27 October 2007 – Saturday
It is going to be a long day for me. I woke up at 3:30 and never really got back to sleep. I finally gave up at about 4:45 and started studying PMG in Indonesian. Time goes by quickly when I do that and it was soon time to head down to the gym. After exercising, showering, and breakfast we read a couple of pages from the Kitab Mormon. We are almost to the end of Ether. I also spent some time working on the Inference exercises for class. We are hoping these simpler exercises will allow them to be more successful and gain confidence for when they have harder stories.
I listened again to the students sacrament meeting talks. We got to use the chapel and the sound system so they are getting use to being up there. I am somewhat worried that a couple of them might ramble a little and they are hard to understand at times, but they will do great. We are going to the English branch so we can hear them speak.
Mary gave them a test for the rest of the morning class. While that was going on, Sam and I made a quick trip to SoGo to get me some orange juice and a few other things. Earlier Mary had pointed out that today is the 50th anniversary of my baptism – my 50th birthday into the church. In Indonesia the person who is celebrating their birthday provides the party. So I bought bananas and some fresh sugar buns for everyone and we had a little party at lunch time.
When the afternoon class started I worked with them using the first ones I made and they did pretty good. I did find that I needed to improve some of the statements to be less ambivalent. (*That is a good vocabulary word..) We than split the class for the remainder of the period.
Mary was scheduled to play for choir practice so she stayed to teach the evening class and I came home to do laundry, wash dishes and get her some dinner. I ordered her a nice dinner from our in house restaurant and Sam took it back with him. I must confess that although I did the chores and worked on more Inference practices, I also fell asleep for about an hour. Waking at 3:30 finally caught up with me.
Mary made it home soon after 9:00. I expected her to be exhausted but she was in good spirits. She is an amazing lady. Anyone who has put up with me for all these years has had to be.
My memory has never been great and I have only kept journals on and off. Therefore there has been a lot of things happen over the last 50 years that I can not recall. But I do know that being baptized into the Lord’s church is one of the defining moments of my life. What a blessing it has been to be in the Kingdom for these last five decades. To have the opportunities I have had to serve in so many callings. To have had so many wonderful bishops and stake presidents. To have been able to teach and be taught. To be able to serve a number of times as a missionary – stake and full time. To meet and come close to so many people who have touched my life for good. And hopefully touching others lives for good.