The dignitaries and the judges at the reading contest – A traditional dancer.
30 May 2007 – Wednesday

We spent the day judging a newspaper reading contest at a Muslim highschool. Our friends Agus and Catherin teach English there and they had been asked to judge but they felt having a couple of Bulais to do it instead would be good. They also recruited an Indonesian sister – who’s name I will have to fill in later – to be the third judge. Her husband and her had served as mission president here, they had lived in Hawaii for 6 years, and she teaches and tutors students to pass the TOEFL test. She has also judge this type of contest before.

This is really a big deal in Indonesia. There were 9 or 10 schools represented for a total of 23 readers. They each had 5 minutes to read an recent article from the Jakarta Post. They were given their choice of 5 articles to read. They were supposed to be TV news anchors. When I realized that this was going to take 2 hours of listening I was not really excited, but surprisingly it went quite fast and if we could have shut down the music it would have been even more enjoyable than it was. We judge them on performance and fluency – how they presented themselves and how they read.

I thought this would be very difficult but once we had heard 2 of them we had a pretty good idea as to what we were going to hear and see. The quality varied greatly but as I later told the participants they were all winners just for taking part. Choosing the winners turned out to be easy because we added up the three judges score. While we each used different scale of numbers, we came very close to agreeing on who were the best. The young lady who won was first on mine and the other sister’s list and Mary gave her 2nd place. We had her first place as our 2nd place.

After they had all read we went back to the office and Agus and Catherin totaled the scores while the judges talked about what points I – I was the chief judge over the nation of judges (we are in that period in the Kitab Mormon) – would mention to the group before announcing the winners. The main one was to read slower, learn to break the sentences into more interesting segments but to be sure to at least pause for punctuation. Also that wanted was not want – ted.

When we came back out to the performance area, some students were putting on a traditional Indonesian dance. This one told the story of a dispute between some rich men and some poor men over the affections of some women. Unfortunately we did not get back in time to see the first part but what we saw was very good. The students had great fun and the story ends with the chief – who was disguised as a maiden – reveals his true identity and makes the two sides make up. I got some of it on video but only a small portion.

I got to speak to the contestants and then stand on the stage and announce the winners. We thought there were only 3 winners but it turned out there were actually 4 prizes given. So after giving out the 3rd and 2nd place trophies I had to go back and give out the 4th place. The trophies were very big and gaudy but very light – they are plastic. The first three winners not only got trophies but also digital cameras – donated by someone I met but do not have any idea of what or who they were. The winner also gets a four foot trophy for their school.  I am in many, many pictures with the winners – maybe I will see myself in the paper.

They treated us as very special guests. Thanking us a half dozen times – and with me thanking them for the honor of being judges. When we left they gave us lunch and some beautiful fruit baskets.  We did not eat the food because Agus and Catherin insisted on taking us out for lunch. Of course this meant we had to drive back to Tangerang – we were in the car for a total of 4 ½ hours toda – to their area. We had a very nice and delicious lunch at a place in the mall. It was not expensive but the food was very good and just enough to fill me up.

We left the apartment at 7:30 a.m. and arrived home at 6:00 p.m. Strangely enough I was tired but not as exhausted as I was on Monday. We watched a little T.V., read from the Kitab Mormon, and then I read from the D&C before turning off the light on a very different but good day. The only down side was that we did not do anything about getting ready for the class that will start tomorrow night.

The Indonesia, Barat (West) Zone (Minus the Kanes) May 29, 2007 – The Twin Towers from our balcony. – The Van Dongens – they are a great couple who have completely changed a branch during their mission. They go home on June 24 – they will certainly be missed.
29 May 2007 – Tuesday

It seems that our days are getting busier and I do not see this ending anytime soon. Today was Zone Conference – the last one in the Jakarta zone for the president and sister Jensen. I must say that they do not seem trunky at all – they must of course be thinking about the date only a month away when they will leave Indonesia and head home to Arizona but they do not sound or act any different.

The time they spend on statistics seems almost a waste to me but I guess it is something the young missionaries need to see. They see how the zone is doing against itself and then how the zone is doing against the rest of the mission. Some of the trend lines do not mean much since there are such small numbers that when you have a family baptized the line goes way up and then for the next three weeks there are none in the zone so it goes flat line – I think a bar graph by the month comparing it with the same period over the last 3 years might be better.

The theme of the conference was ‘Patience’ – this is important because often the elders and sisters become discouraged about the lack of success here. In PMG it says that if we are doing our best and are impatient that it shows a lack of faith in God. We need to remember that God’s time is the important one. One sister told about the terrible day her and her companion had when three investigators who all were doing well and had set baptism dates all told them not to come back. Soon after that she got a letter from her father telling her that she needed to learn patience – that every person had the right to say no to the gospel plan. Her task was to present it in the best way she could. He said we never know what the future results of her teaching may bring about.

Sister Jensen told the story of their son who could not take tests – he was a good student but froze when faced with a test and a time limit. He decided he wanted to go to law school but when he took the LSAT he did so poorly only a small, very expensive private school would accept him. After he graduated from there he went to work in Las Vegas – it took him 7 tries to pass the Nevada bar.

President Jensen spoke about being patient but diligent in doing the work. That it is how hard we work that the Lord will judge us. Not how we compare with others but how we use our own abilities and talents.

He gave out a list of his 50 favorite scriptural thoughts and went through some of them with us. During this time he told the story of his trip down the Grand Canyon with 5 of his scouts. They were walking along a trail and came around one bend to find two young ladies enjoying a waterfall and pool naked. Four of the young men said ‘Wow’ but the fourth immediately put his hands over his eyes, turned his back, and said “I can not look at that.” The president said that he and his wife were so impressed with this that they named their next son in honor of him. President Jensen did not say what he did. It reminded me of the time I took a canoe trip down the Russian River with a very young Tom and Bob. We came to a section where a nudist colony was swimming in the river. I tried to not look and to keep the boys from looking but the river carried us right through them and I had to make sure we did not run over any so I am afraid I got a very good look at a lot of naked women. I do not imagine Tom and Bob remembers this at all.

After a good lunch and an afternoon session where I threw in a few comments and thoughts about teaching the gospel by the spirit we came back to the apartment to rest for a while before going back to meet with a three couples about helping us with the English class.

We went through what we were attempting to do and got some ideas from them. They are not going to be able to help us with a lot of time but it looks like one of the brothers would be willing to take them most nights as long as we have Sam drive them over and bring them home. I think we might do this 3 or 4 nights a week – we can spend the time preparing for the next day, correcting papers, etc. I do not see it as time off.