The Theme posters for T1 and T2 Primary program

30 September 2007 – Sunday

What a difference a week makes. It does not seem possible that it was only a week ago that I had the worst day I have had in Indonesia. Today has been a complete turn around. We went to the Tangerang branches so there was not time for the Kitab Mormon reading.

We had the opportunity to see two versions of the Primary Sacrament Meeting presentation today. Mary got to be in the first one – T1. Almost as soon as we arrived she was asked to play a song that they did not have any recording to use. She also got to play prelude and the opening and sacrament hymn. Their program was great with all the children participating and the teachers and leaders joining in for the songs. They have a good sized primary with a fair balance between boys and girls. The theme of the year is “I will follow Him in faith.”  We found that elder Cowan is leaving for Bekasi on Monday. We will see him at Zone Meetings and perhaps he will show up here again. He is going to be a very good missionary because he is committed to serving the best he can.

T2 branch had the children do everything without any help from the teachers. All the songs were sung with only children voices and it worked. Most of the time two children would come up and read the thought or scripture together and then sing. The only problem came when it was  the Sunbeams turn. Four lovely little girls whose chins did not always clear the rail of the stand, looked out with big eyes and closed mouths during their song, so we got a piano solo and it was great. I think every adult in the room was smiling at those big eyes and beautiful faces.

After the T1 meeting a man came up and said that he had talked to me yesterday about employment opportunities. I had a senior moment until he gave me enough clues so I realized that he was the man with the company that produces flexible pipe and is looking for some people to do promotion selling. Lukito had given me his card on Thursday and I had Sam post the job on the board at the Selatan branch.

We went to T2’s other meetings. The elders had 2 investigators at their GP class. Elder Wiryanto did not call on me to read and Elder Peate translated for us. The combined meeting was different. First the Primary discussed what the different ages were being taught and then President Gjarot spoke about family finances and staying out of debt.

I had two mission related experiences with T2. Before the meeting I spoke for a short time with president Gjarot about what was the best specialties ITC students should take while in school at BYUH. He pointed out that there are thousands of graduates with a general programming, web page background. He suggested they specialize in oil, CAD-CAM, or medical software. That there was a great need for all of those. He came up with Palm Oil production as a growing field.

After the block I happened to go out the back of the room – the exit furthest from the stairs down to the foyer – and struck up a conversation with a man I thought I knew. It turned out I was wrong as usual – I did not know him – but it turned out he is an important person in a business that always had need of good employees. So I took his card and now have another good contact for sources of jobs. The Lord blessed me and hopefully some of the saints today. PMG tells us to open our mouths – I guess I should ask more people what they do.

We spent the afternoon reading – 10 pages of Kitab Mormon, studying Indonesian and resting. I kept going back and reading from the Liahona. The words used there are much more up to date than those in the Kitab Mormon and more conversational. So there are many words which I do not know – often 4 or 5 in a paragraph. But I have the English version and my dictionary to help so it is a good mental exercise.

 

There is a motorcycle somewhere under those birdcages.  Mary with our new door bell – knock and it shall be opened unto you…

29 September 2007 – Saturday

A good morning but not unusual morning. We continue to read in the Kitab Mormon and I struggled through part of a Liahona article. After we are through the KM, I think we will change to reading articles and talks because they provide more words that we can use everyday. The translations are done by the office and so they use common Indonesian words of today. Maybe what will do is read the KM in the morning and articles at night.

We kept fairly busy at the office. Mainly starting to work on the Intensive English Class – there is plenty to do to get ready for it. We were visited by a new to Indonesia Dutch member – sister Kaufman – who’s husband is attached to their embassy. He is not a member but she seems to want to be active. They have one child and another on the way. They are looking for a nanny and a cook. We have a young woman in mind – she is not a member but her brother and other of her family are and perhaps this might help to get her to hear and accept the gospel.

Sam made some more calls to our PEF folks and then Mary entered what he found out. It took much longer than expected – there was something wrong with the program or our access to it. Just about a half hour before we were finished at the office a young lady showed up. She is from Canada and is here to work for English First – a high quality English school. She is an active member and showed up to take part in the Selatan branch Young Adult activities. She is staying with a group of teachers who are party folks and she does not want to be part of that.

After our office hours we came home and Mary got some rest because she is going to have a practice tonight. Before she laid down we read another hour from the Kitab Mormon. I am really enjoying this time through. We ordered in pizza – yeah I know but it is good and I put the left overs right into the fridge. While I ate I continued to work my way through the Liahona article on YW standards and ‘For the Strength of the Youth’ pamphlet.

Sam picked up Mary and took her to the chapel. She thought the rehearsal was scheduled for 6:30 but it turned out it will start at 7:30. She is not going to be home anytime soon. But she has a computer there and so she can work on genealogy or English class while she is waiting. I am going back to the Liahona and review the words I do not know.

28 September 2007 – Friday

Another great day of our mission. Regular morning with exercise and reading the Kitab Mormon before leaving for the mission office for a wonderful district meeting. They held it all in English so we were able to participate in everything. Elder Rowberry conducted and elder Roper gave the lesson. They have a few good progressive investigators and Jakarta Raya is hoping for a couple of baptisms in October. Unfortunately sister Hinckley and sister Sadimin were not feeling well but that does not seem to keep them from serving each day. They just work through their illnesses.

After the meeting we headed off to SoGo for our weekly shopping before going to the office. At the office Mary worked on the workshop information we got yesterday at the meeting. I worked at getting some information about the Intensive English Class out to the participants. Hopefully it will not cause them to cancel when they read what is expected. Mary also practiced what she is going to play for the choir on Saturday. She is not happy with the score she has but we can not find anyone in Jakarta that sells sheet music of choral works. There must be someplace but no one seems to know where.

We then came home where I spent the rest of the day reading Indonesian – talks from the Liahona and Kitab Mormon – writing in this journal, and writing some e-mail. We got a nice letter from Gordon Creer telling a little about how their mission was going. He mentioned that the number of Saints in his mission has not gone up in a couple of decades. I guess that in some ways the work here is easier than it is there – and it is an 95% Christian country. I will tell the missionaries to be glad they are in a fertile missionary country. Gary Carlson wrote about a program that Bill Barrett wrote before he went to Wisconsin that shows the relationships of everyone in the ward. It turns out that Gary and Mary are distant cousins. Mary worked on genealogy, did some cross-stitch, and read from the Kitab Mormon.