Note that these 3 – 4 workers seem to be the whole framing crew.
I have been meaning to write something about the building techniques here in Jakarta, and I imagine everywhere else in Indonesia. It has been a real education to watch buildings going up. There are small projects – buildings of 2 to 4 floors – and large ones 20 – 40 floors but of course some in-between. There is one, that I think is going to be about 4 floors, going up right next to the chapel so we have watched it grow each day.

The first thing that is interesting to watch is how few people work on even a major building most days. Most of the time it looks like very little or nothing is going on. There will be huge skeletons of buildings with a half dozen people working. Of those probably 3 were actually working and 3 were sitting around or sleeping. It seems amazing that anything gets finished – but it does. It is almost like that a crew of elves come in at night and finish the work.

The second interesting thing is the use of bamboo. If a building is under 4 floors, all the scaffolding is usually made of bamboo that is tied together. Ladders, crossbeams, and anything else needed to work on the building is mainly bamboo. And of course this is not only on buildings but wherever there is a need for a ladder, or something to stand on, it will 9 times out of ten be made of bamboo.

Third is the way they frame a multi-floor building. Usually they lay a concrete floor, then they put up columns around and with in the structure at what looks like about 10 to 15 feet. Then once the columns are up they put down another concrete floor, and then more columns, until you have a skeleton of a building. The next step is to fill in the blank spaces – a except where there is going to be windows – which is often only in the front of the building – with bricks and mortar. They use lot of cement between the bricks. They do not need to be too neat here because the finishing coat – both inside and out is a thick layer of concrete. Which makes hanging things really interesting because you are always driving nails into concrete.

There is not much in the way of machines used. You do not hear the buzz of many power tools because so much is still done by hand. I watched a group of brick layer working on the third floor of a building. The mortar was mixed by hand and then carried up two flights of bamboo ladders in buckets. The hod carriers get paid about $3 a day and there is no such thing as paid vacation or workman’s compensation.

In most building we have seen they use very little wood except for framing, doors and cabinets. Floors are almost universally tiled. This makes a lot of sense since the amount of moisture in the air, the rain and the number of floods they have would mean they would be replacing the wood every couple of years. Also tile is cooler – something that is very important here.

I am including a few pictures of the building next door. The most I have seen working on it was 3 people and you can see the bamboo scaffolding, the concrete columns and the brick work. I am hoping that it will be finished by the time we leave so I can show the finished product.

This is a better picture of the Zone – we can be seen clearly.
07 July 2007 – Sabtu

I woke at 5:00 and tried to go back to sleep without any success. So I studied some Indonesian and later switched to reading D&C 18 and 19. These are two great sections that contain a lot of things to think about. Often I think 18 is only quoted because of ‘the worth of souls’ verses but there is a lot more in the other verses. As I read 19 this time I found more good words of counsel. I am greatly enjoying reading the D&C word for word.

After breakfast – a nourishing one of cold pizza and orange juice – I finished yesterday’s journal, added some pictures and posted it to the blog. I figure I spend about 30 minutes or so a day writing and posting this journal. Hopefully it does some good for the rest of the family and anyone else who takes the time to read. Next we read the Kitab Mormon – we still are not able to read more than 3 or so pages an hour. Today it was in Mormon where Moroni is describing the churches at the time that the information on the plates he is writing will come forth again.

We spend 5 hours at the office and not even a phone call comes in. However we did a lot of things that needed doing, including Mary giving a piano lesson. After hearing president Marchant talk about using “Preach My Gospel” as a way for native missionaries to study English, I decided to use it to study Indonesian. Some paragraphs I can pretty much read but others take a lot of looking up. I am going to continue working on vocabulary which is the only way I am ever going to get to where I do not need the electronic translator so much. For the last hour we read from the Kitab Mormon – a good way to spend our time there.

Back at the apartment we both take a nap and then it is back to studying Indonesian. Mary did more needlepoint and watched TV. I can not say that I really did much studying – I was trying to read from PMG and it is harder than I think it should be so I am afraid I got a little antsy and kept getting up and finding something else to do instead of sticking to it. Later we read from the Kitab Mormon – we are now into Ether and at least the first part is quite easy to translate. We have just about 50 pages left and if we read an average of 7 pages a day we will make it by the 15th.

Before turning off the lights, I read more in the D&C. I read D&C 20 carefully – it has been a long time since I have read this section word for word. I knew that in the early days of the church it was read at the start of every sacrament meeting. I guess the Lord wanted to make sure that each member understood how the church came to be, the basic principles of the church, the organization and duties of the priesthood, the basic principles and ordinances and how they were to be performed, etc.

What caught my eye was the warning found in verses 33&34 about how the members of the church, no matter how sure they are of their testimonies, must be careful of falling into temptation and becoming estranged from God. It is a good warning to remember.

Another of the floral arrangements that appears in our lobby on a regular basis. Our Indonesian friend Rudi who we are friendshipping. He has a great spirit and hopefully sometime before we leave, we will see him join the church. But if not we will still have been enriched by knowing him.
6 July 2007 – Friday

I have found that if I stay up until after 10:30 I manage to sleep through the night. However I am going to start going to bed earlier because I have decided that I really must get back to exercising in the morning. President and Sister Marchant emphasized the need to stay healthy and part of that is to exercise. I would guess that the president was not big on this before he got his call.

We had an extra hour this morning because we do not leave for the district meeting until after 10. Usually we do not have district meeting right after zone conference but Elder Decker has decided to call one. Anyway we read from the Kitab Mormon and then I studied vocabulary by reading from conference talks and going through my flash cards. It is strange how some words immediately stick and others vanish as soon as I turn the card.

Mary found this on one of the ESL sites: Two cows are standing in a field. One cow goes, “Mooooo!” The other cow goes, “Baaaaa!” The first cow turns round and says, “What are you doing?” The second cow says, “Practicing my foreign languages.” She sent it to all the couples.

We had a great district meeting. We got to the mission office early and found president Marchant in a short sleeve shirt talking to the office elders. I took advantage of his open door to talk to him about the idea of the Indonesian missionaries spending more of the time while at the apartment to learn English. I mentioned that I thought there was a need for them to include in their weekly letter how much they used their English. I told him about the English grammar book we felt they should use and he came up with the great idea of also having them read from Preach My Gospel. I think that sometime down the line, released missionaries will be much better at speaking, reading and understanding English than they are now. Then maybe we can use the Intensive English Class to do the final preparation for passing the Michigan test.

What made the district meeting great was that it was almost all done in English so we could follow most of it and we were able to contribute. We had been in the meeting for about 15 minutes when the president came in and sat down. He listened, asked questions and made suggestions. I mentioned that most new converts were not given a calling or job in the church to give them a reason to come to church. Also that they should have a home teacher assigned even before they were baptized. The president agreed and had elder Merrill make a note of this so the president could talk about that in the other zone conferences. We mentioned that we would have more time to go out with the missionaries if needed.

I talked to the president about his love for gardening. It turned out that the picture we saw at zone conference with him on a tractor was taken at his mother’s house where they have about 1 ½ acres. He has been planting a garden there for years. Some of his son-in-laws have taken over the task while they are on their mission.

While we were in the meeting, Sam went and got food from BYU. So we had lunch waiting for us. Mary had soup and I had a ton of food with lots of rice and some of the spiciest tempe that I have ever tasted. It was delicious. I forgot to mention that the office was really empty. It seems that many of the staff were going to Solo to go to a wedding – I am not sure who but it certainly emptied the office.

Our next stop was to pay a visit to our friend Rudi’s home. We had not been there for over two months and I told him we felt bad about that. He mentioned that it was just as well as he had an operation and had been recovering almost all that time. He is now fine and at 74 is sound in mind and body. He mentioned that he had read a newspaper article that mentioned that Joseph Smith had been killed because he supported polygamy. It interested him enough that he called one of his ’nephews’ who is a member of the church and he had sent him the book that the institute uses for teaching church history. It is a great book and hopefully he will read it.

I took the opportunity to make sure he understood that at the time the church was practicing polygamy it was not illegal in the US and that once they had passed a law that made it illegal and it had been upheld by the Supreme Court, the Lord had released the church from that practice. I wanted to make sure he understood it was not some black mark on the church.

He then mentioned that he had read that the church was very financially strong. This led into a discussion of tithing and that was why the church was so financially well off. We then got into missionary work and how people were called to serve. He understood this completely and even came up with the Dutch word for ‘call’ as related to doing the Lord’s work. We then talked about how we had been called and that we, and every other missionary for the church, paid their own expenses while on a mission. He then asked if that meant we paid for our housing and food, and we told him that we paid everything. He was really touched by this and I think we moved to a new plateau in his mind.  Before we left we had Sam take a picture of us together and I will make a copy and frame it so we can give it to him the next time we visit. It felt and still does feel good to do some missionary work.

After meeting with Rudi, we came home where I immediately took a nap. Since then Mary has worked on her cross-stitch and watched TV. I studied a little Indonesian, wrote in this journal, and looked around the world with the computer. I found that Olivia’s blog had a new posting of some great pictures. This morning Cindy’s blog had a letter from Tyler for us and I answered that. It is great to see pictures of the family and read about them on the blogs.

We ordered in our usual Friday night pizza – I think they have decided we are regulars so they are putting on lots of cheese. It was extra good tonight. I decided to take my time eating so I managed to stretch it out over the best part of an hour. That way I got to enjoy each bite and yet not eat any more than usual.

After dinner we read from the Kitab Mormon. I must say that I was not really in the mood to read tonight but did suggest it because I knew it was not the Lord who was telling me it would be OK to skip it this evening. Earlier in the day I realized that we are basically reading the Book of Mormon three times in 5 months – once out loud in Indonesian, then once as we translate it into English, and finally when I read it out loud in English. I would not say this is the best way to study, but I doubt if most people every search out each word as carefully as we must do when translating the Indonesian. We are down to under 60 pages – which is 10 – 15 days of reading. Then we will take one day off and start again.

Before turning off the lights I study some Indonesian and then read from the D&C. D&C 18 contains a lot of important information – I had marked most of them the first time I read it last month, but reading them again re-enforced my thoughts. 18:19 especially struck me and I wondered if I had these qualities or perhaps better if I had them more often as not. Of course the famous and most quoted part is the verses about the worth of souls. But 18:18 gave me pause and reminded me how I needed to be close to the spirit to have “manifesteth all things which are expedient unto the children of men – I think the important word here is expedient. The Holy Ghost reveals that which we need and understand rather than just pouring out things unto us. So as I pray I need to ask for those things that will help me and other draw closer to Christ and God – what I can do today to achieve the goals the Lord knows I need to work toward.

Bookending the day with scripture study is something I do not believe I have often done in my life. I truly think I have missed much by not doing this more often and I hope that my grandchildren will learn the value of this in the youth. That brings me to Alma and his advice to his son Helaman found in Alma 37:35 about learning wisdom while we are young.

The work is true and the blessings of serving a mission for the Lord can not be measured. Like most experiences in the kingdom, unless you have served you can not understand what those who have are talking about. I just am so sorry that we did not do this 10 years ago so that we would have those 10 years of blessings that we would have received.

Our new mission president and his wife speaking to Elder Wight. I thought Mike might enjoy a picture from a few weeks ago when we gave free eye-exams and glasses to members and non-members. Finally there is a picture of the Zone with the President and Sister Marchant.
05 July 2007 – Thursday

I had another good night of sleep. Maybe reading the D&C before dropping off gives me a special blessing for sleep. Whatever it is, it is nice. Normal morning except we need to be ready to leave at 8:15 to go to Zone Conference. So we do not read for a full hour and I do not get as much time in reading the D&C.

Today is president and sister Marchant’s first zone conference and we are anxious to meet them and to see what they are like. We are among the first into the chapel and so we get to spend a few minutes saying hello. He is not wearing a suit coat – since he was a missionary here for over 2 years he knows well how hot it will get. The assistants have the air-conditioning going full blast so it is actually a little chilly.

The first half of the conference is different because instead of two or three speakers, the president had each of the missionaries – including the couples – speak for 3 minutes. Mary talked about the English program and I shared my thoughts about D&C 1:17-23 and how it seem to apply to the Indonesian mission. I felt good and think that I have the basis for a good future talk.

Lunch was excellent and I had a nice chat with Elder Kane. When we were done Elder Kane and I went to get the copies of book that he had made for me. This was the book on small business practices that Steve Gibson wrote and said that I could copy. As we sat in our office, president Marchant came in and joined us for a few minutes of discussion. He is so relax and easy to talk to. He mentioned that he had never been a bishop, in a stake presidency or even in a high-council and here he was the mission president with authority over districts and branches.

When I asked him about his call he said he had a feeling that it was coming. He also spoke about those first days and months as one of the first missionaries here. There was one member – who had been baptized in Singapore – in all of Indonesia. There was nothing translated into Indonesia, none of the missionaries knew a word of Indonesian, and there was no way to really communicate with the president in Singapore. Getting a phone call through to the mission office took two days. He never called home at any time during his mission because it cost $3 a minute – and that was 1970 $1 which I guess would be about $20 – $30 a minute now. They had $100 a month to live on but that was really a lot of money in those day – about $2000 in today’s money.

Sister Marchant is a truly motherly type. Little if any makeup, her hair is not dyed, and her clothes are neat but plain. They said that they will be visiting all the missionary apartments – without warning. I can just see some of the missionaries hearing a knock on their door at 8 a.m. and finding the two of them standing on the step wanting to come in. It reminded me of hearing how Elder Subandriyo when he was mission president doing just that. The members are going to love this president.

Before the afternoon session started all the missionaries had their picture taken with the president and then a group picture. We of course were included. The president has a really nice Nikon film camera. As usual the afternoon training session had little meaning for the couples. Mary fell asleep for part of it and I tried to.

We had plans to go to dinner with the Kanes but it turned out that they had to take the sisters back to Bogor and since last night they had kept their driver out until 11 p.m. they thought they should not stay late tonight. It seems most of our plans with them fall through. But to tell the truth I was rather glad because I wanted to get home and relax.

Unfortunately I could not go to sleep so I posted some pictures on the mission website, posted yesterday on our blog – Cindy is doing a good job keeping up her blog and Krista posted a letter to us there, looked at some e-mail, and read a little from the D&C. We ordered dinner from the restaurant and then we read our hour from the Kitab Mormon. It seemed easy reading but it took a long time. Mainly trying to figure out the word pattern so that it made sense.

So here is my teaching picture that seems to have not made it before.  The picture of the sheep and the goats are for Olivia to show we have petting zoos here, only the animals are not in pens.
04 July 2007 – Wednesday

Happy 4th of July at least here in Jakarta…no fireworks however. It started well for me – I slept in until after 5. I guess I just need to stay up until close to 11. Mary did not sleep well – she took her turn of waking at 3 and not being able to go back to sleep. Finally working at reading Harry Potter in Indonesian wore her out enough to let her drop off.

I spent the first hour studying Indonesian vocabulary – only about 15 words but I am going to stick with them until I get them implanted in my mind. Then I switched to the D&C for the next hour and while drinking breakfast. Reading out loud really slows things down and that is good.

D&C 3 came alive for me this time. It is interesting that the second record revelation is basically about God rebuking Joseph for letting the world govern his actions instead of Him. As I read 3:4 I thought how this applied to me – how often have I rationalized my actions.

What really hit me as I read was D&C 5. It got me really thinking about faith and how it is a function of our relationship with God. The closer our relationship, the stronger our faith and the more we are likely to seek His counsel in ‘all our doings.’ It allows us to step into the darkness and not just hope that He will provide the light we need to guide us but ‘know’ that He will even if there is no evidence other than the prompting of the spirit. As we gain a closer relationship with God and Christ by becoming more Christ like, we will draw closer to the spirit and as the scriptures promises we will become one with them.

As we do that our relationship with others, such as spouse, children, and those around us, will become stronger as we do that which Christ would do. We stop arguing because we listen more than we speak and when we do speak it is to draw us closer, not to win a point. This is something I really need to work at.

***An hour later I read an article in the paper by Marshall Goldsmith that counseled that many leaders do not know when to shut up. To learn that it is as important to know what not to say as it is to know what to say. I am going to look for the book that this article came out of – I think I really need to know more about learning to be quiet. As I was writing this, I thought of Elder Holland’s talk on the misery the tongue causes to our spouses and our children. Perhaps I need to spend more time listening and less time talking. To encourage and not to discourage others and their ideas. Maybe there should be a book called ‘The wisdom of silence.’

Mary’s time at the office was spent cleaning up and organizing the paperwork from the English class. I spent most of my time creating review sentences for the vocabulary. I also started organizing our trip to Semarang to learn what the Bennetts are doing and to talk to the students and their parents about preparing for the future. We hope to go for three days sometime this month. Unfortunately no one came in to office for help. But we did get quite a lot accomplished.

I forgot to mention that yesterday Sam gave me a new cell phone that brother Park donated. He said it as a used one but I think it was brand new. Anyway Sam spent most of his time putting in all the numbers and learning how to use the phone so he could teach me. I have decided that somewhere deep down inside I have a aversion to cell phones and PDAs that will not allow me to learn to use them properly. It is like the veil that keeps us from remembering our pre-mortal life. I am hoping that there is no need for electronic devices when we get to the other side. But the new phone is neat. It includes a camera and lots of fun functions.

After we had finished at the office we decided to do our shopping at SoGo.  Mary wanted to buy a book for Jin-young and look at a new BreadTalk knock-off that she had read about. The traffic was a little heavy but it did not take an hour like it did last week.

Once we were through there and back home, we settled into our usual evening routine of reading and answering e-mail, looking at Cindy and Olivia’s blogs, writing in my journal, watching TV, etc. Later we read another hour from the Kitab Mormon and I read a little from the D&C before turning off the lights.

03 July 2007 – Tuesday

The Lord seems to think that I need to study Indonesian at 3 a.m. – at least that how it has been for the last couple of nights. I must say that it is a good time to study – there is not much else I can do at that time except sleep and that is not in the cards. I usually managed to study for about an hour before becoming tired enough to drop back to sleep. Today I woke for the second time before 6. I then did my morning Indonesian study.

We did not need to be at the office until 10 so we had 90 extra minutes to use this morning. I used my time studying Indonesian by trying to translate conference talks and learn the vocabulary words I had yesterday. Elder Kane said he found that he could absorb only so much vocabulary at a time. We kidded that it seemed that every time we got remembered one word, we forgot two. Sometimes it really seems that way. We read from the Kitab Mormon – we made it to 4th Nephi so the end is definitely in sight. Reading went quite fast this morning – Isaiah is behind us.

There was a letter from Tom saying that Kelli had an assignment to tell about her earliest LDS ancestor. That is who was the first to join the church. Mary checked and thought it was Joseph Young – Tom wrote later and had found it was Joseph and Brigham’s father.

Sam and Mary dropped me at the office and headed off to Carrefore to buy a wireless phone and some things for the office. While they were gone I wrote a number of e-mails and things like that. Later Mary cleaned up the remaining class material and now we at least have it all in categories. As usual no one came in but we did have one person call to tell us they could not get into their Jobsdb resume – I checked and got in fine. It turned out he had a really slow connection – it is hard to believe any connection is slower than ours – and was not patient enough.

We have not quite adjusted to the fact that there is no classes to worry about. We tried to make an appointment to go see Rudy but we could not find his phone number. So we just came home after office hours. I spent much of the time studying Indonesian – I am trying to catch up for my being lazy over the last few months on learning new vocabulary. Mary bought the first Harry Potter book in Indonesian and started to read it. I continued with conference talks and flash cards. And of course we both took naps. I always sleep longer than Mary, so she kept busy by writing her monthly letter to friends and family. She wrote mainly about our English class.

Dinner was rice and veggies for me. I continue to enjoy rice and almost anything. I can see why they say a meal is not a meal unless there is rice. Mary is not interested in rice unless it has stroganoff over it – she prefers beans. I also really like pasta as a base for just about anything or alone.

We read for usual hour in Kitab Mormon – we read all of 4th Nephi. Now it is on to Mormon and Ether with all those wars, immorality, and death. After that we tried to find something on TV but it there was nothing interesting. Mary went to bed and I stayed up to read the D&C again. This time I am reading it out loud so I do not skim over parts that do not seem interesting. I decided that I was probably missing some important things and there was no rush to get through it. Time is one thing we seem to have.
As I started to read the D&C I asked the Lord to help me find what I needed to learn. Right from the first I found that parts of D&C 1 that did not really strike when I read it about a month ago, stood out this time. I especially was interested in verses 17-23 which tells why the Lord restored His church at that particular time – this included ‘that my everlasting covenant might be established. But the first reason given is ‘knowing the calamity which should come upon the inhabitants of the earth.’ I found it interesting that He did not say ‘calamities’ but calamity.

Reading the scriptures seems to focus my mind on what is important in my life. It is much too easy to get caught up in the pleasing but unimportant activities that I do, instead of looking for the joyful and important activities the Lord would have me do so I could be blessed. It is not that I am doing anything particularly wrong as much as I am wasting the precious time He has given me to make a difference in world and in my life – to do things for which I will be blessed.

02 July 2007

Hello Everyone – Greetings from Indonesia

We have just finished our Pilot Intensive English Class which was held during the month of June. Our students were six returned missionaries and one 16 year old Korean girl from the English branch here in Jakarta. They entrusted their lives and well-being to us for one month and we hope that it has been a worthwhile endeavor for them.

Our students arrived on May 31 and moved into rooms which our driver, Sam, found for them within a 15-20 minutes walking distance from the Church. The rent for these rooms was paid for by a fund set up under Elder Subandriyo’s control which is for the benefit of returned missionaries. They were given 15,000 rupiahs per day – that is equal to about $1.75 – to pay for their food (also from this fund).

We started our classes promptly at 9:00 a.m. on June 1. The regular class schedule was 9-12, 2-5, and 6-8:30 every day. The students had Thursday afternoon and evening off to do laundry, etc. We started off by giving them a test which is a practice TOEFL test. (Teaching Of English as a Foreign Language) This test is a standard test which is given worldwide to test students readiness for admission to English speaking universities. This gave us some idea of where their abilities were and what we needed to teach them.

During the four weeks the students had homework most nights, focusing on reading from newspapers, church magazines, and short stories and then giving oral reports on them the next day in class. We also had grammar books which they could work in at their own pace, vocabulary lists which we worked on in class together, and reading comprehension activities and tests. The students were encouraged to keep a journal (in English) every day. They also reported each day on how much English or Indonesian they spoke each day both in class and out of class.

We were assisted in the teaching of these classes by Joel and Judy Guttormsen, Elder and Sister Peterson, Brother and Sister Moore, and Sister Mary from Tangerang. The Page and Willis families and Branch President Smith from the English Branch hosted the students several times for Family Home Evening and for dinner and activities in their homes. Brother Guttormsen was especially helpful having them over in the evenings three nights a week, teaching them through activities and games. Without this help we would have been basket-cases by the end of the month.

Two of our students were Anna and Vita, two young women from Yogyakarta. Anna’s family joined the church in 1984 after her father met Yusman Tandiman on the street in Yogyakarta. Anna’s most recent job has been working in a travel agency. Vita was our most outstanding student. She says that she wasted most of her high school years because her father told her that they had no money to send her to college so she did not bother to try to get good grades. She was like a sponge sopping up knowledge and we feel that she could do very well in college.

Eko is a young man who just last month was released as a missionary. Before he served his mission he finished his schooling as a veterinarian, but now finds that there are few jobs available in that field. We will need to work with him encouraging him to be creative in his looking. At times he seemed like his English was very poor, but them he would surprise me with great understanding. I feel that with just a little more work he could make great improvement.

Agus is from Semarang. He is a driver for Elder and Sister Bennett there and they gave him the whole month off to attend our class. He also is married and has an eight-month old daughter who learned to crawl while he was away taking our class. The Bennetts report that his confidence has gone way up and he is eager to share what he has learned.

Toni Mongan is from Bogor, which is just an hour away from Jakarta. At first Toni was not putting very much effort into the class, but after Elder Pier talked to him he was able to change his attitude and worked much harder.

Jin-young is our Korean girl. She wanted to take the class because after being in the English branch for two years, she still could not understand the lessons given each Sunday and wanted help preparing herself to take her graduation tests next year. She hopes to be able to attend BYU Hawaii. Jin-young was really out of her element at first. This was the first time she had been away from home and it really was a culture shock for her–living in a room with no hot water, sleeping on a sleeping pad on the floor, only being able to afford Indonesian Food, and being away from her family. At first she complained a lot (not to us) but she stuck it out and when her mother cried and wanted her to return home she refused and stayed the whole time. Her mother became very popular with the other students because after the first week she brought lunch to them twice a week–home cooked!

Jin-young was one of the students who showed the most progress. At first when she made a presentation it was almost impossible to hear her, she talked so softly. By the end of the four weeks she had gained great confidence and spoke quite well. Jin-young plays the piano and she accepted the assignment to choose our Opening Hymn for each morning and play the piano for us to sing. This was a great help.

The last student was Sam, our driver. Sam did not quite get the full benefit of the class because we frequently had to pull him out of class to interpret for us with someone who came into our office, to run errands for the class, or to drive us home when someone else was teaching the class. But he also made progress and we will continue to work with him in the coming weeks.

During the four weeks we spent lots of time on basic grammar–especially verb tenses, which are not used in Indonesian, vocabulary, reading skills, pronunciation, oral reports, and ONLY SPEAKING ENGLISH. The students read lots of newspaper articles, short stories and church magazine articles.

We tested the students each week on their reading skills and each week their scores went up, but the most improvement was seen in their confidence levels as they used their English skills. The reports we got back from others as they returned to their homes were very encouraging.

We will try to have another class like this again in October. We have learned a lot and will make some changes in how we approach the class, but the basic format will remain the same. This time I think we will be able to plan ahead a little farther and give better assignments to our assistants. There was a lot of trial and error in this class. (Mostly trial, very little error.) I feel however, that the most important element is just getting them to speak English all the time. They all have studied English in high school but had never had a need to use it regularly, so they had not progressed a lot.

Let me just say here that this is not what I thought I was coming to Indonesia for. I felt that it was important to learn to speak Indonesian because I did not want to be the ugly American who insists that everyone speak his language and do things his way. Well, I am still learning Indonesian, but every employer we talk to stresses the need for their employees to be able to speak English. To get good jobs they really need to be able to speak good English. It can make a real difference in their lives. We talked to the head of a school in Bogor who trains students for jobs in the textile industry. They learn both production and marketing. Their first three months at the school are spent learning English before they learn anything about the textile industry! And this is a school run by Germans!

So here we are, teaching English.

We miss all of you and love to hear from you. Any advice you have on teaching English would be greatly appreciated. We are definitely not trained teachers, but managed to muddle through this month without doing too much damage to our students. We really enjoyed it, but we sure came home tired every night. We are thankful we are here and we know it is where we should be right now. I’m sorry for the length of this letter, but I had a lot to say. You may have to read it one paragraph a day!

Enjoy the Fourth of July and light a sparkler for us! Love, Elder and Sister Pier

Another of the beautiful floral displays we get to see each morning in our lobby – taken this morning. This picture shows that I actually did some teaching for the English class.
2 July 2007 – Senin

Today is a big day for the Jakarta, Indonesia mission. President and sister Marchant will be arriving in about 5 hours to take over from the Jensens. Sister Jensen mentioned that they would be sleeping in the guest room tonight while the Marchants slept in ‘their’ – that is the Jensen’s – bed.

I woke myself up at about 2 a.m. to escape from some dream I was having. I really need to stop doing that. When I found that I was not going to go back to sleep I studied Indonesian by reading from President Hinckley’s talk. (As I was writing this I realized I had written President Kimball in my entry for yesterday and so I quickly edited the blog post.) It really was not much easier the second time through but I figure if I keep at it long enough the words may sink into my head.

I finally got back to sleep and managed to stay asleep until almost 7. I got up and really felt good. I felt so good that I washed all the dishes that have accumulated over the last few days – we are not good about washing dishes each day. After breakfast we read from the Kitab Mormon – three plus pages. I managed to even contribute a new word to the translation – kenyang means to be full of food. Penuh means to be full of anything else – such as penuhi Roh Kudus or filled with the Holy Ghost.

We did not get any calls from our children today. We are always disappointed when at least one of them is not available to talk to. I guess they are all busy on Sunday evening doing church work. We can not fault them for that but it still would be nice to hear from some of them more often. (I wrote the above in the morning before we left for the day and am happy to say that it was proved incorrect. We had nice letters from Tom and Shauna.  Yeah!)

We went to visit the Jakarta Raya elders’ house. I called them to tell them we were coming so they had time to get everything cleaned up. They had done a great job and so other than patting them on the back and asking if there was anything they needed it was an easy visit.

Our next stop was the mission office to drop off our request for reimbursement for expenses, to say goodbye for the last time to the Jensens, to tell the brother in charge of buildings about the need for a larger water pump at the elder’s house, to get new branch lists so we can start visiting less actives, and to have lunch from BYU. While we were there I talked to Elder Subandriyo about the next English class – he says we should open it to young people who are not returned missionaries. We are all for this – I think once we get going we can do it with only a month between classes. I am going to suggest that they call two couples from the English branch to be in charge but part of me does not want to give up the class for a while.

After lunch – yum – we headed off to buy some yarn for Mary so she can finish her Afgan. The area was packed – it is the traditional mall that I showed in a picture a couple of months ago – and hot. I was really glad to get out of there. On the way out I stopped and bought a large plastic pot so I can re-pot one of my plants. While I was doing that Mary moved a short ways away and I did not notice. So Sam and I left her behind and it took a while to realize this and then find her. I do not think she was very happy with me, but I really did think she was right behind me all the time.

Our last stop was a small mall where we bought a new phone to replace the one I broke in the office. We got a good Panasonic speaker phone – it turns out we have the only one in the district so everyone uses it any time they need to have a conference call. Luckily this is not very often. We tried to get a cordless phone for the apartment but they only had really cheap ones so we will get one at Carrefore the next time we are there.

The trip home was fairly quick and painless. I tried to study my Indonesian flashcards while in the car but it does not work well. Besides my mind does not seem to be working very well today and so nothing stuck. The same problem persisted once we got home. When we got home Sam changed out the water bottle and then the three of us changed a couple of light bulbs – really. We had no ladder so we had to use the dining room pedestal table. So while Sam stood on the table, Mary and I had to support opposite edges so it would tip or break. So you see it takes three missionaries to change a light bulb.

We have spent the time since then writing letters and reports to a variety of people. I also did some studying in Indonesian. As mentioned above it was not greatly successful. But I will keep praying for Kerunia Lidah – the gift of tongues – and doing what I can to improve.

One of the thing we could not judge was how much they improved. We were so close to them that it was hard to see any change from day to day. To get an outsiders opinion we asked the Bennetts to tell us if they saw or felt any change in their driver Agus. They sent back this letter, which I think answers a lot of our questions.

Good morning Piers,
Boy was it good to see Agus yesterday at church and how thankful we are to have him back. Sam didn’t wake up yesterday morning, so 15 min before church was suppose to start, he called and said he just woke up. I said, the Elder Bennett would have to drive, so off we went. Elder Bennett did very well and we even made it before Sac. started. (They were a little late, but usually start right on time.) Everyone just smiled when they saw us hug Agus! As we were sitting there trying to understand what they were saying, Agus came up and sat behind us and did a wonderful job of translating for us. He has never translated for us in church and usually gets very confused. He had such confidence. Then I bore my testimony and he did the translating for me and did very well. I always go into his Primary class and have encouraged him to use some English words, but yesterday, after each key word he wrote, he wrote the English word after it.  It was a wonderful lesson on the things they have to do to get ready for a mission. We made them little nametags just like ours and they all looked so cute leaving the class with their missionary name tags on. He came this AM all excited with all his books and things to show Sam so we can use some of the things in our weekly classes. Yesterday in RS the teacher (counselor) giving the lesson did the same as Agus with writing the main word in Indonesian and then English. They are all so excited to learn English and we are so thankful for your efforts with Agus. We will continue to help him daily.

We did not think about how the class might increase their confidence in their abilities. We think that the experience of talking in the English branch and having so many experiences with different teachers really helped them feel like they can participate and help. Since three of the students came from Central Java, hopefully they will help the leaders there learn English. Central Java is where the first stake in Indonesia will be formed and the leaders need to learn English so they can communicate with Hong Kong and Church Headquarters.

Our evening included fixing steamed veggies for dinner and reading from the Kitab Mormon. Mary spent time doing cross stitching – she is doing something with monkeys. I figure that is why she watched part of a documentary on ‘Gorillas in the Midst.’ Before heading for bed we watched ‘Without a Trace.’

Although we did little in the way of missionary work – it was our P-day (I did laundry and two load of dishes – and do not forget helping to change a lightbulb) – I still felt it was a very good and spiritual day. As I studied President Hinckley’s article on the war between good and evil,  worked on my Indonesian, and especially when I read about Agus’s progress in English, I felt that I was doing the Lord’s work.

Dad’s garden – for some reason the bougainvillia is not blooming. That is not quite true – it has one flower. The picture of us and the Van Dongans was taken on June 26 at the mission home. The occasion was the farewell dinner with the Jensen’s.
1 July 2007 – Sunday

I slept in until almost 6 – a rare thing indeed and Mary was already up. I finished reading the D&C and then we read 3 pages from the Kitab Mormon. ‘Great are the words of Isaiah’ – so great that it takes three times as long to read a chapter of his writings than any other chapter. But we did somewhat better this time.

The only thing that was different at Jakarta Raya is that I was asked to give a talk in two weeks on the apostasy and restoration. We continue to hear a little more each week but we are still far from understanding most of the words and almost none of context.

We caught a cab back to the apartment. We took the first nice looking one that came along. It was not a BlueBird but it was a nice cab and got us there quickly for $4 including tip.

The rest of the day just went by. About the only thing worth writing about was that we read from the Kitab Mormon and are now well under 100 pages from the end. We should be finished by the 15th at the latest.

I started to study Indonesian again – that is to read and to learn vocabulary that is not in the Kitab Mormon. I am reading the June message from President Hinckley. I had to kind of chuckle when I came across ‘perang’ so often. It is a very popular word in the Kitab Mormon because it means ‘War’ and that is something that seems to be on every other page. It is not a word that comes up very often in talks by the general authorities of the church and certainly not as often as it is in this talk.

I decided to make flash cards of some of the new words – something I told the students of our English class they should do. As I have mentioned, Mary had been making a list of words we do not know in the Kitab Mormon – it is now up to going on 4 pages and there are about 60 words per page. I am thankful that the Lord is giving me this opportunity to study a new language. Something I never thought I would do again in this life. I feel that it is as much a test of my willingness to ‘obey exactly’ as it is to be able to read, speak and hopefully understand Indonesian. However I am sure that if we can learn to communicate with the people our usefulness to the Lord’s work will greatly increase. So that as the scriptures say, we can ‘be tools in the hands of the Lord.’ Isn’t that a great goal to set for oneself – to in someway help the Lord in His work to bring to pass the Immortality and Eternal Life of His children. And of course while doing this we hopefully receive the same blessing.

30 June 2007 – Saturday

No more English class – what will we do with our days?

Woke at the regular time but it felt like it was much earlier. I really wanted to go back to sleep but it was no use. So instead I got up and posted my journal and some pictures.  As I was reading in the D&C I got to the section – 134 I think but I am too lazy to get up and look – about the relationship between government and the church. I was struck at how powerful the thoughts were and how strong a country would be that had the type of government that was outlined there. They could certainly use it here in Indonesia.

We read 3 pages from the Kitab Mormon, but the last 3/4 of a page caused us lots of problems. When we read the passage from the Book of Mormon we understood why. It did not make a lot of sense there either. It reasonable that that something that was written in whatever language the original plates were written in, and then abridged into whatever language Mormon used, and then translated into early 19th century English and then translated into Indonesian – might lose something in translation.

We had a busy morning and a very quiet afternoon and evening. Sam picked us up at 9 – it was good to have him back – and took us to the office. We worked on cleaning up the piles of paper that we accumulated over the last 30 days. Mainly things we used in our lessons. While Mary worked on that I spent most of my time making review sentences for the vocabulary lessons.

As we worked people started to arrive for the big missionary reunion-goodbye party for the Jensens. The Kanes arrived and they had the books we asked for. They are really nice and I think the couples will find them useful in teaching English. I gave him Steve’s book and asked him to have 10 copies made so that I can give them to different people. I am going to have it translated into Indonesian so the District specialists can share the information with those who have or are thinking of opening a small business.

They had a nice – if a little long – program featuring Indonesian saints that gave tribute and then a video production that alternated between leaders he worked with here and his family back home. Since much of it was in Indonesian – which I could not follow – and the rest in English – which most of the Indonesians could not follow, some parts of the audience were always in the dark.

After the program there was food and talking. We told the Jensen’s goodbye for what may have been the last time and had Sam drive us home. The rest of the day and night was spent napping, eating, and watching some TV. A visit to Cindy’s blog turned up an interesting post that led to another blog that told about an experience that Tyler had at ALA involving famous authors.

At 8 we read from the Kitab Mormon for an hour – we hit Jesus quoting Isaiah and as usual this slowed us way down. Great may be the words of Isaiah but they are darn hard to translate into Indonesian and then back into English. After that it was time to head for bed and some of the D&C before turning off the lights.