Daily Archives: April 18, 2008

18 April 2008

18 April 2008 – Friday

I woke late and just wanted to lie in bed. I do not feel sick but I do not seem to have much in the way of energy. Hopefully I am not coming down with something. I have no time to be ill. As we read from the Book of Mormon from the Kitab Mormon this morning, I was struck by Mormon’s decision to agree to lead the Nephite army even though he knew that they could never win because he was convinced that they would never repent. It also does not say that the Lord told him to do this or even that the Lord approved of him going against his vow not to lead them. But I have to believe that he would not make such a major decision without God’s approval.

We had a nice 30 minute Skype visit with Sister Hartford from BYUH. We talked about the Distance Learning English program they are running a pilot on starting at the end of this month. The purpose is to have incoming students better prepared in English so they can go right into academic classes and not just take English and Religous classes the first year. We are going to try to get 4 to 6 of our ex-IEC students to sign up for the 6 week pilot. She was also very interested in our IEC and High School classes. Sister Hartford had invited Sister Bunker who is also involved in the program to join her.

I was going to go back to the hearing aid store but while we were traveling there I called and found that the tech was going to be out for a while and I did not want to waste time. So instead we went to the mall for lunch and to go to Sogo. Then we went to the office so I could make an agenda for tonight’s ERSC meeting and Mary could practice the piano. I checked the mail and found that Sister Bunker had sent us an outline of the class and the application form.

Since we had some time before we had to leave for Tangerang and I was still not feeling right, we had Sam take us back to the apartment we read from the Kitab Mormon and then I took a nice nap.

Like most events that we have to travel to Tangerang for the 45 minute meeting took 3 ½ hours to complete. But the time was well worth it as we were able to cover all the agenda and set up a plan to work on some of the problems that we would like to see addressed over the next year. The reporting system and a way for the specialists to get job opening information from the members are the two big things that need lots of work.

We are going to miss working with Lukito and Agus. I hope we can keep in touch after we leave. I know that it will not be the same as working with them from day to day but it would be great to find out how they and their families are doing.

I am happy to say that by the time we got home, I was feeling much better and hopefully a good night’s sleep will take care of the rest. The Lord has truly blessed us with good health while we have been on our mission. The mission also kept us spiritually healthy.



17 April 2008

17 April 2008 – Thursday

As I think back on the day, I come to the conclusion that it was a very typical day in our mission. There were some wonderful spiritual experiences mixed in with a lot of normal activities. The morning included studying Indonesian by reading conference talks, going to the gym, reading from the Kitab Mormon and doing more research for Elder Subandriyo’s project. The four hours seem to rush by and before I know it I am hurrying to get everything together so we can leave for the office. In those four hours I have done many mundane but necessary things while enjoying some spiritually uplifting exeriences.

At the office it is hard not to become frustrated with the internet because so much of what we do is done through over the net. We were able to say hello to the Rebers and found they had no questions. But it was almost impossible to read or send e-mail so I finally gave up. I then used the time to prepare my English lesson for tonight.

Sam had borrowed the car this morning so he could go to be interviewed for his passport. But he arrived at the chapel early enough that he could drive us to the mission home. There Mary gave her English lesson to the staff. While she was doing that, I talked to the Walkers. They are doing a great work. From looking at Walkers  you would not think that they were the fighters.  But when they are doing the Lord’s work they are fighters. They have got through a number of projects that they were at first told could not be approved. But they felt the projects were so important that they just kept at it until they got them through. Much like Nephi when he would not give up on getting the plates from Laban. It has been a pleasure to see them grow in their calling.

Then I met with President Marchant and Elder Subandriyo. I gave Elder Subandriyo the first fruits of my research and we talked about what he wanted to accomplish. Before leaving we picked up the mail for the Tangerang elders.

District meeting was very good. We had a short lesson on finding and as I read out of Preach My Gospel, I learned that the missionaries are to just start teaching a gospel message without any lead in. As we talked about the fact that they did not have a lot of referrals, I asked them if they knew all their neighbors and had they asked them for referrals. They said that they really did not and so I challenged them to spend a day and just go through their neighborhood introducing themselves and letting their neighbors know they would love to be of help to them. That is was part of what they were supposed to do while on their mission. They of course can not trat but they can be neighborly. Hopefully they will try this – they actually did a little role playing exercise about how to approach a neighbor washing a car.

Our English class is growing. Besides Agus and Cathlin’s family, a young man and a young woman who the Elders had met and invited to the class came. Also one of the inactive sisters who we had tried to help start a small business came. I think my beginning class went well. I had everyone introduce themselves – the young woman is 15 and her English is quite good. We went through opposites, then a review of prepositions, then we played fruits and vegetable Bingo, and we ended with identifying musical instruments. Next week I want to come up with a way to put all of that together and have them write sentences using the words. I think I will make a list of what we have learned and let them choose what words to use.

We were worried about the traffic to and from Tangerang because they were supposed to be doing some testing. However everything flowed smoothly both ways. We always count that as a tender mercy from the Lord because an hour trip can quickly turn into a nightmare if there is any problem along the way.

I forgot to mention that we picked up our nativity set made from cinnamon bark that Elder Palmer brought us from Singapore. Unfortunately we did not know he would be here for less than a day and did not get over early enough to pay him. So now we must figure out how to do that before we leave.



16 April 2008

16 April 2008 – Wednesday

Normal P-day around the apartment. We both worked on projects, cleaned, read scriptures, studied, etc. I mainly worked on Elder Subandriyo’s project to give the youth a desire to have hope so they can dream and set goals to reach those dreams. I know it is hard to believe that most of the young people in Indonesia do not think about or plan for much beyond today or at the most next month. It is one of the saddest things that I have found in Indonesia. But if you do not have any real hope for changing your future or dream of changing your future, there is not much use in thinking about it or even worrying.

As I wrote that I realized that there is one thing that most young men here in Indonesia think ahead about and that is going on a mission. But I do not think they plan for it as much as they know it is there. They just live from day to day until it comes.

As I looked for success stories for Elder Subandriyo to use, most of those I found were about over coming physical handicaps rather than poverty. But President Grant and President Kimball over came poverty to be successful business men and of course church leaders. President Kimball came home from his mission and wanted to go to a university but had no money so he took a job moving heavy freight. The cost of taking the bus to work and back home was 10 cents each way so he walked instead so he could save the money. Poverty is not an excuse for not getting an education or for being successful.

I like President Grant’s story because not only does it show you can rise from poverty, but also that if you do your best, work harder and do more than asked you have a better chance of getting noticed by the boss and will be rewarded for your efforts. And the rewards are not always immediate as he found out when he needed some financing.