Once or twice a week they change the floral arrangement in the lobby. I wonder how much it costs for this service but I can not imagine it being very much.

20 July 2007 – Friday

I woke about 4:30 but managed to get back to sleep and did not wake until almost 7:00. I did not realize I was so tired last night. We checked the mail and Skype but there was nothing new and no one was on Skype – everyone at home seems to be very busy this summer. But that is good – it means our family are out being families. After all when our children were young, we went away each summer for 3 to 5 weeks in the motorhome so we had lots of time together and we saw a lot of the West.

I had fallen behind in posting this journal so I caught that up. We started reading the Kitab Mormon again. We did 4 pages in an hour. Of course this is the part of the book we know quite well so we should be able to read it. But the encouraging thing is that we only had to look up maybe 10 words in the four pages and some of those we knew what they meant because of content but we did not really know the root words. It is the root words we need to master if we are ever going to be able to speak and hear Indonesian.

Mary is busy with her cross-stitch pattern that I bought earlier this week. She says that she thinks she will be able to finish it before we are released. I did not realize it was that major of a project when I bought it for her.

Our Fridays are a little relaxed – at least until we get names from the other branches and then they are likely to be very busy. District meeting went very quickly because the Assistants were gone, the couples had little to report and president and sister Marchant did not come in. We had a short lesson and were done in less than an hour.

Sam got us food from BYU – soup and sate for Mary and a huge meal for me. So big I had to bring some of it home. But it was really good with lots of tempe and cucumbers. The pickled cucumbers bring just the right balance to the meal. I must remember to take a picture of one of the meals I get off the street. I think the folks at home would find it interesting.

We touched base with everyone at the office – including the president who asked us if one of the couples who will be coming in August could stay with us for a few days. We told him sure. We will give them our room and we can either share the bed or I can sleep on the couch. Anyway we will figure out what to do with them.

After lunch it was a really quick trip to BreadTalk to get some bread and a few other things to tide us over until we leave next week. We were in and out in less than 10 minutes. We then headed back to the apartment. We had only been there about 10 minutes when Lukito showed up to get the things he needs for the Workshop tomorrow. I had just finished checking everything and realized that we had not put in any workbooks. So he drove me to the office so we could get them and then he drove me back.

That was a real adventure because he drives a 1986 Citron that looks like it has not been cleaned for a year. It also has lots of dings and scrapes – something you seldom see in a car here. Add that there was no air conditioning, the window only went down part way and the seat belt had to be tied together to look like it useful, and you get an idea of the great time I had. Thankfully the whole trip took less than 30 minutes. I can not imagine getting caught in a real traffic jam during the day in that car.

The rest of the afternoon was taking a nap and some personal reading from the Kitab Mormon. We then ordered our Friday pizza and read for 30 minutes or so until it came. We read another 2 ½ pages and will read again later. We only looked up a couple of words and only made a couple of mistakes about who or when in our translation. It feels really good – but 2nd Nephi and my friend Isaiah is coming up in a few days.

The pizza is really good – I am enjoying taking my time eating. I stretch it out to almost 30 minutes and try to savor each bite. We watch the end of mini-series on Hallmark called ‘The 10th Kingdom.’ It is OK but it is not going to replace Gulliver’s Travels.

I study in PMG – each time I read in this book I learn something new or see something in a new way. In the chapter about effective study, it says “Your gospel study is most effective when you are taught by the Holy Ghost.” I have often thought about the need to teach by the spirit and D&C 50 say that as a student we should listen by the spirit, but I do not think I have ever really thought about being ‘taught’ by the Holy Ghost as being part of personal studying. I have felt the spirit as I was studying but did not relate this to being actually ‘taught.’ More like I felt that it was testifying of what I myself was reading. But to be led by the spirit as to what to learn and how to learn seems to me to be different. It is rather like praying and being open to what the Lord says in return – that is teaching by revelation.

We watch part of a National Geographic’s program on tsunamis – each time I see another program about them I marvel at the idea that there is nothing man can really do to stop them. But we can build protective walls and warning systems so they do not kill so many people. However there is no way to build enough walls to really stop the destruction. It is hard to imagine what a 110 foot wall of water would do the California coastline. And if the event that triggered it was only 50 – 100 miles off the coast, it would hit in less than a half an hour.

We read for another 40 minutes from the Kitab Mormon – we read just over 9 pages today. Hopefully we can continue at an average of 6-8 pages per day so we will finish in less than 3 months. Now we just need to start trying to use the spoken language.