Mary with a white tiger cub – about 4 months old. The park is in the deep mountain jungle and this is one of the waterfalls. If we had opened the door, I think the zebra would have come right in.

20 August 2007 – Monday

I woke just before the alarm went off and after a brief struggle with a desire to go back to bed, I got up and did my hour of exercise. I do not think I am losing much weight but I know that I am getting in better shape. Sit-ups are killing me – even though I am doing them only every other day. I guess it is going to take a few weeks to get so I can do enough sets to make a difference.

While cooling down from exercising I read more from Elder Packer’s biography. It is interesting but it does not seem to me to get into the man as the one about Spencer W. Kimball written by his son. It reads more like a gospel tract than a biography of a human being. The best part about it is when he talks about the inter-action between him and other general authorities. I guess what I find is a nice surface but not much depth. I think he is a much deeper and human man than what I find in these pages.

We thought we had a quiet day with only a trip to Taman Safari with the Taylors on the plate. Since they are going to Jogja and may never have another chance to see it, he president approved us taking them. The first thing that went wrong was that they thought we were coming at 9:00 and Mary thought we said 8:30. So we got there too early.

Then as we were waiting for them, we got the news that we were also going to take Sister Marchant and their son Dallin. Our car is not really made for carrying 7 people comfortably but off we went – rather late but going. The day went fine – it was overcast most of the day so it was not too hot. We saw lots of things and our guests were impressed and seemed to enjoy it.

I suggested we stop and eat at before we headed home – we had not eaten all day except for some treats and a couple of bananas that we did not feed to the monkeys and other animals. I called the Kanes and asked if they could join us but they said it would be better if we dropped by afterwards. Just as we were finishing eating, sister Marchant got a call from the president asking when we would get home. It turned out that they had forgotten that they were invited to a FHE with Hendra’s family and they were suppose to leave at 6:00. So I had to call the Kanes and tell them we could not come by but had to hurry back to Jakarta. We made it by 7:00 which was pretty good considering.

Earlier in the day Mary had been asked to play at the funeral for sister Subandriyo for the choir and they were going to practice at 7:30. Sam and Mary dropped me off at the apartment so I could wash dishes and do some laundry while Sam sang and Mary played. She did not get home until almost 9:30 and said that she volunteered to play all the songs for the funeral.

So while it was not a very productive day, we did get closer to the Taylors, learned more about how they worked with the members in the Philippines, and I got to finish Elder Packer’s book while we drove to Bogor and back. One point that he has always stood behind is that we should not try to fit the gospel into the man’s knowledge but fit man’s knowledge into the gospel. That a teacher should not try to explain the gospel in terms of man’s growing knowledge and philosophy but to fit the new knowledge into the things we know are true. He also made the point that a testimony often can not be articulated in words but only through feeling. As the 50th section of the D&C points out, we are taught and teach by the spirit and when both sides meet each is edified.

 

The Peterson’s farewell party – the Taylors and Petersons on the left and Mary and the Marchants – including their son  – on the right. At the back are the missionaries from Bandung. The one at the far end is elder Mongolan who will be released on Monday the 21st. He is an excellent missionary and also is a lot of fun. I hope he gets an education and does well.

19 August 2007 – Sunday

It was a regular Sunday, except we picked up the Taylors and took them to Tangerang with us. I asked the elders to translate for the Taylors and as I sat there I decided I would ask them to translate more often for us. I do not seem to be hearing enough yet to understand what is being said and I think I am missing somethings that are important to my life. The Lord does not have us sit in 5 hours of meetings just to be there – He certainly has something for us to learn.

Elder Peate – one of the new elders – taught the Gospel Principles class. He has only been in Indonesia for 10 or 11 days yet he taught like a veteran. He did not just read from the manual or have other read, but gave a lesson in decent Indonesian. I thought his lesson was better than a number I have heard from English missionaries who have been out a year. The president was correct – this is a powerful group of missionaries.

There was one event that put a real damper on the Sabbath day. When we got into the car, I asked Sam how he was and he said he was very sad because a friend of his had died. It turned out that DeeDee Subandriyo – elder Subandriyo’s eldest daughter – had suddenly died of meningitis in Arizona while visiting the Jensens. The Jensens were taking her to her flight to Provo where she was going to go to school at the Y, when she collapsed and within 24 hours or so she was dead.

Elder Subandriyo flew there from Malaysia and her brother was released a month early from his mission to join him in Arizona and bring the body home. It seems that as she was dying she told the Jensens that she wanted to go home. On the way home from church, after dropping off the Taylors, we stopped by the Subandriyo’s home and told sister Stephanie how sorry we were.  When someone dies, people come by the house to show their respect. Yellow flags with the name of the deceased are placed at entrances to the village or town as a guide to the home. The family is showing a strong face, but it was easy to tell that they were greatly mourning their loss. We stayed about 30 minutes and came home.

As I sat in their house, I thought about why a great young woman like this would die of a disease that today – according to what I read on the web – is seldom fatal. She was beautiful, smart – she had just finished 2 years at BYUH and was transferring to BYU Provo – and was preparing to go on a mission when she turned 21. She was in the US, she had gone to the temple with the Jensens, her parents are stalwarts in the church, her father is an Area 70, and looked up to by everyone in the country and in Hong Kong.

I do not suppose I will ever know and it is not really important. I tend not to think that the Lord had a hand in it, but it would not bother me if He did. Unless the spirit tells me differently I will just find it a part of living a mortal life in a world where sickness, death, and all the normal things that happen here. We knew that when we came to earth we would have experiences and death was one of them. I do know she goes home to her Father in Heaven worthy to be called His daughter. I know she will live again and she will be there to greet her parents and loved ones when they cross over. I know her parents will find comfort in the knowledge that she is safe, but they will still miss her greatly.