24 November 2007 – Saturday

After a normal morning – including reading from the Kitab Mormon – we went into the office to take care of some things before heading off to a day of socializing. We sent of Daisy’s resume to another potential employer, had Sam start calling our PEF people for the monthly contact, and found out that we can access the blog from the office. So the problem is either in our computer or in the service. Strange!

We spent from about 11:00 to 2:30 having a great time attending a District Leadership BBQ at the mission complex. We got to meet the leadership in a less formal atmosphere. I did find time to talk to president Mak about elder Subandriyo’s desire to have Intensive English taught to all the highschool students. There was lots of food – including some left over ham from Thanksgiving and fresh BBQ chicken.

At 2:30 we took the Marchants and the office elders over to the English Branch’s Thanksgiving Dinner and service project. Their service project was to assemble 75 Christmas bags for children who would not usually get anything. It was well organized and the assembly went quickly. After that we socialized by teaching most of the group how to play the Kane’s dice game. Once I had played for a short time with sister Kane so I remembered how it was played, I went to another table and taught them. Everyone seemed to have fun and the time waiting for the dinner to be set up – it was catered – went quickly.

They had a full blown Thanksgiving dinner with lots of turkey, dressing, potatoes, yams, gravy, and rolls. I of course ate much too much – but I did not go back for seconds. They had a lot of great desserts and I must confess that I ate some. All in all it was a good time and we got to socialize with all the branch members. It is good to be close to them because they are such a big help with the Intensive English Class.

The dinner was held at the apartment complex where the Smith’s live. He is president of the branch and the complex is gorgeous. I imagine the apartments rents for $3000 or more a month. Many of the ex-pats live in this kind of apartments because it is a perk to get them to leave their home and also for security. But when you talk to them and see them with Indonesian saints, you would never know that they live such a luxourious life style. They are just wonderful LDS.

We were among the last to leave – the Marchants stayed so they could see the Smith’s apartment – and Annie went with us. She is a lovely young woman and I have no idea why she has not married before this. We certainly hope that it works out between her and Sam.

When we got to the apartment, Mary wanted to go see the booths and activities that were being put on by the apartment tonight. We could not miss the stage show – it was just outside our window – but there was a lot more going on. There were about a dozen sales booth set up – none of them were doing much business – and Mary found a couple of neckless that she really liked so I bought them for her as ‘Christmas’ presents.

Up on the pool level there was a huge crowd eating free food and watching the stage show acts. We only had a small cup of ice cream and some water. We also looked through a nice display of mostly modern paintings. I found one I really liked for only $90 but I had no idea how to get it home. Later I realized that it did not have a real exterior frame, so I probably could have just taken it off the stretchers, rolled it up, and put it in a tube for traveling home.

Back in the apartment we were ‘entertained’ for the rest of the night – at least until about 11 – by the bands that played almost continually outside our window. It was an unusual ending for an unusual day in the mission.