This is the first floral arrangement that we have seen on a motorcycle in quite some time. Maybe it is not practical during rainy season?
The elders of the Tangerang district and sister Rosilla about to play a version of Go Fish to help them learn English. Going from left to right around the circle is elders Hadi Suyatmo, Prause, Thiemann, Cheney, Manullang and Worwood.
Another version of Go Fish, only this time it is at the grocery store where you get to choose the fish you want for dinner and the butchers catch it and prepare it while you wait. Usually most of the tanks are full but it seems that fish was a popular choice today so only a couple of tanks were in use.
06 March 2008 – Thursday
Today’s scripture to ponder: “But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they lead to gender strifes. And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient.†2 Timothy 2:23-24.
As I read this last night, I decided that it would be my scripture for today. I wish I had lived this idea more fully. Especially the parts about avoiding strifes and being patient. I am glad I have eternity to work on these ideas – I am afraid it may take that long for them to truly sink in.
I had a good workout at the gym this morning. I am usually the first one there so I have my choice of equipment. It also lets me choose what to watch on the TV while I am on the exercise bike. If I can find something that I am interested in, it makes the time go by quickly.
Our reading from the Kitab Mormon this morning was in Mosiah where Ammon tells what a seer is and King Zenif give an account of his life in the land of Nephi-Lehi. It seems the only real mistake Zenif made was to pass the kingdom on to Noah. It goes to show that sometimes we just overlook the weaknesses of our children.
We went into the office and we both worked on our English lessons for the day. Since we have missed a number of lessons this year, I developed one that was a lot of fun but also taught a lot. Unfortunately Kathlin called and said her family would not be there. It turns out tomorrow is a holiday and so we did not have anyone show up for the class. But at least I have a great lesson for next week.
We went to the mission office where Mary taught English while Sam and I went shopping. I took a picture of the fresh fish tanks at Grand Lucky – they do like their fish fresh here. Of course there is a long aisle of cases of fish on beds of ice.
Back at the mission home, I was invited to have lunch with the Marchants and the Davises. Since I had already eaten, I just had some fruit and joined in the talking. The Davises were in Jakarta to have their KIDAs renewed but it turned out that someone at Immigration had lost the paper work and so they could not get it done. The Davises have had really bad luck when it comes to losing things. They lost the money for their car in the banking system for 3 or 4 weeks.
Then it was on to Tangerang and the District Meeting. Elder Manullang and Elder Prause got there early and let us in. Elder Cheney and Elder Worwood joined us a little later. DM went really well. Since everyone – including Elder Manullang – could speak English they were nice enough to hold it in English. We get a lot more out of this way and are better able to participate. We told about what we were doing in Central Java with the English classes and later Elder Manullang had us practice our contacting – I am afraid we were not very good.
Towards the end of the meeting Elder Thiemann and Elder Hadi Suyatmo, the Zone Leaders came in – they had been stuck in traffic – and gave some good ideas on how to improve our contacting.
Since there was no one there for English class, Sister Pier asked the elders to play a game of Go Fish that she developed for teaching English using an idea that we got from the Barnards last week. They had a great time and just as we were about to leave an inactive sister came in and so they decided to play it again. We told them that we were going home and we would pick up the cards later.
The trip home took two hours because the toll road was packed with people trying to get out of town for the three day weekend. I had enough sense to sleep through about half of it but Mary, Sam and Annie got to experience the whole thing. Speaking of those two it seems they will get married sometime in late April and Sam will go to school here in Jakarta. We are happy for them. Since the traffic was so slow, Mary was able to snap a series of pictures of a building that has neon lights around the windows that goes through an interesting color sequence. So even dark clouds sometimes have a small amount of silver lining. That sounds like a good theme for a talk or lesson on how we experience the world.
After going to bed I read again from 1 Timothy and then started another of Paul’s letters, 1 Thessalonians. As I read 3:12 “And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you.†It brought to mind the scripture from yesterday about teaching our children to love one another. Also I thought of D&C 121:45 that starts “Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith….†It seems that the last week has been filled with reminders to me that I need to show more love for everyone.
