13 July 2007 – Jumat

Friday the 13th but no one here makes much of that. Hopefully it will not be a day with any problems. I woke at just about 5 and studied Indonesian – I tried to read Elder Holland’s talk from conference but I have already forgot many of the words. Normal morning – after our showers I put in a load of clothes.

While we were reading the Kitab Mormon my cellphone (handphone here) went off and when I tried to answer it all I heard was ‘Elder Pier’ and then it cut off. My new phone does not seem to have a program for re-calling the last incoming call so I was not sure who it might be but I decided it was probably brother Tandiman calling about today’s meeting at 10:00 so I called him. It turned out it was not him but he told me that the meeting had been re-scheduled to 9:00 he had tried to call me last night and when he could not reach me he sent me an e-mail but to the office account which I can not read here. Since it was already 8:30, I called Sam and asked if he could come right away and that if he took a motorcycle taxi I would pay. About 10 minutes later he was at the door and we were out of the apartment by 8:45. The traffic was not bad so we were only 5 minutes late and none of the others were really ready. I guess I will never know who called at 8:30 and hung-up after saying “Elder Pier.” It is hard for me to believe that the Lord felt the meeting was important enough to have one of the three Nephites call, but who knows.

The meeting included Elder Subandriyo, president Marchant, brother Tandiman and us. All three of those men had or were presidents of the Indonesian mission. We did not take long in the meeting to come up with a champion  – Sister Endang from Solo – and how much we thought that would be loaned the first and second year. We then discussed what needed to be done and we came up with meeting with the youth in central Java the last part of July and August. Brother Tandiman is going to write an information sheet for PEF applicants. I am going to write up the information needed by Hong Kong and a request for quick action on getting clearance so we can get people in school in January or before. Elder Subandriyo and President Marchant will sign off on that and we hope to have it cleared before the end of the month.

We then waited until district meeting that started just after 11. We recited D&C 4 in Indonesian and English at a pace that allowed the couples to keep up even in Indonesian. It felt good. We then all reported our missions – the couples took much longer than needed. That includes us but we had a lot to talk about with PEF, English, ERS, and looking for something for older people to do. President and Sister Marchant came in and that also added to the meeting. I believe they will attend if they are available. I am not sure what the office elders think about this but I think it is great.

After the meeting we went to SoGo and got groceries and of course BreadTalk. Mary found a new bread that is a rolled bread that is filled with blueberry jam. I am sure it is highly nutritional. Then it was back to the apartment where Mary rested and I wrote this until it was time for her to go to her English class at the university. She feels obligated to go because one of her students wrote saying how much she missed having the class. I am staying home to work on the things that we need for PEF and to start on my talk for Sunday. I double checked with Hendra and they really do want me to talk on the Great Apostasy. I will really need the Lord’s help to come up with something that is different that might keep the members awake.

Mary got to the university to find that there would be no class because her students were busy. I told her that she should just forget about trying to hold a class there. Not long after she got home there was a letter from one of the students telling her how sorry she was for not being there and pleading that she come next week and she would make sure that all three students would be there.

We then watched ‘Ocean’s 13′ which I thought was pretty lame. There was just not enough action and while some of the dialogue was OK, it was not as good as the first two. And the idea that you could get one tunnel digging machine into the Las Vegas underground is hard to swallow, but the idea that you can get two – one of which you import from Europe in a couple of days – is plain impossible. So while I am all for suspending belief at times while watching movies, I think giving it up completely is too much of a good thing.

We ordered in our Friday date night pizza – dinner and a show is still going strong even in Indonesia and tried to find something on TV to watch. There was nothing so Mary crocheted and I am not sure what I did until it was time to read the Kitab Mormon. We are now within 30 pages of finishing.

I see from Cindy’s blog that Tyler now has a driver’s license – that means at least two of our grandchildren may be out on the streets of SL. That is a scary thought – even if we are in Jakarta.