12 July 2007 – Kamis

I slept like a rock last night. I do not think I woke even once. We did our usual morning things. I had orange juice and a banana for breakfast. It still amazes me how quickly the mornings shoot by. We read from the Kitab Mormon – we are under 40 pages from the end. We had a number of letters come in while we were gone. I answered one from Eko who was one of our students. He is not doing well but I told him to get out and find some kind of job.

We spent four hours in the office catching up e-mail, planning our English class for the evening and other mission related tasks that seem to have built up while we were gone. Mary had made tuna sandwiches but I decided I wanted an Indonesian meal so I had Sam buy he and I lunch. It was really good – I still am careful about red peppers but enjoy some of the spicy flavor.

After we closed our office we went to the mission office. We picked up our and the Tangerang elder’s mail, spoke to Elder Subandriyo about a number of things including having a PEF meeting tomorrow morning, and dropped an English grammar book off for the president to approve.

The drive to the Tangerang chapel was helped by the fact that I dropped off to sleep for about half of it. I wish I could do that more often. Really what I should do during the travel time is study, but I am not disciplined enough to do that very often. May before we are released I will learn to do that more often.

District meeting was one of the best I have been in. Since I think I said about the same thing about last Friday’s meeting, maybe I am just getting use to it. However I think the fact that most of it was done in English or using texts I could follow helps it not be boring. We shared some good spiritual thoughts about teaching and the need to call upon the spirit more often to know what the people need to hear and adjust our teaching to their needs. Even elder Wight, who I consider one of the best missionaries we have met, commented on the fact that he felt that often he had been so concerned about getting across the message, he did not think about if it was appropriate or not.

No one was there at 6 for our class but Agus and his children showed up at 6:20 but I think they were only there so Catherin could go to the CostCo like store next door. So we talked for a while and then we left for home without teaching any English. I think the only way we will build up the English class is to find some way to get the members excited about coming. Obviously they do not think it worth their time.

The trip home went very quickly and that was nice. I spent much of the evening catching up this journal for the last three days and then we read from the Kitab Mormon. What I have not been doing is reading from the D&C on a regular basis.

11 July 2007 – Rabu

I woke many times during the night but always went back to sleep so I was well rested. I got a little reading from the D&C in before the house came alive. I also walked around a few blocks. We had breakfast and then I made sandwiches for lunch while Mary cut up apples. We were out of the house before 7:30.

Even though we spent 6 to 7 of the next 11 hours in a car it was a super day. First we went to see a water project that had just been finished. This meant we toured through a nicest village I have seen since we were here and Elder Kane it was the same for him. We walked through the village and the surrounding hillsides looking at identical distribution points – that is the places where the villagers hook up pipes to get water to their homes. Each distribution point provides water to 6 to 10 families and there were about 20 of them in this part of the project. This means some 150 families now have fresh, clean water for the first time in their lives.

It seemed to be a very prosperous village with stone or concrete walks around most of it. The women and children looked healthy and as always very friendly. The men were either at work or stayed in the house. There were rice paddies, lots of fish ponds, and the villagers were drying cloves about anywhere there was a piece of flat ground. They seemed to have lots of goats – which are kept in small pens that stand about five feet off the ground. My guess is it keeps them from straying and getting killed by wild animals or snakes. Whatever the reason it is strange to walk by a pen and find a goat looking straight into your face.

The village had electricity and many of them had TV. We felt it was interesting that there were families who could not seem to afford to run pipe to their homes at the cost of about $15 US but they had TVs going. I guess it all depends on what you value most.

I enjoyed most of the walking and Mary was a real champ about keep up with most of it. But there were a couple of times where I suggested she wait for us to come back because the walk was going to be mostly up hill. She made lots of friends while we were away. The only problem I had was that I started sweating and just could not stop. If I had thought to bring a small towel or two with me it would have been fine but I could not get the moisture off fast enough.

After touring the water project we went to a bamboo cabin built right next to a river and had lunch. It was beautiful and peaceful and after an hour I came close to stopping sweating but not entirely. We told Taufik – the native engineer who oversees the project and knows how to wine and dine the money folks – about the store we use to own. He was greatly surprised when we told him we sold 2 men tents that sold for up to $600. He was very interested and asked us to get him a catalog.

After lunch we left Taufik and his group – he has a good size crew that oversees all the work – and headed for the ocean which was about 30 minutes away. This was the first time we saw a real beach and ocean that looked like the ones at Redondo and Hawaii. It stretches for miles and miles and during the week there are very few people. There are only a couple of hotels and they did not seem to have much in the way of customers. We walked the beach and Mary got wet up to her knees. She also collect seashells from the Indian Ocean. I just walked along the beach and looked at the waves crashing into rocks and felt like I was back in California. The sky was clear, there was the breeze that always seems to come in the afternoon, and there were a few people enjoying the beach. This is an area this is almost untouched by foreign visitors – but I am sure that will change some time in the future. The town is one of the neatest and quietest we have seen. Beautiful bougainvillea planted along the wide, clean streets. It looks as if some one laid out the town for a busy future time. Very wise in my estimation.

The trip home took the best part of 2 hours. During our time in the car we talked about our missions, our families, our pasts, and Indonesia. It would have much more comfortable if there had been a second back seat so we could spread out some. But it still was a nice day.

Sam was waiting for us when we got back to the Kanes. Sister Kane insisted we have some bread and cheese to tide us over for the trip home. There are no nicer people in the world than the Kanes – we are so glad that we have had the chance to get to know them so well. They are doing an excellent job in their area.

The trip home was much easier and quicker than I expected. It took only about an hour so we got home before ‘On the Lot’ started. I am not sure why we like this program. Most of the movies are not very good but the average quality is getting better as the number of directors gets smaller. It has to be an expensive program to produce and I do not think we will see a second season.

After it was over we read from the Kitab Mormon. Mary actually had us stop a little early because she was so tired. Unfortunately she had twisted her knee – fortunately it was almost at the end of our trip to the beach so while she suffered, it did not cause any inconvenience.

So our two day working vacation came to an end. I doubt if we will do that very often but it was good to do it this time.

10 July 2007 – Selasa

We woke early, packed, ate breakfast, read for a short time from Kitab Mormon and then left for Bogor to spend the Tuesday and Wednesday with the Kanes.

On Tuesday we visited two mushroom projects run by orphanages – one which was functioning and one that was getting started. The one that was functioning was not doing so at any great rate. It seemed to me that they were bagging product only because we were coming by. According to the man running the program they harvest about 2 kilos of mushrooms at a time and use it in the kitchen. This is not a very good production from something that cost $600 to start.

As we drove along Elder Kane told me that the large mushroom project that we had seen 6 weeks ago was only producing $80 in profits a month. This means they are not getting 20% of the potential from it. So it must be sitting unused for 80% of the time. Either that or they are producing bad product that does not germinate. It shows again that few of the people are motivated to be fully productive. Which is why Indonesian labor has one of the lowest productivity rates in the world.

After seeing the last project, we went to the gong factory. After seeing the ‘factory’ I was convinced that they did not produce the large gongs there and if they produced any gongs at that factory it was small ones because they had no molds for large gongs. Elder Kane agrees with me about that – the factory is all for show. My guess is that there is a large factory somewhere with more modern equipment that turns out the large gongs. We went to the show room and sounded a lot of gongs and bid on one but they would not match my price so we left.

After doing some shopping for office supplies and food to make lunch for tomorrow we went back to their house to drop off the perishables and other foods. Then we went to a ceramic store that again must cater to tourists because everything was greatly overpriced. But the ladies found some 50% off stuff they could not pass up. While they shopped I sat outside and took pictures and played with a dog that seemed to belong there.

Then it was time for dinner and the Kanes took us to their favorite pizza place. I had BBQ chicken pizza and while it was not as good as Pier 49’s BBQ chicken pizza, it was still quite good. Their driver dropped us off at their house and headed to his home. We basically had time to change over to the Kanes car before leaving for the Rotary Club meeting. It was not what I expected. There were only 3 people besides us when it started and three other joined us as it moved along. Elder Kane says that is about normal for a meeting, but they get a lot done.

The president is a retired Dutch pilot and he showed lots of pictures of airplane accidents. Way too many of them for my taste and with very little useful commentary. When that was over they talked about a couple of things and called it a night.

We went back to the house where Sister Kane made some great dessert crepes and we played a couple of games before heading off to bed. Mary and I read for about ½ hour before turning off the lights.

I can not say that it was a great spiritual day, but seeing the mushroom projects made me cautious about getting too excited about the prospect of this being the answer to helping the poor. Hopefully the oriental plant project will be more viable. But in no case will it work unless the people involved are willing to work hard each day.  Also talking to the Kanes about what they are doing with their English class and in their branch was informative. It gave me some ideas on what we could do. So while it was not the most spiritually productive day of our mission it was certainly worth experiencing.

We just spent two days visiting our friends in Bogor, Elder and Sister Kane. They are Humanitarian missionaries and we visited some of their projects with them. We traipsed around in the mountains visiting water projects which supply running water to homes in small villages which before always had to bring water to their homes in small buckets. It was very interesting to see cloves spread out on canvas tarps or in wicked baskets drying in the sun. Also I got to see a rice mill in action while the others were hiking up a very steep trail to see another portion of a water project. When we were finished we ate lunch in a small cottage (all built of bamboo) beside a spectacular river and I walked across a suspension bridge to a small group camping area on an island in the middle of the river. After lunch someone told us the seashore was only 10 kilometers away so we drove down to the beach. We took lots of beautiful pictures and I waded in the surf and collected a handful of small shells. When I get home I can add them to the shells I have collected from the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. (Not a valuable collection, but one with memories.) During the trip we saw tea plantations, teakwood trees, rice paddies, cloves and rice being dried in the sun, rubber trees, papaya trees,  banana trees, coconut trees and palm oil trees–quite a variety of agriculture.

09 July 2007 – Senin

I was up soon after 5 and tried to read a talk by elder Packard – it was rather frustrating because there were words I should know but just could not understand. But I keep plugging along hoping that the gift of tongues will someday kick in.

We had a nice – if often interrupted – Skype call from Cindy. It is always great to hear from the children. Cindy pointed out that we talk or hear from her much more than when we were living at home. She is of course correct. Later we read from the Kitab Mormon – it went much better than my earlier studying. After that I wrote our report to the president. Now it almost time for me to leave with Sam to go to visit the T2 elder’s apartment. We were going to T1 but they are heading to the mission office so we will get them next week.

Since we have plans for the evening, we decided I would do the apartment inspection and Mary would stay home so the cleaning lady could come. It takes about an hour to get to the T2 apartment and almost all the way is driving through one kampung – a group of houses that is kind of like a small town – after another. Each seems to have it’s own market which slows everything down. In the US driving the same distance would probably take 20 minutes or less.

There are only two elders in the house and it was new just a couple of years ago. Now it is OK but there are mold spots on the ceiling, the yard is terrible – there is supposed to be someone who comes around and takes care of it but whoever it is does not do a very good job – and of course the paint is like chalk so it can not be cleaned. The elders seem do a good job keeping it as clean as they can. Their desks are not very neat but I am not the one to complain about that.

After our hour drive back, Sam dropped me off and I had some lunch and then tried to take a nap before we left to pick up the Petersons and go to the Jakarta fair. I did not have any luck at this.

The fair was OK but mainly it was like any fair with lots of people trying to sell things. If there was a horticulture area or an animal area we did not get there. The biggest spaces were taken up by the large motorcycle companies. Sam was very excited about seeing the new Yamaha cycles. The one he wants costs $3000 – about what he makes in 18 months.

So we walked around looking mainly at crafts. There were some really nice things and a lot of junk. They have lots of gadgets, health products, and of course food for sale. We ended up buying a wooden duck, a nice piece of petrified wood, a dress and a couple of necklaces for Mary and a Nativity set. After about 2 ½ hours we were all walked and talked out. So we headed home. We stopped at the Mall and ate at the only BurgerKing in Indonesia. It was the best burger I have had since we got here. A Whopper como sells for $3.90 US – about what an Indonesian worker will make in a day – and the place was busy. Just across the courtyard was an Indonesian copy of without any business. This is true of many businesses where there is a US based company and a native business.

However when it comes to Krispy Kreme and JoCo it is exactly the opposite. JoCo is always busy with lots of people sitting around drinking coffee or other drinks and eating donuts while Krispy Kreme has to offer buy one get two free to get any business. The difference is JoCo makes donuts with toppings that are tailored to the Indonesian taste while KK tries to sell the same ones that work in the US. Also JoCo has lots of nice booths or tables where friends can sit around and eat and eat in a quirt softer lighted area. KK has their standard booths with bright lights. JoCo lays their donuts out in a 30 foot long glass counter with great lighting so people can walk along and choose what they want. It is hard to pass up any of them. KK has all theirs in case that does not make any of them look interesting – mainly because they are not. It is a classic case of selling what the people want in the most appealing way and therefore becoming a success.

By the time we got home we were beat and so any thought of packing for our two day trip to Bogor was long gone from our minds. We did read from the Kitab Mormon but not for the full hour. While we were out I got a call from Hong Kong about PEF. I need to put together some figures and send them in and hopefully something will get done. Perhaps the fact there is a new mission president will help. I will not be able to do this until we get home on Thursday.

08 July 2007 – Minggu

I had a hard time getting started this morning. I woke about 5 but crawled back into bed. I did a little studying of Indonesian but we did not read from the Kitab Mormon. I would like to use the excuse that we have to leave at 7:15 to make it to Jakarta Raya for an 8 a.m. meeting. Or that since I woke with an annoying headache I was afraid that reading would cause it to hurt more. But the truth is neither of us seemed to want to read this morning.

We went to Tangerang 1 sacrament meeting. Mary played the piano and Elder Wight translated for us so we had a good idea of what was going on. I try very hard to hear the words, even if I can not translate them. Sometimes the speaker talks slow enough that I can hear most of them as words but one sister spoke so fast I don’t think I ‘heard’ 1 out of 20. All the speakers gave talks on missionary work.

After the 1st sacrament meeting we decided to stay in the chapel and talk to the people who were streaming in for T2’s branch conference. I very glad that we did because I met a member who hires translators for Dodge Philips. They have to go live on an island but they get all their housing paid for and a decent wage. Add to this a chance to work for a multi-national company that has a pension plan and it looks like a good job. I told him I would try to find some resumes for him.

I would have loved to have been able to understand the talks in branch conference. President Gjarot and president Mack spoke. I could feel the strength of president Mack’s words even if I could not understand them. The branch choir – led by our friend Agus – was excellent. As good or better than most ward choirs back in the states – at least those we have heard. I could feel their faith as they sung.

After that meeting the other meetings were hard to sit through. However I must say that the Gospel Principles class was really well taught by elder (we can not remember his name.) He went well beyond the material. There was a family who has just moved here from Melang where they were baptized about 4 months ago. One of their daughters has not joined. They all seemed quite interested and will make a great addition to the branch.

While we were there I spoke to the branch presidents about giving us lists of less actives they would like us to work with. President Paul thought I said active and gave me a great list of those but when I told him I wanted less actives he said he would get back to me later. So now we will wait for the three presidents to get us their lists. I feel good about this and think that it is important.

In the evening we got great letters from two of our students. I am including them here so that they will become part of my journal. It is wonderful to see the fruits of our labors. It gives me great hope for future classes.

From our best student – Vita
Thanks 4 the email,n4 missing me….today is my b’day….n im so happy received ur email. Sorry i can’t answer ur email soon, i was very busy n didn’t have time 2 go to Warnet. I have a good news 4 u…..central java distric,called me as coordinator 4 distric translater…..hehehe im so happy…even little bit nervous….ough not just little bit, very nervous.
And yesterday, we had distric meeting with president n sister merchant, anna n i translated for sister merchant,sis.barnard,sis.roberts,sis.bennet,in relief society meeting.
And this morning in sacrament meeting i translated 4 sis.merchant who gave talk.
Well….i miss the class….unbelieveble, when i was in jakarta, i had homesick n now i miss the class…..n i miss both of u………hehehe
There is one sister from new york who stay in jogja for study, n he learn to speak in indonesia. So we decided to help each other,i speak in english to her,n she speaks in indonesia to me. And we correct each other. Well i like that, i have partner to exercise my english.
And i found a program in english on radio,even just 1 hour in a day, but i can improve my listening….. i also watch news program in english on tv…..well i do the best i can to keep practise my english.
Well….i miss u , and thank you……

From Jin-young the 16 year old Korean who probably had the best improvement in understanding what she read and heard.

Hello,
This is Jin Young.
How are you!
Sorry I should have sent an e-mail but I couldn’t use internet last week.
Anyway, I’m doing well.
I’m trying to speak English at home, and my mom wants to learn from me.
Especially she will teach relief society lesson with Sister Kim who is the other Korean.
So I’m helping her. And our family is trying to memorize The Articles of Faith in English and we will read the book of Mormon in English together.
I am really thankful for your teaching and everything.
English program was really good for me.
Through the opportunity, when I speak English I can have confidence and I can understand YW and Sunday school lessons easier.
Thank you thank you thank you very much.

Later in the evening I got a call from Elder Kane who is putting together a committee to look into the viability of some horticultural projects to aid our single mothers and older families. It was my idea but he certainly is the one to head it up. I am not even going to be on the committee. But I think that the Lord is behind all of this. Hopefully something can be found to aid our poorer members to live better lives and provide good educations for their children.

We read for an hour from the Kitab Mormon – we are into Ether where the brother of Jared is getting some light for the ships. I stayed up rather late watching a special on the new Harry Potter movie. I am pretty sure that we will go see that in a real movie theater and not just buy a DVD – which probably is already available here.

Note that these 3 – 4 workers seem to be the whole framing crew.
I have been meaning to write something about the building techniques here in Jakarta, and I imagine everywhere else in Indonesia. It has been a real education to watch buildings going up. There are small projects – buildings of 2 to 4 floors – and large ones 20 – 40 floors but of course some in-between. There is one, that I think is going to be about 4 floors, going up right next to the chapel so we have watched it grow each day.

The first thing that is interesting to watch is how few people work on even a major building most days. Most of the time it looks like very little or nothing is going on. There will be huge skeletons of buildings with a half dozen people working. Of those probably 3 were actually working and 3 were sitting around or sleeping. It seems amazing that anything gets finished – but it does. It is almost like that a crew of elves come in at night and finish the work.

The second interesting thing is the use of bamboo. If a building is under 4 floors, all the scaffolding is usually made of bamboo that is tied together. Ladders, crossbeams, and anything else needed to work on the building is mainly bamboo. And of course this is not only on buildings but wherever there is a need for a ladder, or something to stand on, it will 9 times out of ten be made of bamboo.

Third is the way they frame a multi-floor building. Usually they lay a concrete floor, then they put up columns around and with in the structure at what looks like about 10 to 15 feet. Then once the columns are up they put down another concrete floor, and then more columns, until you have a skeleton of a building. The next step is to fill in the blank spaces – a except where there is going to be windows – which is often only in the front of the building – with bricks and mortar. They use lot of cement between the bricks. They do not need to be too neat here because the finishing coat – both inside and out is a thick layer of concrete. Which makes hanging things really interesting because you are always driving nails into concrete.

There is not much in the way of machines used. You do not hear the buzz of many power tools because so much is still done by hand. I watched a group of brick layer working on the third floor of a building. The mortar was mixed by hand and then carried up two flights of bamboo ladders in buckets. The hod carriers get paid about $3 a day and there is no such thing as paid vacation or workman’s compensation.

In most building we have seen they use very little wood except for framing, doors and cabinets. Floors are almost universally tiled. This makes a lot of sense since the amount of moisture in the air, the rain and the number of floods they have would mean they would be replacing the wood every couple of years. Also tile is cooler – something that is very important here.

I am including a few pictures of the building next door. The most I have seen working on it was 3 people and you can see the bamboo scaffolding, the concrete columns and the brick work. I am hoping that it will be finished by the time we leave so I can show the finished product.

This is a better picture of the Zone – we can be seen clearly.
07 July 2007 – Sabtu

I woke at 5:00 and tried to go back to sleep without any success. So I studied some Indonesian and later switched to reading D&C 18 and 19. These are two great sections that contain a lot of things to think about. Often I think 18 is only quoted because of ‘the worth of souls’ verses but there is a lot more in the other verses. As I read 19 this time I found more good words of counsel. I am greatly enjoying reading the D&C word for word.

After breakfast – a nourishing one of cold pizza and orange juice – I finished yesterday’s journal, added some pictures and posted it to the blog. I figure I spend about 30 minutes or so a day writing and posting this journal. Hopefully it does some good for the rest of the family and anyone else who takes the time to read. Next we read the Kitab Mormon – we still are not able to read more than 3 or so pages an hour. Today it was in Mormon where Moroni is describing the churches at the time that the information on the plates he is writing will come forth again.

We spend 5 hours at the office and not even a phone call comes in. However we did a lot of things that needed doing, including Mary giving a piano lesson. After hearing president Marchant talk about using “Preach My Gospel” as a way for native missionaries to study English, I decided to use it to study Indonesian. Some paragraphs I can pretty much read but others take a lot of looking up. I am going to continue working on vocabulary which is the only way I am ever going to get to where I do not need the electronic translator so much. For the last hour we read from the Kitab Mormon – a good way to spend our time there.

Back at the apartment we both take a nap and then it is back to studying Indonesian. Mary did more needlepoint and watched TV. I can not say that I really did much studying – I was trying to read from PMG and it is harder than I think it should be so I am afraid I got a little antsy and kept getting up and finding something else to do instead of sticking to it. Later we read from the Kitab Mormon – we are now into Ether and at least the first part is quite easy to translate. We have just about 50 pages left and if we read an average of 7 pages a day we will make it by the 15th.

Before turning off the lights, I read more in the D&C. I read D&C 20 carefully – it has been a long time since I have read this section word for word. I knew that in the early days of the church it was read at the start of every sacrament meeting. I guess the Lord wanted to make sure that each member understood how the church came to be, the basic principles of the church, the organization and duties of the priesthood, the basic principles and ordinances and how they were to be performed, etc.

What caught my eye was the warning found in verses 33&34 about how the members of the church, no matter how sure they are of their testimonies, must be careful of falling into temptation and becoming estranged from God. It is a good warning to remember.

Another of the floral arrangements that appears in our lobby on a regular basis. Our Indonesian friend Rudi who we are friendshipping. He has a great spirit and hopefully sometime before we leave, we will see him join the church. But if not we will still have been enriched by knowing him.
6 July 2007 – Friday

I have found that if I stay up until after 10:30 I manage to sleep through the night. However I am going to start going to bed earlier because I have decided that I really must get back to exercising in the morning. President and Sister Marchant emphasized the need to stay healthy and part of that is to exercise. I would guess that the president was not big on this before he got his call.

We had an extra hour this morning because we do not leave for the district meeting until after 10. Usually we do not have district meeting right after zone conference but Elder Decker has decided to call one. Anyway we read from the Kitab Mormon and then I studied vocabulary by reading from conference talks and going through my flash cards. It is strange how some words immediately stick and others vanish as soon as I turn the card.

Mary found this on one of the ESL sites: Two cows are standing in a field. One cow goes, “Mooooo!” The other cow goes, “Baaaaa!” The first cow turns round and says, “What are you doing?” The second cow says, “Practicing my foreign languages.” She sent it to all the couples.

We had a great district meeting. We got to the mission office early and found president Marchant in a short sleeve shirt talking to the office elders. I took advantage of his open door to talk to him about the idea of the Indonesian missionaries spending more of the time while at the apartment to learn English. I mentioned that I thought there was a need for them to include in their weekly letter how much they used their English. I told him about the English grammar book we felt they should use and he came up with the great idea of also having them read from Preach My Gospel. I think that sometime down the line, released missionaries will be much better at speaking, reading and understanding English than they are now. Then maybe we can use the Intensive English Class to do the final preparation for passing the Michigan test.

What made the district meeting great was that it was almost all done in English so we could follow most of it and we were able to contribute. We had been in the meeting for about 15 minutes when the president came in and sat down. He listened, asked questions and made suggestions. I mentioned that most new converts were not given a calling or job in the church to give them a reason to come to church. Also that they should have a home teacher assigned even before they were baptized. The president agreed and had elder Merrill make a note of this so the president could talk about that in the other zone conferences. We mentioned that we would have more time to go out with the missionaries if needed.

I talked to the president about his love for gardening. It turned out that the picture we saw at zone conference with him on a tractor was taken at his mother’s house where they have about 1 ½ acres. He has been planting a garden there for years. Some of his son-in-laws have taken over the task while they are on their mission.

While we were in the meeting, Sam went and got food from BYU. So we had lunch waiting for us. Mary had soup and I had a ton of food with lots of rice and some of the spiciest tempe that I have ever tasted. It was delicious. I forgot to mention that the office was really empty. It seems that many of the staff were going to Solo to go to a wedding – I am not sure who but it certainly emptied the office.

Our next stop was to pay a visit to our friend Rudi’s home. We had not been there for over two months and I told him we felt bad about that. He mentioned that it was just as well as he had an operation and had been recovering almost all that time. He is now fine and at 74 is sound in mind and body. He mentioned that he had read a newspaper article that mentioned that Joseph Smith had been killed because he supported polygamy. It interested him enough that he called one of his ’nephews’ who is a member of the church and he had sent him the book that the institute uses for teaching church history. It is a great book and hopefully he will read it.

I took the opportunity to make sure he understood that at the time the church was practicing polygamy it was not illegal in the US and that once they had passed a law that made it illegal and it had been upheld by the Supreme Court, the Lord had released the church from that practice. I wanted to make sure he understood it was not some black mark on the church.

He then mentioned that he had read that the church was very financially strong. This led into a discussion of tithing and that was why the church was so financially well off. We then got into missionary work and how people were called to serve. He understood this completely and even came up with the Dutch word for ‘call’ as related to doing the Lord’s work. We then talked about how we had been called and that we, and every other missionary for the church, paid their own expenses while on a mission. He then asked if that meant we paid for our housing and food, and we told him that we paid everything. He was really touched by this and I think we moved to a new plateau in his mind.  Before we left we had Sam take a picture of us together and I will make a copy and frame it so we can give it to him the next time we visit. It felt and still does feel good to do some missionary work.

After meeting with Rudi, we came home where I immediately took a nap. Since then Mary has worked on her cross-stitch and watched TV. I studied a little Indonesian, wrote in this journal, and looked around the world with the computer. I found that Olivia’s blog had a new posting of some great pictures. This morning Cindy’s blog had a letter from Tyler for us and I answered that. It is great to see pictures of the family and read about them on the blogs.

We ordered in our usual Friday night pizza – I think they have decided we are regulars so they are putting on lots of cheese. It was extra good tonight. I decided to take my time eating so I managed to stretch it out over the best part of an hour. That way I got to enjoy each bite and yet not eat any more than usual.

After dinner we read from the Kitab Mormon. I must say that I was not really in the mood to read tonight but did suggest it because I knew it was not the Lord who was telling me it would be OK to skip it this evening. Earlier in the day I realized that we are basically reading the Book of Mormon three times in 5 months – once out loud in Indonesian, then once as we translate it into English, and finally when I read it out loud in English. I would not say this is the best way to study, but I doubt if most people every search out each word as carefully as we must do when translating the Indonesian. We are down to under 60 pages – which is 10 – 15 days of reading. Then we will take one day off and start again.

Before turning off the lights I study some Indonesian and then read from the D&C. D&C 18 contains a lot of important information – I had marked most of them the first time I read it last month, but reading them again re-enforced my thoughts. 18:19 especially struck me and I wondered if I had these qualities or perhaps better if I had them more often as not. Of course the famous and most quoted part is the verses about the worth of souls. But 18:18 gave me pause and reminded me how I needed to be close to the spirit to have “manifesteth all things which are expedient unto the children of men – I think the important word here is expedient. The Holy Ghost reveals that which we need and understand rather than just pouring out things unto us. So as I pray I need to ask for those things that will help me and other draw closer to Christ and God – what I can do today to achieve the goals the Lord knows I need to work toward.

Bookending the day with scripture study is something I do not believe I have often done in my life. I truly think I have missed much by not doing this more often and I hope that my grandchildren will learn the value of this in the youth. That brings me to Alma and his advice to his son Helaman found in Alma 37:35 about learning wisdom while we are young.

The work is true and the blessings of serving a mission for the Lord can not be measured. Like most experiences in the kingdom, unless you have served you can not understand what those who have are talking about. I just am so sorry that we did not do this 10 years ago so that we would have those 10 years of blessings that we would have received.

Our new mission president and his wife speaking to Elder Wight. I thought Mike might enjoy a picture from a few weeks ago when we gave free eye-exams and glasses to members and non-members. Finally there is a picture of the Zone with the President and Sister Marchant.
05 July 2007 – Thursday

I had another good night of sleep. Maybe reading the D&C before dropping off gives me a special blessing for sleep. Whatever it is, it is nice. Normal morning except we need to be ready to leave at 8:15 to go to Zone Conference. So we do not read for a full hour and I do not get as much time in reading the D&C.

Today is president and sister Marchant’s first zone conference and we are anxious to meet them and to see what they are like. We are among the first into the chapel and so we get to spend a few minutes saying hello. He is not wearing a suit coat – since he was a missionary here for over 2 years he knows well how hot it will get. The assistants have the air-conditioning going full blast so it is actually a little chilly.

The first half of the conference is different because instead of two or three speakers, the president had each of the missionaries – including the couples – speak for 3 minutes. Mary talked about the English program and I shared my thoughts about D&C 1:17-23 and how it seem to apply to the Indonesian mission. I felt good and think that I have the basis for a good future talk.

Lunch was excellent and I had a nice chat with Elder Kane. When we were done Elder Kane and I went to get the copies of book that he had made for me. This was the book on small business practices that Steve Gibson wrote and said that I could copy. As we sat in our office, president Marchant came in and joined us for a few minutes of discussion. He is so relax and easy to talk to. He mentioned that he had never been a bishop, in a stake presidency or even in a high-council and here he was the mission president with authority over districts and branches.

When I asked him about his call he said he had a feeling that it was coming. He also spoke about those first days and months as one of the first missionaries here. There was one member – who had been baptized in Singapore – in all of Indonesia. There was nothing translated into Indonesia, none of the missionaries knew a word of Indonesian, and there was no way to really communicate with the president in Singapore. Getting a phone call through to the mission office took two days. He never called home at any time during his mission because it cost $3 a minute – and that was 1970 $1 which I guess would be about $20 – $30 a minute now. They had $100 a month to live on but that was really a lot of money in those day – about $2000 in today’s money.

Sister Marchant is a truly motherly type. Little if any makeup, her hair is not dyed, and her clothes are neat but plain. They said that they will be visiting all the missionary apartments – without warning. I can just see some of the missionaries hearing a knock on their door at 8 a.m. and finding the two of them standing on the step wanting to come in. It reminded me of hearing how Elder Subandriyo when he was mission president doing just that. The members are going to love this president.

Before the afternoon session started all the missionaries had their picture taken with the president and then a group picture. We of course were included. The president has a really nice Nikon film camera. As usual the afternoon training session had little meaning for the couples. Mary fell asleep for part of it and I tried to.

We had plans to go to dinner with the Kanes but it turned out that they had to take the sisters back to Bogor and since last night they had kept their driver out until 11 p.m. they thought they should not stay late tonight. It seems most of our plans with them fall through. But to tell the truth I was rather glad because I wanted to get home and relax.

Unfortunately I could not go to sleep so I posted some pictures on the mission website, posted yesterday on our blog – Cindy is doing a good job keeping up her blog and Krista posted a letter to us there, looked at some e-mail, and read a little from the D&C. We ordered dinner from the restaurant and then we read our hour from the Kitab Mormon. It seemed easy reading but it took a long time. Mainly trying to figure out the word pattern so that it made sense.