19 July 2007 – Thursday
I woke at about 5 and started to think about the telephone conference we could be part of this morning. I had almost decided not to bother, but felt there was a need. So at about 5:30 I woke Mary up by getting all the info to make the connection. For once I was able to get a connection to the US without a hitch.
I can not say that we learned a lot from the 90 minute meeting – we had almost no input but we did find that we had one of the highest contact percentage in the Asia area. It helps that we only have 14 students to follow. We did get a good idea about using SMS messages to stay in contact with the students to let them know we have them in mind.
The biggest thing that happened today was that we finished the Kitab Mormon. Right through Moroni 10 this morning. Mary said we would start again in the evening but I said no we get the night off and start again tomorrow.
We spent five hours at the office. A client came in and we got him up and running on Jobsdb. I hope he gets a good job – he is a 35 year old man who spent 6 years in the US and was baptized there. The Elders are working with his family and hopefully the mother will join. After he left we worked on a number of things that needed to be done. Mainly I wrote e-mails which seems to take much of my time. I had Sam go get food for me – I am becoming addicted to street food. It is much more interesting than tuna sandwiches.
After the office we headed to Tangerang and the district meeting. The elders were a little late but that was good because Mary was able to catch a short nap. I turned on the air-conditioning and tried to join Mary in napping but it did not work.
District meeting was good. Both sets of elders have some progressive investigators and there is hope for some baptisms next month. Unfortunately Elder Wight will probably go home before that happens but I do not think he minds because he is an excellent missionary. Elder Wight asked us to share our favorite scripture about the Atonement and I was embarrassed because I did not really have one. When I did think of one, one of the other elders came up with it first. So I ended up talking about the Jesus being alone both in the garden and on the cross. That the Spirit had to leave him so he could make the decision to let His Father’s will be done. This was one of the best – make that most spiritual – district meetings we have attended.
For the second week in a row, no one showed up for English class so we headed home early. Two of the elders needed a ride to an appointment so we took them part of the way. The trip back to the apartment went about normal as was the rest of the night. Before bed I got a jump on the Kitab Mormon by reading the first three pages – there are still lots of words I have not put away in my memory but there more that I can now read.