Daily Archives: May 7, 2007

05 MAY 2007

05 May 2007 – Saturday

It was back to normal today. Slept well, woke too early, and had a normal morning. We had time to read a full hour in Kitab Mormon – this is becoming more and more enjoyable because we not only are learning to read Indonesian but we are also learning more about the Book of Mormon. We are finding things that we have read over a number of times that seem to have a different meaning when you digesting it word for word.

We went to the office and I caught up with some of the e-mail. I also wrote the April ERSC history report and sent it off to Hong Kong. We still need to do the ones that include number. One of the great pieces of news is that we actually got a report about employment from the districts. They were a little light in information and I am sure they did not cover each branch, but it is a start.

Mary spent the time working on her lesson tomorrow at Tangerang 2. She is putting part of it into Indonesian so the young women can have something to take home with them. She has spent a lot of time on this lesson – I am sure she will do great.

At 2 we went to SoGo to stock up on groceries and baked goods. We should really stay away from there but it is the only place where I can get fresh squeezed orange juice which is what I have for breakfast about 5 of the 7 days of the week. So while we are there it seems a waste not to buy a few goodies at BreadTalk.  Anyway that is my excuse and I am sticking to it.

By the time we got home both of us were very tired so we snacked on some of the things that we bought and took naps. Besides eating, reading Kitab Mormon, and catching up some of this journal, the rest of the day was very quiet. Mary of course continued to work on her report and I started reading Elder Hollands talk in Indonesian. Just the first two paragraphs produced a nice stack of flip cards – I am going back to using them to try and increase my vocabulary. Which I tried to learn on and off during the evening.

This mission experience is different from what I expected. It is not filled with great spiritual experiences each day. Or perhaps it is and it just seems so normal for it to be that way, that it no longer stands out. I know that when we were serving in the MTC it got to a point where it took something out of the ordinary to make an impression. The ordinary spiritual events that were taking place all around us seemed ordinary and we probably would have been surprised if nothing spiritual happened.

An example is today. I opened the church mail site and there were the two reports about employment. The first ones we have ever received. It means that the district specialists contacted their branch specialists and then sent in the report. That may not seem like anything special but the fact is that as far as I can tell that has not been done before. Before this if there was any figures they came because the senior missionaries either contacted the branches or found out that someone had a new job or a new business. I know that is what we did for three months. Basically we released those who had the responsibility for doing this work. Once we decided that was not the correct way to do this, trained those we are responsible for, and told them when we expected the report, behold the Lords’ way of doing things started working.

I remember reading in the Welfare manual one day and it quoted the D&C where when the Lord revealed his plan for helping the poor, He told the church that it should be done in His own way. But how often do we think we know better than the Lord and do it in our own way. I know I have been guilty of that in the past and I am sure I will do it in the future – but hopefully not as often.

I would imagine there are times when the Lord looks down on our efforts and thinks ‘Why does my son Bill not learn that the correct and easy way to get things done in My Church is to do it My way. Not because I want any glory but so he and those he is working with can enjoy all the blessings that I would like them to have.”



04 May 2007

4 Friday 2007 – Friday

A travel day but first we had to pack. I went down to the bakery and got a lot of goodies that we ate for breakfast – later I did the same thing for lunch. For the most part all of the items were good but the apple strudel was my favorite. We managed to read from the Kitab Mormon and still have time to meet the Noordas’ driver at 8 a.m. The Noordas had volunteered their driver and their vehicle until noon. The Kanes suggested we get up and leave at 6 for a drive to the ocean. But we did not want to start that early so we compromised for a trip to a mask factory.

It turned out that no one could really tell us where the mask factory was and it was also mentioned that it was not very excited. So instead we decided to head for the mountains. As the driver made his way through the town – he was from Malang and his mother still lives here – we came across an area where there were lots of temporary stalls that was filling up with all kinds of crafts, food shops, and activities. We were too early for most of the shops to be open but we managed to find a number of things to buy and we got to watch a young lady handpaint a sheet of rice paper. She just holds it on the flat of her hand and paints. It takes a really steady hand to do that.

We then headed through Malang and up into the mountains. He took us through some beautiful scenery to a park area. We took some great shots of the valley, of the loads of grass going down the hill on motorcycles and in carts, and a truck being loaded with cabbage. The park rents out some of the land for growing crops that need a cooler climate. There is corn, cabbage, and carrots growing under the trees.

When we got to the part of the park where it was a short walk to the waterfall we found a family of monkeys that did not like us disturbing them. I got some good pictures of the mother suggesting that we go elsewhere. The walk to the falls was through lovely scenery and the falls itself was beautiful. We notice that the water was as crystal clear as any we have seen in America and commented on the fact that it was the first clean river we had seen. This is because the stream runs through rock and so it does not pick up the red clay soil that every other river seems to have.

By the time we got through touring the falls it was time to head back down to the hotel and get ready to leave. We finished our packing, ate a light lunch and settled our bill – a little expensive for Indonesia because of the fancy meals we had on Wednesday and Thursday. The hotel itself was not expensive for what they provide, but the meals were about twice what they were at places like Novotel. But the trip was worth it – if just for the company.

The Hashs were nice enough to pick us and the Kanes up and take us to the airplane. The rest of the Jakarta group had ordered a van to take them. The Noordas and the Bennetts were leaving soon after us – it turned out they stopped and went to the street fair we had found earlier and had told them they should look on their way out of town. The Roberts and the Barnards had a van – they call it here a ‘travel’ – taking them back to Solo – a 5 hour drive.

When we got to the airport the terminal was closed. It seems that since there are only two or three flights in and out each day they only open an hour before the flight is supposed to leave. We got to wait outside in the heat. But it was a good opportunity for me to meet a man who had been given a copy of ‘Kitab Mormon’ by Elder Hardy when he was here on his mission. The man had not read it because he decided to stay with his church. I told him that if he ever felt like knowing more, there were branches of the church in Jakarta and gave him a pass-along card. They say that each convert has about 7 contacts with the church before they join. Maybe our visit will come to his memory sometime or looking at the card will spur his interest and he will want to know more. I will never know but that does not matter.

The experience of checking bags – thankfully I got us a porter who pushed us to the front of the line and made sure our bags got checked correctly – and going through security was really something. Everyone makes the metal detector goes off but no one even makes an attempt to find out what is being brought on board. The Kanes brought on a full liter bottle of water – nothing like a liquid check here – and I think you would have to be carrying a gun in your hand to even cause them to ask about anything. I decided that plane they lost over the ocean could have been a bomb and since they never found the wreckage no one would ever know.

The flight went well, our luggage came off quickly and until we got into Jakarta traffic everything was great. It took somewhere between 90 minutes and 2 hours for us to get home. The Kanes took about an hour longer. It was sooo good to get into our apartment and take off our shoes. Be it ever so humble – which ours is not – there is no place like home.



03 May 2007

3 May 2007 – Thursday

We managed to read the Kitab Mormon for almost a full hour this morning. We have not been getting our two hours in because there is too many activities early in the morning. At least that is our excuse. All the couples had breakfast together. It was a pretty good breakfast but not as good as the ones at Novotel. The Roberts agreed with us.  It was nice to sit and talk to our friends in the Gospel. There is a bond of love and friendship that seem to be very special as we share the experiences of serving a mission for our Lord. The Bennetts invited us to go with up to see the Kanes – they have a 42 foot motor home with two slide outs. It must be like a mansion inside. I imagine we will make some friends here that are unlike any others. Because no one will be able to really know what we feel when we talk about our service here.

After breakfast we met to have the last two presentations. Ours came first and I think we did quite well. Mary and Sam’s short movie – pretty much a slide show with effects and music – went well. A number of people commented about our garden. Mary did an excellent job of telling about our family and interests. She also covered English classes. I then told about how they could help us with ERS and how important it was. I really did not have enough time to go into too much detail and hope that the handout will let them know what we need.

The Roberts were the final couple and they just talked from their heart. After our more business like presentation, it was the perfect way to finish the presentations. President Jensen then spoke some about how he and sister Jensen felt. He played a DVD that they made to send to the Indonesian missionary reunion at April conference. That wrapped up the conference.

At 1:00, most of us went off to take a tour of the city. President Jensen and Elders Kane, Van Dongen, and Noorda went to play golf. The tour was mainly a bust.  About a half of the tour was what we saw yesterday. There was a tour of a section of town that is a cooperative that makes Tempe. This is a soybean product that is not bad tasting and very nutritious. Pretty much the whole town is involved with small back rooms and areas used to process the soybeans, make them into sheets and dry them. None of this would pass the health department in America – or for that matter most 1st or 2nd world countries – but it works here. What was fun was to have the children tag along. I am not sure if there were so many because it was a holiday or because their families can not afford to send them to school. Either was we grew a big crowd of smiling children who love to have their picture taken. As always they were for the most part clean and neatly dressed – I did notice that there were not a lot of shoes.

The best part of the tour was when we told the driver we did not want to see another temple and could he show us a pottery factory. After one poor choice he finally got us to a fun little shop where there was a lot of very inexpensive but nice looking pottery. My guess it was all seconds but since we are probably going to leave most of it behind when we leave the $7 we spent was not a big thing. Nearby there was a pottery shop where we saw them hand-painting pots to be fired. It was too bad that we were flying home and so there was no way to get a big pot home. We are going to look for something like that around here. Maybe in Bogor.

We got back to the hotel in time to have high tea – without tea of course. This was an everyday thing and we found it the first day. There were lots of Indonesian treats – most of them sweets of some kind. The Bennetts joined us and then sister Kane. After we had our treats, sister Kane whipped out her dice and we taught the Bennetts a new game that we just learned the day before. It is a lot of fun and there is both luck and skill involved. We played two games and the Bennetts each won one…now they are hooked.

It was a relaxing evening. We went down to the restaurant and found almost all the couples already there. The golfers were still not back and the Hashs had gone back to their house. Since they live in Malang they did not see any reason to take the tour. Everyone sat around talking about the conference, the work, their families, etc. When the golfers arrived the party started to break up. Everyone was rather tired and there were a lot of us traveling tomorrow so bed sounded very good.