03 February 2008 – Sunday

When we found out that we did not record the funeral last night we looked for a re-broadcast. I was about to give up so Mary took over and quickly found one that would start in 15 minutes. Luckily we got connected and were able to watch most of the funeral before we left for church.  Since the first hour was a KSL special on President Hinckley’s life and I was recording it, we decided to read from the Kitab Mormon until the funeral actually started. We are in Ether and they are about to be told to build some boats.

Sam picked us up and took us to Jakarta Raya and then headed to his own branch. We found out that they would be using the last hour of the block and a couple more to watch the funeral. Since it would all be in Indonesia and we had already seem most of it in English we decided to come home after Sunday School.

A number of the members gave testimonies about their meeting President Hinckley. He was here in 2000 and a number of Saints got to see and meet him then. Hendra meet him when he was a translator for conference. And told the story of that and then later meeting him when he came to Jakarta for a visit. The Saints here have tender memories of the Prophet.

Unlike most Sunday afternoons and evenings, this one was rather busy. We had invited the class over for dinner and an activity. So Mary spent much of the afternoon fixing things for dinner – a Creole dish, salad, and biscuits. I was in charge of cleaning the living room and making the fruit salad. Mary also baked a cake for dessert. We even managed to read from the Kitab Mormon for about an hour.

They arrived at about 5:00 and when we were all sitting down while the food finished cooking they gave us presents. This really surprised us because none of the other classes even gave us a thank-you card. Mary got a really nice butterfly necklace and I got a shirt. We were greatly touched.

Dinner was a success – they hardly used the hot sauce I bought especially for the dinner. While we were eating I started ‘The Bee Movie’ and they laughed all the way through it. Another way we found that this group was different was that they washed the dishes before they left. Since that is usually my task, that made it much easier for me.

Once they were gone we started to read from the Kitab Mormon but not too long after we started Mary hit the wall and had to go to bed. She was asleep before 9:00.

02 February 2008 – Saturday

I have repented of my failure to keep up this journal in January and hopefully will write each day.

As the English Class winds down, the days are starting to blur together. Mary seems to not feel too well this morning so we cut short our reading from the Kitab Mormon so she could rest for a few minutes more. Hopefully she will get to feeling better because she has the High School class to teach today. I will try to take most of the morning so perhaps she can get more rest for this afternoon.

I should note that due to the rain, there is flooding in parts of Jakarta. This is not new for Jakarta but it was enough flooding to make the news and to get people talking about it. It is nothing like last year at this time so there was no need to start a public kitchen.

We taught the IEC – both morning and afternoon. We shared the morning and then in the afternoon I taught our class while Mary taught the High School class. We are only getting 2 to 4 to the class. Once we get done with IEC and the couple’s conference, we will try to meet with all the young people and their parents and see if we can get more of them to come regularly. It would be good for them and also for the seminary class that comes after the class.

After the class we came to the apartment and read from the Kitab Mormon – once soon after we got home and once before heading off to bed. During Zone Conference, the Zone Leaders challenged us to each choose 4 or 5 things that we could do one more of each day. One of the things we chose was to read one more page from the Kitab Mormon and we are trying to do that by reading a page or two before we go to bed.

Later in the evening I tried to hook into one of the streams that would broadcast President Hinckley’s funeral. We watched a special program on President Hinckley and I set Total Recorder to kick in when the funeral started. Unfortunately when we woke, we found that the stream had stopped before the funeral started so all we got was noise.

1 February 2008 – Friday

It started raining about 10 last night and it was still going strong this morning. Heavy rains continued to about 1:30 when it finally slowed down and then stopped. It reminded me of last February when the big floods hit on February 1 and 2. Hopefully that will not repeat this year.

We had a normal IEC day. The Walkers could not take the afternoon class – it was rather fortunate because we need the time to catch up with the homework assignments – and so we had them for both class periods. They are a great group – mostly relaxed but also wanting to learn. It is usually a pleasure to teach them. They still need lots of work on grammar but their conversational English is very good. I think for the next class we are going to start earlier work more on pronunciation.  I really think with some work three of the students and maybe four could pass the Michigan or TOEFL test and get accepted to BYUH.  That is our goal.

Mary spent much of the evening working on getting sets of materials for the High School English classes put together. We read from the Kitab Mormon – about 60 pages left for this trip through. In thinking back I am not quite sure what I did as the night just seems to have run by.

Hi all – We have not died – although there are days when we need to check with a mirror just to make sure – but very busy. Since I can not post from the apartment and we are rather busy at the office, I have fallen well behind but will try to catch up tomorrow.

23 January 2008 – Wednesday

The morning dashed by and we had to rush to get out of the apartment on time. We did manage to read one page from the Kitab Mormon.  Mary is not feeling well and wonders if expose to the mosiquito fogging is causing her problem. If it does not clear up by Monday I will take her into the doctor. I am feeling better than I have in a couple of weeks. Maybe the fogging cured what was wrong with me! <g>

Mary tells me her two students have a real hard time learning. She is going back to basics and see where they are.  My group want to learn and are doing well but there is just so much to learn and so little time to get it all done. If we concentrate on one area too much, other things are not touched. It is an interesting balancing act.

I continue to try to study and read from the Indonesian PMG.  Hopefully by the time we leave, I will be able to read church material very well and newspapers and magazines well enough to understand what is going on.  They are much harder to read because most of my vocabulary is from church material and so there is a lot of vocabulary that I do not know. It is exactly the same problem our students have.  But as I tell them – no pain, no gain.

Mary had Daisy in to work on more sets of supplies for the HS English classes. They take hours of work to get ready for laminating and then hours to get into sets. Mary has decided to let the couples do some of the cutting after they get the supplies. That gives them some idea of how much work goes into the program.

After class, they drop us off at the apartment and then head off to President Smith house for dinner and a discussion (Sam said it was about 72 Hour Kits.) We then spend the evening working on more English material, having dinner, and reading from the Kitab Mormon.  When 9 p.m. rolled around we realized that we had managed to keep rather busy for the last 4 hours.

I know we could not be doing what we are doing without the Lord’s help. As I read in PMG about the Holy Ghost helping the missionary to say and do what is needed to bring others unto Christ, I know that it also leads and guides us to do what we need to do to help the youth of Indonesia prepare for a better life through English. I find myself asking “Why us Lord.” Not because I am discouraged or think that we can not do what we are asked to do, but more to understand why the Lord chose us. What qualified us for this experience. Maybe the 4th section of the D&C says it best: ‘If ye hath desires to serve God, ye are called to the work.”

22 January 2008 – Tuesday

During the day we received the following letter from Elder Subandriyo.

Dear couples,

Thank you for your devotion to the program.  I just returned from Cambodia and
had a youth fireside attended by large number of youth.  I challenged the youth
in the next 3 years they should hear my message without interpreter.  I shared
what we did in training our youth in English with mission president and the CES
couple and they are excited about it.  Cambodia mission has probably 15
couples,one for each unit.  Cambodia also has large number of youth who are
hungry of learning.  The state education level is a little bit low than
Indonesia, but the spirit of our youth will compensate it.  I will be back to
Cambodia Feb 9, I hope I will be able to gather up date information of our
program and its curriculum and present it to mission president and CES couple. 
The CES couple informed me that their seminary attendance this year is down
compare to last year.  We are hoping the English program could help improve
seminary attendance.

Terima kasih banyak atas kasih dan pelayanan anda semua.

Eld Subandriyo

Later in the day he dropped by the chapel and we talked for a short time. I asked if this meant we needed to get a teaching package together so he could take it to Cambodia in three weeks and he said yes.

 Since we had talked about the idea of introducing the program in Cambodia, I was not surprised that he was going to do this. What surprised me was the timing. We have only been actually holding classes for two weeks in two cities and while it looks promising, I thought he would wait until some of the kinks had been worked out. But since he was the one who had the inspiration to get us moving on the High School program, I will not question his decision to move it forward at this time.

If – or better when – this program proves successful, who knows where it will go. Perhaps in a few years we can see it stretching across Asia or the world.  We are just excited – and at times overwhelmed – by the idea of all LDS high school students being proficient in English when they graduate.

Other than that it was a fairly normal Tuesday. Mary and I taught the morning class and then Mary left for the mission office so she could teach her English lesson there. (Later she said nothing went quite right.)  I stayed behind so I could teach the class until the Walkers came. They had a luncheon to go to and knew they would be late. I had a good time teaching the students – I gave them a repeat of the test they had on Saturday to see how much they improved.  After correcting the test I found that all of them improved their grade, but only two of them really did well.

When the Walkers came, I caught a taxi and went to the apartment. It was not long before Mary got back. We spent the rest of the evening reading the Book of Mormon, working on English projects, and watching some T.V.

I forgot to mention that in the morning I was studying PMG in Indonesian and found that one section of the Holy Ghost was completely different in Indonesian than the English version. My guess is that the English version was changed after the Indonesian one was already printed. There is more information in Indonesian than English.  I have found this true with other publications but with so many languages and so many books and manuals it not surprising. What is surprising is how few times this is so – at least from what I have worked with.

22 January 2008 – Monday

A normal day of IEC. Our office looks like a paper storage area – a not very neat one.  Neither of us are Chinese. One of the most positive things is that they seem to really be trying to speak English even when they are not in class. They also have a very positive attitude and we have a lot of fun – even when we are doing serious work.

 After the last period they dropped us off at the apartment and headed off to their FHE. We then spent the time reading the Kitab Mormon – we are about where we should be at this time. Mary spent much of the night working on High School English class activities and I spent time trying to get my main journal up to date.

We got a great letter from the Taylors in Yogja about their first week of HSE. They managed to get all the potential students to the class. They are really committed to the program and with sister Taylor’s creativity – she meantioned that she at one time wanted to be an artist – they will do great. It was a big boost for us – especially Mary who has put so much blood and sweat into providing quality teaching activities and suggested class outlines. It will be great to go to Solo and Yogja next month to see how the classes are doing.

I wish I could look 10 – 15 years down the road and see how it helped the students and the Church in Indonesia.

20 January 2008 – Sunday

We had a great Sunday filled with a number of spiritual experiences. First we went to the English branch to hear three of the students give their talks. Actually we heard four of our IEC students give talks because the first youth speaker was Jin-Young who attended our first IEC. She did a good job and her English pronounciation has really improved.

Our three students – Yuli, Hani and Sam – gave their talks without out reading anything but the scripture they chose. They all spoke about a spiritual experience they had on their mission and did a great job. Poor Yuli was still shaking after the meeting from all the tension she had in giving her first talk ever in English. But she did fine and I am sure that the members could feel her spirit and understood what she had to say. I was given the opportunity of giving the closing prayer.

It is always strange to attend the English branch and to be able to understand what is being said and make comments that you know are in context. I can see why the Lord says that everyone will hear the gospel in their own language – to get the fullness of the gospel and the fullness of the spirit, you need to understand what is actually being said.

We had the opportunity to ask for help from the English branch in hosting our students fro the remaineder of the class. We got about 2/3 of our dates filled in. Saturday and Sunday nights are really hard to get anyone to take and we can understand that. The important thing is that we got the FHEs all taken.

Sister Ventura gave a very thoughtful lesson in SS about Lehi and Nephi’s vision of the tree of life. She gave me a couple of things to consider that I had not noticed before.  It has certainly given me things to look into and ponder when I have time.

The PH lesson today was on God the Father and I am finally learning not to bring up things that do not add to the spirit of the lesson. I did comment that I did not think that Satan wanting the Glory for saving mankind had anything to do with God’s decision to choose Jesus to be our Savior. I can not imagine God being very interested in Glory and even less as it being a motivating force for Him helping his children. He helps us because He loves us – our doing well I am sure adds to his pleasure and his joy as our failures adds to his sorrow – but as to wanting or seeking Glory, I think that is more a human desire than a God-like one.

Back at the apartment I spent the day reading the next lessons for SS and PH. I did the PH one in both English and Indonesian. We also read from the Kitab Mormon a number of times – we have about 130 pages to go for our third time through. Before turning off the light I read from the latest Ensign – about the only thing I did not read today was anything from PMG or MIA.

It was a very good Sabbath Day

19 January 2008 – Saturday

I am afraid that while I have the faith to walk two or three steps into the darkness, I do it with some doubt lingering in my mind. When I prayed about the lost set of keys, I felt that everything would be OK. But as usual for me and inspiration, I had no idea what ‘OK’ might mean. Did it mean that the keys would be sitting somewhere in the office, or did it mean that in the big scheme of things, my losing the keys would not matter. So when – thanks to Ari having not only keys to the building but also a key to my office – I opened the door to the office and did not see the keys where I expected them to be, my heart raced a little. However as I stepped into the office I saw them sitting behind a stack of papers and so the answer to my prayers was the one I was hoping for.

 The rest of the day was pretty much as last Saturday. We took turns with the morning class period – I took my three speakers up for another practice – and in the afternoon Mary taught the High School Class – 2 students – and I took our IEC. Both went well and I decided to keep the IEC for an extra hour in the afternoon and give them the evening off as we had no one to host them.

This group of young men and women are a joy to teach – all of our classes are that way – because they seem to really want to learn. The problem is that even with 30 days of solid teaching, it is hard to get enough vocabulary and critical thinking into them so they are ready to take the Michigan or the TOEFL tests.  About the best we can hope to do is maybe help the best two or three do well enough on the Michigan test that they feel motivated to prepare for the TOEFL test.

We gave them a sample test today. Mary will grade it tomorrow and we will see how they did.

18 January 2008 – Friday

 Normal morning at the apartment with time to read 2 pages from the Kitab Mormon before heading to the chapel and IEC.  The class went well but I am worried about the students who are going to speak on Sunday. They are still struggling with coming up with an experience that brings the spirit. Hopefully by Sunday that will change.

 Mary took the first part of the class and I took the last half so she could work on some more lesson material. With the IEC, the High School English, and her teaching the office staff, a lot of her – and my – time is put into lesson perparation. Especially for the HS class.

After the morning class, Sam and the students dropped us off at the mall and they went on to be with the Walkers for the afternoon and Joel Guttormsen in the evneing. Thus we had an actual afternoon and evening off. This would have been great if not for two things – first my stomach is back to being unhappy with me and second when we got home I discovered I did not have the office keys. At first I thought they must have fallen out of my pocket when I got out my wallet to pay for the taxi home. After trying to contact the taxi, I worried for a while and then prayed. After praying I felt a lot less worried. It was like a burden was lifted. I was not sure what that meant at the time, but I assumed that things would work out. This allowed me to enjoy the rest of the day and sleep. I knew the Lord had answered my prayer by comforting me and that things would work out tomorrow when we went to the chapel.

 Mary worked on some English games and we read twice from the Kitab Mormon. Also Daisy came over to clean the apartment. She still has no job and does not seem to be applying for any. I am beginning to worry about her.

The opportunity to teach the young people is always uplifting. To see how hard they are working to speak English, to do their homework, and to participate in the class makes the work easier.  It is amazing to be here in Indonesia on our mission. It feels like home and if we knew the language I think we could serve here for years. We of course miss our family – especially the grandchildren – but we are able to keep up with what and how they are doing.  The Lord continues to bless us with health and the energy to do what we need to do.