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.