We are thinking of getting this as our second car for me to drive. We figure no one would notice if I have an accident. The Christensens, Lukito and us having lunch. A delivery going out from the bakery supply shop – eggs, water, and miscellaneous things. I am afraid we have been working Sam too much – he took a nap while waiting for us to finish looking at a gift shop.

14 September 2007 – Friday

I did not get moving quickly today but did get most of my exercise in. We had a short morning because we were to pick up the Christensens at 8:45 to go out to Tangerang. We read some from the Kitab Mormon – the Anti-Nephi-Lehis laying down before their enemies.

We had a nice talk with the Christensens as we drove to our meeting. We got there early so Sam started driving around and we passed a shop that advertised Baking Lessons. We had seen one of them before and I wondered what it was they taught. So we stopped and went in.

The bottom floor had everything you could possibly want for baking, including all the ingredients. It was really rather amazing because while it was not very impressive looking, it really did have everything including large cans of Del Monte cling peach halves in heavy syrup for only $2.00 – less than we would expect in the US. It is part of a chain of what I think is franchises. We will check into it more.

It turned out that the upstairs was a full kitchen for teaching everything from bread making to cake decorating. The prices for the classes seemed a little high but it would be a cheap way to use PEF funds – or perhaps Returned Missionary funds – to teach some of the single mothers a practical skill that they could use to start their own businesses.  The Christensens were impressed – I told them that we set it up to impress them.

Then we went to visit the State Vocational School. They teach a wide variety of practical skills that might lead to jobs. We visited the machinist, the welding, the automotive, and the construction sections. The man at the machinist area said that about 80% of the graduates found work. The costs are minimal – in fact it is free if the person can not afford it – and a student can take each section a number of times until they become proficient at the work and hopefully get a better job. In the welding section there was just one student and he was getting one on one instruction. Unfortunately there are no night classes. Now we just need to find a way to get this information to the members and hopefully some will find a way to use it to help their employment situation.

Lukito joined us for lunch. Unfortunately Agus had another appointment. We took them to the new mall that was near where we saw the school and we had a great Chinese lunch for 6 that cost a grand total of $20. After lunch we came home and spent about an hour talking about different things before putting the Christensens in a cab and sending them back to their hotel. They looked a little tired and I do not think they are yet up to feeling 100%.

In the Kitab Mormon and I was embarrassed to find out that we had not reached the half way mark yesterday – we did this evening. For some reason I thought the Kitab Mormon had 608 pages when it has 616. But now we are half way through and are still on line to finish in less than 4 months. After we had read, I went back and wrote down the words we had to look up and will try to learn them tomorrow while I am walking. I have stopped doing that and therefore I have stopped learning vocabulary.

13 September 2007 – Thursday

Wow the days of our mission are streaming by and I do not imagine they will slow down. A normal morning. The only thing that was different was that the sewer that runs through the grounds of the apartment had a more pungent smell than usual. I am spending more time in the gym so I walk/jog less.

We got lots of e-mails asking if we were OK. We are glad that we are on people’s minds. So far we have managed to avoid all the disasters that have struck Indonesia in the 9 months that we were here. Of course we were affected by the flooding in February but only because it closed a lot of streets that we usually would have traveled on.

We read from the Kitab Mormon – Aaron teaching Lamoni’s father and the wonderful geography lesson about where the Lamanites and Nephites lived.

The day was a rather ususal Thursday which included going to the office and getting things ready for English classes. Then we went to the mission office for lunch and so Mary could teach her first lesson of the day. But before that we got a SMS from Catherine that her family would not be at our evening lesson and that there was something going on that would probably mean that no one would be coming. So we thought about all we would do is go to the district meeting and then come back home.

We were going to have lunch from BYU but it turned out that since it was the start of Ramadahn – where Muslims fast during the day – they had a very limited menu and so I only got part of my usual order, nothing that Mary wanted was available. I shared part of mine with her, but that was not enough so I asked Sam to run to KFC for some food.

While at the office we had a good talk with elder Subandriyo about PPMK and got his thoughts on some ideas on how to get the information out. Later I talked to the president about ideas for the next couples conference and he gave me the go ahead to do some research.

Elder Whitmore has been called into learn about being an A.P. to replace elder Merrill when he goes home next week. It is both sad and joyful to see each great missionary leave after serving a worthy mission.

After Mary taught her class we took a quick trip to SoGo for a few things. Then we came back to the apartment where I called to the Christensens and found that while they had just made it to their hotel room, they had decided to rest up instead of going out to Tangerang with us. They have been battling some illness and it is probably better that they had this chance to recover from a 5 hour flight which means that they had been traveling for 8 or 9 hours or more.

Since I did not know when they would arrive, I had earlier SMS the missionaries and told them we would probably be late to DM. But the traffic was not bad and so we were only about 40 minutes late. We had a chance to participate, give them the fliers about the English classes, and the surveys for the Universities and Trade Schools.

No member came for English class but an investigator did. Since I knew nothing about his English ability I was rather stumped about what to teach but Mary suggested we study family relationships. So we spent the hour learning about everything from parents to grandchildren by asking about each person’s family. Elder Hadi Suyatmo has a tough time with figuring out his family in English but I think by the time we were done he had finally got it right. I hope we did not set the investigator back by the class.

The trip home was again quick – hopefully this traffic pattern will continue for the whole month. We read from the Kitab Mormon before going to bed. We made it to the half-way mark about a week before we had planned so we might get through in about 3 ½ months instead of 4. But with the Intensive English class coming up in October, nothing is sure.

A good motorcycle load of rice crepes, workers building sewer, worker’s statue and the building with the ‘blue mosque’ top that we see from our balcony and is obviously not a mosque. However it is a very interesting building.

12 September 2007 – Wednesday

P-Day and we thought the Christensen’s were coming in from Hong Kong this afternoon. But about 11:00 I got a call from the president saying that the office had been informed that due to some passport problem they would not be coming. It is not a big thing because our only plans was to meet with them this evening for dinner and some talking.

I was up with the alarm but really wanted to go back to sleep. However I dragged myself out of bed and did my hour of exercises. I walked/jogged less and biked and treadmilled more. (Word does not like the word I just made up.) Although my weight is not moving down, I am feeling better and that is what is important.

When I got back to the apartment I read and marked Elder Bednar’s article – Seek Learning by Faith – and enjoyed what I learned. It got me to thinking about my own gospel teaching techniques. I tend to gear my lessons to get people to think and act more than by giving answers. It is the way I like teachers to teach – but that does not mean it is the correct way.

I liked his comments about how we should be ones who act and not ones who are acted upon. I had never thought about God’s question to Adam being a way for Adam to show responsibility and not a request for information. I think it is a good way to ask questions in a class room. I learned a lot from this lesson – things I needed to know and ponder.

I found the idea that the Spirit carries the message to the heart but not into the heart very interesting. I have found this is true when I am in a class. Sometimes I am in tune and so the spirit of what is being said comes to me and other times I am a million miles away and so nothing touches me. The need for being a good class member is as important in gaining learning as having a good teacher. I think the same thing is true about how we participate – do we answer or ask questions because we feel it will add to the spiritual nature of the class or to cause controversy. If it is to cause controversy is it because the spirit prompted us or because we just want to liven things up a little or show off our knowledge. I am afraid that the latter is often why I have done this in the past. I have noticed that for quite a while now I tend not to bring up questions or give answers that might lead to someone questioning their gospel beliefs. About the only place I ask those kind of questions is in the HP quorum meeting at home and those brothers can handle anything. But even there I try not to disrupt a lesson with my questions.

We read from the Kitab Mormon until Sam came to pick us up. We then went to the office so Mary could practice the piano. I checked the e-mail but there was nothing to answer. After she had practiced for a half hour or so we headed off to choose material for having seat covers made for our car. We want something that we can clean easily. We spend a lot of time in the car and eat and drink there. The cost for really good vinyl seat covers is $130 total for all three sets of seats. What a bargain – we set a date of next Wednesday to get it done.

On the way home we stopped so I could take some pictures of what appeared to me to be a statue commemorating workers. Right across from the statue a group of men were building a new sewer system – an open system of course – so I took pictures of the crew.

When we got back to the apartment we had lunch – I opted for watermelon and a piece of bread, did some house cleaning – it is P-day, and I did a second load of laundry, and read from the Kitab Mormon for about 45 minutes. Then I read from the July Ensign before taking a nap. The Ensign had a well written story about some young adult saints in Portugal that talked about how to have a strong foundation for your testimony so that can not be shaken by the many ‘earthquakes’ that we experience day by day.

Wow – I wrote about ‘earthquakes’ and real one happens off the coast of Sumatra about two exactly the same time as I was writing that. I did not learn about it until over an hour later when Sam called to check up on us. We had not felt anything but we turned on the news and found that it was a 7.9 quake and there was a tsunami alert out.

I immediately called elder Subandriyo and found he did not know about it. I then called president Marchant and he also was unaware. About 45 minutes later I got a call from elder Burr in Hong Kong and he wanted to know if everything was OK. I told him that it was not near Jakarta and also that our chapel in Medan was quite a ways away, that I thought that there should be no damage or loss of life among the church but that certainly there would be some damage along the coast of Sumatra nearer the center. I gave him elder Subandriyo’s number. He also wanted to know about the Walkers and I suggested he call president Marchant to find them. If there is major damage and need for help, I am sure that elder Subandriyo and either the Kanes or the Walkers will fly or drive over there soon. It would be a rather exciting experience for the Walkers who have been here just one week.

We read more from the Kitab Mormon – in Alma where Ammon and King Lamoni meets the king’s father and the result of that meeting. Hopefully the missionaries in Indonesia will be blessed as Ammon and his brothers were among the Lamanites. Not the part about being thrown in jail but the success.

It seems that we will be holding our second Intensive English Class starting on October 1 – the president called me this morning and said the two sister missionaries who were released today – I was mistaken about them being released yesterday – would like to come to the class. I love to have recently released missionaries because they are so motivated – especially sisters who have learned to be obedient. Hopefully they have learned to speak English fairly well on their missions.

So we had a very interesting day with more excitement than we expected and missed having the Christensen’s here. It may be an even more interesting day tomorrow.

The earthquake that happened is off the Southwest coast of Sumatra and we should be fine. We did not feel the the quake and are watching the news on CNN like the rest of you. We will let you know what is going on.

 

Our first yellow watermelon – not as sweet as those in US but still delicious. Our latest floral arrangement – the lilies are gorgeous. A lady pushing her business down the middle of the street. It is not strange to see a cart on a main street. But usually they are not being pushed down the inside lane. She was doing this because she needed to turn right. So she then pushed her cart across three lanes of traffic to get across the street and continued her business. No one honked at her, no one said anything to her, and cars and motorcycles stopped and let her work her way across. I can not imagine what would happen if someone tried to do this on State Street in Salt Lake.

11 September 2007 – Tuesday

Happy Birthday Bob…you are getting old. The alarm did not start ringing until almost 5:30 so I got a late start on my exercises. At first I thought I would just do 30 minutes, but once I got going I put in a full hour. I am up to 80 sit-ups – 4 reps of 20 – without my muscles screaming at me. Hopefully I can build up both my physical and spiritual strength each day.

We got a great letter from Shauna and Kristy updated Olivia’s blog with lots of good pictures. It is amazing how Olivia has changed over the last year or so. The Oregon Piers sound like they are going to have a very busy week or two ahead with Octoberfest and remodeling.

We read from the Kitab Mormon – the destruction of Ammoniah and the rise of the church thought the rest of the lands. We ended where Alma and the sons of Mosiah are re-untied after 14 years. I caught up and posted this journal. I am afraid that for the most part it is dull reading but then every minute of our mission is not filled with great spiritual experiences. Each day usually has one outstanding experience that reminds us that this is the Lord’s work. It may come from our reading of the Kitab Mormon, Church News, or other church related material. It may come from meeting with members or it can be nothing more than finding a new contact.

This morning was special because I got a call from Elder Bennett. His driver Sam went in for an interview with Mr. Woo – the Korean gentleman I met on the plane flying from Semarang to Jakarta 5 or 6 weeks ago. The interview lasted for over 2 hours and it ended with Sam being offered a job learning to be the manager of Mr. Woo’s business. He has about 100 employees and has never had a manager. Sam would train for 2 years and then take over running the business. It is a great opportunity for Sam and hopefully it will work out for him. Mr. Woo did not offer a salary but asked Sam to come back with what a proposal. So a brief conversation as we exited the plane may lead to a career for a young man who can become a leader in the church in Semarang. If Sam gets the job perhaps he can help other members of the branch get a job in the factory or office. Another example of the Lord’s Tender Mercies.

We went to our regular office hours. No one came in. I was hoping that the brother we visited last week would come in with his thoughts about how to improve our resumes, etc. but he did not come and did not call. I decided we wait a day before calling him. I spent most of the time working on PPMK and answering e-mail, plus as always doing some English. It seems we are always doing something for English class. Mary practiced the music she is going to play on the 29th.

I got a call from Agus about our visiting the state trade school on Friday. Also got a SMS that Lukito had 19 at his first week of SEW up at Bandung. That is a good number and I hope at least half of them come back next week.

When we got back to our apartment we read for another hour from the Kitab Mormon. After that I decided to go out by the pool, soak up some sun and read the September Ensign. The sun was lost behind what was either high clouds or major pollution – in either case it was not very warm on my skin.

I enjoyed re- reading the words of wisdom from President Hinckley – especially his powerful testimony, the article on the Mountain Meadows Massacre, and the one about the brother who could not commit to getting married until he listened to the wise council of his new bishop.

We finally got the information about the Christensen’s visit – at least some of it. They will be coming in tomorrow and staying until Monday afternoon. I am looking forward to seeing them again – they are a cool couple and have many good ideas to share.

For dinner I cut up a watermelon we bought a few days ago. When I cut into it, I was surprised to find that it was a yellow watermelon. I had heard about them but had never seen one before. It tasted exactly like the regular red kind and I ate it with my left-over half of a tuna sandwich. It was a good meal.

Our evening reading from the Kitab Mormon was about Ammon and King Lamoni. It is interesting that Ammon saw great opportunities in adversity and problems. When the men scatter the king’s sheep he sees it as a chance to show the power of the Lord that is in him. He never boasts of himself – in fact he is careful never to suggest that any of what he does comes from his own abilities but always credits it to the Lord.

His conversion of King Lamoni is a classic. First he meets a hostile reception – talk about having the door slammed in your face – and yet he does not fear. Then when he is welcomed and offered anything – including a princess – he says no and asks to be the king’s servant. He then proceeds to establish a relationship of trust with the servants and then the king. When he finally starts to talk about the gospel – something he has not done until he has established the trust – he goes back to the beginning and make sure the king understands all that he teaches him. When he uses a term the king does not know, he finds a common ground for explanations. He asks lots of questions and gives simple and clear answers. He makes sure the spirit is present and testifies often. A perfect missionary plan. Too bad more investigators do not get the spirit so strongly that they fall down in a stupor for three days.

10 September 2007 – Monday

I slept in today so there was no exercising. We read from the Kitab Mormon and had our normal morning. I called elder Kane and we talked about the committee for coming up with a business plan for employing older men and widows. We only have about 8 months to get this up and running and we are still at square one.

We went to the office for a couple of hours. Mary worked on material for her English classes and I handled the e-mail and then copied some things for English class. We then headed for the mission home so we could have lunch and Mary could teach her class. Besides having a great BYU lunch, I got to talk to president Marchant and Elder Subandriyo about a number of things about the mission and our callings. As we talked I told the president that I was glad he was the one who had to make some tough decisions and not myself.

We learned that sister Artin’s young daughter had fallen down a flight of stairs and was in the hospital. Hopefully she will be OK. One of the problems here is that stairs are all made of concrete and tile so if you fall there is no give or padding.

The Walkers and Davises were not around. They had gone up to Bogor where the Walkers got off to stay a couple of days with the Kanes and then John was driving the Davises over to Bandung through the ‘Puncak’ or the tops of the mountains. We have not made that trip but maybe we will sometime soon. President Marchant loves the trip and takes every advantage of showing it off. He says the besides the great view, it is also cool. It takes about 3 – 3 ½ hours so that means if the Davises come home tonight they will have spent between 6 and 7 hours in the car.

After Mary’s lesson – she had four or five staff members today – we went to SoGo to pick up a few things. We ran into Judi Guttormsen who was doing some shopping. She and her husband just got back from 10 days in VietNam and had a great time. We only bought three things at BreadTalk.

In the evening we had an appointment to meet with the Lurah – one of the leaders – of a local sub-district. He and his office basically run a section of Jakarta. We went to his home which is obviously also his office and meeting area and spent about an hour with him and some of his staff. We mainly talked about the PPMK program and how it works. We found out how to apply for a loan, the limits, and how it is repaid. He assured us that it was available in every sub-district. I will not try to get some of the leaders in other sub-districts to see how it works in their area.

One of the men who was there was a Christian and he had some good questions. Including why were we interested in the PPMK program. This gave me an opportunity to tell him why we were in Indonesia and what we were attempting to do. I suggested that we would be happy to put on Career Workshops and Self-employment workshop for people in his sub-district. I had meant to take copies of the workbooks with us but I forgot and so Sam will take them back tomorrow. I also mentioned that perhaps we could help with some wheelchairs when they come in.

I am hoping that this contact will not help us to understand the PPMK program but also help us to become better recognized in the community. One of the most important thing we learned was that this program is available in every sub-district in Jakarta. So whoever Agus talked to was mistaken when they said it was not available in their area. Now we just have to find out who we must talk to in a sub-district to get an application started.

I am learning so much from this mission. I am slowly learning patience, I am learning to be more obedient, and I am learning the need to be closer to my Father in Heaven and my Savior. I am learning to appreciate more and more my wonderful wife and her great strength. I would like to think that I am learning to be more humble. One thing I have not been able to learn is to be more organized – there are some things that even a mission can not accomplish. Maybe by the time we have served two or three missions I will have learned even that.

 

Elder Decker and the Walkers watching the movie on the night before elder Decker left for home.

09 September 2007 – Sunday

A normal morning with reading from Kitab Momon, writing and posting journal, and studying Indonesian. The time seems to whip by – three hours just disappear.

Sam took us to Jakarta Raya and we got there early enough to meet and greet most of the people before the meeting started. I talked to Hendra and he said that there was about 240 members in the branch of which about 80 were active. As we talked I felt that we should be out meeting those who do not come. Also before the meeting I talked to Eduardo Kencana and found that he had not been able to contact the school about the job opening. So I gave him the owner’s name and told Eduardo to call. I also gave him another job possibility that I had found in the paper. President Kencana and I talked for a while about the need for a better information flow between the branches and our office if we were going to be able to help them at all.

Sacrament was on honesty – I did not realize that until Mary told me and then I could understand some of what was said. I had asked elder Erickson to translate for us but I guess he forgot or felt he should stay with their investigators. So I tried to pay close attention to the speakers or to what they were saying. To really do this I need to close my eyes and I am afraid that the speakers will think I am sleeping so I rather caught between a rock and a hard place.

The Gospel Principle class was packed with investigators and their friends. Elder Erickson pointed out a man who he said was inactive but was a great source of good referrals. He brought a friend – an older man – to church. Besides him Rudy and his sister came as well as a half dozen younger women – some who were members and some who were not. But there are no families investigating which is just the problem that the president wants to address. The church here needs strong families with lots of children and YM and YW if it is going to grow.

Priesthood meeting was on Chastity and the class was spent on discussing how to teach the children about it. I tried to bring in the thought that it was not just the children who needed to be reminded about this subject. I also mentioned that with the increasing number of computers and cellphones that can downloard pornography, that there was a need for parents to be made aware of the problems this could bring.

After the meeting I introduced myself to a brother I did not know. It turned out that he had just came back into activity after many years away from the church. He is married with a couple of children. We took some time to talk to other members before we went out to the curb and caught a cab. As we were driving I tried to start a conversation with the driver but my (make that our) Indonesian was not adequate for the task. However I did find out he was married and had two sons and a daughter. I told him we had five children – including 4 sons. I could not figure out how to ask him the age of his children – at least not so he could understand me.

He was really lucky in picking us up. Not only was it a good fare, but I gave him a nice tip. Also when we got to the apartment there were no cabs waiting and so he immediately got another fare. It is not often that a cab has no down time between fares. Hopefully this means he has a good day.

We ate some lunch and then took naps before reading some more from the Kitab Mormon. We are now about to head out to the mission home and dinner with the president and the other couples.

We had a great time at the mission home. President and sister Marchant, the Walkers, the Davises and the office elders all ate together. Table conversation during dinner was about the mission in general. I learned a lot from President Marchant in those few minutes. His love, understanding and compassion for the Indonesian saints truly came through as he spoke about home teaching and visiting teaching. He said he would not make the leaders and members feel bad about not doing it. He pointed out that because of the long commutes, most of them spend almost all their time away from their families. How can we ask them to spend hours of their time and for many of them their limited budgets to do home teaching? He said that the couples could count their visits as home and visiting teaching. As he spoke the spirit told me that he was correct and that my thoughts about how we should get reports from the district specialists, etc. should be toned down and that we should praise them for what they do and not what they do not do. The president said that since it was Elder Decker’s last night here, that we could each have an opportunity to say something about him. My comment was that still waters run deep and that is how I thought of elder Decker. That he had depth and therefore had power.

After dinner we sat around the table and discussed the questions that were asked by the branch presidents’ council about welfare. The president was happy that I had studied the handbook and as we went through the questions, most of them can be answered by the comment and instructions from the handbook that says that the bishops (branch presidents) will seek out the poor and do what they need to do to help them. The president said he would never criticize a branch president for his choice, but he might counsel him about doing the same thing again in the future. The meeting on Saturday night should be interesting.

I spoke very briefly with the president about the University survey and he asked me to try it in the districts around Jakarta before sending it out to the rest of the mission. I will have surveys for all the missionaries on Thursday and Friday.

Elder Decker wanted to see a film about a trip across America on bicycles that the Marchant’s son-in-law took part in. Three friends decided to go across the U.S. and have ‘heros’ – that is common folks – sign a basketball which they would then take to the Basketball Hall of Fame and see if they would display it. It was quite an interesting film and the Hall of Fame did accept it for display. The film won a ‘people’s choice’ award at a Canadian film festival. After the movie we gave elder Decker a last hug, wished everyone goodbye and caught a cab for home.

It has been a good Sabbath.

 

These are pictures from elder Decker’s last district meeting. He will leave for his home in Idaho on Monday. He is a very fine and humble elder and I am sure he will be a fine husband, father and Priesthood leader. As you can see the KK donuts were a big hit. Durian is called the ‘stinky fruit’ for obvious reasons. Elder Roper is not trying to swallow it whole, he is just being himself. As I look at the picture of us with elder Decker I am surprised that he is a whole head taller, it does not seem that way when we are talking to him.

08 September 2007 – Saturday

The alarm woke me from a real deep sleep – deep enough that the alarm had moved into it’s persistent ringing mode before it got my attention. Luckily it did not wake up Mary. The morning exercise was great. On Saturday there is no one out walking early so I had the track all to myself. The same thing was true in the gym – which opened early – where I was able to do my sit-ups, bike and treadmill without anyone looking over my shoulder. I put in a full hour of exercise.

We continued reading in Alma where he and Amulek preach to the inhabitants of Ammoniah. I liked the part where Alma points out that when it comes to the judgement, the Lamanites would be judged less harshly than the Nephites because the Nephites had transgressed while having a knowledge of what is right and wrong. Where much is given, much is expected. After that I wrote in this journal and then got ready to go to district meeting and the office.

We stopped at SoGo to get some Krispy Kreme donuts for elder Decker’s last district meeting. We found out that on Saturday it opened at 10 and since we were early we had to find a back way in. Sam as usual found his way around the parking garage so I was the first person into the mall and quickly got my donuts. It is a great time to shop because there is no one in the place and so it is in and out.

When we got to the mission office, the Marchants, Walkers, Davises and the visiting Welches were all out somewhere so we were the only couple at the district meeting. With the A.P.s still back in central Java, there were only 10 of us at the meeting. It went well but they are still doing it in Indonesian when everyone there spoke and understood English. Elder Roper translated for us but his heart was not in it. There was a couple of good lessons given, including one by elder Erickson on knowledge. This is the second time we have had a lesson on this subject in three weeks. Perhaps the Lord is trying to tell us something.

Then there was a discussion about what was taught in Zone Conference. Part of the time was spent talking on how to reach better educated people. I reminded them that instead of sitting around saying how it is hard to do that, they should be working at accomplishing that which the Lord through the president has asked them to do. The sisters mentioned that they went to a university and had lunch in their cafeteria. They came out with four referrals. I told them about the survey that we had and how they could use it to talk to educators, students, etc. As soon as I run it past president Marchant we will get enough printed that each set of missionaries can 3 or 4 surveys.

After the meeting we brought out our KK. They were a great hit and sister Seninin loved them. It was the first time she had ever had a KK. We took some pictures of elder Decker’s last district meeting and then headed for the office.

At the office I sent a letter off to the Bennetts and Mary worked up our monthly ERS reports. I was actually able to send them through the Church’s mail service. AOL refused to send them. I am not sure what the problem is there but I could not even send a letter out from the office. Mary took a few minutes off to go to the batik store and pick up her purchase from yesterday. She also found a couple more pieces that she bought. She is going to have a huge wardrobe to take home.

After finishing at the office we came home to a quiet evening. We read two hours from the Kitab Mormon – we are still on the target of four months to finish it for the second time. We ordered our traditional pizza. We have been so faithful in ordering the same pizza each week, I would think by now we could just call in and say ‘the usual’ and they would deliver it. Saturday night is a good time to study the lessons for Sunday – I do not do it as well as I should. I have a couple of good excuses but no reason for not spending more time studying the SS and PH lessons.

During the evening president Marchant called about the questions that we received from president Gjarot about Welfare. He has been called to be president of the branch president’s welfare council and had surveyed the other presidents as to what was their problems or questions. He sent president Marchant and myself a list of 13 of them. Only the first one actually relates to my calling so I did not pay much attention to the others. However president Marchant asked for my thoughts about them and I suggested we meet and discuss them. He invited us over for dinner tomorrow night with the Davises and Walkers so we could share our thoughts and experiences. President Marchant has not been a bishop so he has never had to deal with welfare.

After getting his call I started studying the Church Handbook of Instruction to see what they said. I did not learn much new but it did remind me about how much leeway the bishops and branch presidents have in disbursing welfare funds. It also reminded me that after the individual, the family is the main source of help. It is clear that the branch presidents are to counsel with the people and the Lord to find ways to solve the problems of the poor. I am looking forward to the meeting tomorrow night and then on the 15th. We need the branch presidents’ help in identifying those in need of jobs and those who might have job openings.

 

This is an ‘almost good’ picture of a motorcycle load. I often miss great shots of motorcycle loads because they whip by quickly or are covered by other motorcycles or vehicles. This was a great load of different sized boxes. Mary bought some batik print material at the big sale they are having just down the street. The sale is actually on the 8th but she got to buy it today and pick it up tomorrow.

07 September 2007 – Friday

Happy birthday Cindy…at least here in Indonesia.  The alarm went off early so I spent some time trying to read the Liahona. Then I did my walk/run but the gym was not open when I had finished so I just came in. The number of folks out exercising in the morning keeps increasing. For the first few days after I started again, there was either one or none. Today by the time I stopped there were five of us out there. Some walking, some walking/jogging as I do, and some jog all the way.

It was very warm and humid this morning. Not a breath of wind. When it is like that it is hard for me to stay with it, but today I did. I am looking forward to when the weather starts to change to the wet season. We read from the Kitab Mormon – Alma is out it the cities preaching the word.

I spent some time editing the few pictures I have taken over the last couple of days. I have decided I must put names on the pictures as soon as I download them from the camera. It is just too hard to go back and do 100 of them.

We went into the office and I spent my time trying to find information about scholarships. I am sure there are lots of them out there somewhere and we just have to find them. I found some good ones from Singapore and got the name of a woman who is supposed to know about other scholarships. I will call her on Monday.

Sam took me to the sub-district office to find out about PPMK loans. The chairman was not in – he probably is hardly ever in. But the secretaries contacted the counsel – I am guessing this is a lawyer – and we have an appointment at 8 p.m. on Monday at his house. Hopefully he can give me all the information I need on this loan program so our members can get capital for their business start up. I am going to ask him if these loans are available outside of Jakarta.

We made an appointment to go see a family where the husband was laid off from his very good job because of his age. He has not been able to find another job and I keep looking for jobs he might apply for. His branch is worried about him because he has stopped coming to church and gave me an assignment to visit him. I took a job opening I found in the latest job paper but I also wanted to pick his brain about resumes, other HR directors he might know, and anything else he might be able to help us with.

We had a great visit and he had some good ideas. I asked him to please put them in writing and give it to me on Sunday at church. He said he would try but it might not be until Tuesday. I would like to hire him for about 3 hours a week to come into the office and help contact people. I am sure he knows a lot of folks who we could establish contact with and use as job resources.

Another positive thing about today was that I got a message from Mr Woo up in Semarang and I sent an e-mail to the Bennetts to tell Sam to contact him. Sam sent me a couple of SMS saying thanks and that he would let me know how things turns out. Hopefully he will get a good job from that.

After we got home from our visiting, I went to the gym and did my other exercises. At 4:30 there is not many people exercising so it there is no wait for equipment.

A real Indonesian rain storm has moved in. A couple of the lighting strikes were almost on top of us. I would have not been surprised to see one of the tall building being split in two. The rain pours down and the wind is continually shifting. I can not imagine what it must be like to be trying to get home tonight. Friday is bad enough but under every bridge there will be a huge build up of motorcycles waiting out the storm. This means one or two lanes will be completely blocked with all the cars trying to get around them. I am just glad to be in our cosy apartment right now.

We ordered up some dinner – actually their phone was out so I had to go down to order it but then they did deliver. Mary finished her cross-stitch piece and it looks great. We then read from the Kitab Mormon where Alma gets thrown out of Ammonihah but is ordered to go back. Amulek seem to me to be a very special man. He has a lot to lose but when the angel of the Lord appears to him he does exactly as he is told. And then he follows Alma out to preach to a people he knows very well is not interested in the church – in fact they are violently opposed to it.

It has been a really good day. We have made some positive advancements as far as finding resources for scholarships and hopefully start-up loans for businesses. Hopefully we have help a brother to have something useful to do and give him some hope. Hope is one of the things that the people really need here. They need to know there is a chance for them to break the circle of poverty that has gripped so many families for so many years.

 

It is always nice to find a new floral arrangement waiting for us in the lobby – this is the latest. My perfect BYU lunch – I am going to have to find tempe in the US.

06 September 2007 – Thursday

Normal morning – I was able to increase my number of sit-ups and reps. Weight is not moving.  We read from Kitab Mormon and then I tried – without success – to take a short nap before we headed out for a busy day.

We went to the office and worked on English class material. I left a book I needed at home, so I made some changes for tonight. Agus sent in his report so tomorrow we should be able to get it sent to Hong Kong. A couple of letters to the Bennetts getting the details of the Self – employment Workshop settled. I am not sure how we got mixed up but hopefully it is now OK. I would hate to send Agus there and find no one coming.

We then headed for the mission home where we talked to the Walkers – they seem to be settling in quickly – and the Hashs. Sam got us lunch from BYU. It really is the best place to eat. The cucumbers, carrots and green beans were cooked perfectly and the tempe was just spicy enough to be interesting. Mary had their excellent soup. While Mary taught her English class – only two students and Sam – and the Walkers went to immigration, I found a comfortable chair and tried to keep from falling asleep.

About the time Mary was through the Walkers came back and they followed us to Sogo. While Mary shopped, I helped them find the things they needed. I also stayed around incase elder Walker did not have enough money to pay for all they bought. It turned out he had enough and 100,000 R left over – that is about $11. I think they will do fine. Elder Walker asked about a couple of programs that they learned about in the MTC and I explained that I did not think they were approved for Indonesia but that he should check with elder Kane and elder Subandriyo about them.  The Davises put a down-payment on an apartment and are looking at cars. They still need a full time driver and may have to use a couple of part time drivers until a full time one shows up. It is too bad that there are no returned missionaries who could move to Bangdung to help them.

While I went to the Tangerang district meeting, Mary gave Catherine her piano lesson. Elder Peate translated for me so I knew pretty much what was going on. I made a few suggestions and encouraged them to do what president Marchant requested and try to find and teach better educated people. I told them the story about the native Chilean missionaries deciding to only teach and baptize families so that they would have strong priesthood leaders in the years to come. And that through their faith they were able to accomplish this so today the church in Chile is very strong and continues to grow.

My English class was a little disorganized because of the things I had left home. But it turned out that everyone got to participate and they seem to enjoy the activities. We had bought 3 dozen Krispy Kreme donuts to give out after the class. As I was getting them out of the car I found four of the young men who usually go to Mary’s class playing ball instead. I told them that it was too bad that they did not go to class because now they would not get to have any donuts. Everyone seemed to enjoy the donuts – elder Cowan managed to find room for three of them. Elder Tuxworth told me that he thought there were only two or three KK outlets in Australia.

By the time we get home, we are both too tired to read from the Kitab Mormon. Instead I read from the Liahona – I read to see if I can understand what is written more than to get information or inspiration. I find that just picking up anything written in Indonesian and trying to figure out what it says is a good way to see how I am doing in learning the written language. Most of the time it reminds me of how much I do not know, but sometimes I a greatly pleased to find that I can read enough to understand what is going on. Now if I can just start doing that with the spoken language before we are released it will be great.

One of the great blessings – among many – that we have as a senior couple is to meet with and feel the spirit of the young missionaries. It is too bad we can not communicate well with the Indonesian missionaries because I believe they have a special spirit. I think of elder Hadi Suyatmo who always is smiling, sings with great joy, teaches by the spirit, and seems to be always prepared. I would love to be able to sit down and get to know him better. (I did find out last night that he is one of 8 children and his hobbies are singing and dancing.)  It is impossible to explain how blessed we are to be here. I can not imagine being anywhere else at this time. Couples who do not take advantage of their opportunities of serving as senior missionaries really do not understand what they are missing. The Lord knows his children and sends them where not only will they do the most good for others, but they will do the most good for themselves and their families.