More pictures from Zone Conference. While feeding the spirit is an important part of Zone Conference, feeding the body is also well taken care of. For many of the missionaries, Zone Conference gives them a chance to eat their fill of a variety of foods they do not often see, let alone eat. As you can see Mary is enjoying her’s with Sister Coleman and Sadimin. Next is Elder Hunter. We really did not know Elder Hunter until he was transferred into the office. I am glad we had the opportunity to work with him for the last 6 weeks of our mission. He is a dynamic Elder who as you can see would rather talk than eat. I would love to see him and Elder Roper work together. That would really be a high energy pair of missionaries. Elder Kusumarmanto is on the left and is the son of the country ERS director Agus who we work closely with. Elder Smith has recently been transferred from the office back to the field. Before leaving he had prepared the excellent slide show of Indonesia that we saw yesterday. As I have mentioned a number of times in this journal, working with the Sisters and Elders is truly one of the great blessings of a mission.

02 May 2008 – Friday

Although we are certainly happy that Sam and Anny are being sealed in the temple and having a wonderful honeymoon doing temple work, until he gets back we are limited in what we can do. But that will end in a few days and we will catch up with our visits.

Normal morning except we left a little late for the office. We read from the A&P – struggling at times but it is a good learning experience for us. It also shows vividly that they were not translated by the same person or persons as the Kitab Mormon. The choice of words is often quite different as is how they express thoughts that are non easily translated into Bahasa.

At the office I spent the first part of my time working with Hani and his distance learning class. It seemed rather difficult to me but I suppose that is part of the idea. This is to help them become more proficient in English and so they first must find out where they are. I told him he could come in tomorrow and work on it some more. As long as he keeps a positive attitude, I think he will be fine. I wrote a letter to sister Bunker about Hani and some thoughts I had with the program.

Mary worked mainly on English and cleaning up the filing and papers that are still everywhere. I continued with the vocabulary lessons. Hopefully I will finish them before we are released. The time seemed to fly by. Unfortunately no one came in for help with a job.

I did get a message from Hendra saying that President Anthony suggested we contact Maria Sandra about the job. That will not work because she does not know enough English and certainly do not know enough Indonesian to tell her about it. In the evening I thought of Lukito and I had him call her. It turned out that was a good move because he found that she has been sick in bed for 3 days. When he told me I suggested that he call her home teacher and branch president so they knew. Hopefully they can help or send help for her.

We continued to read from the A&P – because they use bigger type and more spacing, there is a lot less to read per page than in the Kitab Mormon. On the other hand the words and concepts are different so it slows us down.

I must confess I did not study as much as I either could or should today. I hope that does not mean I am getting trunky. I did listen to more conference talks and we watched the video of Elder Subandriyo’s talk at BYUH last month. He is a fine speaker and even though English is not his first language, he spoke clearly and made few mistakes. Sister Stephie, his wife, gave her testimony and if was easy to see that she was very sad when she talked about their daughter and her death. But she bore a strong testimony and gave a positive message.

The Lord continues to bless us with good health, friends, family and many opportunities to serve. Hopefully we will be able to continue to serve Him and our Heavenly Father through serving our fellow beings. Both at home and where ever the Lord needs us next.

The couples, the Zone and us with Elders Thiemann and Roper. We have known Elder Thiemann and Roper longer than any other Indonesian missionaries because we first met them when they were in the MTC. Sister Tippetts was their evening teacher and our language teacher.

01 May 2008 – Thursday

A good day! We had one of those mornings when we could not get on some sites so we were not able to check our mail until we got to the office. However we were able to visit Cindy’s blog and see more of the places they visited in France. It sounds and looks like they had a great adventure. It is nice that they got off by themselves for a few days. We also read from the A&P – it is really a learning experience.

Today was Zone Conference so it was a day for learning and sharing. We went early so we could check our mail. I count it a blessing that the internet work well at the office. We could check our mail and read. I got a birthday greeting from Ed – it was still April 30 in the U.S.

I got a couple of opportunities to speak in Zone Conference. First the President asked me to talk about challenging the missionaries to spend the time to get to know the area right around their houses. I got some help from the sisters. They had gone to the local Arti and got the names and addresses of all the Christians in the area. It not only gave them 70 plus leads, they also got to tell the Arti about their purpose and let him know that they were there to serve. I mentioned to the missionaries that they had to show their love to the people before they would listen to their message. I told them that they could not fake love and concern, they had to develop a true love to be successful. If they do that, their light will shine and people will want to be like them.

Later all of the missionaries who would go home before the next Zone Conference bore their testimony. We were happy to see Elder Rigby before he heads home. We had the pleasure to serve with him for a number of months before he transferred to Manado for the last 5 months. Mary and I and the Kanes got to share our testimony. Since I already had a chance to speak, I just bore my testimony. I hope that each missionary could feel the spirit as I did as I bore it. In looking at them, it seemed that many of them could. Our personal testimonies are powerful things if they are based on the testimony of the Holy Ghost to us. I know I do not bear mine often enough. I was impressed with Elder Kanes testimony that he gave completely in Indonesian.

Since it was the last time we would probably see some of the missionaries, I took lots of pictures. During our time at home, I hope to make a number of slide shows with commentary about the experiences we had and the people we met. That reminds me that part of the program today included two slide shows. One by Elder Smith about Indonesia that was sent to the Indonesian Mission Reunion in SL before April Conference. Another one was about some Saints in Solo who have small businesses or other work. It showed their humble homes and how hard they worked for a small amount of money. Yet they were active in the church and happy to be working. It was done with great love, but I wish that the same idea could be done more professionally and more time was spent on perhaps fewer examples. I think this is a powerful message that needs to be told.

It brought to mind the book we bought about the small business people in Jakarta. It tells the stories of about a dozen people and what they do to make a living. Everything from trash men to sex girls are shown and their stories are very interesting. Many of the men work and live in Jakarta while their families live in the villages. Some only see their families 2 or 3 times a month.

I find myself listening to and reading more conference talks. Some resonate more than others and when they do they are powerful testimonies of the truthfulness of the Gospel. They also often remind me of things that I need to work on as well as the blessings that come from keeping the commandments.

30 April 2008 – Wednesday

Happy birthday to me. Wow I made it to 70 and feel great. I celebrated by going to the gym and doing 70 sit-ups, 35 good minutes on the bike, and a light upper body workout. Even the scales were kind to me today.

When I got back to the apartment there was a wonderful birthday greeting on Olivia’s blog. A picture from the middle of 2006 when we were visiting Chicago. We read from the A&P – we struggle with some of it, but most we come close. Both the KM and A&P really need a new translation. Hopefully sometime in the next decade this will happen.

I have been listening to Elder Scott’s conference talks. I thought it would be interesting to listen to a series of talks by one apostle or member of the presidency to see if there is a theme that runs through them from year to year. Right now I am listening to a talk on “Peace of Conscience” – “Peace of Mind.”

We had a quiet day – at least once the air-conditioner men and the maid service left. We went to the market to get some last minute things Mary needed. We both got haircuts at our local salon. One of the nicest things was that the office elders called and sang Happy Birthday to me over the phone. I got a call from the Pages in the English branch. They are in the need for some household help – a nanny and a housekeeper. Later maybe a driver. I called Elder Subandriyo and Hendra to let them know there was some openings. We are hoping that a woman we worked with might be interested in one or the other.

I started a major project of separating out the pictures we want to have made into good copies. I managed to make it to the first of the year. Of course I am working backwards so that is only 4 months – 12 – 13 more to go.

Well the other couples ran into a real Jakarta traffic jam. It is now 7:15 and they are not here. They probably left the mission home at about 5:30 for what is usually a 20 – 25 minute drive most of the time. This time it may take 2 – 3 hours for them to get here – if they get here.

We read more from the A&P and since then I have been listening to classical music on the computer. It is a 4 hour program and it will be interesting to see how much I get to hear before our guest arrive.

I also can not get to AOL to find out if any of the kids have sent birthday wishes.

The other couples got here between 7:45 and 8:00. The President said that next time we got to come to Sinapoti!  We had a nice dinner together. Everyone seemed to love the meat loag. Some said they had not had any since they came on their mission and some said it was one of their favorite foods. One couple brought fresh fruit – including Bandung pineapples, another brought bread and dessert. There was also a wonderful potato dish and bread. For dessert we had brownies with ice cream and whipped cream. All in all it was a great meal.

We all sat around and talked about our missions and much they meant to us. It was a special birthday because even though I could not spend it with my family, I was able to spend it with my ‘mission’ family.  Mary gave me a ceramic turtle and the Kanes gave me a nice small Indonesian doll. So all in all it was a special birthday that I probably will always remember.