Daily Archives: January 13, 2008

14 January 2008

I am not going to bother to try and catch up this journal on a day to day basis. We are way too busy and I do not imagine anyone misses reading it.

 We are in the midst of our 3rd Intensive English Class. The High School English test classes are running in three cities and the one report we got sounds like they are at least being attended well. Solo Barat and Tengah branches had as high as 20 students come to the class. I am sure it fluctuates but hopefully the Roberts can keep the interest up so that it stays in the mid-teens.

The first weekend of the new year found us in Yogakarta where we gave the couples all the things they needed to start teaching the HS English classes and held a fireside for the HS students and parents. I got to speak and answer questions for about 25 minutes. There was also a nice program put on by the HS students from Solo Barat and Tengah. Elder Subandriyo also was there. I think it worked well and the fact that many people who were not HS students wanted to join – we are not going to let them – shows that they are truly interested in learning English. Also the fact that 20 students showed up for the first class – we did not know there were that many even available – gives a good indication that at least I did not scare anyone away.

 We stayed in Solo for church on Sunday and I got to be part of a PH choir. They have a tradition that on the first Sunday of each month, all the PH come to the front and sing the opening song. Later in a joint meeting of PH and RS, the branch president asked me to come up and talk a little about jobs. I called up the branch employment specialist and talked about how if people who needed a job and people who knew about jobs would let the brother know, he could then put the needs and openings together. If they did this as a district, they would not have as many people out of work.

The branch we attended has an average attendence of 160. It was just like being in a sacrament meeting in the US. There was a good mix of families, lots of young children – who cry and fuss just like ours did – and a good group of youth. It was a real pleasure to experience what the church will be like in Indonesia in the future.

 We had some problems getting out of Solo – the last flight out was cancelled so we got to spend an extra night but arrived home in time to get ready for the orientation meeting for the new Intensive English Class on Monday night.

Tuesday I came down with some nagging illness that lasted most of the week but by Saturday morning it ran its course. Unfortuately with me being ill, Mary had to shoulder most of the teaching for the first four days of the course. This caught up with her on Saturday and so the roles got reversed for the first half of the day. In the afternoon I taught the IEC while she did the first test of the 3 hour – High School English class.

 Sunday the 13th we went to the Tangerang branches. It was strange because for the first time since we got here the branches exchanged times so we went to T2 first and then T1. As usual Mary played for T1 sacrament and then we went to their Gospel Principles class where they had one investigator who seemed very interested.

 So went the first two weeks of the year.