25 July 2007 – Wednesday

I woke about 4:30 and thought I was awake for the day. So I moved into the other room so as not to wake Mary and got lucky and went back to sleep for a while. I studied a little Indonesian and then cleaned up a pile of papers that I had acquired over the last couple of weeks. It is amazing how paper accumulates even here. This was mostly vocabulary lists – words I have studied again and again without internalizing. Elder Kane makes lists of about 70 words and studies them in his spare time. My lists – if I type them – tend to be about 30 words but I have words on scrapes of paper, backs of almost anything, etc.

Normal morning in most ways. Mary got birthday greetings from a few more people, including Tom. I drank orange juice for breakfast. It is somewhat strange that I have become such an orange juice fan. At home I would have a glass from time to time but hardly ever thought of going to the frig and just getting a drink of OJ. After breakfast we read from the Kitab Mormon and then got things together for the rest of the day.

We went to the office and found a couple of army trucks parked in the lot with a dozen or so soldiers with automatic weapons stretched out on the ground resting. It turned out that the president was speaking across the street and this was part of his guard. Sam told us that this always happens when he or someone very important is there. I was reluctant to take any pictures because I did not know how they would react. But I did wave and smile at them.

Mary spent most of her day finishing entering the names of those who have attended workshops so far this year. We will now need to get them into some kind of form so we can send them to the district specialists. While she did that I sent out a number of e-mails to try and establish resources for jobs. I really need to do much more of that and we need to make a list of those we contact, when we contact them and what they say. I had Sam get us lunch – Mary brought a sandwich because she still has not found anything she really likes around the office.

At 12:30 or so Lukito and Agus showed up for our monthly meeting and we discussed the workshops for the last of the year. I am determined that the Agus works with the district specialists to make these decisions but I am reluctant to just let it slide so I imagine we will still decide from the top down.

By the time we were finished with that it was time to go back to the apartment to rest a while before the Peterson’s came to take Mary out for her birthday dinner at Amigos. I studied a little Indonesian – I am trying hard to remember to do this often during the day in hopes that the vocabulary will start to become natural for me.

We were pleasantly surprised to find President and Sister Marchant in the car with the Petersons. It is certainly evident that each mission president is different but each are called by the Lord for just that difference. We spent the next three hours enjoying their company and conversation. In the last three weeks we probably have already spent about as much time and spoken more with the Marchants than we did in the 6 months we were here with the Jensens.  Although the president seems to be quite relaxed he is also right on top of things. He has a vision of what he wants to do and how he wants to do it. He talked about going out with the missionaries and riding the angkots.

We had a nice meal and afterwards the manager came over and introduced himself. I told him that we were in charge of finding jobs for our members and asked him what kind of people he was looking for. He said he would be glad to receive any resumes. I will send him a thank you note tomorrow. During our dinner I mentioned to the Marchants that I had become addicted to the fresh orange juice that I got at SoGo. The president was very interested and since there was a Heros in the shopping complex we went there to see if they had the same machine.

They did and so the president bought a liter. Then we wandered around the store and the president and brother Peterson got a referral from one of the customers. We bought some bologna and a plant for Sam to give to his mother for Indonesian Mother’s Day.The trip home took a while because the traffic was rather bad in spots.  It was a good night out and we had the opportunity to gather some important information and a good contact – and there was even some missionary work done.

 

Mary relaxing after hiking in the mountains with the Kanes to see the water project. A fisherman an Anyer beach. They perch on rocks, wade out on reefs, and surf fish. As I watched the surf fisherman, I could not help but think of mom and Dona with their poles standing in the water fishing the surf. I imagine there is a picture somewhere of the two of them. I will have to look when we get home.

24 July 2007 – Tuesday

Happy Birthday to Mary.  I gave her the necklace I bought a couple of weeks ago. After I gave it to her she confessed that she saw me go back to get it…well my intention was to surprise her. We had a nice call from Jim and Kristy wishing her a happy birthday. Jim has accepted a new job with Sears which sounds good and is in a growing department of the company. He gave us a good idea about our mission experience – we will see what we can do with it. Cindy had sent a e-mail card the night before.

We read from Kitab Mormon and managed about 4 pages – it is rather fun to be able to read 90- 95% of it without too much guessing or looking up words. We still make translation errors but that is OK – we certainly come close enough to know what is going on.

We went to the office and while Mary put in names of workshop attendees, I sent lots of e-mails out to try and get some resources and ideas for good careers. My hope is that by the time we leave, we will have a list of careers and schools that will help the young people make good choices about what they want to do the rest of their lives and the schools to go to if they want to be able to find a job once they graduate.

Since it was Mary’s birthday I took her to KFC for lunch. Not what you might call an elegant lunch but it was better than her making sandwiches or eating off the street. The Petersons are going to take us to dinner tomorrow night for her birthday. We wrapped things up at about 1 and we took Mary back to the apartment to wait for the cleaning ladies to come while Sam and I made a home teaching visit. This requires a 90 minute drive each way but the Salim and his son are always happy to see us. Johan Salim is the young man who I tried to make sure had a couple of good job opportunities when he came back from BYUH. He told me that he had a good interview with president Gjarot’s company and he is hoping to get an offer. If not he will start training for another job that I do not think uses his talents.

The father has a small business making a couple of parts for what I believe is a motorcycle company. He has this business for over 10 years and it has allowed him to raise his family in a decent house, give his children good educations, and I think provide some security for his future. If he did not have this business, he would – because of his age – probably be unemployed. The drive back actually took less time then going. I thought we would catch the home bound traffic but we must have been just in front of it.

When I got to the apartment I found that our regular young lady was sick so the agency sent 2 others to do the cleaning. I convinced Mary to go get her hair done while I stayed and supervised the cleaning. Actually since neither of them spoke enough English to even come close to being about to communicate, all I basically did was to pay them when they were done. Mary’s hair looks really good – she is wearing it very short so it is easy to take care of.

We had hot-dogs for dinner and then read about 3 ½ pages from the Kitab Mormon.

Sister Marchant asked me for some motorcycle load pictures that I had shown her on our camera yesterday and so I did. Later I talked to her and she thanked me for the pictures and said she had already forwarded them to her children. I mentioned I had a number more of them and asked if she would like them. So tonight I sent her five more. I realized that I really have not taken all that many pictures of motorcycle loads – they have to be rather spectacular before they are worth taking. Sometimes we see a good one but by the time I get out the camera it is long gone.

Diversion Day -Barat Zone, I want to have a house on that point – right now it is a restaurant, the Sisters had fun.

A toss and turn night – they seem to come in spurts – but I always went back to sleep. No one was on Skype – no one has been on for a number of days – also no Sunday letters from the grandchildren. But that is OK – we got a letter from Lynn Wardle letting us know about some of the things going on in the ward. He also mentioned that Brian borrowed his lawnmower – I guess ours is not working. I will have to ask Bob or Mike to take a look and see if cleaning out the sparkplug will fix that. Usually that is all it takes.

Today was diversion day for the Barat Zone and we certainly diverted from our regular missionary regime. Although Monday is our regular P-Day, we usually spend at least part of it doing something related to our call. But today we just relaxed as a zone and went to the beach all day.

We met at the mission home. We got there early and so we had some time to sit in the Peterson’s home and watch part of the Pioneer Day Celebration program from Saturday. BYUTV is the only English speaking program they can get on their TV.

When we loaded the bus, the elders sat in the back, the couples in the middle and the sisters in the front. Segregated seating was required according to mission rules. I was not surprised when President and Sister Marchant joined the outing – they are very much hands on and it was a very good way for him to become closer to a large group of his missionaries. They had come in from Surabaya late last night and did not get home until after midnight but they did not appear to be tired.

During the trip to and from the beach we had a great chance to talk to them about the mission, everyone’s history, and other things. It is one of the blessings of our calling that we get to see and talk to the mission president so much.

As you can see from the pictures the beach is long, white and clean. And since it is weekday, there is hardly anyone on it except fishermen, salesmen and us. The couples – except Mary who does not walk well in the sand – took a nice long walk down to the point. There was enough breeze to make it very enjoyable. And the rest of the day went the same. Mary had a great time gathering seashell by the seashore. One last picture of the whole zone and we left for home.

I thought everyone would sleep on the way back, but most stayed awake and talked. Elder Kane and got another chance to talk to the President – he and his wife are going to be wonderful leaders for the next 3 years. It is hard to believe they have only been here 3 weeks. It seems like they have been here forever.

By the time we got home, neither of us were interested in much except to grab something to eat – mine was bread and peanut butter – relax a little and head for bed. I read some from the Kitab Mormon but could not really concentrate. The day of sun and walking I think caught up with me.

 

If you zoom in on the side view you will see the duck just in front of the drivers knee looking right at you.

22 July 2007 – Sunday

Since we had to be on the road by 7:00 I obviously did not get a lot of sleep but managed to stay awake during all five hours of meetings. Most of the time we had an elder to translate for us – Elder Wight is very good and elder Smith tries really hard. The only class I did not have anyone translating is the one I would have very much liked to have been part of. However I did not want to disturb the class to ask Elder Wight to translate for me.

On the way we passed a motorcycle loaded with live chickens and ducks. I got a good picture where it is easy to see some of the birds looking around to see what where they are going. My guess is that they were all in stews by evening, but perhaps some were going to be used for laying eggs. None of them seemed to be in a state of panic or looked really worried.

Today was Branch Conference for Tangerang 1 and Mary played the piano for the regular songs and for the Primary Choir that sang the prelude music. We once again had the pleasure of meeting with President Lee’s family. This is now 3 weeks in a row where we have been in the same sacrament meeting. That is very unusual. There were some good talks – I really wish I could have understood all of sister Tandiman’s talk. She spoke so well and I could just feel her spirit and wise counsel.

After going to all three Tangerang 1 meetings, we switched to Tangerang 2 for SS and PH. The elders had a full house in the Gospel Principles class. Including 3 investigators and a number of newer members. Other than reading a couple of parts of the lesson we basically listened to an excellent lesson. Usually T2 priesthood meeting is quite good but today it was taught by a brother who is not fully active and he was not well prepared. Also the class obviously had not read the lesson – elder Jensen’s talk about hymns from April Conference – and no copies were handed out.

The trip home went fast because I kind of dozed in and out of sleep. After eating some lunch – not a well balanced one – Mary took a nap and I tried to read from PHG but soon found myself nodding but never going to sleep. After Mary woke she let me re-read the last 40-50 pages of Harry Potter. I had read them after midnight and I wanted to see if I missed anything.

Then we read from the Kitab Mormon before ordering dinner from the nice downstairs restaurant. With tip the meal runs about $10 and is worth every cent. I then posted yesterday’s journal and started on today’s.

Since I did not get much sleep last night nor a nap today, I was in bed by 9 and after reading only a little from PMG I was soon asleep.

 

Serpong Mall – new and busy.

21 July 2007 – Saturday

I woke at 4:30 but thought it was 5:30 so I got up and started to read the Kitab Mormon but drifted off. Later I studied from PMG before we did our companionship study by reading from the Kitab Mormon. We read just over 4 pages – we had a few more words to look up just to make sure we were correct. Mary had me set Total Recorder so we record the Pioneer Day special broadcast. We will be gone for most of it, but hopefully we will be able to listen to it when we get back tonight.

After an hour at the office, Sam and I went to Ambassador Mall and the bookstore where I parted with $35 for the latest Harry Potter book. I decided we needed to read it before we accidently heard or read about the ending. I told Mary it was part of her birthday presents but then figured out that would mean I could not read it until she was finished. Since I can read while we are traveling in the car and she can not, we will share by taking turns.

Once back at the office Mary started entering the backlog of workshop participants and since was using my computer, I read. After lunch we headed to Tangerang and the open house they are holding. We found that there were a few members there and the elders were doing well without us. So after talking to the elders for a while and saying hello to everyone – including Lukito who was holding a very poorly attended Career Workshop – we left.

Mary wanted to stop and see if the local BreadTalk had the bread she really liked, so Sam drove us to what has to be one of the nicest mid-priced mall in Jakarta. It was really busy – it would be interesting to see how it was during the week – and very new. They had a very nice BreadTalk and while they did not have the wheat bread Mary was after they did have a loaf of the blueberry jam bread that was so good.

They had an 8-plex movie theater so we went up to see if they were showing the new Harry Potter film that just started showing here today. They were and we got in just before it started. The theater was one of the nicest we have ever been in. Big, comfortable seats in stadium rows, big screen, and brand new. We took Sam and we all enjoyed the film. I thought it was very good but very dark for young children. If they keep getting darker, I can not imagine what the last one will be like. I do not think there were 30 people in a theater that would hold 400 or more. But then it does cost almost $3 to get in and that is a lot of money here – a full days wages for a laborer. And in a few weeks they can watch a very good version on DVD – there is already a very bad copy available.

Mary found the store of her dreams – at least her Indonesian dreams. A real, live, completely stocked office supply store. She told me that they even have three ring binders – we have only seen 2 ring binders everywhere else. It really does look like Office Max – only it is cleaner and there is a lot more sales help.

Back at the apartment we spent the rest of the day we spent reading – me from PMG, Kitab Mormon and Harry Potter and Mary from Kitab Mormon and Harry Potter. Actually Mary spent most of the time cross-stitching while watching a movie on TV. We also listened to the recording I made of the Pioneer Day celebration. I bet it was spectacular to watch. I am still hoping that we get a DVD of the program.

We read 4 more pages from the Kitab Mormon and so we are moving right along. But it takes a fairly set amount of time to read out loud in Indonesian and English so about the only place where we are really improving is in translating. Not needing to look up so many words really helps. Mary is getting really good about figuring out when and to whom things are happening.

At about 8:30 I climbed into bed with Harry Potter and finished reading it some time after 1. I really liked the way she clears things up at the end – I wondered how she was going to do that.

 

Once or twice a week they change the floral arrangement in the lobby. I wonder how much it costs for this service but I can not imagine it being very much.

20 July 2007 – Friday

I woke about 4:30 but managed to get back to sleep and did not wake until almost 7:00. I did not realize I was so tired last night. We checked the mail and Skype but there was nothing new and no one was on Skype – everyone at home seems to be very busy this summer. But that is good – it means our family are out being families. After all when our children were young, we went away each summer for 3 to 5 weeks in the motorhome so we had lots of time together and we saw a lot of the West.

I had fallen behind in posting this journal so I caught that up. We started reading the Kitab Mormon again. We did 4 pages in an hour. Of course this is the part of the book we know quite well so we should be able to read it. But the encouraging thing is that we only had to look up maybe 10 words in the four pages and some of those we knew what they meant because of content but we did not really know the root words. It is the root words we need to master if we are ever going to be able to speak and hear Indonesian.

Mary is busy with her cross-stitch pattern that I bought earlier this week. She says that she thinks she will be able to finish it before we are released. I did not realize it was that major of a project when I bought it for her.

Our Fridays are a little relaxed – at least until we get names from the other branches and then they are likely to be very busy. District meeting went very quickly because the Assistants were gone, the couples had little to report and president and sister Marchant did not come in. We had a short lesson and were done in less than an hour.

Sam got us food from BYU – soup and sate for Mary and a huge meal for me. So big I had to bring some of it home. But it was really good with lots of tempe and cucumbers. The pickled cucumbers bring just the right balance to the meal. I must remember to take a picture of one of the meals I get off the street. I think the folks at home would find it interesting.

We touched base with everyone at the office – including the president who asked us if one of the couples who will be coming in August could stay with us for a few days. We told him sure. We will give them our room and we can either share the bed or I can sleep on the couch. Anyway we will figure out what to do with them.

After lunch it was a really quick trip to BreadTalk to get some bread and a few other things to tide us over until we leave next week. We were in and out in less than 10 minutes. We then headed back to the apartment. We had only been there about 10 minutes when Lukito showed up to get the things he needs for the Workshop tomorrow. I had just finished checking everything and realized that we had not put in any workbooks. So he drove me to the office so we could get them and then he drove me back.

That was a real adventure because he drives a 1986 Citron that looks like it has not been cleaned for a year. It also has lots of dings and scrapes – something you seldom see in a car here. Add that there was no air conditioning, the window only went down part way and the seat belt had to be tied together to look like it useful, and you get an idea of the great time I had. Thankfully the whole trip took less than 30 minutes. I can not imagine getting caught in a real traffic jam during the day in that car.

The rest of the afternoon was taking a nap and some personal reading from the Kitab Mormon. We then ordered our Friday pizza and read for 30 minutes or so until it came. We read another 2 ½ pages and will read again later. We only looked up a couple of words and only made a couple of mistakes about who or when in our translation. It feels really good – but 2nd Nephi and my friend Isaiah is coming up in a few days.

The pizza is really good – I am enjoying taking my time eating. I stretch it out to almost 30 minutes and try to savor each bite. We watch the end of mini-series on Hallmark called ‘The 10th Kingdom.’ It is OK but it is not going to replace Gulliver’s Travels.

I study in PMG – each time I read in this book I learn something new or see something in a new way. In the chapter about effective study, it says “Your gospel study is most effective when you are taught by the Holy Ghost.” I have often thought about the need to teach by the spirit and D&C 50 say that as a student we should listen by the spirit, but I do not think I have ever really thought about being ‘taught’ by the Holy Ghost as being part of personal studying. I have felt the spirit as I was studying but did not relate this to being actually ‘taught.’ More like I felt that it was testifying of what I myself was reading. But to be led by the spirit as to what to learn and how to learn seems to me to be different. It is rather like praying and being open to what the Lord says in return – that is teaching by revelation.

We watch part of a National Geographic’s program on tsunamis – each time I see another program about them I marvel at the idea that there is nothing man can really do to stop them. But we can build protective walls and warning systems so they do not kill so many people. However there is no way to build enough walls to really stop the destruction. It is hard to imagine what a 110 foot wall of water would do the California coastline. And if the event that triggered it was only 50 – 100 miles off the coast, it would hit in less than a half an hour.

We read for another 40 minutes from the Kitab Mormon – we read just over 9 pages today. Hopefully we can continue at an average of 6-8 pages per day so we will finish in less than 3 months. Now we just need to start trying to use the spoken language.

19 July 2007 – Thursday

I woke at about 5 and started to think about the telephone conference we could be part of this morning. I had almost decided not to bother, but felt there was a need. So at about 5:30 I woke Mary up by getting all the info to make the connection. For once I was able to get a connection to the US without a hitch.

I can not say that we learned a lot from the 90 minute meeting – we had almost no input but we did find that we had one of the highest contact percentage in the Asia area. It helps that we only have 14 students to follow. We did get a good idea about using SMS messages to stay in contact with the students to let them know we have them in mind.

The biggest thing that happened today was that we finished the Kitab Mormon. Right through Moroni 10 this morning. Mary said we would start again in the evening but I said no we get the night off and start again tomorrow.

We spent five hours at the office. A client came in and we got him up and running on Jobsdb. I hope he gets a good job – he is a 35 year old man who spent 6 years in the US and was baptized there. The Elders are working with his family and hopefully the mother will join. After he left we worked on a number of things that needed to be done. Mainly I wrote e-mails which seems to take much of my time. I had Sam go get food for me – I am becoming addicted to street food. It is much more interesting than tuna sandwiches.

After the office we headed to Tangerang and the district meeting. The elders were a little late but that was good because Mary was able to catch a short nap. I turned on the air-conditioning and tried to join Mary in napping but it did not work.

District meeting was good. Both sets of elders have some progressive investigators and there is hope for some baptisms next month. Unfortunately Elder Wight will probably go home before that happens but I do not think he minds because he is an excellent missionary. Elder Wight asked us to share our favorite scripture about the Atonement and I was embarrassed because I did not really have one. When I did think of one, one of the other elders came up with it first. So I ended up talking about the Jesus being alone both in the garden and on the cross. That the Spirit had to leave him so he could make the decision to let His Father’s will be done. This was one of the best – make that most spiritual – district meetings we have attended.

For the second week in a row, no one showed up for English class so we headed home early. Two of the elders needed a ride to an appointment so we took them part of the way. The trip back to the apartment went about normal as was the rest of the night.  Before bed I got a jump on the Kitab Mormon by reading the first three pages – there are still lots of words I have not put away in my memory but there more that I can now read.

My latest building pictures – This is what the front of the building looks like – It will be interesting to see how far along it will be when we come home. The most men I have ever seen working on it at one time is 7 and that was because there was a crew of 4 working to make and carry cement. Most of the time it seems there are just the same 3 men working.

18 July 2007 – Wednesday

We both slept in – that means we made it past 5:30 without waking up. The morning past slowly but we had a really good written chat with Bob via Skype. He could not find his microphone but that was OK. There was no static on the chat feature. It sounds like his family is doing fine – that is always good news. We read from the Kitab Mormon but we only got through 3 pages. I guess no matter how good we get, it takes just so much time to read everything three times including translating. It will be interesting to see how we do the next time through.

We got an e-mail from Brian asking about a volcano that he read about going off in Indonesia. It is about 2000 miles away from Jakarta, but we are glad he was worried. About the only thing that we are worried about is the heat and an earthquake.

Sam picked us up about 10 and we went to the mission home where we managed to see everyone except President Marchant. We made arrangements for our trip to Semarang, dropped off the PEF information Mary accumulated yesterday, talked to translation about some things that we wondered about from the Kitab Mormon, and we talked to brother Tandiman about firesides in the Surakarta area to train leaders about PEF.  It was a very productive is short visit.

Next we went to SoGo for groceries and BreadTalk – unfortunately we were too early to get most of the things we really went for. We decided to visit the other grocery store in the mall and found a few other things we needed. They have a BreadTalk knock-off but it is a poor knock-off and so it does not do much business. They only have 2 bakers where BreakTalk has a dozen – it is also not bright and clean looking like BreadTalk.

We went to the office where we had lunch from the street and took care of some things that we needed to do today. After that it was back to the apartment for the day. Starting next week we should be busy all day, every day with visits to less-actives. We now have a list from one of the branch presidents and hopefully we will soon get ones from the other two. We will try to correlate our visits with the missionaries and perhaps we can get a few people back to church.

We also need to start working hard on resources for school and jobs here in Jakarta. We have not done enough in that area. I guess I am reluctant to start cold calling firms and asking for their HR director. But I am starting to think that is the only way we will ever get this Employment Office really moving.

I made a movie of some of the traffic, but nothing really captured the feeling. I think the only way I will really get it down is to have Sam drop me off at the corner of a busy intersection during morning rush hour and take a long video. I need one of those scenes where 50 – 100 motorcycles are all start up from a stoplight at one time and then comes all the bumper to bumper cars with motorcycles weaving in and out of them.

In the evening we read twice from the Kitab Mormon and tomorrow morning we should finish. We have learned a lot of language since we started some 4 months ago. We have also read many things I had not really noticed before. We have learned that it is very difficult to translate English into Indonesian and then to translate it back to English. We have seen the differences in how the writers used words and what words they chose to use. We may not have been blessed with the gift of tongues but we have been blessed with a greater love for the Kitab Mormon.

 17 July 2007 – Tuesday

Well not going to sleep until about midnight caused me not to wake up until almost 6. Mary slept until almost 7 – she woke in the middle of the night and could not get back to sleep for quite awhile. By the time we got ready for the day, there was not much time for studying Indonesian before we read from the Kitab Mormon. We did not get through many pages because we had to look up words that we should have known from our early reading but which have not been used for many pages. As I thought about this it brought home the fact that different writers use different words to say about the same things. So as Moroni quotes his father’s sermons, he starts using words that Moroni used earlier when he commented on the writings he was abridging.

We are in the office waiting for Sam to come back with some print cartridges so we can finish up what we need for tomorrow. It has been a very busy and in someways frustrating day.

Sam and I left Mary at the office – there were workmen on the grounds so I felt she would be safe – and went to the mall to get some print cartridges filled and to do a couple more errands. Of course just as we got there I realized I had left the phone bill back in the office so that meant another trip back.

After we dropped off the cartridges, Mary called to tell me that a client had walked in to get some help applying for a job. Fortunately he spoke good English so she was able to work with him and I said we would get back as quickly as we could. When we checked about the cartridges they said it would be about an hour, so we decided to come back to the office and help Mary and Sam could go back for the cartridges and to pay the bill.

Frustration #2 showed up when we could figure out how to resize the brother’s picture so it would fit in the Job DB resume. We even have the instructions that Elder Lieshmann left and it still would not work. So we told the brother to come back tomorrow.

I kept busy sending out e-mails about PEF – there are enough layers of leadership involved that everything takes lots of writing back and forth and of course time to get something done. This is good because everything is checked and re-checked before a decision is made and the Lord’s money is spent. But also means that for most things, nothing can be done quickly.

Mary has spent her time updating the PEF loan files. We only have 13 loans out. I can not imagine what it is like to have 8,000 as they have in Brazil. It must take a lot of volunteers to keep up the records – let alone process loans.

Sams back and we are out of here…more later

 

I have mentioned that anytime we see a small open area and there are any young people around, the odds are that there is a soccer game going on. The other national pastime seems to be kite flying. If there is any wind at all the sky will be dotted with small darting kites. They are much smaller than those in the US and do not have tails so they can be moved around quickly – they like to fight kites. Because of their love for kites, often you will see trees and phone lines decorated with kites that got too close. It reminds me of Charlie Brown’s kite eating tree.

16 July 2007 – Monday, Monday

I woke early again – it seems to be alternating – and could not go back to sleep. What a shame since there was no reason to get up early today. P-days are not my favorite days because I do not feel we should keep Sam busy on what should be his day off. However I also can not stand the idea of staying home all day so we compromise and go out for a few hours in the morning and then give him the rest of the day off.

Normal morning except there was no one on line this morning for us to even try to Skype. Cindy is now doing a good job keeping up her blog so we know pretty much what is going on there. Especially when she puts in pictures like the one about the birthday/swim party this weekend. Shauna sends us a letter each week and that is great. Kristy posts occasionally on Olivia’s blog so we have an idea of what happens there. Bob and different members of his family usually send us an e-mail each week and that is great but we could use more – grandparents can always use more letters while on missions.

We read from the Kitab Mormon – the part of Ether that I tend to skip when reading it in English. I must confess that I do not see what we learn from the details of how the Jaredites were finally destroyed. But there must be something there that I miss that is important for others. Soon we will be in Moroni which will be a treat and a great finish.

A communication problem kept Sam waiting for 30 minutes. We forgot that he had the keys to the car so he did not have to come up. When 9:00 rolled around and he had not shown up, Mary said that she thought I told him 9:30. So we waited until about 9:20 when all of a sudden I realized that he did have the keys and probably had been waiting for us. I quickly called and found out that was the fact. So we grabbed everything and headed down to the lobby.

We first went to T1 house and found that they were getting their house painted – at least one room. It turns out that the lease is about to come due and so the landlord is going to have to fix it up to if they want the church to renew for two more years. Hopefully this means all the plumbing gets fixed, etc. We really need a true handyman for keeping the missionaries houses in repair. We had a nice talk with the elders as we toured the house and found that they had a good turnout of investigators on Sunday. That is great news and hopefully Elder Wight will have at least one more baptism before he is released.

After that we stopped by a mall to go to a BreadTalk but they did not have what we wanted so we wandered around the mall and looked for other bakeries. There were a number of them and we got a few things but not what we were looking for. We will go to the other BreadTalk on Thursday.

While we were driving I got a call from brother Burr who is the area director for PEF. He needed us to send in some figures so he could send in a report. I explained that I had already prepared them but was just waiting for Elder Subandriyo and President Marchant to sign off before I sent them. As soon as I hung up with him I called the two of them and they both said what I had written was fine. So we went to the office so I could send it in an e-mail. While I was getting that ready, Mary wrote to ask how we could join in the video/phone conference that is going to be held on Thursday. I could only send half of what was needed because the other half was in a form I could not open at the office. So we closed up and came home.

I quickly sent off the rest of the information and a couple of hours later we got a response that Hong Kong had sent everything off to Elder Cook. Now we just have to wait to see if the Prophet will approve the program for Indonesia. Unfortunately there may still be a banking problem but that is out of our hands now. The Lord will have to work things out in that area – but I suspect if the Prophet approves it, people will get things moving.

Since then I have been napping, reading from the Kitab Mormon – not very well as it turns out – writing a few e-mails, and ducking out to the living room from time to time to see ‘Something about Mary’ that launched Cameron Diaz to the big time. While most of this was going on the cleaning lady came and got rid of a lot of dust and stuff that seems to accumulate on the floor each week. The important thing is that she gives the bathrooms a real cleaning and mops the floors.

We got a note from the management saying that they are installing a bathroom in the lobby area. It will take about 75 days and since we are just one floor above the lobby it is going to be noisy at times.

After a dinner of hotdogs – with real Oscar Meyer franks – we read from the Kitab Mormon. We are into Moroni and should finish by Wednesday or Thursday. I decided I would stay up late so perhaps I could get some solid sleep so I watched some mindless TV, read from the Kitab Mormon and finished by reading some of the Half Blood Prince. She certainly has a lot to clear up in the last book – it should be a lot of fun to read. I finally turned off the light just before midnight.