Mary bead shopping. This little shop probably has more beads than what you might find in a large mall store. Mary had a great time looking through all of these goodies for just what she wanted for her necklace.

These are for Shauna – you might want to expand your business into a Dental Boutique and Beauty Clinic with a branch here in Jakarta. Also you might consider making false teeth. There seems to be a big market for them here.

Elder Tuxworth about 3 hours before he got on a plane to head home to Australia. Sam snapped the picture without warning us. Elder Whitmore on the day he was to be released with our good friends elder Roper and Thiemann. Elder Thiemann was just called as the Barat Zone leader and elder Roper was just being released as an office elder and has now been transferred to Solo…I think.

I shot the first picture so I could get the bread cart. As I looked at it, I discovered that I had captured almost all means of transportation in one shot. What is missing is an ankat and a bus. I also noticed I had a picture that I have been trying to take for quite awhile – a motorcycle carrying a ladder. This is not as big a ladder as some we have seen but it is a decent sized one. The bread cart is one of a fleet of carts that go out each morning and travel through the living areas delivering and selling bread. They pedal down the main streets right along with the cars, motorcycles and buses. Jakarta is an amazing city.

Two motorcycle loads that, while not spectacular, are interesting. The first is carrying badminton racquet, towels, and other goods. The blue and gold baskets carried bread. All of these loads adds interest to our many hours in the car.

Three pictures of scenes I found interesting. The first is a soccer team. What is not clear is there is a bus behind this first group that is filled with fans and another 20 or 30 are sitting or standing on top of the bus. It is stopped right now, but they will stay up there when it starts to move. It is amazing that we don’t read about 50 young people dying when one of their buses is in an accident.

The second scene I call – Competition. On the far side of the lamp post you can just see a fruit seller. For many months he was the only seller on this corner and he was always busy selling mangos. About two months ago the seller nearest the camera moved next to him. He brought in mangos and papaya. So the first seller brought in papaya. Now it appears that the newest seller is getting more business than the first one. What is really interesting about this is that both of them probably pay some gang that allows them to set up their stand there. If this is true, obviously the new man on the corner paid enough to get this choice spot that whoever is in charge allowed him to compete with the first seller.

It just goes to show that location, product diversity, competition and in this case probably a bribe works in Jakarta as well as the rest of the world to produce a successful business.

16 November 2007 – Friday

Study Indonesian from PMG – I never cease to be amazed at how quickly I can forget what a word means. The Lord seems to be testing my patience by letting me slog on without the gift of memory! I am stretching out my exercise routine – trying to get back in shape at the age of 69 is not easy. To anyone who might be reading this – stay in shape from your youth. When it says ‘super-size’ it is talking about your waist as much as it is the portion. Take it from someone who has said that way too often.

I had a rather busy morning, mainly doing a lot of writing. It seems I spend a lot of time at a computer writing journals, lessons, e-mails, etc. I am not sure that a computer is always a blessing. Perhaps the Luddites have the right idea?  We read from the Kitab Mormon and finished the Isaiah sections – it is like coming out of a storm into a peaceful countryside. At least even Nephi realized that Isaiah was difficult to understand.

We went into the office to get some things done and to pick up some books before heading to the mission home and our second district meeting. When we got there, I took just a couple of minutes to talk to elder Subandriyo about Ezra and the English program. The district meeting went well and they were nice enough to do it in English. I gave the spiritual thought – about the call to implement an English class. Elder Teng gave a lesson on ‘Goal Setting.’ It was the same topic that we discussed last night in the Tangerang district. I mentioned to the A.P.s that PMG carefully says that district and zones are not to set goals for missionary companionships – they can set Standard of Excellence, but the companionship should set any goals.

After the meeting I spent another couple of minutes with Elder Subandriyo and my thoughts on branches where they are too far away from the branch to meet there each day. I said I thought that what would be needed was a 3 – 4 hour class, once a week. He seemed to agree, but ask me to run it past President Mac. We would try it here first before initiating it in other areas. I just thought about the problem of where there is no couples.

As I spoke with elder Subandriyo, I could see and feel the urgency that he seems to have about this program. He wants to get it started right now. It must of been how Nephi felt when the Lord told him to build that ship. All he could think of was what he needed to do first and had faith that everything would fall into place if he just got started. I think that is how elder Subandriyo feels.

I made Mary’s day by suggesting we go to Majestik so she could shop for some beads and material. It a truly wild place where you can get anything that has to do with clothing, hobbies, and just about anything else. Mary wanted to buy some beads so she can make a necklace. She knew right where it was and a great time picking out just what she wanted. The whole bead shop is about 4 feet by 6 feet and was just jammed with shelves covered with little boxes of beads.

While Mary shopped I walked around and got hot. I took a short movie of a man who free-hand embroidered a piece of material. Mary said that she had seen him sew lace.  As we were walking back to the car, she stopped in to look at some material. We found a gorgeous piece of blue print, that even I was excited about her buying for a skirt and blouse – to be worn separately.

That was it for our outside work for the day. Back at the apartment we spent time reading from the Kitab Mormon, taking a nap, and eating our date night meal of Pizza Hut pizza. Then I sat down at the computer and hammered out a very early proposal for the new class which I then sent to president Marchant and elder Subandriyo. It gives a basic time line for getting things started with a short pilot program and then a little longer one. We will fly to Solo on the 26th to run the short program for four days. We hope to have the first full time class up and running by the middle of the month and with the Lord’s help it will come to pass.