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.