18 March 2008 – Tuesday

Normal morning – I even made it to the gym. As I was doing my workout, I decided that I would only do the strength routine every other day. I feel much better when I do not do it each day. We read 5 pages from the Kitab Mormon – before the day was over we had read 15 pages which is good for us. Of course we are in the section of Alma that is easy reading and we know about 98% of the words.

The new microphone did not work any better than the old one. When we got to the office I tried again it worked great, so it would seem that the problem is somewhere in our lap-top. Either a bad connection or something is incompatible. At least we now know we can communicate from the office computer. It will be good for the Rebers when they come.

At the office Mary worked on her English lesson for later today and I cleaned up more files. I also spoke to the Christensens in Hong Kong. Sister Christensen is having withdrawal pains from the lack of Magnum bars. I think it is strange that Walls would run out if they are that popular. We have not had anyone come in for help with finding work for over 2 weeks. We have talked to some of those we know about their work, but no one has asked for help. They do go through the magazines that we post each week so at least something is working.

Today I again thought about the idea of setting up each Sunday in a different branch. Unfortunately that would mean Sam would miss a lot of his meetings and we would not go to our branches very often, but maybe we could be of more help that way. I know we need to be patient, but that does not mean we can not try to come up with something that will help with the employment. At least the Rebers will have lots of English classes and they can become involved in Humanitarian projects.

Mary hit the jackpot as to clothes today. Our wonderful seamstress brought her lots of blouses, skirts and two temple dresses. She is going to go home with a huge wardrobe – I am going home with two new shirts and a lot of ties. Oh and she took in a couple of pairs of pants for me. Hopefully she will need to do more before we are released.

Speaking of that while at the mission home we got our travel plans. We will leave here on Monday the 2nd of June and spent the next three nights in Hong Kong before flying home – we arrive 1 ½ hours after we leave – which is pretty good for a 12,000 mile flight – on the 5th of June. The only complaint is that we are traveling economy. So I wrote the travel department to find out how much it would cost to move up to business class. It would be a lot nicer for that long trip across the Pacific. Hopefully it will not be too much more. It was interesting that we did not get excited about getting the plans – we are not in any hurry to leave but I am sure we will feel different when the time comes to go.

When we went to the mission home I had a long talk with Elder Subandriyo. He has to add 5 pages to the talk he will be giving at BYUH – he is the only speaker. We talked about the scholarship fund and scholarships in general. It seems you have to be in the top 5 of your class to be eligible for scholarships. We need to make sure the young people know this.

He told me that PEF for Indonesia is not dead. They are now thinking about making the loans straight from the US and the student would repay the loan through a credit card. But that is not anything we will need to worry about. Hopefully it will come to pass so all of Indonesia will be opened for PEF loans. That with the scholarship program that may become a reality would mean the qualified students would be able to go to good schools.

While Mary taught her class, I read the latest Chruch News – the story on the back about the missionary who did not find out for 50 years about his success was great. It is the kind of thing that all missionaries need to read. If we do our best, we should not worry about the results that are seen but trust the Lord to harvest what we plant. While we were there we shipped some things off to the Bennetts and the Taylors – a week late but at least they are on their way.

We did our usual shopping at Sogo including BreadTalk. Watermelon has become a staple of my diet – I am sure it has little in the way of nutritional value but it is filling and easy to prepare. I know nothing that we bought from BreadTalk is good for us…we will repent sometime.

The afternoon and evening was spent at the apartment. I spent much of the time at the computer working on pictures and the blog. It takes a good deal of time to post and I can see why the kids do not update very often. But it is enjoyable and I always feel good when it is done. As I mentioned above we read for a couple of hours from the Kitab Mormon and I spent some time trying to get the weather related words into my mind. It seems to be going better as long as I do not try to remember too much at one time.

Big bulky load of something – there is a driver somewhere in there.

The first two are just interesting load. I call the second one One of Everything. The third picture is a load of fresh goat skins – now if I can just get one with a couple of goats on the back.  MacDonalds delivers everywhere. This is one of 8 to 10 at one location. Motorcycles are the only way you can deliver food in Jakarta – if you tried to use a car the food would always arrive cold if at all.

 

The first picture is sister Hash with the Roberts. Next is Mary with the Walkers and Sister Marchant. As you can see we ate well at the mission home. We often laugh at how often President and Sister Marchant have overnight guests in the mission home and how often they have guests for lunch and dinner – we call it the Mission Hotel. The third picture from left to right – The Roberts who are serving in Solo, Us, and the Hashes who are serving in Malang. This is probably the last picture of us together in Indonesia. If we get together again it will probably be in Utah.

17 March 2008 – Monday

We had a great surprise this morning. Jim and Kristy called on Skype. We did not have our camera so we could see and hear them but we could only chat with them. It worked well and there was no drop out. I think I will buy another camera today and a separate mike and see it that works – I am thinking that the camera we got is not good. It is too bad I have taken 18 months or so to figure that out. Olivia is really speaking clearly and we got to hear her sing a couple of songs.

We read from the Kitab Mormon before leaving for the mission home so we can get out Visas renewed. We thought we were to leave at 10 but of course there were some problems and we did not leave for Immigration until 1:00. But we had a nice visit with Hashes and the Roberts – especially Elder Roberts who I really enjoy talking to because he has had a very interesting life. Mary, and sisters Hash, Roberts and Walker started crocheting baby caps – it looked like a real knitting circle. The Marchants were nice enough to fix us all lunch.

Diaz – the expediter – is a really good man. He works very hard to see that things go smoothly at Immigration. Today he started at 7:30 but he could not get things ready until just before lunch hour and that is why we had to go at 1:00. Once we got there it took less than 10 minutes to get the paperwork signed. We said goodbye to the Roberts and Hashes for probably the last time before we head home. Actually we will probably see the Hashes when they leave in May.

On the way home we stopped at Carrefour to see if we could get a camera and microphone that worked better for Skyping. We bought a cheap camera and separate mike. Back at the apartment I hooked things up and found that the camera worked well but the mike did not. I fiddled with it for a long time with no results. I will try again tomorrow.

The rest of the day was rather laid back. We did read from the Kitab Mormon for a couple of hours and I read from Psalms and the Gospel of John but it seemed the day just slipped away. It seems anytime we break our regular routine we are not able or perhaps willing to make alternate plans.

Jakarta Street Scenes – I could not get a really good picture of this chair on the side of a building but this gives a good idea of its size. We were too close to cart load of tires to get a full view. I like the way the colors of the cart contrasts with the tires. The last picture is just a shot down one of the little alleys that we see all along the streets – often just between two buildings. This is one we see each day when we go to the office.

  Ed and us at the Jakarta Raya chapel. He really thought this was funny after seeing the largest Mosque and the oldest Catholic church in Indonesia. I told him it was not the outside but what is inside that counts.

When the crisis hit Indonesia in 1997-98 a lot of building that were under construction went unfinished because of lack of finances. Just down the street from our apartment is one of them. About two months ago we started to see some activity at the site. These are shots of the workers breaking back the old concrete to a point where there is good rebar to tie into. Mary pointed out that the crane in the first picture seems to be resting on a pole covered with ivy.

16 March 2008 – Sunday

We were up early so we could be ready to go to the Selatan chapel for Mary to play for the District Choir – which basically is the Selatan Choir. While they practiced I wrote more about the Scholarship fund and then stood outside and greeted members of the English branch when they arrived. The Roberts came with President and Sister Marchant – it is always good to see our friends from Solo. They are here to renew their visas tomorrow – the Hashes will be in later today.

The choir sang in the English branch and were very good for the small number and the quality of most of the voices. They were exceptionally good at the very end when they joined in singing out. The talks were on Pride and Humility and sister Ventura gave an excellent talk with good stories to illustrate her points. It was good to be able to understand everything that was being said. I liked the quote “Feed humility into your soul and it shall come out in your actions.”

After the English branch Sacrament meeting we talked to some of the members and then waited for the Selatan branch to start. Of course it was all in Indonesia and Hani – Elder Louhannapessey – who was in our last IEC translated for us. He did a good job and I think it increased his confidence. We certainly hope that he will get a high enough grade on the Michigan test that he will be able to get into BYUH.

The choir sang again but this time they were not as together as they had been for the English branch. I was surprised because I thought they would be less nervous in their own branch but it seemed to be the other way around.

Unfortunately they had too many speakers and they all spoke too long so the concluding speaker – Elder Subandriyo – had to cut his remarks very short. But in those few minutes he got a strong message across. He is an excellent speaker and his points are always direct and right on the mark. It has been a pleasure to serve with him.

After the sacrament meeting we came back to the apartment because Ed was coming over for lunch. It will be the last time we will see him until he comes back in about 2 weeks. I spoke to President Marchant about this and he said that was fine. He even invited him to come to dinner at the mission home tonight. I was sure that Ed would be much too busy for that but it was very nice of the President to extend the offer.

We took Ed to the Park Hotel for a nice lunch and we had a great time talking about lots of things – none of which were really important except to us. When the bill came I started to pay it and then remembered that they did not take BCA Debit cards. So Ed ended up paying for a rather expensive lunch. As we were walking out, I said that I had not lost my touch and I could still get him to do things when I didn’t want to do them. We all had a great laugh.

Sam had agreed to drive us around for a little Jakarta sightseeing. So we spent 90 minutes seeing the Mona statue, the big mosque, etc. The hit of the visits was when we took him by the Jakarta Raya chapel. We had just seen this beautiful mosque and the oldest Catholic church in Indonesia so when he saw this non-discript building in the midst of a set of industrial buildings he really cracked up and insisted that we have our picture taken in front of the shuttered chapel. After a little more touring around we dropped him back at his hotel and said goodbye.

We had just enough time at home to take a short nap before catching a taxi to the mission home for dinner with the Marchants, Roberts, Hashes and the missionaries. It was great to talk to the couples and the elders while enjoying some excellent food.

I think Elder Bastian is trying to get me to speak Indonesian. He was reading the Kitab Mormon and I asked him what he was reading because I managed to leave my glasses at home. We got to talking and I mentioned that we could read about 95% of the KM. I told him I could not understand or speak Indonesian because I have to see most of the words in my head before I can translate them. He tested me by slowly reading from Alma and I was surprised how much I could translate but there were a number of words that I had to have him spell before I knew what it meant. However that brief exercise gave me hope that someday I might be at least able to understand the language.

President Marchant had arranged for the six of them to go over to Elder Subandriyo’s house. We did not go because we have been there a number of times – the last time just 3 weeks ago. I do not think the other couples had ever been there. So we caught a taxi home and it was nice to take off the tie for the first time today.

We read from the Kitab Mormon – the only time we did today and then Mary headed off to bed. I surfed through what was on TV and decided that I would rather study some Indonesian. I am trying to learn all the words that have to do with Cuaca – that is weather. I am also reading some of the Psalms in a hit and miss manner. Whoever wrote them really did have a great love for God and thought a lot about his relationship with Him.