Mary ironing. Our office. Missionaries and the dance group. The dancers in action.

19 September 2007 – Wednesday

Today is P-day so we are cleaning the apartment – with the help of our great Indonesian maid – doing laundry, and catching up on things that need to be done. We are also having seat covers put on the Avanza so Sam will be spending the day making sure that is done correctly. It also meant that I did not go down to exercise until about 6 because I was waiting for him to come for the keys. For some reason Mary woke early so she took over the waiting and I went to the gym.

Besides the early morning chores and exercise, we read from the Kitab Mormon about the Zoramites kicking out those who believed the preaching of Alma and his companions and how this quickly led to war.

I posted the blog up to date. Thankfully the web is faster this morning so I was able to get all the pictures in. We got word from the Christensens that they and the pineapple made it back to Hong Kong safely. Also that the staff is now enjoying fresh pineapple. We are going to try to join in a chat today at 3:00. Then soon after that we will need to leave for a special program we have been invited to by the government. I guess they want a lot of bulais there.

Mary decided it was time to iron her blouses – she has been accumulating them for a while – and so we moved the ironing board into the front room. As I had said before the ironing boards here are made for people who average about 5 feet or less tall and so she had to sit down to iron. Add to that the fact that one of the legs on the board was breaking and it made for an exciting time. We found a new use for Preach My Gospel – to hold up the bent short leg. Mary informs me that we will get a new ironing board the next time we are in Carrefore.

We also need to get new electronic dictionaries. We have actually worn these two out and somehow managed to lose both guarantees. So we will invest another $100 in a new pair for the last 8 months of our mission. This time we will make sure we keep the warranties so we can get new ones before we go home.

I was studying the PH lesson in Indonesian – or at least trying to – and fell asleep and had a nice nap. I do not think I got very far in the lesson.

As we were getting ready for tonight’s outing I suggested that we leave a little earlier because you never know about Jakarta traffic. It is a good thing that we made that decision because we hit a section where the traffic was at a dead stop and stayed that way for about 15 minutes. But once past the bottle neck – and there seems to be many of them in Jakarta – we made good time and arrived with some to spare.

We were pleasantly surprised to find Jemmy Mongan and his wife as well as the elder and sister Noorda were going with us. The Noordas were in town to get their Kitas updated and should be going back in a day or two. So the party was the Mongans, Noordas, Marchants, Walkers, Davises, ourselves and Ari who drove one car – Jemmy drove the other.

It took about 45 mintues to get there and we thought we would be a little late but it seems the station realized there were some traffic jams and so they did not start until most of the expected guests arrived. On the way, I sat in the far back sit and had a nice talk with sister Noorda about family, the mission, etc.

We had no idea what the program was about and I am not sure even after watching it what it was really about. After warming up the audience and letting other late arrivals come in, a young, beautiful, and famous, Indonesian singer sang a special song, that I believe was written just for this program, while playing the piano. Then there came a group of young women dancers from the Christen school that MetroNews and the Church helped to rebuild after the tsunami in Aceh. They put on what I suppose was a native dance of synchronized movements that was quite spectacular. I managed to film most of it.

When they were done dancing there was a photo op where all of us from the Church was grouped behind the dancers. We then had a chance to talk to the some of the dancers – some had fair English – and found that they had been practicing for 3 weeks. After the photo shoot, we went down to Buka Puasa – literally meaning open the fast when what they are actually doing is ending the day of fasting.

I found some food I really liked – Martabak. We have had the chocolate version a number of times. Basically it is a kind of pancake that is covered with chocolate, butter, cheese, and condensed milk and then folded over until the fillings are melted together. It is delicious and must have a million calories per piece. They had the chocolate martabak but tonight there was another egg based version that was more like an omelet and it also was delicious. I also found the fruit platter for dessert. There were lots of other foods and Mary sampled a number but I decided to hold down my eating.

I happened to meet the HR director of the news division she had pretty good English so I asked her about what schools she could recommend for getting into the T.V. news business. I gave her one of my cards and asked her to e-mail me her recommendations. Unfortunately she did not have a card.

Later we met a woman who seems to be high up in the organization and has something to do with the hotel side. I mentioned that we were going to hold a conference on Bali and could we contact her to see about a good rate at one of their hotels. I showed Jemmy her card and he said that it was a very exclusive hotel. I suggested since we were working closely with Metro, that he might approach her about a special rate. I have a feeling that we will be able to stay there and that they will take great care of us. So the Lord works in unusual ways to help his missionaries. Who knows who we will meet at a hotel like that.

As the eating was slowing down, they asked the dancers to do their dance right there in the middle of the dining area. So I got to stand not four feet from them as they performed once again. I got a movie of most of it, so we can watch it a number of times. After that there was a little more eating and then we headed home.

I shared the back seat with president Marchant this time. He mentioned that the number of baptisms is going up even with the number of missionaries going down. Hopefully this will continue in the future. I also found out that where we may be going for the next couples conference is no great secret. I will write to the president and mention that he might want to write that letter to all the couples and let them know the dates and where it will be held.

We caught a cab home – we had a nice talk with Hari and found that he had four children. I gave him a nice tip to help pay for the new 2 month old child. We read from the Kitab Mormon and headed to bed. Just before this Sam called to say that the covers were done and they looked good. We had a good P-day with a nice balance of gospel learning, sharing thoughts with other couples, some entertainment, and even some good contacts for jobs.