I think this is the largest load of boxes we have seen on a motorcycle. If you look closely you will see that the rider can not straighten up his head. Also notice how close to the road the load sits. That back box can not be over 8 inches off the ground. I have often wondered how often one of these loads gets dumped.

02 October 2007 – Tuesday

When we woke this morning there was a surprise in our e-mail. Sister Janice Creer sent us all the weekly up-dates she has written since they arrived in Ireland to lead the Dublin Mission. It was very interesting to read from the first week to now as they learned and adjusted to their new calling. They are a great and loving couple who will preside over that mission in just the way sent them there to do. Now if we could just get in contact with the Barretts we would know how all the senior couples from Edgemont 11 are doing.

This morning we were reading Helaman’s account of how, against all odds, they captured the city of Manti. The part that touched me was where he writes in 58:11 that after the Lord assured them, brought peace to their souls, and ‘granted us great faith,’ they decided to stop worrying about the odds and just go out and attack the city.

I thought of how we sometimes look at the fact that we are in a country that is 90% Muslim and less that 3% Christian and get a littlel discouraged as to what effect we can have on such a large country. But then we remember that it is the Lord’s work and faith, patience and hard work anything can be accomplished. Like Helaman and his people, we stop worrying and go out and do our work. hopefully touching and changing Indonesia one person at a time.

At the office we did our usual things – today mainly getting some things ready for the IEC and catching up some e-mails. Mary worked on Workshop rolls and practiced the piano. I helped Mary with copying she needed for her English at the mission office. It was a quiet time, but it went by quite fast.

Sam and I dropped Mary off at the mission home and headed for SoGo to get some things we need at home and to look for some posterboard for mounting Mary’s music. We ran into some terrible traffic jams and it took us almost 2 hours to do what should have taken 45 minutes at the most. And thus is Jakarta.

When we finally got back to the mission office I talked to president Marchant for a while. He asked for some things to give to the new leader of East Timor to help introduce him to the Church. I forgot to write that the president got a real sunburn the last time he went to Sumatra and so for the last few days he has been peeling. Hopefully he will at least get a good tan out of the experience.

I also did not mention that Elder Davis has been really sick for the best part of a week. It had to do with the problem that kept them from going to Micronesia as originally called. Hopefully it will not be a re-occurring problem for him. They still have not received their money and are living out of a suitcase for a month. I could not stand that …and didn’t when we were face with that same kind of problem.

Back at the apartment, we ate dinner and read from the Kitab Mormon. I ended up falling asleep on the couch before staggering to bed. Some days are like that.

I shot the motorcycle load because it was so neat looking – something you do not see everyday – and when I went to crop it, I noticed that I got a bonus of a second motorcycle load in the background. The other picture is also an accident. I was trying to get a picture of the huge orange sun that was about to disappear, but missed it completely. But I got a scene that looks so pastoral that I could not throw it away. The funny thing is that it was taken with a traffic jam and large buildings all around us but almost none of that is caught in the picture.

1 October 2007 – Monday

I forgot to mention that we got e-mail from McKay and Gentry – it is great to hear from them. Gentry has a rather heavy schedule at school and I am excited that she is taking film making. I think it will give her a chance to use her artistic side.

Today is the start of a new – and busy – month for us. They seem to be racing by much too quickly. It does not seem possible that we have been on our mission for almost 10 months. I think the fact that the lengths of the day and the weather hardly changes here makes it hard to tell what time of the year it is. They have already had snow in Utah and the leaves must be changing.

I went to the gym this morning. I am only doing enough to get the blood circulating well and not enough to lose any weight. But that is OK – I feel very good and I am trying to watch what I eat each day. After that I spent most of the morning writing in this journal and going through pictures. I also tried to read an Indonesian ‘Franklin’ book and found it is still difficult for me.

A few days ago I was reading President Monson’s talk about the effect of our personal influence on others. He recounted the story of his SS teacher who taught an unruly group of young people – including himself – by building a great relationship of trust. By being interested in them and sharing with them her own memories, hopes and dreams. How she moved them to give the money they had saved for months to the family of a class member who had recently lost the father. As I read the story I thought of all the young people who I have had the opportunity to teach and wonder how many of them I touched in some way and hoped that at least some of them remember what I taught, even if they do not remember who taught them.

The Lord gives us great opportunities and responsibilities to teach his children – of all ages. Hopefully we teach by the spirit and with a desire to show the glory of God and not to show off our own supposed knowledge and wisdom.

We did not read from the Kitab Mormon this morning. We had to leave early so Mary could attend the staff meeting at the mission office and go over how to improve their English. While she did that I had a chance to talk to Elder Walker for a short time about some of what he did in his life. Then I met with Jemmy Mongan about the couple’s conference – he is still trying to get a really good price at the Media Group hotel – it is supposed to be one of the best on Bali. I spent some time with brother Tandiman talking about scholarships and how we might get the information out to the members. I really think this is something CES should do because they see the young people all the time and know them well.

Mary ended up spending a couple of hours in her meeting and then we went to Carrefore and bought all of the supplies we will need for the Intensive English Class. Sam also found a place for them to stay so we are almost ready. Hopefully some of the English branch will volunteer to help teach. If not we will be fried by the time the month is over.

After all our shopping we went to the office where I had Sam get me some lunch – way too much lunch. Soon after we were finished with that, Elder and Sister Burr from Hong Kong came to the office and we spent something over an hour talking about PEF. I am afraid I did not make a good impression when I told them I would get excited about PEF when it was finally approved and the banking was all set up. But once we got past that we had a nice visit – mainly talking about how we grew up being poor but never knowing it and I had some questions about problems that pop up regularly. After they left we did some more work and then headed home.

We caught up our reading of the Kitab Mormon by getting in a little over two hours. We are excited about how well we are reading the scriptures. Often after we have read together, I will re-read the same section or perhaps another section just to see how well I do without Mary’s help. It allows me to write down the words that I still do not know and study them.