The first picture is my favorite 50 cent lunch – rice, tempe, veggies, potatoes, and crispy soybean crackers. This is pretty much a typical main meal for the average Indonesian worker. The political rallies that tied up the streets today were mainly motorcycle rallies. This family of four are all decked out in their party colors. I took the other picture because he looked like an Indonesian version of the German SS.
03 August 2007 – Friday
Somehow I set my alarm for 4:30 instead of 5 but I was going out the door to exercise before I noticed this. I put about 45 minutes into walking and jogging around the track. I used the time to learn words – or at least to try to increase my vocabulary. I am not sure the words will stick but it does make the time go by faster. I see no one except an occasional security man during this time. I guess everyone comes out later. But it is the coolest time of the day to exercise outside so I will stick to it. Hopefully Bob will show up sometime.
I spent part of the morning catching up this journal and part of it reading from the D&C. Cindy’s blog was a gold mind. After over 2 weeks of nothing, today it was filled with pictures of our yard and all the weeds that they worked on. What a chore to try and weed when they get that high. It is bad enough when I do it regularly and so they are small and not well rooted. My big thanks to Cindy and those who helped.
We read from the Kitab Mormon – confusing are the words of Isaiah. It is not that we do not understand most of the words, it is the combination of them that is so hard to work out. This morning I realized that when we read the Indonesian, we are reading words that were written in old Hebrew, translated to Greek, translated to old English, translated to newer English, and then translated to Indonesian. It is rather amazing that it even exists for us to read. So we move on and enjoy what we can from it.
We went into the office and did some work on different things. I can not say it was very productive for me. Mary got some things done on the Area book. I contacted a couple of clients to see how they were doing with getting jobs. We got part of the July report from Agus and Lukito but not very much information. It seems that the specialists have a difficult time understanding the need for so much information.
We went to the mission office for district meeting. There had been a zone leaders conference so there were lots of missionaries at our meeting. Elder Decker kept it all under control and did not try to get information from every pair of missionaries. Elder Thomas – who is heading to Yojakarta to finish out his mission – gave a good lesson on the Book of Mormon which I contributed to by telling the story of the first time I read King Benjamin’s discourse.
The trip back to the apartment was a mess because the candidates for governor held big rallies throughout the city that tied up traffic. We were lucky to catch just the edges and Sam found ways around some of it. But I imagine some people were stuck in it for hours. Hopefully we will avoid the worse part of it for the next two weeks.
A normal Friday evening – the president says we can have date night – was pizza and watching ‘A beautiful year.’ It was a fun little movie but very predictable and at times very slow. There was one nice twist – at least how it came about if not the twist itself. I went back and looked more carefully at Cindy’s pictures and became worried about one part of the yard that looks like it is not getting enough water.
We read from the Kitab Mormon and later I read some from the A&P. But once again I was tired and so was asleep before Mary ever came to bed. I am glad that there was a district meeting because I needed Elder’s Thomas’ lesson to give me a spiritual boost in a day that did not have a lot of spirit.