1 August 2007 – Wednesday

Wow another month – in three days we will have been on our mission for 8 months. It sometimes seems much longer and yet in someways it seems like we walked into the MTC just a week ago. July was a good month – we are still learning a lot about our calling and ideas keep flowing. I am sure that the day we leave we will still be trying to solve some of the problems. The only reason we might extend is if there was something that we felt we had to see completed before we could leave. I doubt if anything like that will be pending.

I woke before 5 and decided that was the Lord’s way of telling me that I needed to get back into the habit of exercising each day. So I put on my gym clothes and walked and ran for a half hour. I did not run as far as I was running but I still managed to work up a good sweat. As I went around I tried to work on some vocabulary. In the future I am going to take with me five root words and work on them each for one or two laps – this way I can keep track of how many times I been around and also get the words into my mind.

I also think I need to write 10 to 20 sentences each day and have Sam check them. If I write sentences that I can use everyday, perhaps this will allow me to have enough confidence to use the language. Elder Kane is doing this and he seems to be progressing better than I am.

It is really convenient to live here in Puri Casablanca. This morning I went down and picked up our cleaning and dropped off a new batch which will be ready tomorrow night. I also could stop at our little store and pick up things we might need. Now if there was a big mall next door it would be better than being home. I can see why the concept of a mall with apartments has been catching on in the States – especially as we get older. The next thing they will include are a assisted living complex and a hospital. With the growing older population this many not too far in the future.

We read from the Kitab Mormon – towards the end we found us struggling a little with Nephi’s psalm. The other day I was looking for it, but thought it was Nephi the Younger and not the 1st Nephi. It really is beautiful – well at least in English it is.

Since we do not have names to visit, we made appointments at the office. But before going in we went to Carrefore and bought towels for the Kanes to use when they are here Sunday night. Shopping before 11 is easy so we were in and out fairly quickly.

At the office we again had problems with the internet connection but after first running a hard wire connection, they changed the wireless access points and it worked fine. Neither of the appointments showed up so we worked on different things. One of my e-mails came back with a job opportunity in Semarang. Hopefully we can find someone to fill it. I also wrote an email to president Marchant about a couple of things. Earlier he called and asked me to contact the couples in Solo to see if they would like to go sight-seeing with us on Monday or Tuesday. I think I will first ask the Kanes and the Pettersons about what they want to do.

Mary got all the workshop attendee names into the computer – quite a task to say the least. Especially since she was so far behind. Our next task is to make an Area Book so when we leave the next couple will be able to know right where we are and can hit the ground running.

When it was apparent that no one was going to show up, we went to the mission office. I wanted to say goodbye to elder Wight, but he was off to Taman Mini. So about all we could do is pick up a couple of Michigan tests for Anna and Vita – hopefully they will be willing to take them – and talk to the office elders. We did say hello to president Marchant who came in while we were there. We went down to see the Petersons but they too were gone. Since the Church News was not there yet, it was really not a very productive trip.

Our evening reading of the Kitab Mormon went well – but we are about to head into Isaiah so things will probably slow down. I have started reading the D&C in Indonesian – it is really fairly easy to read because it is in more modern language and tends to use simple words. Of course there are words I have to look up but for the most part I can get the gist of it. Vocabulary, vocabulary, vocabulary – always vocabulary. At least when it comes to reading. Speaking is a whole other thing – and hearing is another. But I am sure the Lord will bless us and we will continue to improve in all these areas. I hope that after we are released we will continue to keep learning. It would be a shame to waste all this time and effort.

As we talk about another mission, we really want to have it a proselyting mission. I also hope it will be an English speaking mission so we can work closely with the less-active, the members and others. Even another ERS mission would be good, if it was in English. But as with this one we will just put in our papers and go where the Lord wants us to go.