11 April 2007 – Wednesday

Mempersiapkan. Mum-purr-see-op-can – To prepare. The Lord giveth no commandments to the children of men unless He mempersiapkan a way…etc.

I woke about 4 and could not go back to sleep because I started to think about the English class I need to develop between now and May 15. I will probably be spending much of the next month working on this. Today I have to develop a way to select the first four participants to the pilot program. Elder Subandriyo wants it to be a competition. I need to figure out how they will be selected. My first thoughts are to have them write in English a page saying why they think they should be chosen, what they want to learn, why they want to learn English, and what will they do with this knowledge if they are chosen. They will also include a resume in English and a letter of recommendation from their branch president (not in English) including if they hold or are worthy to hold a temple recommend.

If this program works or maybe better to say when we get this program to work, it will have the potential to change the lives of many of the saints and the Church in Indonesia forever. Perhaps it is the main reason we were sent here. All I really know is that the idea for the program came through inspiration starting with a short story that Elder Subandriyo told me soon after we got here. By small things….

Once I decided to get up I spent an hour reading from the Kitab Mormon. Not to actually read it but to see how much I could read and then to check it against the English. I enjoy doing this but it is also at times frustrating that I can not remember simple words that I have seen and read a dozen times. But each day it seems I gain a little knowledge so will keep trying and praying with the knowledge that it will come.

For breakfast I had papaya and pineapple, The pineapple from Bandung was as good as advertised. Very sweet and delicious – the papaya was a good supplement. Big papayas – that is about 2 – 3 pounds sell for under $1.

We read almost two and a half pages from the Kitab Mormon in our hour this morning – that is a 25% increase in our reading. Either we are getting better or the words were easier today.

I did very little in the way of ERS today, but I certainly kept busy. First I created an outline for applicants to the Intensive English class that I have approval to do a pilot for. We are going to select four to six of the best applicants from the Jakarta District, To even be considered they have to provide a number of things that will probably weed out the ones who are interested but not committed.

Then I revised the proposal for the class so that it fit closer to what we now envision. I sent both to Elder Subandriyo for his approval. He made a couple of suggestions and also a decision but mainly he left it alone. In his return letter he mentioned he sent a copy to the new mission president so he is going to know us before he ever gets here.

This is a major undertaking and if I did not know it was originally inspired by the Lord, I would be very worried. But since I know that if it is successful it will fill a big need not only here but perhaps around the world, I am going to do my best and trust the Lord to guide and help us.

I sent e-mail to a number of people today – some of it related to the mission and one to bishop Pletsch telling him to send out some more couples. We also received a letter from sister Amber Tippetts – our teacher at the MTC – in Indonesian so we would have a chance to practice. I could read it without looking up any words. I think she kept it simple so we could feel good. All in all it was a good day at the office.

We were home quite early so we spent a lot of time reading church magazines, studying Indonesian, napping, and then we watched the Saturday afternoon session of conference. Finally we read another hour from Kitab Mormon. I keep hoping that the sheer volume of reading and studying will somehow make the words sink into my brain.