15 December 2007 – Saturday 

I ate way too many cookies last night and so a good workout at the gym was necessary. More folks came in that is usual for a Saturday morning. Maybe everyone is getting for the big holiday meals. We read from the Kitab Mormon – Ammon teaching king Lamoni so much that he went into Spiritual overload.  

We had to be at the chapel at 9:30 so we could start practicing for the Missionary Christmas program. We practiced from 10:00 to 4:15. Actually I practiced from 10:00 to 3:00 and then helped a brother from Tangerang with a CV for a new job. He is the brother who left a good job for what he thought was a better one only to find that the new employer was not honest so he started asking his friends that he was looking for a job and one of them got him a chance. Hopefully he will be get it because he is very unhappy where he now is. 

The program went very well. Mary played a medley of songs before the program started. During the program we sang in the choir. Mary also had a speaking part – she told the story behind the candy cane – in Indonesian. We had a great time and if it was not for the fact that my feet felt like they would fall off from all the standing in one place.  

It was great fun to participate with all the other missionaries in this district. Only the Kanes were missing and they came to watch even if they were not in it. It seems that the RS had asked sister Kane to teach a cooking lesson this morning and it had been on the schedule long before they learned about this program.  

The best part of it for me was the part as we walked down the aisles singing ‘Here we come a caroling’ and when we sang ‘ Oh come all ye faithful’ – especially the chorus where it rises in volume but also in feeling. The hairs on my arm stood up and I tingled all over.  

By the time we got home we were exhausted but happily so. We now look forward to the Missionary Christmas dinner on Christmas day. This is our second Christmas away from our family – the first came just two days after we arrived in Indonesia.

14 December 2007 – Friday 

Up and worked hard at the gym. I have decided that I spend a lot of time sitting in offices, cars, and meetings. My only real exercise is at the gym. I am afraid I need to step up my exercise a notch or just be happy with very slow weight loss. I am afraid we turned this into somewhat of a P-day. Mary and two helpers made cookies all day. We could have definitely bought them for a lot less but Mary says they would not have been as good. But I am getting ahead of myself. 

After reading from the Kitab Mormon and each taking a short nap we got busy. Daisy and a friend arrived with Sam at 10:00. While the ladies started in on the cookie making, Sam and I headed out to do a number of errands. First we went to BCA and got our prize TV – I will not say free because there is a 25% tax on prizes – 1,250,000.00 in this case. The young woman who helped me was the one who had tried to convince me on the phone that I had won. She was very helpful but even with that it took almost 45 minutes for us to complete the transaction and get the TV loaded.  

We then headed for Carrefore where we did a number of errands before going back to the apartment. When we got there we found they were very busy baking lots of cookies. Sam and I installed the new TV. It is a very nice flat screen LCD with a very, very sharp picture. Well worth our investment. I will hate to leave it here in Indonesia but the only way we could get it home would be to ship it with the Kanes furniture and then pick it up in Canada. Or have them bring it the first time they came down to Salt Lake to see their daughter. 

Mary decided that she really should go to the chapel and practice the piano and to pick up some printing we were having done. So I stayed here and wrote a lot of e-mails – we got a nice letter from Hal Lonas which I answered – and worked on doing more organizing of our latest photos. I got a great shot of a very bulky load today.  

The rest of the day was pretty much dealing with cookies. Elder Walker called and said they needed more for some food packages they were making up so they sent Ari over on his motorcycle to pick up a couple of hundred. We still probably have 150 more – most of which we will take to work tomorrow and let the elders and sisters snack on them during the day. 

After the young ladies went home, we ordered in our Friday night pizza and then watched a DVD of ‘The Good Shepherd.’ It is a very strange, slow and dark movie about the CIA. I am glad I saw it once but would not care to see it again. I am now going to read from MIK before going to sleep. We have rehearsals of the missionary Christmas program all day tomorrow and then a performance in the evening.  

It was an interesting if not overly spiritual day today. I did feel the Lord in my life today but it had to do with praying and reading. I did not do anything wrong – but I am not sure I did any good in the world today.

13 December 2007 – Thursday 

Woke just before 5 and studied conference talks from the Liahona before going to the gym. I returned to the apartment to see gingerbread houses on the Mitchells site and rusty snowflakes in the living room. Unfortunately all the crocheted snowflakes that Mary stiffened last night has rust on them because it seems that Indonesian straight pins are not stainless steel so they rusted. Hopefully she can get the stains our with bleach.  

We went into the office early so Mary could get some practice on the piano and because we thought the seamstress was coming to pick up some more fabric so Mary could have a new Christmas wardrobe. She did not make it before we had to leave but hopefully we will be able to meet up with her on Monday. 

I did ERSC work and then switched to trying to lay out the goals we want to accomplish while teaching English to the highschool students. Besides becoming proficient in English we want them to realize the value of work, become spiritually stronger, and become goal and career oriented. I would also like to see them develop hope and vision for the future. 

After our office hours, we went to the mission home where we had lunch and then Mary taught her English class to the staff. While she was doing that I talked to elder Subandriyo, met the new missionaries, order air-line tickets for our trip to Solo in January so they appeared on this year’s budget, and later talked to the president about a number of things.  

We then headed for Tangerang where we did a lot of shopping for the January Intensive English Class. Once again it was to use up more of our 2007 budget so they would have plenty for 2008. I think that we will be doing much more traveling in 2008 as the High School English program is started in more areas.  

Then we had a good District Meeting with the elders. I gave them my LeGrand Richards’ talk about how we can only solve our own problems and not others. So we need to figure out how to make the problems our instead of saying things like ‘they are not willing to help us with missionary work.’ We must say instead, how can we make it so they want to help us with missionary work.’ I also talked to them about how they were going to implement the president’s call to work around the chapel to try and build centers of strength. I suggested that they concentrate on areas that included two or more active families. Hopefully they could get the families to help them find and teach in their neighborhood. In this way the investigators would have instant support. I think they might try this and hopefully it will work. There is great new – the first baptisms in Tangerang in 2 years will take place this coming Sunday.  

Once again we did not have any students for an English class. It is getting discouraging. We need to come up with some idea on how to get the people excited about English class. Especially the younger people. I must ask president Sudjud about switching it to another night. 

The trip home was a mess going on 2 hours. With Mary not feeling very good, it made for a long trip at the end of what was a long day.  

12 December 2007 – Wednesday 

Slept in way late so I did not go to the gym. There were new pictures of Jim and Kristy’s new addition – great ones with Olivia – and from Daniel and Becky. The Jensen’s are getting grandchildren in bunches.  

We did not leave the house until 10:30 – it is P-day – to go to the mission home to practice for the Missionary Christmas Program which we will perform on Saturday. It is fun to be with all the elders from the Zone. They seem to be having fun. Sister Moore is doing a yeo-woman’s job in getting it together. After the practice, everyone stayed for lunch. The president mentioned that they had already served 100 meals this week.  

Before the meeting I went upstairs and talked to elder Subandriyo about the theme park he envisioned for Indonesia. I had received back an answer from Steve Gibson about his take on the park but I also got a more positive one from a professor at BYUH who told of smaller theme parks that he knew about that seemed to be successful. I suggested to elder Subandriyo that he contacts a couple of the people and see what they had to say. I think this idea appeals to him. I have a few thoughts about it and will send him a letter about them. I should not be surprised when one of his ideas or visions starts to jell – I do not know where this one will lead but hopefully it will lead to more jobs for members. 

Also while I was up there I was given a letter from BCA. I thought it was a notice that Tom had been able to transfer the last money that we will need for our mission. But it was a letter saying that I had won a 32″ LCD TV in some contest they held. Although it looked very authentic, I still thought it was a scam so I asked sister Autin to call and find out for me. After the practice I went up and talked to her and it turns out it is completely real and so now I just have to take a lot of proof to the service department to pick up my prize. For some reason I still think it is a scam and I will be very careful about letting any of my papers out of my hands until I am 100% sure it is legit. Of course we will leave the TV behind when we leave…probably sell it to some one very cheap. 

After that we went to SoGo for a few things before coming home. Daisy was waiting for us so she could start cleaning the apartment. We then were visited by the exterminator who sprayed everywhere for bugs and mosquitos – it turned out that we had some kind of infestation in Mary’s bathroom of flying things which he fogged and killed them. Then a man came to repair a hole they made in the ceiling to look for the source of a leak. So for an hour we had a lot going here. 

After the workmen left – Daisy was still here – we read from the Kitab Mormon. I worked on a review test for Mary’s class, sent off some e-mail, and wrote in this journal. Mary was busy with her crocheted snowflakes – she is stiffening them with a white glue solution. After watching Manchurian Candidate on TV, we read from the Kitab Mormon for the third time today. Even then we are behind. 

We got good news about Femmy getting a job in brother Soewigno’s store. It is good she has a job but it takes her out of her home in Bekasi. Hopefully she will go to church in Bogor.  

11 December 2007 – Tuesday 

I am really falling behind in this journal. So I will write today up before going back and doing Sunday and Monday.  

We woke to find we are new grandparents of a really big baby girl. 15 hours later we found out that her name is Charlotte Nicole Pier. I wonder if she will be called Charlotte, Charli or perhaps Lotti? Anyway she is beautiful with long black hair and from the pictures she seems very alert. It will be at least 6 months before we can see and hold her. Mom is also doing fine after what is a major operation.  

Normal morning – the weight continues to go down. Last year at this time I was putting on pounds – it is good to be doing the reverse this year. We only read a couple of pages from the Kitab Mormon because Mary wanted to go in early to get English work done.  

I spent most of the first 3 hours in the office working on the Couple’s Conference. It all started when I got a call from elder Palmer in Singapore saying that four from there will be coming and so I sent him the earlier outline of the conference. I then spoke to Jemmy Mongan about the president approving the hotel when he and his family go to Bali for Christmas.  

I then called the president to make sure it was OK with him for the Palmers to come and would he make a hotel choice. I then mentioned that as soon as he sent me the program, I would let the other couples know more of the details. He then informed me that he was leaving it to us to create the full program for the conference. What is funny is that this was just after I tried to convince Elder Kane that they were more qualified to handle the arrangements because they have been to Bali and we have not. He said they did not have time. 

But I did not have much trouble making a detailed outline of the program for the president’s approval. I just thought about last year and used it as a guide. Later in the day I asked president Marchant if he approved and he said it was fine. Now I just need to find out who is coming from Singapore and Hong Kong and how much time they need for training. I am sure the Lord blessed me with the ability to do this. He has to help me because I am way out of my comfort zone on most of what we are doing now. 

After lunch Mary and I both worked on the curriculum for the new English class. Mary is really putting a lot into it. I started working on how to work career choices into the program. I came up with a lot of ways to use the basic topic of career choices as a starting point for reading, writing, speaking, and vocabulary lessons. Hopefully by the time they are finished with the first year, they will have a good idea of what careers they would like to pursue, what they need to do to get into that career, etc. 

We then went to the mission office so Mary could teach her English class. As we got near the office we found the Walkers out walking. They were heading to the store to look for some ingredients for whatever sister Walker is making for the big Christmas get-together. It seems John was not working today so I volunteered Sam to take them to Ranch Market where they knew they could get them.  

While Mary gave her class, I talked to Elder Subandriyo about a number of things including the good news we got this morning that we would have an intern at Marriott this next year. He said that he did not think that she was a member. But that does not matter, our goal is to help anyone in Indonesia get a job.  

Then I had a nice talk with the Taylors. His operation went well and so they will head back to Jogya tomorrow. We talked about Singapore, missionary work, and just had a nice talk. They are a great couple and will do a marvelous work there in Jogya.  

Later the president came home and we spent 30 minutes or so talking about the conference and some other things. I told him about a concept I had about creating Areas of Strength by finding areas where two to four active families lived within 30 minutes walking distance of each other and having the missionaries work with those families to find friends and neighbors who might join the church. He said that was interesting but he wanted to wait until he found out how the Centers of Strength program worked before he tried anything new. While I was talking to the president Mary talked to the Taylors.  

On our way home we stopped at Grand Lucky and spent a fortune on things. We decided that we would not go there very often. There is just too much temptation to buy American products that we have learned to live without. As we were leaving we met sister Orton who said that with two sons still living at home, their food bill was huge because they want to only eat what they could get at home. A box of cereal that cost $9 does not last long when you have two young men chowing down.  

At home, I did some Indonesian studying and then fell asleep for an hour. We read from the Kitab Mormon – we are exactly a day behind our pace last time. Then Mary continued working on English and I started writing this journal. As I was writing Jim called us on Skype and we had a great talk about Charlotte’s birth, how mom and baby was doing, Blackberries, and other things. Everything is going well with the baby, Olivia, and his work. Kristy’s mom is coming up on Saturday and will stay through Christmas when the whole family will be there. Jim pointed out that this would be the first Christmas they would have in their own home after almost 11 years of marriage.

10 December 2007 – Monday 

Today was zone conference and so we were in our office by 8:30. As usual with Zone Conference there were a number of things I needed to hear and a lot that were more useful for the young elders. All key indicators are down from last period. I asked how they compared to last year at this time and found out that they were down. The president challenged the missionaries to spend one day working within a 30 minute walk of the chapel and try to build centers of strength. As conference went on I thought of trying to create areas of strength. That is find an area where there are 2- 4 active families that are close – one family about 30 minutes walking distance from at least one other family – and having the missionaries work with those families to find and teach people within 15 – 20 minutes of their homes. Hopefully they could then take one of the family members with them when they went out looking and teaching. I do not know if it would work but it seems like it is worth trying. 

The Kanes and the Walkers gave short presentations about their work and sister Davis talked about Toxic Shock. The president said we would be given a chance next time.  

After the conference we had a rehearsal for the Christmas program that will be next week. We ran though a part of the program where a lot of action goes on and at times it was down right hilarious. If this comes off anything like it should, it will be truly a miracle. 

After that we came back to the apartment for a quiet evening. We read from the Kitab Mormon, Mary worked on English and I kept trying to learn Indonesian.

08 December 2007 – Saturday  

We were out of the house early so we could be at the Tangerang chapel early for Joshua Samad’s funeral. I wish I had known him when he was alive for as he lay in the casket, he appeared as a sweet young man. I am also glad I could see him unwrapped from the tubes, bandages, and blankets that hid him in the hospital bed on Tuesday. 

When the pianist could not attend, Mary was asked to play. It is a role she is used to having whenever there is a need. An Indonesian funeral is short on talking and long on music – I think I want one like that. Of course they then hold a memorial a week later, then 100 days after the funeral and finally on the anniversary of the funeral. It is their way of mourning the loss of their loved one.  

After the funeral we followed the ambulance – they do not use hearses – to the cemetery which was about 45 minutes from the chapel. 90% of those who attended the funeral came along. Riders on motorcycles carrying yellow flags – their color proclaiming a recent death –  escort the funeral procession. At the graveyard a brief ceremony is held including singing, the dedication of the grave, and the sprinkling of flowers on the casket and then the grave mound. Looky gave a wonderful feeling dedicatory prayer. It is one of the many times I wish we could understand the language.  

One thing that I should say about the last part of the drive into the cemetery. For about a mile there are gardens of small purple orchids that must be grown just for the blooms to be sold to florists. I was not thinking so I did not get a picture going in or coming out. But it adds a touch of beauty to the experience. Mary pointed out that this cemetery was much neater and well kept than then others we have seen.  

After the grave side ceremony, we took the elders to a bus stop and then took a couple from Manado – he has been branch president there for many years – back to the chapel. We went home to rest up for the party at Annie’s house tonight.  

To make a wonderful evening short, we had a great time at the Limbongs. They own a very nice high school – university building with their home on the top floor. The university is much better kept up than the one where we used to teach English. The Limbongs home is gorgeous and they had a beautiful tree and Christmas decorations that were all done by the Muslim staff.  

There were a number of couples from the English branch there and a few of the Limbongs other friends. There was a lot of talking – mine mostly with Joel Guttormsen about lots of different subjects. We had lots of good food and a short program where Joel Guttormsen sang a really funny song about the 12 days after Christmas. Just before we left, I had an interesting talk with brother Ventura about building the road in Sumatra.  

So it was an interesting and spiritual day for us. We were able to share the grief and spirit of the funeral and the joy and spirit of the Christmas party.