18 March 2008 – Tuesday

Normal morning – I even made it to the gym. As I was doing my workout, I decided that I would only do the strength routine every other day. I feel much better when I do not do it each day. We read 5 pages from the Kitab Mormon – before the day was over we had read 15 pages which is good for us. Of course we are in the section of Alma that is easy reading and we know about 98% of the words.

The new microphone did not work any better than the old one. When we got to the office I tried again it worked great, so it would seem that the problem is somewhere in our lap-top. Either a bad connection or something is incompatible. At least we now know we can communicate from the office computer. It will be good for the Rebers when they come.

At the office Mary worked on her English lesson for later today and I cleaned up more files. I also spoke to the Christensens in Hong Kong. Sister Christensen is having withdrawal pains from the lack of Magnum bars. I think it is strange that Walls would run out if they are that popular. We have not had anyone come in for help with finding work for over 2 weeks. We have talked to some of those we know about their work, but no one has asked for help. They do go through the magazines that we post each week so at least something is working.

Today I again thought about the idea of setting up each Sunday in a different branch. Unfortunately that would mean Sam would miss a lot of his meetings and we would not go to our branches very often, but maybe we could be of more help that way. I know we need to be patient, but that does not mean we can not try to come up with something that will help with the employment. At least the Rebers will have lots of English classes and they can become involved in Humanitarian projects.

Mary hit the jackpot as to clothes today. Our wonderful seamstress brought her lots of blouses, skirts and two temple dresses. She is going to go home with a huge wardrobe – I am going home with two new shirts and a lot of ties. Oh and she took in a couple of pairs of pants for me. Hopefully she will need to do more before we are released.

Speaking of that while at the mission home we got our travel plans. We will leave here on Monday the 2nd of June and spent the next three nights in Hong Kong before flying home – we arrive 1 ½ hours after we leave – which is pretty good for a 12,000 mile flight – on the 5th of June. The only complaint is that we are traveling economy. So I wrote the travel department to find out how much it would cost to move up to business class. It would be a lot nicer for that long trip across the Pacific. Hopefully it will not be too much more. It was interesting that we did not get excited about getting the plans – we are not in any hurry to leave but I am sure we will feel different when the time comes to go.

When we went to the mission home I had a long talk with Elder Subandriyo. He has to add 5 pages to the talk he will be giving at BYUH – he is the only speaker. We talked about the scholarship fund and scholarships in general. It seems you have to be in the top 5 of your class to be eligible for scholarships. We need to make sure the young people know this.

He told me that PEF for Indonesia is not dead. They are now thinking about making the loans straight from the US and the student would repay the loan through a credit card. But that is not anything we will need to worry about. Hopefully it will come to pass so all of Indonesia will be opened for PEF loans. That with the scholarship program that may become a reality would mean the qualified students would be able to go to good schools.

While Mary taught her class, I read the latest Chruch News – the story on the back about the missionary who did not find out for 50 years about his success was great. It is the kind of thing that all missionaries need to read. If we do our best, we should not worry about the results that are seen but trust the Lord to harvest what we plant. While we were there we shipped some things off to the Bennetts and the Taylors – a week late but at least they are on their way.

We did our usual shopping at Sogo including BreadTalk. Watermelon has become a staple of my diet – I am sure it has little in the way of nutritional value but it is filling and easy to prepare. I know nothing that we bought from BreadTalk is good for us…we will repent sometime.

The afternoon and evening was spent at the apartment. I spent much of the time at the computer working on pictures and the blog. It takes a good deal of time to post and I can see why the kids do not update very often. But it is enjoyable and I always feel good when it is done. As I mentioned above we read for a couple of hours from the Kitab Mormon and I spent some time trying to get the weather related words into my mind. It seems to be going better as long as I do not try to remember too much at one time.

Big bulky load of something – there is a driver somewhere in there.

The first two are just interesting load. I call the second one One of Everything. The third picture is a load of fresh goat skins – now if I can just get one with a couple of goats on the back.  MacDonalds delivers everywhere. This is one of 8 to 10 at one location. Motorcycles are the only way you can deliver food in Jakarta – if you tried to use a car the food would always arrive cold if at all.

 

The first picture is sister Hash with the Roberts. Next is Mary with the Walkers and Sister Marchant. As you can see we ate well at the mission home. We often laugh at how often President and Sister Marchant have overnight guests in the mission home and how often they have guests for lunch and dinner – we call it the Mission Hotel. The third picture from left to right – The Roberts who are serving in Solo, Us, and the Hashes who are serving in Malang. This is probably the last picture of us together in Indonesia. If we get together again it will probably be in Utah.

17 March 2008 – Monday

We had a great surprise this morning. Jim and Kristy called on Skype. We did not have our camera so we could see and hear them but we could only chat with them. It worked well and there was no drop out. I think I will buy another camera today and a separate mike and see it that works – I am thinking that the camera we got is not good. It is too bad I have taken 18 months or so to figure that out. Olivia is really speaking clearly and we got to hear her sing a couple of songs.

We read from the Kitab Mormon before leaving for the mission home so we can get out Visas renewed. We thought we were to leave at 10 but of course there were some problems and we did not leave for Immigration until 1:00. But we had a nice visit with Hashes and the Roberts – especially Elder Roberts who I really enjoy talking to because he has had a very interesting life. Mary, and sisters Hash, Roberts and Walker started crocheting baby caps – it looked like a real knitting circle. The Marchants were nice enough to fix us all lunch.

Diaz – the expediter – is a really good man. He works very hard to see that things go smoothly at Immigration. Today he started at 7:30 but he could not get things ready until just before lunch hour and that is why we had to go at 1:00. Once we got there it took less than 10 minutes to get the paperwork signed. We said goodbye to the Roberts and Hashes for probably the last time before we head home. Actually we will probably see the Hashes when they leave in May.

On the way home we stopped at Carrefour to see if we could get a camera and microphone that worked better for Skyping. We bought a cheap camera and separate mike. Back at the apartment I hooked things up and found that the camera worked well but the mike did not. I fiddled with it for a long time with no results. I will try again tomorrow.

The rest of the day was rather laid back. We did read from the Kitab Mormon for a couple of hours and I read from Psalms and the Gospel of John but it seemed the day just slipped away. It seems anytime we break our regular routine we are not able or perhaps willing to make alternate plans.

Jakarta Street Scenes – I could not get a really good picture of this chair on the side of a building but this gives a good idea of its size. We were too close to cart load of tires to get a full view. I like the way the colors of the cart contrasts with the tires. The last picture is just a shot down one of the little alleys that we see all along the streets – often just between two buildings. This is one we see each day when we go to the office.

  Ed and us at the Jakarta Raya chapel. He really thought this was funny after seeing the largest Mosque and the oldest Catholic church in Indonesia. I told him it was not the outside but what is inside that counts.

When the crisis hit Indonesia in 1997-98 a lot of building that were under construction went unfinished because of lack of finances. Just down the street from our apartment is one of them. About two months ago we started to see some activity at the site. These are shots of the workers breaking back the old concrete to a point where there is good rebar to tie into. Mary pointed out that the crane in the first picture seems to be resting on a pole covered with ivy.

16 March 2008 – Sunday

We were up early so we could be ready to go to the Selatan chapel for Mary to play for the District Choir – which basically is the Selatan Choir. While they practiced I wrote more about the Scholarship fund and then stood outside and greeted members of the English branch when they arrived. The Roberts came with President and Sister Marchant – it is always good to see our friends from Solo. They are here to renew their visas tomorrow – the Hashes will be in later today.

The choir sang in the English branch and were very good for the small number and the quality of most of the voices. They were exceptionally good at the very end when they joined in singing out. The talks were on Pride and Humility and sister Ventura gave an excellent talk with good stories to illustrate her points. It was good to be able to understand everything that was being said. I liked the quote “Feed humility into your soul and it shall come out in your actions.”

After the English branch Sacrament meeting we talked to some of the members and then waited for the Selatan branch to start. Of course it was all in Indonesia and Hani – Elder Louhannapessey – who was in our last IEC translated for us. He did a good job and I think it increased his confidence. We certainly hope that he will get a high enough grade on the Michigan test that he will be able to get into BYUH.

The choir sang again but this time they were not as together as they had been for the English branch. I was surprised because I thought they would be less nervous in their own branch but it seemed to be the other way around.

Unfortunately they had too many speakers and they all spoke too long so the concluding speaker – Elder Subandriyo – had to cut his remarks very short. But in those few minutes he got a strong message across. He is an excellent speaker and his points are always direct and right on the mark. It has been a pleasure to serve with him.

After the sacrament meeting we came back to the apartment because Ed was coming over for lunch. It will be the last time we will see him until he comes back in about 2 weeks. I spoke to President Marchant about this and he said that was fine. He even invited him to come to dinner at the mission home tonight. I was sure that Ed would be much too busy for that but it was very nice of the President to extend the offer.

We took Ed to the Park Hotel for a nice lunch and we had a great time talking about lots of things – none of which were really important except to us. When the bill came I started to pay it and then remembered that they did not take BCA Debit cards. So Ed ended up paying for a rather expensive lunch. As we were walking out, I said that I had not lost my touch and I could still get him to do things when I didn’t want to do them. We all had a great laugh.

Sam had agreed to drive us around for a little Jakarta sightseeing. So we spent 90 minutes seeing the Mona statue, the big mosque, etc. The hit of the visits was when we took him by the Jakarta Raya chapel. We had just seen this beautiful mosque and the oldest Catholic church in Indonesia so when he saw this non-discript building in the midst of a set of industrial buildings he really cracked up and insisted that we have our picture taken in front of the shuttered chapel. After a little more touring around we dropped him back at his hotel and said goodbye.

We had just enough time at home to take a short nap before catching a taxi to the mission home for dinner with the Marchants, Roberts, Hashes and the missionaries. It was great to talk to the couples and the elders while enjoying some excellent food.

I think Elder Bastian is trying to get me to speak Indonesian. He was reading the Kitab Mormon and I asked him what he was reading because I managed to leave my glasses at home. We got to talking and I mentioned that we could read about 95% of the KM. I told him I could not understand or speak Indonesian because I have to see most of the words in my head before I can translate them. He tested me by slowly reading from Alma and I was surprised how much I could translate but there were a number of words that I had to have him spell before I knew what it meant. However that brief exercise gave me hope that someday I might be at least able to understand the language.

President Marchant had arranged for the six of them to go over to Elder Subandriyo’s house. We did not go because we have been there a number of times – the last time just 3 weeks ago. I do not think the other couples had ever been there. So we caught a taxi home and it was nice to take off the tie for the first time today.

We read from the Kitab Mormon – the only time we did today and then Mary headed off to bed. I surfed through what was on TV and decided that I would rather study some Indonesian. I am trying to learn all the words that have to do with Cuaca – that is weather. I am also reading some of the Psalms in a hit and miss manner. Whoever wrote them really did have a great love for God and thought a lot about his relationship with Him.

 

A series of picture taken today at the Grand Hyatt in Jakarta where Ed is staying. His room was about half the size of our whole apartment and the bathroom – which I should have shot – was huge and gorgeous.

15 March 2008 – Saturday

It was a busy and exciting morning. I went to the gym and had a good workout. After breakfast we read from the Kitab Mormon. As we were reading Ed called and we arranged to meet him for lunch. Just as we finished reading, President Marchant called and gave us the name of the couple who will replace us. It is Harold and Mina Reber and they live in Lindon so we will be able to spend some time with them before they leave for the MTC.

The President suggested I call them. I could not find anything about them on line so I called Tom and asked him to look up their number. He got right back to me but when I called no one answered so I left a message with our e-mail address so they can contact us.

This morning I have been catching up posting this journal and working on pictures. I enjoy doing this but it does take up a good chunk of time. Mary tried to call her HS English class to tell them that we would be an hour late, but was only able to get one and she was at school. Therefore we had the taxi take us to the church so we could put a sign up saying we would start class late.

We had a great time talking to Ed about his trip and looking at all of his pictures. He really went back into the boondocks on this trip to schools that were two days travel away from almost anything. The teachers there complained because their pay did not get to them very regularly. He had pictures of some amazing landscape and people that do not have a drop of Javanese blood. But as with Indonesia they all looked clean and neat no matter how far away from what we would call civilization. One group complained that they had no shoes. It seems that part of their pay is a new pair of shoes every 5 years. Of course they do not last that long so for a couple of years they go without.

After lunch Ed took us up to his room which was about as nice as we have seen since we have been here. Of course we do not stay in $150 a night hotels. However after looking at his room I got to thinking that we might splurge in Hong Kong and stay in a nice hotel.

When we arrived back at the chapel Mary had one student and so she taught him while I worked on vocabulary. I joined them for a couple of games and that was fun. We had an interesting time trying to explain the difference between slicing bread and a slice of bread. But I think that we finally got it across. He told me what the words were in Indonesian and I made sentences that corresponded to the English.

I spent part of my time pondering the scriptures. I choose 1 Nephi 4:6 “And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do.” I read and thought about D&C 42:13, D&C 11:12, and some other verses out of 1 Nephi – 4:10 and 18. I also found a talk by Hartman Rector Junior that gave me more insight into the scripture and the idea of truly being led by the Spirit. I think that I have a problem letting go of control enough to truly follow the spirit. It is not enough to ask for the Spirit to be with me, I feel that is connected to being selfish. The scripture I need to focus on is where Christ says in Matthew “He who loses his life for my sake shall find it.” It seems this subject keeps coming up in my reading and thoughts – the idea of faith leading me to trust myself and my life to the Lord.

After the class was over we came back to the apartment to read from the Kitab Mormon, take a short nap and have some dinner before going back so Mary can play for the choir. They are singing in two branches tomorrow.

When we got back to the chapel for choir practice we met Elder Subandriyo so I had some time to talk to him about his idea about scholarships for those who are exceptional students but do not have money for a high quality university education. Once I had his thoughts, I worked up some ideas about who would qualify and how to choose who to give the scholarships. Of course we will be long gone before the program really gets up and running but it is exciting to be in on the beginning.

After choir practice we basically came home and went to bed. We need to get moving early tomorrow because Mary needs to be back to the chapel for a final practice at 7:15. It has been a good day and we were able to touch some lives.

14 March 2008 – Friday

I just mentioned to Mary that we are in a period of our mission when there is very little to write about. We could almost take any week and paste it in for the next one. I do not mean that our mission has become boring, it is just that we are not having many new experiences and we have reach a point where much of our time is spent creating and ordering paperwork. It is all needed for the English programs we have been privileged start but it is not very exciting or spiritually uplifting. Maybe I am just feeling jealous of those missionaries who are able to get so close to their branches and the members.

We read from the Kitab Mormon this morning. We are at the point where Alma is trying to teach the people of Amoniah. It is interesting that this people who have been taught the gospel, had the scriptures, and so many blessings completely reject God and the prophet that he sends to give them a chance to repent.

We go into the office so I can get an agenda together for our ERS meeting this afternoon and so Mary can re-type Elder Subandriyo’s talk. I finished before she did so I worked on vocabulary for the next IEC. Just as we are about to leave Mary realizes that she somehow saved the re-written talk where it can not be found. Luckily she did print a copy so she does not have to start from scratch.

Our next stop is the mission office. When we get there we find that they are just starting District Meeting. We did not think they were going to hold one because earlier when I called Elder Rowberry he and Elder Smith were teaching a lesson. But everyone was there including President Marchant and we had a good meeting. Elder Smith taught the lesson on Accountability and I commented on the statement “Accept full responsibility for your efforts. Never blame others for difficult circumstances or lack of progress.” I said that LeGrand Richards would agree with that if he was alive. After the lesson we let them eat the dozen donuts we brought.

Then it was on to Tangerang and our meeting with Lukito and Agus. Agus was held up 20 minutes so I think we all took short naps until he came. The meeting went well and we made plans for the next two months and talked some about the time between when we go home and the new couple comes. We gave out some assignments for training and for going to the last week of a Self-Employment Workshop in Solo.

After that meeting we followed Agus to visit an inactive family. This was a family that had joined the Church just before we came to Indonesia. He had recently been retired from a very good job and had wanted to go to Sun Valley and was so disappointed when he did not get a job that he quit coming to Church regularly. We had a nice visit and I taught a lesson on blessings coming after we have kept the commandments. I also bore testimony of the Book of Mormon. They are a very nice family and hopefully through the love of the members they will someday come back.

The trip back from Tangerang took a long time. We needed to go back to the chapel so Mary could re-type Elder Subandriyo’s talk. I used the time to answer some e-mail and to work on more of the vocabulary.

I almost forgot to mention that during the afternoon Elder Subandriyo called with a new project for us. It has to do with choosing young people to financially help to get a good education. He wants to come up with some test or criteria for making the choices. I truly have no real idea about how to go about this but I am sure the Lord will help us as he has in all other tasks that Elder Subandriyo has given us. I do wish we had more than 2 ½ months to work on it, but we will just have to do what we can do and let someone else finish it up. We are getting good at plowing and planting…at least with the IEC we have been allowed to see it grow.

By the time we got home it was rather late so about all we did was read from the Kitab Mormon and then some from the PH/RS Manual in Indonesian. It was a good day and the opportunity to bear my testimony and share some thoughts made it even better.

13 March 2008 – Thursday

Our days are busy but it does not seem like we are accomplishing much. This morning, after reading from the Kitab Mormon, we cleaned out a shelf full of English books for children. We will give some to members, keep some for future English classes, and send some to other couples to use or give away.

At the office we worked on our English lessons and continued to clean up the English material. I filed what I had organized yesterday and went through some more piles. What I did not do was remember to take some vocabulary books to the mission office so the Taylors could take them to Erna in Jogya. Now we will have to have them mailed.

At the mission office Mary taught her English lesson while I talked to the President, the Taylors and the Davises. As we were visiting with Elder Subandriyo he mentioned that he was correcting his talk for the BYUH devotional. Mary happened to mention she was a experienced proof-reader so he asked her if she would look it over. Later he sent her a copy via e-mail.

We were early getting to Tangerang so we stopped at the mall where we had something to drink and bought donuts for the missionaries and our English class. When we got to the chapel only one companionship was there so we sat around and talked about the mission and other things. Elder Manullang and Elder Prause are having some good success including a family of four that have been coming out regularly. Later Elder Cheney and Elder Worwood joined us so we could have district meeting. As always I enjoyed the meeting because it is great to hear the missionaries share their successes and also their disappointments.

Unfortunately we had no one come for English class. It does not appear that anyone thinks it is important enough to re-schedule other events to come. It is disappointing but it just means we are going to have to do something new to get people to come. At least there was lots of donuts for the missionaries.

The best news of the day was that Sam and Anne are definitely getting married in April. The exact details are still being worked out but it appears that it will be on April 26th. I do not know what that will mean for our English class or our own activities but we will work it out.

12 March 2008 – Wednesday

It was P-day and so we did a lot of things around the house including having our air-conditioners serviced. It must be done about every 4 months or the drains get plugged up and they start spitting or dripping water. The charge is very reasonable and the serviceman knows us well enough that we do not even have to tell him our apartment number.

During the day I worked on getting the vocabulary lessons for IEC sorted out. I have a tendency to just toss them in a box when I am through with them which is not a recommend style of filing. Mary finished up a couple of the HS English class teachers supply sets – this has been a major undertaking and she and Daisy has almost all the work.

We read twice from the Kitab Mormon – we are moving right along. The other gospel reading for the day came from the PH manual – lesson 6 on John the Baptist. I found the comments that he made in the temple especially interesting. I do not remember reading them before. I could almost see him before me bearing his witness as a Prophet of God of the things he knew were true. Over coming what he knew to be false doctrine that was probably being taught in the Church by those who considered themselves wise. It reminds me of how the brethern continues to remind teachers in the Church to stick to the manual, scriptures and the words of the leaders when they prepare lessons so they are not led to teach things that may be true but not spiritually enlightening. I am afraid I have not always heeded their counsel. However I have finally matured enough to realize that if it does not add to the spirit of the lesson, it is best not brought up.

An interesting event happened this evening. We knew that the Davises and the Taylors were in town to get their visas renewed and I mentioned to Mary that we should call and ask them and the Marchants and see if they would like to go to the new Amigos we discovered. We decided not to because I really did not want to get dressed up and go out. About an hour later President Marchant called to ask me where the new Amigos was and then he called and asked if we would like to go to dinner with all of them! Great minds do think the same…<g>

Of course we said yes and hurried to get dressed. When we asked for a cab it turned out there were none and we ended up waiting 15 minutes for one to appear. We had a little trouble finding the right area but arrived about the same time as the group from the mission home. We had a great time and a number of interesting moments. First sister Taylor knocked over her smoothie and that had to be mopped up. Then the poor waiter tripped while delivering drinks and managed to spill on both sister Marchant and sister Walker. It only caught the arms of their blouses but the manager was really upset and even went as far as sending one of the staff up to buy sister Marchant a clean blouse. They assured him that was not necessary and so instead he gave us free chips before the meal and fruit afterwards.

There was a lot of sharing of thoughts about our mission and laughter about what we all thought when we got our calls. The President suggested that we should probably revise the information that is given to newly called missionaries so that they know that they will need to buy a car so they need to arrange for getting the money sent before they leave home.

I think we all were sorry when the evening ended and we had to part company. As I have often said, getting to know the other couple missionaries is one of the joys of being on a mission.