Transfer Day for the mission: Elders Bastian, Basuki, Lewis, Thiemann, Manullang and bro Swanto. Elder Lewis is one of the new elders, we have had the pleasure of serving with Elders Basuki and Manullang in the Tangerang and Raya branches. Elders Bastian and Thiemann are in the office. Next picture is Elder Lewis, Thiemann and Manullang. The last picture is of Elder Rowberry trying to get 3 cubic feet of his possessions in a bag that holds just 1 cubic foot. Some choices had to be made. Elder Rowberry has served in the office for about 6 months and now was being transferred to Solo to finish out his mission. He is a wonderful and dedicated young man who will be a fine PH leader.

24 April 2008 – Thursday

I seem to be really having a hard time writing in this journal. So I am going to make today’s entry very short.

The highlights were a trip to the Craft Fair where we joined the Kanes for a couple of hours of looking at lots of Indonesian crafts and of course buying some. We went from the fair to the mission home where Mary taught her English class and I spent time with the Elders. It was transfer day and the last day of Zone Leader’s conference so there were lots of Elders in residence. I got to see Elder Manullang, elder Teng and one of the Basuki brothers. I got to say goodbye to Elder Rowberry and Elder Lewis – one of the new missionaries who are heading East. I also got to know Elder Hunter who is taking Elder Rowberry’s place in the office.

We have had the privilege of working with some great missionaries. Each of them are different but each are dedicated to the work. Hopefully when we get back we can have a number of them over to our house for a get-together or two before we leave again.

After Mary was finished, we headed off to Tangerang for DM and English classes. The traffic was terrible so everyone was late. Elder Cheney held his last District meeting with Tangerang. He is moving to Jakarta Raya and will be DL there, so we will still see him regularly until we leave. Elder Prause with elder Laki and elder Herman with elder Djarkodi (I do not think we know him) will be the Tangerang Elders.

So DL went well and we again counseled that the T1 elders introduce themselves to their neighborhood and let them know that they were there to help if anyone needed a couple of strong backs.

We finished just in time to hold English class. We started with just the missionaries and 2 inactive sisters that have joined the class. But we were soon joined by Agus, Cathrin and their children. We had a good and fun class where we worked on present tenses, opposites, and the first three Articles of Faith. We will miss the class next week so I gave Elder Herman the things they would need for the class.

We had Anny with us and we kidded her and Sam about their wedding tomorrow. They are a good couple and I think they will do fine. It is going to be hard on us next week without having Sam to drive us around. We will spend most of the time at the office getting things cleaned up for the Rebers.