The hearing aid office – very new, very clean and very modern. They provide a comfortable place for Mary and Sam to wait for me.

There must be millions of crackers/crepes sold each day. This load is not all that big, but the saddlebags on the side are not as popular here in Jakarta – or so it seems to me – as in other cities we have visited. The next picture interested me because the woman seems to be holding the top box with one finger. The last one I call ‘traveling office supply store.’ He is carrying the kind of paper we use in our copiers and printers.

21 April 2008 – Monday

I slept like a log for the first time in many weeks. However I woke early enough to go to the gym and have a good workout for about 45 minutes. The other important thing that happened this morning is that we had a great Skype conversation with Jim and his family. Charlotte smiled and cried for us. It is great when Skype is working well. We read 5 pages from the Kitab Mormon and experienced the brother of Jared seeing the Lord’s finger touching the rocks.

There was a number of housekeeping tasks we needed to do today. First we went to the hearing aid office and got more information about the aid that Anton recommended. Then we wen to the Wisers and dropped off a package that they will send for us. Our next stop was the Sogo mall where we bought a couple of books – one about Hong Kong and one that is a picture book about Jakarta. The Jakarta one really captures the feeling of city as we have come to know it. Then we had lunch at the food court before going to the market and getting a few things we needed.

From there we went to the office so I could get some files I need to transfer to this computer. I want to work on them at the apartment because of the frustration of the internet at the office. Of course today the internet was great and both of us got what we needed finished. While we were at the office one of the downpours that this country is famous for occurred. I tried to capture the feeling on a movie but it just does not work. Mary was able to get all our PEF contacts posted and got all I wanted done so we came back to the apartment.

We read for over an hour from the Kitab Mormon – the Jaredites are working their way up to complete destruction. This is probably the second most uninteresting part of the Book of Mormon for me. Actually it is the first – I actually can enjoy the Isaiah sections in English. But no matter the language the fall of the Jaradites just leaves me cold. Why the Lord felt that Mormon had to write so much about the process of their fall into iniquity and war I will probably never know. It does not lessen my testimony of the Book of Mormon but it also does not add to it. I am sure that there are others who find it very uplifting and spiritual and that is why it is included. But after 50 years and teaching it many time, I have yet to find it relevant for me.

I went through the pictures I took at District Conference and found that there were some really good ones and some that are very puzzling. I can not figure out why the indoor ones with flash turn out worse than the ones where I do not use a flash. The color was so bad that I had to turn some of those where I used the flash into black and white photos.

I continue to work my way through the November Liahona and the conference talks. I thought I was doing well until I got to Elder Hilbing’s talk about “Not dampening the Spirit.” I do not think I have read more than one or two complete sentences without needing to look up at least one word and often more. I do not mind being humbled, but this is a little much. It just goes to show that you have to be careful what you pray for.