I slept in and did not go to the gym. Instead I studied Indonesian by reading from PMG. I am not sure how effective this is but it does combine two important areas of study. We read from the Kitab Mormon in Ether where Moroni is expounding on faith in things not seen. Yesterday when I was talking to Elder Subandriyo, he mentioned that sometimes as leaders we have to make decisions based on faith because we can not know for sure what needs to be done. We have to take a few steps into the darkness having faith that we will come out into the light. Sometimes I am sure we hold back our progression because we want everything to be perfect before we do something. I think many couples – including us – deny themselves blessing because they do not go on their missions until all their worldly ducks are in a row. I know now that Mary and I missed at least 5 years of blessing by not going on a mission earlier. Hopefully our mistake will help our children make the choice earlier.

I started the morning session of the IEC by listening to all of the talks again. They did not seem as good this time. The biggest change came from Rudi who’s talk lacked any feeling. I asked him about this and he said he tried to write more of his talk down instead of just having notes. I told him that he should go back to the old way and trust the Lord will help him. Hopefully they will all do well on Sunday. What a big challenge this is for them and as far as I can tell they are all from their own experiences and not borrowed from the Ensign or PMG.

I had an interesting experience during the time we had broken into two groups. Some how we got into talking about the difference in the ABCs of the two languages and when they said how they did C and gave a soft sound, I made the comment that I was surprised that it did not have the ‘ch’ sound like it always has in actual speech. I then asked them if it was ever used that way. It turned out that it always sounds that way and never ‘ch’ as we were taught. It is not a ‘See” or a “Kah” but something completely different that produces no explosion of air. I asked if any of their bulai companions had ever said their ‘C’s’ correctly. They all shook their head no, and Rudi said it did not matter. They could understand them. I guess I need to back off on ‘th’ because I can understand them. But I won’t.

After eating lunch and doing some work in the office – Sam is making our contact calls – we had Sam bring us home. We both took naps and read from the Kitab Mormon before catching a cab back to the chapel. We took all the students out to dinner at KFC. They would really rather have Padang but they ate the KFC. We walked over and while we were in there the rain came back. Sam rented an umbrella and got the car so we would not get soaked.

After we loaded them up with homework, we bid them goodbye and came home. I spent the rest of the night making up inferences exercises, reading from the Kitab Mormon – we are down to about 20 pages – and studying Indonesian. I feel that studying from PMG is helping me greatly. I studied it until I turned off the lights.

Just a note about the rainy season that is now upon us. It seems that once or twice a day a huge thunderstorm moves through. Often it dries up – except for the deepest puddles – very quickly and then the next storm moves through. The main problem this brings is the traffic gets snarled even more than usual. When it is really coming down, the motorcycles pull under overpasses and block one or more lanes of what is usually already a bottle-neck. Add the confusion of large puddles and nervous drivers and you get a major parking lot scene.