.

Went to the office with the Leishmans at the regular time. We kept ourselves busy until it was time to go to Sinopati. I asked the Leishmans if they had a picture of the office they basically created. It turned out they had not so I took some pictures of them in the office.

At the mission office I saw a couple of people I needed to see and then Mary and I left. The Leishmans were to be interviewed by the president and then would take a taxi to their apartment. We drove out to Tangeran and found a Carrefour where we could buy some office supplies. Then we went to district meeting – Elder Roper gave a good lesson on Hope. Unfortunately Elder Collins has been sick most of the week. He was only able to go out one day. I would imagine if he does not get better the president may have to transfer him to a clearer environment.

English class went very well tonight. We started on time and quit on time – we are going to teach them that this is how English classes will be in the future. Elder Roper thought that was great. He said he wanted have me for a companion. After a song and prayer we broke into the two classes. In ours we reviewed last week’s lesson about long and short ‘E’. I got elder Tiemann to be the long E and I was short E. I wrote a word on the board and they had to decide if it was a short or long E and point to the right person. It went OK but not great. But the second part went really well. I had them learn how to hold a short conversation with some one. I started with how to ask for a person name and went on from there. I would write the Indonesian and the English on the board and then give them the answer. I then asked someone the question and have them answer.Then they would ask me. I went through a number of simple questions and responses. I think most of the young ones liked it – those without parents less than those who did have them.

When we got home, Sam had to help us get things upstairs. As soon as we got settled, we tried to call the new couple to say hello and offer them any help. We had a hassle getting to them – the Harris told us they were not there. Since we had called Sinopati and had been assured they were there, I called and asked for the manager. He finally checked the nationalities of the guests who had checked in today and got the room number. Unfortunately when I called they did not answer their phone. We will try again tomorrow morning.

We want them to feel welcome and if they want to they can come with us as we meet in district meeting and whatever else they would like to do. I do not want to have them sit around alone all day. That is I do not want them to have the same experience we did. And at least we had the Kanes as company while they are basically alone.

26 January 2007 – Friday

I am actually writing this on Saturday night. Friday was both a good and a bad day.

It was good because we are now on our own – to make our own mistakes. We will have to rely on the Lord and not the Leishmans to give us guidance.

We woke early and went down to say goodbye to the Leishmans. I think they were happy and touched that we cared enough to make the effort. Elder Leishman showed me the last ins and outs of some things and we hugged them before they got in and left for the airport.

On our way back to the apartment we asked the desk man for some help on moving. He agreed to have someone up with a cart at 6:30. I moved all our clothes that were on hangers and then right on time he arrived and helped us move. It took just two loads on his cart and we were moved. It was much easier than we expected.

We then unloaded some of the boxes and suitcases until it was time to shower and get dressed to head out for a busy day. As we got moving around in the apartment we realized that it was quite a bit smaller than the two bedroom one we had over in Dahlia. It is also not in as good of shape. But it will be our home for the next 16 months so we will learn to live with it.

It was also good because we got to meet the Bennetts – the new couple that came to Indonesia on Wednesday. We were determined that they would not have the same experience we had when we first got here, so we picked them up on our way to Jakarta Raya district meeting. It gave them an opportunity to get away from the hotel, meet some of the missionaries, and see how a district meeting is run.

The Bennetts are from Prescott, Arizona and had served a mission to Oakland 10 years ago. They are very different – she is small and thin and he is big and heavy. Both are very nice. I changed some of his large bills to smaller ones and then later at the bank I changed more for even smaller bills. They seem to have come well prepared money wise.

They seemed to enjoy the district meeting and even participated with some comments. Elder Decker – the new district leader – has only been a DL for about three weeks. Two in So Lo and one Jakarta. Elder Thomas gave a good lesson on hope.

After the meeting we went to the bank so we could transfer the rest of the money for our new car. First we tried to do it at ATM and we found out we were above our limit. So we had to go to a teller and them made the transfer. I am slowly learning how the bank functions around here. Next we went to a food court where the Bennetts treated us to lunch at A&W. I must say that it is not my favorite place and the root beer tastes strange. Also they have stopped using real ice cold mugs so I doubt if we will eat there again. KFC is much better and I still want to try Wendy’s and MacDonalds. I also want to try more local foods.

On our way to the University we stopped at the Harris and let the Bennetts get some rest. I am glad we did not take them with us to the University. We got to the University much too early and the wait in the heat was terrible. The class started with about a dozen people and swelled to over 30.

I thought these were all fairly good English speakers but found that is not true. I am sure our first lesson was well above the level for most people. I stayed on my program and gave them Shakespeare – at least one or two people seemed to enjoy it. One woman was brave enough to read part of to be or not to be.

After the class, the head of the University suggested we break the class into two and we quickly agreed. We will have a beginning class and an advance class. Mary is going take the beginners and use what she does on Thursday for her advance class. I will take the advance class and hopefully teach them conversational English.

One man introduced himself and expressed the feeling that while he could read and understand much of what he read, he could not get what he wants to say out into English. I think I will try to spend some time next week talking about that and seeing where we can go with it. Mary and I agreed that we will not rely on the school to make copies of home work or anything else. They do not seem to have a copy center. The level of schooling in their University is well below that of most 2nd world educational systems.

The bad part happened on the way home. I all of a sudden needed a bathroom very badly and there were no public ones on the way home. We rushed to the chapel where the office is and I almost made it but not quite. It is not an experience I care to have again. No permanent damage except to my pride.

I did not feel really sick – but since then my stomach has been just a little off. I am wondering what I might have eaten at A&W disagreed with me. Others had that I had and never had any problem.

By the time we got home I was very tired and the time seemed to pass slowly. We did our reading in the Kitab Mormon. I spent some time cleaning up and putting away more of our stuff.

We plugged in the computer and was thrilled to find that we had a good enough connection to actually skype using the camera. (Just as I was typing that Tom called on Skype! The connection was not very good but it was nice to hear him. He will call back when Kelly is up. It seems that William is ill and not in any condition to talk to us.) We were able to get in contact with Bob for a few minutes and we are to call back on Sunday night or Monday morning because the girls will all be there.

So all in all I guess the good outweighed the bad – and as Shakespeare said: All’s well that ends well.!

27 January 2007 – Saturday

Slept well and woke just before 5. We had to leave early so I did not go to the gym.

We spent the day in the Jakarta Raya branch chapel giving a career workshop. At 9 there was only one person there but we got a call that more were coming. By 9:30 we were up to 5 and 2 missionaries.

Brother Lakito gave the whole thing in Indonesian. They do not do the full 12 hour course. In fact they seem to really only have about 4 hours of content and if no one asks questions or is willing to be video taped doing an interview, it seems he just fills time. The Indonesian people are – at least for the most part – quite shy and it is hard to get them to participate. I think I will suggest that the instructor spends more time on the ‘Me is 30 seconds’ and the ‘Power Statement.’ That is the core of the program and if they do not develop those concepts it will just not work the right way.

Luckily it seems the younger generation is becoming a little more aggressive. It is something that the multi-nationals and the bigger Indonesian companies are looking for. In the past people just wanted a job – the Human Resource director we talked to on Wednesday said that they wanted people who wanted to work hard and rise to the top. They do not want people who just want a job.

Since the whole class is given in Indonesian, I must be honest and say that I was rather bored at times. I did try to listen to what was being said and understand some of the words. I can hear more and more of them but I still do not understand them. I felt better when I talked to Elder Thiemann – a missionary we met in the MTC – and he said he still can not understand a lot of what is being said.

While I was siting in the Workshop, Mary went shopping with Sam. On the way back they stopped and picked up 16 meals from KFC. We feed the participants and often someone just drops in for lunch. We also fed the missionaries. 16 dinners cost a whole $38. I must say that the Original Recipe is the same here as in the states. It is not popular with Indonesians because it is not spicy enough. They have a spicy chicken and then they dip it in lost of hot sauce.

What is most exciting about the day is that we are doing so well reading the Book of Mormon. Of course it helps that it tends to repeat itself – especially in 1st Nephi – but this morning we read and there were some long verses that we could translate completely and others that only had a word or two that we did not know. I think once we get to a point where we can read it, we will be able to speak more and then perhaps we will be able to understand when others talk.

While we were in the workshop, it started to rain. It is much needed but it also means that somewhere people will have their houses flooded. It seems that the debris that people throw into the river – actually more like canals – block up the drains and so the canals back up and flood the same homes again and again.

I heard a story yesterday about one of the A.P.s – Elder Farr – who on his first day in the field left his brand new scriptures and all of his clothes on the bed while they went out to do something. While they were gone it rained and when he got home everything was under water. Despite that start, he turned out to be one of the best missionaries in the mission. The paper often shows people in some part of Jakarta wading through waist deep water.

Earlier in the day we wrote to Bob and asked him to call Gordon Creer and get his e-mail address. When we got home we had a letter from Bob with the address. I immediately sent off a long email telling about what was going on and asking him to send me other address so I could write to them. I am particularly interested in Don Peterson’s so I can ask him why the Power of Attorney we gave to Mike is not working on the sale of the house.

In our short conversation with Tom he said the problem is the new lender’s attorneys who want to make sure we really are selling the house. Lawyers!

22 January 2007 – Monday

The start of another week – the last one for the Leishmans. I slept well and woke at 5:20 feeling very good. It was like I had just enough sleep for one night. I decided to go down early and walk the track until the gym opened. I put in a good mile but discovered that I had not brought a towel. I did not want to go back to the apartment and get one so I only did some sit-ups and less than 20 minutes on the bike. But that was enough to work up a good sweat and I was nicely surprised when I got on the scales and saw that I lost about a pound over Sunday. I think I will go back to the gym later in the day.

This morning we are going to go to an orphanage where the Leishmans put in a water system and re-built their kitchen. It is kind of like a last hoorah for them. I would think that they will spend most of the rest of their mission time getting ready to leave on Friday. That means starting Friday it is all ours.

We were gone much longer than we expected because besides going to the school for blind handicapped children we also we home teaching out in the wilds. I thought we were going to an orphanage but it turned out that it was a Christian run school for children who are blind and have at least one more handicap – mental or physical. It was a humbling experience to be there where some 70 students – age 3 to 20 – from lower social levels live and learn. The school is funded by a small tuition – if the family can afford it – donations, and however else they can get money. There is a staff that seems to vary between 30 and 60 depending on the money available. The school is quite clean – at least under the circumstances – and the teachers seem to really care for the children.

Last year LDS Charities gave them a new well, storage tank and helped upgrade their kitchen. We were there to let the Leishmans say goodbye and to introduce us to those who run the school. They are going to make up a list of things they feel they need and we will try to help them. The problem is that the Church is not into providing things that are not related to wheelchairs, water, or neo-natal – at least not at this time. The earlier project made it through because it did deal with clean water.

After the school Sam drove us out to the boondocks of Jakarta – actually it was closer to Bogor than it was to Jakarta – to hometeach a member of the Raya branch. We seemed to drive forever and then Sam drove into a lane that was only about 2 feet wider than the SUV. If someone was walking in the lane, we had to wait until they could get into a doorway or some small alcove before we could pass.

The man of the house was not home but his wife was. It is a nice home by Indonesian standards and they have a small manufacturing business along side. He makes some kind of tool hanger that he sells to big companies. They have a daughter who graduated from a Indonesian university in accounting and now lives in her own apartment. Their son is going to BYU Hawaii and will graduate this year. The mother mentioned that he often called for money and it was up to her to find a way to send it. It was humbling to see this relatively poor family making sure that their children had opportunities that they never would have thought to have.

They live far from the branch and it takes 90 minutes on a motorcycle for the father to get there. The mother can not ride that long so if she goes it must be by public transportation that will take her from 2 ½ to 3 hours each way. She does not go very often but he is quite faithful – when she does it is an all day thing. The faith of the Indonesian saints is amazing to me.

Sam took us home the short way which meant traveling on a road that was basically destroyed. He could not go over 5 miles an hour and had to move all over the road to avoid the worst of the holes. I am not looking forward to doing that each month. Once we got to the main road it was a much smoother trip home. I managed to nap along the way.

Home to eat lunch, watch the end of a movie, and then took a short nap. When we got up it was time to clean up the books and paperwork that has accumulated since we started our mission. We went through and put everything in piles according to what it was about. We then went through and organized the piles. We can not really get this well done until we move in to the apartment and have bookcases. We will also get plastic stacking boxes to hold materials.

The one thing we have not done is go through the receipts we have been keeping. Some will we will be able to turn in for reimbursement and the others will go toward taxes. What we did not find was the amount that we still need to pay on the car – I will have to get that in the next week and make the transfer.

23 January 2007 – Tuesday

Although I woke a couple of times during the night, basically I slept from 10:30 P.M. to 5:30 A.M. Maybe I am finally getting adjusted to being on Indonesian time. The only problem now is that I am still tired after 7 hours sleep.

Made it to the gym in time to get a treadmill and spent a good, hard 40 minutes walking. I got my heartbeat up to into the 130’s and maintained the 120’s for at least half of the time. There is definitely more people using the gym in the morning than when we first got here. I was happy to see that my weight went down to about 83 K but I would not be surprised to see it go up a little today. I have one more week to get it down to a solid 82.5 and I think I can do that.

After taking a long shower, I read from the Book of Mormon in English. I am in Alma where he and Amulek are confronting Zoram. It is a good section because not only is the gospel plainly taught, but both Amulek and Zoram except the truth, repent and become strong preachers of the truth. It shows that no matter what you have done, through the power of the atonement you can repent and find peace. It also reminds me of why we are here – not just to help with employment but to invite others to come unto Christ.

Darn machine ate my typing!

We read the Kitab Mormon for about 45 minutes and we were able to do many verses without looking up more than one or two words and with some we did not need to look up any. Mary pointed out that she can now read a lot of the words and not need to consciously think about them before coming up with the English word. The next step is to start thinking in Indonesian and needing to work at translating the words into English. This is the where the missionaries are – they say it is hard or impossible to teach the gospel in English because it is too much work to try and come up with the English translation. Hopefully we will get somewhat close to that before we go.

At 10 we went over to the Leishman’s – soon to be our – apartment and waited until about 10:45 when the man came to close out the Leishman’s internet. Unfortunately he could not connect ours. Later in the day I called the engineer and he seems to feel he can connect us by giving information over the phone.

We were dropped off at the office at about 11:15 and we have been fairly busy ever since. Not that we had anyone come in for help with employment but we worked on our English, made some lists, worked on Indonesian, and watched the rain come down. It has been raining all day – no complaints because the country needs it – and for the first time we got to see how some streets become big ponds.

The Leishman’s came to the office at about 3:00 and we decided to shut down so we could get some rest before heading out to Tangeraan and dinner with a member family. I think it was originally only for the Leishmans as a goodbye gesture but we got invited as an after thought. The brother is in the district council and the sister is in RS.
The trip out to the dinner appointment was long and wet. At times it was just pouring rain. The traffic was usual but not completely stop and go as it sometimes is. But it ended up taking us about 13/4 hours to get there. I will never know how Sam found the right place.

We did not have dinner at their home because there was no room big enough so we went to her place of business. She owns a beauty shop, health massage, and steam room. Not unlike sister Radmall recently opened at home.

Dinner was very good. It is the first time we have eaten at a member’s home with traditional foods. The fried chicken was as good as I have eaten. There was excellent saffron rice, pressed rice, and lots more things that I do not have names for. There was a dish of thin sliced potatoes that were fried in some sweet and spicy coating that I really liked but could only eat with something else. If I tried to eat it alone it set my mouth on fire.

She had some unusual wood piece which turned out to be a tree that they cut into sections, peel off the outside bark and then hollow out the center. It looks like they have carved the outside but she assured me that it was all natural. That once the bark was off the trunk it dried to the rough texture and different shades. I started thinking of how it could be sold and asked some questions. When we started to go, she gave me a good size piece – I really did not want to take it but they insisted.

We also met two of the brother’s friends from Sumatra. One had majored in English at the university and could speak very well. He said that he had been teaching ex-pats Indonesian for the last three months. I imagine that is a pretty good business to be in.

Elder Roper and Elder Go were also there. Elder Roper is just plain funny and so we had a good time. It turned out that the direct bus to their house stopped at 7:00 so for them to get home would mean they had to walk in the rain to one place, take a bus that actually went away from their house until they could catch another bus that would take them home. After checking with the Leishmans, Mary offered them a ride home with us. They were thrilled.

From how they had been describing their house, I expected to see this run down dump. I was really surprised to drive up to a nice looking house in a very decent neighborhood.  We will not know what the inside looks like until a week from Monday, but I would be surprised if it is not nicer than most families have in Indonesia.

The trip home seemed to take forever but somewhere along the way I fell asleep and after that it was fine.

24 January 2007 – Wednesday

I woke at about 5:00 this morning – a little earlier than the last two days but I still had a good sleep. I did not get to the gym until almost 6:00 and by then the treadmills were in use so I did sit-ups and then spent a rugged 20 minutes on the bike. I do not know if the calorie counter on the bike is anywhere near correct but it certainly feels good to see the number climb so fast. I alternated medium and very fast pumping so that I could get my heart rate up. When I got on the scale I found that another pound was gone. After the big dinner last night, I thought it would be up today. I think I will be below 180 by the end of the month.

Back at the apartment I did the usual morning things – breakfast was a banana and four Ritz crackers. I did some work on the English class for Thursday – I am going to try and get the children more involved. That was a suggestion by Elder Roper last night.

After that we sat down and finished chapter 10 from the Kitab Mormon. I am very encouraged because more and more words are starting to make sense without going to the dictionary. Of course it helps that Mary remembers so many. I need to go back and again read the verses we studied today. I think that way I will remember more. I also find that my ability to read out loud is improving. Hopefully by my birthday I will be slim and able to carry on a simple conversation in Indonesian.

The Leishmans dropped us off at the office and we spent about 90 minutes working on English for Thursday and Friday. The internet was completely down so we could not check either mailboxes. Hopefully there was nothing important in either one.

We took a cab to the mission office. We left early so we would have time to talk to a number of people. Hendra printed off the branch lists we needed and we had a nice conversation about the goals for Jakarta branch for the coming year. I was impressed that they not only set goals but wrote plans on how they would achieve them. I think Hendra will be the way into the confidence of the Jakarta branch. Hopefully I can find ways to help them achieve their goals. They did confirm the three new members that we saw baptized two weeks ago. I am looking forward to passing the sacrament there this Sunday.

We could not talk to the A.P.s because they were off traveling. I think being an A.P. might be fun because the president really allows them to do a lot of work and travel. We had lunch with the staff – that is we ate our apples with them. We were joined by Elder Subandriyo who had to run home to get his dress shoes for our visit this afternoon.

We also got to talk a little with the president. He and sister Jensen were getting ready to go pick up the new missionary couple. Unfortunately he is still feeling bad from whatever he got over a week ago. I hope I do not get anything that bad. However if I did, I would just stay home and rest. Unfortunately that is not a luxury he has.

Elder Subandriyo drove us to our meeting with Raphail Yunianto,  the Human Resource Director of the Media Group that owns the largest TV station in Indonesia and a lot more businesses. On the way I found out that president Jensen sent Subandriyo a copy of my proposal for English training for Indonesian missionaries. He had not really read the proposal carefully so I talked to him about some of the thoughts. Later when we were waiting for our appointment, he had a chance to read the proposal and I think he is interested.  I hope that we will get a chance to at least get a pilot program going sometime the first half of this year.

Our meeting with Mr. Yunianto went really well. We talked some about ourselves, why we were in Indonesia, what programs we were offering to members and non-members alike, and finally we got down to summer internships that they might be able to offer Indonesian students at BYU Hawaii. It sounds as if they might be willing to extent internships to as many Media, Accounting, and Hotel majors as would like to apply. We also learned something about what type of people they were looking for. He mentioned that often an applicant had all the educational qualifications but lacked the drive to be successful. They are looking for self-starters who want to move up in the organization. Obviously that is possible because he appears to still be quite young and has a very responsible position. Now we just need to get things rolling from our side and let BYU Hawaii know that we need applicants for the internships.

Elder Subandriyo drove us back to the mission office because the traffic was too heavy for him to drive us to the apartment. We hoped to meet the new couple but the president was tied up with some kind of problem involving a missionary in one of the branches and we did not want to disturb him so we left. We caught a cab back to the apartment – he took us a different way than Sam usually does but he still kept it down to $2 so I gave him a 25% tip. I am really a big spender.

We went down to the café for dinner – with tip $6.50.  There was one funny experience tonight. This morning I mentioned to Mary that since the door automatically locks it would be easy to lock yourself out of the apartment. This evening as we left for dinner I did just that and so we had to get the staff to let us back in. Next time I must remember to knock on wood.

We spent part of the evening packing for our move and part of it watching a really bad movie on TV. The time would have been much better spent working on Indonesian. That is the time spent watching TV. The packing went well and I do not think it is going to be hard to move on Friday morning. However Friday is going to be really busy because we have to move, go out to Jakarta branch, and then get back for the English at the University. It should be fun. If worse come to worse we will call the elders and tell them we will be late to their district meeting. I do not want to miss it completely because we did not get to go last week. It is not good to miss two weeks in a row. Besides I want to meet the new district leader.

Now it is going on 11 P.M. and I am about to turn off the lights and go to sleep.

19 January 2007 – Friday

I slept well and long. Probably because I was wiped out last night. I did wake about 4 something and got to hear part of the first call to prayer, but managed to go right back to sleep. That does not happen very often. Woke to the alarm at 5:30. Unfortunately Mary did not sleep get to sleep in – she was awake before 5.

At the gym I did my short routine with 20 plus minutes on the bike – it says that I use as many calories as 40 minutes on the treadmill but I am thinking that it out of wack. Also did 55 sit-ups. Unfortunately I did not do any time on the treadmill because by the time I was finished with the bike they were all filled.

As I was getting on the scales a 50ish man with an Australian accent started to talk to me. I mentioned that it was hard to get any weight to come off and he said that he was reading that when we got into our 50’s – then he looked at me and added – or 60’s. This made me chuckle to myself and realize that I was obviously looking my age. The scale was not any kinder – but I will just keep plugging along with exercise and watch my calorie intake a little better and perhaps some day it will start to work.

We went with the Leishmans to a large hospital to see the Humanitarian project that they had been working. The Church provided an incubator and 10 baby cribs for the neo-natal unit. The hospital was huge with people coming and going in a constant flow. Although it was not up to US standards it was clean and orderly – or as orderly as a hospital that must take care of 3000 patients a day can be.

We had a very interesting talk with the doctors who were over the unit. They told us that at times they had up to 50 babies in need of an incubator. Today was a quiet one and they only had 26 in incubators. That meant they did not have to double up and babies. All of these are of course premature children as healthy babies are seldom born in a hospital because it costs too much.

The doctors who work there – it is a government hospital – make about $150 a month. They supplement that with a private practice that brings their income up to about $500 month. Nurses make less than $100 a month in a government hospital but some may also work in a private hospital to make more. Most of the nurses in neo-natal are not University trained but are trained by the hospital. To become what we would call a RN they must go to school for 5 to 6 years and then they might make $300 a month between private and government pay.

We also got to see the new floor where the neo-natal unit will move in a month or so. It is large, open and has lots of light from the outside. Everything seems to be first quality construction – at least for Indonesia. The only problem is that they still need about a dozen incubators to handle the peak times. At $2K each it is unlikely they will get them anytime soon. I am thinking of writing to the Edgemont 11th ward and suggesting that they sponsor another incubator but that is not the Lord’s way – it should come through LDS Charities – so I doubt if I will.  But even one more incubator might save up to 50 babies a year. The unit at this time has a 45% mortality rate.

Another interesting thing is that there in no such thing as a parent’s waiting room. So if your baby is in the unit, you sit and sleep out in the hall until it is ready to come home.

After that we went to the office where I learned more about reports, worked on some things about the English class and read from the scriptures. Mary worked on English class preparation and sent a long email to Cindy. It is great to have some way of contacting the family again. I am not sure that sister Leishman approves but until we get our internet connection at our new apartment it will have to do.

After office hours we all went to a very upscale mall – it had 8 floors with a couple being reserved for different food establishments. They really seem to eat at malls. Everything was quite expensive and we did not buy a thing. I am sure we will go back and get some glass pieces and take more time looking around. But it really is not our kind of mall.

When we got home we started watching TV and had dinner. Mary made fried rice and we order a couple of servings of sweet and sour chicken from the restaurant in the complex. It was not as good as the other times we had it, but it still was better than most things we have eaten here. The total cost of dinner was under $5 including a tip to the delivery guy.

Mary is still watching TV and I am about to start studying Indonesian. I think the real challenge of this mission will be learning Indonesian. The rest will be simple compared to that.

20 January 2007 – Saturday

I slept well last night but woke about an hour earlier than I would have liked. I used the time to study Indonesian. I am re-reading the early part of 1 Nephi and trying to remember what the words mean. I hope that some of them will stick in my mind so I can use them in making sentences. I helped open the gym and put time in on the bike and treadmill. I think I lost some weight but I will not really know until I break through 83 kilos.

The last couple of mornings the city has been very overcast – perhaps foggy – in the morning. I liked it better when the sky is clear and blue. It means it will be hot but the view is much better.

We spent about 30 minutes reading the Kitab Mormon. As usual there were lots of words we had to look up. We are at the point where Lehi is explaining his dream about the tree, path and the iron rod. I decided to write down the words we had to look up – after 7 or 8 verses we had collected about 20 words or expressions. During the day I will try to learn at least some of them. There was one verse where I was happy to see the word pohon – tree – because it was one of the few that I knew.

We went to a special event today. President and sister Jensen were made members of two Indonesian families. It would be impossible to describe everything that went on in any detail but I will give a brief summary. We got to the University where it would be held about a half hour before it was to start. There was a red carpet from the entry to the elevator and from the elevator to the banquet room. We were treated as very honored guests because we were in the President’s party.

When it was time to go into the banquet room we entered under an honor guard of naval officers with cross swords. The ceremony went on for about 2 hours. Much of it was taken up with each male head of a household discussing if they should accept the Jensens into the family. This seemed to be a rather old tradition that probably goes back to when a new person would be accepted into a tribe. Anyway there was a lot of talk that none of us could understand because it was in a dialect that is used on Sumatra and there were no interpreters who knew the language. But it was a lot of fun because some of the men were really loud and talked for a long time.

In the end they agreed that the president should be allowed in and there was a major ceremony that included giving of fish, rice and water to the Jensens.

Then the same thing had to happen with a second family because the ‘parents’ – that is the chief and his wife – were from different families. So a shorter discussion was done by the men in that family and they were again offered fish, rice and water.

Also during the ceremony the Jensens were given a number of ceremonial blankets. These were beautiful things and the patterns seemed to mean something. After all of this was done, they lined up all of us who were members of the president’s party and we were given special blankets that commemorated the event.

Then there was some singing that was followed by one of the longest closing prayers in history. We were then offered a buffet of interesting food – most of them quite Western – with lots of desserts.

The only problem was that while we were eating, there was entertainment going on and they had huge loudspeakers cranked up to about 200 decibels. We were sitting rather close to the biggest array and it was impossible to talk without shouting.

After eating it was time to leave. We gave our thanks to the chief and his wife before leaving with the other senior couples. I must say it was an amazing experience and if it had been about an hour shorter and there had not been speakers beating music into our brains from a few feet away, it would have been even better.

The Petersens, the Kanes and ourselves went to the Ranch Market. This is a market that pretty much caters to Westerner and well to do people. I think that the Petersens like it because it has a lot of American brands and they do not care what it costs. The Kanes and ourselves are not into buying expensive food just because it comes from the US or Australia. Elder Petersen said they only buy Australian beef that costs about 40% more than Indonesian beef.  I am sure it is because they are worried about health issues and I understand that. However I think as long as it is cooked properly it does not matter.
21 January 2007 – Sunday

This was our early Sunday to be at Tanggeran by 8 we had to leave the apartment at 7:15. I had a real good night sleep – 7 hours or so with the alarm waking me at 5:30. The strange thing is that when it was time to leave I was once again sleepy. I think I am not use to that much sleep in one stretch.

I was somewhat disappointed because I did not hear as many words this week as I did last in Raya. I think part of it is that the Raya chapel has a better sound system. But I do think I am going to get my ears checked. I have been saying that for a couple of months now but I have been too lazy to do anything about it.

About the only constructive thing I did in 5 hours of meetings is to get the English classes and the Career Workshop announced in Priesthood. I stressed the fact that they were for Non-LDS and they should tell their neighbors about them.

After the last meeting, Agus met us and we talked about coming to the chapel on some Saturdays to be available to the members to help them with finding a job or finding a better job. He thought that was a good idea. Of course we could only do that on weeks when we were not holding a Career Workshop somewhere else in the mission.

I am determined to make the Employment Office more available to the people in the district. I would love to turn the Career Workshops over to Agus and Lokita so that I could go to the branches and work with people.

We had a real lazy Sunday afternoon and evening. After a simple lunch of watermelon we took a nap. Then we read from Kitab Mormon – we are at the part in 1st Nephi where Lehi has his dream about the Tree of Life. There are lots of words that have not been used before and so it takes a lot of time to figure out how the translators came to use some of the words. I can only take so much struggling and then I want to stop.

After the nap Mary got a call from Sister Jensen about a class for pianists and choristers in the district. She wants Mary to help with it. Earlier today Mary was asked to play the piano while the relief society sisters practiced a song they will sing next week. She will not be here for the actual performance so I guess they have someone else who will play. She was also asked to substitute today as their pianist for the regular meeting. We guess they knew she could play because they saw her play on Wednesday night at the Fireside. I would guess she will get to use her talents any number of times while we are serving here.

Dinner was omelets – it is about the only thing we actually cook. I imagine once we get to the new apartment and have more pans, cookie sheets, etc. we will do more things but I doubt if we will ever do much. We find that simple meals work fine for us. When we want something else, since it is so inexpensive, we go out to eat.

The ceremony from yesterday was on the TV tonight. We both were on a number of times including one where we were right in the forefront of the picture for a long time. It was when we were being presented our commemorative shawl. The same scene was used as a background for the credits so we got a lot of air time. But the important thing is that president Jensen was able to talk about the Church and give it a good plug. I am sure not very many people watched this particular documentary but even in 5% did it would be millions of viewers.

To top off the night Mary watched ‘Junior” with Thompson and Schwartsnegger (sp?) while I read from my Harry Potter book. It is surprising how much of ‘The Half Blood Prince’ I had forgotten.

It has been a month since we landed here in Indonesia – actually 4 weeks and 3 days – and it seems like we have been here much longer. That is we are pretty comfortable with our mission, the country and the people. I am sure we will become even more so later as we spend more time on the street – something we are determined to do – and as we get to know individual Indonesians better.

I have mentioned that for a city of 12 million with lots of poverty, millions of cars, and obvious air pollution, that it is amazingly clean, the people seem very patient and happy, and they drive with almost no accidents or anger. For pedestrians it looks like a nightmare. There few corners with lights so everyone just walks across the street slowly and hoping that no one runs over them.

We have had some spiritual experiences – today I felt the spirit as a woman spoke about children and the love she had for them and her Savior. Also when sister Leishman spoke about her experiences here. I feel that I have been inspired in my proposal for a new way of teaching English to soon to be released missionaries. Also in the idea of doing more to get non-LDS to English class and Career Workshops. I feel we are here to plant more seeds, tend the growing church, and to be examples to the members and those missionaries who come after us.

We will now do some more Indonesian before turning off the lights. I hope I sleep as well tonight as I did last night.

16 January 2007 – Tuesday

I actually slept until the alarm went off at 5:30. So I guess I just need to stay up until 11 or so before going to sleep and then I will sleep through until morning.

Normal morning – gym, shower, a glass of orange juice for breakfast, get dressed, and read the Kitab Mormon with Mary for companion study. We are up to 1 Nefi 7 and doing much better. I can get quite a bit of what is going on and Mary can fill in most of the rest. What gets us is where they use unusual word combinations to say what seems simple in English. We figured out what one group of word was supposed to mean each time it is used but we will have to as the translators to explain why those words mean that phrase because as far as we can make out they no don’t make any sense. But of course there are many things in English that would not make any sense to a native Indonesian learning our language.

Today should be rather laid back. Unless someone comes into the office for help getting a job there is nothing on the schedule. Mary will probably practice the piano for tomorrow night and I want to get my hair trimmed for Zone Conference. I want elder Leishman to take me through some things – like what we are going to need for the workshop in Tangerang on the 27th. I am sure once we have done one or two it will be easy.

Tonight we and the Leishmans have a dinner appointment with some members from the Raya branch. We think it is German food – it should be interesting.

This morning after we arrived at the office, elder Leishman gave me all the keys. I guess that means we are about to take over. A little later one of the people we are helping to find a job came in and the Leishmans left to do some shopping. I spent some time explaining about how important networking was and how he needed to expand his network. I re-worked his cover letter for his resume so that it sounded more interesting. I also spent a little time working with his English pronunciation and invited him to come to the English class on Thursday night. We do not think he is a member so perhaps a good contact will be made.

He was in the office for almost 3 hours. Mary worked on her English class material and practiced the piece for tomorrow’s fireside. About the time he left, the Leishmans came back. Soon after that we closed up the office and went to buy some books on job opportunities in Indonesia but when we got to the office they did not have any at this time. I guess I will go back later.

We then headed out to the Raya area and went to the mall where we were to meet for dinner. For some reason the Leishmans wanted to spend almost three hours there. Mary and I were soon bored so after going to a bookstore where I bought a Harry Potter book we found a place to sit and read. We also went to the biggest Ace Hardware stores I have ever seen and bought Mary a nice but expensive Braun hair dryer. Hopefully she will not burn it up.

Another thing she bought was a 2nd grade book that is written to teach Indonesian children to read Indonesian. In the first lesson she managed to fill up two pages with words she did not know. I would have filled up five.
The dinner turned out to be almost worth the waiting. The food was quite good – European style and the best we have had since we were here – and the people who took us were delightful company. While we had been waiting Sam somehow got his hair styled. He looked really strange – like some kind of rock star.

17 January 2007 – Wednesday

I woke at about 3:00 am and never did get back to sleep. I used some of the time to study Indon- esian and some trying to get back to sleep. I got to the gym before it was open so I did three laps of the track. It was probably a mistake because I was so hot that by the time I got into the gym I was not very interested in doing much. But I managed to do 50 sit-ups, 10 minutes on the bike and 30 minutes on the treadmill so I think I had enough exercise for the morning.

We had time to put in a half hour on the Kitab Mormon – we ran into another part that we could not really translate.

We were at the chapel by 8:30 and got to say hello to all the other couple missionaries. I was good to see those who are out of Jakarta – we hope to go visit them in the near future. Zone conference was interesting but I am not sure it was 5 hours interesting. Bishop Burton came and talked and took quesitons for about 45 minutes. Then he had to rush off to meet with more government people. He will be back for the fireside tonight.

The evening fireside was very good. It was well attended by the members of the Jakarta branches. Mary played well the choir sounded wonderful. Bishop Burton talked about his relationship with the living prophets from David O MacKay right up to President Hinckley.

He told about his experience of meeting President MacKay when he was an eight year old boy. His father was bishop and he used to take his sons with him when he visited members of the ward.

One day while Bishop Burton was play a very intense game of stick ball, his father called him to get ready to go. Of course he did not want to but he knew that there was no use in trying to get out of going with his father.

As they were visiting a house where the husband had recently died, up drove a large black car and out stepped President MacKay. After speaking with the widow, President MacKay and Bishop Burton’s father started talking. Unimpressed with being in the same house as the Prophet, Bishop Burton went out and set on the top step of the porch and thought about the great game he was missing.

President MacKay came out of the house and sat beside him. He then told Bishop Burton the story of how when he was a young boy, he went to general conference with his father. After one of the meetings, he was sitting on the front row of benches when President John Taylor came down and sat beside him. President Taylor took off his coat and rolled up his sleeves. He showed young President to be MacKay the scars of the wounds he received in Carthage jail on the day Joseph Smith was killed.  Bishop Burton said that he has never forgotten that experience.

After the fireside, it took about a half hour to get away from the chapel. Everyone wanted to talk to everyone – many especially wanted to talk to the Leishmans who will soon be gone. On the way back to the apartment we were invited to join the Petersons, Van Dongens, and the Leishmans for dinner at the Park Hotel. I was not overly excited about going to dinner but thought it would be the right thing to do.

Dinner was good because of the chance to talk and get to know the couples. The food there is only OK – the fries are excellent – and expensive. We ended up sharing a not very interesting tuna sandwich and then had dessert. I ordered apple pie with ice cream. What I got was a small apple tart with a small scoop of ice cream. Not bad – but also not anything to write home about.

By the time we got home I was very tired but stayed up for a while reading Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince before turning off the lights.
18 January 2007 – Thursday

Managed to sleep until about 5:15. At the gym by 5:45 and put in 45 minutes on the treadmill. Also did 50 sit-ups. However my weight refuses to go down. Not sure why but I must be eating more than I think I am.

We spent about 45 minutes on Kitab Mormon – made it through chapter 7. We found some strange English in one of the verses. Something like ‘the which rebellion.’ That would not work on an English exam.

Only elder Leishman came to the office with us. Sister Leishman wanted to work on her talk for Sunday. I spent 90 minutes or so working on an advertisement for English classes, the class I will teach tonight and the homework for the University course we will teach next week. Mary worked on her lesson for tonight. She also answered some e-mail that we got from Jim and Kristy. S he also checked our bank account and found that the money made it from the states. We can now pay for our car, etc. and shold have enough money for 4 to 6 months.

After we were done with that elder Leishman and I sat around talking about things and Mary took a short nap. We left the office and picked up Sister Leishman and journeyed over to the mission office where we dropped off our lease, talked to one of staff about getting insurance for our car, and then to Hendra about branch lists. I think he will give a complete set for the ones that are our responsiblity.

When we left Sinopati we went to SoGo mall to get some Krispy Kremes for the Leishmans to give as a treat tonight. It is the last time they will be at the English class. I am writing this as we travel to Tanggeran.

The district meeting was done mostly in Indonesian and I was too far from Elder Roper to understand much about what was going on. However when elder Leishman made a comment about praying for success before they went out in the morning. I was prompted to tell them that after they prayed they had to pay attention for the Lord giving them the opportunities and blessings that they prayed for. I told the story of how I was complaining about a leadership meeting when the Lord inspired me to realize that He had me go to meetings to gain a spiritual experience and it was up to me to pay attention so I would hear and understand what it was I was at the meeting to learn about. I promised the missionaries that if they would prepare, pray and work had, the Lord would provide them each day with one spiritual experience that would make the day worthwhile. Later I asked them to write down the experiences that they got each day.

I was happy to see that about a dozen members showed up on time for English lessons. So I decided to start and let the rest join when they came. I thought the lesson went well. I was very excited and spoke much too fast at first but the missionaries got me to slow down. I had much too much to cover but I think the time we spent on the alphabet was well worth the effort. We had about 10 young people and a dozen for Mary’s class. I am sure I will get better as I get more experience. The students in my class range from very little knowledge to some that were quite good.

Since it was the Leishman’s last night, it took some time to get away. The trip home took just over an hour. It would certainly be more convenient to live out that way but since the office is at the Salaten chapel it would not make sense to live out there.

As we were leaving one of the members told me that we needed to learn the bahasa – I told him we were trying and that we were determined to master it within the year. I think the members will respect us much more when we are able to participate in classes and speak to them.

13 January 2007 – Saturday

I woke at the early hour of 2 am but sometime between then and 5:20 I went back to sleep. It seems that I am able to function on somewhere between 5 and 6 hours of sleep. At least for a few days and then I have to crash.

Went to the gym and spent about 40 minutes on the treadmill and doing sit-ups. I would have stayed longer but we had to be ready to leave for Bogor by 8 am with the Petersons. We did not have time for Kitab Mormon study so we will do it in the evening.

The trip to Bogor went quickly. Bogor is located in the mountains about 30 miles South of Jakarta. From the little time we were there it seemed much cleaner and cooler. There is a pretty steady breeze that cleans out the pollution of some 4 million people.

The Kanes house was much as I expected. Big and open with a back and front yard – not big ones but at least somewhere that could provide some yard work. The main problem is that most of the house is not air-conditioned.  This means I would not be comfortable living there.

We were in Bogor because Elder Peterson had to sign for 50 wheelchairs that were being delivered to the Kane’s garage. In normal Indonesian style instead of making one delivery in a truck large enough to hold all 50 chairs they had a small pick-up over loaded with half the load and then a two or three hour wait. But this gave us time to catch up on things that they have been doing.

The Kanes are in 7th heaven. They can walk to lots of good places to eat and shop, they have been accepted by the ward, they have a great driver, and they have a lot of good projects to work with. Add to this a countryside that full of green hills and clean sky and you have a perfect location for them.

After the second delivery arrived we all went to lunch at a restro that makes soup at your table. It has become a special favorite for the Kanes. You order what soup you want – a group soup – and there is a stainless steel pot of water on a burner right in the middle of the table. Actually each long table has four or five. To make a long story short we had a soup make of vegies, noodles, and mostly seafood. It was tasty and interesting but certainly not something I would choose to eat very often.

After lunch, we had to hurry back to Jakarta so the Petersons could go to a choir rehearsal. We came home and have basically shut down for the rest of the day. We did spend some time thinking and preparing for our English classes on Thursday at Tanggeran and then a week from Friday at the University. There is a lot more work to do but I think we will be OK.

Nothing much special about the evening. We watched some TV and read some from the Kitab Mormon until Amazing Race Asia came on. As I have mentioned before it is identical to the US one only the area is more restricted and the people are much nicer. However tonight there was a bit of fighting between the two strongest couples. It was too bad that what was probably the strongest team was eliminated because they could not catch a taxi after the last task.

14 January 2007 – Sunday

Our fourth Sunday in Indonesia and I have started out in the dog house. I managed to sleep until almost 5 a.m. when I tried to shave only to find out the battery was dead. I went in to the bathroom to plug it in and the light spilling out woke Mary. She was not happy at all and I kidded her about being grouchy. It was not the smart thing to do. Hopefully she will go back to sleep and wake up again in a better mood.

We have another problem this morning. We are not sure when Sam is to pick us up for church.  By the time we figured this out last evening it was too late to call the Leishmans. Besides the phone seems to be back to it’s non-calling stage. Hopefully it will be more cooperative this morning or I will go over to the Leishman’s at 6:30 and ask them.

I found out that we did not have to be ready until 8:30 so Mary caught a few minutes more sleep and I read from the Kitab Mormon.

We had a full morning and early afternoon at the Raya branch. We did not have the elders interpret for us and we both felt good about how much we could understand. Of course we have a long ways to go and I found that in classrooms where there is no amplification I can not hear as well. I am going to find out next week or the week after to see where I can get my hearing checked.

I have decided that we are going to be part of these branches – not just visitors. I am trying to put together something that will remind me of their name, what they do and about their family. In 3 months I want to be able to meet most members by name and have enough Indonesian to at least say a few sentences to them. I volunteered to pass the sacrament in two weeks. I want to show them that I am servant and a fellow PH holder. However after thinking about it I am somewhat worried that I took an opportunity away from some AP holder.

After the last meeting of the block we had a baptism ceremony. It took about 30 minutes or more to get things set up but it was wonderful to see three people enter the waters of baptism. Elder Metier was able to do all three. A great way to spend the last Sunday in the area – he is going to So Ho on Thursday. They do not confirm the members for one to three weeks – they want to make sure they are committed. I pointed out that this was usually the case in the early church. They wanted to see how the newly baptized person showed their faith before giving them the gift of the Holy Ghost.

After the baptism, a lot of the members met in the entry and many pictures were taken. This was because of the baptism and Elder Metier and the Leishman’s leaving. It was quite a bit of fun and the noise level was really high. There are no sound absorbing materials in the entry.

The spirit of the Indonesian saints can easily be felt. Many of them speak quite good English and almost all of them know a little. If it was not for the language difference, I am sure we would find any meeting much the same as at home. I do notice that the members here do not participate as much as at home but when they do they get quite involved. The sister who spoke in Sacrament had written out her talk but it did not sound like it was read. The brother who spoke – a member of the Mission Presidency it turns out – did it without any notes but with plenty of feeling. All in all it was a wonder Sabbath day.

It took us almost an hour to get home. It was really good to walk into the cool apartment, get out of our Sunday clothes, have something to eat – mainly a fruit salad for me – and relax. An hour later we went over to the Leishmans and Mary sent off some e-mails. The most important was the one to Tom asking him to transfer a lot of money to our account here. Hopefully it will be here sometime Tuesday.

Now it is almost 6 and I have to decide if I am going to try to take a short nap to get me through the evening or just go as long as I can before falling asleep. I think I am going to do the nap route.

Nothing much happened after our naps. I have just finished reviewing some Indonesian before turning off the lights. Hopefully I will get a good night’s sleep.

15 January 2007 – Monday

I managed to sleep in until almost 5:30 and was at the gym by 5:45. I put in 50 minutes on the treadmill and did 50 sit-ups. I was happy to see that I had lost a pound or so over the weekend.

This is our P-day and so we could take the best part of an hour in reading the Kitab Mormon. We were humming along feeling pretty good about ourselves – that is a combined ‘ourselves’ because Mary knows a lot of words I do not – when we hit 1 Nephi 5:21. It had a lot of word and concepts we just could not get our minds around. Even after we had checked the electronic dictionary we were not sure what was being said. It was a good way to humble us and make us realize that we have a lot to learn. But we are determined to master Indonesian and I am sure that with the Lord’s help we will.

One of the things we really miss is an internet connection so we can communicate easily with our children and friends. In two weeks we should be in the apartment with highspeed internet and we can spend much of the day catching up. I have lots to post on the blog – including a lot of pictures.

Sam picked us up at 12:30 and we went over to the mission home to meet the person who would be taking us to buy our car. While we were waiting Mary talked to the sisters in the translation department and found out that they were worried about us because we had eaten off the street. I guess it is something that the senior couples just do not do. I like the food so much that if there was a place like BYU within walking distance of our apartment or the office I would eat there. As it is we will have to wait until we go to the mission office again.

The trip to the Toyota dealer took a long time – it seems they got a little lost. It is so different buying a car here than in the states. There is no bargaining at all – there is a price and you pay it. We are getting a $250 rebate but I think that is unusual and is only because the church buys all its cars there. We ended up paying about $12,500 for the Avanza and we should be able to sell it for at least $9000 when we leave. If so the cost will be about $300 a month. If we can sell it for $10.5 it will be more like $225. Either way it should be less expensive than leasing a car and it is new so the ride should be better. Sam really likes the idea of driving a brand new car.  We put $500 down and can pick it up in a couple of weeks.

On the way home we stopped to eat at A&W. I am sorry to say the burger would not make it in the US. Really overcooked so there was little flavor. I now must try McDonalds and see if they have a good hamburger. If not we will just have to buy some hamburger and cook our own.  They will be expensive but at least they will not taste like cooked shoe leather.

The treat of the day was Baskin Robbins ice cream. It is the real thing – pralines and cream tastes exactly the same in Indonesia as it did in Redondo Beach. We treated Sam to lunch and a cone – I realized that his food cost $4.25 – very expensive for a person who makes $190 a month.

After that we went to a bookstore where we bought more books to use for teaching English. I am sure we can put together a lot of good things from those we have bought. It is going to be a challenge to teach but it should also be rewarding.

Our final stop was the church where Mary practiced a piece that she will play to accompany a choir from the Salaten branch. Sam was supposed to play it but since a general authority is coming he asked Mary to play instead. There are people working all over the building. It is getting a real face lift to welcome Bishop Burton. While Mary practiced I tried to get on line and do some e-mail but I could not even get to AOL mail so I read from the new English books instead.

We made it home by 4:30 – Sam will pick us up for choir practice at 6:30.

Sister Jensen called and told us that the senior couples are going to inspect the missionary apartments.  She gave us instructions on what was expected and how often. If we do it on P-day that means that Sam does not get a day off. Maybe we will take another day for P-day. That would give us a break in the middle of the week. We will just have to see how things work out.

Choir practice ran for two hours or so – much longer than I expected. I was able to spend part of the time sending e-mail from the office. However the e-mail slowed down and so did the links to other sites so I decided to give it up for the night. I listened to some of the choir practice. It will sound fine and Mary was doing a good job keeping the piano soft enough that it did not drowned out the singers. The choir has some good voices but they certainly do not have the volume you get with Samoan or Tongan singers.

Once we got back to the apartment we pretty much did nothing until it was time to go to bed.

It has been a busy and profitable day – hopefully we will have a lot of those in the future.