The lady is a painting – actually oil pastel – that I bought at the Solo airport. I love the way the whole work comes together. The man is our faithful gardener who is there each morning when we arrive. I keep forgetting his name – what a surprise – but I try to go out and say hello to him so that he knows I know he is there keeping the grounds beautiful. When I took this picture he asked for a copy – it has taken me 3 days but it is now printed and I will give it to him tomorrow. I was thinking if all of us did our calling in the church as diligently as he keeps up the grounds, both the church and ourselves would be much more clean and worthy to be called the Lord’s.
20 June 2007 – Wednesday

I had a good night’s sleep but was still soon tired. I think it is because almost I am not getting enough physical exercise and too much mental. At least that is my excuse for being tired much of the day. We read the Kitab Mormon for about an hour – we had to look up a lot of words today.

On the letter front, we got a nice letter from Keith – he seems to be doing well. That is good for us because this means we have rent coming in for at least the next couple of years. We also got a nice letter from Kelli telling about her trip to a park with her mother and friend. It is great to get letters – we can not get too many.

Mary took most of the class today. I helped get things ready and made lots of copies of things, but she did all the teaching. I am working with a young man who is at the BYUH and is coming home soon. I hope to have a couple of interviews for him by the time he gets here. I have already contacted president Gjarot about getting his resume out to the computer community and today I talked to Joel about him working for Conoco Philips. It helps to have good contacts.

I did take four of the students and worked with them the last hour on today’s vocabulary words. Sam got me lunch and Sister Park also brought food. I mixed hers in with the street food Sam bought and so I had a big lunch. After eating I stretched out over two chairs and took a short nap.

The Petersons came right on time and so once we neaten the office we could head for home. The nap was long enough that I did not need another so the afternoon and evening was spent reading from the Kitab Mormon and the D&C, having dinner, and watching some TV. It is almost as if we were home.

Joel called after the class had left his house and was very excited because he held a vocabulary bee of the words that I had e-mailed him. He said they had a great time and everyone got involved – even after they were eliminated they were right in the game. I was surprised when Jin-young was one of the last two standing. I was not surprised that Vita was the winner. That young lady just sucks up knowledge. I am going to keep increasing her work until she says stop.

Obviously Jin-young is also spending lots of time on her school work. When we went over the vocabulary this morning she was not well prepared – so she must have made her flash cards and studied them. Hopefully others will do the same – it is a shame we did not start this from day one. But then we did not have the book that has all the vocabulary words.

Our version of Kinkos – the woman next to Mary started talking to her and said that she had a Mormon friend. This is how the print shop does it’s trash disposal. Lots of people do this and it just adds to the pollution. Of course having a few thousand buses all needing to be tuned does not help either.
19 June 2007 – Tuesday

It is 9:45 a.m., I am in the office, and I have a headache. Not a good thing since we are teaching both the morning and afternoon classes. I also just messed up some of the printing I am trying to do.

On the positive side, I just read a nice letter from Kristy and sent a reply. It is always great to get something from home. Earlier I looked at a photo display of President Hinckley that McKay forwarded to me.

I jumped right out of bed this morning after a good night’s sleep. I read from Moroni 7 in the Kitab Mormon – it is one of my favorite chapters and so I want to be able to read it in Indonesian. Once I got started it went rather smoothly but there are still many words I must look up. Later we read in 3 Nephi and made it to the day that Christ was born and the great sign that was shown to the Nephites and Lamanites. But even as this sign was being given, it says that Satan was putting into the minds of some that it really was not so – that it was foolish to believe in these things.

Mary is teaching the first part of the morning period – she is a much better teacher and seems to really enjoy the opportunity to teach.  I am making copies of vocabulary words for the rest of the classes. It is strange how slowly some mornings go by and at other times they seem to speed by…today is a slow one.

Last night we had dinner with the Peterson’s to celebrate our anniversary and sister Peterson’s birthday –she says that she is now officially a senior-citizen. We talked about how different our missions have been than we expected – even after we knew what we would be doing here. The Petersons, the Kanes and ourselves are the only Humanitarian and Service missionaries in Indonesia. So we do not have the same experiences as the other senior couples who spend most of their time working with the members, the missionaries and the branches. And of course our calling is the only one that has regular office hours…something we are going to do away with in the near future. Or at least cut them down drastically. (Interesting – drastic is one of the vocabulary words they are learning this week.)

I taught the last hour of the morning class and I made a lot of copies of different things that we plan to use over the next week. While we had a break for lunch I got to feeling poorly and asked Mary to take the afternoon classes. While she did that I did more copying and sent off some e-mail. The afternoon – unlike the morning – went quickly.

It is now after 6 and brother Moore is not here yet. He is usually late but tonight he is even later. Hopefully he will show up soon. If he is not here by 7 we will just call it a night and let them go home and do their homework and get an extra hour of sleep.

Brother Moore made it and so we were able to leave before 6:30. We ordered in dinner from the little restaurant downstairs. They have very good food for a reasonable price. We especially like their chicken steak with mushroom sauce, vegetables and french fries. After dinner we watched Nicolas Cage in ‘Next.’ I thought it was very entertaining and it moved right along. The only part that got me was that the bad guys were able to follow the good guys much too easily. This DVD was part of my anniversary present from Mary.  I ended the day reading from Moroni 7 – I do not do nearly as well alone as I do with Mary but I will keep plugging along.

We work our students until they drop – or until we do!
18 June 2007 – Monday

Our 47th Anniversary – We taught all day – Skype call from Bob – Letters from Shauna and Tom – lots of Father’s Day Greeting. We taught all day – Mary taught and then we split the class. Ate from the street – hot stuff. Mary did some shopping and then went home. I took the afternoon class – the class is covered for FHE and P-Day for the rest of the time. Dinner at the Park with the Peterson’s – it was her birthday as well as our anniversary. We agreed that we will do it again next year in Utah Valley. I got Mary a white gold heart for our anniversary – she got me a pile of DVD movies. After we got home from eating, I fell asleep on the couch. I did not send a letter to the president.

I wrote this note to remind myself of what went on but never got around to filling in details. The one thing I would mention is that my personal study is reading either from the D&C or the Kitab Mormon. As I read in the D&C I feel the spirit of the early Church to know exactly what the Lord wants them to do. To hear from the Prophet God’s words to them personally. What an experience that must have been to lay the foundations of a world-wide church by so few people with so few resources.

Now that we are serving in the true ‘mission field,’ I can better relate to this experience. We are helping to lay a solid foundation for the church in Indonesia. To help strengthen and train future leaders – men and women who will lead stakes, be temple workers, and temple presidents. Who will raise their children to be missionaries and to become general authorities. To bring a nation of hundreds of millions of souls to the truths of the Gospel. What a wonderful blessing it is to serve here where there is so much to be done. When I think of the trust and responsibility that the Lord has given us, I wonder if I am spiritually up for the task.

17 June 2007 – Sunday

Father’s Day in Indonesia. Actually they do not have Father’s Day here but many people know about it. Tomorrow is our 47th anniversary – now if I can just remember for one more day!

I actually slept in and Mary had to wake me up so we could be ready by 7:15. We are going to the two Tangerang branches and the first one starts at 8:00 – we will get home about 2:00. Overnight I received two Father Day cards from the Mitchells and letter from Krista. It was a great way to start the day. Mary said she slept well but still was tired. I think she tossed and turned a lot during the night.  We did not read the Kitab Mormon this morning – it was not even discussed. I think we both were still recovering from yesterday. Hopefully we can stay awake for the meetings at T1 and T2.

I read from the Kitab Mormon while we were driving to church. I am pleased with how much I can read but know I should be able to do better. The meetings went well. We met two new English missionaries – Elder Park from the states and Elder McMillan from Australia. Elder Park gave the opening prayer and sang in Sacrament meeting in T1 – Elder Wight also spoke in T1’s sacrament meeting

Both branches had their Primary sing in Sacrament – we were sitting on the front row for T1 and it was just wonderful to look into those bright faces and share their spirit. In T2 we were further away and the effect was not the same. Sunday School and Priesthood were fine – we had some translation help but it is just not the same as being able to follow ourselves. I look forward to that day when we can fully participate in all the meetings.

I tried to help a brother who has his own little business. He said he does not have enough capital to expand into accessories. I suggested he might look into the PMK program in his area for a small loan to get his initial inventory.

We made good time getting home – I managed to sleep a little. After lunch we took naps. I crashed for over an hour and even Mary got in 45 minutes. I guess we were tired. Later we read for about 75 minutes from the Kitab Mormon before eating hotdogs for dinner. Now I am at the computer and Mary is watching a show on Hallmark called ‘The Reading Room.’

We just had a short visit with Jim via Skype. He said that Olivia suggested that they call but she ran away before we got on…at least she thought of us.

Even with the bandages you can see the difference in the before and after pictures
16 June 2007 – Saturday

It was difficult to get up this morning and it was only because we had to be in early that I finally got up. Then it was a big rush to get everything done so we would have time to read from the Kitab Mormon.

An e-mail from the Kanes up in Bogor told of their experience yesterday:

On Thursday we cancelled our afternoon teaching appointment to be able to be at the military hospital where all of the children and their families came to register for the hare-lip operations. It was a very moving as these sweet children came to a place where they hoped to get help with the terrible blight on their appearance. 57 children registered and 4 others tried to register but they had not gone through their community clinic, so they were not accepted. Most of the children were there to have the hare-lip repair while some of them came to have the cleft palate repairs. The surgeons were limited to 10 cleft palate repairs and 15 kids showed up for that procedure so 5 had to be sent home disappointed. In the evening we taught our English class and attended our Zone meeting.

Friday was a very emotional as we went to the hospital to watch the process of the surgeries being done. It was an amazing thing to be a part of and I was permitted to go into the operating rooms to observe, it will not be soon forgotten. Of the 52 remaining   children, only 35 were deemed healthy enough to undergo the surgery.  The main reason was a low hemoglobin count due to malnourishment, a common problem here. There was also a high incidence of Tuberculosis among the children. The results from their blood tests were not available until Friday morning, after the blood was taken on Thursday afternoon. The staff then had the sad task of notifying the families of  the children could not receive their operation now. The remaining candidates were from 4 months to 14 years old.

The actual process of preparing for surgery was heartbreaking as many of the children fought to resist the needles or from being taken from their parents to enter the operating rooms. Loving parents did all they could to comfort their children while fighting their own tears and emotions. Some little children were unbelievably brave, but few so brave they could avoid breaking down when separated from their parents for the surgery. Sister Kane tried to provide some comfort and relief to both parents and children. She bought many boxes of coloring pencils and books for the children to draw pictures. She made dozens of paper boats and airplanes for the children and bought stickers that the children loved to have placed on their little hands.   It was a hot day, even by Indonesian standards, and her kindness and generosity was able to provide some relief from the heat and the tension.

As the children slowly started to reappear after the surgery, it was difficult to get a really good picture of their little mouths as they all had bandages over their top lip. You could however see the miracle of change, as many of the children that had suffered from grotesque deformities now looked quite normal, despite the bandages.   Most were still asleep under the influence of the anesthetic and looked like little angels with a fake white moustache. It was all very moving. In those cases where cleft palates had been repaired there was not much evidence at all.

The surgery was financed by LDS Charities…it is the kind of life changing projects the Kanes will spend their whole mission doing. It is too bad that other parts of the country does not get the same attention because there are no Humanitarian missionaries serving there.

In the afternoon Mary took the first 45 minutes and then we divide up into two groups. I took the ones who would be giving their talks tomorrow and Mary kept the rest. I had Vita, Toni and Agus go through their talks twice. Once to get the practice and the second time I taped them. Vita and Toni will be fine, I am not sure how Agus will do. He is trying really hard but he is just behind the others. After that I had the three of them do vocabulary and then tenses. Agus just did not get it – I will not put him with this group again. He needs to be with those who are closer to his level so he does not feel bad. I think I will try to spend some personal time with him in the coming week – we will work on his basic needs. Vita and Toni aced everything except some of the tenses. We need to go back and cover them again – if those two do not get it, none of them will.

At the last minute we found that they needed to be at Joel’s at 5:30 instead of the 6:00 we were planning for. So we quickly closed up the class and sent them off. We then closed down the office and went out to catch a cab to head back to the apartment. As we were approaching the curb up came a cab and we hardly had to break stride to get in.

We were beat by the time we got home but it was late enough that we did not take naps. We ordered in pizza – our weekend treat – and watched a movie about Stephen Hawkings that was quite good. After that we read from the Kitab Mormon before heading for bed. It was a busy but satisfying day.

15 June 2007 – Friday

Well two weeks of our Intensive English Class are done and for some of our students the class is over half finished. The next week is crucial in their learning. Hopefully we can inspire them to greater effort and learning. It mainly depends on their desire and the ability to draw on the spirit.

I woke a little early this morning but that was a good thing. As I lay pondering about things, I felt the need to return to studying from the D&C. I have ignored it for over two weeks – this means for two weeks I have been without the blessings that I would have obtained if I had been reading. I hope that all our children and grandchildren are doing better than I have been about reading each day from the scriptures. Not that we do not read the Kitab Mormon but I had been prompted to read the D&C and have failed to do that.

Today I read carefully D&C 18 and 19. What great thoughts are in these two revelations given 10 months apart. In 18 I read about the worth of souls in the sight of God which is of course important to everyone – everyone should surely be ‘a missionary’ at all times – but especially to those of us who are serving missions. But today I also read in verse 8 ‘Marvel not that I have called him unto mine own purpose, which purpose is known in me.’ I thought how when I called people ‘by the spirit’ they could function in callings they did not seem to have any talent for. I also thought of my own callings and especially this one as a missionary. How when I really do my best and seek the Lord in council that he has inspired me to know His purpose and how to achieve it through the spirit and hard work. If we do this, as it says in verse 45 – ‘wherefore the blessings which I give unto you are above all things.’ Great is the worth of souls…including our own.

19 is written to Martin Harris and mainly to sacrifice part of his farm and his life to the work. Sometimes we forget that Martin gave so much to the service of the Lord because he stays in Missouri in 1838 and does not come back to the Church until they are established in Utah. The two things that struck me were in verse 23 – ‘Learn of me…and ye shall have peace in me.’ What a great blessing is promised and verses 36 to 40 hit home this morning. Martin is told to leave his home – returning only when he needed to see his family, speak freely, and pray always so the Lord could ‘pour out my spirit upon you. Like all missionaries he was called to preach the Gospel with all his ‘might, mind and strength.’ And then in 39 he reads ‘Behold! Can’st thou read this without rejoicing?’

I got a letter and a Father’s day card from Brian today. He says that he will not be around on Father’s day so he was sending it early. In the letter he wrote that he had read about the problem with dengue fever and warned us to wear our bugs pray…we haven’t been but they fog for mosquitoes around here. There have been some missionaries who have come down with it – one almost waited too long before going to the hospital.

We read over 2 ½ pages from Kitab Mormon – nothing that inspired me but we are doing pretty well in translating – far from perfect and we still are not remembering words we should but overall I think we are improving.

It has been an interesting morning – it is now 12:40 – at the chapel. After we had opened the office and some of the students came, I had Sam drive me to the mission office to give Lukito – who was picking up the things he needed for the SEW in Solo tomorrow. He will give an English book to Elder and Sister Roberts. As usual the traffic was terrible – especially since we could not use the streets where you must have three in your car.

Hendra asked me where was the old case for the computer and I had to tell him I had no idea. I told him that I had looked everywhere and could not find it. He listened carefully and then said ‘we need it.’ So I will look everywhere one more time but I do not expect to find it.

From there we went to market that has real hotdog buns – they had a total of 4! I think the next time I go I will ask them to get 8 for me. But if we can not find Oscar Myer franks it does not matter. The next time they show up at SoGo we will buy 5 or 6 packages. After we got back I sat at the computer and wrote down some ideas about how to teach the rest of this class and the next one. I want to be much more structured, include more vocabulary, and do more reviewing so the lessons are deeply engraved in the students mind.

The big excitement of the morning was that the girl’s apartment got flooded. A pipe broke – I think Anna helped it break but I can not be sure. However it happened it meant they were not able to come to class until the plumber came and fixed the pipe and they cleaned up the flood. We stopped by their apartment on the way home from the mission home and store so we could give them a ride to the chapel. They ended up being about 90 minutes late.

Sister Mary – not my Mary but the lovely Indonesia sister from Tangerang 2 that was our third judge in the English reading contest – taught this morning. She has some good ideas on teaching and gets everyone involved. I do not think it is the best way to teach all the classes but once a week is perfect. She has a book for learning vocabulary that seems very good and is part of a series that if fully used would allow the students to master some 2000 words. I wrote the publisher an e-mail with the hope that there is someway that I could get a set at a reasonable shipping price. But just now I thought about asking one of the sisters who are in the US to pick up a set and bring them back with them.

I had a nice talk with Vita about how well she is doing. The young lady almost bubbles over with a desire to learn and she had the mind to do it. It told her she needed to continue to learn and then use that knowledge to get an education. She would be a great person to get into the hotel business. The least she should do with it to teach others English…especially her brothers. I am going to make sure that the Roberts and Barnards use her in their classes.

The Peterson’s taught the afternoon class, but we did not leave because Mary thought she was teaching a class at the University. Sam had called Rita and confirmed that there would be one. However when they got there – I stayed at the office and prepared lessons for tomorrow – they found that there was no classes at all. When she told me that I suggested we tell the university that we would come only if they called and told us there would be a class and some students. In some ways I am glad to not to have to worry about that class – it was at an inconvenient time.

Sam then brought us home where I promptly took a two hour nap. After the nap we fixed hamburgers for dinner. They were good but not great because we did not have any Worcestershire  Sauce for seasoning. We also baked some frozen French fries that were OK but not great. At least it was something different for dinner. After dinner we read from Kitab Mormon and then watched ‘Miss Potter’ with Renee Zellweger. It was quite good and informative as it was based on the life of Beatrix Potter, the creator of the Peter Rabbit tales.

I read from the D&C before turning off the light and going instantly to sleep. At least that is how I remember it.

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.