03 July 2007 – Tuesday

The Lord seems to think that I need to study Indonesian at 3 a.m. – at least that how it has been for the last couple of nights. I must say that it is a good time to study – there is not much else I can do at that time except sleep and that is not in the cards. I usually managed to study for about an hour before becoming tired enough to drop back to sleep. Today I woke for the second time before 6. I then did my morning Indonesian study.

We did not need to be at the office until 10 so we had 90 extra minutes to use this morning. I used my time studying Indonesian by trying to translate conference talks and learn the vocabulary words I had yesterday. Elder Kane said he found that he could absorb only so much vocabulary at a time. We kidded that it seemed that every time we got remembered one word, we forgot two. Sometimes it really seems that way. We read from the Kitab Mormon – we made it to 4th Nephi so the end is definitely in sight. Reading went quite fast this morning – Isaiah is behind us.

There was a letter from Tom saying that Kelli had an assignment to tell about her earliest LDS ancestor. That is who was the first to join the church. Mary checked and thought it was Joseph Young – Tom wrote later and had found it was Joseph and Brigham’s father.

Sam and Mary dropped me at the office and headed off to Carrefore to buy a wireless phone and some things for the office. While they were gone I wrote a number of e-mails and things like that. Later Mary cleaned up the remaining class material and now we at least have it all in categories. As usual no one came in but we did have one person call to tell us they could not get into their Jobsdb resume – I checked and got in fine. It turned out he had a really slow connection – it is hard to believe any connection is slower than ours – and was not patient enough.

We have not quite adjusted to the fact that there is no classes to worry about. We tried to make an appointment to go see Rudy but we could not find his phone number. So we just came home after office hours. I spent much of the time studying Indonesian – I am trying to catch up for my being lazy over the last few months on learning new vocabulary. Mary bought the first Harry Potter book in Indonesian and started to read it. I continued with conference talks and flash cards. And of course we both took naps. I always sleep longer than Mary, so she kept busy by writing her monthly letter to friends and family. She wrote mainly about our English class.

Dinner was rice and veggies for me. I continue to enjoy rice and almost anything. I can see why they say a meal is not a meal unless there is rice. Mary is not interested in rice unless it has stroganoff over it – she prefers beans. I also really like pasta as a base for just about anything or alone.

We read for usual hour in Kitab Mormon – we read all of 4th Nephi. Now it is on to Mormon and Ether with all those wars, immorality, and death. After that we tried to find something on TV but it there was nothing interesting. Mary went to bed and I stayed up to read the D&C again. This time I am reading it out loud so I do not skim over parts that do not seem interesting. I decided that I was probably missing some important things and there was no rush to get through it. Time is one thing we seem to have.
As I started to read the D&C I asked the Lord to help me find what I needed to learn. Right from the first I found that parts of D&C 1 that did not really strike when I read it about a month ago, stood out this time. I especially was interested in verses 17-23 which tells why the Lord restored His church at that particular time – this included ‘that my everlasting covenant might be established. But the first reason given is ‘knowing the calamity which should come upon the inhabitants of the earth.’ I found it interesting that He did not say ‘calamities’ but calamity.

Reading the scriptures seems to focus my mind on what is important in my life. It is much too easy to get caught up in the pleasing but unimportant activities that I do, instead of looking for the joyful and important activities the Lord would have me do so I could be blessed. It is not that I am doing anything particularly wrong as much as I am wasting the precious time He has given me to make a difference in world and in my life – to do things for which I will be blessed.