18 November 2007 – Sunday

I just had a small lesson in patience. Just before going to bed last night I tried to post my Saturday journal along with a couple of pictures. When I hit ‘publish’ the computer came back that it could not reach the website and I thought I had lost the post. This would not have been a big thing except I wrote a decent amount about the pictures. So I went to bed a little frustrated but I thought that it might have posted before the internet disappeared. This morning when I checked the blog, there was no post. But just now as I went to rewrite the entry, there in drafts was the whole thing. So hopefully I learned a small lesson in patience.

The morning however is impatient – it seems to be going by in 30 minutes leaps. I woke at 5:30 and the next thing I knew it was 6:00 and then 6:30 and then 7:00. I know they say when you get older time flies by, but this is ridiculous. I have managed to study from PMG – I am trying hard to get some vocabulary into my head. I think this stretching of my mind is one of the great blessings of the mission. I can not imagine me doing this at home but here it has almost become a hobby – certainly it is a goal.

We go to Jakarta Raya to see their Primary presentation. They have a very small primary and there is only one young man. I think the number of teachers and leaders outnumber the primary children. But they put on a good program and at the end the four active young men join the Primary for the last song and do a great job of singing. The rest of the meetings are normal – I really need to find someone who can do a good job of translating for us. I try hard to hear what they are saying but it just does not work. But meeting with the members, letting them know we want to help them with their employment, etc. makes it well worthwhile.

Our Sunday afternoon was about the same as always. About 3 hours of reading from the Kitab Mormon, studying from PMG, catching up pictures and journal, napping, etc. We like to give Sam the day off so he can be with his branch, go to his leadership meetings, and participate in whatever is going on there. The young adults and single adults of the Selatan branch are a very closely knit group who like to do things together. Most of the time it is just sitting around talking or watching a movie, but it allows them to be with men and women with the same values. I think it is great and we are glad to give Sam Sundays off as often as we can.