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.

We were talking with Jim when he mentioned that there were comments that I had not moderated so they had not appeared. I want to apologize for that. I forgot that I needed to approve any comments before they are posted. From now on I will make sure I check each time I log on. So please, please make lots of comments – we really look forward to any communication with you.

Today is our P-day – that is it is after noon. So I will try to catch up my June journal and post it here later today.

I am in the office while Mary is teaching our class. I will be joining her after the break. Today marks the start of the second week and I gave them a pep-talk this morning about the need for them to buckle down and really start to apply themselves. That it was a great opportunity for them and it was up to them as to how much they learn.

As I was doing some things this morning, I was prompted to open the Book of Mormon and read the start of 1st. Nephi. I think that we are missing and opportunity by not using the Book of Mormon as our text in teaching. Almost everything can be taught from it – including bad English. The advantage is while they learn English they will also learn more about the Gospel.

I am going to try to use this idea in the next hour.

Hi I am writing this just to let everyone know we are very tired but other than that we are fine. The intensive English Class started on Thursday the 31st at 6:00 p.m. It is going along well. We have 6 students and Sam. One of the students is very bright and I hope she will decide to try to get into BYUH. She has a mind that wants to gain knowledge, she works hard, and does more than asked. There is also a 16 year old Korean sister – she told us she was 18 but forgot to mention that is using the Chinese Lunar calendar – and wants take the TOEFL test and go to BYUH. The rest of them are a mixed bunch. We will know more at the end of the first week.

Hopefully I will find time to write in my journal because there is certainly a lot going on. On Saturday night I spoke to one of the branches about employment opportunities in Indonesia. On Sunday we went to five hours of church and Mary taught a class in Family History. So we are getting plenty of chances to be involved.

On Saturday, Elder Subandriyo – the Area Seventy – talked to the class. He said that he thought their were three keys to being successful in anything in life. First we must be obedient, second we must work hard, and third we must develop a skill. As I have thought about this, I have come to realize it works for just about anything we do. In the Church or in Life. And all of these depend on what we do and not at all about what other do.

Thats it for now –

Love all of you and we need lots more letters from the grandchildren – and more from children of course – with pictures. Speaking of pictures if you are not looking at Olivia’s website you are missing lots of great pictures.
Dad