Daily Archives: June 28, 2007

28 June 2007

van-dongens.JPGscooter_640x480.JPG

The Van Dongans went home today. They are a wonderful couple who completely changes a branch in the time they were here. They doubled the sacrament meeting attendance by going out and bringing in the less active. They created a branch choir that included almost every member of the branch. They beautified the chapel grounds and taught the members to have pride in them. Yet at one time they sent a letter to the president saying that they did not think they were doing any good in the branch and their mission.  The other picture is the Indonesian version of a stretch limo…this is the only one I have seen here.
28 June 2007 – Thursday

P-Day – or something like it. I woke fairly early and studied Indonesian for about an hour. There is just so much to learn – hopefully whatever years I have left will be used in learning more. I just wish I had spent more time studying the Gospel when I was younger. Of course teaching Gospel Doctrine for 20 years or so caused me to do a lot of reading and some pondering, but here I feel I am getting into the scriptures in a different way.

We read from the Kitab Mormon before heading off to the church. It had been raining all morning and so we got to go through some really big stretches of water. This of course slows everything down – something that is hardly needed in Jakarta. Because of the rain I had Agus drop us off and then go pick up the rest of the students. Even then they were late because Anna slept in and had not showered.

We had some really good classes today. Mary had them doing work from the black book and I had them work on vocabulary. As usual Vita was way ahead of everyone else. She is the only one who gets through all the exercises and at most she misses two words. Agus is doing better. Jin-young does not do well at first but she must study at night or in the morning because she seems to remember many of the earlier words.

The time went by quickly – of course there was only about 3 hours of class because it is their P-day. After the last exercise, I gave Vita a big hug – not really allowed by mission rules but I decided that with Mary and the rest of the class there it was OK – and said goodbye. Hopefully we will see her again and she will decide to continue her education. We decided to ask her to take the Michigan test so we can see how she does after her training. It will give us some idea as to what we need to teach. It turns out that Anna took the Michigan test a couple of times but never scored above 540. It will be interesting to see how Vita does. We sent her home with a stack of vocabulary exercises – she will probably have them done before the train gets back to Yoja.

We locked up the church and Agus, Anna, and the two of us headed off to SoGo for some shopping. The traffic was terrible – the rain and lots of cars makes for a big mess. It took us an hour to make a trip that usually takes 20 – 25 minutes. But we had a good chance to talk to Agus and Anna along the way. They told us that Jin-young’s mother wanted her to quit – in fact she went home at one point to take a shower and have some food. But Jin-young said that she wanted to stick it out. According to the other students her mother did a lot of crying because of the conditions she was living. But I think Jin-young has learned something more than just English. She has become close friends with some Indonesians and sees how some of them live.

We finally made it to SoGo and quickly got our shopping done. Mary found beef stroganof mix and quickly bought every package they had. We have found that some things you just buy when you can and put it away until you need it because when you need it, it will not be available. We of course also filled up with BreadTalk.

The drive home was a little longer than usual but it was certainly faster than it was going. Agus dropped us off and then took Anna home. Later he is going to take Vita to the train station and Eko to buy his ticket home. The rest of them will be going home either Saturday or Sunday. It will be rather sad to come on Tuesday and not have any class to teach. Hopefully Jin-young will take us up on coming in for one-on-one tutoring.

We got home in time to put away the groceries and clean up the apartment before the cleaning lady came. We both ended up taking naps while she was here. She is so quiet that we never even know she is here. If she did not knock to get in and ask for her pay when she goes, she could be a ghost.

We read the Kitab Mormon for another hour – 3 pages this time. Then we had some tomato soup and fresh bread for dinner. I mentioned to Mary that we were eating an American brand of tomato soup, that is made in Malaysia, in an apartment in Jakarta. And I must say that if the can did not say where it was made, I would not have known it was not from the US.

After dinner Mary is doing cross-stitching while I catch up this journal. We could not find anything to watch on TV – at least nothing I wanted to watch. Mary ended up watching something called ‘Racing Stripes’ – and talking animal movie.

We got a nice letter from President Gordon Creer to give us his new e-mail address. He is about to leave for Northern Ireland for three years. He and Janice will do a wonderful job there. Maybe we will join them after we have some time at home. If we wait 6 months to go again, We would be released about the same time. I wrote him back and wished him well.

I had written to President Smith of the English branch about the possibilities of getting contacts at the US embassy. Later I got a letter from brother Miller – one of his counselors suggesting preparing a form that ex-pats could fill out that would give resources and other information about their companies and who to contact. I would like to meet with the HR directors from the different companies and see what kind of workers they are looking for.

We also got an e-mail from Cindy saying they all got home safely and that they had a good time in Washington and the librarians convention.

That about wraps up the day. The power just went off and then came back on. This has become a regular problem here. The management has not sent any information of about why. Anyway I am going to bed and read from the D&C before turning off the lights.



27 June 2007

baptist-sign_640x480.jpg

Everyone should get a kick from this one. Even the Baptists know the Book of Mormon is true. Actually I was an ‘inactive’ Baptist when I took the lessons 50 years ago.
27 June 2007 – Wednesday

Not much to write about today. We did not get going this morning so we did not read from the Kitab Mormon before Agus picked us up to go to the church. This was our first day with a reduced class. Mary taught most of the time – infact I only taught for a few minutes. However I was not just sitting around. I spent most of my time developing vocabulary word exercises. I also looked for work opportunities for Eko – he does not seem too excited about getting a job in his field. He acts like there are no jobs but it seems that there are if you have enough experience.

I think all of the students are ready for this to end. I mean they are getting trunky. Not that they are not trying but it is not the same as it was a week ago. Vita continues to shine, but she is even not as excited to do too much.

When the afternoon class ended, Agus drove us home and then took the class to Joel’s for their last night of fun. Vita will go home tomorrow, and the rest will go home sometime Saturday or Sunday – we will have a little problem with where they will sleep on Saturday and Sunday night.

We did not read from the Kitab Mormon at all today. This was the first time that has happened in months. We will need to read a lot on Thursday to make up. I did read a few sections of the D&C. I am up to the dedication of the Kirtland temple.



26 June 2007

i-did-do-some-teaching.JPGgraduation-night.JPG

This is just to show that I did some of the teaching.  Vita our prize student and the certificate Mary made for the students
26 June 2007 – Tuesday

I woke much too early today – I can not keep from thinking about the English class and other things. Even some thoughts about home crept in – something that I try to avoid. I just have to leave it up to those who are there to take care of things and trust that the Lord will guide them to do that which is right.

We read from the Kitab Mormon this morning. Continuing in 3 Nephi. We were surprised at how hard it was to translate the Sermon on the Mount section – we thought it would be easy but it was not. Some mornings it seems that we have not made any progress in learning the language. I know I could be doing more.

It was a busy day for us. We had morning and afternoon classes. Mary taught most of the time but I came in for vocabulary hour. The next time we do this we will start vocabulary on the first day and it will continue for everyday thereafter.

At about 3:30 we left for the mission office to have dinner and say goodbye to the Jensens and the Van Dongans. We got there early enough that I had some time to talk to Elder Subandriyo about the class. I asked him if he could remember why he told me the story about the senior missionary teaching the young man to pass the Michigan test. He not only could not tell me why, he could not even remember telling me the story. Isn’t it interesting how often the Lord works that way. It reminded me of how we ‘accidently’ got called to be full time at the TRC. Or how we even ended up here in Jakarta at all – president Jensen changed his mind at least twice as to where we should serve.

We had a short talk with the president Jensen. He asked about the English program and about the students. I had written him that one of the students did not seem to be working at it very hard. When we told him who, he was not surprised. He said that he had been that way while on his mission. Up and down in his effectiveness. He gave us some guidance about what we could do in working with the branches to strengthen them. We are determined not to spend so much time in the office.

We had a good meal of Mexican food with lots of good discussion. There were a husband and wife who were NGOs from Bogor. They came with the Kanes but knew the Jensens. Also the Petersons, the Van Dongans, and us. After the meal we sat and talked for a short time and then Sister Peterson gave the Jensen’s a nice book of rememberance that included pictures and statements from all of the couples who are presently serving. They in return gave us all a photo and a nice letter that basically said goodbye.

We had to leave early so we could get to our graduation ceremony. The Van Dongans hitched a ride with us and that was good because they were 2 or only 4 outsiders who were there. Mary conducted, each of the students gave a short talk, I gave a short talk, we handed out the certificates and then ate. Sister Park – she and her husband were the other guests – fixed food for them. Sam was in 7th heaven because she fixed her great sushi.

After eating Sam took us home and then the Van Dongans to the Harris Hotel before going back and making sure everything was cleaned up and locked up. We will miss him for the next three days, but we do have Agus to drive us.

By the time we got home we were beat, so we watched an hour of TV and headed off to bed. It was a good day with a number of very spiritual moments.

I forgot to mention we had a little scare today. While I was teaching, Mary started to feel very tired so she went and laid down on the couch in the foyer. As she was on the couch she got a terrible cramp in her stomach and thought at first she had food poisoning. However it went away and she was fine the rest of the day. When the president heard this he said that he had some stomach problems over the last few days. I told him that hopefully he would not be taking a serious illness home with him.