17 – 18 February 2007 – Saturday and Sunday
Saturday – We woke at about 3:30 a.m. and Sam came to get us at about 4:15. The trip to the airport went fast – no traffic at that time of the morning. It is too bad that it is not that way all the time so I could drive. We met Agus and his wife at the airport. Although I am not yet ready to tackle the airport without help, it seemed that it would not take long to learn. The security is much lighter than at any other airport we have been through. They go through all the motions but no one really cares. I think you could put any liquid you wanted into your carry-on and they would say anything. We brought open water bottles through all checkpoints with no trouble. Metal was pretty much the same – anything less than a HK-91 would not have been questioned. Most people do not bother to unload their metal – they just set off the machine and then security runs the wand over their body. I did not notice anyone be questioned about what that metal thing was that set off the machine or the wand. Maybe it is different for international flights – I certainly hope so.
We flew in a well kept up 737 with good service. I slept much of the way to Surabaya. We got there in time to go to the hotel so we could check in and drop off our bags. The rooms would not be ready until later in the day.
The Surabaya chapel is only about 3 years old and is quite nice. The grounds are lovely – much nicer than you find at home. I took some pictures to include in our mission scrapbook. The Career Workshop was well attended – 9 people. Agus does a great shortened workshop and gets people involved. Hopefully Likito will do as well with the Christensen’s here. I took Mary’s advise and got the people use to the camcorder so that when it became time for doing the mock interview, they did not think anything about being recorded. I will do the same thing next week.
After the workshop we went back to the hotel so we could settle into our rooms. There were no Taxis around so Agus negotiated a ride in an angkot. It was our first experience with public transportation and it was surprisingly nice. Of course there were not 30 people crammed into a space made for 15 and there was only one stop so the breeze kept us cool.
I must say that for a middle priced hotel the Novotel is something else. Everything is first-rate – the grounds and the buildings are beautiful. The only thing that would have made it better would have been an elevator to get us up one flight of stairs but other than that it was a great place to stay.
We had less than an hour before we headed back to the chapel for the evening meeting. When we got there the whole place was locked up – we could not even get into the yard. It turned out everyone had gone to eat and we very apologetic when they came back to find us trying to \figure out how to get in.
When it came time for the meeting there was no one there. However by 5:30 we had a nice group of leaders – no branch specialists – and Agus again did a great job. It was mentioned that one of the problems they have is in Indonesia people are reluctant to mention they have lost their job. Therefore not only do they not like to network, but they do not even let people know they are unemployed. I am going to ask the Christensens what they think we can do about this and what other countries with the same problem may be doing.
At the end I told them that Lord plan for the happiness of his people depended on them paying their tithes and offerings and that they seek riches to use righteously. I also said that the younger generation needs to be educated in careers that are needed in Indonesia. I bore my testimony that if people would follow the Lord’s plan, they would be blessed and the church would grow stronger because of this. A member of the district presidency interpreted for me. He seemed to do an excellent job – he teaches courses in English in a local University.
After the meeting we went back to the hotel, had dinner and collapsed. I was in bed and asleep by 8:30. But before going to bed, we went down and had the ‘traditional Indonesian’ buffet that they put on 6 nights a week. There was an amazing array of food but we tried only a few things. Unfortunately I did not find the chicken sate until late in the meal – it was great. This is small chunks of chicken on a skewer, bar-bar-qued over coals and glazed with soy sauce. Oh and the salad bar was pretty good also. Mary was more adventurous and tried a few new things. I can not imagine how they can offer so much for less than $8 a person including the 21% tax that seems to be added to anything you do at a hotel.
Thinking back: My mouth is almost healed and my cold did not really bother me. I did cough a few times and my nose ran from time to time but overall things are looking up health wise. Surabaya seems to be cleaner than Jakarta. The sky is clearer, the traffic not as heavy, but the basic atmosphere is about the same. Lots of small shops, lots of pedal-taxis – so there are no three wheeled taxis – and lots of motorcycles. Of course we only saw a very small part of the city and hopefully we can go back in the future and see more.
Sunday – I slept for almost 10 hours and it was great. We went down to the breakfast buffet – we did not know that it was included in the price of the room but would have been happy to pay the $5 if it was not. Other than an omelet nothing was very good – the breakfast buffet at the Harris is much better. There was a tater-tot looking dish turned out to be a crisp shell with nothing inside – really rather strange.
Church was excellent. A young woman who was released from her mission in November let us know what was going on in Sacrament. I forgot to mention that Edler Thomas who we know from Jakarta, Raya was also there yesterday. He is the companion to Agus’s son – which is one fo the reasons his wife wanted to come on the trip. That does not make a lot of sense but I am too lazy to change it.
The branch is small but it seems enthusiastic. There was about 45 -50 at Sacrament. I especially enjoyed Sunday School because the teacher got all the class involved in the lesson about miracles so that she did not just lecture. This was the first class in Indonesia where I saw so much participation. Went they were talking about PH blessings, I got out my missionary handbook and Agus read to them about how the ordinance of blessing the sick should be done. They were wondering if there was no consecrated oil available was it OK to use something else. I wanted them to know that it was not but that they could still give a blessing of comfort. Later, when they were talking about how some people wanted a person with some high PH calling to give them blessings, I mentioned that when someone in our house was sick, we always called in our hometeacher to give the blessing because I felt he had a special calling for my family and therefore was the best person to use.
PH was OK but the teacher did not ask many questions and so there was not much participation from the audience. This is somewhat worrisome because just last Sunday there was a good WW Leadership meeting on teaching and class participation was stressed.
I met two interesting English speaking people – unfortunately as usual I do not remember their names. One was an American who married a Chinese woman and moved to Indonesia 17 years ago. He knows Japanese, some Mandarian, Indonesian and of course English. 5 years ago they started a school that taught English and Japanese. It was a struggle at first but after the first year they started to grow. They added Mandarian and now have two thriving schools. I would like to go back and see the school in action. They have been observed by others who want to know their methods. These people are amazed that Indonesian children can learn these difficult languages so quickly and well. I am going to write them and ask for their help in employing qualified members of the church. I also hope that they might franchise their schools and give members a chance to own the branches.
The second person is a Spanish man who married a younger Indonesian woman who was a member of the church. After some time he wanted to know more about her beliefs and so he took the lessons from Elder Decker and his companion – he learned in English because he really does not know much Indonesian.. He came to know that it was true, accepted the principles and was baptized last August. We had a good talk about what his testimony is based on – he just knows it is true, that God lives, that Jesus is his savior, that Joseph was a prophet and restored the church. He does not believe in Adam and Eve, etc. but it does not bother him because that is not important – which is of course true. I was surprised to learn that his wife was the SS teacher who did such a great job – she looks much too young.
After church we went back to the hotel – Agus and his wife went visiting – until 3 p.m. We both took short naps and then we all headed for the airport. The airport only opened 3 months ago and is built quite a ways out of town. It seems to be well laid out and there is lots of room for it to grow. Since we spent over two hours there waiting for our flight home, we got to know it fairly well.
The flight home was interesting because I sat in the middles seat and Mary sat by the window. The aisle seat was taken by a mother with a child I judge to be about 7 or 8 months old. Although the mother tried her best, the child did a lot of fussing and moving around so that much of the time I ended up with only about half a seat. Luckily I could lean against Mary – we put up the arm rest – or I would have no room at all. I must say that my working on Patience and Charity as attributes really helped in this situation. I did not get upset and tried to help but there was little I could do but be patient.
Sam was waiting for us and we were soon on the way home. We dropped Agus and his wife off near the mission home – they then had an hour taxi ride to their home – and still made it home in less than an hour. It was really good to walk through the front door of our home away from home.
We ate a couple of snacks – other than breakfast and some pastries at the hotel we had not eaten – and headed for bed. Our first adventure to Eastern Java was fine but I am not looking forward to repeating it again next weekend – especially since we will be gone for two evenings. I guess I should not complain – the Christensens will be spending the best part of a week here and probably spends much of their mission traveling.