If you zoom in on the side view you will see the duck just in front of the drivers knee looking right at you.

22 July 2007 – Sunday

Since we had to be on the road by 7:00 I obviously did not get a lot of sleep but managed to stay awake during all five hours of meetings. Most of the time we had an elder to translate for us – Elder Wight is very good and elder Smith tries really hard. The only class I did not have anyone translating is the one I would have very much liked to have been part of. However I did not want to disturb the class to ask Elder Wight to translate for me.

On the way we passed a motorcycle loaded with live chickens and ducks. I got a good picture where it is easy to see some of the birds looking around to see what where they are going. My guess is that they were all in stews by evening, but perhaps some were going to be used for laying eggs. None of them seemed to be in a state of panic or looked really worried.

Today was Branch Conference for Tangerang 1 and Mary played the piano for the regular songs and for the Primary Choir that sang the prelude music. We once again had the pleasure of meeting with President Lee’s family. This is now 3 weeks in a row where we have been in the same sacrament meeting. That is very unusual. There were some good talks – I really wish I could have understood all of sister Tandiman’s talk. She spoke so well and I could just feel her spirit and wise counsel.

After going to all three Tangerang 1 meetings, we switched to Tangerang 2 for SS and PH. The elders had a full house in the Gospel Principles class. Including 3 investigators and a number of newer members. Other than reading a couple of parts of the lesson we basically listened to an excellent lesson. Usually T2 priesthood meeting is quite good but today it was taught by a brother who is not fully active and he was not well prepared. Also the class obviously had not read the lesson – elder Jensen’s talk about hymns from April Conference – and no copies were handed out.

The trip home went fast because I kind of dozed in and out of sleep. After eating some lunch – not a well balanced one – Mary took a nap and I tried to read from PHG but soon found myself nodding but never going to sleep. After Mary woke she let me re-read the last 40-50 pages of Harry Potter. I had read them after midnight and I wanted to see if I missed anything.

Then we read from the Kitab Mormon before ordering dinner from the nice downstairs restaurant. With tip the meal runs about $10 and is worth every cent. I then posted yesterday’s journal and started on today’s.

Since I did not get much sleep last night nor a nap today, I was in bed by 9 and after reading only a little from PMG I was soon asleep.

 

Serpong Mall – new and busy.

21 July 2007 – Saturday

I woke at 4:30 but thought it was 5:30 so I got up and started to read the Kitab Mormon but drifted off. Later I studied from PMG before we did our companionship study by reading from the Kitab Mormon. We read just over 4 pages – we had a few more words to look up just to make sure we were correct. Mary had me set Total Recorder so we record the Pioneer Day special broadcast. We will be gone for most of it, but hopefully we will be able to listen to it when we get back tonight.

After an hour at the office, Sam and I went to Ambassador Mall and the bookstore where I parted with $35 for the latest Harry Potter book. I decided we needed to read it before we accidently heard or read about the ending. I told Mary it was part of her birthday presents but then figured out that would mean I could not read it until she was finished. Since I can read while we are traveling in the car and she can not, we will share by taking turns.

Once back at the office Mary started entering the backlog of workshop participants and since was using my computer, I read. After lunch we headed to Tangerang and the open house they are holding. We found that there were a few members there and the elders were doing well without us. So after talking to the elders for a while and saying hello to everyone – including Lukito who was holding a very poorly attended Career Workshop – we left.

Mary wanted to stop and see if the local BreadTalk had the bread she really liked, so Sam drove us to what has to be one of the nicest mid-priced mall in Jakarta. It was really busy – it would be interesting to see how it was during the week – and very new. They had a very nice BreadTalk and while they did not have the wheat bread Mary was after they did have a loaf of the blueberry jam bread that was so good.

They had an 8-plex movie theater so we went up to see if they were showing the new Harry Potter film that just started showing here today. They were and we got in just before it started. The theater was one of the nicest we have ever been in. Big, comfortable seats in stadium rows, big screen, and brand new. We took Sam and we all enjoyed the film. I thought it was very good but very dark for young children. If they keep getting darker, I can not imagine what the last one will be like. I do not think there were 30 people in a theater that would hold 400 or more. But then it does cost almost $3 to get in and that is a lot of money here – a full days wages for a laborer. And in a few weeks they can watch a very good version on DVD – there is already a very bad copy available.

Mary found the store of her dreams – at least her Indonesian dreams. A real, live, completely stocked office supply store. She told me that they even have three ring binders – we have only seen 2 ring binders everywhere else. It really does look like Office Max – only it is cleaner and there is a lot more sales help.

Back at the apartment we spent the rest of the day we spent reading – me from PMG, Kitab Mormon and Harry Potter and Mary from Kitab Mormon and Harry Potter. Actually Mary spent most of the time cross-stitching while watching a movie on TV. We also listened to the recording I made of the Pioneer Day celebration. I bet it was spectacular to watch. I am still hoping that we get a DVD of the program.

We read 4 more pages from the Kitab Mormon and so we are moving right along. But it takes a fairly set amount of time to read out loud in Indonesian and English so about the only place where we are really improving is in translating. Not needing to look up so many words really helps. Mary is getting really good about figuring out when and to whom things are happening.

At about 8:30 I climbed into bed with Harry Potter and finished reading it some time after 1. I really liked the way she clears things up at the end – I wondered how she was going to do that.