Bulan – Boo-lawn. It means both moon and month. Which when you think about it makes a lot of sense. A matching word is Minggu – which is pronounced just like it is written – Ming-goo. This means a week and if you add hati – Hot-tee – which means day – for ‘hati Minggu’ – you get Sunday.

22 April 2007 – Sunday

A very busy but great Sunday.

We did our normal morning – except we did not get a full hour in on the Kitab Mormon. We had to leave a little early for Jakarta Raya because Mary needed to practice with sister Penny. We arrived in plenty of time and while Mary practiced I did the rounds of handshaking. Hendra asked us to give the opening and closing prayers for sacrament meeting. He forgot to announce Mary as the opening prayer so she just went up at the right time and gave a very nice prayer – in English. She was not feeling well at all – no fever but coughing from deep in her chest. But like a true champ she stuck with it all day.

It is surprising how each week we can hear more words and today we were able to pick out enough to know what they speakers were talking about. Mary is still far ahead of me – she says she can actually understand the words without translating – I think that is great. After sacrament we went to the Gospel Principle class – they had three investigator and that is great. Progressive investigators are hard to come by in this mission.

We left after just two hours because we had to drive over to the Tangerang building. We are meeting the elders and taking them out to teach a single woman. It was way, way out and tucked away among a warren of houses. But once there it turned out to be a very nice house – that is for the area. They had a nice discussion – Mary and I sat in two of the three available chairs and the elders, the investigator and her children sat on a rug on the floor. The elders seemed quite at ease sitting there. They taught about the restoration and got a conditional baptism commitment – they were all smiles when we left. It is great to take part in some missionary work. We dropped the elders at the bus stop and headed home. Luckily Sam was able to find the way to the freeway so the trip home did not take much more time than if we had left from the chapel.

When we got home we thought the day was over but we got a call from Sister Jensen inviting us to come over to the mission home to hear their son Sterling talk about Iraq. He is a contract interpreter for the military and is just finishing up a tour. He is visiting Indonesia before his folks return home.

We got there really early so we had time to talk to him and the family before anyone else came. He asked some good questions about employment and education in Indonesia. Mary pointed out he was one of the few people who ever got as much information about me as I got about him during our conversations.

The Petersens, the office elders, the Aps,  and a number of members of the English branch were invited so it was a rather crowded. Since we came first we had great seats on one of the couches. Sterling gave us a little more history of the area than I thought was needed but his comments on how the Sunnis have come to see us as the only way they are going to ever have a chance to influence in the government was very interesting. He feels that there is really no strong government – that it is basically still a tribal society and until they develop a strong military and police force it is going to remain unstable.
He does not think that the country will break into three independent sections but he does think they will divide into strong autonomous sections with a central government. At least this will be until the younger population becomes better educated and gets tired of living in chaos.

After his presentation I talked to him more about the situation and this time I got to learn more than he did. I also talked to a member of the English branch who is into gemstones. He is a geologist and so stones are interesting to him. He calls diamonds – boring because they are just clear. He told me about sapphires from Viet Nam that were dark blue but each point sparkles in deep purple. I want to get to know him better and see if he will give me an education in gems. He is really high on Indonesian brown opals – he thinks they are beautiful.

As we talked I realized that I know a little about a lot of things and this helps me enter into most conversations and ask intelligent sounding questions. As long as I remember I really do not know much it works fine. It is only when I try to expound or expand on what I do know that I get into trouble.

Before we left I asked President Jensen and the elders to give Mary a blessing. They all thought it was strange that I did not want to seal the blessing but I explained that I felt that others were more likely to not let their personal feeling enter into their blessing. President Jensen blessed her that she would get well but that she needed to follow the medical instructions carefully.

We did not get home until about 9:30 and that combined with Mary not feeling well, we just went to bed without reading the Kitab Mormon. It was a great Sunday

Mempersiapkan – Mum-pur-see-op-con – prepared. It is something we need to be more of. We do not spend enough time in planning so often things get done at the last minute. I do not know the word for procrastination but I will look it up for tomorrow.

21 April 2007 – Saturday

We were up very early and at the airport by 6:00 for our 7:30 flight. It was good to have Lukito along because that way we had some idea about what was going on. One thing about Indonesian airlines – they always give you a simple meal. Nothing special but always worth eating. Basically you get a stuffed roll – this morning it was with a small sausage, a cake dessert, and a candy of some kind.

The flight went well – we got to see the sea and some ships as we were landing. The pilot seemed to me to come in hot. One of the problems they have at regional airports is that the runways are a little short – this means if they come in fast they either stand on the brakes or run off the end. We managed to stay on the runway.

The Bennetts were there to pick us up and take us to the chapel. We were happy to see them again. They are doing a great job in Semarang – both with the branch and with the missionaries. In just a few weeks they have made themselves part of the branch and they know everyone by name. I think that is great.

The Career Workshop was well attended – of course no one showed up on time but we were able to start only 30 minutes late. While the district specialist and Lukito took care of workshop. The Bennetts took us to their home. It is a large 3 bedroom home, in a good area, with a nice front and side yards, and for about ½ of what we pay. If we come back to Indonesia, I hope we are able to serve in a smaller town like Semarang.

We went back to arrange for lunch. We should have ordered it when we first got there for delivery at a certain time. As it was we had dinner about 45 minutes late. Later someone mentioned that they had a caterer in the branch – we could have asked them to provide the lunch. In the future that is what we will do – have them provide a traditional meal.

After lunch the Barretts and their second driver – they are so busy that they need 1 ½ drivers – took us to Chinatown and a great fabric store. This was down an alley and we were the only white faces in the whole place. I decided it must be a good place to shop because it was packed. Mary found lots of material for more dresses, skirts and blouses – all for $30.

We got back just as it ended and helped to clean up. During the day I talked to a number of the participants and asked them to send me their resumes. I will try to help them get some interviews. The big challenge is to develop resources that we can call about job openings and that we can send resumes to. Hopefully this will help people start good careers.

After the cleanup we sat with elder and sister Bennett and talked about this and that. I asked Elder Bennett to look for good schools and universities for our young people to go to with a PEF loan. After that their driver – a very interesting man who also happened to be named Sam – took us to the airport.

Semarang is a smaller regional airport with three whole gates for departure. But it was a fun place to spend our time. They had a gift shop where we bought two paintings for $20 and the largest supply of reasonably priced paperback books in English that we have seen. We each splurged and bought one book each.

While we were waiting we ran into the president of Tangerang 2 branch and I learned somethings about his business – software – and a school that they run to train programmers. It is a two month course that costs $500 but when it is done they hire the top 10 for $250 a month and that can grow to $2000 a month. This is a big salary for Indonesia. Hopefully we can get some of the young people to major in computer programming and get them into the program. It seems all I need to do is sit down and talk to people to learn about more career offerings.

The flight home went as well as going and the landing was better. While we were walking from the plane to the way out we ran into President Jensen and his son Sterling who just got back from a trip to one of the other islands. It is a small world it seems – flying with a branch president and meeting the mission president.

The trip back to the apartment was uneventful but it was so late that we did not read from the Kitab Mormon. This is the first day in months that we have not read at all from KM. Sometime during the coming week we need to make up for this lapse.

Penduduknya – Puhn-Dew-Duke-nyah – Inhabitants. It is one of those fun words we come across because Duduk means both to sit and to reside. I guess the idea is where your seat is so is your house.

20 April 2007 – Friday

We were both awake early. But while I was out doing my laps, Mary went back to sleep. Lucky lady. We later read three pages from the Kitab Mormon.

We went to the Jakarta Raya district meeting. They are nice enough to do most of the meeting in English so we know what is going on. I think it is also helpful for the Indonesian elders to use English. They are doing well as far as progressive investigators are concerned. They are not doing well in getting referrals and I suggested they increase their effort in that area. Elder Basuki gave a good lesson on finding people to teach. I noticed that I could actually understand many of the words he was saying – something that I was not able to do a month ago. Mary said that she was able to understand words without translating them. I am not that far.

After that meeting we came home, ate lunch and rested for a while before going to the university to teach English. Mary had three faithful students and I had my usual none. But I got more reading done in the Kitab Mormon so the time was not wasted.

After the English lesson, we went to our office to get some reports we need for our trip to Semarang in central Java.

When we got home we ordered pizza and then spent the night watching some TV, answering email and reading another hour in the Kitab Mormon.

Sedikit – Suh-dee-kit – ‘A little bit.’ We use this word a lot to tell people we know and understand only ‘sedikit’ Indonesian.

19 April 2007 – Thursday

Up just before 5 and did 5 laps in the walk/run mode and then walked a few more with Bob. I tried to pick his brain about the problem of human trafficking and how someone who wants to go out of the country to earn money avoids falling in among thieves. I asked if he would mind talking about this sometime to a group of our young people. He said he would be happy to.

Back at the apartment I read from the early chapters of 1st Nephi – it is getting easier but there are still often many words I do not know but can guess. I then look up the word to see what was actually written.

We once again over three pages in the Kitab Mormon this morning. Mainly because Mary remembers so many words and therefore we do not need to look them up. Also we did not discuss the strange wording in some of the verses as much as we sometimes do.

This morning I did a couple of loads of laundry, ironed three of my shirts and did the dishes. I am becoming very domesticated. Also my hands smell like Clorox something that you just get use to here in Indonesia. Also I watered the plants on the deck – it makes this feel more like home.

Thursday is one of our busiest days and today was no exception. I was surprised to find that the documents about the Intensive English class had already been translated and was waiting for me in an e-mail. Later I found out from Elder Subandriyo that the member of the district council that translated them used to work for the church as a translator. Hopefully President Mak will get the information to each of the branch presidents this week so we can start getting applications for the pilot.

Mary and I spent part of the time in the office preparing for our  English classes. I found a good activity and thought of another. I am trying to find ideas that the children will enjoy doing while they learn.

I gave Sam some money – a whole $1 – so he could buy our lunch. I am eating off the street every other day. Each day is a kind of adventure because I am never quite sure what will show up. There is always the basic white rice and potatoes but the vegetables seem to change. Today I also got a crisp cracker like item that was not bad – it turned out to be fried tofu. The one thing I am not big on is a leafy vegetable that is something like lettuce. It is stringy and almost tasteless. But I just push this aside and keep eating.

We went to the mission home and picked up lots of mail – all for Mary and the elders. We also got our tickets for our trip to Semarang on Saturday. We also picked up some things for the Bennetts that we will take with us. Actually we will be taking a lot of things with us – heavy things – but should come back empty.

I stopped in and talked to Elder Subandriyo about the English class and employment in general. He wants me to become more pro-active in getting information about the employment needs of the district. While I am interested in getting things moving, I am somewhat hesitant to push very hard. I would rather teach those who should be getting the information to do it so that it is not my program but their program.

However I am afraid Elder Subandriyo is correct in that the Indonesian saints carry too much cultural burden that needs to be overcome to do it gradually. They may need a shock. I am thinking that I will try my way for three months and if nothing has changed to a more direct way. He suggests I go into each branch and get the information by talking to each member directly and get the information about their work or need for work.

From there we headed for Tangerang – we were going to stop and give a couple of Kitab Mormon to Sister Paulina but Sam had taken them out of the car. We did not find this out until we were well on the way there so we will have to do this next week instead. Due to this change in plans we were an hour early for the district meeting. To kill some time we went to a mall and got ice cream from A&W. Mary looked at a number of places to find some tennis shoes to wear but found nothing in her size.

I almost forgot. The clothes Mary was having made were delivered today. 2 blouses, 2 skirts and a dress. They look great and the total cost of making them was $30.

District meeting started late because Elder Wight – the new DL and former AP – was late getting to the church. My guess is that he and his companion were busy working. Elder Wight is going to make a difference in Tangerang. He is going to show them how to be successful. I believe the president was really inspired to send him there. However losing Elder Roper and Elder Thiemann will make it harder for us in our English classes because Elder Roper was so enthusiastic. Also the meeting was completely in Indonesian and we could only understand what was written on the board.

But I could feel the difference in the meeting. Elder Wight was very positive and I believe that he and his companion made something like 30 contacts in one day. Since the elders have been struggling to make 10 a day that is great. He also had them practice giving a short message and then asking for referrals.

English class went well – all of my students came up and gave the first article of faith. Later we learned that two of them learned it all by themselves because their parents do not speak any English. They are rather quiet children but slowly I think I am drawing them out. I have learned not to push much. So I ask and if they do not want to participate I let it go after a slight encouragement. Luckily I had enough treats to reward all of them.

When it came time to start the lesson, I found that I had not brought in one of the main activities. I am not sure where I put it. However I was saved by the activity I had planned. I taught them on, under, in front of, behind, and along side by asking them to do place an eraser on, etc. a chair.
This was a great success because everyone could take part and I could help the little ones. I also introduced the 2nd article of faith in English. Next week I will bring a printed copy for each student and they can take them home and learn them.

The trip home was like a picnic – that is we share the food that was left over from lunch. It also went quite fast. In fact we got home soon enough that we could watch ‘Without a Trace.’ Unfortunately it was an old re-run that we had already seen. But we watched anyways. Both of us were too tired to read from the Kitab Mormon before going to bed. We had used up our daily allocation of thinking.

Sesuai Dengan – Seh-sue-eye Dung-un – This is used a lot in the Kitab Mormon and means ‘according to’ – Sesuai means to fit or to compatible with. Dengan means – among many other things – with. So you get ‘fits with.’

I hope you are all learning these words – a test will be given when we get home.

18 April 2007 – Wednesday

I am once again waking before 5 a.m. – this morning I did four laps of the track. I am working up one lap a day. I could walk 20 laps but running half of each lap takes it out of me rather quickly. Today I was surprised that my legs felt tired. Usually I want to stop because my breathing becomes difficult. I guess my age is packing up with me.

For personal study, I spent some time reading from the first of the Kitab Mormon. I can read most of it directly but there are still some words that do not register. Some I can figure out by context but for the others there is the translator. After breakfast and reading the Jakarta Post, we read from the Kitab Mormon for an hour. We are still only doing 2 pages an hour, but we are spending more time discussing the Indonesian word choices.

Yesterday Mary mentioned to sister Penny that we were reading the Kitab Mormon and that there were some sections that did not translate back to the English very well. Sister Penny said that when her husband read the Kitab Mormon he sometimes crossed out whole verses because they do not make any sense to him. I would guess that 2 Nephi had a lot of cross outs. I do not know if I mentioned this but there has been a new – and more accurate – Indonesian translation of The Book of Mormon sitting in Salt Lake waiting for approval by the Correlation Committee since 1998.

Normal day at the office – no one came in. I did send a job opening I thought might work for one of the few people I know is looking for a job. He is certainly qualified for the job but unfortunately he is over 50 which makes it very difficult. I spent the rest of the time working on the PEF and English programs. Sam called our Lost Sheep list and got in contact with one or two more. There seems to be 3 or 4 that we will not be able to contact from here until we get their current address or telephone numbers. One is here in the Jakarta area and two are in the area we will visit on Saturday. We could do this job without Sam.

We came home and both took a nap before heading back to the church to meet with the district leadership. I did not realize that it would be with the whole district council so I had to hurry and make more copies to hand out. Mary decided she did not need to go with me so she stayed in the office and worked.

I had the opportunity to be there when two new council members were set apart. As the first setting apart started I could feel the power and authority fill the room. It was very strong and I felt privileged to be part of this – even if I could not understand a word. After that I presented the English program and for the next hour they discussed the program, asked questions and agreed to translate the instructions for recommend a student and send it out to the branch presidents with their blessings. I feel they want it to succeed because they know how important it is to their youth.

When we got home we read from Kitab Mormon – we managed to read and translate 3 ½ pages in the hour. That is about as much as we have ever been able to do in an hour. There were a number of verses that we did not need to look up any words and many more where there were only one or two words we did not know.

Belajar – Ba-lah-jar – To study – to learn. This comes up regularly in our prayers as we give thanks for the opportunity to study and ask for help in learning Bahasa Indonesian.

17 April 2007 – Tuesday

I woke too early today and almost convinced myself that I should not go down and exercise. I ended up compromising by going down but only doing four laps around the track. It was very hot even at 5 a.m. It gave me another excuse for not doing more. But at least I did something which is better than just curling up in bed and trying to go back to sleep.

We got a wonderful letter from Cindy – it is one of the highlights of our day to get a good newsy letter from one of our children or grandchildren. I can remember how important it was to get a letter from them while they were on their mission, but I did not really understand how it was important for them to get one from us. It was also good to hear that she had read our blog and had some questions. I immediately answered her letter. I also finished the weekend journal and posted them on the blog. I still owe Bob a letter and will either do that at the office or tonight.

We read the Kitab Mormon and was just finishing when Elder Bulpitt called from Hong Kong to get some information about what we have been doing with the ‘lost sheep.’ I think he is happy to have something positive to report about them after so many months of nothing. It reminded me that we need to move to the next step on those we could not contact. We also need to update those who have been paying and if they have made four payments in a row move their status to current.

Busy day for us at the office. I spent almost all the time on trying to work out details about the Intensive English Class that we are going to start on June 1 – or at least that is our hope. Today I suggested to Elder Subandriyo that we send out the letter to the branch presidents over his signature but he came back with a question about his authority to do this and suggested we get the district president on board. So he sent the program to President Mac and now we need to get a meeting set up with the district presidency to get their approval and hopefully their blessing to send out the announcement with their signatures. My guess is that the program that was supposed to start on May 10 and now June 1 will be postponed to either June 15 or July 1.  I would not mind more time to prepare so it does not matter to me – I just would like to try the pilot to see if it will work at all.

Mary worked on the ‘Lost Sheep” program. We are going to give the district specialists a list of those who we can not contact ourselves and ask them to find them and get a contact number. Luckily for us most of them are in our district or in the central district which both have good district specialists. Also there are good couples to work with in both of these areas.

I sent Bob an answer to his letter – unfortunately I did not read the last paragraph of his letter so I asked him some questions that he had already answered. I do not know why I missed that section but I will just blame it on my age and poor eyesight. Speaking of poor eyesight, I am afraid that mine is getting worse. Now I am no longer to read signs at a distance – something I have always been able to do in the past. I am sure that some day it will reach a point where I will no long be able to function without tri-focal glasses. That is a humbling thought – as is growing older in general.

Sister Penny from Jakarta Raya came by to practice with Mary. She is singing in sacrament meeting on Sunday. It has been a long time since we have been at Raya.

On the way home we stopped to buy birthday cards for all the grandchildren. To get to the bookstore took a long time because it is in one of those places that you can not get to from the office except by making a big loop that is at least four times as far as the actual distance from the office. It is one of those wonderful Jakarta problems. Getting back to the apartment took hardly any time at all because we were going the right way and did not have to cross any major streets.

In the evening I received a call from an elder in Bogor who had an investigator who needed a job. It is a familiar story – an older man who can not find a job. I am assuming that he does not have a lot of education and does not speak much English. This makes it very difficult to find a position for him. However I feel that one of the reasons we were sent here was to find some kind of solution to this problem. I have no idea what it may be but the spirit keeps telling me that there is one.  It is humbling to know that the Lord has something for you to do but it is up to you to find out what and how to accomplish it. I think I feel somewhat like Nephi when he heard his father tell him that the Lord wanted he and his brothers to go get the brass plates. I am encouraged by his answer to that command for I have found that it is indeed true. I am only limited by my own willingness to do what is necessary to succeed.

It has been a good and productive day.

Baik – “Bike” – it means good. It is the automatic answer that you get when you ask ‘How are you.’  Which reminds me of the time Cliff Thompson when asked that question said – “I am feeling terrible” and was not surprised when people automatically answered ‘thats good.’

16 April 2007 – Monday

Today was probably one of the quietest days we have had since we came to Indonesia. I got up at a few minutes after 5 and went out and ran and walked the track for 40 minutes. I ran into my friend Bob who works for the embassy. He is an interesting person and it easy to get him to talk about himself. I think I have already mentioned that he works in a program that tries to stop moving humans into slavery or prostitution.

We cleaned up the apartment so the cleaning lady could clean. We read from the Kitab Mormon – we hit the section in Mosiah where Abinadi quotes from the 10 commandments so a few verses went pretty fast. Unfortunately soon after that he starts quoting Isaiah and that of course goes slow. But even there we are able to get more and more of all but the most poetic images.

I re-planted some of the ones we bought on Monday. The potting soil they sell here is certainly different from that which I buy in Utah. But it looked more like soil than what the plants came in so I hope that they will like it.

I also wrote up the last two days in my journal and posted them on the blog. I also wrote our report to the president. Mary leaves all of this to me. I do not mind doing it but I think it would be good if she put down some of her feelings and experiences from the mission.

Another Monday with no Skype from any of the children – we really miss that. Hopefully someday we will get it across to them that if they are not going to send e-mail each week than they really need to get on Skype. After all with 5 children and a dozen grandchildren we would think that we would get one or two letters each week. I certainly tried to write them each week while they were on their missions.

Yesterday when I talked to Sam about when he should come today, I told him that we would go out at noon and I would call him if there was any change. I guess he meant that I would call him if we wanted to go out. About 12:20 I called him and he was on a bus heading to do something. I told him not to worry, go do his errand and then come to the apartment. We settled down to eat lunch and watch some TV. About 30 minutes later he showed up. He did not do his errand – he felt that driving us was more important. He is one of the most reliable drivers and works hard to keep us out of trouble and happy.

We went to SoGo and filled up with food and bakery goods for the next few days. I also had to get more cash – we used up a lot of it this week.

Once we were home we did very little. I tried to get interested in studying Indonesian but soon gave that up. I tried taking a nap and that did not work because I kept thinking about all the things I need to do in the coming weeks. I watched a little TV but that became boring and besides I felt guilty. All in all I have spent the last four hours trying to find something I enjoyed doing. I did manage to get the pictures reduced and sent to the VanDongens. But I did not do it alone. Mary downloaded the pictures from the camera and then found the reduced pictures when I lost them in the computer.  We finally found a movie on TV that we liked – it was the one where a group of soldiers deliver an elephant to a village. It is completely ridiculous but at least it was semi-entertaining.

We got some good news from Sam. He will help us make a CD to use at the couple’s conference. We will use it while we are talking about ourselves. It include picture of our family, our home, and maybe even some of my strange music. I do not think I will use any visual aids for my presentation about the employment program. Mainly I will l just tell them what I have learned and ask them to help in a number of ways.

Kesabaran – Kuh-sah-bar-an – patience; tolerance. As I have mentioned before this is an attribute that I have been working on. I am trying to learn to be patient with everyone as the Lord is patient with me and my shortcomings. It is the old mote and beam saying from the bible. I certainly try the Lords patience with my procrastination and my weaknesses. Therefore like the servant who asked the Lord to forgive his debt and then demanded another pay his debt to him or he would take him to law.  It is probably one of the hardest Christ-like attitude to develop – especially if for 60 years you have not been that way. A mission certainly reminds one of his weaknesses and of course her strength.

15 April 2007 – Sunday

District Conference continues with the main general meeting. For this the mission rents a large hall that will sit about 700 people. We picked up the Kanes and their luggage and got to the meeting by just after 9. We got to meet all the missionaries because they had formed a reception line. At 9:30 a district primary choirs started reciting and singing about the Articles of Faith. It was fun to see the young people who come to my English class on Thursday taking part. I tried to catch their eyes so I could smile at them, but no one was looking for me. I am sure I just look like any bulai – their name for any light skinned person. It is hard to tell one of us from another.

The meeting went from 10 to noon – the main speakers were Elder Jackson and President Jensen. My headphones went out before President Jackson spoke but I was able to follow some of what he was saying – I am encouraged that slowly I am starting to hear the Indonesian words. At least when they are spoken by those who are not natives. I am not sure I will ever be able to hear and understand the native speakers. The way the pronounce words is different from what I am storing in my memory. But at least I hope to reach a point where I can speak in church if I know what the lesson is about.

After the main meeting we thought we could go home but there was a special meeting called by Elder Jackson for all the new members from the last two years and we were invited to be part of it. I think it was a great idea for the newer members to be recognized and welcomed in by a leader that they looked up to. It was also good that Elder Jackson reminded the branch presidents that there was a need to give the new members a calling soon after they are baptized. Hopefully this will spur them to do this – it is not done now. After this meeting we bid the Kanes and VanDongens farewell and headed home.

The rest of the day was spent eating, napping, studying Indonesian, reading from the Kitab Mormon and watching TV.

14 April 2007 – Saturday

Tekun – Tuh-koon – Diligent; hardworking. The Indonesian people are surely hardworking and once they get started they are certainly diligent. But like all of us there are times when they are not diligent unless reminded and asked frequently. Which is why we held the branch employment specialist training meeting today. We have not been getting reports from any of the branches or districts. It appears that this has been the case for many months and no one has reminded them or asked for the reports. So they just stopped giving them – if they ever did give them. Now I have to be Tekun in asking the country director for them each month. I will start reminding him on the 25th and hopefully by the 5th we will have at least some from this District.

A long day but good day of meetings. After a normal morning – including reading Kitab Mormon – we went to the Harris Hotel and had breakfast with Elder Kane with Sister Kane joining us later. Sister Kane says we all eat too much – she is probably correct. We then all went to Zone Conference. Sister Jensen gave a great talk about our appearance as missionaries – how we were representatives of the Lord and should look it. She took as an example a very bad looking hymn book and said that does not represent the Lord’s church. That everything in the Lord’s church is done right and looks good.

Although there were a number of very useful points discussed in the Zone conference, it really is more for the young elders and sisters than for the couples. After that I had a meeting with the branch Employment Specialist. I was pleasantly surprised to find that 7 of the 8 made it to the meeting. Lukito went through their responsibilities and I finished up with a short talk – luckily most seemed to know English – about how they had important callings and the most important part of it was to provide the names of who needed jobs and any jobs that came up in their branches.

The next meeting of the day was District PH Leadership meeting – the first meeting of the District Conference. It was good. I especially enjoyed the talk of Elder Jackson a area 70 from India. He gave an excellent talk for PH Leadership that went through the leadership and explained their responsibilities. He also took them through the quarterly report that does not seem to get turned in by the branches so it would seem that it is made up at either the district or country level. It must be like the reports we are supposed to be getting but may never have been ever turned in.

The surprise of the meeting was that I was recruited to sing with the Jakarta Raya PH choir. I did not get any practice with them, in fact I did not even know they were going to sing. But Hendra said that I was part of the branch so I was invited to sing. I carefully put myself as far back as I could so it would not be so obvious that I could not follow all the tune. The first song was fairly slow so I did fine with it – in fact the whole choir did. However the closing hymn was much faster and I dropped out a number of times. But I was not the only one…the choir in general dropped off in quality. I am just happy that the branch sees me as part of them. I have passed sacrament, been to a service project, and now have sang in their choir. Hopefully as the months pass I will draw even closer to them.

The evening meeting was the first general meeting for District Conference. The best part of it was the choir from Bandung led by Elder VanDongen. They were at least 50 strong – which means 90% of the active members were in it – and the sisters were all wearing bright red jackets and the men had bright red ties. When the VanDongens went to Bandung there was no choir and about 25 people came out to church. So their work was quite evident. It is the kind of work that only couples can do so that is why it is so important that couples who are financially and physically able need to plan to go on missions while they can. I turned off the flash and took pictures of the choir singing. When I showed them to elder VanDongen he was thrilled. I promised to send them to him via e-mail.
While we were in PH meeting the sisters had a RS meeting so they did not get to go shopping as they had hoped. The couples are requested to go to all the meetings and now I am glad I did. One thing I did was to take off the headphones – they translate into either English or Indonesian depending on who is speaking – and just listen to the Indonesian speakers. I need to get use to hearing the speakers so I can pick out words.

After all the meetings the senior couples went out to eat at a Chinese restaurant that has been recommended by both Rudy and Subandriyo. Sam dropped us off and made sure we had a place to sit before leaving. I gave him enough to have a very good dinner somewhere. When we opened the menu we found that it was all in Indonesian and for the most part we had no idea what it said. Much to our relief the Chinese family sharing the table with us – it was a row of connected tables with people just sitting in groups along them – spoke perfect English and was more than willing to explain the menu for us. Mary I ended up choosing the dishes – we were closest to them – and luckily everything turned out great. The total cost of the meal with tip was only about $25 for 6 people. The Chinese family explained that the food and restaurant was traditional Chinese – so traditional that none of the staff spoke enough English to help us with the menu.

So we ended the night having a good meal and good company. We took the Petersons back to their home – they had let their driver go home – and then the Kanes at the Harris Hotel. By the time we got home it was 9:30 – 13 hours after we had left.

13 April 2007 – Friday

Well we made it through the day without any problems – at least not so far.

We were up and out a little early today because we went with the elders and sisters from the zone to see Taman Mini which is rather like the Polynesian Visitor Center. The difference is that while they have representative buildings from all parts of Indonesia, there is not the people in native dress to tell you about the people and culture. We were going to go in the bus with the missionaries, but Sam told us that it was very big and if we did not take the car we would have to walk everywhere. So it would be hot and sweaty and we would have no way to get home except with them. President Jensen said about the same thing so we decided to take the car.

Since the Petersons thought we were going in the bus they had told their driver to take the day off. When we told them about our decision we suggested they ride with us. So Sam drove their car – it is bigger – and off we went.

It is really an amazing place but it is much too big to see in the few hours we had. So we saw a couple of things, watched an I-Max movie on Indonesia, and had a large boa constrictor wrapped around out bodies. The trip was made better by having the Petersons and the Kanes with us. Hopefully we will have some time to sit down with the Kanes and have a good talk. I mentioned having dinner with them tomorrow night.

We took the Petersons back to the mission home and picked up our car. I had a nice talk with brother Tandiman about PEF and found that we could get a set of coupons from Hendra to send to the ‘lost sheep.’ We will send them reminders and try to contact them each month by phone or have the couples drop by.  Nothing new on the financial problem and we are stuck until that is fixed. On the positive side brother Tamdiman said that now that we have the whole thing on a DVD in Indonesian the Planning for Success workbook should not take long to finish.

We then went to the office to do a couple of things that could only be done there. I printed some things we need for the training meeting tomorrow and Mary made an announcement for the CW to be held in Samerang next weekend. The Bennetts had called and asked for something they could hand out on Sunday. They think they will have about 30 people there. That would be wonderful but it also means we need to take lot more workbooks and registration forms with us.

I forgot to mention that earlier Sister Jensen said the Bennetts are doing great. The elder report that they walk down the street and talk to everyone and tell them about the church. The elders just follow along behind and get names and addresses. I would guess the Roberts are going to be about the same kind of missionaries. There is a reason that they were sent to the area that is going to be the first stake in Indonesia.

We came home and ordered pizza – our traditional weekend treat.

I forgot to write on Tuesday that we had a great missionary experience. We were sitting in the office when the phone rang and the person answering tried to talk to me. I realized he did not have enough English and I certainly did not have enough Indonesian so I got Sam. It turned out he had just moved here from Surabaya. He had been taught there but when he said he wanted to be baptized he had some problems with friends and family. When he got to Jakarta he somehow got our number and called to say he wanted to get baptized. Sam got all his information and called the office elders to tell them to contact him. When we checked on Thursday the elders said it looked like he would be baptized. That is truly a golden contact.