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.