17 September 2007 – Monday

Normal morning but shortened because we needed to be out of the apartment by 8:10 to start our day of adventure with the Christensens.

There is not really much to say about the day, but that it was a nice trip that was longer than I thought it would be. The drive from Bakasi to Bandung has some wonderful scenery. Unfortunately the day was overcast – the way it usually is when Mary and I go to the mountains – so a lot of the great scenery was not available to us. The drive from Bandung to Bogor would been much nicer on a clear day or if we would have stopped more. If I was doing it again we would start at 7 a.m. instead of 8:30 – I misjudged the time to Bandung. We stopped in Bandung only long enough to buy a dozen pineapples that we will share with all our friends in Jakarta – also the Christensens will try to get one home.

But the Christensens enjoyed it and they now have seen new parts of Indonesia and I think have a better idea of what the country is like. They have seen the humble villages, the people working to just exist. They have seen the smiles of the children and the beauty of the landscape. They will certainly go home with good memories of Indonesia.

We had a problem finding anywhere to eat – most places were closed because so much of the population is fasting for the month. We ended up at a Japanese fast food place that was not very good. It is a shame we could not have let them taste good Indonesian food for one meal.

It of course rained as we came down out of Bogor. But I managed to sleep through much of the trip back to our apartment. The Christensens and us then had Walls Classics and yellow watermelon – a good combination. We talked more about our families than about our callings. It was fun to share stories about our children. We found out that the Christensens adopted their children. After about an hour or so we wished them goodbye and a good trip back to Hong Kong.

I spent some time making my February journal pages into one file and saving it as a Word file. This way I can open it anywhere and also can print it easily. I think that before I go home I will print it out and have it bound. It will certainly be cheaper here than at home. I think I will have about 700 pages or so of journal by then. I will need to add some pictures but I am not sure if I will just add pages or will work them into the journal itself. We ended our day by reading from the Kitab Mormon – we are having a hard time reading for a full hour. One of us seems to always get tired.