This is a view of a typical street in a middle class section of Jakarta. It is shot from in front of the house where the Jakart, Raya missionaries live.
30 August 2007 – Thursday

Slept well, woke before the alarm sounded but I was in no hurry to start exercising – but I finally made it out to do the usual 45 minutes or so. I even managed some sit-ups so perhaps I my stomach muscles have finally started to cooperate. We read from the Kitab Mormon by the end of the day we were 1/3 of the way through in 40 days and are on schedule to finish it in 4 months.

We went to the office and worked on our English class material for the evening lesson. Once that was finished we went to the mission office to get lunch at BYU, see the Davises, and pick up any mail for the elders. The Davises told us about their house/apartment hunting – they did not see anything that they felt good about. Jemmy Mongan has seem to have taken them under his wing and is trying to help them find something they can live in.

As we were about to leave I spent some time talking to the president about Elder Packer’s book and some of the things going on in the mission. It is interesting to hear his thoughts about what areas we need to work on. I think the Zone Conference on Monday will be focused on his vision of the goals of the mission and how to achieve them.

We got to the Tangerang building only to find that they have changed the locks on the door because someone had stolen audio-visual equipment. They had not broken in so they must have had a key. We called the missionaries but the only one who had a key was Elder Tuxworth and of course he was the last one to show up for district meeting. So we ended up sitting in the car for the better part of an hour and a half.

Elder Whitmore – one of the zone leaders – was visiting the district so we had four sets of elders and myself at the district meeting. Mary took the first hour to have her piano lesson with sister Catherine. Before the meeting started we joked around a lot and as we started reciting A&P 4 I realized that there was just too much laughing and giggling for any of us to be taking what we were saying seriously, so I asked them to stop. I apologized for my part in the kidding and asked that we start over and think about what we saying. I am not sure how that came across to the elders but I felt better.

I am excited because it sounds like they might actually have a chance to have a baptism in the near future. They have not had a convert baptism in years in Tangerang and so it would be a great boast to the work here. It will show that missionaries in Tangerang can be successful in teaching and change the attitude of missionaries coming into the area in the future.

Elder Cowan gave the lesson and mixed English and Indonesian. He is not learning the language as quickly as Elder Peate. In fact he said this to me and I told him that he should not compare himself with anyone else and become discouraged. That as long as he could write in his journal that he was doing the best he could, he was doing as much as any missionary in the world. I told him discouragement was a tool of the devil. Elder Cowan has a good spirit and will be a good missionary.

We had a good English class. We did our numbers and then played the matching game using opposites. I divide up the class – including the elders – and they had a great time. I gave the cards to Agus to use at home. I will probably make another set for the class because it is good for them. I may make flash cards for them – it is a good way for them to learn vocabulary. We also went through the first five articles of faith – Agus’ children had to help the elders at times. Elder Peate told me that he had been memorizing them while riding the angkots because he realized he did not know them. So it seems the English class is good for everyone – including me.

We made good time coming home and although we were very tired we read for about an hour fro the Kitab Mormon. It was a good day for us.