19 March 2008 – Wednesday

Woke, prayed, studied, went to the gym for a good but shorter workout, breakfast, wrote a long letter to the Rebers who will be replacing us. We hope to be able to prepare them for coming to Jakarta so there will not be any surprises and they can quickly get to work. We read from the Kitab Mormon. We are where Aaron and his brethern are teaching the King of the Lamanites about God. As I read about the faith that the King shows in believing their words, it reminds me of how the early Christian missionaries went to the edges of the known world to spread the gospel and how so many Kings and leaders accepted it. Someday Indonesia will ripen for the gospel and until then we just do what we can do and trust the Lord to know when the harvest will come.

Since it is P-day we worked on cleaning the apartment, doing laundry, mopping floors etc. The kinds of things you have to do while on missions but never really get mentioned in home coming talks. Mary worked on more HS English stuff, crocheted a couple of baby caps, proof-read Elder Subandriyo’s talk and fixed a great dinner. I worked on pictures – the problem with having a digital camera is that I take way too many pictures – and my journal. I also managed a nap, studied Indonesian – still working on the weather with snow just not sticking, answered more e-mail, and checked all the family blogs.

We read from the Kitab Mormon two more times in Alma and ended exactly ½ way through the book for the fourth time. Hopefully we will finish by the end of April so we can get a good start on the fourth time through. As I often do I end the day trying to read from the Liahona – at least I only have to look up about every 20th word instead of every other one.

Tonight, after finishing Elder Gonzalez’s great talk on how we prepare for ‘personal earthquakes’ that are likely to strike, I turned to President Eyring’s PH talk on prayer from his personal experiences.  I know I listened to it and I know that I have read it before, but this time the message burned into my mind and heart. I was especially touched by his comments about what the Lord said to him as he prayed about his new assignment. On page 57 of the conference issue he said “The answer was very clear and very direct and really a rebuke as I prayed.’Forget yourself – start praying about the people you are to serve.’ I knew immediately that this was what I needed to do – to stop worrying about myself, how I am, my weaknesses, my failings and to start being concerned with others and their needs. I still have over two months to touch people’s lives and I need to find out what the Lord would have me do. I feel that being prompted to read this talk was one of my tender mercies from the Lord today.