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.