08 May 2007 – Tuesday

I slept OK but not long enough. I seem to be back to waking up between 4 and 4:30 and not really going back to sleep. It makes for a long day and also it makes a nap almost mandatory for me.

We had a busy day – at least up until 4 or so. It was the normal morning except we read earlier than usual. I wish Skype worked better – it becomes annoying when it cuts off or becomes static every few minutes or seconds. But it is great to see or hear the children and grandchildren even for a short time.

The office is becoming busy – well at least people are starting to come in. Today we had our second client in less than a week. Since before this we have not had one, that is an infinite increase. Besides that Agus’ son Egar came in to help us. His father wants him to improve his English. He is typical of those who speak and understand English well enough to function in the US but not well enough to really participate in college classes where there is a need for understanding and communicating with what is going on. I had him start to read an article on golf and found that he had no knowledge of golf and did not know who Tiger Woods was.

Later I had him start calling those who have participated in this year’s career workshops to find out how they are doing and if they had jobs. Hopefully in the future the district and branch specialists will do this – that is the way things are supposed to work and what we are going to try to get working so when we leave, there will be a support and reporting system that works.

I did something to my computer that locked it up so that I could not get in. I took full responsibility but I think that someone has been either using the computer or trying to use the computer when we are gone. I am going to change the passwords regularly so that if one gets out – I do let Sam use our computers from time to time – that it will be useless.

Mary worked on her English and says that she is about ready for Thursday and Friday. The reports did not go as well because we do not have the information we need for the people who got jobs or started a business during the month. I wrote to the Christensens to ask them what to do and they did not get back to us until after we had left the office.

At about noon our client came in and I worked with him. He already was registered on Jobsdb so we just went through and applied for more jobs. I do not think he will have a problem getting a job. He seems very sharp and has already turned down some because they did not pay as much as he is now making. At least he is looking for a job before the old one runs out.

After closing up the office, we had to run back to the apartment to get the equipment so Lukito could give the short Career Workshop to the missionaries who are heading home. We thought we could not be there because we were invited to a special program at the school for the blind that the Leishmans had helped – but it turned out that we were wrong and the event is not until Thursday. We will probably go over to the mission office after our office hours.

The main reason we went to the mission office is so that Hendra can fix my computer problem. This he does in about 5 minutes and thanks me for bringing the computer to him instead of asking him to come to our office. The funny thing is that I never would have thought to ask him to do that. We left the office laptop for Lukito to use tomorrow. Later I realized that I should have also left the rest of the equipment there because he needs to use it for Bekasi. Someday we will get organized.

I said hello to everyone and spent some time with the translators talking about how hard it is to translate from one language to another. I mentioned that as we were reading today in Alma 15:16 – or is it 16-15? Whatever – where the English Book of Mormon starts a thought but does not finish it, the translator of the Kitab Mormon completed the thought. I guess he could not stand to let it just dangle there. It is interesting that in all the many times I have read that verse I had never noticed that it was never completed. But when we are reading it so carefully often new things show up.

Back at the apartment I took a few minutes to enjoy the hot sun shining into the livingroom. I guess the dry season is coming and there will be more and more days when the sky is not covered with clouds or pollution so that I can soak up some rays. I did not do it for long because it was so hot and I read from the Book of Mormon Stories so I was not ‘wasting’ time. However after that I did manage to take a nice long nap.

The Christensen’s called from HK and we talked for a short time. Then, since I knew they were in their office, I sent a Skype call. The connection between HK and us is no better than that between here and the US. I am sure it is because of the slow connection here. It was down to 49 kbps and that is much too slow for a good connection with up and downloading. The chat feature is much better.

I did not do much personal studying today. However I did read from PMG about how the non-English speaking missionaries are encouraged to spend the mornings speaking English. I am sure the president knows this – I did not know it when I suggested this to the missionaries – but does not stress it. I am going to point out in the district meetings that if we are going to ‘obey exactly’ then perhaps they should start doing this. The brethern obviously know how important English can be to the non-English missionaries and that is why they encourage them to learn the language so they can be more useful in the Kingdom but also because it may help them throughout their lives.