Jakarta has thousands of fast food restaurants. Besides KFC and A&W almost anywhere you look there are rows of small restaurants and food carts where you can stop and get a quick meal. The first picture is a very typical one where the motorcycle rider just pulled up and had a quick lunch. The second picture speaks for itself. Those are 100 kilo sacks of rice – about 220 pounds each – and notice the woman is riding sidesaddle so if the rice shifts she is going to disappear off the back of the bike.

20 March 2008 – Thursday

Studied a little Indonesian and then had a really good workout. The gym was very quiet – probably because it is Muslim holiday and people are either sleeping in or are away.

We read from the Kitab Mormon before heading off to the office so Mary could correct Elder Subandriyo’s revised talk. While she was doing that I worked on some English activities and answered e-mail. It was very quiet because everyone was gone and there was little we could do.

Mary was just finishing her corrections when Elder Subandriyo came to the office to pick up a copy so he could review it before sending it to Elder Packer for his thoughts. We figure if Elder Packer Oks it, whoever is supposed to read it to make sure it is doctrinally correct should find it OK also. While we were talking to him Elder S. told us about his wife Steffie who was visiting in Salt Lake and was freezing to death at her sister’s apartment. We told him that our daughter lived just a couple of blocks away and we would e-mail her and see if she had an extra portable heater that she could loan Sis Steffie while she was there.

After we were finished we came back to the apartment until it was time to leave for Tangerang and their District Meeting. For some reason we were both very tired so we managed to get a short nap in before Sam and Anne came back to pick us up. We then ran by the mission home to pick up any mail for us and the Tangerang elders. Since it was a holiday, the traffic was really light so we had time to drop by the office supply store in the mall before going to the chapel.

We had a really good District Meeting with elders Worwood, Cheney, Prause and Manullang. They have a few good investigators and are hoping to baptize at least two of them early on April 6th. We told them about our visit to the Manurung family and they told us that the father had come to church on Sunday – the first time in months. We felt very good about that and we will visit them again soon to re-enforce our visit. Elder Manullang taught a short lesson on preparing investigators for the baptism interview. I do not think we have studied this part of Preach My Gospel before because it is not something we have had to think about.

I shared my thought about President’s Eyring talk on prayer and how it caused me to change the what I pray for. I suggested that as missionaries we may need to concentrate on our investigators and inactives and not ourselves.

Since there was no English class and the traffic was light, we were back in the apartment before 7:00 – the earliest we have been home on a Thursday night for quite a while. It gave us plenty of time to have dinner – yummy leftover meatloaf sandwiches – read from the Kitab Mormon, and do some other things before it was time for bed. I read from the Liahona before turning off the light.

One of the things I did was to write to a sister who’s son has received his call to the Indonesian mission and will report to the MTC in July. I told her a little about the mission and said I would be happy to answer any questions she might have. Hopefully we have a lot of missionaries coming in the next few months including more couples and sisters.

As I look back through the day it reminds me that often we do not have any outstanding happen but that each day there is something that reminds us that we are engaged is a very special work and we are able to touch lives in ways that seem small at the time, but often grows into something we did not expect.

Brother Lukito is an example of what it means to be completely committed to doing the Lord’s work first. He is the District Employment Specialist for the Jakarta District and we have never asked him to do anything that he has not made time to do it. I have called him the day before he needed to put on a Career Workshop for some missionaries who are about to be released and he has rearranged his business schedule to be there. He is always ready to help in any way that he can. He often leaves his family and his work for a weekend to fly to some city to give a Career or Self Employment workshop.

He never seems down. When the flood waters entered his house and destroyed a lot of his furniture and his piano he did not blame the Lord. Instead he went out to help others, cleaned up his mess and gave his usual advice – “Cheer up and be happy.”

I am happy to write that he told us just a couple of weeks ago that by the end of February he had already made as much income  as he did all last year. I do not doubt that the Lord is blessing him for his willingness to serve – to go and do whatever the Lord commands.

19 March 2008 – Wednesday

Woke, prayed, studied, went to the gym for a good but shorter workout, breakfast, wrote a long letter to the Rebers who will be replacing us. We hope to be able to prepare them for coming to Jakarta so there will not be any surprises and they can quickly get to work. We read from the Kitab Mormon. We are where Aaron and his brethern are teaching the King of the Lamanites about God. As I read about the faith that the King shows in believing their words, it reminds me of how the early Christian missionaries went to the edges of the known world to spread the gospel and how so many Kings and leaders accepted it. Someday Indonesia will ripen for the gospel and until then we just do what we can do and trust the Lord to know when the harvest will come.

Since it is P-day we worked on cleaning the apartment, doing laundry, mopping floors etc. The kinds of things you have to do while on missions but never really get mentioned in home coming talks. Mary worked on more HS English stuff, crocheted a couple of baby caps, proof-read Elder Subandriyo’s talk and fixed a great dinner. I worked on pictures – the problem with having a digital camera is that I take way too many pictures – and my journal. I also managed a nap, studied Indonesian – still working on the weather with snow just not sticking, answered more e-mail, and checked all the family blogs.

We read from the Kitab Mormon two more times in Alma and ended exactly ½ way through the book for the fourth time. Hopefully we will finish by the end of April so we can get a good start on the fourth time through. As I often do I end the day trying to read from the Liahona – at least I only have to look up about every 20th word instead of every other one.

Tonight, after finishing Elder Gonzalez’s great talk on how we prepare for ‘personal earthquakes’ that are likely to strike, I turned to President Eyring’s PH talk on prayer from his personal experiences.  I know I listened to it and I know that I have read it before, but this time the message burned into my mind and heart. I was especially touched by his comments about what the Lord said to him as he prayed about his new assignment. On page 57 of the conference issue he said “The answer was very clear and very direct and really a rebuke as I prayed.’Forget yourself – start praying about the people you are to serve.’ I knew immediately that this was what I needed to do – to stop worrying about myself, how I am, my weaknesses, my failings and to start being concerned with others and their needs. I still have over two months to touch people’s lives and I need to find out what the Lord would have me do. I feel that being prompted to read this talk was one of my tender mercies from the Lord today.

18 March 2008 – Tuesday

Normal morning – I even made it to the gym. As I was doing my workout, I decided that I would only do the strength routine every other day. I feel much better when I do not do it each day. We read 5 pages from the Kitab Mormon – before the day was over we had read 15 pages which is good for us. Of course we are in the section of Alma that is easy reading and we know about 98% of the words.

The new microphone did not work any better than the old one. When we got to the office I tried again it worked great, so it would seem that the problem is somewhere in our lap-top. Either a bad connection or something is incompatible. At least we now know we can communicate from the office computer. It will be good for the Rebers when they come.

At the office Mary worked on her English lesson for later today and I cleaned up more files. I also spoke to the Christensens in Hong Kong. Sister Christensen is having withdrawal pains from the lack of Magnum bars. I think it is strange that Walls would run out if they are that popular. We have not had anyone come in for help with finding work for over 2 weeks. We have talked to some of those we know about their work, but no one has asked for help. They do go through the magazines that we post each week so at least something is working.

Today I again thought about the idea of setting up each Sunday in a different branch. Unfortunately that would mean Sam would miss a lot of his meetings and we would not go to our branches very often, but maybe we could be of more help that way. I know we need to be patient, but that does not mean we can not try to come up with something that will help with the employment. At least the Rebers will have lots of English classes and they can become involved in Humanitarian projects.

Mary hit the jackpot as to clothes today. Our wonderful seamstress brought her lots of blouses, skirts and two temple dresses. She is going to go home with a huge wardrobe – I am going home with two new shirts and a lot of ties. Oh and she took in a couple of pairs of pants for me. Hopefully she will need to do more before we are released.

Speaking of that while at the mission home we got our travel plans. We will leave here on Monday the 2nd of June and spent the next three nights in Hong Kong before flying home – we arrive 1 ½ hours after we leave – which is pretty good for a 12,000 mile flight – on the 5th of June. The only complaint is that we are traveling economy. So I wrote the travel department to find out how much it would cost to move up to business class. It would be a lot nicer for that long trip across the Pacific. Hopefully it will not be too much more. It was interesting that we did not get excited about getting the plans – we are not in any hurry to leave but I am sure we will feel different when the time comes to go.

When we went to the mission home I had a long talk with Elder Subandriyo. He has to add 5 pages to the talk he will be giving at BYUH – he is the only speaker. We talked about the scholarship fund and scholarships in general. It seems you have to be in the top 5 of your class to be eligible for scholarships. We need to make sure the young people know this.

He told me that PEF for Indonesia is not dead. They are now thinking about making the loans straight from the US and the student would repay the loan through a credit card. But that is not anything we will need to worry about. Hopefully it will come to pass so all of Indonesia will be opened for PEF loans. That with the scholarship program that may become a reality would mean the qualified students would be able to go to good schools.

While Mary taught her class, I read the latest Chruch News – the story on the back about the missionary who did not find out for 50 years about his success was great. It is the kind of thing that all missionaries need to read. If we do our best, we should not worry about the results that are seen but trust the Lord to harvest what we plant. While we were there we shipped some things off to the Bennetts and the Taylors – a week late but at least they are on their way.

We did our usual shopping at Sogo including BreadTalk. Watermelon has become a staple of my diet – I am sure it has little in the way of nutritional value but it is filling and easy to prepare. I know nothing that we bought from BreadTalk is good for us…we will repent sometime.

The afternoon and evening was spent at the apartment. I spent much of the time at the computer working on pictures and the blog. It takes a good deal of time to post and I can see why the kids do not update very often. But it is enjoyable and I always feel good when it is done. As I mentioned above we read for a couple of hours from the Kitab Mormon and I spent some time trying to get the weather related words into my mind. It seems to be going better as long as I do not try to remember too much at one time.

Big bulky load of something – there is a driver somewhere in there.

The first two are just interesting load. I call the second one One of Everything. The third picture is a load of fresh goat skins – now if I can just get one with a couple of goats on the back.  MacDonalds delivers everywhere. This is one of 8 to 10 at one location. Motorcycles are the only way you can deliver food in Jakarta – if you tried to use a car the food would always arrive cold if at all.

 

The first picture is sister Hash with the Roberts. Next is Mary with the Walkers and Sister Marchant. As you can see we ate well at the mission home. We often laugh at how often President and Sister Marchant have overnight guests in the mission home and how often they have guests for lunch and dinner – we call it the Mission Hotel. The third picture from left to right – The Roberts who are serving in Solo, Us, and the Hashes who are serving in Malang. This is probably the last picture of us together in Indonesia. If we get together again it will probably be in Utah.

17 March 2008 – Monday

We had a great surprise this morning. Jim and Kristy called on Skype. We did not have our camera so we could see and hear them but we could only chat with them. It worked well and there was no drop out. I think I will buy another camera today and a separate mike and see it that works – I am thinking that the camera we got is not good. It is too bad I have taken 18 months or so to figure that out. Olivia is really speaking clearly and we got to hear her sing a couple of songs.

We read from the Kitab Mormon before leaving for the mission home so we can get out Visas renewed. We thought we were to leave at 10 but of course there were some problems and we did not leave for Immigration until 1:00. But we had a nice visit with Hashes and the Roberts – especially Elder Roberts who I really enjoy talking to because he has had a very interesting life. Mary, and sisters Hash, Roberts and Walker started crocheting baby caps – it looked like a real knitting circle. The Marchants were nice enough to fix us all lunch.

Diaz – the expediter – is a really good man. He works very hard to see that things go smoothly at Immigration. Today he started at 7:30 but he could not get things ready until just before lunch hour and that is why we had to go at 1:00. Once we got there it took less than 10 minutes to get the paperwork signed. We said goodbye to the Roberts and Hashes for probably the last time before we head home. Actually we will probably see the Hashes when they leave in May.

On the way home we stopped at Carrefour to see if we could get a camera and microphone that worked better for Skyping. We bought a cheap camera and separate mike. Back at the apartment I hooked things up and found that the camera worked well but the mike did not. I fiddled with it for a long time with no results. I will try again tomorrow.

The rest of the day was rather laid back. We did read from the Kitab Mormon for a couple of hours and I read from Psalms and the Gospel of John but it seemed the day just slipped away. It seems anytime we break our regular routine we are not able or perhaps willing to make alternate plans.

Jakarta Street Scenes – I could not get a really good picture of this chair on the side of a building but this gives a good idea of its size. We were too close to cart load of tires to get a full view. I like the way the colors of the cart contrasts with the tires. The last picture is just a shot down one of the little alleys that we see all along the streets – often just between two buildings. This is one we see each day when we go to the office.

  Ed and us at the Jakarta Raya chapel. He really thought this was funny after seeing the largest Mosque and the oldest Catholic church in Indonesia. I told him it was not the outside but what is inside that counts.

When the crisis hit Indonesia in 1997-98 a lot of building that were under construction went unfinished because of lack of finances. Just down the street from our apartment is one of them. About two months ago we started to see some activity at the site. These are shots of the workers breaking back the old concrete to a point where there is good rebar to tie into. Mary pointed out that the crane in the first picture seems to be resting on a pole covered with ivy.

16 March 2008 – Sunday

We were up early so we could be ready to go to the Selatan chapel for Mary to play for the District Choir – which basically is the Selatan Choir. While they practiced I wrote more about the Scholarship fund and then stood outside and greeted members of the English branch when they arrived. The Roberts came with President and Sister Marchant – it is always good to see our friends from Solo. They are here to renew their visas tomorrow – the Hashes will be in later today.

The choir sang in the English branch and were very good for the small number and the quality of most of the voices. They were exceptionally good at the very end when they joined in singing out. The talks were on Pride and Humility and sister Ventura gave an excellent talk with good stories to illustrate her points. It was good to be able to understand everything that was being said. I liked the quote “Feed humility into your soul and it shall come out in your actions.”

After the English branch Sacrament meeting we talked to some of the members and then waited for the Selatan branch to start. Of course it was all in Indonesia and Hani – Elder Louhannapessey – who was in our last IEC translated for us. He did a good job and I think it increased his confidence. We certainly hope that he will get a high enough grade on the Michigan test that he will be able to get into BYUH.

The choir sang again but this time they were not as together as they had been for the English branch. I was surprised because I thought they would be less nervous in their own branch but it seemed to be the other way around.

Unfortunately they had too many speakers and they all spoke too long so the concluding speaker – Elder Subandriyo – had to cut his remarks very short. But in those few minutes he got a strong message across. He is an excellent speaker and his points are always direct and right on the mark. It has been a pleasure to serve with him.

After the sacrament meeting we came back to the apartment because Ed was coming over for lunch. It will be the last time we will see him until he comes back in about 2 weeks. I spoke to President Marchant about this and he said that was fine. He even invited him to come to dinner at the mission home tonight. I was sure that Ed would be much too busy for that but it was very nice of the President to extend the offer.

We took Ed to the Park Hotel for a nice lunch and we had a great time talking about lots of things – none of which were really important except to us. When the bill came I started to pay it and then remembered that they did not take BCA Debit cards. So Ed ended up paying for a rather expensive lunch. As we were walking out, I said that I had not lost my touch and I could still get him to do things when I didn’t want to do them. We all had a great laugh.

Sam had agreed to drive us around for a little Jakarta sightseeing. So we spent 90 minutes seeing the Mona statue, the big mosque, etc. The hit of the visits was when we took him by the Jakarta Raya chapel. We had just seen this beautiful mosque and the oldest Catholic church in Indonesia so when he saw this non-discript building in the midst of a set of industrial buildings he really cracked up and insisted that we have our picture taken in front of the shuttered chapel. After a little more touring around we dropped him back at his hotel and said goodbye.

We had just enough time at home to take a short nap before catching a taxi to the mission home for dinner with the Marchants, Roberts, Hashes and the missionaries. It was great to talk to the couples and the elders while enjoying some excellent food.

I think Elder Bastian is trying to get me to speak Indonesian. He was reading the Kitab Mormon and I asked him what he was reading because I managed to leave my glasses at home. We got to talking and I mentioned that we could read about 95% of the KM. I told him I could not understand or speak Indonesian because I have to see most of the words in my head before I can translate them. He tested me by slowly reading from Alma and I was surprised how much I could translate but there were a number of words that I had to have him spell before I knew what it meant. However that brief exercise gave me hope that someday I might be at least able to understand the language.

President Marchant had arranged for the six of them to go over to Elder Subandriyo’s house. We did not go because we have been there a number of times – the last time just 3 weeks ago. I do not think the other couples had ever been there. So we caught a taxi home and it was nice to take off the tie for the first time today.

We read from the Kitab Mormon – the only time we did today and then Mary headed off to bed. I surfed through what was on TV and decided that I would rather study some Indonesian. I am trying to learn all the words that have to do with Cuaca – that is weather. I am also reading some of the Psalms in a hit and miss manner. Whoever wrote them really did have a great love for God and thought a lot about his relationship with Him.

 

A series of picture taken today at the Grand Hyatt in Jakarta where Ed is staying. His room was about half the size of our whole apartment and the bathroom – which I should have shot – was huge and gorgeous.

15 March 2008 – Saturday

It was a busy and exciting morning. I went to the gym and had a good workout. After breakfast we read from the Kitab Mormon. As we were reading Ed called and we arranged to meet him for lunch. Just as we finished reading, President Marchant called and gave us the name of the couple who will replace us. It is Harold and Mina Reber and they live in Lindon so we will be able to spend some time with them before they leave for the MTC.

The President suggested I call them. I could not find anything about them on line so I called Tom and asked him to look up their number. He got right back to me but when I called no one answered so I left a message with our e-mail address so they can contact us.

This morning I have been catching up posting this journal and working on pictures. I enjoy doing this but it does take up a good chunk of time. Mary tried to call her HS English class to tell them that we would be an hour late, but was only able to get one and she was at school. Therefore we had the taxi take us to the church so we could put a sign up saying we would start class late.

We had a great time talking to Ed about his trip and looking at all of his pictures. He really went back into the boondocks on this trip to schools that were two days travel away from almost anything. The teachers there complained because their pay did not get to them very regularly. He had pictures of some amazing landscape and people that do not have a drop of Javanese blood. But as with Indonesia they all looked clean and neat no matter how far away from what we would call civilization. One group complained that they had no shoes. It seems that part of their pay is a new pair of shoes every 5 years. Of course they do not last that long so for a couple of years they go without.

After lunch Ed took us up to his room which was about as nice as we have seen since we have been here. Of course we do not stay in $150 a night hotels. However after looking at his room I got to thinking that we might splurge in Hong Kong and stay in a nice hotel.

When we arrived back at the chapel Mary had one student and so she taught him while I worked on vocabulary. I joined them for a couple of games and that was fun. We had an interesting time trying to explain the difference between slicing bread and a slice of bread. But I think that we finally got it across. He told me what the words were in Indonesian and I made sentences that corresponded to the English.

I spent part of my time pondering the scriptures. I choose 1 Nephi 4:6 “And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do.” I read and thought about D&C 42:13, D&C 11:12, and some other verses out of 1 Nephi – 4:10 and 18. I also found a talk by Hartman Rector Junior that gave me more insight into the scripture and the idea of truly being led by the Spirit. I think that I have a problem letting go of control enough to truly follow the spirit. It is not enough to ask for the Spirit to be with me, I feel that is connected to being selfish. The scripture I need to focus on is where Christ says in Matthew “He who loses his life for my sake shall find it.” It seems this subject keeps coming up in my reading and thoughts – the idea of faith leading me to trust myself and my life to the Lord.

After the class was over we came back to the apartment to read from the Kitab Mormon, take a short nap and have some dinner before going back so Mary can play for the choir. They are singing in two branches tomorrow.

When we got back to the chapel for choir practice we met Elder Subandriyo so I had some time to talk to him about his idea about scholarships for those who are exceptional students but do not have money for a high quality university education. Once I had his thoughts, I worked up some ideas about who would qualify and how to choose who to give the scholarships. Of course we will be long gone before the program really gets up and running but it is exciting to be in on the beginning.

After choir practice we basically came home and went to bed. We need to get moving early tomorrow because Mary needs to be back to the chapel for a final practice at 7:15. It has been a good day and we were able to touch some lives.

14 March 2008 – Friday

I just mentioned to Mary that we are in a period of our mission when there is very little to write about. We could almost take any week and paste it in for the next one. I do not mean that our mission has become boring, it is just that we are not having many new experiences and we have reach a point where much of our time is spent creating and ordering paperwork. It is all needed for the English programs we have been privileged start but it is not very exciting or spiritually uplifting. Maybe I am just feeling jealous of those missionaries who are able to get so close to their branches and the members.

We read from the Kitab Mormon this morning. We are at the point where Alma is trying to teach the people of Amoniah. It is interesting that this people who have been taught the gospel, had the scriptures, and so many blessings completely reject God and the prophet that he sends to give them a chance to repent.

We go into the office so I can get an agenda together for our ERS meeting this afternoon and so Mary can re-type Elder Subandriyo’s talk. I finished before she did so I worked on vocabulary for the next IEC. Just as we are about to leave Mary realizes that she somehow saved the re-written talk where it can not be found. Luckily she did print a copy so she does not have to start from scratch.

Our next stop is the mission office. When we get there we find that they are just starting District Meeting. We did not think they were going to hold one because earlier when I called Elder Rowberry he and Elder Smith were teaching a lesson. But everyone was there including President Marchant and we had a good meeting. Elder Smith taught the lesson on Accountability and I commented on the statement “Accept full responsibility for your efforts. Never blame others for difficult circumstances or lack of progress.” I said that LeGrand Richards would agree with that if he was alive. After the lesson we let them eat the dozen donuts we brought.

Then it was on to Tangerang and our meeting with Lukito and Agus. Agus was held up 20 minutes so I think we all took short naps until he came. The meeting went well and we made plans for the next two months and talked some about the time between when we go home and the new couple comes. We gave out some assignments for training and for going to the last week of a Self-Employment Workshop in Solo.

After that meeting we followed Agus to visit an inactive family. This was a family that had joined the Church just before we came to Indonesia. He had recently been retired from a very good job and had wanted to go to Sun Valley and was so disappointed when he did not get a job that he quit coming to Church regularly. We had a nice visit and I taught a lesson on blessings coming after we have kept the commandments. I also bore testimony of the Book of Mormon. They are a very nice family and hopefully through the love of the members they will someday come back.

The trip back from Tangerang took a long time. We needed to go back to the chapel so Mary could re-type Elder Subandriyo’s talk. I used the time to answer some e-mail and to work on more of the vocabulary.

I almost forgot to mention that during the afternoon Elder Subandriyo called with a new project for us. It has to do with choosing young people to financially help to get a good education. He wants to come up with some test or criteria for making the choices. I truly have no real idea about how to go about this but I am sure the Lord will help us as he has in all other tasks that Elder Subandriyo has given us. I do wish we had more than 2 ½ months to work on it, but we will just have to do what we can do and let someone else finish it up. We are getting good at plowing and planting…at least with the IEC we have been allowed to see it grow.

By the time we got home it was rather late so about all we did was read from the Kitab Mormon and then some from the PH/RS Manual in Indonesian. It was a good day and the opportunity to bear my testimony and share some thoughts made it even better.