07 October 2006

This was a busy weekend. Unfortunately little of it was spent studying Indonesian. At least I did not study much Indonesian. I did spend some time trying to memorize my testimony. It is one I wrote myself and Sister Tippets only had to make one correction.

Saturday I went to see my second BYU football game in all the years we have lived here. I went only because Steve Gibson, the second assistant in the HP group leadership, invited me to see the game from his sky box. I also got to bring Bob and Mike. The game was a blow out but I must say that I would go to more games if I could do it in that comfort.

When we got home, Bob and Mike’s family was there. Some were watching a movie on TV and others were working on a puzzle. Tyler was glued to the computer. I think he gets more time on the computer while he is here than he gets in a week at home. Later we were joined by Daniel and Becky and then Tamara and Andy. So we had a big group for tacos.

After dinner we had a really short birthday party for Bob and Cindy — a month late for Cindy. Soon after that the Mitchells said goodbye and not too long after that everyone else disappeared down the driveway. Mary and I then cleaned up the kitchen and settled in to watch some TV.

It was a nice busy Saturday.

08 October 2006

It was a busier than normal Sunday. At least I did not need to get up to go to a 7:00 am meeting. When I went out to get the papers, I saw the light was on in the Jimmy and the garage door was down. Then I saw the door was open on both cars. When I looked inside the glove compartments were open and obviously had been rifled. I assumed that it was kids or a junky looking for something to steal. But then I noticed that a camera – the old one – was still on the back seat and a boombox was still sitting near the car. I was angry and disturbed but since nothing seemed to be taken I did not call the police.

I spent part of the morning going over some vocabulary and my testimony. Mary has been taking parts of the Book of Mormon and putting Indonesian translations under the English. At least this way we will know some scriptures and it is a good way to learn how the language goes together.

On the way to church we saw lots of police cars and some crime scene tape stretched across Navajo just outside the ward boundaries. We wondered what was going on but did not have time to stop and find out.

All the meetings went well. I participated in both PH and Sunday School. I enjoyed both Brother Barnes and Sister Griffith’s teaching. I bore my testimony in Sacrament. The first time I have done that in years. I felt the spirit as I testified of Christ’s atonement and the First Vision.

After breaking my fast I took a nice nap. By the time I woke up it was time to go to the church to hold some PPIs. Brother Hardin stood me up and so did Mark Wendeboe. But since Mark was last I headed over to his house and we had it there. While at the house I found out that there had been some excitement during the early morning and explained the open car doors and the police on Navajo this morning.

This article from the Daily Herald explains what we slept through. I am sure that the man was searching the cars to find hidden keys so he could steal one of them.

Police: Shots fired after attempt to run them down

Police fired gunshots at a suspect early Sunday morning in Provo after he allegedly tried to run them down in a stolen SUV.

Officers were dispatched to northeast Provo at 1:36 a.m. after calls came in of a suspicious person breaking into cars, said Provo police Capt. Rick Healey.

While a Provo police officer and Utah County deputy were searching the area, they heard a crash and responded to approximately 3100 N. Navajo Lane. Healey said the suspect was behind the wheel of a stolen Cadillac when he for an unknown reason struck two cars parked on the street.

“He got out of the car, went down about three or four houses and found another car he could steal,” Healey said.

The officers shouted for the suspect, 22-year-old Adam Gordon Norton of Provo, to stop the SUV but instead he accelerated.

“He wouldn’t stop. He drove the car at them while they were on foot,” Healey said. “So they started firing at him to protect themselves.”

From there police say Norton traveled north where he crashed through a fence near East Lawn Memorial Hills Cemetery. Other officers attempted to stop him but he accessed some dirt roads and continued to ascend into a ridge area above Provo’s foothills.

“It was too dangerous for officers to follow him,” Healey said.

Norton’s luck ran out when he crashed the stolen SUV on one of the roads and officers could see the vehicle’s headlights from below, Healey said.

Police then approached the vehicle where they found Norton still inside and transported him to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo for “what appeared to be a gunshot would to the arm,” Healey said.

A blood test was administered to Norton to determine if he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

“There’s evidence he may be under the influence of something,” Healey said.

Still clad in a hospital gown in a jail photo, Norton was booked into the Utah County Jail Sunday on pending aggravated assault of a police officer, vehicle theft, vehicle burglary, DUI alcohol-serious damage and related charges, according to jail records.

Healey would not say how many rounds were fired at Norton by the two officers but that a police investigative board is looking into the incident.

According to court documents, Norton has been arrested 12 times since 2002 including an arrest for assault on a police officer and a medical worker in 2003. Charges were never filed in that case.

In the evening brother Dahl and brother Wilcox of the High Council came over to meet with Mary so they could understand what she does. They needed to know so they could call someone to replace her as Stake Extraction Specialist. By the time they were done they realized they would need to call two or three people to replace her. Brother Wilcox jokingly asked how we could get our mission postponed. Hopefully they will soon get someone called so Mary can train them before we have to leave.

We ended our busy and spiritual Sunday by watching our favorite TV program The Amazing Race and a couple of others. I am sure that we will have many busy days like this on our mission.

05 October 2006 -When we put in our papers for a mission we did not specify where we would like to go. However in my mind I was hoping that we would not get called to somewhere that was hot, humid and I had to learn a language. When we opened the package from the Church and Mary read that we were going to Jakarta, I realized that Lord had decided that I needed to learn humility.

Soon after finding out where we were going, I started looking on the net for information about our mission area. The first really good news I found was that the language used the Roman alphabet and was basically phonetic. This meant I would not have to figure out what a bunch of unfamiliar scribbles meant, nor would I have to learn how to sing a language.

Now after three weeks of working with Bahasa Indonesian, I have come to know that my inability to learn French while in high school was not a fluke.

 My main problem is that I can not keep the vocabulary or grammar rules in my head. Which makes it hard to say anything. Add to that a problem with saying the word correctly and language lessons become frustrating.

 It got to a point on Monday that I was ready to give up. But instead I just decided that there was no way I could keep up with Mary so I would just go along at my own slow pace and hope that she learned it well enough to be our interpreter. We talked about it and she is going to learn as fast as she can and in our daily language study she will help me.

On Tuesday as I was praying about the mission and my problem with learning the language I would have to lean on Mary’s language skills to get us through until I learned the language. I realized it was probably the first time I had to rely on her to achieve anything in the church and that it was a good idea. She has always had to rely on my Priesthood and even had to give up being RIII relief society president – which she greatly loved – when I became bishop. Once I came to that position I could more or less relax – lessons with our tutor is still frustrating – and just do my best.

Thanks to Jim we will have a nice mission blog to post to each day or so. I look forward to seeing lots of comments and of course pictures from everyone while we are gone.

Speaking of pictures we just bought a new camera so we can take a lot of photos of Indonesia. What I like about this Casio is how easy it is to use and understand. Without even starting to read the manual – 247 pages on line – I was able to figure out how to use most of the features.

 Mom and I get two hours a week with a tutor at the MTC. Mary is doing much better at remembering vocabulary and speaking. I am doing my best and then asking the Lord to fill in the rest.

We got a packet of information about the mission from President Jensen. One thing it mentions is that public transportation may not be the best way for senior missionaries to travel. We may end up buying a car, paying insurance, and then needing to hire a driver because it seems that driving in Indonesia is rather difficult. I do not think we will know more until we get there.

Today we heard from another couple who will be going to the same mission but a month earlier. We shared information about available language aids,etc. that we have found useful. There may be as many as 8 couples in the mission plus more on humanitarian missions. The mission only has about 70 young missionaries. This is because there must be a native – or someone who looks like a native – Indonesian with each young Elder or Sister from outside Indonesia. This greatly limits the number of young missionaries we can send there.

Missionaries can not go tracting but they can do street displays and contacting. Also it seems that missionaries must be very careful when it comes to teaching Muslims. You can not give a Book of Mormon or a tract to any Muslim unless they specifically ask for it.

 But with the Lord’s help the Church will grow and develop in Indonesia.

From Jim: By the way a larger Pierfamily.com site is under development at http://www.pierfamily.com/joomla. Another site I am working on is our troop web site at http://www.troop570.com.