This is the bell choir from the School of the Blind joyfully playing Beethoven’s ‘Ode to Man.’

 10 May 2007 – Thursday.
There was some kind of trouble with the electrical service this morning. I did not notice it until Mary mentioned that the fountain outside our window had gone off and had not come back on for a while. Also the printer cycled and printed a test sheet – something it does when it comes on. I slept through most of this but while I was showering the lights went off and then came back on a few seconds later. These apartments soak up a lot of electricity – as our bills tell us – and I imagine that it takes a lot of juice to get all the motors started at once.

As we read from Kitab Mormon this morning about Ammon and king Lamoni, I once again wondered about Abish and her story that is never told. I wondered who her father was and what was his vision that so changed his life, Abish’s life and in the Lord’s own way the lives of so many of the Lamanites. How she stayed close to the Lord while living among people who hated the things she believed in. It brings to mind the comment from conference where a young woman when asked what was the hardest thing about being the only LDS student in a school and she answered “Believing that something is right when everyone else thinks it is wrong, and believing something is wrong when everyone else thinks it is right.” Abish must have often felt that way.

And what happens to Abish? After fulfilling her role in the great drama of the conversion of a nation, she disappears from the pages of the Book of Mormon. There is no ‘And she lived happily ever after.’ I have often thought of writing a book that fills in the blanks – that tells about her and her father – maybe her mother dies early in her life and her father raises her. How did she become a servant in King Lamoni’s household. Was she a captive from a raid in the land of Zarahemla? After the Lamanites join the Nephites is she re-united with her father and get married?

After reading we get ready to go to the birthday celebration of the school for blind children that LDS Charities have helped in the past. We had no idea what to expect and so everything was a surprise. It turned out to be a good celebration. All of the students got to participate. The wonderful band – they live for their music – played for all the songs and like most Indonesian celebration there was lots of singing. I think the highlight for me was to hear the band and a group of bell ringers play the main theme from Beethoven’s ‘Ode to man.’ They started out slow and it took me a couple of seconds to realize what they were playing but it was soon evident. They kept picking up the pace of the work until it was rocking along to a steady beat that I am not sure Beethoven would have expected. But I think he would have smiled if he could have heard it.

We were kind of honored guests and the man in charge sat next to me and kept me informed of what was going on. They run the school on about $8000 a month. This is a lot of money in Indonesia but when you consider they help over 35 students with a staff of about 15, with many of the students living there, the cost is really quite low. Much of their money comes from parents who can afford to pay and the rest must come from donations.

After the celebration we headed out to Tangerang to look for some place to eat. We were disappointed in finding that the seafood place that Sam knew about was closed and the mall nearby did not have the advertised food court. In fact the mall was almost empty. I can not see how anyone there will survive the lack of customers. I would guess that it has been open for a couple of years and other than the large market – which had almost no customers – and the KFC, there does not seem to be any substantial businesses. Some people must be losing their shirts each month. But there are many places like this in Jakarta – they think if they build it they will come. Where in America they would first try to sign up some anchor stores before breaking ground. Now maybe this mall thought Food Giant and KFC were enough but obviously they needed more market research before investing what must be millions of dollars.

The district meeting for Tangerang went well. Elder Wight is a very good district leader and I think he will continue to keep things moving in the right direction. As he was doing some role playing situations, I mentioned that it is important to have the spirit even when practicing teaching the gospel. That we are only gospel salesmen unless we bring in the spirit. The mission will have success when the missionaries are able to have the investigators feel and recognize the spirit. I could feel the spirit as I counseled with the missionaries – it is a theme that I keep coming back to again and again. It is something learned while teaching in the MTC.

The missionaries are still not getting any referrals from the members. I think this is another area that really needs to be worked on. Once the members start to become involved with missionary work, the success rate will greatly improve.

The English class went well – unfortunately one of the families did not show up and I missed them. I am happy that they are doing so well in learning the Articles of Faith. They know the first and second one very well. My game where I printed them, cut them into section and then had the children solve the puzzle of putting them back together again was a big hit. The two older boys put them together very quickly because they each took one and quickly exchanged pieces that did not work for them. They still have trouble remembering on, under, etc. – at least the younger ones do – but they are getting better. President Paul’s daughter if a delight to have in class. She is always smiling.

By the time we get home we are of course exhausted. We watch the end of ‘Without a Trace’ and head for bed. It was a good day.