05 April 2007 – Thursday

I have slacked off again about writing in this journal. That is a shame because that means I have lost some of the thoughts that come to me and that some of the experiences of my mission are also lost.

Tuesday after our regular office hours, we went out to see Sister Pauline. She is the one who lives and has a business that is on the medium between two sides of a busy road. We went out just to keep in contact and to buy some fertilizer for our plants. She was there alone and we had a short meeting with her. We did not bring up anything about the church until a man came by and started asking about our badges. He said he was a Christian and would like to read the Book of Mormon. I just realized I messed up and did not get his name and address so the missionaries could take the book to him. However I did call Elder Thiemann and tell him that Sister Pauline needed a Book of Mormon to give him. Maybe by little steps we will be able to bring her back into activity.

Wednesday after the office we went out to see Rudy – the rich Chinese man who we met through the missionaries. He had called and asked if we could come by so he could give us the picture of Christ that he had promised. We had a nice visit and while we did not talk specifically about the church we talked about Easter, prayer, and spiritual experiences. I am hoping that as our friendship strengthens I can get him to read some of the Book of Mormon. But even if not it is nice to have another friend here in Indonesia.

There has still not been a single person come into the office for help in finding a job. However we have had some leaders ask for help for some of their people. I have used the last couple of days to work on different parts of my ERS calling. I feel this is a long process that may take most of our mission to set up. However I am hoping that by the time we leave, the process will be so ingrained that it will continue to work even if there is no ERS director here in Indonesia.

Wednesday I had Sam start calling the 14 lost sheep from the PEF. He got hold of about half of them and found that all had used the money to go to school but about half of them still do not have a job. I am going to have Sam call those and ask what type of job they would like and then have the District Specialists work with them. Once we figure out how they can make payments, I will have Sam call them each month and see if they have paid.

We decided to go to the CW at Samarang on the 21st. This way we can see the Barretts and perhaps they can take us around to see some schools that might be good for PEF applicants. I am somewhat torn about this because we are spending the Lord’s money to do something that may not be greatly beneficial to the work.

OK that is enough catching up – back to today.

I woke at 5 after almost 8 hours of sleep. I decided not to exercise, instead I studied from PMG. I read the chapter about how to study effectively. I decided I really needed to start using a Study Journal – something I have attempted to do a couple of times but failed. However since committing myself to “Be exactly obedient” – that is how PMG says it – I decided to try again.

Those three words are really tough ones. I rank them with ‘endure to the end’ and ‘Love the Lord thy God with all your ….’ and ‘let virtue garnish thy thought unceasingly.’ I see them as goals to work towards. Goals that will help lead to Eternal Life. So I am going to try to do what is asked with the knowledge that in doing that I am heading in the right direction.

I am excited about our progress in the language. Mary still is far further along in reading and knowing words but that is great. I find that I can read from the Kitab Mormon and pretty much know what is going on. Mary started listening to the latest conference in Indonesian and we were both happily surprised at how many words we can not hear. We still are not able to translate what is going on but at least the talks are more than just a jumble of sounds. I am sure as we continue to study, pray, and use the language, we will reach a point where we can communicate with the people. I am thankful to the Lord for all of His help and encouragement.

We read almost three pages from Kitab Mormon this morning. Mainly because Mary now knows so many words but that is OK. I am still learning more and more each day. We still stumble over tenses and sometimes who is speaking, but we are getting closer to understanding what is written. I am sure that in another couple of months, Mary will be able to just read what is there.

The rest of the day was a rather normal Thursday with the office, a trip to the mission home to pick up mail for the missionaries, a short stop at SoGo for necessities such as orange juice and goodies from BreadTalk.

Cindy asked us in a recent e-mail to describe BreadTalk and it is not easy to do. The best way to describe it is to have you imagine the back room of a bakery with about a dozen busy bakers working. Now move that room – with it’s ovens – to the middle of a supermarket and make one wall glass so you can stand there and see everything being made.

As soon as a product is finished baking, cooling and being stuffed or decorated or dipped or whatever, it is brought out of the room and put on shelves to be sold. Only the sliced bread is wrapped – everything else is just sat out on trays on shelves where the customer can come along and pick it up – hopefully using the supplied tongs and not their fingers – put them on a tray and then takes their selection to the cashier.

Yesterday when we went there, it was packed with local women – upscaled women because SoGo is that kind of market – filling up trays with goodies. We have never seen so many customers there at one time. It was almost like they all arrived on a bus just to shop at BreadTalk.

They do not make donuts – there is a Krispy Kreme for that – and they do not seem to do some of the breads all the time. Mary has fallen in love with their rye bread and was disappointed that there was not any available. We both like their baguettes of French bread which we often bring home and eat with butter or peanut butter for dinner.

So that is BreadTalk. I do not think it would not work in the US because that many bakers making small batches of thirty or forty items would be much too expensive. Also you could not put all the open bakery goods out in the open on shelves – you would either have to put them in a case with doors or wrap them.

After the store we headed to Tangerang for district meeting and English classes. I gave the spiritual thought in district meeting. I talked about a suggestion in PMG that I mention above – ‘Be exactly obedient’ and my thoughts about it. How for me it is a goal to strive for and the closer we come to doing that, the more the Lord will be able to guide and bless us.

I do not feel that my English class was as good as it could have been. But I did find something new that I am excited about. I decided to print the first Article of Faith on the board and have them say it a number of times. I tied it in with the Indonesian version that all the older Primary children should know. I think I will do this each week – working on one article each month.

The trip home was a little long but I could not go to sleep. It is a shame I can not sleep or study more in the car because we spend so much time there. I keep thinking that I should take a pillow with me but I have not done that yet.