Us with Anny’s HS English Class.  Last view of an unusually clean ERS office. Mary closing the door to the office for the last time on our mission.

My last meal from BYU – I ate it all. Goodbye to JCO Donuts – our  Thursday stopping place for donuts. Much better than Krispy Kreme.

Our last District meeting – Elders Burr and Thiemann, Elders Laki and Herman, Elders Prause and Djarkodi. We have been truly blessed by working with all of these elders.

29 May 2008 – Thursday

In the living room we have a clock that has a very audible click as each second ticks by and is gone forever. The whole day seemed like that clock. Each action seemed to be another tick that closed off the past. It does not seem real as we say goodbye to many people and places for the last time. I take lots of pictures to try and hold or recall the memories but of course they can never replace the actual place or people.

We had a very busy day. The morning was full of continuing to pack. We cleaned out the refrigerator. Stripping it down to just the things we will either give to the mission home or use over the next few days. As I walk through the apartment it is strange to see bare walls and shelves. It is starting to feel like we are creating a tomb.

So I do not get maudlin I will keep this short. We went to the Limbongs’ school and had our picture taken with the HS English classes. They were a lively bunch of young people and it was fun bantering a little with them in English.

Next we went to the office and cleaned up our computers and other things. Unfortunately there was no internet so there were some things we could not get done. Two senior sisters from Thailand were visiting the Family History Center and they could not get on line to fully train sisters Stephie and Yoshie. Hopefully some day they will get the problem solved or perhaps not. We posted a sign saying the office would be closed, turned off the lights and air-conditioner and closed the door for the last time.

We then went to the mission office where I had my last BYU meal. I had a last talk with Elder Subandriyo. He told me that there was a professor at BYUH who is interested in our Intensive English Class for the Philippines. Elder S thought he would get in contact with us. It would be nice if all the work we put in on it would be put to good use in other countries.

I spent time working with sister Autin and Titik on vocabulary. It is a real shame I did not start this earlier. It would have been good for everyone including me. I have arranged to continue the vocabulary training via e-mail. I need to send them next weeks work. Mary taught her last class and they gave her a very nice table cloth and napkins set. Earlier sister Stephie gave us a batik map of Indonesia. It was something we had hoped to buy before we left so it saved us looking for one. It was even in blue – most we have seen are in brown – so it is perfect for us.

We had a lot of last goodbyes – Elder Subandriyo leaves for Cambodia tomorrow so we will not see him again. There is no tears but we feel we are leaving close friends and hope that we will see them again. We should really try to get to Indonesia at least once before we are too old. But perhaps we will be back here in January or February of 2009 – if that is what the Lord wants.

We headed for Tangerang. We both slept as much from emotional as physical tiredness. We stopped at the mall and JCO for our last donut and Chocomint iced drink. District meeting with Elder Thiemann and others was a trip down memory lane he and Elder Roper were at our very first District Meeting in Tangerang. It was a good meeting and we added a couple of comments to a good lesson on teaching the restored gospel.

We had a fun last English class – I reviewed just about everything we have learned. We played both bingo and Go Fish. It was almost like a family home evening with Agus and his family. The Elders joined in the games so it was good for them. I really wish we had more people at our English classes but we do what we can do. We did not have to say goodbye to anyone because we would all meet again tomorrow night at the Sadiyono’s farewell.

By the time we got home we were again exhausted but I stayed up to work on the journal and the many pictures I took today. Mary continued to work on sorting out things that need to be moved. It was a great day and it was good to do a number of things that are connected to our mission and not just getting ready to go home.