14 April 2008 – Monday

Just received a call from Elder Bennett and as we were talking he mentioned that the Noordas go home in July just a few days after the Bennetts leave. I was struck by the fact that by the end of August six of the 11 missionary couples now here will be gone. If there are no other couples called soon, the only replacement will be the Rebers. There will be no couples in the Surabaya District, two couples in the Central District and four couples – including the President and Sister Marchant – in the West. I certainly hope that there will be at least enough couples called to have one in each of the Central District chapels so the HS English Classes can continue.

After a usual morning of going to the gym, studying and reading from the Kitab Mormon, we headed off to the office. We got on Skype with the Rebers so we could answer their questions. We had trouble at first keeping a connection but we finally got it working well. The Rebers are going to be great missionaries. They are working hard on the language – they have started to read the Kitab Mormon. I told them not to discouraged, just plug along and use their dictionary.  We  spent the rest of the morning working on different projects that need to be done before we leave. Mary made new registration forms for the workshops and practiced the music she will pay for the Jakarta Raya choir at District Conference. I started going through the computer files again to see what could be consolidated and what could be thrown out. I also looked for things that needed to be explained.

After noon we went to the mall where we treated ourselves and Sam to BurgerKing. We have only done that 3 or 4 times since we have been here. They really are just like home except they have chili sauce in their dispensers instead of catsup and fry sauce. Before we ate, Mary went to a bead shop that had just what she wanted to finish a couple of sets of beads. It was one of the few shops that was really busy in the mall. Most shops have no customers during the day. I am amazed that they can afford to stay in business. Maybe nights and weekends are very busy.

We did our grocery shopping. Mary was excited because she found dill pickle relish. It is strange how small things like that become important or seem important. Our final stop was BreadTalk for our fix of goodies. I am rather glad we do not have anything like BreadTalk in the states. I would guess they would do great in the malls there, but I do not know of anyone who has tried it.

The rest of the day was at the apartment where we read from the Kitab Mormon, studied more Indonesian, worked on pictures and this journal, etc. Mary crocheted and worked on English games. We got a nice letter from a professor at BYUH that Elder Subandriyo had spoken to. She was excited about the English classes we started because they really want the students to come better prepared to participate in class so they do not need to spend a year taking only English and Religion classes. It turns out her home teacher is the president of the university and seems also to be excited about the idea. I mentioned that unfortunately we were going home soon and the couples who are teaching the classes will soon follow and there are no replacements in the pipeline. Since I know that these are inspired programs, I realize that I need patience because the Lord will work it out according to His schedule. I am just thankful that we were able to plant the seeds that hopefully will someday grow to become strong and fruitful trees for Indonesia.