Jin-young, Anna, and Vita – A great group.

14 June 2007 – Thursday

I could not go sleep last night. All I could think of was the English class and the need for finding jobs for our returned missionaries. Also how we can get the YM and YW to understand the great need to learn English and to choose their vocation carefully. After tossing all these ideas around again and again I finally fell asleep.

Once I got to sleep I slept well and woke up feeling fine. Normal morning with the hour of reading Kitab Mormon going as usual. We also had an often interrupted Skype call with Jim and Krisity. Jim pointed out that it may be in our computer and not our connection because we had the same kind of problem at home when we were set apart.

It was probably my best day for the Intensive English Class. As Mary held the opening exercises and started them on their reading test, I got all the things ready for teaching the rest of the morning. One of the things I decided on last night was to divide the class into two sections to see if working with a smaller group allows for more opportunities for each student to participate. So Mary will take Jin-young, Ekjo, and Agus while I take the other four. After I had everything ready, I let Mary relax while I watched the test takers. I was happily surprised when a number of them actually finished all 50 questions before time ran out.

After the test and a break we split the class. I worked on vocabulary – reviewing what they did yesterday – pronunciation and the use of do and does. I created a list of simple questions that they had to fill in with the correct form and then I had them verbally answer the questions. The time went by quickly and I think everyone enjoyed it. Vita got all the vocabulary definitions correct the first time through. She just absorbs information like a sponge – she thrives on learning.

Since it was P-day we were done by noon. We closed everything off and while most of the students returned to their rooms, we took Jin-young and Anna (a most unusual pair) to the mall and we went to the mission office to pick up mail, eat lunch and for me to talk to some of the people.

I talked to brother Tandiman about how we might get the young people to understand how important it is for them to study hard, learn all the English they possibly can, choose their careers wisely, and to go to the right schools for their careers. He is coming around to the idea and after I mentioned it should be taught in Seminary he found out that there actually were 2 lessons on it in the manual – they just have not been using them. Later when talking to Elder Subandriyo he said he wanted me to speak to the PH leadership in the Jakarta Zone about the need for knowing English in Indonesia today. We also talked a little about having the new mission president push learning English harder to the missionaries. I really think this is one area that needs a lot of work and will lead to great rewards.

Sam lunch for himself and me from BYU – Mary brought a tuna sandwich. My lunch was great – rice, tempe (spicy soybeans), green beans and spicy potatoes. When I was done eating, I realized that my mouth was not burning – I think I may be getting use to the spicy foods. But I do not think I am ready for Padang. Maybe after we have been here a year.  After lunch we went to SoGo to buy groceries and of course Bread Talk. Anna and Jin-young met us there so we could bring them back home.

Anna said something that thrilled me. She said that she is not sure if she is speaking Indonesian or English. How great is that. Vita has said that she is dreaming in English – I told them all early on that it would happen. Now if we can just continue to build on this, they will leave class with a great basis for more growth in English.

The rest of the day and night was spent eating, napping, and cleaning up paperwork. Also writing in this journal and watching some TV. Mary worked on correcting the tests they took this morning. We are really excited because most people moved up. The only one who went down is the young man who is not putting much effort into the class. He actually did worse this week than last. I will talk to him tomorrow and see if I can get him to put his nose to the grindstone for the next 10 days that he will be here. Then came Kitab Mormon – we struggled through just two pages, some TV and bed.

13 June 2007 – Wednesday

I slept very well and did not wake until almost 5:30. Regular morning with 2 ½ pages read from Kitab Mormon. I wrote in this journal, washed the dishes and changed the water. By then it was time to go to the office. As I was finishing up yesterday’s journal, the weight of the many things that needs to be done here as far as education and employment are concerned came upon me. I must remember Elder Subrandriyo’s caution that we can only do what we can do – we can not solve all the problems, we can not feed all the poor, we can not change the world in a day. But we must do what we can do and not just part of what we can do.

We read from Kitab Mormon. We would have liked to have finished the book before the Jensen’s leave but it does not look like that is likely to happen. But as soon as we have finished we will start again and hopefully this time we will get through in less than 6 months. I would like to read it at least 3 more times before we are released. I believe reading the Kitab Mormon is a good way to learn the language but until we start speaking it at home and with Sam we will not be able to communicate with other people.

Sam and I got Mary started with the class and then we headed off to Carrefore to have some print cartridges refilled – we are going through them like mad – and to pick up some office supplies. I decided to try another company for re-fills – I am not happy with the quality of those we have been getting and I want to see if another company does a better job. I also bought one brand new HP cartridge to see how it works.

While we were waiting for them to be filled, we paid the apartment phone bill – actually Sam sat and waited to be helped while I went to the ATM to get some cash. Then we bought some bakery goodies for the class treat and finally got the refills. We are spending a good deal of money on this class – some of our own and some of the Lords. Hopefully it will be a very good investment that will pay off in the future.

By the time we got back the morning class was over and so Mary and I ate lunch while waiting for the afternoon class to start. Mary used the time wisely – she took a nap on the couch in the foyer. I talked to a couple of the students about their future and what they wanted to do.

The Petersons were a little late and I made them later by talking to them. They are supposed to go to Medan on Friday to be part of a closing on a wheelchair program but it seems the chairs have not cleared customs so they may not go. If they do not go they will be able to teach on Friday. If they do go we will teach.

Once they get settled in, we have Sam drive us home. He then went back so he could take them all to the Guttormsen’s for their evening lesson. Later in the evening I received a call from the new English Branch president – Rick Smith – asking if they could come over on tomorrow night and have dinner at his home. I thought it was a great idea – especially since I would like the president to arrange for FHE somewhere in the branch for the next two Mondays.

I believe that this inter-action with the English branch is one of the better ideas that Lord put into my mind. Not only did we get some excellent teachers, but we also are letting the ex-pats see the quality of the students and I believe in the future we will get even more help. I would like to see a couple from the branch called to be in charge of the class in the future. I am sure there is a teacher in there somewhere who could do a better job at this than we are. However I am not going to suggest this until we have at least two classes under our belts.

The next class will be much more structured with a pre-planned schedule laid out as to what gets taught when and by who. I want to build a foundation and then go from there as needed. I feel we a little unorganized this time. But the Lord is blessing us in our weakness and I trust that the last 2 weeks will see a great change in the students.

12 June 2007 – Tuesday

It was a good day at the class. Mary and I taught the morning and afternoon classes. I did much better today than before. I kept it simple and was better prepared. We worked on sentence structure, reading, and ‘ed’ endings. I spent some time just talking to Agus and Eko about what they wanted to do with their lives. The problem is always money and jobs. Agus is saving up to take his family to the temple – that is what he wants to do before he starts his own business. Eko has no idea what he really wants to do.

During the day one of our clients came back in for help. He wanted to apply to Sun Valley – I told him we still could not do that until July 1 and that he should call brother Suanto. Then later in the day a sister came in all the way from Bakasi. She has a D-3 in hotel management from a school that does not seem to do much for their students. Add to that she does not want to leave the Jakarta area and her chances are very slim indeed. Oh and she wants to apply for Sun Valley. I told her that if she sent me her CV that I would recommend her to Marriott. I also told her I would give her brother Suanto’s number – he works at Sun Valley during the winter – so she could get in contact with him. She then mentioned that her brother was also looking for work.

Sam had been helping me and he mentioned brother Johnson – the inactive man who likes to hire LDS people – might be needing someone. I had Sam call and it turned out that he needed three women and one man to work in his stations. I told the sister to have her brother give him a call.

It is strange that just this morning I was thinking of the time we have wasted in the office and that we had never had two people in the same week. So today we get two in the same day. Maybe the Lord is trying to tell us something. We need to do something for the returned missionaries.

But it is very important that we do something about making sure young people do not spend their time and money getting an education that will not lead to a good and secure job. This must start when they are in jr. high or highschool. I guess that after we get through with the Intensive English class I will see if we can work with CES to insure that the youth of the church understand this idea.

The task is so large that it becomes depressing if I try to think about all of the problems at once. The only thing we can do is to try to solve one of them or at least a part of one. Others before us have broken the ground and now we need to plant some seeds and after us there will be those who care for the young plants and sometime in the future there will be a great harvest. We only fail if we do not do our best to fulfil our part in the great plan of the Lord.

Brother Moore came a little late for his class so Mary got it started. Then we had Sam drive us home and I gave him the money to take a motorcycle taxi back to the church. We spent the evening reading our second hour of Kitab Mormon – it would be better to say we read two pages from the Kitab Mormon before we both decided that was enough.

Since this class started, by the time we get home, we both have been pretty brain dead. About all our minds can absorb is something not too stimulating on TV. It is rather like we mark time until we head for bed. Any real studying or planning we do is best done in the morning while our minds are still awake.

11 June 2007 – Monday –

I slept well but was still tired when I got up. It has been a rather busy morning. We received an e-mail from Cindy and she is blogging so we got to see a picture of Tyler and found out that they had weeded our yard on Saturday. We also talked to Bob and Tom for a short time – the static is still terrible with Skype. It must be because of the poor bandwidth here. So we had a good morning. We read 2 ½ pages from the Kitab Mormon and are now getting ready to head off to the office and our class. We are teaching all the classes today and having them over for Family Home Evening – we are going to be tired by the time they leave. But it should be a good feeling tiredness.

Mary did most of the teaching in the morning and then we gave them an hour for lunch so we could finish the afternoon classes early. We need to get home and prepare for FHE. Mary taught the first part of the afternoon class and then Sam took her home.

I finished up the class by playing a game with them. I hid a whiteboard eraser and had them question me to find it. I soon found that their minds do not really grasp the way of asking limiting questions especially not when it comes to space. Also they did not really listen to what the others were saying so they would ask the same question that someone else asked. By the time we were done I am sure all of us were frustrated.

I finished the class at about 4:00 and had Sam take me home. He will bring them all over at 6. At home the young lady was cleaning the house and Mary was working on dinner. I helped a little but not much.

FHE went OK – they liked the food. Spaghetti, potato salad, green salad, and garlic bread. Toni was especially excited about the potato salad because he had it before and it is not really available in Indonesia. (Maybe he can open a potato salad business?  How about baked potato business. How much are potatoes in Indonesia?  How about potatoes with tempe?) There was a on of food left over – at least tons of potato salad (Only Toni was very interested in it), green salad – we needed salad bowls – and penne (But most of the sauce was gone)

After dinner we played a pretty lame pioneer game that took too long to play. Everyone was happy when Vita and Ekjo won.  After they left for their home, we cleaned up and washed a ton of dishes. For Mary it was the fourth load of dishes for the day.

10 June 2007 – Sunday

I forced myself to wake up from a dream – something I should know not to do – at 1:30 and was afraid I would not be able to go back to sleep. Thankfully I did go back to sleep and did not wake again until 5:30. I thought I would remember the dream and why I wanted out, but it seems that it has disappeared from my mind.

We received an e-mail from Agus about the Self-employment Workshop that was held in Solo on Saturday. They had 25 participants for the first day – it will be interesting to see how many return next Saturday for the second session. I imagine he fed 30 – 35 people lunch.

We got busy and read three pages in the Kitab Mormon. We went through three and four verses without looking up words – sometimes that was a mistake because we missed translated some of them. But it is encouraging when we can make it through 3 full pages in one hour.

Sam took us to Jakarta Raya and then headed back to his own sacrament meeting. Hopefully all the students made it to the English Branch meetings. We were among the first to arrive – the majority of the branch arrives in the last 10 minutes. They are not much different than the saints at home. The difference is that some of the Indonesian saints travel an hour or more to get to church and it is amazing that they can plan it so they arrive within that small a window of time.

The sacrament meeting speakers were all the Seminary students and they spoke on Latter-day prophets – the subject of their year. All of them spoke well and seem to have taken time to write their talks. I could understand bits and pieces but if it was not for the fact that the names were familiar I doubt if I would have been able to follow it at all. The words come through but they are not translated rapidly enough in my muddled brain. They have some great young people – hopefully they will all get good educations and come back to strengthen the church.

We attended the Gospel Principles class – the new missionary in the area – Elder Wiedodo has been transferred – taught the class and did a great job. He had the class read most of the lesson but he used the readings as a launching point for comments and class participation. One of the scriptures we read was John 14:21-26 where Christ discusses the blessings to those who keep the commandments. He promises that God will love those who do and that ‘I shall love him, and manifest myself to him.’ I do not remember reading that before or at least when I read it, I was not ready to hear that Christ would manifest Himself to those who kept the commandments. The promise seems to be different from that of having the Holy Ghost testify of Him – but a promise the Christ himself will in some way be manifested. What a great promise. The question comes up is He speaking of while we are on the Earth or after we pass to the other side. Anyway it was a good scripture for me to read today.

Priesthood was chapter 11 in the Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball which is on self-reliance. Brother Leo taught it and did a good job. He would throw out some English from time to time so I could follow along and even participated some. If you have an unpaid balance on your credit card you are charged 3% a month – 36% a year. It makes American Express’s 20% sound cheap.

We took a cab home without any problems. We know the way so if someone tries to take us out of the way we will know – at least Mary would. I am not sure that I could make the trip on my own. We have spent the last 4 hours or so relaxing – I took a nice nap – but after I finish with this entry, I am going to re-read the first four chapters of Helaman to see how much I remember.

09 June 2007 – Saturday

I am not a good English teacher – but I need to be one so it is time to put the nose to the grindstone and the knees to the floor. I need to make English interesting and fun at the same time. Not to make it a game but to make it exciting. The young people deserve to have a chance to do well – to learn and to feel good about themselves.

Today Mary taught almost all the classes – she is a natural teacher and the students love her. I spent my time printing lots of lessons, writing e-mails, and talking to one of the Selatan sisters about becoming a teacher in Indonesia. The sister I talked to took a four year university course to teach and she makes 70,000R a month – that is about $78 – because she has not passed the test to teach in a state run school. When she passes that test she will make $220 a month – which is a good wage for Indonesia. The other advantage of being a school teacher is that you can work until 60 – most women are laid off before they are 40. I have a lot to learn about job opportunities in Indonesia.

We received an e-mail from a sister who’s son is here on a mission. Although we have met him a couple of times he does not serve in this area so we do not really know him. So I forwarded her letter to the Bennetts who are serving with him in Semarang. I suggested that they might be able to tell her more about how he is doing. She found out about us after I registered at the Indonesian Mission website. http://www.kepurina.org.

It turned out to be a short day for us because the students left early to go over to Judi and Joel’s apartment for a special evening. I should have used the extra time to prepare for Monday’s class but I never got to that. I did read from Asa-Asa Injil – Gospel Principles – and was surprised at how much I could read without looking up any words. My guess is Mary could read 95% of the lesson on the Sacrament – I can read about 80% or more. The frustrating thing is to come across a word I should know but can not remember. We also read from the Kitab Mormon. Our output continues to run from 2 ½ to 3 pages per hour.

I am in the last 100 pages of Stephenson’s book ‘The System of the World.’ It has been a great read – maybe too good since I find myself wanting to read it instead of studying Indonesian or doing other missionary work. As D&C 1 points out we each have our own ‘gods’ that we chase after instead of doing all we can for the Kingdom. However I have managed to stretch out the reading of the book to over a month. My next big temptation will be the last Harry Potter book.

The scriptures say that the Lord gives us weaknesses so we can grow. With all my weaknesses, I should have the potential to be spiritually 6’6″.

07 June 2007 – Thursday

I woke at 3:30 and could not really go back to sleep – or so it seemed to me. So I was surprised that the next time I looked it was after 5:00. I guess I was dreaming about being awake and worrying about adjectives. Strange!

We had our usual morning activities including reading from Kitab Mormon. I need to read out loud more – I just can not get a flow of words going. I think after the English class is over I am going to have Sam work with me on reading and pronunciation so that I can read and speak clearly.

We got the class started and had them take a reading test before turning the class over to Judi G. for the rest of the time. Mary spent most of her time on getting English lessons ready and I spent most of mine trying to get our reports sent to the Christensens. They are so big that it takes forever to get them through our terrible connection. I am still not sure they got out.

We left the office as soon as we had herded the last of the students out the door. The first stop was the mission office where we picked up mail, ate lunch and talked to Elder Subandriyo about the class. There are three new missionaries in from the states and two Indonesian so they are having a quick MTC to get them all on the right track. Since the president will keep them in the Jakarta area, we should get to meet all of the US missionaries. Sam got us lunch from BYU – they were out of potatoes which is a bummer but I got lots of greenbeans and tempe. The one thing about Indonesian food is your mouth reminds you about what you have eaten for a long time.

We then hit SoGo for our bi-weekly shopping trip. We load up on goodies for ourselves and for a treat for the missionaries before heading for Tangerang. I manage to get some sleep on the way – it is the only way to travel. I mention to Sam that Ed wrote about a 12 hour traffic jam that he had got stuck in. Sam tells me about a one day jam that affected all of Jakarta to a point where people just left their cars and walked home.

We arrive an hour early and then I got a SMS that the elders would be late. Luckily we have keys to Tangerang so we could go in and turn on the air conditioning. We spent the time reading the Church News and studying Indonesian. The elders finally arrived and the rest of the night went on about the same as usual except we once again did not have many people there. If it was not for Agus and Catherin’s family it would not really be worth our trouble.

Since I did not get any students until about 6:30 – I had a chance to tell elders Wight and Smith about my conversion and share some thoughts with them. I gave them by Widow’s Mite story and I think that they will use it in their lives.

By the time we got home we were very tired. Dinner was whatever we decided to snack on. It was another ‘early to bed” day for me.

04 June 2007 – Monday

I think I am mentally numb – I find my sitting down at the computer and not being able to remember what I did yesterday. (I am writing this on Tuesday morning!) I am not sure if that means I am losing my memory or that I did not do anything worth remembering.

We did not read from the Kitab Mormon – one of the few mornings when we could have that we didn’t. It am afraid it is my fault – I can not remember what I thought was so important but when Mary suggested it I said ‘no.’

We had an easy day for English. We only had the morning class. I took the first part and had them first fill out a simple form reporting how well they did speaking only English on Sunday. Most of them seem to be trying to not speak Indonesian but a couple are not making a good effort. I am hoping that by filling out this form each morning it will help them remember and want to report success. I am going to track their progress and see if it relates to how often they manage to speak English instead of Indonesian.

Next I reviewed the Simple Present and Present Progressive tenses and then had them write 10 sentences – 5 using SP and 5 using PP.

Judi comes to teach afternoon class – We take Mary home to wait for cleaning lady – Sam and I go to Mission Home and the traffic is so bad that we do not go to SoGo. It takes a long time to get back to the apartment. We can have a second key to the church for Sam.

Take nap, get Pizza, read Kitab Mormon, Mary cleans up paper work, I write letter to president Jensen – register for Indonesian Missionary site.

1 June 2007 – Friday

I am really mixed up. I could swear that today is Saturday and not Friday. But that is because all day yesterday I thought it was Friday. I did not sleep well – or maybe it would be better to say I did not sleep long enough. I woke just after 4 and there was no way I could go back to sleep. Mary had the same problem.

Since we need to be at the chapel earlier than usual we have to hurry to get ready so we can get our hour of reading the Kitab Mormon in. When we get to the church we find our last student has made it in – he looks very tired. He is the driver for one of the senior couples and only found out he was coming yesterday.

The students all arrive on time and say they slept OK – they do have some complaints but not many. We get right into class. We hear a couple of reports on the homework we gave them last night, we talk a little about why it is so important that they only speak English, and have them interview their partner so they can introduce them later in the day.

Then they take a full, but out dated, TOEFL test – it is about 3 hours long. Mary and I took turns sitting in the room so we could tell them when to start and stop each section. While Mary watched I tried to get on line so I could check our corporate mail. Unfortunately it just was not cooperating. I think I am going to change back to a phone service – this wireless is useless. So yesterday we had no electricity and today we have no internet. The joys of being in Indonesia.

By the time they had finished the test they were fried so it was a good thing that they had a couple of hours to relax before the next class period started. Since we were going to be away until evening – we needed to do some shopping and try to take a short nap – we left the key to the building with one of them and Sam took us to the mission office so we could give the Peterson’s the things they needed to conduct the afternoon class. Mainly they scored the tests and went over why the answer was what it was. While we were doing this Sam got us some lunch – we had left ours back at the office.

From there we went to SoGo to get some things we needed for ourselves and so Mary could cook dinner for the class on Sunday. When I woke up this morning I got the inspiration that we should have them all over to our apartment on Sunday night. We will feed them and then watch some of the conference talks. They will take notes and we will ask some questions about each talk. I think two talks will be plenty. Then Sam will take them back home with some homework.

It was a good thing that we had a chance to come home and relax for an hour or so before heading back to the church. We both were both very tired and I think slightly stressed. We fully realized that we did not have a solid plan about what we are going to do tomorrow – or for that matter the next class period. We are running on a wing and a prayer – lots of the latter.

We got back before the Peterson’s were through so we could hear something about what they taught and to thank them for their help. They will teach a couple of classes a week – we just need to figure out what to tell them to teach.

There was an hour dinner break but most of the students did not go and get anything. So we got to talk to them. I believe that before this class is over we will know them quite well and hopefully we can stay in touch long after the class is completed. Agus – the Bennett’s driver – is away from his wife and young daughter for a full month. Ekjo (Echo) – the recently released missionary – is a fine young man who has a degree in veterinarian medicine but does not want to pursue that career. I need to talk to him about why he has changed his mind. Toni is the hard one to figure out – I hope that I get to know him before the class is over. Jin-young turns out to be only 16 and not 18 – well that is she is 16 in our years but 18 in Chinese lunar years. I would not have allowed her in if I had known she was only 16. She has difficulty understanding written and spoken English in a classroom setting. I have no idea how much she can learn in this class. Anna has an old mind – I am afraid she has her mind and spirit set on the world. Hopefully we can bring give her a spiritual lift as well as teach her English. (I am writing this aside on the 13th to say that I was wrong about Anna. She has a good spirit and is really trying.) The jewel of the class is Vita – I think she is worth all the effort we are putting in. She has a wonderful spirit, a keen mind, and a great desire to learn English. She is the kind that this class was made for – I hope we can teach her enough that she can get into BYU Hawaii.