Mary and the button store – there are three aisle of buttons stretching for perhaps 40 feet each and everywhere there are shelves full of boxes of buttons. If you can not find the button you want here, it probably is not made. Mary restrained herself and only bought three styles or sizes.

A precious load -notice that there is only one helmet and it is only a liner. The next picture shows a load of grass much like the one that beat us through the traffic a couple of weeks ago. It is on a cart with one man up front who runs down one side of the underpass to get momentum and then tries to keep it going up the other. The last picture is one Mary has been trying to get for a long time so Bob could see it. It is the Jakarta version of the Department of Public Works.
08 April 2008 – Tuesday

Studied Indonesian before having a  good workout at the gym. I am trying to push myself to become more physically and spiritually fit. One of the great blessings of a mission is that the Lord provides time for me to do this. How well I do is up to me. As the Book of Mormon often reminds me – I have been given the right to act and not just be acted upon. It also reminds me that the consequences of my action are directly governed by Eternal Laws.

I had an appointment to get my hearing checked so we wandered around until we found the office. I was immediately struck by the quality of the office itself. When I went into see Mr Anton – the technician – I could see that they were using very modern equipment and computer programs. When we were finished with the test I found out that while my hearing was not perfect it was quite good for my age.

I then got to try a number of hearing aids and was surprised at how much it increased my ability to hear. At least in the office environment. When I tried them in both ears, I was not impressed. It sounded like I had a speaker in my head and it even broadcast my own voice. When I heard the cost I was ready to say ‘forget’ it but then I tried just one ear and that worked much better and of course halved the cost. I made an appointment to come back on Friday to give my decision.

From there we went to Mayestik – which is the big area that has lots of shops dealing in retail sales of material and other things needed in making clothing, etc. Mary took me to a button store that had an amazing selection, Just guessing I would say they had 100,000 choices and that might be really low when you consider all the different sizes that were available. I took some pictures but they do not start to do justice to the store and it’s selection.

Our next stop was dropping the boxes we packed yesterday off at the Wiser’s for shipping. They have a very nice home and since it is an embassy home, they have an Indonesian police or military guard at all times. The Wisers are leaving in July to go back to Washington D.C. as their next tour of duty. The English branch is going to miss them. We had a nice talk with sister Wiser about their family and the experiences that they have had. I did not realize that they had to move every 3 years.

We then went to Sogo and did our shopping for the week. We should not have to go back on Thursday unless we come up with something special we need. They young lady at the orange juice machine knows what I want without me asking. I am going to miss this fresh orange juice. Hopefully by now there are ones in the US.

Then it was time to go the mission office so Mary could teach her English class. I had time to talk to the President and others while she taught. We picked up the Church News and DVDs of the conference – including the PH session. That is another blessing of being a missionary. I forgot to mention that by this morning all the conference session – except the PH – was available on demand via the web. How amazing all this is. Modern technology opens the way to great spiritual blessings but at the same time opens the way to great temptations to sin. As in all things the choice of how we use it is ours.

Back at the apartment, we had a normal evening. We read a couple of more times from the Kitab Mormon – we are over 3/4 the way through now. Mary worked on caps and English. I listened to more of the conference. We will start watching conference tomorrow.

We got at least one employment report but the rest of the country is very quiet. We also got in a success story that I will need to re-write tomorrow or Thursday before sending it in. Looking back we did not do much in the way of missionary work. But some days are like that but the Lord seems to always touch us in some way to let us know we are about his work.