SoGo Mall and Bread Talk – I would have taken more pictures of Bread Talk but a nice lady came up and told me that it was not allowed. I guess they do not want to have people duplicate their store.
A real P-Day – that is we got our shopping done and then came home and did very little.

In the morning we read from the Kitab Mormon and then Mary took a nap while I worked on the blog. I still have not managed to get the pictures exactly correct but I am getting closer. I think I may have figured out how to get things where I want them.

About 10 we left to go to Sogo and our weekly shopping – including a stop at BreadTalk. It turned out to be a longer trip than we had planned. The reason for this was not a traffic jam but the fact that they had not baked any baguettes and I really wanted some. They told me it would be an hour so we went up and walked through the mall to the English bookstore. There Mary and I did a lot of looking before walking out with $30 worth of books. They are very expensive and we were lucky that there were three books on the 50% off shelves that we could buy.

After an hour we went back down to get the bread and I found they had not put it in – I do not think they thought I would stick around. I looked very disappointed and so they started putting some in and said it would be done in 30 minutes. We went over to their food court which offers traditional foods and got some fried corn scones and water. Mary and I sat and read while Sam played with his phone. The scones were so good we got seconds. Total cost for lunch $3.50.

I had to go back twice to get the bread – it was not quite done the first time. But it did not matter because we were enjoying reading. Finally I got my bread – they took it right out of the oven for me – and we headed home.

At home I wrote our weekly report to the president – a little too detailed I think – and then I took a nap. Mary was already asleep. I woke up in time to help clean up the apartment before the cleaning lady came.

I spent part of the evening working on my language. We did an hour more on Kitab Mormon – moving right along. Mary read one of the novels we bought – it almost seemed like we were at home. I can not throw stones – it took all my will power not to just sit and read from the book I bought. It is 855 pages and I am going to limit myself to 20 pages a day or I will not get anything done.

I listened to part of one of the conference talks in Indonesian while reading the text. As I listened I realized one of the problems we have in hearing words and that is that they often shorten the word by not pronouncing all the syllables. Therefore we do not hear what we expect to hear. I need to spend more time listening and trying to speak the language. PMG points out that we should use the language as much as we can – this is something we do not do. Until we do, I am afraid we will never get beyond being able to read well.

Today we were reading in Alma where Ammon speaks of his ‘boasting’ of the Lord. How true that is. The longer we are out the more I realize that if we are going to achieve what He sent us here to do we must work hard and trust in Him to provide the way for us to succeed. It brings to mind the section in Paul Dunn’s book ‘The 10 most wanted men’ that talks about ‘The Man Who Works With God.’ How it is the combination of God and man that gets things done in the world. Ammon reminds his brothers that when they set out on their journey to teach the Gospel to the Lamanites their friends mocked them and told them they were crazy. He recounts all the suffering they went through but how they always trusted in the Lord and he protected and comforted them. Finally he recounts their successes and then gives all the glory to God.