These are the great missionaries that we have district meeting with each Friday – at least this is the current ones. The young missionaries change on a fairly regular basis. The Walkers are the Country Directors for LDS Charities and we are nominally under them. They are amazing folks who are great examples of how the Lord puts people in just the right place at the right time and then lets them go to work.

04 April 2008 – Friday – Tender Mercies

16 months ago we walked through the doors of the MTC to begin this fabulous experience. We truly had no idea of what really lay ahead of us and if someone had told us I doubt if we would have believed them. It is one of those things that you can not share with those who have not ‘been there and done that.’

Also today – it is 4 A.M. in Provo – is Brian’s 30th birthday. It does not seem possible that our ‘little boy’ hit the big 3 – 0!

As the day went on it seemed the Lord was going to make it a truly special day. The morning went well with a good workout, breakfast and reading from the Kitab Mormon. I used my personal study time to continue to try to read from the Liahona – the time passes very quickly because I have to be very focused when translating the Indonesian.

Sam picked us up and we stopped to get the copies of “25 Rules” we were having printed. They were perfect and I am sure the folks in Solo are going to appreciate them.

From there we went to the ‘Departmen Tenaga Kerja Dan Transmigrasi’ – that is RI’s department of work and transmigration – to see if we could find someone who could get us a complete listing of the training facilities on Java. They have this great program where for very little cost – free if you can convince them you are poor enough – they will teach you a trade skill that will provide you with a liveable wage. We had visited one of them earlier and were quite impressed.

The building was huge but the information desk sent us across the parking lot to the 7th floor of one wing. When we got off the elevator we were in a hallway with no signs anywhere. So we stuck our head into the first office we came to and asked the three people there for the office of the director of the training program, Abdul Wahab Bangkona.

As only the Lord could do, he was one of the three people in the office. However it was not his office at all, he was just visiting! His offices had been moved a month ago and the information desk was not up to date. He graciously took us through a maze of hallways and down some stairs to his office – at least an office as it seems they were still moving in and his office was not finished.

We then spent the better part of an hour getting to know him, learning about the program, telling him about our assignment, and in the end getting a complete list of training schools through all of Indonesia. We were able to do this without a translator because he spoke quite good English. During the time we were with him we found that he only returned from visiting Central Java last night. If we had gone in yesterday as we first thought to do he would not have been available. We left as good friends and he asked us to please write if we had any other questions. Truly the Lord blessed us as we ‘went and did what the Lord commanded.” I believe we now have enough to put forward a program that we can send to each branch president letting them know about the training school in their areas.

From there we hurried to the mission home where we shared another district meeting with the Walkers and the young missionaries. They alternated between English and Indonesian with Elder Burr being our interpreter. They concentrated on how they could use the Book of Mormon to over come some of the problems they were having with current investigators.

I should mention here that Elder Burr has replaced Elder Smith as one of the office elders and Elder Thiemann has replaced Elder Teng as one of the Assistants to the President. I was very happy to hear from Elder Bastian that he is actually starting to feel better. He has soldiered through months of headaches that nothing seemed to touch. Mary gave him some Aleve and that seems to may have been what has helped him the most.

After DM, we had lunch in the mission home. Even though they was not there, President and Sister Marchant had arranged for a great meal to be served. It was made better by our sitting around the table and talking to the other missionaries.  Continuing the successful day, I had a long list of things to accomplish at the mission office and every one of them got done.

I need to add a note here that while we were driving to our first meeting and then to the mission office, I read and re-read a talk by Elder Bednar about the need for the members to come to class prepared to participate and not just to be taught. He also pointed out that the teacher needs to allow the members of the class to act and not just be acted upon. I had read it before but this time it seemed to speak to me and my need to be better prepared to contribute to the class – not just from my knowledge but by actually studying the material, searching the scriptures, and praying for the Spirit to be with me.

After lunch and getting everything else done, we went to Sogo for some shopping and of course BreadTalk for some goodies. Back at our apartment we read about 5 pages from the Kitab Mormon. Mary then tried to nap and I went down to have my haircut and pickup our cleaning. It is so convenient to have all of these services right in the complex. The rest of the evening just flowed by with dinner, posting on the blog, and reading from the Kitab Mormon. We hit a couple of sections that seemed to be translated into Indonesian by someone other than whoever did most of the translation. They used words that do not appear often and some case not at all anywhere else. But that is just an excuse – after reading it four times we really should know what it says.

I am thankful for this day and the many tender mercies the Lord showed to us. He truly blesses his missionaries.