My good friend Kevin from the Robert’s class.  Mary and the Roberts with their HS English Class. Mt Merapi on the trip between Jogya and Solo in our private van.

28 February 2008 – Thursday

First thing in the morning we finished packing all of our stuff and, thanks to the Taylors, we had a great breakfast. Then it was time to go to the bus terminal for our trip to Solo. We ended up being the only passengers in a 9 seat van so we had plenty of room for our luggage and could spread out on the seats. We also had control of the air-conditioning. So for $5 total we had our private van for about a two hour trip. The driver was a really nice man who stopped to let me take pictures of Mt. Merapi with its interesting cloud cover – or was that smoke from the active volcano? It turned out the driver lived in Solo and he asked if he could stop by his home for a minute. We said sure and so we got to see his very nice home – he is a gardener like me – and his children. The children liked having their picture taken and the brave young man even came up and shook my hand.

We checked into the Novotel and after we were settled in the Roberts came by and we spent some time with them talking about the HS program and having lunch. They then dropped us off at the hotel where I worked on catching up the journal and photos. We read from the Kitab Mormon.

In the evening we went to the Robert’s HS class. They only had about half of the students there but it was great to meet with them again. They were the test class for this program and we feel close to them. I was glad to see a young man named Kevin there. I think he is very bright and only clowns around to be accepted. When I first came into the room I went over and said hello and saw that he was busy doing some difficult looking math. We talked for a while – he reminded me to slow down as he always does. During the class I took some pictures and some movies – it will be interesting to look at them and share them with Elder Subandriyo.

After the class we sat around and talked with President Tatok of the district presidency about a number of things. He will pick us up on Saturday and take us up to the Bennetts. When we were finished the Roberts drove us back to the hotel.

Again it was a good day that was filled with special events. The main one was seeing the enthusiasm of the English students. Because it was pouring rain, only 3 came to seminary but 6 more came for the English class. Hopefully once the rainy season is over, more of the students will come to both on a regular basis.

One of the great blessings of our mission has been being a part of the start of this HS program. Hopefully it will continue and grow to be a powerful force in the development of the future leaders of the church in Indonesia. The same is true about the Intensive English class. We have yet to turn out a student that has gone to BYUH but this last group had two that would qualify if they were returned missionaries and I believe at least one will go. I think at least one of the young men who could not take the test because they had just tried a month before may qualify the next time. The problem now is for them to have enough money to go. This is something we may try to work on after the mission.