A series of picture taken today at the Grand Hyatt in Jakarta where Ed is staying. His room was about half the size of our whole apartment and the bathroom – which I should have shot – was huge and gorgeous.

15 March 2008 – Saturday

It was a busy and exciting morning. I went to the gym and had a good workout. After breakfast we read from the Kitab Mormon. As we were reading Ed called and we arranged to meet him for lunch. Just as we finished reading, President Marchant called and gave us the name of the couple who will replace us. It is Harold and Mina Reber and they live in Lindon so we will be able to spend some time with them before they leave for the MTC.

The President suggested I call them. I could not find anything about them on line so I called Tom and asked him to look up their number. He got right back to me but when I called no one answered so I left a message with our e-mail address so they can contact us.

This morning I have been catching up posting this journal and working on pictures. I enjoy doing this but it does take up a good chunk of time. Mary tried to call her HS English class to tell them that we would be an hour late, but was only able to get one and she was at school. Therefore we had the taxi take us to the church so we could put a sign up saying we would start class late.

We had a great time talking to Ed about his trip and looking at all of his pictures. He really went back into the boondocks on this trip to schools that were two days travel away from almost anything. The teachers there complained because their pay did not get to them very regularly. He had pictures of some amazing landscape and people that do not have a drop of Javanese blood. But as with Indonesia they all looked clean and neat no matter how far away from what we would call civilization. One group complained that they had no shoes. It seems that part of their pay is a new pair of shoes every 5 years. Of course they do not last that long so for a couple of years they go without.

After lunch Ed took us up to his room which was about as nice as we have seen since we have been here. Of course we do not stay in $150 a night hotels. However after looking at his room I got to thinking that we might splurge in Hong Kong and stay in a nice hotel.

When we arrived back at the chapel Mary had one student and so she taught him while I worked on vocabulary. I joined them for a couple of games and that was fun. We had an interesting time trying to explain the difference between slicing bread and a slice of bread. But I think that we finally got it across. He told me what the words were in Indonesian and I made sentences that corresponded to the English.

I spent part of my time pondering the scriptures. I choose 1 Nephi 4:6 “And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do.” I read and thought about D&C 42:13, D&C 11:12, and some other verses out of 1 Nephi – 4:10 and 18. I also found a talk by Hartman Rector Junior that gave me more insight into the scripture and the idea of truly being led by the Spirit. I think that I have a problem letting go of control enough to truly follow the spirit. It is not enough to ask for the Spirit to be with me, I feel that is connected to being selfish. The scripture I need to focus on is where Christ says in Matthew “He who loses his life for my sake shall find it.” It seems this subject keeps coming up in my reading and thoughts – the idea of faith leading me to trust myself and my life to the Lord.

After the class was over we came back to the apartment to read from the Kitab Mormon, take a short nap and have some dinner before going back so Mary can play for the choir. They are singing in two branches tomorrow.

When we got back to the chapel for choir practice we met Elder Subandriyo so I had some time to talk to him about his idea about scholarships for those who are exceptional students but do not have money for a high quality university education. Once I had his thoughts, I worked up some ideas about who would qualify and how to choose who to give the scholarships. Of course we will be long gone before the program really gets up and running but it is exciting to be in on the beginning.

After choir practice we basically came home and went to bed. We need to get moving early tomorrow because Mary needs to be back to the chapel for a final practice at 7:15. It has been a good day and we were able to touch some lives.