Another of the beautiful floral displays we get to see each morning in our lobby – taken this morning. This picture shows that I actually did some teaching for the English class.
2 July 2007 – Senin
Today is a big day for the Jakarta, Indonesia mission. President and sister Marchant will be arriving in about 5 hours to take over from the Jensens. Sister Jensen mentioned that they would be sleeping in the guest room tonight while the Marchants slept in ‘their’ – that is the Jensen’s – bed.
I woke myself up at about 2 a.m. to escape from some dream I was having. I really need to stop doing that. When I found that I was not going to go back to sleep I studied Indonesian by reading from President Hinckley’s talk. (As I was writing this I realized I had written President Kimball in my entry for yesterday and so I quickly edited the blog post.) It really was not much easier the second time through but I figure if I keep at it long enough the words may sink into my head.
I finally got back to sleep and managed to stay asleep until almost 7. I got up and really felt good. I felt so good that I washed all the dishes that have accumulated over the last few days – we are not good about washing dishes each day. After breakfast we read from the Kitab Mormon – three plus pages. I managed to even contribute a new word to the translation – kenyang means to be full of food. Penuh means to be full of anything else – such as penuhi Roh Kudus or filled with the Holy Ghost.
We did not get any calls from our children today. We are always disappointed when at least one of them is not available to talk to. I guess they are all busy on Sunday evening doing church work. We can not fault them for that but it still would be nice to hear from some of them more often. (I wrote the above in the morning before we left for the day and am happy to say that it was proved incorrect. We had nice letters from Tom and Shauna. Yeah!)
We went to visit the Jakarta Raya elders’ house. I called them to tell them we were coming so they had time to get everything cleaned up. They had done a great job and so other than patting them on the back and asking if there was anything they needed it was an easy visit.
Our next stop was the mission office to drop off our request for reimbursement for expenses, to say goodbye for the last time to the Jensens, to tell the brother in charge of buildings about the need for a larger water pump at the elder’s house, to get new branch lists so we can start visiting less actives, and to have lunch from BYU. While we were there I talked to Elder Subandriyo about the next English class – he says we should open it to young people who are not returned missionaries. We are all for this – I think once we get going we can do it with only a month between classes. I am going to suggest that they call two couples from the English branch to be in charge but part of me does not want to give up the class for a while.
After lunch – yum – we headed off to buy some yarn for Mary so she can finish her Afgan. The area was packed – it is the traditional mall that I showed in a picture a couple of months ago – and hot. I was really glad to get out of there. On the way out I stopped and bought a large plastic pot so I can re-pot one of my plants. While I was doing that Mary moved a short ways away and I did not notice. So Sam and I left her behind and it took a while to realize this and then find her. I do not think she was very happy with me, but I really did think she was right behind me all the time.
Our last stop was a small mall where we bought a new phone to replace the one I broke in the office. We got a good Panasonic speaker phone – it turns out we have the only one in the district so everyone uses it any time they need to have a conference call. Luckily this is not very often. We tried to get a cordless phone for the apartment but they only had really cheap ones so we will get one at Carrefore the next time we are there.
The trip home was fairly quick and painless. I tried to study my Indonesian flashcards while in the car but it does not work well. Besides my mind does not seem to be working very well today and so nothing stuck. The same problem persisted once we got home. When we got home Sam changed out the water bottle and then the three of us changed a couple of light bulbs – really. We had no ladder so we had to use the dining room pedestal table. So while Sam stood on the table, Mary and I had to support opposite edges so it would tip or break. So you see it takes three missionaries to change a light bulb.
We have spent the time since then writing letters and reports to a variety of people. I also did some studying in Indonesian. As mentioned above it was not greatly successful. But I will keep praying for Kerunia Lidah – the gift of tongues – and doing what I can to improve.
One of the thing we could not judge was how much they improved. We were so close to them that it was hard to see any change from day to day. To get an outsiders opinion we asked the Bennetts to tell us if they saw or felt any change in their driver Agus. They sent back this letter, which I think answers a lot of our questions.
Good morning Piers,
Boy was it good to see Agus yesterday at church and how thankful we are to have him back. Sam didn’t wake up yesterday morning, so 15 min before church was suppose to start, he called and said he just woke up. I said, the Elder Bennett would have to drive, so off we went. Elder Bennett did very well and we even made it before Sac. started. (They were a little late, but usually start right on time.) Everyone just smiled when they saw us hug Agus! As we were sitting there trying to understand what they were saying, Agus came up and sat behind us and did a wonderful job of translating for us. He has never translated for us in church and usually gets very confused. He had such confidence. Then I bore my testimony and he did the translating for me and did very well. I always go into his Primary class and have encouraged him to use some English words, but yesterday, after each key word he wrote, he wrote the English word after it. It was a wonderful lesson on the things they have to do to get ready for a mission. We made them little nametags just like ours and they all looked so cute leaving the class with their missionary name tags on. He came this AM all excited with all his books and things to show Sam so we can use some of the things in our weekly classes. Yesterday in RS the teacher (counselor) giving the lesson did the same as Agus with writing the main word in Indonesian and then English. They are all so excited to learn English and we are so thankful for your efforts with Agus. We will continue to help him daily.
We did not think about how the class might increase their confidence in their abilities. We think that the experience of talking in the English branch and having so many experiences with different teachers really helped them feel like they can participate and help. Since three of the students came from Central Java, hopefully they will help the leaders there learn English. Central Java is where the first stake in Indonesia will be formed and the leaders need to learn English so they can communicate with Hong Kong and Church Headquarters.
Our evening included fixing steamed veggies for dinner and reading from the Kitab Mormon. Mary spent time doing cross stitching – she is doing something with monkeys. I figure that is why she watched part of a documentary on ‘Gorillas in the Midst.’ Before heading for bed we watched ‘Without a Trace.’
Although we did little in the way of missionary work – it was our P-day (I did laundry and two load of dishes – and do not forget helping to change a lightbulb) – I still felt it was a very good and spiritual day. As I studied President Hinckley’s article on the war between good and evil, worked on my Indonesian, and especially when I read about Agus’s progress in English, I felt that I was doing the Lord’s work.