22 November 2007 – Thursday – Thanksgiving

For the second day in a row I woke late and did not go to the gym. Tonight I will set the alarm for 5 so it does not become a habit. I tried to post to our blog but obviously something is wrong there  because I can not get a connection. I checked to see is WordPress was down but it was fine so I guess there is a problem with the blog itself. Hopefully Jim will get it fixed so I can get back to posting.

We read from the Kitab Mormon before Sam came to pick us up. He took us to the mission home and dropped us off with all our goodies. The rest of the day was spent with all the missionaries from the zone except for the Walkers and the Kanes who were off to the closing of the water project. The first couple of hours were spent practicing for the Christmas program – I am not sure what Christmas program we are singing in but one of the many that will be held during the season. Sister Moore is the choir director and program producer. Our own Jin-Young plays the piano – it was good to see her again.

Sister Miller from the English branch was also there and told about her experiences as a missionary in the German area of Switzerland. It was a very hard mission and they could tract all day and not have anyone answer the door. They were excited when anyone would talk to them for even a minute. But she bore her testimony that the Lord sends each missionary out for a certain reason and they need to make sure they accomplish it. Later I asked her what hers was. She said that one Sunday she sat next to a sister in church who turned out to be the non-member fiancé of an active member. Later the man called and said his fiancé had been going to church for 2 years but would not take the missionary lessons. But after meeting sister Miller (who was sister something else then) she wanted her to teach her about the gospel. It turned out to be the only time her and her companion had ever taught all the lessons. In fact she had only taught the fourth one other time. The woman ended up getting baptized.

What was interesting was that sister Miller had torn up her knee a couple of time and had a surgery. The mission president wanted to send her home but she told him that she felt there was something that she needed to be there to take care of. After the baptism she did go home 2 months early to have corrective surgery. It was a powerful story and we both had tears in our eyes when she was done. Hopefully we are doing whatever special thing we were sent here for.

We had our Thanksgiving dinner with all the missionaries – there was a little turkey and lots of ham, potatoes, fruit, gravy, sweet potatoes, and dressing. Everyone had all they wanted to eat and the president even invited the office staff to come down and eat. They did and then ended up doing most of the dishes – without being asked of course. I took the task of cleaning off plates so they could be washed.

We then all watched the first of ‘The Work and the Glory’ movies. It is quite good – too bad the second one was so poorly done. The missionaries all reacted when there was any kissing. After the movie we all had dessert. Sister Walker had made banana cream pie – which was the favorite or myself and elder Collings.

When dessert was over and I had help cleanup, we sat down with the Davis’ and went through an English program that sister Davis has been working on. Actually it was organizing some lessons that sister Peterson had done. It is a very good program with lots of activities and three skill levels. It is quite possible that we can use it as the basis for the English program for the whole country. It would be great if we did not have to start from scratch. The Davises have put a lot of work in on this. The Lord seems to want this program to move forward.

We then gathered up all our stuff – it had been increased by our Christmas package from Jim’s family – and caught a taxi home. We were quite tired by that time, but we decided to read a conference talk in Indonesian. I thought we would have a very hard time, and although it was not as easy as some of the Kitab Mormon, we were able to get most of it without looking up many words. However at times the translation came out much different than what the Ensign had. I would not want to be a translator.