After the explosion – some smoke flowing out. Look Dad – I can ride it backwards. This bike load looks impressive but they are empty cans. It is a common load here in Jakarta.
23 October 2007 – Tuesday
A very normal day for us – at least normal while an Intensive English Class is going on. I exercised, drank my breakfast, and we read from the Kitab Mormon. I continued to spend some time reading from PMG in Indonesian. We got the sad news that the daughter of an old friend of ours from the Lennox Ward days had did of a massive overdose. Her father had been inactive for quite a while but had returned to the church. We also got to talk to Tom and his family for a short time this morning via Skype. William is becoming a chatter-box and sounds like he is all boy. We also got some photos that Kristy sent of Olivia. Mary showed them to everyone at the mission home.
We had a little excitement this morning when we stopped to pick up Mary’s music copies. Sam and Mary went up to the counter to and I stood around looking for some good motorcycle loads. All of sudden I heard a big bang behind me and so I turned around but everything looked OK. I asked Mary what had happened and it seemed some electrical device in the shop exploded. No one was hurt but there was a good deal of smoke. One of the big problems they have in Indonesia is people run electrical cords everywhere and they have lots of fires start from overloaded circuits. Luckily this one did not cause a fire – it did not even cut off the electricity. Maybe they do not have a fuse or breaker box.
We had the morning class and after starting together we broke into groups. I worked my section pretty hard. I still am not sure what they need most but right now I am working mainly on vocabulary and learning to write and speak good sentences. One of them is having trouble with constructing sentences – he tends to make them too complex.
After the morning class we immediately went to the mission office to have lunch and for Mary to teach her 1 p.m. class. When we got there Mary was reminded that the Tuesday class was to start at 3 p.m. However since everyone was there, they had it at 1 this week but it will move to 3 next week. I had a great meal from BYU – they had cucumbers again.
I had a nice talks with Elder Subandriyo and then with the president. Each time I sit and talk with president Marchant I learn something. Today he talked about the missionaries having pictures of their family or girl friends on the wall above their desks. He said he thought that should be stopped – that anything that took their minds away from their missionary work should be put away for two years. Especially the pictures of the girl friends. I thought that may be true for us also. Maybe we need to only communicate with our children and grandchildren on P-day. It would be hard but if all them would send us letters, etc. during the week, then on P-day we could respond to them and others. I am not sure we can do it, but perhaps we could work towards it.
The main thing that my talk with the president did for me was to testify again that he was certainly called of God for this position. It was time to have a soft but firm hand to guide the mission for the next three years. It also confirmed to me that each person is called to a position at the time their talents are needed and that the changing of leadership is important to keep the kingdom moving forward and not stagnating.
Next it was time for Sogo – I was completely out of orange juice. We of course also hit BreadTalk and our fix of bakery goods. They were not running at full capacity because most of the bakers were on holiday. They were not allowed to take it when everyone else did because the bakery is very busy at that time.
Our evening was spent reading the Kitab Mormon, studying Indonesian, and working on projects. Mary worked on getting her music on to the poster board we bought a couple of weeks ago. She is so happy that Lisa got her music that she can easily read. Before turning off the light I continued to read in PMG. I hit a quote from elder Holland and the change to non-church words really slowed me down. But it is the only way I am going to learn to read and speak Indonesian to members and non-members.