A traditional instrument – beautiful sounds. The horned owl and a shot of one of the aisles at the bird market in Jogja

09 August 2007 – Thursday

It was good to get back to doing our calling all day.

We must have slept very soundly last night because we did not feel a major earthquake that happened about midnight here. The first thing we knew about it was when we got e-mails from Brian and Tom, quickly followed by a Skype call from Jim asking if we were OK. When Jim asked about the earthquake we knew nothing about it. We checked the newspapers and TV but there was nothing there. Later news from our friends the Kanes up in Bogor said that they woke at 12:08 to house that shook and trembled for over a minute. I guess all of our years in So. Cal. made us insensitive toWe went into the mission office and Elder Subandriyo asked Mary to teach his staff twice a week – Tuesday and Thursday from 1-2. I talked to president Marchant and he said that they would be gone when the senior couple came in on the 22nd and asked us to take care of picking them up and taking care of them until he got back. Since that is the Davises who we have started an e-mail correspondence with, it should be good. We will get to meet the Taylors after they come here on the 15th. I talked to Ari about Bandung and a driver for the Davises. The president mentioned that we already had a house there – one where the sisters live when there are some in Bandung. I do not think the Davises will want to live there but we will look at it with the Davises.

The 13 new elders are all at the mission office and they are in the middle of their orientation. I looked in and saw Elder Roper – he is going to be one of the office elders – and he saw me and waved. He looks great so I guess there is no problems with his hernia. We also visited with the Petersons for a while. Mary wanted to get some information about the staff English classes. Later as Mary and I talked about we discussed breaking the class into two parts so the ones who already have excellent English will not be held back and those who do not have very good English will not be in over their heads.

We then went to the mall to get groceries and BreadTalk. We did not go to our usual mall because I suggested BurgerKing for lunch. I would have eaten at BYU, but Mary would not have been happy so I figured I could eat off the street tomorrow and treat her and Sam to hamburgers today.

In the afternoon we went to district meeting and shared in a lesson on the purpose of our mission. It included reading from D&C 4. As Elder Smith was reading verse 4, I happened to read the 2nd verse. Although we read it almost every week, I am not sure I have actually thought about what it says. It says that once you decide to become a missionary, you need to do it diligently “so you can stand blameless before God in the last days.” I pointed out that means if we do not do our best during our mission we will not be able to do that. It is rather like the couple in the New Testament who decided to hold back part of the money that they got for their home. Once we commit we need to be fully committed to the work.

We had a good turnout for English class. Mainly because they have Seminary in the evening and it ends at 6:00 so most of the students can come to our classes. The only ones I have in my class are Agus and Catherin’s family – but they are great so we get a lot done. I continue to work on prepositions and numbers.

The trip home seemed longer than it actually was. I think I was just tired and there were enough brief traffic jams to make it seem like a long time. All in all it was a good day.

We were asleep when the earthquake hit and never knew anything about it until we saw the e-mail checking up on us. As far as we can tell from the TV, there was no damage done in the city. It occurred about 60 miles away and deep in the sea bed. We do not know if some of the country closer to the center of the quake was damaged. This is the second earthquake in the last week withing 60 miles of the city. There was a 5.5 quake up in the mountains on Saturday.

Thanks for checking up on us and letting us know there was an earthquake.

 

Only in Indonesia – The man is pushing his cart loaded with a door frame that must have been 7′ x 11′ down a main road in Jakarta. Behind was two more carts with what looked like parts to go with it. There is no telling how far he ended up pushing this load but it did not seem to matter. I liked the load of boxes because they were all shape and sizes. Big loads tend to be rather uniform. The delivery motorcycle is not really unique in size, but the colors are unusual.

04 August 2007 – Saturday

Well it turned out to be a very unusual Saturday for us. But it started normally with me going out and walking the track for about 45 minutes. I could not run because I managed to get a blister on my heel and every time I tried to run it hurt too much. I still managed to work up a nice sweat. Mary had been awake during the night so she got to sleep in a little. We read from the Kitab Mormon and then hurried to get ready to go to the chapel for a service project.

A couple in the US bought 6 pallets of school books and shipped them to Indonesia so they could be distributed to needy schools. They were supposed to be delivered at 8:30 so all the elders and sisters in the district came down to help out. Also a good number of members of the English branch showed up. Of course in usual Indonesian fashion, the books were not even released from customs by 8:30 so Elder Subandriyo had to go down and get things moving.

The books arrived at about 10:00 and we formed a line to get them from the truck, into the church, up the stairs and into the cultural hall. I stood on the stairs between two elders and hustled boxes of books weighing on an average of 40 pounds. I figure there was probably about 240-250 boxes of books. I – and all the elders – were really sweating by the time we were done. I felt pretty good to keep up my part. After all I am about 20 years older than the two elders combined.

The easy part was dividing the books into grades. Once that was done, we had to figure out what to do with them. Elder Subandriyo decided to make them into sets of 10. After a false start, I figured out how to do this best and for the rest of the day, I was the lead person. I headed up the crew that divided up the books into stacks. I had Mary make an inventory sheet – Elder Subandriyo asked for this – so we could put one in each set so people would know what was there. I had some of the elders counting the books in each section and putting post-it notes on the stack. Then when we got to that grade, Mary would make a list of the books in the section and I would decide how many of each book went in each stack – this was not hard since there were 10 stacks but it took a while before the elders caught on. Once the stacks were made, a crew led by president Marchant and elders Kane and Peterson, came along and boxed them up. We got pretty good at doing this and we were basically done by 3:30. I was very, very tired by then but happy to see that things got done in an orderly manner.

After that we went down to the office and Mary entered our figures for the monthly reports. There were only two problems – first I managed to close one of the completed report without saving it so Mary had to re-enter the information. I apologized many times for that. And then I could not get the completed reports sent to Hong Kong because the file is so big. They really should let us send raw data and they can enter it all there. They obviously have a better internet speed than we do.

Then it was time to come home. Mary had selected a good number of books so Sam had to make a couple of trips to get them all in the apartment. Add to that I forgot my book bag so he had to go back to the church for it and I figured that he deserved a bonus. So I gave him 150,000 R – about $15 and made his day.
I was sore and tired – it is a good tired – but did not try to take a nap. Instead I went down and picked up the dry cleaning and got my hair cut. Now I am about to go take a long, hot shower and try to stay awake long enough to read from the Kitab Mormon.

We did our reading from the Kitab Mormon and I continue to try to read the A&P. I found that studying words in the morning while exercising makes the time go more quickly but does not mean that I learn the words. The Indonesian words pretty much stick, but the English meaning seems to scurry away. But I will continue to exercise and learn – some part of my body should benefit.

 

The first picture is my favorite 50 cent lunch – rice, tempe, veggies, potatoes, and crispy soybean crackers. This is pretty much a typical main meal for the average Indonesian worker. The political rallies that tied up the streets today were mainly motorcycle rallies. This family of four are all decked out in their party colors. I took the other picture because he looked like an Indonesian version of the German SS.

03 August 2007 – Friday

Somehow I set my alarm for 4:30 instead of 5 but I was going out the door to exercise before I noticed this. I put about 45 minutes into walking and jogging around the track. I used the time to learn words – or at least to try to increase my vocabulary. I am not sure the words will stick but it does make the time go by faster. I see no one except an occasional security man during this time. I guess everyone comes out later. But it is the coolest time of the day to exercise outside so I will stick to it. Hopefully Bob will show up sometime.

I spent part of the morning catching up this journal and part of it reading from the D&C. Cindy’s blog was a gold mind. After over 2 weeks of nothing, today it was filled with pictures of our yard and all the weeds that they worked on. What a chore to try and weed when they get that high. It is bad enough when I do it regularly and so they are small and not well rooted. My big thanks to Cindy and those who helped.

We read from the Kitab Mormon – confusing are the words of Isaiah. It is not that we do not understand most of the words, it is the combination of them that is so hard to work out. This morning I realized that when we read the Indonesian, we are reading words that were written in old Hebrew, translated to Greek, translated to old English, translated to newer English, and then translated to Indonesian. It is rather amazing that it even exists for us to read. So we move on and enjoy what we can from it.

We went into the office and did some work on different things. I can not say it was very productive for me. Mary got some things done on the Area book. I contacted a couple of clients to see how they were doing with getting jobs. We got part of the July report from Agus and Lukito but not very much information. It seems that the specialists have a difficult time understanding the need for so much information.

We went to the mission office for district meeting. There had been a zone leaders conference so there were lots of missionaries at our meeting. Elder Decker kept it all under control and did not try to get information from every pair of missionaries. Elder Thomas – who is heading to Yojakarta to finish out his mission – gave a good lesson on the Book of Mormon which I contributed to by telling the story of the first time I read King Benjamin’s discourse.

The trip back to the apartment was a mess because the candidates for governor held big rallies throughout the city that tied up traffic. We were lucky to catch just the edges and Sam found ways around some of it. But I imagine some people were stuck in it for hours. Hopefully we will avoid the worse part of it for the next two weeks.

A normal Friday evening – the president says we can have date night – was pizza and watching ‘A beautiful year.’ It was a fun little movie but very predictable and at times very slow. There was one nice twist – at least how it came about if not the twist itself. I went back and looked more carefully at Cindy’s pictures and became worried about one part of the yard that looks like it is not getting enough water.

We read from the Kitab Mormon and later I read some from the A&P. But once again I was tired and so was asleep before Mary ever came to bed. I am glad that there was a district meeting because I needed Elder’s Thomas’ lesson to give me a spiritual boost in a day that did not have a lot of spirit.

 

Moving the transmitter to our office so hopefully we will have good internet connection. Mary really likes this arrangement.

02 August 2007 – Thursday

The alarm got me going this morning and so I did a few laps around the track. I forgot to take out any words to learn so all I accomplished was to work off a few calories and sweat a lot. Tomorrow I will do vocabulary. Normal morning – studied some Indonesian and read from the Kitab Mormon. I happen to notice that a bridge had collapsed in Minneapolis and so we turned on the TV to see what was going on. Also plugged into WCCO radio and kept up with the news. It is amazing that more people were not killed.

Since we did not get any new names from any of the branch presidencies, we went into the office and worked on different things until it was time to head for Tangerang and English class. When we first got in the internet was not working and neither was the phone. I was thinking that it was the Lord way of telling us to go home. But the internet came back so we worked on e-mail and other things. Mainly we are starting to develop an Area Book.

Not too long after we were there a crew came in and started to move the wireless contact point to our office so we can get as good a signal as we possibly can. Hopefully it will get done by tomorrow and the phone will be turned back on. At least we can get incoming calls. No one came in or called about employment but the Bennetts say that Sam, their driver, would be interested in the job in Semarang. So I wrote to Mr Woo and told him I thought I had a good candidate for his job. I also found the Rotary Clubs in Semarang for the Bennetts.

Before going to our district meeting, we stopped by the new office supply store and got a few things. It seems that 3×5 cards do not exist in Indonesia. I am not sure why not, but I guess they never had a need for them. What’s more, it is not easy to find cardstock of that weight to make our own cards. But we did get everything else we needed.

Then we went to the BreadTalk and picked up a few things. The most popular item seems to be a roll about the 2/3 the size of the rolls that we use for hot roast beef sandwiches that has cheese melted on the top. They go like crazy here.

The district meeting went well. There is a new bulai elder here – Elder Tuxworth from Australia. He and elder Wiryanto served together in Solo back in May. Elder Hadi Suyatmo and elder Smith have a progressive investigator and another man who is golden but has not yet been to church because of his business. Elder Wiryanto gave a very spiritual lesson on sharing the scriptures while teaching. He mentioned that he had not read the Book of Mormon until he received his call and then he read it through once before he started his mission. Everyone shared something about using the scriptures.

Our English class basically was Agus and Catherin’s family and one other person. I mean to ask president Paul why his daughter does not come. My class went really well – I think we covered a lot of things and Catherin said that the things I have taught helped her son pass his test. All the family is really sharp and it is a joy to have them in class. Elder Tuxworth is funny. I found out that he served for 3 years in the army before putting in his papers for a mission.

We did not read from the Kitab Mormon in the evening. I did read a little from the D&C in Indonesian but I was in bed and asleep before 9. It was a good day – going to district meeting and sharing the spirit of the elders is one of the best parts of the mission. They have very little success in bringing people to the waters of baptism, but they do not seem to be discouraged. We talked a little about how as missionaries we only need to judge ourselves against our own abilities and not what others do.

1 August 2007 – Wednesday

Wow another month – in three days we will have been on our mission for 8 months. It sometimes seems much longer and yet in someways it seems like we walked into the MTC just a week ago. July was a good month – we are still learning a lot about our calling and ideas keep flowing. I am sure that the day we leave we will still be trying to solve some of the problems. The only reason we might extend is if there was something that we felt we had to see completed before we could leave. I doubt if anything like that will be pending.

I woke before 5 and decided that was the Lord’s way of telling me that I needed to get back into the habit of exercising each day. So I put on my gym clothes and walked and ran for a half hour. I did not run as far as I was running but I still managed to work up a good sweat. As I went around I tried to work on some vocabulary. In the future I am going to take with me five root words and work on them each for one or two laps – this way I can keep track of how many times I been around and also get the words into my mind.

I also think I need to write 10 to 20 sentences each day and have Sam check them. If I write sentences that I can use everyday, perhaps this will allow me to have enough confidence to use the language. Elder Kane is doing this and he seems to be progressing better than I am.

It is really convenient to live here in Puri Casablanca. This morning I went down and picked up our cleaning and dropped off a new batch which will be ready tomorrow night. I also could stop at our little store and pick up things we might need. Now if there was a big mall next door it would be better than being home. I can see why the concept of a mall with apartments has been catching on in the States – especially as we get older. The next thing they will include are a assisted living complex and a hospital. With the growing older population this many not too far in the future.

We read from the Kitab Mormon – towards the end we found us struggling a little with Nephi’s psalm. The other day I was looking for it, but thought it was Nephi the Younger and not the 1st Nephi. It really is beautiful – well at least in English it is.

Since we do not have names to visit, we made appointments at the office. But before going in we went to Carrefore and bought towels for the Kanes to use when they are here Sunday night. Shopping before 11 is easy so we were in and out fairly quickly.

At the office we again had problems with the internet connection but after first running a hard wire connection, they changed the wireless access points and it worked fine. Neither of the appointments showed up so we worked on different things. One of my e-mails came back with a job opportunity in Semarang. Hopefully we can find someone to fill it. I also wrote an email to president Marchant about a couple of things. Earlier he called and asked me to contact the couples in Solo to see if they would like to go sight-seeing with us on Monday or Tuesday. I think I will first ask the Kanes and the Pettersons about what they want to do.

Mary got all the workshop attendee names into the computer – quite a task to say the least. Especially since she was so far behind. Our next task is to make an Area Book so when we leave the next couple will be able to know right where we are and can hit the ground running.

When it was apparent that no one was going to show up, we went to the mission office. I wanted to say goodbye to elder Wight, but he was off to Taman Mini. So about all we could do is pick up a couple of Michigan tests for Anna and Vita – hopefully they will be willing to take them – and talk to the office elders. We did say hello to president Marchant who came in while we were there. We went down to see the Petersons but they too were gone. Since the Church News was not there yet, it was really not a very productive trip.

Our evening reading of the Kitab Mormon went well – but we are about to head into Isaiah so things will probably slow down. I have started reading the D&C in Indonesian – it is really fairly easy to read because it is in more modern language and tends to use simple words. Of course there are words I have to look up but for the most part I can get the gist of it. Vocabulary, vocabulary, vocabulary – always vocabulary. At least when it comes to reading. Speaking is a whole other thing – and hearing is another. But I am sure the Lord will bless us and we will continue to improve in all these areas. I hope that after we are released we will continue to keep learning. It would be a shame to waste all this time and effort.

As we talk about another mission, we really want to have it a proselyting mission. I also hope it will be an English speaking mission so we can work closely with the less-active, the members and others. Even another ERS mission would be good, if it was in English. But as with this one we will just put in our papers and go where the Lord wants us to go.

 

Cabbage harvesting above Malang. Instead of putting them in boxes, they just neatly stack them in the truck. The picture of the native woman was taken by Elder Kane – notice the lovely pattern of the skirt. Even the humblest women in the small villages seem to usually wear clean, even if a little worn, lovely skirts.

31 July 2007 – Tuesday

I slept like a log and did not wake until after 6 – this will be the last day for a while that I get to sleep in because I have decided that tomorrow I will set the alarm for 5 so I can get out and exercise before it gets too hot. I spent much of the morning – it passes very quickly – getting the last of my journal on-line and writing some more to Nancy Campbell. Then we read from the Kitab Mormon – a little over 3 pages.

I just had a sad experience. I tried to call a man yesterday about a job but he was not home and they did not give him the message to call me back. I got to him this morning about a driving job but unfortunately it was filled yesterday. I think brother Park – the man who had need of a driver – is sorry he did not wait for me to find him one. Hopefully the next time he will call me immediately if he needs any help.

We had a frustrating day at the office. Since we do much of our work using the internet and e-mail, when we can not get on the net, what we can do is limited. At least what I can do is limited. Today the ‘new and improved’ internet connection would not function in our office. For some reason the wireless connection would not work.

Hendra came down and worked for an hour or so and finally got it to work but within an hour it was gone again. Hopefully they will solve the problem sometime soon but for now it leaves us in limbo. I can not even check to see if anyone has written back to me about meeting the HR directors of their company.

We did have one man come in. He is a member from Zimbabwe and his wife works for the embassy here. He is looking for something to do with his day. Right now he just sits around. We are not sure it is legal for him to work in Indonesia. He may not have the right kind of visa for that. But he said he would be happy to help out. As I was typing this I thought that perhaps we could use him to contact HR directors and set up appointments so Mary and I could go see them. His line of work is in HR training. I think we will talk to him tomorrow about this. Maybe he can help us develop our resources.

While we waited to see if the internet would come back, we read from the Kitab Mormon. We were in the early part of 2 Nephi so the language is pretty easy to read and translate. But Isaiah is coming up. When it was evident that we would not get the internet we packed it up and came home.

I wrote a letter to Bishop Pletsch – we have yet to hear from him. I guess he is very busy with his work and the ward. We also heard from Bob about the rental – hopefully he will be able to solve the problems. We have not heard anything about the house and yard for over a month. I trust if it had burnt to the ground we would have heard about it from someone.

We read in the Kitab Mormon for an hour – 3 plus pages. I checked back to see when we started reading the Kitab Mormon for the first time and was surprised to find that it was on January 1st. Since we finished on July 19th it took us 6 ½ months to get through it the first time. I am thinking that if we keep up our practice of an average of 6 pages per day, the second time should take about 3 ½ months. Which means by the time we leave we could have read the whole Book of Mormon 12 times – 4 times in Indonesian, 4 times in English, and 4 times translating it from Indonesian to English.  We should know it fairly well by then – an added bonus for us to be sure.
Mary suggested we continue this when we get home – we will have to see about that. She is still reading the 1st Harry Potter book in Indonesian.

My bedtime reading is going over some of what we read today. I try to get the words we had to look up set in my mind. It does not work too well but I keep thinking that the more often I read something the better chance there is of it sticking. I have not been reading the D&C out loud like I started to do. I really should get back to doing that and writing down my thoughts. But it seems that I can only do so much reading and pondering of the scriptures before my mind starts to turn to mush and nothing seems meaningful. I think it may be better to limit how much I read but read more carefully and pondering a few things at a time.

 
You do not see a lot of caged or chained monkeys or baboons but in one afternoon we saw this one and the trained one seen below while out looking for less-actives. He had a neighbor that I did not photograph because he was sprawled out on the floor of his cage. This one just looked right at me and the flash did not bother him at all.

30 July 2007 – Monday

Something I ate yesterday did not agree with me so I was up and down much of the night. I was afraid it would continue all day but after we left the apartment I was fine. Except for my problem it was a normal morning. We are reading the Isaiah chapters of 1st Nephi and so we only get through a little over 2 pages an hour. It is not so much the words as trying to figure out grammar and tenses. Even after reading the English we are not always able to understand why it is written the way it is in Indonesian.

We received a call from the Petersons inviting us to join them and the Kanes for a trip to Yogakarta for a couple of days of sightseeing next week. They wanted to see the big temples there before heading home in a couple of weeks. I did not feel good about going away from our area once again. Also in a couple of weeks the new couples will arrive and we will be spending some time showing them around. Then I decided that perhaps we could combine mission work with pleasure. We can look at houses for the new mission couple that will go there, talk to prospective drivers, and give Vita and Anna the Michigan test. We could also drive over to Solo and meet the Barnards and the Roberts and see how they are doing with the English class. If Sister Endang is available we might even finally see the ERS office there.

We were in the office from 10 to about noon. We are not officially open on Monday but I wanted to send some e-mail to those I have met over the last couple of weeks. Hopefully we will get some good contacts this way. Mary worked on some genealogy. I also tried to call and give a lead for a job to one of our members but he was not home and does not have a cellphone.

Hendra came in and gave us some good news. They have run a new line for our internet and phone service so that we should have much better speed. Also we will know when the phone rings it is for us and not for someone else in the building. He ran a speed test on the old line and it seems to have averaged about 160 kbps – I really doubt if that was true but that is what it showed. The new one is supposed to be over 300kbps – still well below the advertised speed but at least much better than it was.

At the mission office we ate lunch – Mary brought a sandwich and I had Sam get me lunch from BYU. I talked with Elder Subandriyo about a few things. I asked him about some of the things that came up at the meetings in Semarang. He confirmed most of what I already thought was so about money for schools and education. He also mentioned that he and President Marchant felt that the branch presidents needed to be trained about welfare. They felt some presidents were too liberal with the funds but for the most part they were too stingy. I told him the president in Semarang had been in 5 years and did not seem to know he could use his petty cash for welfare relief and that if he needed more he could get it from the district. I later relayed what I learned to the Bennetts and suggested they check with the district as to the actual rules and then let their president know what he could do.

I talked to brother Tandiman about his CES directors looking into scholarships for students and he is going to do that. I imagine it will take a long time for anything useful to appear but perhaps by the time we leave we will have some useful information to distribute. I am sure there are lots of scholarships if we just know where they are. I also asked him about the possibility of giving Vita and Anna the Michigan test and he said that would be fine and he would get everything ready.

We went to SoGo to load up on orange juice, veggies, and other things. We bought some plain dinner knives for the Bennetts. It seems they have not found anywhere to buy them so they use little plastic ones. We will have the mission office send them with the next package. Of course we also visited BreadTalk.

We were back to the apartment in time for the cleaning ladies – we now get two – to come. Before they got there I was off in dreamland for a nap. It was much shorter than ususal but I think that is good. I spent the rest of the day catching up this journal and sending some e-mail. We finally got a nice reply from Nancy Campbell, so I wrote back about our trip to Semarang.

We read from the Kitab Mormon – 2 plus pages. Then I tried to go back through what we had read and learn the words we did not know and a few Mary knows but I still do not recognize. Hopefully before we leave I can at least read the language.

July 27 to July 29 –

We took a three day trip to Semarang to see some of the programs that the Bennetts are involved in and to put on a couple of programs about self-employment and preparing for a career. Semarang – a city that is either a 45 minute airplane ride or a 12 hour car ride from Jakarta. We chose to fly of course.

We arrived in Semarang at about 9 and after we went to the Bennetts’ home to drop off our luggage and talk for a while we went a district meeting and found out the two missionaries in Semarang were Elders Widodo and Hendaryono – two old friends from Tangerang District. Elder Bennett was surprised when Elder Widodo spoke to me in English – he does not do this often and had never responded when Elder Bennett spoke to him. Elder Hendaryono is a tremendous elder and I am hoping that by the time he is released there will be able to either go to BYUH or to one of the good Hotel schools.

After lunch, we went to see a school that they are excited about. A 76 year old man has started it and he is attempting to build it up enough that the government will start giving it some money. Until then he would like the church to donate about $6000 to help get some needed equipment. In looking over the proposal I told the Bennetts that I thought it was really inflated and besides the Humanitarian funds can not be used in this way. I told them they should try the Rotary Club and see if they would get involved. I will ask Elder Peterson about it, but I am pretty sure I know his answer.

The last activity of the day was to observe an English class that the Bennetts are teaching to help prepare Indonesian leader to speak English. They have over 30 people coming to the classes and while I think Mary and I would teach it differently, they seem to be doing a good job. They are preparing to become the first stake in Indonesia and therefore all instruction will come to them in English. Before we turned off the lights for the day, Mary and I read from the Kitab Mormon.

We spent the first part of Saturday at home – Mary and I read from the Kitab Mormon. Then we headed out to the fabric store so Mary and sister Bennett could buy some material. The one we planned to go to was closed for a holiday – one of about 100 they seem to have here each year – but they managed to find one that was open. Mary spent $20 for enough material to give her a whole new wardrobe. Elder Bennett and I sat and talked while the ladies shopped.

They then took us to lunch at a Korean BBQ. The food was good and the company better. After that we headed to the chapel for a full schedule of meetings. We got there a little early and all of us took a nice little nap. The first meeting was with people who were self-employed who wanted some help or some ideas on how to start or improve their business. We only had three people come for that, but by the time we had finished we at least had given some hope to a sister who was in great despair because she was about to lose her lease and her business. Elder and Sister Bennett will follow up on this and if everything holds together it should mean that she and another family will have a chance to make a decent income.

At five I spent an hour trying to encourage the youth and their parents to plan ahead as to careers with futures and to choose if possible the better schools where they have a good placement rate. Many of our young people go to universities do little more than give them a piece of paper and without any real chance to get a job. There was about 50 people there and other than the fact that I could not stop sweating and I managed to get blue ink all over my wet face, it went well. I was some folks taking notes.

When the hour was up we switched over to a program the Bennetts put together. A group of young ladies sang to music provided by a band consisting of a cello, a bass, a violin; two ukes. They were pretty good and full of enthusiasm. Then the youth put on a dance exhibition – they did the Virginia Reel and then Put Your Little Foot. The Bennetts teaches the youth dances on Thursday nights.

To end the evening I held one on ones with a half dozen of the members who had questions about education and other things. By the time we got home I was beat but it was a good day.

Sunday we went to church there and was surprised to see a young man that came from Semarang but has been training for a job in Jakarta. I had some time to talk to him and found that he had used information and techniques that we taught in a Career Workshop to get into a management training program that will allow him to have a great career. Even while he is training he is earning twice what a normal graduate would make and as soon as he finishes his training he will make 3 to 4 times as much. It means he will be able to marry, raise his family, and send his children to good schools. It is a true success story.

The meetings were as normal with Elder Hendaryono speaking in Sacrament and giving the lesson in Gospel Principles. The sister that spoke in Sacrament, used the Bennetts as an example of how we should care about and serve our neighbors. The Bennetts are loved by all the members because they know that the Bennetts love them. For the 5th Sunday meeting, the branch president gave a good talk about the need to have an emergency supply of food and about preparing to become a ward when the district becomes the first stake in Indonesia.

After a lunch of chicken wings, fried cabbage, potato salad and fruit – fried cabbage turns out to be pretty good – they took us to the airport for our flight home. The man who sat next to me did not seem to want to hold any kind of discussion so I left him alone. But as we were starting to de-plane I spoke to him and we talked all the way to the baggage claim where we parted as he went on to catch a flight home to Korea. We exchanged cards so I can e-mail him on Monday. As we waited for our luggage I struck up a conversation with a man who turned out to be rather high up in the state oil company. I talked to him about employment opportunities and schools that they recruited from. We exchanged cards and he said he would be happy to talk to me some more about the subject. So I got two good contacts from the trip but did not give out any pass-along-cards.

Sam was waiting and the trip home went well. It was great to walk into our apartment. The first thing I did was to turn on all the air-conditioners. Then I put in a load of laundry and we ordered pizza. The long trip finally caught up with Mary and so we only read for a half an hour before she headed off to bed.

 

26 July 2007 – Thursday

Today was a great day for us. We spent almost 12 hours away from the apartment – which is unusual. The morning was quite normal with our usual hour of reading the Kitab Mormon.

Our work day started with us going to the mission home where we picked up a lot of things to take to the Bennetts tomorrow. I had a long talk with Elder Subandriyo about some ideas on how to help returned missionaries either find a job or start a business. It is a sad story because so many of them have made no plans for the future and their families do not have the money for them to go to any kind of school to gain a skill.

After the mission home we drove over to Tangerang and picked up the T2 elders for a day of visiting in-actives. We had a great time. We only found one of them home, but while looking for one of them we found a contact and taught her the first discussion. I contributed a couple of things including having her read her favorite scripture and then one of the elders read their favorite. Elder Hadi Suyatmo is going to be a powerhouse – in fact he is already one – and he did most of the talking. The woman is the wife of a Christian preacher and she told us how she was part of a group who went out and tried to help others. I suggested she read Mosiah 2:17 about service – Mary said that after she read it she turned down the page so she could find it again. Mary asked that we sing ‘I am a child of God” to her and we did or at least the two elders and Sam did with us joining in on some of the chorus. It turned out she directed her church choir so when we left with an appointment to come back again next week, I suggested that the elders take her a copy of the song for her to use with her choir.

The only member we caught home was a woman who is married to a Muslim and she has not been out to church for a long time. Her sister happened to be visiting and we found out that she is not a member but their brother was an active member up in Bogor. The sister is looking for a job so I told her to call me and I would see if we could help her. She speaks good English so she might be able to get a job with Marriott.

By the time we had seen these two and tried to visit the other 3, it was time to go to the chapel for district meeting. It was a good meeting and we had a good lesson on finding. We did not have many for English class and we may need to change it to Friday night to get more there. We will run it by the branch presidents and see. I taught three of Agus and Catherin’s children and Mary taught mainly the Indonesian elders. Since there were so few there we had a short lesson so as not to burn them out.

It was Elder Wights last meeting before going home and it was Elder Smith’s hump-day. So after we closed up the church we took the elders to dinner at an Indonesian steak house. The food is quite good and plentiful. A dinner for all 7 us ran under $20. I could not have fed one of them at Out Back Steakhouse for that amount.

We made it home at about 9:00 and started packing for our trip to Semarang tomorrow. We are getting good at not taking too much so everything fit in one suitcase. As soon as we were done with that we went to bed. It was really a good day – it make us want to do more work with members and inactives.

26 July 2007 – Thursday

Today was a great day for us. We spent almost 12 hours away from the apartment – which is unusual. The morning was quite normal with our usual hour of reading the Kitab Mormon.

Our work day started with us going to the mission home where we picked up a lot of things to take to the Bennetts tomorrow. I had a long talk with Elder Subandriyo about some ideas on how to help returned missionaries either find a job or start a business. It is a sad story because so many of them have made no plans for the future and their families do not have the money for them to go to any kind of school to gain a skill.

After the mission home we drove over to Tangerang and picked up the T2 elders for a day of visiting in-actives. We had a great time. We only found one of them home, but while looking for one of them we found a contact and taught her the first discussion. I contributed a couple of things including having her read her favorite scripture and then one of the elders read their favorite. Elder Hadi Suyatmo is going to be a powerhouse – in fact he is already one – and he did most of the talking. The woman is the wife of a Christian preacher and she told us how she was part of a group who went out and tried to help others. I suggested she read Mosiah 2:17 about service – Mary said that after she read it she turned down the page so she could find it again. Mary asked that we sing ‘I am a child of God” to her and we did or at least the two elders and Sam did with us joining in on some of the chorus. It turned out she directed her church choir so when we left with an appointment to come back again next week, I suggested that the elders take her a copy of the song for her to use with her choir.

The only member we caught home was a woman who is married to a Muslim and she has not been out to church for a long time. Her sister happened to be visiting and we found out that she is not a member but their brother was an active member up in Bogor. The sister is looking for a job so I told her to call me and I would see if we could help her. She speaks good English so she might be able to get a job with Marriott.

When we walked out of this house we found a two man band and their trained monkey playing. They are loud and attracted a lot of people. I gave them 2000R which the monkey quickly reached out and took.

By the time we had seen these two and tried to visit the other 3, it was time to go to the chapel for district meeting. It was a good meeting and we had a good lesson on finding. We did not have many for English class and we may need to change it to Friday night to get more there. We will run it by the branch presidents and see. I taught three of Agus and Catherin’s children and Mary taught mainly the Indonesian elders. Since there were so few there we had a short lesson so as not to burn them out.

It was Elder Wights last meeting before going home and it was Elder Smith’s hump-day. So after we closed up the church we took the elders to dinner at an Indonesian steak house. The food is quite good and plentiful. A dinner for all 7 us ran under $20. I could not have fed one of them at Out Back Steakhouse for that amount.

We made it home at about 9:00 and started packing for our trip to Semarang tomorrow. We are getting good at not taking too much so everything fit in one suitcase. As soon as we were done with that we went to bed. It was really a good day – it make us want to do more work with members and inactives.