06 May 2007 – Sunday

Much of today was very busy. We had to get up a little early because we need to leave just after 7 for our 8 a.m. sacrament meeting in T1.  Sunday morning is a wonderful time to travel in Jakarta. There is almost no traffic and the trip that takes from 1 to 2 hours on Thursday took about 30 minutes today.

We went to T1’s fast meeting. Mary was asked to play the piano for the meeting and so we sat on the front row. We still can not understand enough words to know what they are talking about. Especially during testimony meeting – at least not until they reach their testimonies. We did not have anyone even giving us a synopsis for the first meeting. At times this is frustrating but we will keep trying until we can hear and understand. Learning patience may be the most important thing I get out of this mission.

We did not go to a T1 Sunday school class. Mary wanted to work on her lesson and I want to sleep. She had more success than I did. But I had a chance to talk to some of the members and relax some.

The T2 sacrament meeting was better than the 1st because we had elder Rigby to give us some clues about what the people were saying. This does not mean we understood much by ourselves but it did help me pick out some of the words that I probably would have missed. We found out that the outing we are invited to attend on the 17th will leave at 5:30 a.m. This means that we will have to leave our apartment by 4:15 to reach the collection area. Luckily for us it turns out that Sam’s trip does not leave until 7:00 so he can drop us off and still make his. So we do not have to worry about a taxi running us around the countryside to run up the fare.

We went to T2 Gospel Principle class. Elder Smith did a good job but I do not think that teaching is his best attribute. Most of the elders take too much of the time speaking and not enough letting the investigators talk. They should ask more questions, make sure the investigators understand the teaching, bear testimony, tell stories, etc. But of course they tend to stick to the manual and do not bring much from the outside. This is good and bad – it is good if the investigators are involved but if they just sit there and listen it is not very interesting.

There was an investigator in the class that I thought did not know much English but about half way through he asked me for the English version and seemed to know how to read it. After the class we talked some and it turned out he had very good English. He said that he had been investigating many churches and had come to the LDS church before. He also told me that he had done some terrible things in his life. I told him that there was few things that the Lord would not forgive him for doing. I probably should have mentioned that one of those was murdering someone. Anyway it will be interesting to see if he continues to read, study, and come to church.

Mary then went to teach her class and I went to Priesthood. There was very little done in PH – a young man was ordained a Priest. They sustained him in the PH meeting which is not how it is supposed to be done – I will write the president about that – and then talked about Home Teaching. When they got to the lesson they as usual did not try to include the young men so it is completely boring for them. At some time I am going to suggest that they let the missionaries teach the AP while the MP hold their meeting.

After church – Mary ran over. She said she talked too much but the lesson went well – we took the missionaries – Elder Rigby and his companion – to give a lesson to the woman that we went to a couple of weeks ago. Now that Sam knew the way he got us there in half the time. The lesson did not seem very spiritual to me. It was one of those cases where the missionaries do all the talking and the investigator gets too much to absorb. I do not think the spirit was there at all until just as the lesson was over and they asked the investigator to pray. This was the first time she had prayed – at least while we were there – and as she prayed you could hear the emotion in her voice. She choked up and there were tears in her eyes. She excused herself and Mary asked the missionaries to make sure they helped her recognize the spirit that she felt as she prayed. I am not sure they did.

We dropped the missionaries off at the bus station and headed home. On the way there we found out that Sam was supposed to be playing for his ward’s choir practice. He had not known that we were going to with the missionaries. Luckily we got home quickly and I told him to take the car to the church which saved him 20 – 25 minutes of walking. We really do need to find an alternate driver for Sunday so Sam can go to his meetings in his branch.

I forgot to mention that he was up most of the night before. One of his friends was in a motorcycle accident and broke his ankle. Sam went with him to the hospital and watched the operation – he has pictures – and then stayed with him until 2 in the morning. Since to get to our place by 7:00 he had to get up at 5:00 he did not get much sleep. I told him to go out in the car and sleep for part of the meetings. I did not want him to fall asleep while driving us.

The rest of the day was spent catching up some of the journal, cleaning up some of the stacks of papers we have managed to accumulate, and reading from the Kitab Mormon. I continued to study my vocabulary words. I even studied some in the car while we were traveling. I think that is a good thing to do and it helps the time pass.

One thing I have found that by the time I crawl into bed, I am very tired. I usually try to read some Indonesian or study some vocabulary but after only a few minutes I turn off the light and drop off to sleep. It is strange to be so tired when there very little physical effort in our mission. Walking up and down the stairs at church is about all there was today. I guess I am just getting old or something.