29 June 2007

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The before and after pictures from the hare-lip repair project the Church financed. What a difference this will make to this child as he or she grows up.
29 June 2007 – Friday

I did not wake until almost 5 – I was sure it was more like 3 – and so I felt very good. As I ate my breakfast, I continued my reading from the D&C this morning. But first I wrote some comments about some of what I read. The verse that really hit me was D&C 124:15 which was written to Hyrum Smith as he was called to be Patriarch of the Church. The Lord says “For I the Lord, love him because of the integrity of his heart, and because he loveth that which is right before me.” How wonderful it the Lord could say that about me and all of my family. “He loveth that which is right before me.” It reminds me of the passage from the Book of Mormon where the Lord gives Nephi unlimited power to do what he would because the Lord knows he will do nothing that is not right before Him.

We read three pages from the Kitab Mormon. Jesus has finished His sermon at the temple and is about to leave when he notices that the multitude does not want Him to go. He is touched and heals the sick and blesses the little children. He is so touched by the faith of the people that He weeps. No wonder it says that it could not be written. How do you write about something like that. Joseph has the same problem writing about the First Vision…no words can express the feeling. How do you explain the taste of salt to someone who has never tasted salt?

Agus picked us up and we had not problems making it to the chapel. A little later I walked into the classroom and saw the four empty seats sitting there, I got a lump in my throat. It reminded me that there were only four left and that by the end of the day those would be gone.

Mary taught all the morning. I did paper work and cleaned up. I made a number of visits to class and listen to them talk and learn. I did not teach at all. Mary let them out early for lunch – she had run out of things to teach. Jin-young and Anna went to the mall to try and find someplace new to eat but ended back at KFC…which is about all Jin-young has eaten for the month.

Since they came back at 1:30 instead of 2:00, Mary taught them until the Peterson’s came. While she was teaching I got a strange call from the Christensen’s in Hong Kong telling me that a branch president would be calling me about a problem he had. Later he called and the short of it is that there is a couple in Hong Kong that wants to come to Indonesia, they have no money and no skills and he wanted to know if I could find them a job – and to top it off the young man in not LDS and does not speak Indoneisan.. I told him straight out the chances of finding them jobs were very slim and even if we could it would not be enough to live on. Lucky for us it really is a problem for the English Branch president because the only language they seem to share is English.

The traffic was terrible and Agus showed up an hour late and Lukito almost two hours late. We started our meeting with Agus and had covered most of it when it was time for the English class to end. We went in and gave them a last minute pep-talked and said goodbye. It was not as hard as I thought but I think it will catch up with me tomorrow. We then went back and finished our meeting. The students left to go to president Smith’s house for their last activity in Jakarta.

We quickly wrapped up the meeting and we went out to catch a taxi. Since there did not seem to be any coming down our side of the street, we crossed over to the other side. This was the first time we have walked across 6 to 8 lanes of traffic. But the Lord blessed us and there were two nice clear spaces for us to walk across. We had no sooner got there when a taxi pulled up and took us home. It was almost too easy.

Once we were home we settled in to our Friday date night mode. Pizza and a movie. Of course in the middle of the movie the lights went out again. That is at least once a day for the last three days. We have no idea of why and management has not sent anything around to tell us. The movie is one about a young man who is plucked out of obscurity and becomes a professional English football player.

I received a nice letter from Steve Gibson giving me permission to copy his 25 rules book. He and Betty are going to Hawaii to teach at BYUH – I miss joking with him. I will make copies for all the couples to use to help their members. Also during the day we got the Kane’s weekly update. There were ‘after’ pictures of some of the hare-lip children. What an amazing difference. They can now grow up with a more normal life.

We read four pages from the Kitab Mormon – easy stuff but still it is great to read that many. After that it was time to read from the D&C for a short time before turning off the lights.



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