Daily Archives: October 9, 2007

08 October 2007

08 October 2007 – Monday

I got up and went to the gym – it is really an enjoyable experience and if I ever figure out how to keep my mind occupied I would spend more time exercising. Regular morning with Kitab Mormon and such.

When we got into the car, Sam said some of the young ladies had already arrived and were now on their way to Bogor to visit some friends. We dropped Mary off at the office and then went to do a number of chores. First to the mission home to take some packages that sister Mongan asked us to bring to friends in Jakarta, pick up a few things, and ask elder and sister Walker to teach some of our classes. Next we went to Sogo to get some orange juice – my breakfast – but found that they did not have any. Also we tried to buy a new ink cartridge for our broken printer but again without success. After that failure, we went to Carrefore where we got the print cartridge and all the other things we needed for the students.

It was then back to the mission office to drop off the cartridge so Hendra could find out for sure the printer was broken – it was and he will get it fixed. We had lunch from BYU and I had a great talk with Soewigno about his businesses. He is very successful at what he does and has built two houses with the profit. He uses one to live in and for his store. The other one is a warehouse and a restaurant. I learned all about making meat balls and the rest of the business. I also talked to elder Subandriyo about the IEC and invited him to come and speak to the students tomorrow. We decided to raise the daily food budget to R20000. The Walkers agreed to teach two afternoons a week.

When we finally got back to the office, I called Joel and he said president Smith was getting people to help with the class and the evenings. I called the president and he gave me the names of five families who were willing to help. This means we should have each evening covered and most of the afternoons.

We then came back to the apartment to rest up before starting the class at 6 p.m. We read from the Kitab Mormon before taking our naps.

Everyone was waiting for us when we got back to the chapel, so we got started early. The students seem to all have fair to good English. Daisy even used the word siblings when introducing herself. That is a word that is not well known in Indonesia. We gave out the supplies, went through what was expected, gave them a pep talk about studying, speaking only English, etc. I tried to get across the importance of doing their best in this class and then continuing to study after it finishes.

We had Sam go get KFC and after eating that we called it a day and sent them home to rest. We came home and read from the Kitab Mormon before going to bed. It is a humbling experience to have the responsibility to teach these young members. I feel developing this program was one of the important reasons we were sent here to Indonesia and Jakarta. Hopefully the Lord’s trust in us will not be shown to have been misplaced. We certainly need all of His help to succeed.



07 October 2007

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I love this picture of the cart before the horse…the colors of the load, the bright turquoise wheels – it just seems to work. This shed is just across the fence from the Solo chapel. I thought the design, the rust and the feeling made taking the picture worthwhile. Mary training sister Endang. The last picture is an early morning view from our room. It shows how clear the air is in Solo – so different from Jakarta.

07 October 2007 – Sunday

We had a pleasant morning, except for a problem with the hot water. It seems they had worked on the hot water pipes or had a break in the hot water pipes during the night and so when we went to shower the water had lots of dirt in it. Mary did not notice it until after she had showered and saw the black water in the bottom of the tub. I decided it had probably been cleaned out when she took her shower so I went ahead with mine. When I looked at the towel I used to dry off, I found it covered in black dirt. I did not want to think about what I had used to wash with. I am glad I kept my mouth shut. I am kicking myself for not taking a picture of the residue in the tub – it was gross.

We packed up most of our things and then had a nice breakfast with Lukito. After that we pretty much finished out packing before heading off to the conference session. When we got to the location, we found all the missionaries – including couples – in lines greeting people. I joined the line and shook hands with lots of members.

The conference session was good. There was lots of singing, elder and sister Barnard spoke, the translators need improvement, but did quite well. Vita was the best translator but ran into a problem when sister Marchant used a different talk that Vita thought she would. There was three choirs that sang, including a primary choir that sang before the meeting started.

When the meeting was over we said goodbye to all the couples and took pedicabs back to the hotel. We finished packing and then had lunch with Lukito. The hotel van took us to the airport. Lukito was scheduled to be on Lion Air with president and sister Marchant. We were on Garuda which left an hour earlier. However the Lion Air flight was delayed 2 hours and they were all able to get on the flight with us. I had a good talk with the president while waiting for our flight, he has a wonderful vision of the church and missionary work in Indonesia.

I had a good experience on the plane. I sat next to a young woman and started a conversation. I found she spoke excellent English and so I talked to her about where she learned it. To make a long story short, I ended up giving her an English Book of Mormon, a pass-along card, showed her Moroni 10:3-5, and got her card so the missionaries can take her a Kitab Mormon. She has a great job with a multi-national insurance company. If nothing else she now knows about the church and maybe it will lead somewhere. The Lord does provide if we are willing to try.

We took the Marchants to the mission home and then made it to our apartment. Sam kept the car so he could pick up our students when they come in. He seems to have just about everything ready at their apartments so we should be set for tomorrow.



06 October 2007

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Entertaining an active young man. Sister Marchant with elder Porter at dinner. Sister Roberts will shoot me if she ever sees this blog…she is a great missionary and lots of fun.

The sun is up here in Solo before 5 a.m. – I guess it rises over Surabaya even earlier. I almost got up the will power to go to the gym, but the fact that the only way there is to tramp through the lobby in my gym outfit cooled my desire and it did not take much more for me just to turn over and go back to sleep.

While I was working on this journal, I got a Skype message from Lukito. He made it to the airport and will call when he gets to the hotel. Breakfast and reading from the Kitab Mormon made up the morning.  Later Lukito came up and we went over some things for the meeting today. We will get together for lunch and then go over the chapel.

Basically the training is a bust. Only one specialist comes to the meeting so he and sister Endang get a lot of personal attention. Mary and I sit there without really knowing what is going on but it seemed to me that they were not doing much talking about training. It turned out they were discussing why the church did not use the money that goes to non-LDS through LDS Charities for the members. It is a re-occurring question here. Things like why do we build new houses on Sumatra for non-members instead of for members in Solo. Telling them that it is the Lord’s way, does not always satisfy their feelings.

After that meeting we meet and greet until it is time to go to the general adult meeting of the district conference. They have translators but other than Vita they are only fair and for some reason my headphones keep cutting in and out. I was impressed by the talk of the first counselor and the president of the district. Although some of their words got lost in translation, their love and spirit came through clearly. Unfortunately there was a problem with president Marchant’s video presentation so about ½ of the translation could not be read. It was on how members can influence their neighbors and help them to find the gospel. It was the story of four or five converts and why they joined the church.

I had the interesting experience of entertaining the young son of the district president. For some reason he thought I would be a great person to play with so he came and visited me a couple of times. I ended up picking him up and holding him. At least this kept him from running all over the chapel – something he was doing for most of the time I was not holding him. Sister Roberts told me later that it was strange that he went to me and let me pick him up. It seems he does not do that with most people. I guess he liked my wrinkles and gray hair.

After the meeting we headed back to the hotel where all the missionaries – senior and young – enjoyed the buffet. The president arranged a special meal for all of us. The missionaries ate their fill – all the desserts disappeared and so did a lot of ice cream. We had a good time talking to other couples and the missionaries we knew. President Marchant took the opportunity to make a contact and I supplied him with a pass-along card. Never leave home without one.

After stuffing ourselves, we said goodbye to everyone and headed up to our room. We then read from the Kitab Mormon before going to bed. The day was good because of the company and the spirit that I felt, but I do not feel good about the main purpose of our trip not being fulfilled. We did not really get a chance to train sister Endang on what we put on the computer and we did not get to train most of the branch specialists about the importance of their callings. Hopefully sister Endang can train them in the months to come.