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.