11 March 2007 – Sunday

The alarm went off at 5 but I did not crawl out of bed until after 5:30. We have to get moving because we need to leave by 7:15.

I must confess that I was not looking forward to 5 hours of church meetings. However I had a very good time. We went to sacrament and part of SS at Tangerang 1. I did not get much out of first sacrament meeting because I could not hear very well. But they had the primary sing and that was special. I felt sorry for the missionaries because they did not have any investigators show up.

Tangerang 2 meetings were great. It is a vibrant branch with a lot of PH. The branch president is much like I was when I was bishop. That is he gets right in and is part of his branch. He goes to SS and to PH and participates. He smiles a lot. We were asked to speak in Sacrament in two weeks – they will give us the theme.

I actually look forward to doing this in Indonesian. Since the elders had two investigators, we went to Gospel Principles. The lesson was on the fall and Elder Roper was the teacher. I love Elder Roper – he is very spiritual and yet he always is smiling and enthusiastic – I will really miss him when he is transferred. At the end of the meeting I pointed out that Eve had to choose between two goods – something we are often faced with.

After the GP meeting I mentioned to the branch mission leader that I had that calling until about 4 months before we came on our mission. He asked me if I had any words of wisdom for him. I challenged him to have the branch give a minimum of 10 referrals to the missionaries each month. I promised him if they would do that, then they would have at least on baptism each month. I think he took up the challenge – we will see if it works. PH was lively – I contributed a couple of points and Elder Roper and I shared favorite scriptures on prayer.

I continue to try and learn Indonesian by reading from Gospel Principles – I am working on the section about prayer – and reading Kitab Mormon with Mary. Today we got back into the Isaiah verses. I have decided that he got paid by the word and that is why instead of just saying that Jerusalem and all it’s people would be destroyed, he went into great allegorical detail about what was going to happen to the Daughters of Zion. On most of the verses we did not even come close. I am ready to just skip them but Mary reminded me that in the last WW Leadership meeting Elder Packer said that we needed to read all of 2nd Nephi. So we have decided to read the next 20 pages in English.

We decided to prepare beef stroganoff for dinner and that project turned into a comedy of errors. First we could not find the stroganoff mix that we knew we had bought. When we found that I put the water into the wrong part of the rice cooker and then realized that I had not washed the rice. Here in Indonesia you must wash the rice twice to get out the dust and other stuff. I learned this from Elder Subandriyo during our service project. After getting all this done and having everything ready to go, Mary discovered we are out of fuel for the stove. End of cooking stroganoff. (A note here – as I was typing this, I realized that the Leishmann’s kept an extra tank of fuel in the storage room. So we could have had stroganoff. At least we could have if I did not blow up the apartment changing the tanks. Tomorrow the fuel and water man – we are also on our last 5 gallons of clean water – will take care of all of this.) I had tomato soup and toast for dinner. Mary is still figuring out what she will have.

Looking back it was a good Sunday.  The highlight was the men choir that sang during sacrament in T2. I chickened out and did not join them but sat and enjoyed their singing. As I looked over that small group of humble PH holders standing shoulder to shoulder, the spirit touched me. These are the men – young and old – that will someday see Indonesia a fruitful place for missionary work. Some will live to see a temple built here. The strength of the Lord’s church is in the hearts and hands of these people. It is wonderful to be able to add even a little to the growth of the Kingdom through our missionary work.

10 March 2007 – Saturday

The alarm woke me at 5 and fifteen minutes later I was out on the track. I did a couple of miles – it is getting easier to do the jogging half. There was no wind so it was already hot out.

I have been trying to work a little harder at learning vocabulary. Something I have been lax in lately because I thought I would absorb more from our reading. I watched the Indonesian news channel and tried to read the banner and find that I know a few more words and I still can not work out what it is saying – but I am coming closer. I do not even try to understand what is being said. My hope is that by the end of 6 months I can at least understand most of what the newer elders and sisters say – they speak slow enough that I can usually make out the words. All of this is good practice of the attribute of patience.

We read chapter 11 and Mary was able to translate most of it. I am still around 50 – 60% but she can normally get about 85-90% of the words. That does not mean we get the right English translation but we can usually get somewhere in the ballpark.

I just read the Kane’s weekly report and they a much different life than we do here in Jakarta. They have a very active social life with the various NGOs, members, and neighbors. I would not say I was jealous as much as I am sorry we will not have those experiences.

We took a taxi to the office and then spent 5 hours reading, writing e-mail, and listening to the WW Leadership Training Meeting and various conference talks. No one came in but we are not sure that it has been announced that we would be open on Saturday. If over the next two months we do not start getting some action we will try something else. Just as we got to the street and was looking for a taxi, Sam showed up and kept us company until one stopped. The driver was tried hard to hold a conversation with us but his English was even more limited than our Indonesian so we did not do well. However he was so much more fun than most drivers I gave him a 50% tip – that is it cost us $2.00 instead of only $1.

One of the things I did do while at the office was to write what I wanted to accomplish before we left. Mainly it was to set up programs that would bring in information about needs and resources that could continue after we left. My aim is to develop a successful system that is supported by the PH leaders.

It was good to get back to the apartment and relax. I took a nap that was rudely interrupted by the phone ringing. It turned out the music program that Mary thought was this week and then decided it was next week, was this week. So she got dressed and Sam came to pick her up. This means I can not leave the apartment to do out and enjoy the bright sun that is now out. I do not know how long she will be gone – I plan to spend most of the time studying Indonesian.

We just got this month’s Couple’s Newsletter and it is great fun to read what others are doing. We have yet to contribute to the Newsletter but I am going to make sure we do for the next one. As I have mentioned before the missionaries in the far away small branches are having a different experience than ourselves. One is even on the district council – I did not know we could be. Since he does not speak Indonesian it must be interesting for him to attend the district meetings. I imagine they provide an interpreter for him.

We got a call from sister Kane. She had her purse stolen out of her shopping cart. I think that they have become comfortable among the people and have forgotten that it can be a dangerous place if you take your safety for granted. I told Mary this was why I always tell her to put her purse strap across her body and not just over a shoulder. I hope the Kanes did not lose anything more important than some money and credit cards. They had called us to ask if we would call and report the cards stolen but when we did not answer she called the Petersens.

We spent a quiet evening at home – as we always do – eating Pizza Hut, watching a little TV, and reading another chapter of 2nd Nephi – Feasting on the words of Isaiah or at least trying to. There is a lot of new words in almost every verse – allegorical mainly – which are almost impossible to translate into Indonesia. Mary mentioned that since some of the verses do not make complete sense in English it is not strange that the translators were at a lost to know how to make the translation. Sometimes they are very literal and sometimes they just use what they think fits.

09 March 2007 – Friday

I did not wake until 6 so no exercising this morning. Normal morning with us finally finishing chapter 9 in 2nd Nephi. I spent a good part of my morning writing up a proposal paper to go along with the Employment Resource Survey I had developed a couple of days ago. Elder Subandriyo needed to show to Elder Anderson of the Area Presidency.

We did not go into the office but went straight to the mission home and had a good District Meeting with Jakarta Raya. The zone leaders were working with them so it was a party of 8 instead of the usual 6. Elder Tuutau was leaving for home and we got to say goodbye and have a picture taken. He is going to be an asset wherever he is. After the meeting I took everyone down to BYU and treated them for lunch – the total came out to just under $7. I really enjoy the food at BYU and Mary at least likes it.

After lunch we headed off to the main postoffice to see if we could get our lost package that was being held up because that dangerous drug Benadryl was in the box. What we experienced was our first hands on taste of bribery in Indonesia. We were informed that for 200,000R the usual testing could be waved – of course no receipt would be given for this service. This was in addition to the 126,000R custom fee – for which we would get a receipt. So after about an hour – that seemed like all day – and the paying of about $40 – we got our package. One thing I must say about bribery in Indonesia – it is very well organized and efficient.

Another interesting thing is all the documentation, stamps and signatures that must go on any official documents. I think that there were four stamps, three signatures, and copies of Mary’s kita and passport attached to the paperwork.

The rest of the day was pretty mellow. We got home and Mary took a nap while I answered the rest of Shane’s questions. Then we had a very light dinner, read 2nd Nephi, chapter 10, watched some TV, took one of our very expensive Benadryl tablets and went to bed.

06 March 2007 – Tuesday

Back to the 4 a.m. waking. By 5:15 I was so antsy that I went out and walked/jogged the track for a couple of miles. Went to the gym but after doing sit-ups and a few minutes on the bike I left. I think in the future I am just going to use the track. For some reason that does not bore me like the treadmill or bike.

Had nice conversations with Bob and Cindy on Skype. Was sorry to hear that Mike got run over by a snow boarder and is hurting all over. That can not be fun at all. Thankfully there is nothing broken and hopefully he will be feeling better soon.

Read another chapter from 2nd Nephi. Other than it gives us a chance to read Indonesian, I do not think we get much from this reading. The struggle to try and understand what is being said, rather takes away the spirit. But hopefully by the end of our mission or sooner we will be able to read it and understand the spirit as well as the words.

I got a call from President Jensen who was checking that we were home. He said that the news had just come on that a Garuda flight to Yogokarta had just crashed and he knew that we were scheduled to go there sometime soon. Actually we had decided not to go but if we were going it would be this coming Saturday and it would be on the same flight that crashed. Our friend Agus will be on that flight. We do have a member of one of the branches who is a stewardess for Garuda and I hope she is not on it.

The rest of the day went pretty much as normal. We spent the time at the office working on English, trying to send reports to Hong Kong – the key word here is trying, and other things that seem to fill our day. No one came in for job help.

I mentioned the lack of people coming in to Elder Petersen and he did not seem surprised. I think that Elder Leishman was being a little generous when he said 4 or 5 people came in each week – I think 4 or 5 a month would be more like it.

After office hours we went to Carrefour and got some office supplies, some food and a white shirt for me. It cost $4 and from what I can tell it should last at least 2 months. I almost bought the $6 shirt but it had a button-down collar. I think I will need to go to a little better mall to get a nice shirt.

We came home for an hour before returning for our meeting with Agus and Lukito. The meeting went well and hopefully we will see things start to move so that we will have a better handle on sources for jobs, good schools, and who needs work in the next few months. We need to train the district leaders to have success. I am not worried about the Solo section and I think we can get Lukito to get things done in the Jakarta area, but I do not know about East. He is very busy with lots of callings and business – we will just have to see what happens.

Once we got home we did not have a very productive evening. At least not mission or language wise. We did not read from the Kitab Mormon and I only did a little studying.

05 March 2007 – Monday

Our weekend of semi-leisure continues and it does feel strange. Right now I am listening to BBC 3 and a new music program. If I was at home in Utah I might be doing the same thing. However there are also a number of differences. I have just stopped studying 1st Nephi. During the district meeting with the Jakarta Raya missionaries we were challenged to choose one thing out of a list that we made of suggestions of how to increase our being open to the spirit. I choose to read, study and ponder the scriptures. I decided to start re-reading the Book of Mormon a book at a time – spending as much time as I feel necessary to really get to know it.

I slept in until almost 6 and started to use that as a reason not to go to the gym. But I quickly repented because being obedient to mission rules is another way I am trying to become a better missionary. So it was out to the track and then the gym. Not for a long time but enough to work up a good sweat.

We read another chapter from 2nd Nephi. We are into the Isaiah sections and I can not say that I am really excited because there are many words and phrases that just do not translate well into Indonesian and therefore we have a hard time going the other way. But we do learn some new words and with the Lord’s help we will make it through.

The cleaning woman comes and moves around the apartment like a ghost. In fact I forgot she was coming and it really surprised me when I looked up from the computer and she was working away not 10 feet from me. I asked Mary to learn her name and perhaps we can get to know her. Maybe the Lord has chosen her to work for us so she can hear the discussions. I might invite the sisters to come some morning when she is going to be here.

I tried to write a couple of articles but ran into a solid wall. Maybe later today. I did write our report to President Jensen. The first one since we got here. We are supposed to write each Monday but since we see him regularly I guess he has never pressed us to write. But it is good to do what is expected even if we do not really need to.

We had tuna sandwiches for lunch – the first time since we have been here. Tuna is inexpensive here and is much nicer than what we get at reasonable prices at home. We had it on very fresh bread – also inexpensive so we can buy it every other day. Unfortunately Pringles are not cheap – at least not in our little store but we indulged ourselves today.

I have an interesting call from the Giganet engineer. He comes up with all kinds of excuses but basically says that his service can not support Skype – especially not Skype with video. So I guess that we will need to stick to just voice. Also Tom and I found that if we both use headphones instead of speakers it works much better because the feedback does not take up bandwidth. I think I will get a splitter and another set of headphones so both Mary and I can listen at the same time. My conversation with the engineer seems to have had some effect because the latest speed test suggest that my d/l speed has tripled. I will check again later to see if it is holding.

Just looked at Pier Central and enjoyed looking at a 10 year review of Jim and Kristy’s life together. They are about to leave for a 10th anniversary cruise. May they be able to enjoy their 70th together.  It is hard to believe our 50th is just over 3 years away. I wonder where we will be at that time…maybe back here in Indonesia?

The weather today was full spectrum. The morning was full of sun and a few white clouds. Around 11 the winds took over big time and the clouds moved in. In the afternoon rain joined the wind and a true tropical rain storm raged for over an hour. As the sun set the wind and rain stopped and it was calm. As I write this the wind has started to again come up.

We read the Kitab Mormon for another hour and then watched The Amazing Race. A nice mixture of mission and home.

A letter from the Creers tells us they are heading for Ireland for their mission. I wonder where the Barretts are going to serve?

04 March 2007 – Sunday

Standard Sunday morning. We read the Kitab Mormon an hour earlier than a weekday because we need to be at church by 9. We are now moving through it fairly fast – at least for us. The day may come when we can read a whole chapter in one sitting.

The traffic is so light that we are among the first to arrive at the chapel. We get to greet all the PH leaders, members, etc. Testimony meeting is good because when they bear their testimony we can understand many of the words. President Kentjana of the mission presidency shares a strong but simple testimony. No extra stories, just the things he knows are true. Elder Decker gives us a synopsis of each one – that is just what we like. Mary and I smile at each other when the elders read the whole lesson in Gospel Principles. This is something we just talked about on Friday. I give one of the recent converts my extra pair of reading glasses – his mother and him were sharing a pair. He does not want to take it but I tell him that I brought many extras. In PH I really wished I could speak Indonesian. They discussed and shared testimonies. I finally bore part of mine in English. I probably could have come close in Indonesian but I chickened out. I shared the story of praying in the Sacred Grove and getting a testimony of the First Vison.

After church they had a baptism service for two sisters. They had a recent convert give a talk and she was so overcome with feelings that she went on and on until the branch president slipped her a note suggesting she should stop. I hope her feelings are not hurt because she is young and bright.

As we stood watching the baptism, I thought of how simple the ordinance is. How there is nothing showy about it – just a simple prayer by someone with authority and the immersion in water of the candidate. Simple but oh so powerful – opening the gate and setting the person’s feet on the path that leads to Eternal Life. A new birth – a new life – a new opportunity and it only takes a minute or less. From simple things….

As we waited for the new members to change their clothes, we went back to the chapel and sang. The young lady who played for sacrament needs to practice each song so Mary volunteered to play so that the members could choose their favorite songs. It was a big success. The Indonesian saints love to sing so they put a lot into each song.

We were home by 2:30 and after praying to end our fast we had omelets. I have spent the rest of the day mainly sleeping – my naps are much too long – and being on the computer. Mary took a short nap and then spent a long time creating some things for an English class the elders are going to teach. She also watched most of ‘Contact.’ She did not remember much about it so the twist at the end was new.

Our evening reading is chapter 5 of 2nd Nefi – we read the whole chapter which is a first for us. We are now reading two verses or more at a time. Mary can often pretty much translate it as we read. I can do parts but there are too many words that I don’t know to really get what is going on – at least most of the time. I have learned not to be frustrated – at least not to be too frustrated – at my progress. At least there is some progress.

03 March 2007 – Saturday

I woke up just before 5:30 and after a short discussion with myself, I headed for the gym. It is not open so I did three laps around the track – about 3/4 of a mile – until it does. Sit-ups, treadmill and then the bike for a short time – that is about all I can take. I know it is good for me but it is still boring.

When I get back to the apartment I wrote in my journal for yesterday and then posted it. I am sure that most of what I write is not really interesting to others. I always find it interesting to go back and read what I wrote a month or two ago – most of the time I have a hard time remembering why I wrote what I wrote.

We got another letter from Sister Roberts asking a question about tithing. It will be nice to meet them in a couple of weeks. She sounds really excited but I know nothing about him.

We have nothing to do today – our first real day off in a long time. We spend over an hour on reading the Kitab Mormon – we do well in general but can not get the nuances of what is being said. When we read the English we often realize we missed a key indicator of what is going on or when it is going on or who is doing the action. But we are doing much better in knowing basically what is being talked about.

The weather is typical Jakarta weather. Which why I seldom write about it. At this time of the year there are almost always clouds and the only difference is if they are dropping rain or not. Recently there has been a lot of wind and it goes on for hours. It is nice because it cools things down a bit and anything that does that is a bonus.

The only problem with our apartment that has not been solved is the lack of enough hot water so Mary can take a bath and I can take a shower. We finally had the engineer come by and we found that when they originally installed the hot water heater they put in a 30 liter tank instead of a 100 liter tank. Now that they know this it should be corrected but my guess is that it will take some time. At least we have some hot water until they do. This is another chance for me to practice patience.

The Petersens stopped by to drop off the baptism clothing that is needed at Jakarta Raya tomorrow. They are busy with helping the sister missionaries move today. They told about the Bakasi missionaries houses being flooded. One to about 4 ½ feet and the other to about a foot. It is another experience that they can write home about.

I was just telling Mary that this sitting around does not feel right. Even if we are studying Indonesian, having a whole day to ourselves does not feel right. It seems like we are wasting our time which is now the Lord’s time. A little later I am going to try writing a story about the making of Hygiene Kits. Maybe that will be OK.

Never got to the story – I do have Sunday and Monday to do that. I started to re-read 1st Nephi in English. I am going to try to read concentrate on getting to know just one book at a time. To go through and ponder the writing. To try and feel what is being, how it is being said, and why it is being said. To gain the spirit of the writing and to see what it means in my own life. I am hoping study as PMG suggests. That is to pray before starting, to read carefully, and to take notes. I will not write much about this in my journal. However the first thing that stood out as I started was how after hearing the prophets call the people of Jerusalem to repent, he went and prayed for them. Not for himself and not for his family, but for others. I thought of Enos who when he had his sins forgiven, immediately prayed to the Lord to bless the Lamanites. Also the sons of Mosiah after their conversion gave up everything – including becoming king – and went to preach to the Lamanites because they could not stand the thought that one of them should perish in unbelief.

In the evening we read from Kitab Mormon for another hour, watch some TV, and I work on vocabulary. I keep praying for my mind to absorb at least some of the things we read and study. It almost as if my mind is a hard disk that has reached 99% capacity and so anything I want to store takes a long time to find a place to be filed. Unfortunately it also seems that some word must be  erased when a new word is added. But I am trying hard to be patient and just let it come. I refuse to be discouraged – at least not for long.

02 March 2007 – Friday

Unfortunately I am back to the waking up before 5 schedule that I thought I had managed to break. It is not a bad thing because it means I am up in plenty of time to go to the gym. However I would prefer to sleep until the alarm goes off at 5:30. When I went down the gym was not open so I walks and jogged for a mile on the track. The temperature was still cool – at least for Jakarta – and so it was rather nice to exercise outside. After that I went to the gym, did some sit-ups and spent a little time on the bike before coming back to the apartment.

I spent much of the morning writing in this journal and then Mary and I read from Kitab Mormon. We read for well over an hour and I thought it went well. I am not sure how much my vocabulary is increasing and how much is because I know the story that is being told. But at least by continuing to read words are starting to be familiar enough that often I can read it without needing to stop and think about what the word means. However it is a long ways from reading it as Indonesian and not Indonesian that I translate into English.

We got a letter from sister Roberts and she told about Bob saying in a class that one of her relatives taught that his parents were in Indonesia. It is a small world. We look forward to meeting the Roberts in a few weeks. They have been re-assigned to Solo from Sumatra – it will be a completely different mission for them there. Sister Roberts sounds like a dynamo and I am sure she will do a great work in Solo. I also think they will be a great help in getting PEF going there.

We had a rather busy day and a quiet night. Sam picked us up and we went to the office to get the other computer. Hendra had called and asked us to bring it in so it’s software could be updated. From there we headed to Jakarta Raya where we met with the district. It was a good meeting where I gave the spiritual thought about the spirit. That lead right into elder Decker’s lesson about what we needed to do to have the spirit with us. It was a good discussion and everyone joined in.

Next up was a visit with our investigator. Mary and I felt that elder Decker should not try to teach about the apostasy because that could lead to a disagreement. But he really felt that he needed to and since he would be doing most of the talking we said OK. That was a mistake on our part – we should have been more positive in our suggestion.

The best part of the visit that Rudy told us of a spiritual experience that he had about 20 years ago. He was very ill and one night he saw a vision of the savior. As he told it he got goose-bumps and the spirit was very strong. He does not tell it often because he feels it is special. My telling of the experience in the sacred grove made him feel he could share it with us. I identified that feeling that he has when he tells the story to be the spirit. I hoped that elder Decker would build on that but he went back to trying to explain the apostasy. That only led to an intellectual discussion in which it seems Rudy could not believe that the Lord would give power to a young church when the Catholic church had been around for such a long time. I kept praying for the spirit to be there but it ended in a negative way.

As we drove the elders to the bus stop, elder Decker was unhappy with the way it went and I think he was blaming himself for not listening to us. I told him it was just a minor set back that he needed to be patient. We will give Rudy a chance to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. I think if we build on his own spiritual experience that after some time we can get him to honestly seek an answer through prayer. I just wish I knew enough Indonesian to join in.

We had to come back to the apartment to get some paperwork we needed to fax to the branches that should come to the Career Workshop in Yogyakarta next weekend. Mary had forgotten about them but Agus folowed up and so we got them off.

Dinner was KFC – it is just easier than cooking at the end of a day. We watched a movie on TV and then read the Kitab Mormon for another hour.

I am rather unhappy with myself this evening because I did not try harder to convince elder Decker about how to teach Rudy. The spirit told me what to do and what not to do but I did not follow it. Or at least I did not feel strongly enough about it to insist that is what we should do. I should have suggested that we pray about our visit. But what is past is past and now we must look to the future and perhaps it was a good thing. Maybe it was necessary for elder Decker to learn that he can not sell the gospel but needs to let the spirit do that. Or maybe I needed a lesson on following the spirit. I am sure that in the long run it can be an positive experience for us and for Rudy. Patience – I am being am being given many chances to learn to have more.

In the Kitab Mormon we are reading about the need for opposition in all things. What a powerful idea – that it is something that just exists for the whole universe to exist. Even for God to exist there has to be opposition. It is a prime law of existence. What we have control over is which side we choose to follow – what we hold to be important. The Gift of the Holy Ghost is our or should be our guiding light – as the 121st section of the D&C says it can be our ‘constant companion’ and if it is ‘the doctrines of the Priesthood will distill upon thy soul like the dews from Heaven.’ What a great promise.

God does live as does His Son Jesus Christ. Christ did bleed in the garden and take upon Him my sins so I could be free from Spiritual death. He did die on the cross and was resurrected so that all men could be free from Physical Death. Joseph Smith did see God and Jesus Christ in the grove and he was the instrument through which Christ church and His gospel was restored to the earth. I know this beyond a shadow of a doubt because I was in the grove and was told that it was true. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that when we read it we can feel the love of God for us. I know that Gordon B. Hinckley is God’s living prophet on the earth today. That he leads the Chruch through revelation from Jesus Christ. I know that the Priesthood is the power to act in God’s name. That through it’s power and ordinances we can prepare to return to the presence of God the Father and be an Eternal Family. I know Mary and I have been called by a prophet to serve here in Indonesia. To be a light to everyone we meet and to help the saints here grow in strength and knowledge. I know this because the spirit has told me personally that all of this is true and I share it in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

1 March 2007 – Thursday

After 4 a.m. I did not sleep much. I guess that 6 hours sleep each night is enough – NOT. Anyway I was up and at the gym at 5:45. I only did 50 sit-ups and about 15 minutes on the bike but at least it is a start back to exercising each morning. My weight has stayed about the same for the last month – I need to lose another 16 – 18 pounds by my birthday.

Normal morning except I had some time to be on the computer before it was time to read Kitab Mormon. I managed to talk a little to Bob – the connection was terrible. Later I found out why – or at least one reason. I was d/l a program and found that it was moving at 9 kbps and not the 2 mbps that is advertised. I called the GigaNet office and told them I was very unsatisfied. The engineer is supposed to call me sometime today. If they can not fix this I might as well go to dial-up. Anyway hopefully they will fix the problem and we will be able to Skype with both video and sound without any problems.

We spent most of our time at the office getting ready for English classes. I also responded to a couple of e-mails. It was the day for mechanical failures. The one computer still does not think it has a wireless card so could not get on line. A call to Hendra brought the suggestion that we bring it in to the office so he can look at it. Then one of the printers decided it really did not like the new ink cartridge I put in. I sent Sam to get some refilled but it still did not like it. So Sam had to go back again and get another one. I can not complain since they refill cartridges here for $3.50 each. Anyway the new one worked fine and so we were able to make all of our copies for the English classes.

We than went to the mission office where we dropped off the computer, a couple of bills, and a copy of the Career Outlook workbook to Elder Tandiman. He is now in charge of CES but before that he has been Mission President here.

The next stop was SoGo shopping center so Mary could get some things she had on her list but mainly for her to get what she called ‘a chocolate fix.’ At 2 p.m. SoGo is easy to shop because there is always parking places and it is never very busy. The only downer was that they were out of bottles for their fresh squeezed orange juice so I can not get any until Monday.

District Meeting with the Tangerang elders went well. We did have some excitement before the meeting. For some reason the air-conditioning failed and it was only after Sam called the church’s Physical Facilities man that he could figure out how to get it going again. The idea of being there without air-conditioning was not something I wanted to consider. We have a good relationship with the elders so we are able to participate in their meeting. I keep emphasizing the need for the spirit in their teaching. Mary suggested that they do not read the Gospel Principle lesson – that they come prepared to teach it and not just read it.

I got a call from Elder Subandriyo about the loan program I mentioned to him the other day. He looked into it and found that they loan up to $500 to established business so they can expand. Anyone can apply and he is going to write up something to explain the program to members. Hopefully some of them will be able to take advantage and increase their business and their income. This is especially important in SoLo where they need to increase the PH paying tithing so they can make it a stake. The Lord provided that article at just the right time.

English class also went well. The regular crew came to my class but Mary had a non-LDS man come. I am not sure how he found out about it but I did give the Elders more hand-outs so maybe it will continue to grow.

By the time we got home, I was exhausted. Getting up at 4 am make 8 pm a long time awake. Especially if we have been busy all day. I crashed on the couch and only woke up long enough to crawl into bed. It is good to be serving here and giving our time and talents to helping the Indonesian saints.

28 February 2007 – Wednesday

I was just looking at the traffic cams in SL valley. The snow looked beautiful and but foreign – here about the only thing that is sometimes white is a cloud and even that is not very often. Most clouds here are some shade of gray or black and full of rain. Anyway it was fun to look at home.

Another month is about to end – I am not sure where February went. It really seems like we have been here for much longer than two months and yet it also seems like we got here yesterday. I think we have pretty much adjusted to Jakarta and missionary life. This morning for breakfast I had cold pizza and a diet coke…seemed quite normal.

We neaten the apartment so that the maid – that sounds so upper class – could clean the floors and surfaces without moving half of our possessions. We have so many different things going on that we tend to spread out here even more than we did at home. This is fine except there are times when we are so spread out we can not find anything. Last night I wanted to read in ‘Book of Mormon Stories’ and could not find them anywhere. Finally I looked under the bed and there they were. I guess the mice wanted to read them.

We read from the Kitab Mormon. We are in 2nd Nephi and finished chapter 1. We did pretty good today – we only had trouble getting tenses (they usually are not provided so we must guess at them from context) and deciding how they are using words such as kebenaran which can be anything from rightousness to truthfulness with a few in-between. Even when we look up a word we are never sure that we get the right meaning because some words cover a wide range. There are words that can have completely opposite definitions – like meaning good or bad – and we must figure out which is meant. So far the record is 17 different meanings for one word.

I had a fairly busy day – at least up to 5. At work I sent off a lot of e-mails to different people. I am determined to find resources and schools. The Jakarta Post had an article on a government micro-loan program that almost no one has heard of. The article talked about the corruption involved as the people in charge gave loans to their relatives and friends. The money was not used to start of help their business and there was never any intention of paying back the loans. I asked Lukito to look into it for me. It sounds like a great thing for our small business people.