08 November 2007 – Thursday

I woke much too early but I still had a great morning. Since we did not have any place we had to be until 1:00, I spent almost a full hour at the gym. Then I worked on the blog while drinking my breakfast of orange juice. We than read from the Kitab Mormon until Sam arrived to deliver Mary’s clip board which had her lesson for her 1:00 English class at the mission office. While he was here we made a snap decision to go in so I could try to read a member to get an interview for Daisy. So in 10 minutes we went from a full rest to out the door.

At the office I tried to call the brother but they said he was not in. I then sent him another e-mail asking him to either write me at our personal e-mail address or to call me on my hand phone. I then spent a couple of hours working on ‘vocabulary in context’ examples. While I was doing that Mary went to the Family History office and learned all about the new consolidated search program. Later when we talked about it she said it was great and looks forward to using it.

We went to the mission office and it was still without electricity. All they had was a generator that supplied enough for a few lights, the computers in the finance office, and a couple of fans. Sam got us lunch off the street and we enjoyed that until it was time for Mary to teach her class.

She had to hold it in the dinning area because the usual room was without lights. I sat and read from the Kitab Mormon for most of the hour. I am happy with how much I can read without looking up words or reading the English translation. At times Mary’s class got really noisy and I later told them that they were having much too much fun for really learning English.

We then came home to an afternoon of relaxation. Mary was very tired and took a nap. I read the Kitab Mormon section of PMG. This is my second time through and there are still words I do not know. But that is OK – as long as the number of them go down each time. We later read together from the Kitab Mormon and even Isaiah is becoming easier. I don’t look forward with excitement to all those in 2nd Nephi but I also do not look forward with dread.

Cindy and Krista posted comments on our blog. I was especially happy to read Krista’s and I sent her an answer. She is going to all grown up when we get home.

I am still working on Vocabulary in Context exercises. I am enjoying trying to come up with short excerpts of articles that have words that the students might actually use. Hopefully I can tie this in with a vocabulary list that they can study. But the real reason for the exercises is so they can develop a feeling or technique for figuring out the meaning of unknown words by examing the words around them.

I feel great – brother Johnson Tobing sent me an e-mail setting an interview tomorrow for Daisy. I called Sam to make sure I had the correct number for Daisy and found that she was sitting next to him. It seems that those students from this class that decided to stay in Jakarta will stay close friends. That is good. If Daisy gets this job, I have been told that Wawang will move in with Sam and Ari and Daisy will take the other room in the apartment building.

We read for one more hour from the Kitab Mormon and finish 1st Nephi and I read from the Book of Mormon before turning off the light. It has been a good day and much busier than we expected.