Daily Archives: May 5, 2007

2 May 2007

2 May 2007 – Wednesday

We woke about 5:15 and I was surprised that the sun was streaming in the window – the sun comes up earlier here because we are so far East. Normal morning except we only had 30 minutes to read the Kitab Mormon instead of an hour – we will need to make up for that this evening. We called the Kanes and suggested we have breakfast together. It was an interesting and delicious breakfast but it cost $10 a piece while we could have eaten at McDonalds for $2 each. That is what we will do on Friday morning.

After breakfast we took a tour of the hotel. It is an amazing place. It is huge – about a full city block – and full of antiques. I am surprised it makes any money. About the time we were through with the tour, the other couples from Jakarta arrived and so everyone started talking to everyone. We finally met Elder Noorda – sister Noorda did not appear until we started lunch. Lunch was exotic but to me not worth the effort. I would have been as happy – if not happier with a 50 cent dinner off the street.

The Couple’s meeting is interesting. Each couple takes about 30 minutes to talk about their family and what they are doing on their mission. To me the proselyting missions have the best callings. They work closely with their branches and leadership. Especially the ones who have only one branch to work with. The Bennetts in Semarang, the Hatchs in Malang, and the VanDongens in Bandung all are in that situation. The Van Dongens have completely changed their branch – doubled their attendance, started a choir, etc. I have written about them before.

In just two months the Bennetts have raised attendance from 65 to as high as 120. Give them 6 months and they will have to divide the branch. The Hashs are working closely with their small branch – they have the most difficult task but they are humble and hard working so it will just take some time.

But of course I also know we are where we are supposed to be. If or better when the Intensive English classes get going, many things will change here. When we are able to provide jobs for the older men, women and less educated but dedicated priesthood leaders, lives will be changed. And when we have developed resources for good schools and education we will be able to guide PEF applicants to meaningful and well paying careers. Finally when we are able to get out and meet the less actives, clean up the branch records, etc. we will help the branches become stronger and help those who are missing the blessings of activity to realize them.

We had a one hour break – it was really needed – and then a two hour dinner. I enjoyed the dinner. Not so much because it was great food – it was OK – but because we were able to sit and talk with other couples as we waited for the next course. After dinner there was a band and I even danced with Mary. She really deserves for me to learn how to actually dance – some of the couples were really good. We then had two more reports before we headed off.

I almost forgot. They had a language activity to test our knowledge of Bahasa and Mary won with 56 out of 62. I was second with 53. She got a large ceramic piggy bank for a prize. We thought that was funny because earlier in the day we had seen them for sale but could not figure out how to get it home. Luckily it was the small pig – the big one would have been a real problem.



02 May 2007

2 May 2007 – Wednesday

We woke about 5:15 and I was surprised that the sun was streaming in the window – the sun comes up earlier here because we are so far East. Normal morning except we only had 30 minutes to read the Kitab Mormon instead of an hour – we will need to make up for that this evening. We called the Kanes and suggested we have breakfast together. It was an interesting and delicious breakfast but it cost $10 a piece while we could have eaten at McDonalds for $2 each. That is what we will do on Friday morning.

After breakfast we took a tour of the hotel. It is an amazing place. It is huge – about a full city block – and full of antiques. I am surprised it makes any money. About the time we were through with the tour, the other couples from Jakarta arrived and so everyone started talking to everyone. We finally met Elder Noorda – sister Noorda did not appear until we started lunch. Lunch was exotic but to me not worth the effort. I would have been as happy – if not happier with a 50 cent dinner off the street.

The Couple’s meeting is interesting. Each couple takes about 30 minutes to talk about their family and what they are doing on their mission. To me the proselyting missions have the best callings. They work closely with their branches and leadership. Especially the ones who have only one branch to work with. The Bennetts in Semarang, the Hatchs in Malang, and the VanDongens in Bandung all are in that situation. The Van Dongens have completely changed their branch – doubled their attendance, started a choir, etc. I have written about them before.

In just two months the Bennetts have raised attendance from 65 to as high as 120. Give them 6 months and they will have to divide the branch. The Hashs are working closely with their small branch – they have the most difficult task but they are humble and hard working so it will just take some time.

But of course I also know we are where we are supposed to be. If or better when the Intensive English classes get going, many things will change here. When we are able to provide jobs for the older men, women and less educated but dedicated priesthood leaders, lives will be changed. And when we have developed resources for good schools and education we will be able to guide PEF applicants to meaningful and well paying careers. Finally when we are able to get out and meet the less actives, clean up the branch records, etc. we will help the branches become stronger and help those who are missing the blessings of activity to realize them.

We had a one hour break – it was really needed – and then a two hour dinner. I enjoyed the dinner. Not so much because it was great food – it was OK – but because we were able to sit and talk with other couples as we waited for the next course. After dinner there was a band and I even danced with Mary. She really deserves for me to learn how to actually dance – some of the couples were really good. We then had two more reports before we headed off.

I almost forgot. They had a language activity to test our knowledge of Bahasa and Mary won with 56 out of 62. I was second with 53. She got a large ceramic piggy bank for a prize. We thought that was funny because earlier in the day we had seen them for sale but could not figure out how to get it home. Luckily it was the small pig – the big one would have been a real problem.



1 May 2007

1 May 2007 – Tuesday

A long but delightful day. Up at the regular time and after getting ready for the day we started packing for our trip to Malang and the Couple’s Conference.  We decided to check one piece of luggage so we took one of our large suitcases. This allowed us to pack lots of clothes and other things and keep our carry-on light. When we were finished with that we read from the Kitab Mormon until 9 and the morning passed quickly – at least until then. The hour from 9 to 10 went on forever. We had everything packed up, cleaned up, etc. so there was nothing really to do but wait.

The trip to the airport was perfect – the possible mess from some demonstrations that were supposed to take place did not materialize – and so we were there over 2 hours before our flight was due to leave. Luckily for us the Kanes also had no trouble coming in and so they arrived just about 10 minutes after we did. We were able to check in together, good to a bookstore together, and then sit and just talk for the rest of the time. I do not know what Mary and Sister Kane talked about, but Elder Kane and I spent most of the time talking about the Cosmology of the Universe. No light chit-chat for us.

The flight left 30 minutes late but other than that went well. I sat next to a nice Muslim woman who turned out to be the headmistress of a school near where we live. We exchanged cards and hopefully we can visit her at some time. I wrote some in my paper journal and did a little studying of the language.

The Malang airport is tiny – it is actually part of a large military base – and the luggage pick-up area is about the size of our living room. I forgot to mention that the airplane we were on – 73-200 was configured so that there was no room in the over-heads for normal carry-on luggage. So we had to check both pieces – and so did just about everyone else. This means that everyone of the plane is gathered in this small area waiting for their bags to come off a conveyor belt that must have been about 10 feet long. The smallest pieces come off first so of course the Kanes and our bags were among the last off. But that was OK because it cleared out many of the other passengers and it was easy to get our bags and pull them out.

The Hash’s – they are the couple in Malang – picked us up at the airport and took us to the hotel. It is a lovely place and everyone was expecting us. They knew our names and when we got to our room there was a flower arrangement with a printed card that had our name on it welcoming us to the hotel. At first we thought that it was a very expensive place – we thought the price they were quoting was per person and not per room – but it turned out to be only moderate.

We unpacked and then went with the Kanes to have ‘high tea’ but with cold water instead of hot tea. It was interesting to try all the different sweets – none of them except the chocolate cake were very sweets – but they did not have little cucumber sandwiches so we were disappointed.

Ari – the Hash’s driver – drove us to their house. It is not in the greatest area – Elder Hash said that they had to put the barbed wire around the fence because it was considered a high crime area – but the house is wonderful. There is a huge, high ceiling living room – dining room. Two large bedrooms and a nice sized kitchen. But the best part of the place were the three small but lovely gardens – one with a fish pond and orchids. How great it would be to be able to sit out there and just listen to the splashing of the water. That would be possible in Malang because it is about 1700 feet above sea-level and so it is 10 -15 degrees cooler than Jakarta. It is also much cleaner and the sky is clear and blue. I was very jealous but know that this was where the Hash’s needed to be. They could not have afforded Jakarta.

They then took us on a quick tour of a couple of sights of the city. An old 14th century Buddist temple – we could not get in but we were able to take some pictures and a modern Chinese temple. The Chinese temple was beautiful and we started to take pictures and tour it. However as I started to go in, I realized that it was truly a place where the Chinese people came to pray and remember their ancestors. It did not feel right to be a tourist here. I could feel the faith of the people who were worshiping and so I decided to step back outside. I would not want tourists going through the Provo Temple while it was in use. Mary and sister Kane assured me that someone inside indicated that it was OK but it still did not feel right to me.

The Hash’s then drove us to our hotel and dropped us off. They will be staying here tomorrow night as part of the conference. We started to go in but decided instead to go for a walk to see if we could find a restaurant – we felt that the hotel would be too expensive. The area around the hotel is above average for Jakarta and so the walking was nice and the temperature was just warm. At times we were the hit of the night – people like to talk to white folks and so many said hello. We were just about to give up on finding a restaurant when we came across a nice open Chinese place. It was clean and well lighted so we decided to eat there.

We found the menu was extensive and some of it was even in English. The prices were very cheap – as we have found whenever we went to local restaurants. When the orders came we found the portions were quite small but beautifully presented. This was fine with me because I did not want to eat a heavy meal but the rest bought a ‘mixed salad’ for dessert. They expected a mixed green salad but what they got was a mixed fruit salad on a couple of lettuce leaves. It turned out to be very tasty so they were pleased. When the check came the four us had eaten for a total of under $8. We may go back on Thursday night to try some more things.

We then had a nice walk back to the hotel where we sat down and started to play a dice game that the Kanes have learned to enjoy. It is much different from anything we have seen before and it is going to take some time to learn the rules. But it is fun and there is some skill involved. As we were playing up walk the Barnards and Roberts from Solo. They had taken a travel – basically a van – up to Malang. It was a 6 ½ hour trip and they decided that they really did not want to leave at 3 a.m. tomorrow to get here in time for our opening meeting.

Elder Roberts told us that they tried to call me but I had accidently left my phone in the room so of course they could not reach me. The rest of the evening was spent talking. At first I spent some time talking to Sister Roberts while the rest of the men gathered in one area and the women in another. Sister Roberts told me all about their experiences of the last month and how things were going. They have a house and hopefully will soon have a car. However she is having some kind of problem with either the food or water or both and has been sick a number of times. When we first met them when they arrived in Jakarta, she was worried about this. She seems to have a sensitive stomach and anything new bothers her. She is such a cheerful person it is rather sad to hear that she is having these problems. Hopefully she will adjust because they are going to do a great job in Solo.

At about 9:30 everyone agreed that it was getting late and so we broke up until tomorrow. Some of them are going to go walking in the morning but I did not bring anything that might be counted as walking clothes. I will need to go down to a clothing store we saw last night and get at least one casual shirt so I will not feel completely strange out walking with them. I only brought white shirts and other missionary attire because I thought we should always look like missionaries and did not think of going out for a walk in the morning.

Like many of the hotels in Indonesia, the electricity only comes on when you insert your room key into a special slot. Of course this means the air-conditioning does not work while you are out of the room and so the room was a little warm when we got here. But it quickly cooled off so we were comfortable.

I tried to read some from the Kitab Mormon and then from one of the novels we bought at the airport – the airport is the best place in the city to buy English novels. None of them are current best sellers but there is a good selection and they are about ½ the price as they are in the SoGo mall store.



30 April 2007

30 April 2007 – Monday

Happy Birthday to me…and it was a great one. I heard from almost all of the children and grandchildren and got to see some of them. Too bad our connection is not better so we could see and hear better, but at least we have some opportunities to see them.

The winner of the best present award goes to Jim and Kristy – the announcement of the future arrival of our 13th grandchild. We are just sorry that we will not be able to hold him/her/them until we get home. The winner of the best birthday card and the best letter goes to Shane. His card was cool and his letter was really long and told us all about what was going on in his life. I think he should consider a career in journalism – he seems to have a talent for writing. Mary gave me a large apple sculpture-she says there is another present but I do not get it until we get back from couple’s conference.

We spent a very quiet day. The cleaning lady came while we were reading the Kitab Mormon. Hopefully she could understand some of our poor Indonesian as we read out loud. I do not think we can count this as giving a lesson but at least it exposes her to some of the doctrine of the church. We were in Alma where Alma the younger is preaching about repentance and the atonement. We ended up reading three times during the day for about an hour each. This caught up some of the time we did not do when we were sick.

The rest of the time we watched TV, slept, and ate. About the only ‘exciting’ thing we did – besides getting on Skype – was to go downstairs and eat at the little restaurant. Nothing wild but it did give Sam a full day off. Something he has not had for a while. He will also get Thursday off…but Friday it is back to work for him.

Musing a little about being 69. It is hard to think of myself as being old. If it was not for the glasses, the wrinkles, and age spots that I see when I look in a mirror, I do not seem to myself to be old at all. I still seem to like the same things I did 45-50 years ago. Well the music I prefer has changed quite a lot but I still like music. I still enjoy reading. The gospel is still exciting to me – I realize I do not know much more about it than when I first joined the church. I still have many imperfections – I have managed to get rid of some of them but I had a lot to start with. I still love Mary with all my heart. I find it hard to think that I have a son that will be 47 this year and a grand daughter that is driving and going to junior proms.

I have had some wonderful experiences in serving in the Church. From being a Scout Master and assistant Scout Master – to now serving on a mission with my eternal soul mate. The 8 years of being bishop are among the best of my life. However I was surprised to be just as sad – if not sadder – to be released as assistant Scout Master many years later. Being a bishop is like no other calling in the church – other than of course branch president – because you get to become part of all the members of the wards lives and they part of yours. Some day I need to sit down and write all that I can remember about that time. Maybe that is something I can do while on this mission – it would be a better use of my time than watching TV.

My three times as executive secretary – I actually was serving as Ward Home Teaching Supervisor when that calling was turned into the original Executive Secretary position. For over a year no one knew what we were supposed to do as ES so we kind of did whatever the bishop wanted done – well sometimes I did what I wanted to do and then asked the bishop if that was OK. I was blessed to have two bishops and a stake president who knew how to use an executive secretary and I think I did a good job there.

Our experience of working at the MTC is another wonderful part of my full life. How we came to be serving there, the way we were called to be full time missionaries, and the experience of helping to start a program for helping the young missionaries learn their languages that is still going on today was and is a great time of our lives. I hope that the Intensive English Class that we are going to have a chance to try next month will be as successful. There is nothing like working with missionaries – the spirit at the MTC is so special that it you can only really discuss it well with someone who has also served there.

I have had the opportunity to be a guide at the Los Angeles Temple Visitor’s Center for a number of years. The fact that I can not remember either the number of years or the actual dates frustrated me but I must remember that time is only measured by man and move on. To spend an afternoon explaining the gospel plan to visitors was an important part of my growth in the Kingdom. I also had the opportunity to serve for a number of years in the LA Temple baptismal fount – that period will take a few pages. The feeling of having a line of spirits waiting their turn to have this sacred ordinance done for them was amazing. I got to feel this again when I toomk at turn at the Provo Temple to confirm some proxies.

Of course being an ordinance worker in the Provo temple has been a great blessing. The work is wonderful and the spirit great. Again it is something a person has to experience to really understand. But as much as the spirit is there, for me working with the missionaries at the MTC is the most powerful. I think it is because the young missionaries are so full of enthusiasm and so vibrant that the spirit just crackles there. The best of both worlds is to be working in the temple when a session is filled with missionaries from the MTC. The temple is so new to them and it still holds their attention as they try to absorb all the new things that they learn each time they come.

The problem with trying to do this is that there are just too many memories to even start to write about them here. But unlike the brass and other plates, there is lots of room in this computer and so just maybe while we are on this mission I will start putting more of them down for my children and grandchildren and their children to read long after I have gone to see God.