Two signs for Ahli Gigi  – False Teeth – makers. Their signs are much more fun than regular dentists.

05 September 2007 – Wednesday

I was late getting out to exercise but I decided I would put in the full hour. After walking around the track, I went to the gym and found that a lot more people start coming after 6:10 or so. I am glad that I get out early and do not have to fight the crowd.

Today is our P-day but we will spend at least part of it picking up the new senior couple – the Walkers – at the airport and get them settled in their apartment. They should have very little problem becoming comfortable. They have their own home, car and driver so there is no wasted time. I look forward to meeting them.

We read from the Kitab Mormon about the continuing saga of the reign of the Judges. I would not say that it was a good time for the church. The Kitab Mormon warns through example about pride being a great enemy of righteousness. How failing to share our abundance with those who are less fortunate is one of man’s great failings. I have often mentioned that one of the things that the bible keeps reminding Israel and then the church about is their failure to take care of the poor. If you do not put Jesus and Others before Yourself – you can not have JOY. But it is also obvious that you are important if there is to be joy. The Lord would remind the church some two thousand years later in the D&C – “Many are called but few are chosen – because they have set their hearts so much upon the things of this world.” Some things never change.

Mary read about a craft store that is on our way to a number of places and so today we left early enough that we could stop in. From the looks of things it will not be around much longer. They do not even turn on the lights – we thought it was closed when we drove into the lot. Mary bought a couple of things, but our trip was cut short because we had to make an unexpected trip to the chapel. The lady who sews clothes had brought some things for us without calling first.

After clearing that up we headed to the airport to pick up the Walkers. We waited at the gate they were supposed to come out but they were re-routed to another gate and we only found them after they had called the office and the office called Sam. They were glad to find us and we them.

They are from Cedar Hills and have owned a number of businesses. One was a short-lived wilderness program that we had heard of but never did business with. We took them to their house – they live on the mission home grounds – where they met the Davises who were still moving out to the guest room in the mission home. President Marchant calls it the Mission Hotel and he is not far from the fact. At least that is the case for the last month to five weeks.

I went looking for the brother Diaz who does the immigration work but he was not in so they will probably not get their KITAs going until tomorrow. I stopped in and told Elder Subandriyo about the Walkers getting in and then we talked for about 10 minutes. He was very surprised to find out that I am 69 – he thought I was in my mid-50’s – I told him he was kind. We then talked about what kind of business we had before we came on our mission and about retirement, etc. Later he dropped in and met the Walkers.

We had to leave so we could be back in time for the cleaning lady. I had laundry and dishes to do and then I studied some Indonesian. We read another hour from the Kitab Mormon. Alma is out preaching to his people. I have been struck recently about how often the prophets in the Kitab Mormon remind the people of how the Lord has blessed their ancestors. This is the same thing that Paul and others in the New Testament do so often. To ‘stir up to rememberance’ the ways of the Lord. Of course we do the same thing when we talk about the early days of the church, the pioneers, etc. They are stories of testimony and grace. We need to do this with our families. To share those times when the Lord has blessed us – has answered our prayers – have comforted us. I am sure we did not do this enough with our children – nor did we bear our testimonies enough. Hopefully our going on this mission will make up for some of that.

04 September 2007 – Tuesday

Slept well and put in an hour exercising. As I walked/jogged, I was surprised at how tired my legs seemed to get. It was only later in the day that I realized it was because I had started back on the stationary bike on Saturday. It uses some muscles that I have not been exercising or at least not as much as it demands. On the other hand sit-ups continue to be easier so it is a trade-off. I am sure if I keep using the bike, those muscles also will loosen up.

We read from the Kitab Mormon – we hit a couple of verses that had a number of words we did not remember, but all in all it goes well. Nehor and priestcraft was the center of our reading. Gideon fights Nehor with the truth and the only way Nehor can stop him is to kill him.

We go to the office and Mary works on her English class while I work on ERS matters. The Christensens are coming to visit us sometime next week. It will be good to see them again. They are good folks and we can learn a lot from them. We exchange a few e-mails to set up the plans for their visit. Tuesday is one of those days when I have Sam get lunch for the two of us. Mary makes a sandwich and we share a dessert.

We got a couple of letters from the family. Shauna is really faithful in sending us a letter each week. This one was especially good because it told about William escaping the yard and being brought home by the police. Also there was a funny story about a speaker at sacrament. I am going to include it so everyone can have a laugh.

“Kelli really liked one testimony this Sunday.  The new Seminary teacher bore his testimony and of course reminded the kids that seminary starts this Wednesday at 6:30 AM.  He said he’s been sleeping like a baby.  Going to bed early and waking up crying every 2 hours.  He also said he had a dream that seminary had started and the students were out of control.  Climbing out windows, slamming doors, racing down the hallway all except one kid who was very quiet and completely still.  The problem was that he was asleep on the table.  He should be a good teacher.”

We went to the mission office so Mary could teach her English class. While she was doing that I was able to spend part of my time with Elder Subandriyo. He is a very wise man and he gave me some good counsel. He also pointed out that while it is good to know the best schools in the country for different careers, those schools are usually very hard to get into. Therefore we should find the best second tier schools for those who can not make it into the best universities or trade schools. I had not thought of that and so now we will look at other resources. I did mention that if the graduates could not get jobs, it was a waste of their time and money to go to a university.

We also talked about a number of other things, including the new fund that is being set up to help with educational fees for children of members who can not afford them. This is the kind of fund we would contribute to on a regular basis. Also we talked a little about the PEF program. He said he did not think that the changes in the proposal were such that they should hold up the approval for very long. I hope he is correct – we really need to get it going so another school year passes without it being available.

After Mary’s class was over we went home teaching to our family who lives out in the Depok – a section of Jakarta that is about an hour’s drive away. That is if the traffic is good. If it is jammed it is 2 to 3 hours away. Luckily today it was about an hour each way. We had called to make sure the family would be home but when we got there only the mother was home. But that is good because the last time we came she was asleep. This way we were able to talk – through Sam of course – and let her tell us about some of her concerns. We suggested they hold Family Home Evening and talk about some of the things in a family council. I left the latest Ensign so her son could read an article on planning finances. I will need to get another copy so I can use some of the things out of it for our visit to the Tobings later this month.

We read another 3 pages from the Kitab Mormon – we need to read about 60 pages in the next 10 days to be on schedule to finish in 4 months. It is a great blessing to read the Kitab Mormon with my eternal companion. We have not often read together before we came on our mission. Mary has started to read president Faust’s biography.

Today is our Hump day – we have been out for 9 months and so we broke out our dark chocolate Hershey bar and celebrated by eating part of it. We carefully saved it for this occasion. It does not seem possible that half of our mission is over. It has just raced by. We have been blessed each day we have served. We have grown closer to each other, closer to the family – we think and pray about them each day, and of course we have grown closer to the Lord.

We have done things we never thought to have done before. We have started to learn a language. We have met wonderful members of the church and have been able to share their successes and their tragedies. We have served our fellow beings and in that way served the Lord. We can not say that we have sacrificed anything because the Lord has blessed us more than we can count.

I just hope that each of our children will start planning to serve as a senior couple with their spouses. The need is so great for more couples – the Sandbergs wrote how much they needed them in Russia and every mission president I have ever known have said the same thing.

 

This is the Barat Zone missionaries plus Elder and Sister Welch.  Elders Pagalla, Merrill and Decker will all be going home soon. They are fine missionaries and will be leaders in the church in the years to come. The last picture is the first camping display that we have seen in Indonesia. I expected the prices to be inexpensive but they were quite high. I have yet to find a real outdoor store.

03 September 2007 – Monday

Slept in this morning – no exercise. We read from the Kitab Mormon but only for about 45 minutes and then we had to get ready for Zone Conference.

Zone Conference is always good because we get to see the senior couples. Our numbers are somewhat reduced because the Walkers will not come in until Wednesday. But the Kanes got to meet the Davises and that was good. The morning meeting centered on keeping healthy. Elder Doctor – as the president calls him – is the area doctor and gave us tips on how to avoid illness and also what to do if we got ill. Much of this was covered in the MTC, but it is always good to hear it again. One thing I enjoyed about him was that he kept it simple. He mentioned that if we get a cold there was nothing much we could do but blunt the symptoms and let the body take care of itself.

Elder Roper gave a good presentation about the Muslim religion. He pointed out the basic teachings, how some of them were like ours, and where we differed. I found out that there is a group of Muslims that are very modern – almost secular – and very educated. The president suggested we help out there with English classes so they could go to the US to study. He felt that this would give us contact with educated people and also help with the US – Muslim relationships.

I think the elders and sisters look forward to Zone Conference so they can eat all the good food that the Marchant’s cook prepares. She cooks for 50 and after the missionaries have had their first round, the president carefully invites everyone else in the building to fill up. Today it included a sister who had come to the office to see us so we could help her with her price list. After we ate, Mary and Sam helped her. Sam had to actually finish up because we needed to get back to the conference.

The afternoon session was concentrated on ideas to help the missionaries get out of their comfort zones and try new ideas for finding investigators. To try and find more educated investigators by visiting Universities, teaching English, etc. Mary told the missionaries that they could help us by visiting Universities and doing one of our surveys. In this way they had a good reason for visiting and at the same time help PEF find good schools. Elder Cowan got excited about this idea so I gave him four survey sheets so he could get started. The president had mentioned to me that he wanted the missionaries to seek families and more educated people as investigators. His vision is to strengthen the church in Indonesia with leaders and families.

It brought to my mind the story of the native Chilean missionaries who decided that they were going to concentrate on families because there was a great need for leaders. Their American companions did not think that was a good idea but the natives said that it was their country and the only way the church would be strong was to baptize families. So with great faith and hard work that is what they did and of course today the church in Chile is very strong and continues to grow.

By the time the Conference was over, I was very tired. We stayed around a while and talked to the Davises and Kanes, but I was truly glad to get back to the apartment. As tired as I was I could not take a nap but Mary managed one.  Later we read from the Kitab Mormon – finishing Mosiah and starting into Alma. The reign of the Judges seems to have been doomed from the start – at least there was contention almost from the start. Nehor’s preaching was very close to that of Satan – don’t worry God will take care of you no matter what you do. But there is no indication that he was influenced by him.

Sometime during the day, president Marchant told me about his call to Elder Packer to report about the funeral for Dita Subandriyo. During the conversation, the president mentioned that Dita’s brother who had been allowed to leave his mission in Atlanta to accompany his father home and to attend the funeral a month before his mission was over wondered if he could finish his mission here in Indonesia and the president wondered who he should ask if that was OK. Elder Packer told him consider it asked and answered, so Elder Subandriyo is finishing his mission by serving in Malang. When I heard this I was touched by the spirit of this young missionary who felt that he needed to finish the time he was called to serve. He certainly is a product of a home where the Gospel and Priesthood is honored.

01 September 2007 – Saturday

Hello September – it is nice to see you again. I woke before the alarm and had a nice hour workout. I was especially happy with being able to do sit-ups without pain. I am also running further on each lap so I worked up a good sweat. It is interesting to watch the day start. The sky always has a pinkish glow in the East and because of the haze and pollution that is almost always hanging over Jakarta you do not get the bright light of the rising sun striking the high rises of the apartment complex. It is a very diffused lighting effect that seems to just get brighter.

Normal morning including reading from the Kitab Mormon. Alma and his people escape from the hands of the Lamanites. I continue to read president Faust’s biography. He served as bishop for 7 years and as a stake president for 13 years.

We are in the office today. I sent out some e-mails, looked for jobs that might fit some of our members. Called brother Kencana about a possible job for his son. I later found another one that he might qualify for. I decided to start posting some of the jobs from the weekly job paper on the bulletin board. Maybe it will stir up some interest in our calling. When I ran out of things to do and no one came in, I read president Faust’s biography.

I was touched by a couple of stories he told about members in South America. One was about a man who gave his gold bridge for the temple fund. The elder he gave it to tried to not take it but the man insisted that he had a right to give to the fund and that is what he had. President Faust – then an assistant to the 12 – bought it for much more than the value of the gold and kept it as a reminder of the faith of the saints.

The other story was about the time when he called a stake president and informed him he was expected to go to Salt Lake for Conference. There was a pause and then the humble president said – “That’s OK – I can sell my house.” He did not realize that the church would pay for the trip – he just wanted to make sure he could do what his leaders expected of him. I wonder if I would be willing to make that kind of sacrifice.

We had planned to go to dinner with the Davises, but Mary received a call from elder Merrill asking her to play at Dita Sabandriyo’s memorial service. We found out that about a week after a funeral they hold a final memorial where those who want to gather with the family and there is a short memorial with some short talks, poems, songs, etc. Then everyone eats, talks, and play games and sports. It is kind of a post-funeral wake to celebrate the life of the deceased and say a last goodbye. About 200 or so people gathered tonight and shared their love for Derita and for the Subandriyo family.

We did not stay for the sports, but Mary said the soup was very good. Since I had started my fast, I said no to the many offers of food. Sam brought us home at about 8 and then headed back for a night of soccer. The elders – especially elder Roper – had been looking forward to that. We relaxed for a while and then read from the Kitab Mormon before going to bed.

31 August 2007 – Friday

I really slept last night and when the alarm sounded I quickly turned it off and went right back to sleep without even a moment’s pause about missing exercising. When I woke again at 6:00, I realized we were going to miss the first part of the PEF phone conference that was to have started at 6:00. It took a while to get connected and it finally had to be done through the cellphone. Since only one could listen, Mary got to hear it and take notes.

We read in the Kitab Mormon about the struggle of the people of Lemhi. They could have really used some better diplomats to handle their negotiations. Especially after they captured the enemy king.

Sam came about 10 and we went to the mission office for district meeting and Mary to teach English. As usual it did not get started on time but Elder Decker managed to keep it to about an hour. Sister Larsen gave a short but good lesson on virtue but then they started speaking Indonesian and even with Elder Roper translating they lost my attention. So I read about the Christ-like attitude of knowledge as found in PMG and followed some of the scriptures. I was greatly impressed with D&C 76:5-10 and the promises to those who serve God righteously. He says that He will “reveal all mysteries” and “make known unto them the good pleasure of my will concerning all things pertaining to my kingdom” and “their wisdom shall be great.” I must have read this a dozen times before but today it touched me and I wanted to be in a position to have those blessings.

While we were at the mission home we spoke to Elder Subandriyo about the Intensive English class and he suggested that we might try having a two hour intensive English class each evening at the chapel for those who are interested. He wants to do something to help the young people learn English. So we said we would try this and would start in October. I found it interesting that he was excited that his youngest son had passed the TOFEL test so he can go to BYUH. I am not sure I would be willing to let my son go after my daughter had just died while in the States.

While Mary taught her English class to the staff, I started reading a biography of Elder Faust that the president loaned me. I know nothing about him and his life so it should be a good experience. It is better than getting on the computer or watching TV. After she was done, we came back to the apartment.

We had our date night – without pizza – by watching “The Queen.” It was an interesting story about the events of the week after Diana died. How Blair and the queen was faced with an event that was completely new to the kingdom. The queen felt like she should deal with it by keeping a stiff upper-lip and was completely out of touch with the feelings of her nation about Diana.

We also read from the Kitab Mormon a couple of times. We ended up reading over 10 pages for the day. I also read from president Faust’s biography before finally going to sleep.

 

This is a view of a typical street in a middle class section of Jakarta. It is shot from in front of the house where the Jakart, Raya missionaries live.
30 August 2007 – Thursday

Slept well, woke before the alarm sounded but I was in no hurry to start exercising – but I finally made it out to do the usual 45 minutes or so. I even managed some sit-ups so perhaps I my stomach muscles have finally started to cooperate. We read from the Kitab Mormon by the end of the day we were 1/3 of the way through in 40 days and are on schedule to finish it in 4 months.

We went to the office and worked on our English class material for the evening lesson. Once that was finished we went to the mission office to get lunch at BYU, see the Davises, and pick up any mail for the elders. The Davises told us about their house/apartment hunting – they did not see anything that they felt good about. Jemmy Mongan has seem to have taken them under his wing and is trying to help them find something they can live in.

As we were about to leave I spent some time talking to the president about Elder Packer’s book and some of the things going on in the mission. It is interesting to hear his thoughts about what areas we need to work on. I think the Zone Conference on Monday will be focused on his vision of the goals of the mission and how to achieve them.

We got to the Tangerang building only to find that they have changed the locks on the door because someone had stolen audio-visual equipment. They had not broken in so they must have had a key. We called the missionaries but the only one who had a key was Elder Tuxworth and of course he was the last one to show up for district meeting. So we ended up sitting in the car for the better part of an hour and a half.

Elder Whitmore – one of the zone leaders – was visiting the district so we had four sets of elders and myself at the district meeting. Mary took the first hour to have her piano lesson with sister Catherine. Before the meeting started we joked around a lot and as we started reciting A&P 4 I realized that there was just too much laughing and giggling for any of us to be taking what we were saying seriously, so I asked them to stop. I apologized for my part in the kidding and asked that we start over and think about what we saying. I am not sure how that came across to the elders but I felt better.

I am excited because it sounds like they might actually have a chance to have a baptism in the near future. They have not had a convert baptism in years in Tangerang and so it would be a great boast to the work here. It will show that missionaries in Tangerang can be successful in teaching and change the attitude of missionaries coming into the area in the future.

Elder Cowan gave the lesson and mixed English and Indonesian. He is not learning the language as quickly as Elder Peate. In fact he said this to me and I told him that he should not compare himself with anyone else and become discouraged. That as long as he could write in his journal that he was doing the best he could, he was doing as much as any missionary in the world. I told him discouragement was a tool of the devil. Elder Cowan has a good spirit and will be a good missionary.

We had a good English class. We did our numbers and then played the matching game using opposites. I divide up the class – including the elders – and they had a great time. I gave the cards to Agus to use at home. I will probably make another set for the class because it is good for them. I may make flash cards for them – it is a good way for them to learn vocabulary. We also went through the first five articles of faith – Agus’ children had to help the elders at times. Elder Peate told me that he had been memorizing them while riding the angkots because he realized he did not know them. So it seems the English class is good for everyone – including me.

We made good time coming home and although we were very tired we read for about an hour fro the Kitab Mormon. It was a good day for us.

29 August 2007 – Wednesday

I had a strange night. Soon after we came back to the apartment, I became so tired that I decided I had to lie down for awhile. It was much too early to think about going to bed, but I just could not keep my eyes open. When I woke up it was after midnight – I had slept for over 6 hours. I did not go back to sleep until after 3 and slept until just after 6 a.m. So I had slept about 9 out of 12 hours. Earlier yesterday I thought I might be coming down with a cold but maybe my body was just telling me that it was very tired. Hopefully today will be not be a repeat of the pattern.

We got to hear from Tom and his family. Both by e-mail and by Skype. William is not quite ready to talk to us but he gave it a good try. After breakfast we read from the Kitab Mormon. Abinadi during his second round of preaching and being brought before King Noah. His comment that once he finished delivering the Lord’s message it did not really matter what happened to him is quite striking. I wonder how many could face such an uncertain future at the hands of their enemies and not worry?

Somehow I made a real mistake a week ago when I had Sam order copies of what I thought was the Self-employment Workshop workbook. What I ended up with was copies of the Career Workshop workbook. I did not realize this until yesterday when I went to get some SEW books for Lukito to use in Bangdung and found that I did not have any. So I had to send Sam to the copy shop to have some made which we picked up this morning on our way to Carrefore.

The traffic was terrible and so it took us almost 2 hours to get everything done – most of that time was spent in the car creeping along the street. I think they should only assign couples to Jakarta who are called for 23 months. Since they will spend 40% of their time in a car that will leave them 15 months to actually do missionary work.

The traffic was so bad that Lukito and Agus were about an hour late in getting to our apartment for our ERS meeting. We went down to our apartment complex restaurant and had a luncheon meeting – Agus’ wife came along. The meeting went well and the food was fine. I will not do this in the future but once in awhile it may be a good thing.

In the afternoon I went down to the gym and did a light workout for about a half an hour. I still have not figured out how to stop being bored while working out. I did take a talk by Elder Ballard about this being a chosen generation of missionaries, but it did not take very long to read. Perhaps I need to put a movie on my PDA and see if that would work. The problem with the TV’s are that they are too far away to hear what is going on.

The rest of our P-day was spent doing laundry, reading, watching a movie about William Wilberforce, and reading from the Kitab Mormon. We read something over 10 pages in 3 hours which made up for some of the days when we only read once. I think we will do this on each P-day. We are on track to finish in 4 months. The movie about Wilberforce was quite interesting. I had never heard of him and I was surprised that he was the main force behind the stopping of the British slave trade and finally the emancipation of all slaves. He also was one of the founders of British Humane Society and worked for many other moral causes.

 

Elder Erickson from Dallas – he is rather tall and so he has trouble getting on and off angkots. Children are the same where ever you are. These bicycle driven rides roam the living areas and bring smiles to those who ride. The young lady was not sure she wanted that old, white man to take her picture.

28 August 2007 – Tuesday

It was a little cooler today when I went out to exercise – I would have liked it to be even cooler. About 20 degrees cooler. I tried to work on vocabulary but I just could not get interested. I did think about my talk about the widow and her mites. The need to give our ‘all’ and not just part is probably one of the hardest parts of the gospel. That is to know what our ‘all’ really is. The Lord does not want us to ignore our family, nor our work, nor our communities. I do not think he even wants us to ignore our hobbies and recreation. He also gives a commandment to not do more than we are able and to not reach beyond the mark. So how does a mere mortal decide when he or she is giving their ‘all.’ I think this is where the Gift of the Holy Ghost comes in. The Lord does not leave us alone to make these decisions or perhaps it is better to say that we have a gift that allows us to double check on if we are giving our ‘all’ or if we are just tossing in one of our mites. So perhaps the scripture should be changed to “So ye that embark in the service of the Lord, see that you serve Him with all your heart, mites, mind and strength. So ye can stand blameless before God in the last days.”

We have a super-slow connection this morning. Posting yesterday’s journal to the blog is taking forever. Someday, someone will bring a truly fast internet connection to Jakarta and blow the competition away. I imagine the big multi-nationals, the banks and some of the government must have fast lines, but us peasants are not so lucky. The president told me yesterday that their service has been completely down for a couple of days.

We read from the Kitab Mormon for about an hour and only had to look up maybe a dozen words. Some of which we should have already known but seem to disappear from both of our minds as soon as we read the definition. We are in the part of Mosiah where King Noah is in charge and Abinidi has just come on the scene. It is easy to understand why Noah and his people were not really interested in Abinidi’s message. No one likes to hear that they are going to be destroyed – especially not when they are living the good life.

We had a very busy day at work. For the first time ever we had three people come in asking for some help. Mary and Sam was busy helping with Jobsdb and resumes. We were so busy that we had to eat lunch in shifts and use another room. Earlier I had worked on getting back one sister’s passport, but when she came in today she said they may give it back early in September without her paying. However I made a good contact with brother Ventura who is a member of the English branch and works for USAID. He is going to try to get me some information about micro-finance in Indonesia.

I also had Sam calling our PEF loans and seeing how they are doing. One brother really bothers me. He is in a branch presidency, knows he owes the money but is acting like he is not going to pay it back because he does not owe it to PEF but to CES. We will talk about it in our next PEF meeting. Hong Kong will be happy that we posted our contacts so their numbers will be up.

After office hours we headed out to Maria’s house to meet with her and the elders. She is the young woman who was married to a man who decided he did not want to be married any longer. He was quite well off and so she had a good life but now she is living in a space that is not much bigger than a one car garage with 3 other family members and her young son Matthew. When we arrived they immediately went out and bought us water – an expense they can not afford but we could turn down. We were there so the elders could teach and so we could get the information we need to create a resume and register her with Jobsdb. She is well educated so perhaps she will be able to find something in the banking world. It was very hot today and the only thing that saved us was a large fan that they let blow right on us. I can not imagine what it is like when those fans are off. She wants to be baptized but the elders think she needs to know more. What we do not need in the church is more single mothers without a job and no testimony.

When we were done there we drove the elders to the mission home so they can go with the district to Bandung tonight. We were invited but we have a ERS meeting and the cleaning lady coming. We really need the ERS meeting and besides we have already been to where they are going. We told them they were lucky we were not going because if we went it would be overcast and raining.

We got a great letter from McKay today and one from sister Sandberg who is serving with her husband who is a mission president in Russia. We love to get letters and e-mail. We also heard from the Peterson’s who arrived home last Friday. Their family basically remodeled their house – with their approval of course – while they were gone. They also had a full weekend of activities – the Peterson’s sound exhausted.

The man who the Lord gave me a second chance to help.

27 August 2007 – Monday

It was one of those days when everything falls apart and yet some things get done. I did my exercising – my stomach muscles finally allowed me to do some sit-ups. I decided I would be more careful in the future and not do too much too fast. I just read a scripture about that in the D&C but can not remember the reference without looking. We read for pages from the Kitab Mormon – the first time we read it, we did about two to two and a half pages per day so we are doing better.

We got some wonderful letters from our children or their spouses as well as a couple from grandchildren. Between that and the blogs we can keep pretty much up on what is going on.

The first change came when I got a text message saying that our PEF meeting was being put off a week. So I called Sam and said that he did not need to pick us up until 11:15 when we could go to the mission home and eat before Mary had her English class. I suggested she call and make sure that there would be a class and was told that it probably should be postponed because some people were not in the office today. So instead of going to the mission home we went to the office.

I had a special experience on our trip to the office. There was a man going down the street on a little cart that he used like a wheelchair. I believe he is the man who I saw the other day and did not go back to as prompted. As we passed him this time I told Sam he needed to turn around so we could find out where this man lived so that when we got wheelchairs, we could possibly give him one. Sam talked to him and found where he lived and that he spent his day going up and down the road begging for enough money to buy food for him, his wife and their two children. I did not find out how his lost the use of his legs. I gave him 10,000 R – about $1.10 which should allow him to feed his family for the day. I am not sure that a wheelchair will help him, but I know that I must try to get him one. This was a tender mercy from the Lord to allow me a second chance to try and help one of his children in need.

We had lunch off the street – Mary had mie goreng and I had my usual meal. I sent a number of e-mails – in fact we sent e-mails all day to different people all over the world it seemed. I worked on trying to find out more about micro-finance in Indonesia. Everything I find is about 3 years old but I will keep trying to find where I can get current information. I also tried to contact a member who works in the embassy but he seems to have moved. I then tried to call some members of the English branch to find out who worked there now but everyone was gone. It seemed to fit into an already frustrating day. While I was doing this, Mary worked on her English lessons and answered more e-mail.

I checked with the president on how the Davises were doing and he said they had gone up to Bandung to look at some housing. Jemmy Mongan went with them so they are in good hands. We talked a little about the Bennetts and what they are doing up in Semarang. He also informed me that we would be picking up the Walkers when they come in – he will be in Solo at a Zone Conference. We really have become the unofficial meeters and greeters for the mission.

After we closed the office we went to SoGo to do some grocery shopping and of course visit BreadTalk. They had almost everything we craved – much too much chocolate. The traffic was light both ways and we made good time getting back to the apartment. The rest of the day was spent napping, studying Indonesian, reading from the Kitab Mormon, writing and posting this journal, and organizing pictures. We read four more pages from the Kitab Mormon – Zeniff’s account of his kingship in the land of their inheritance.

So we had a day almost completely different from what we had planned but it was still a fruitful and fulfilling day as we serve here in Indonesia. I am truly thankful that the Lord gave me a second chance to heed His spirit in regards to the crippled man. I guess I am the kind of son who has to be shaken a couple of times before my spirit wakes up and hears the still, small voice.

 

Photos from funeral of Dita Subandriyo including family around casket, elder Subandriyo, the petal covered grave, Mary settling in for the duration, and the impromptu choir for the postlude.

25 August 2007 – Saturday

It was nice to sleep in my own bed and I really slept – until almost 6. Because we needed to leave soon after 7 for the Subandriyo funeral, we did not read from the Kitab Mormon. We will really need to read a lot on Sunday to get back on track.

I am writing this at just before 8 a.m. Although the funeral does not start until 11:00 people have been arriving here for hours because they have come from all across Java. By bus and train – often traveling from 12 to15 hours or more – they are arriving. Mary is practicing with the soloists and the choir until 9 when she will start playing the prelude program. For two hours there will be singing and she will play for most of it and all the funeral itself. It is actually an honor to be asked to do this.

As I was out taking some pictures of the tents and flowers, Elder Subandriyo came in on his motorcycle. He had to run home to get some music to play for the guests during the viewing and while Mary was practicing. I gave him our condolences and we shared a hug. Yesterday President Marchant mentioned that Elder S., because of his strong testimony, was doing well and knew that he would see his daughter again. But I would be surprised if, for at least some time, the radiant smile might be dimmed just a little.

I was greatly touched by the experience of attending the funerals today. The bodies were available for viewing at the front of the chapel and for hours people went by and looked and then met the families. The circumstances of their death, their caskets, the number of people who came to see them, and where they will be buried are far different, but they both shared the love of many members and of course they shared the promises of the gospel. Sister Subandriyo left a family of parents and three siblings. The brother left parents, an older brother, a wife and four children – one only 22 months old. One of the most touching parts for me was the family of the brother singing – there was only about 10 who sang but they sounded like a choir of angels. As they sang I noticed one of the young men in the choir could not help singing along. He looked and saw me watching and he put his hand over his heart and I indicated I understood completely.

Another high point was when Elder Subandriyo spoke. He talked about his daughter and the man who was a fellow ex-missionary of I would guess about the same age. He shared some advice he gave his daughter and the one that touched me was that if she was asked a question that she felt was contentious to try to avoid answering it, but ‘if you have to answer, answer with a soft voice.” I thought that was great counsel and something that I still have not learned to do.

After the funeral was over, the whole congregation came forward to see the bodies for one last time. While they were doing this Mary started playing postlude music. Sister Autin started to sing with her in English, she was soon joined by two of the sister missionaries, and then others joined in. I even joined in where I could. This went on for close to a half hour or until the caskets were finally closed and carried out. It added a nice touch to the funeral.

I should mention that Mary practiced with soloists and the choir for over and hour, then played prelude music, accompanied soloists and the choir for well over an hour before the funeral started, and played for almost all the songs that were sung during the funeral. So she certainly got her piano time in today.

We were only two cars behind the hearst and so we got to park somewhat near the grave site. There was a big canopy over the site but even with that it was boiling – especially for us in suits. Mary took one of the chairs so she did not have to stand. The grave was about 4 feet deep and there were a couple of boards to hold up the casket. The elders and her two brothers were pall bearers.

After a song, the grave was dedicated and a short talk. Then the sisters placed garlands of flowers over the casket before it was lowered into the grave with ropes. There is no vault so I would guess as the casket deteriorates the graves collapse. After the casket is lowered people throw handfuls of flower petals on it. Then the grave diggers start filling in the grave with their hoes. When it is filled and mounded, people file by and put more petals on the top so that when they are done there is a mound of petals. All in all it is a beautiful experience that I would have enjoyed more if the temperature was not quite so high. Sam mentioned that they held the funeral early so it would not be too hot. I can not imagine it being hotter.

We were lucky about where we parked so we could back out of the cemetery. The number of mourners and their vehicles meant that many had to park on the road. This of course caused a massive traffic jam which was made even worse by the vehicles in the cemetery coming out and blocking another lane. It probably backed up traffic for miles. I was just glad we did not have to experience this.

We came home and Mary immediately collapsed in bed. A few minutes later I came in to find her crying. She had not eaten any breakfast and so her body was rebelling for lack of food to a point where she was emotionally as well as physically exhausted. I got her a sandwich and some crackers and that solved the problem. She soon was able to fall asleep for a short but much needed nap.

After she woke we read from the Kitab Mormon – we had not read this morning. Then we ordered pizza. After it came I put on the penguin movie ‘Happy Feet.’ While Mary is watching that, I am trying to catch up some of this journal.

It is strange how exhausted we are tonight. I can somewhat understand Mary’s fatigue but I did nothing except a lot of sitting and standing. Perhaps it is emotional fatigue. What ever the cause, neither of us felt like reading more from the Kitab Mormon and by 9 we were both asleep.

How hard it must be to bury your child. To see so much of your hope – Elder Subandriyo had written a note to Dita that he had not sent saying that he was looking forward to her providing his first grandchild – and your dreams be covered with the red soil of Indonesia. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Her younger sister was not able to keep up her composer as well as her elder brothers and parents. She must have been very close to her sister – pictures of them together show two friends as well as sisters. Hopefully for all the family their great faith and testimony of the gospel will allow them to get through this by knowing that when they pass to the other side she will be there waiting to take them into her arms.