04 September 2007 – Tuesday

Slept well and put in an hour exercising. As I walked/jogged, I was surprised at how tired my legs seemed to get. It was only later in the day that I realized it was because I had started back on the stationary bike on Saturday. It uses some muscles that I have not been exercising or at least not as much as it demands. On the other hand sit-ups continue to be easier so it is a trade-off. I am sure if I keep using the bike, those muscles also will loosen up.

We read from the Kitab Mormon – we hit a couple of verses that had a number of words we did not remember, but all in all it goes well. Nehor and priestcraft was the center of our reading. Gideon fights Nehor with the truth and the only way Nehor can stop him is to kill him.

We go to the office and Mary works on her English class while I work on ERS matters. The Christensens are coming to visit us sometime next week. It will be good to see them again. They are good folks and we can learn a lot from them. We exchange a few e-mails to set up the plans for their visit. Tuesday is one of those days when I have Sam get lunch for the two of us. Mary makes a sandwich and we share a dessert.

We got a couple of letters from the family. Shauna is really faithful in sending us a letter each week. This one was especially good because it told about William escaping the yard and being brought home by the police. Also there was a funny story about a speaker at sacrament. I am going to include it so everyone can have a laugh.

“Kelli really liked one testimony this Sunday.  The new Seminary teacher bore his testimony and of course reminded the kids that seminary starts this Wednesday at 6:30 AM.  He said he’s been sleeping like a baby.  Going to bed early and waking up crying every 2 hours.  He also said he had a dream that seminary had started and the students were out of control.  Climbing out windows, slamming doors, racing down the hallway all except one kid who was very quiet and completely still.  The problem was that he was asleep on the table.  He should be a good teacher.”

We went to the mission office so Mary could teach her English class. While she was doing that I was able to spend part of my time with Elder Subandriyo. He is a very wise man and he gave me some good counsel. He also pointed out that while it is good to know the best schools in the country for different careers, those schools are usually very hard to get into. Therefore we should find the best second tier schools for those who can not make it into the best universities or trade schools. I had not thought of that and so now we will look at other resources. I did mention that if the graduates could not get jobs, it was a waste of their time and money to go to a university.

We also talked about a number of other things, including the new fund that is being set up to help with educational fees for children of members who can not afford them. This is the kind of fund we would contribute to on a regular basis. Also we talked a little about the PEF program. He said he did not think that the changes in the proposal were such that they should hold up the approval for very long. I hope he is correct – we really need to get it going so another school year passes without it being available.

After Mary’s class was over we went home teaching to our family who lives out in the Depok – a section of Jakarta that is about an hour’s drive away. That is if the traffic is good. If it is jammed it is 2 to 3 hours away. Luckily today it was about an hour each way. We had called to make sure the family would be home but when we got there only the mother was home. But that is good because the last time we came she was asleep. This way we were able to talk – through Sam of course – and let her tell us about some of her concerns. We suggested they hold Family Home Evening and talk about some of the things in a family council. I left the latest Ensign so her son could read an article on planning finances. I will need to get another copy so I can use some of the things out of it for our visit to the Tobings later this month.

We read another 3 pages from the Kitab Mormon – we need to read about 60 pages in the next 10 days to be on schedule to finish in 4 months. It is a great blessing to read the Kitab Mormon with my eternal companion. We have not often read together before we came on our mission. Mary has started to read president Faust’s biography.

Today is our Hump day – we have been out for 9 months and so we broke out our dark chocolate Hershey bar and celebrated by eating part of it. We carefully saved it for this occasion. It does not seem possible that half of our mission is over. It has just raced by. We have been blessed each day we have served. We have grown closer to each other, closer to the family – we think and pray about them each day, and of course we have grown closer to the Lord.

We have done things we never thought to have done before. We have started to learn a language. We have met wonderful members of the church and have been able to share their successes and their tragedies. We have served our fellow beings and in that way served the Lord. We can not say that we have sacrificed anything because the Lord has blessed us more than we can count.

I just hope that each of our children will start planning to serve as a senior couple with their spouses. The need is so great for more couples – the Sandbergs wrote how much they needed them in Russia and every mission president I have ever known have said the same thing.

 

This is the Barat Zone missionaries plus Elder and Sister Welch.  Elders Pagalla, Merrill and Decker will all be going home soon. They are fine missionaries and will be leaders in the church in the years to come. The last picture is the first camping display that we have seen in Indonesia. I expected the prices to be inexpensive but they were quite high. I have yet to find a real outdoor store.

03 September 2007 – Monday

Slept in this morning – no exercise. We read from the Kitab Mormon but only for about 45 minutes and then we had to get ready for Zone Conference.

Zone Conference is always good because we get to see the senior couples. Our numbers are somewhat reduced because the Walkers will not come in until Wednesday. But the Kanes got to meet the Davises and that was good. The morning meeting centered on keeping healthy. Elder Doctor – as the president calls him – is the area doctor and gave us tips on how to avoid illness and also what to do if we got ill. Much of this was covered in the MTC, but it is always good to hear it again. One thing I enjoyed about him was that he kept it simple. He mentioned that if we get a cold there was nothing much we could do but blunt the symptoms and let the body take care of itself.

Elder Roper gave a good presentation about the Muslim religion. He pointed out the basic teachings, how some of them were like ours, and where we differed. I found out that there is a group of Muslims that are very modern – almost secular – and very educated. The president suggested we help out there with English classes so they could go to the US to study. He felt that this would give us contact with educated people and also help with the US – Muslim relationships.

I think the elders and sisters look forward to Zone Conference so they can eat all the good food that the Marchant’s cook prepares. She cooks for 50 and after the missionaries have had their first round, the president carefully invites everyone else in the building to fill up. Today it included a sister who had come to the office to see us so we could help her with her price list. After we ate, Mary and Sam helped her. Sam had to actually finish up because we needed to get back to the conference.

The afternoon session was concentrated on ideas to help the missionaries get out of their comfort zones and try new ideas for finding investigators. To try and find more educated investigators by visiting Universities, teaching English, etc. Mary told the missionaries that they could help us by visiting Universities and doing one of our surveys. In this way they had a good reason for visiting and at the same time help PEF find good schools. Elder Cowan got excited about this idea so I gave him four survey sheets so he could get started. The president had mentioned to me that he wanted the missionaries to seek families and more educated people as investigators. His vision is to strengthen the church in Indonesia with leaders and families.

It brought to my mind the story of the native Chilean missionaries who decided that they were going to concentrate on families because there was a great need for leaders. Their American companions did not think that was a good idea but the natives said that it was their country and the only way the church would be strong was to baptize families. So with great faith and hard work that is what they did and of course today the church in Chile is very strong and continues to grow.

By the time the Conference was over, I was very tired. We stayed around a while and talked to the Davises and Kanes, but I was truly glad to get back to the apartment. As tired as I was I could not take a nap but Mary managed one.  Later we read from the Kitab Mormon – finishing Mosiah and starting into Alma. The reign of the Judges seems to have been doomed from the start – at least there was contention almost from the start. Nehor’s preaching was very close to that of Satan – don’t worry God will take care of you no matter what you do. But there is no indication that he was influenced by him.

Sometime during the day, president Marchant told me about his call to Elder Packer to report about the funeral for Dita Subandriyo. During the conversation, the president mentioned that Dita’s brother who had been allowed to leave his mission in Atlanta to accompany his father home and to attend the funeral a month before his mission was over wondered if he could finish his mission here in Indonesia and the president wondered who he should ask if that was OK. Elder Packer told him consider it asked and answered, so Elder Subandriyo is finishing his mission by serving in Malang. When I heard this I was touched by the spirit of this young missionary who felt that he needed to finish the time he was called to serve. He certainly is a product of a home where the Gospel and Priesthood is honored.

01 September 2007 – Saturday

Hello September – it is nice to see you again. I woke before the alarm and had a nice hour workout. I was especially happy with being able to do sit-ups without pain. I am also running further on each lap so I worked up a good sweat. It is interesting to watch the day start. The sky always has a pinkish glow in the East and because of the haze and pollution that is almost always hanging over Jakarta you do not get the bright light of the rising sun striking the high rises of the apartment complex. It is a very diffused lighting effect that seems to just get brighter.

Normal morning including reading from the Kitab Mormon. Alma and his people escape from the hands of the Lamanites. I continue to read president Faust’s biography. He served as bishop for 7 years and as a stake president for 13 years.

We are in the office today. I sent out some e-mails, looked for jobs that might fit some of our members. Called brother Kencana about a possible job for his son. I later found another one that he might qualify for. I decided to start posting some of the jobs from the weekly job paper on the bulletin board. Maybe it will stir up some interest in our calling. When I ran out of things to do and no one came in, I read president Faust’s biography.

I was touched by a couple of stories he told about members in South America. One was about a man who gave his gold bridge for the temple fund. The elder he gave it to tried to not take it but the man insisted that he had a right to give to the fund and that is what he had. President Faust – then an assistant to the 12 – bought it for much more than the value of the gold and kept it as a reminder of the faith of the saints.

The other story was about the time when he called a stake president and informed him he was expected to go to Salt Lake for Conference. There was a pause and then the humble president said – “That’s OK – I can sell my house.” He did not realize that the church would pay for the trip – he just wanted to make sure he could do what his leaders expected of him. I wonder if I would be willing to make that kind of sacrifice.

We had planned to go to dinner with the Davises, but Mary received a call from elder Merrill asking her to play at Dita Sabandriyo’s memorial service. We found out that about a week after a funeral they hold a final memorial where those who want to gather with the family and there is a short memorial with some short talks, poems, songs, etc. Then everyone eats, talks, and play games and sports. It is kind of a post-funeral wake to celebrate the life of the deceased and say a last goodbye. About 200 or so people gathered tonight and shared their love for Derita and for the Subandriyo family.

We did not stay for the sports, but Mary said the soup was very good. Since I had started my fast, I said no to the many offers of food. Sam brought us home at about 8 and then headed back for a night of soccer. The elders – especially elder Roper – had been looking forward to that. We relaxed for a while and then read from the Kitab Mormon before going to bed.