27 November 2007 – Tuesday

None of the alarms went off but I woke at exactly 3:00 a.m. We had not trouble getting ready to leave at 4:00. However we came close to having a major problem. On the way to the airport we ran into a traffic jam on the toll road. There was a flood on the road and the three and four lanes had to be reduced down to one. This was bad even at 4:00 when there are hardly any vehicles on the road. 3 hours later it must have been impossible – both ways. Later we read in the paper and saw on the news that it had been there for at least the last 12 hours. However it seems no one had told people to stay off the road. But once again we were blessed and got through it with lots of time left for us to get to the airport, check in and catch our flight.

Sam and Wawan made it to Solo with a detour through Semarang and met us at the hotel so we could get all of our luggage when we checked in. We got a very nice room – all of them seem to be – and after unpacking we read from the Kitab Mormon. We arranged for inter-net service and one of the first things we checked was if we could get to our blog. We could so we now know it has something to do with Giganet and I will call them when we get back to Jakarta to solve the problem.

The Roberts came and had lunch with us. They are very familiar with Novotel – they stayed here for a couple of weeks before getting their own house. After lunch we got everything together for our class and then Mary had Sam take her to a book store while I caught up with the posting of our blog. Then we went to the chapel. The Roberts and the Barnards were already there. They are two wonderful couples. The Roberts shared some letters that students of an English class that they visited wrote in appreciation. They were amazingly clear and touching. Mainly they talked about how the Roberts had cleared up some things about American society and life. But one was really funny. It said that the Roberts were a perfect couple. “Elder Roberts was fat and Sister Roberts was funny.”

Elder and sister Barnard are from Australia and are doing a great job with teaching Family History to the members. Each couple that we know have special talents that makes their calls so important to the members here. None are alike or have the same talents, but they are one in purpose and in that way they are able to serve with joy and success.

During the time between the Roberts leaving and the class starting, a huge and violent storm moved across Solo. The rain poured down and the wind blew the rain horizontal instead of vertically. It hit the window of our room so hard that we ended up with a good sized puddle because it forced the water through the edges of the window. Later when we were driving to the chapel we found a large tree limb had fallen down and blocked most of the road we were traveling on. their was only one lane open – not going our way – and even there we had to drive over small branches. It looked at first like we would be stuck there for a long time, but one of the instant traffic directors – that is someone who decided to direct traffic – stepped in and soon had the cars taking turns. No one honked their horns or got angry. They just dealt with it.

The rain was so bad that no one showed up for our 4 a.m. class. So, as I said above we just sat around talking about our mission. Priesthood leaders started showing up for our 6:00 meeting to explain the program – including elder Subandriyo who had to fly in to Yoga to get here. While this was going on I checked in on the Seminary class and found there were 7 or 8 students there. So I waited until seminary ended and I stepped in and asked if I could talk to them for a few minutes. So I gave them a pep talk for about 15 minutes and told them we would start class tomorrow at 6:00.  Since the leadership meeting was going to be held in the Seminary room, basically I kept the whole District Leadership sitting around for those 15 minutes but I felt it was important.

I think the meeting went pretty well. Elder Subandriyo told his feelings about the program and what he felt needed to be accomplished. I then asked of I could talk and told the leaders how we were asked to come up with a program and that I could testify that it was God’s program. Therefore while we can slow it down, we can not stop it from coming to pass. Elder Subandriyo then opened the meeting up for questions  – most of which we had no answers for. We did set a date for having a meeting of the youth, their parents and the leaders in Solo so we can tell them exactly what we were are going to do. It will be on January 5th and on the 8th we will start a new Intensive English Class. They told us that it looked like at least 3 students will come from the district. I think that means there are either 4 or 5 spots already filled – leaving only 1 or 2 more.

After the meeting we took the Roberts and Barnards home and then we went to KFC to have dinner. It was not our first choice – we would have preferred McDonalds – but it was OK. By the time we got home we were both very tired and after trying without success to get on the internet we went to bed.

It was a good day in many ways but disappointing that we will have only three days with the students.

26 November 2007 – Monday

A nice morning. It is going to be another scorching day – blue skies and soft clouds. I think I may stop complaining about the overcast and pollution. I had a good workout for about 45 minutes. I guess I am increasing my muscle tone but it is not very evident because I am still carrying a good 10 – 15 pounds I need to get off.

The morning e-mail includes one from Kristy saying that our new granddaughter would be born on December 10, 2008. She said that is one of the advantages of a C-section. There was also a great letter from the Creers about their mission. What a perfect couple to lead a mission. She wrote about a couple of their branches with small membership with some faithful saints coming miles to go to church. It certainly reminded us of this mission and our faithful saints.

While we were reading from the Kitab Mormon, I got a call from a member of the Solo district presidency saying that elder Subandriyo called last night at 11:00 and asked them to set up a meeting of the district presidency and the branch presidents for 6 p.m. Tuesday so he could talk to them. Of course when elder Subandriyo asks for something he gets it.  Before this the district and branches had met and wanted to hold the Tuesday and Wednesday classes at 6:00 p.m. after Seminary so they could observe a class. So now there was a direct conflict. While we talked we decided to hold the Tuesday class at 4:00, the Wednesday class at 6:00 and the other two classes right after school. This means we will have almost the whole day Wednesday free and perhaps we will drive up to Semarang and see the Bennetts and some of the countryside.

Because Sam is getting the air-conditioning fixed, we take a taxi to the office. I work on some e-mail until Daniel comes in so we can work on his resume and send it off to one of our job possibilities. Then Ezra comes and Mary has an English lesson with him. I give Daniel some more English lessons and tell him to do the work and then bring it back so we can check it. He is going to try to come a couple of times a week to our lessons with Ezra. By the time Sam gets back with the now repaired car – there was a loose hose on the air-conditioning – we are about ready to head for the mission office.

But first we stop by the apartment and pick up the things he will bring. Two big suitcases and some clothes. At the mission office we collect our tickets, Mary teaches her lesson, and Sam starts loading up the things he will take for the couples and missionaries in Central Java. At the same time, the Taylors arrive from the airport. Sister Taylor and I go over to Grand Lucky so she can shop for some things they can not seem to find in Jogya. We kind of got lost but the people were happy to get us back on the right track. The only damage was that I started sweating so bad that I was not sure I would ever stop. But while sister Taylor toured the store I sat and cooled off.

The reason elder Taylor did not come with us is that he has a terrible hernia which will need to be operated on. Sister Taylor tells me that he says it is the worse pain he has ever experienced. When you consider he had part of his left arm torn off in a farming accident, he must be in excruciating pain.

I called Sam and asked him to over to Grand Lucky to pick up all the stuff that sister Taylor bought. I could not face carrying it back to the office. I planned for Sam to leave from the store but he insisted that he drive us back before leaving for Solo. I was easy to convince that I should ride in an air conditioned car instead of walking back in the extra hot sun.

We got back and after dropping sister Taylor off in the mission home, I gathered up Mary and we caught a taxi home. Since then we have cooled off and read four pages from the Kitab Mormon.

For the rest of the day I felt somewhat in limbo. I want to get going on this English program but we can do little until we get to Solo. We have about thought ourselves out. We sent most of the things we think we might need with Sam so we do not have much left here. Even our printer is gone.

25 November 2007 – Sunday

We went to the Tangerang branches for church but came home early so Sam could take care of some things. We would not have done that if the elders would have had any investigators, but all of them fell through. Elder Cheney and Peate are an interesting pair – they seem to be working well together and are visiting universities as the president has asked. Hopefully they will have some success in teaching in one of them.

We got another job contact, but all the jobs are in Sumatra which means they would not have much contact with the church unless they could get to Medan. I am not sure that is a good idea but if you need a job, you need a job.

Back at the apartment we start planning for our trip. We need to be packed early tomorrow so we can load up the car before we go to the office. Sam will leave sometime in the early afternoon. We read twice from the Kitab Mormon – we fell a little behind in our reading but hopefully will catch up during the week ahead. We usually have plenty of time in the mornings and evenings when we are away.

I have been fighting a slight headache today – something that seems to be a re-occurring theme over the last month. I don’t know if it is stress, the weather or what. Speaking of the weather, it has been really hot the last two days. The sky has been bright blue so there are no clouds to keep the sun from beating down on everything. Thank goodness for air conditioning. They say this is the way it is most of the time in Solo and Surabaya – I would not be able to handle that very long. Especially since the couples there go out almost every day to visit members who’s homes are hardly ever – or never – air conditioned. The Lord knew my problem and gave us an assignment that lets us be in air conditioned buildings or autos most of the time.

We just got a letter from the Taylors saying they are coming in tomorrow. It seems that elder Taylor may need an operation for a digestive tract problem. The president told me that there was another elder with a hernia – hopefully unlike elder Roper he will not have to go home for it. But if he does maybe he will be allowed to come back here to finish his mission. The president mentioned that he had his hands full with about 75 missionaries and wondered how those with 150 – 200 were able to do it. Just reading the weekly reports and answering them takes a lot of time.

It is easy to pack when you have all the room you want. We just started putting things in two large suitcases that Sam will take with him in the car. We will only take a couple of carry-ons so there will be no waiting for the luggage to be de-planed.  Inspired by Nancy mentioning that Neal had already read the Book of Mormon 4 times this year, I started to read it before turning off the light – I only got 3 pages read when my eyes stopped focusing.

24 November 2007 – Saturday

After a normal morning – including reading from the Kitab Mormon – we went into the office to take care of some things before heading off to a day of socializing. We sent of Daisy’s resume to another potential employer, had Sam start calling our PEF people for the monthly contact, and found out that we can access the blog from the office. So the problem is either in our computer or in the service. Strange!

We spent from about 11:00 to 2:30 having a great time attending a District Leadership BBQ at the mission complex. We got to meet the leadership in a less formal atmosphere. I did find time to talk to president Mak about elder Subandriyo’s desire to have Intensive English taught to all the highschool students. There was lots of food – including some left over ham from Thanksgiving and fresh BBQ chicken.

At 2:30 we took the Marchants and the office elders over to the English Branch’s Thanksgiving Dinner and service project. Their service project was to assemble 75 Christmas bags for children who would not usually get anything. It was well organized and the assembly went quickly. After that we socialized by teaching most of the group how to play the Kane’s dice game. Once I had played for a short time with sister Kane so I remembered how it was played, I went to another table and taught them. Everyone seemed to have fun and the time waiting for the dinner to be set up – it was catered – went quickly.

They had a full blown Thanksgiving dinner with lots of turkey, dressing, potatoes, yams, gravy, and rolls. I of course ate much too much – but I did not go back for seconds. They had a lot of great desserts and I must confess that I ate some. All in all it was a good time and we got to socialize with all the branch members. It is good to be close to them because they are such a big help with the Intensive English Class.

The dinner was held at the apartment complex where the Smith’s live. He is president of the branch and the complex is gorgeous. I imagine the apartments rents for $3000 or more a month. Many of the ex-pats live in this kind of apartments because it is a perk to get them to leave their home and also for security. But when you talk to them and see them with Indonesian saints, you would never know that they live such a luxourious life style. They are just wonderful LDS.

We were among the last to leave – the Marchants stayed so they could see the Smith’s apartment – and Annie went with us. She is a lovely young woman and I have no idea why she has not married before this. We certainly hope that it works out between her and Sam.

When we got to the apartment, Mary wanted to go see the booths and activities that were being put on by the apartment tonight. We could not miss the stage show – it was just outside our window – but there was a lot more going on. There were about a dozen sales booth set up – none of them were doing much business – and Mary found a couple of neckless that she really liked so I bought them for her as ‘Christmas’ presents.

Up on the pool level there was a huge crowd eating free food and watching the stage show acts. We only had a small cup of ice cream and some water. We also looked through a nice display of mostly modern paintings. I found one I really liked for only $90 but I had no idea how to get it home. Later I realized that it did not have a real exterior frame, so I probably could have just taken it off the stretchers, rolled it up, and put it in a tube for traveling home.

Back in the apartment we were ‘entertained’ for the rest of the night – at least until about 11 – by the bands that played almost continually outside our window. It was an unusual ending for an unusual day in the mission.

23 November 2007 – Friday 

A wonderful busy day. After I went to the gym, we got a call from Bob.  We got to talk to most of the grandchildren who were there as well as Bob, Lisa, Mike and Cindy. Then we got to Skype with Jim, Kristy and Olivia. Olivia sang us her ABCs. Jim could not figure out why we can not access our blog from here – everyone else can. He took control of our computer and did about everything he could think of but nothing worked. 

Sam picked us up and we spent 5 hours home teaching one family and seeing Agus K’s home and office. The family we saw move here a few months ago from Malang where they were baptized by elder Hash. The 7 of them live in two small rented rooms with almost no furniture. They do not have enough money to get to church so Agus drives them. We had a nice visit and we are trying to get them good jobs so they have something to live on. Right now the son and one daughter are working at minimal jobs. Of course because we were visiting they had to go out and buy bottled water and some cookies. We knew they did not really have enough money to do that, but it would be impolite not to accept it gracefully. We did manage to leave most of it for them. It always touches our hearts to listen to members like this who have little but are so grateful for the gospel and any help they get. They are lucky to have Agus in the branch presidency, he will do what he can to see they get some jobs.  Agus and his family are going to Bekasi this Sunday so there will be one to give them a ride. I am thinking of sending Sam over to pick them up and we can take them home afterwards.

We hurried back to the office to give Ezra Subandriyo his lesson. When we pulled up to the gate I found I had once more left the keys in the apartment. Mary suggested she teach Ezra while I head over to the mission home to pick up all the things we need to take to the couples in Solo.  That way we could get a couple of necessary things done – and it worked.

As Sam and I drove over to the office I called one of the Surakarta district presidency and talked to him about the new program elder Subandriyo wants to get started. He told me their concerns and we talked about times and day. I made the decision to change from going Monday thru Thursday to Tuesday thru Friday and addressed some of his concerns. I also told him how this program came to be started. That it came from a vision that elder Subandriyo had and so the goals were not his or mine but the Lords. We have just been called to come up with a plan that will make it work. I do not think he realized this and he said that they would discuss it with the district leadership. He also suggest they call the Solo branch presidents in for a meeting while we are there so we can explain it to them and get some feed back.

When I got to the mission home, I sat down and talked to elder Subandriyo about what we had discussed and he was behind it 100%. He says he wants to be there for the meeting with the branch presidents. We shared our testimony that this was the Lords will we are doing and not our own. I think when the leadership and the youth realize this, things will start to draw together more. It sends chills down my arms just thinking about how this all came about.

I talked to everyone involved with getting things to the branches and missionaries and told them we would be happy to take anything they can get together. I gave them a list of what was needed and I think they will get it organized. President Sujud will change our tickets for the right dates. It should be an exciting week.

When I got back to the apartment Mary was finishing up her lesson with Ezra. When he left we read from the Kitab Mormon. Then we ordered our Friday Pizza Hut dinner. I have spent the last 2 hours cataloging pictures, writing e-mail to some of the couples about the change in plans, and catching up this journal so when I can post again I will be all ready. I studied from PMG before turning off the light. It does seem that it is becoming easier to read and some words that have been giving me trouble since we started studying are starting to stick – either that or I can guess better than before.

It was a wonderful day – most days are – with some very spiritual experiences. It is impossible not to see the Lord’s hand in so much that we are able to do. I feel that we are truly blessed for being able to serve here in Indonesia.

22 November 2007 – Thursday – Thanksgiving

For the second day in a row I woke late and did not go to the gym. Tonight I will set the alarm for 5 so it does not become a habit. I tried to post to our blog but obviously something is wrong there  because I can not get a connection. I checked to see is WordPress was down but it was fine so I guess there is a problem with the blog itself. Hopefully Jim will get it fixed so I can get back to posting.

We read from the Kitab Mormon before Sam came to pick us up. He took us to the mission home and dropped us off with all our goodies. The rest of the day was spent with all the missionaries from the zone except for the Walkers and the Kanes who were off to the closing of the water project. The first couple of hours were spent practicing for the Christmas program – I am not sure what Christmas program we are singing in but one of the many that will be held during the season. Sister Moore is the choir director and program producer. Our own Jin-Young plays the piano – it was good to see her again.

Sister Miller from the English branch was also there and told about her experiences as a missionary in the German area of Switzerland. It was a very hard mission and they could tract all day and not have anyone answer the door. They were excited when anyone would talk to them for even a minute. But she bore her testimony that the Lord sends each missionary out for a certain reason and they need to make sure they accomplish it. Later I asked her what hers was. She said that one Sunday she sat next to a sister in church who turned out to be the non-member fiancé of an active member. Later the man called and said his fiancé had been going to church for 2 years but would not take the missionary lessons. But after meeting sister Miller (who was sister something else then) she wanted her to teach her about the gospel. It turned out to be the only time her and her companion had ever taught all the lessons. In fact she had only taught the fourth one other time. The woman ended up getting baptized.

What was interesting was that sister Miller had torn up her knee a couple of time and had a surgery. The mission president wanted to send her home but she told him that she felt there was something that she needed to be there to take care of. After the baptism she did go home 2 months early to have corrective surgery. It was a powerful story and we both had tears in our eyes when she was done. Hopefully we are doing whatever special thing we were sent here for.

We had our Thanksgiving dinner with all the missionaries – there was a little turkey and lots of ham, potatoes, fruit, gravy, sweet potatoes, and dressing. Everyone had all they wanted to eat and the president even invited the office staff to come down and eat. They did and then ended up doing most of the dishes – without being asked of course. I took the task of cleaning off plates so they could be washed.

We then all watched the first of ‘The Work and the Glory’ movies. It is quite good – too bad the second one was so poorly done. The missionaries all reacted when there was any kissing. After the movie we all had dessert. Sister Walker had made banana cream pie – which was the favorite or myself and elder Collings.

When dessert was over and I had help cleanup, we sat down with the Davis’ and went through an English program that sister Davis has been working on. Actually it was organizing some lessons that sister Peterson had done. It is a very good program with lots of activities and three skill levels. It is quite possible that we can use it as the basis for the English program for the whole country. It would be great if we did not have to start from scratch. The Davises have put a lot of work in on this. The Lord seems to want this program to move forward.

We then gathered up all our stuff – it had been increased by our Christmas package from Jim’s family – and caught a taxi home. We were quite tired by that time, but we decided to read a conference talk in Indonesian. I thought we would have a very hard time, and although it was not as easy as some of the Kitab Mormon, we were able to get most of it without looking up many words. However at times the translation came out much different than what the Ensign had. I would not want to be a translator.

20 November 2007 – Tuesday

Study, gym, wrote some letters about the English class, and read from the Kitab Mormon. We continue to plant, prune, graft, dig, dung, cut down and lay up fruit against the season.

The above is as far as I got yesterday before we headed out for a really full day of activities. At the office we taught English to Ezra, help a recently returned missionary start looking for a job and gave him some exercises to help him work on his already excellent English, and did the usual amount of e-mailing. Before we knew it, it was time to head to the mission office so Mary could teach her class.

Since there was a long shopping list, we dropped Mary off at the office and went to SoGo. Sam and I walked through the store a half-dozen times in our search for all the things on the list. They do not have yams but they do have sweet potatoes – in fact they have purple sweet potatoes but I did not buy those. What they do not have in Indonesia is walnuts or pecans…we did not think peanuts or almonds would be good substitutes. Marshmellows sell for $6 a package – and they are not great looking marshmellows. Next time Mary gets to go shopping and I will teach her class.

When we got back to the mission office, I had a nice talk with elder Subandriyo. He told me that while President Marchant was in Hong Kong he was told that starting in 2009, all Indonesian missionaries would go to the Manila MTC for a month’s training. He said he now knew why he had received the vision for teaching English to highschool students. The training will all be in English so the better they know English the more they will get out of the MTC experience.

After that we talked more about the program we will be starting next week in Solo. He is not worried about anything – he will find the money and the way to get this to work. I can feel the power of the spirit working in him and a fire in his eyes when he talks about the program. I feel we are really being blessed to at least be in on the start of this program. Of course I am also a little daunted with the responsibility. I imagine there will be a lot of trips to the mountain.

Mary had two new members for her class. It seems everyone has got the bug for learning English. The main problem she has is the wide range of the level of English skills. I told her about the problem of no nuts and suggested Sam take her over to Grand Lucky to see if they had any. While the did that I went down and talked to the Walkers. When Mary came back – without any more luck with the nuts than I had – she joined us and we invited the Walkers to go to dinner with us.

A little later we were joined by president Marchant so we had a nice discussion of some of the things going on in the mission. The president had to send a young missionary home today for health reasons. It must be hard to call the parents and tell them that a missionary is coming home. At least it is not because of anything moral. As the time came for us to go to dinner we invited the President and sister Marchant to come along so we could show them this great Chinese restaurant.

To make the story short, they came along, the restaurant was closed today, and the substitute one was not very good. But we had a good time talking and it at least filled our stomachs.

We took the Marchants back to their home and the rest of us went home teaching to the Johnson Tobing family. What a great family and what an asset they would be to the English branch. We had a good visit and I tried to give the young people as much attention as possible. After our visit we went back to the mission office one more time to drop off the Walkers and pick up our groceries that we had left there so we had enough room in our car for everyone to go to dinner.

By the time we got back to our apartment we were completely bushed but in a very happy way. It was a full day and I think a lot got accomplished. I did not even look at a word of Indonesian before falling into bed and going to sleep.

Hi all – for the last four or five days, we have not been able to connect with this site from our apartment. We do not know why and Jim could not figure it out either. Since we can get on from the office – or I would not be posting this – it is either a problem with one of our computer settings or something to do with giganet, our provider. We will be able to check if it is our computer when we go to another city for four days to start to set up the new English class.  If it works there, we will complain to giganet…if it doesn’t I do not know what we will do.

 I sent Jim the last few day’s journal and he will post them for me. After that I will probably just load things on to a memory stick and do the posting from the office.

 We are about to leave and go to two BBQ’s. One to support the District and one to meet with the English branch who are so important to us for job information and to help us with our English class.

 Everyone have a great weekend.

I have no idea what is in the first load, but over on the left of the picture you can see a small gas station. The owner can only afford a half-dozen or so bottles at a time. In the middle is a good one. From the back it it looked like they were carrying a rug or a roll of fabric. But when we got close we found that she had body parts! Finally there is the water delivery motorcycle. I also like the composition of the shot – the rich oranges setting off the main character. It is amazing what I find when I really look at a picture I have taken here. So often the background is as interesting or more interesting than what I was trying to capture.

19 November 2007 – Monday

I slept in and so did not go to gym this morning. I will try to get there this afternoon or evening. We read from the Kitab Mormon – we are almost exactly where we were 3 months ago. It is strange how we still must look up some words that we are reading for at least the third time. While frustrating we actually often laugh when neither of us can come up with the meaning. I call our Indonesian friend Rudi about visiting him today but he was busy with business and so we set it for Wednesday.

The first place we go today is the mission office to pick up an English book that they gave out in Hong Kong at the Mission Presidents Conference. We wanted to see if it was something we wanted to get for our highschool classes. We also talked to the president about the couples’ conference and got his OK for an agenda. He has not yet looked at the English class outline, but said he would ASAP.

Then we stopped at a cross-stitch shop so Mary could get some thread and another pattern. It was a stand alone shop so we did not have to fight the mall traffic. They also had places for Sam and I to sit while waiting. That alone was a big improvement. On the way to the office we stopped for some fresh nasi goreng. I turned out the shop was almost across the street from a Cheesecake Factory shop. It turned out to be the real thing and it is obviously only for the wealthy because one small piece of cheesecake is as much as some people make all day. But it looked so wickedly good, I bought a piece for us to share after lunch.

At the office we had our lunch and I sent out the probable program for the conference to all the couples and asked them to respond so we know they got it. By the time we got home, three had already responded. Ezra Subandriyo came in for his English lesson. He has excellent English and about all we are going to do is work on vocabulary and perhaps some reading for main ideas. He started to read Harry Potter and came with his list of words he did not know. I went through them with him. He read and speaks well. I have in mind to see how well he understands by giving a lesson on academic subject and see how well he does.

While I was doing that Mary was combing the internet looking for activities we can use with our highschool students. We want to make it fun for them while they learn. We shut down the office about 3:00 and came home. Since I missed the gym this morning, I went down and did a brief workout – sit-ups and upper body. It was nice in the gym because the air-conditioning has been on all day so it is cooler than in the morning. I still managed to work up a sweat.

We kept fairly busy for the rest of the day. Lots of e-mail traffic because of the couples’ conference. I worked on English activities for Mary’s class tomorrow. We read twice more from the Kitab Mormon – we are now into the parable of the Olive Tree. Mary made one my favorite dishes – the base for pork chops Creole – for dinner. It was perfect, except she put in a little too much chili powder so it was rather spicy. We will give the remainder to Sam who should love it.

This evening we got another application for our next Intensive English Class. That makes three so far and we have not really even started to advertise it. We were kind of thinking about not having it because we will be in the middle of getting the first high school English class really started. The pilot for Jakarta will start at exactly the same time. And the plans for the couples’ conference will need to be finalized sometime in January. It should make for a really interesting month. Maybe we will just sleep at the church….NOT.

We have always said the only reason we would extend was if there was something we really felt we needed to do before we left. The only thing that I can think of is the high school English program. We will have the Intensive English Class pretty much under control and we hope outlined before then so we can just turn it over to the couple that takes our place. But the high school program will be only 5 months old and since it will end up being a 3 year course, there is a question of where we will be in May of 2008. I do not think we need to have the whole program mapped out for three years, but we certainly need to have the first one in fair shape.

Oh and of course there is PEF which could be approved at any time. Once it is we will have all the work associated with getting that started to deal with. Thank goodness I have Lord and Mary to show me what to do. Like Nephi I am going to have to go to the mountain very often.

I did get one other great bit of news – we can home teach the Johson Tobings tomorrow night! Yeah! What wonderful blessing we have had all day – one of the best days of our mission.

18 November 2007 – Sunday

I just had a small lesson in patience. Just before going to bed last night I tried to post my Saturday journal along with a couple of pictures. When I hit ‘publish’ the computer came back that it could not reach the website and I thought I had lost the post. This would not have been a big thing except I wrote a decent amount about the pictures. So I went to bed a little frustrated but I thought that it might have posted before the internet disappeared. This morning when I checked the blog, there was no post. But just now as I went to rewrite the entry, there in drafts was the whole thing. So hopefully I learned a small lesson in patience.

The morning however is impatient – it seems to be going by in 30 minutes leaps. I woke at 5:30 and the next thing I knew it was 6:00 and then 6:30 and then 7:00. I know they say when you get older time flies by, but this is ridiculous. I have managed to study from PMG – I am trying hard to get some vocabulary into my head. I think this stretching of my mind is one of the great blessings of the mission. I can not imagine me doing this at home but here it has almost become a hobby – certainly it is a goal.

We go to Jakarta Raya to see their Primary presentation. They have a very small primary and there is only one young man. I think the number of teachers and leaders outnumber the primary children. But they put on a good program and at the end the four active young men join the Primary for the last song and do a great job of singing. The rest of the meetings are normal – I really need to find someone who can do a good job of translating for us. I try hard to hear what they are saying but it just does not work. But meeting with the members, letting them know we want to help them with their employment, etc. makes it well worthwhile.

Our Sunday afternoon was about the same as always. About 3 hours of reading from the Kitab Mormon, studying from PMG, catching up pictures and journal, napping, etc. We like to give Sam the day off so he can be with his branch, go to his leadership meetings, and participate in whatever is going on there. The young adults and single adults of the Selatan branch are a very closely knit group who like to do things together. Most of the time it is just sitting around talking or watching a movie, but it allows them to be with men and women with the same values. I think it is great and we are glad to give Sam Sundays off as often as we can.