13 April 2008 – Sunday

It was a very pleasant and well filled Sunday. We spent the morning at the Selatan chapel watching Sunday conference with the missionaries and the English branch. We had heard all the talks before but this time Elder Bednar’s talk on prayer really struck me and got me thinking. I feel Elder Bednar has taken the place of Elder Maxwell as far as giving talks that have a lot of meat in them. Their styles and word choices are completely different but the over all feeling of their talks just work for me.

A member from Singapore who is establishing a office here for his company came to the meeting. We had a nice talk and it appears he will have a fairly large operation here. I forgot to ask him about what his employee needs might be. Perhaps it is an opportunity for some of our members. Marie Saunders’ office experience might be of use. I must be sure to get his cell phone number. His company seems to be involved in many areas including entertainment.

After the first session, there was an hour break and Mary had been asked to play the piano for a Primary Choir practice. She is not going to play for the Primary at District Conference next week but she will play for the Jakarta Raya choir. While she did that I went to the office and worked on the computer. A member came in and we talked about English. He asked for a grammar book and I gave him one of those we had made. Hopefully it will help.

We watched the first hour of Sunday afternoon session and then left to go to Jakarta Raya for their practice. First we stopped by the apartment so we could get some lunch. We arrived at the chapel just as the last speaker was finishing. They then broke for a half hour to have lunch. I used the time to read some conference talks I down-loaded when we stopped by the apartment. They included President Eyrings’ talk at the RS meeting. It was on the Light of Christ which fit right in with the subject they want me to talk about in two weeks – Suara Hati – The voice of the heart – or Conscience! His talk gave me a lot to think about because he used Moroni 7:15-19 which is the one Raya used as the scripture to talk about. I do not want to concentrate just on that scripture because I am sure that it is the same that they gave everyone. However I really like that whole chapter of Moroni as he recounts his father’s talk to the Saints of his time.

I had a good opportunity to talk to President Anthony about the branch and one of the sisters we would love to see get a job. As President Anthony spoke about what he has done to counsel her, I realized that he had the mantle to lead the branch and he did not need me to tell him what to do. That is what I have found true here in Jakarta. The branch presidents are men with strong testimonies, dedication, and know their members. They lead through faith and inspiration. We can suggest some things if asked but should realize that they are just as capable – if not more capable – than we are.

By the time we got home Mary was very tired and so she napped while I studied. She has been a trooper throughout the mission. I mentioned to someone today that the reason I was on this mission was because they needed Mary and I was part of the package.

President and Sister Marchant invited us over for dinner. I think the Marchants miss having all their family around on Sunday when the President cooks. So we had a nice dinner with the Walkers and the Marchants. We talked about conference and missionary work. It is always a spiritual lift to meet with other missionaries and share stories. The Walkers had a great one.

Last week when they went to another Christian church to give out some wheelchairs, they met a man who wanted to come to one of our meetings. The Walkers gave him the address and time of Tangerang 2 meeting. The man not only came but he brought a friend and they watched conference with them. Afterwards they had a discussion where Elder Walker told them more about some of the things that were talked about in conference and bore his testimony. Both men said they felt the spirit of speakers and committed to having the missionaries meet with them. The Walkers feel that there is a good chance that they will ask to be baptized. So the Lord works in interesting ways to bring people to a knowledge of the gospel.

Back at the apartment we read from the Kitab Mormon and soon after that headed to bed. I continued to read very slowly through the conference edition of the Liahona. I hit Elder Ballard’s talk and that really has slowed me down.

12 April 2008 – Saturday

I am listening to President Uchtdorf’s conference on “Faith of our Father.” I liked the way he moved from being true to the faith of our earthly father to being true to the faith of our Heavenly Father – that is the restored Church of Jesus Christ on the earth today.

We are reading in 3 Nephi of the coming of the Savior. Today we read about the events leading up to His appearance. The Nephites at the temple do not understand the small voice the first two times. I wonder how many times the Lord tries to get our attention and we fail to understand or ignore the prompting of the spirit. The Lord asked Paul why he fought against the pricks of the Spirit telling him that he was not doing His will. Joseph ignored the Lord telling him twice not to give the 116 pages to Martin Harris but He allowed him to do what he wanted when he asked the third time. So sometimes the Lord persists to insure that we understand and other times He seems to let us make the mistake in the hopes that we will learn from the experience.

We went to the chapel at 9:30 because the schedule we got from President Smith said that was when the first session would start. When we got there we found the President and other missionaries had changed and started at 8:00 because the Selatan branch decided to change their starting time. So instead of seeing the first session we saw the second Saturday session. The talk that touched me most was Elder Oaks on Testimony. It got me thinking about subjects for my talk on the 27th.

After that session, because we had watched the PH session on Wednesday we did not stay to watch it. The Walkers suggested that we go to get something to eat and we decided on Chili’s. So we had a nice lunch and talk with the Walkers. They are a great and fun couple. Elder Walker does all he can to get projects he feels are good ones approved. However I am afraid he is going to be disappointed on some of them. I mentioned that one thing I have learned is that we need to have patience and faith that the Lord is in charge and what needs to happen will happen in His good time.

The rest of the day was spent at the apartment. Mary finished three and started a fourth infant caps. I studied Indonesian, listened to conference talks and caught up the journal. I am afraid we are spending too much time of projects and not enough on helping people.