The colorful children’s choir at the dedication of the new school. From left to right – Elder Burr, Bastian, Elder Subandriyo, Dr Shihab, Elder Thiemann, Hunter and Agus the service center director of physical facilities. The view from Dr Shihab’s country villa. It was a gorgeous day with a lovely breeze passing through the mostly open villa.

25 April 2008 – Friday

We were up and out early because we had to be at the mission home before 7:00 so a group of us could leave together for the hills above Bogor where we would be guests at a ceremony for opening a new school – Cayaha Hati – and clinic that was sponsored by Dr. Shihab’s wife and sisters. We went with Elder Subandriyo and Agus while elders Bastian, Thiemann, Hunter and Burr went with Swento in the President’s car. We met up with the Kanes above Bogor and then all traveled in a convoy to the school.

It is in a rather remote but beautiful but poor area. The clinic and school will bring hope to the villages around. I had the privilege of sitting next to Dr. Shihab and so got to know a little more about the school and clinic. It turns out that he was there representing his wife who is very sick with a thyroid problem and is in Singapore. He flew back from there to be at the ceremony. There were a lot of important people there from Jakarta and Singapore – I never really got to know any of them.

I really enjoyed the program. There was a children’s choir that reminded me of the Primary choir we saw on Sunday at District conference only the girls were dressed much fancier. There was a section of the lawn set aside for mothers of the children and it when I went to take pictures they were all smiles.

But I learned a lot about Muslims and how close their ideas are to ours. One woman read from some book “Those who walk along the path of goodness are close to God.” and “God is there for us and those who call upon God will be saved.” I am going to use that in my talk on Sunday. I also tried to listen carefully to a young man – perhaps a Iman – sing scripture from the Koran. I noticed that he chose the verses carefully and said a little prayer before singing each verse. I have no idea what he was saying but it was obviously very important to him. I imagine the short prayer that he whispered was something like “There is only one God and Mohammed is his Prophet.”

Later in Dr. Shihab’s comments he talked about the importance of loving everyone and loving God. He talked about the problems facing parents and children today and they were the same that any LDS parent would worry about. He also spoke of the dreams of the parents for their children and once again they were in line with ours. So while we do not share the same religion, we share the same love for God and for our children. They see the same needs and face the same problems in a world where religious beliefs and values ae under constant attack by those who feel that they are more enlightened. Unfortunately the light they seek is the light of the world and not the light that comes from God.

After the ceremony we were all invited to the good Dr. Shihab’s country villa which was only 5 minutes away. It is a lovely little place that is mainly wide open and with a view to die for. He later told me that he and his wife often came up after a difficult day or for the weekend to just get away from the influence of Jakarta.

We enjoyed a delicious meal where all the food was not at all spicy except for the one thing that I felt was sure to be safe – a fruit dish. Luckily I did not take much and only tasted a little before finding that it lit up the mouth.

The missionaries and Elder Subandriyo had opportunities to speak to a lot of people. I met one man who runs a company that employs lots of people and is always looking for machinists. Since one of the courses that the Job Training program offers is learning to be a machinist, I am hoping that we can find someone to take the course in Tangerang, Bandung or Bogor and maybe get a job there. I will send him an e-mail tomorrow.

On the way back to Jakarta we hit a real traffic jam. It is a two lane road and a very large truck broke down on our side. Luckily for us there was not much traffic going down the hill so we were only delayed about 15 – 20 minutes. But the uphill traffic – mostly trucks – was backed up for miles. All the way down the hill and onto the toll road. I do not know how they will get a tow truck up there to move the obstruction, but until they do it is going to be a royal mess. At least there was one policeman there letting vehicles through on a rotation basis. As we were going along two more on a motorcycle seemed to be heading up to help.

Once at the apartment, I started working on the pictures I took today. Elder Subandriyo wanted a few to send to Elder Packer as an attachment to an e-mail telling him about the ceremony and the fact that Dr. Shihab’s wife was in the hospial. Elder Packer and them are good friends and Dr. Shihab has spoken at BYU a couple of times. We got to go to one of them – I believe in October 2006 – before we went into the MTC.

Sam came about 5:00 to pick up the car so he can use it tonight and Mary had him take her to the chapel so she could practice the piano. She is going to play for sister Penni and will also give the closing prayer. I stayed at the apartment so I could catch up this journal. The program starts at 7:00 so I will leave here about 6:15 or so.

Once again I was struck by the simplicity of the actual LDS wedding ceremony. The only ‘ceremonial’ part is the exchange of rings which is not really a part of ceremony. There is no ‘with this I do thee wed’ or anything like that. When President Smith told Sam he could now kiss his bride be kissed her on the forehead and looked embarrassed even to do that. Most of the people at the ceremony were missionaries and from the English branch. I was surprised that hardly anyone from the Selatan branch – including his room mates came. Hopefully there will be a lot more people tomorrow evening.

The Kanes came home with us to spend the night. Tomorrow we will head off for another swing through the Jakarta Craft Fair. The Kanes are wonderful friends and I hope we will stay in touch for many years to come.