21 February 2007 – Wednesday

I slept until 6 and did not go to the gym – that is getting to be a habit and I need to stop. After that it was a normal morning with an hour spent on reading Kitab Mormon. Isaiah is not easy to translate – of course it is not easy to read even in English – but we do our best and then read what it really says. Most of the time we are somewhere in the ballpark.

I did a load of laundry. If we do it every two or three days it just the right size load. It still seems strange to need to hang the clothes to dry. One of the things I am not going to miss about Indonesia.

We had a short Skype talk with Tom. Just checking in about finances, etc. They seem to be doing well. I just wish we had a faster connection so we did not get such garbled speech and we could see them clearly.

We had our first regular day at the office in a long time. This means we were there for four hours and other than a couple of phone calls we did not have much to do except get ready for the rest of the week. I did the agenda for our Friday meeting, updated the Career Workshop schedule, and wrote a proposal for changing our office hours by starting to open on Saturday.

This will mean that some Saturdays Sam will have to drive us to Tangerang, Jakarta Raya or even Bogor but I think it is the only way we can really do what we were sent here to do. We will need to get the phone card so we can have the internet wherever we are. We actually may need two because sometimes the computer must be where we are not… we will just have to work it out somehow. I wrote a letter to Nancy and Neal to ask them what they did as ERS missionaries in Texas that seemed to work. Hopefully they will have some ideas that might be useful here in Indonesia.

We left at 1:30 so we could take a nap before heading for Tangerang and the district meeting.

The drive to Tangerang went smoothly so we arrived early. The zone leaders were there and I thought the meeting went well. They talked about giving and helping the investigator keep commitments. I told them that until their contact felt the spirit they would not really be converted and would have trouble keeping commitments. I told them the story of my own conversion and bore testimony that if they would bring in the spirit that they would have success. I could feel the spirit as I bore my testimony.

As we read from Preach My Gospel I realized once more how important it is for the members to read and use it in their daily lives. Every family that has children should be using it as part of family home evening. They should use it to teach their sons and daughters to use it just as we teach them to use the scriptures. They should learn to teach the lessons – short 3 to 5 minute ones at each FHE. They could use just one section of one lesson as a FHE lesson. Every adult member should be using PMG for their personal study and also use it for lessons. It is an inspired book – almost like a new scripture.

Over the last two days, I have had some good spiritual experiences. Now I just need to figure out how to have them everyday.

The drive home went smoothly and took the normal one hour. My dinner was a piece of bread with peanut butter. I was thinking on the way home how seldom we eat meat. Normally no more than once a day and often not even that. When we do eat meat it is almost always chicken or ham – I think on an average we eat beef once a week at the most.

I am happy to be on a mission with Mary. It feels good and right. I am thankful for our family back home who supports us. For those who are taking care of the finances, apartment, house and soon the yard. For those who pray for us as we pray for them each day. For those who are preparing themselves to serve missions – it is as Elder Bednar said. We need to become missionaries, not prepare to serve a mission. Personal testimonies of Jesus Christ, His Gospel and His atonement, are the greatest power on the earth for changing peoples lives.

As it says in D&C 50. “To what have ye been called? To preach my gospel.” We need to remember that each day and if we do the Lord will provide an opportunity for us to do just that.

20 February 2007 – Tuesday

I forgot to set the alarm and woke at about 6. I did not go to the gym…lazy I think. However I did remember that we were to visit a member’s uncle with the elders and I was not sure we ever really made the appointment. It was too early to do anything so I wrote myself a big note. Later this morning I made a number of phone calls and it is set up for this afternoon. I thanked the Lord for reminding me of this … I need all the help I can get.

For my personal study time I read about the need for the spirit in missionary work from PMG. As I read the section and took the self-test on prayer I realized that this was another area I needed to work on. So along with patience and charity, I now am working on improving the quality of my prayers. This means I first pray in Indonesian and then in English … this way I can cover all the things I need to pray about. Also I need to take time to listen to what the Lord has to say as and after I pray.

Jim was on line so we had a rather strange but very good ‘talk’ with him and Olivia. We got to see them and they see us for a short time. However our connection here is so slow that it is almost impossible to really hold a meaningful Skype call. For some reason our sound to them becomes mostly static. We solved this by me using the written chat feature while Jim talked. It is really great to be in contact with our family.

We then read Kitab Mormon – we are in the Isaiah section of 1st Nephi and it is really hard to translate it into Old Testament language – of course it was also difficult for them to translate the English into Indonesian. The words and concepts of the OT do not move well into Bahasa. But we plug along and usually come close.

When we arrived at the chapel I realized that I had left my keys back at the apartment. Luckily the custodian came and could let us in. Or at least let me in because Mary and Sam had to return a computer desk that could not be assembled correctly. I ask them to stop on the way back by the apartment for the keys.

I was just getting the computer up and running when first the air-conditioner turned off and then a few seconds later the computer and lights went off. I went looking to find out what the problem was and found that they were replacing the whole electrical service. It would have been nice if they had warned me so I did not have the computer turned on.

Anyway I sat in the office alone with only the light from the window to read by until Mary got back. Then the two of us sat there reading from the Kitab Mormon until it was time to leave for the mission home where we were to pick up the missionaries and the member to go see the appointment I had forgotten about. On the way we stopped at BYU and picked up lunch…I am becoming a big fan of that place. It is amazing how much you get to eat for 40 cents.

Jemmy’s – that is the name of the member – ‘uncle’ lives in a very expensive home in a very good neighborhood. He is 72 years old and is very well educated and well read. He speaks Dutch, English and Indonesian very well. We had a nice visit in English and then we found he was interested in asking some questions about the LDS faith. I told him that the elders were specialists in answering questions like that. He was happy to find that they spoke Indonesian. He said that while he knew English, when it came to discussions about things of the mind, it was better to speak in a language you are completely comfortable with.

Elder Decker did most of the lesson – the investigator did a lot of the talking. I soon realized he knew a lot about the bible and also that he was a spiritual person who took religion seriously. When it got to the part of the discussion that talked about the First Vision, I bore my testimony of the truthfulness. I mentioned that I had been to the sacred grove and knew that Joseph had been visited by God and Jesus Christ. I also told him I was a convert to the church and had taken the lessons. I told him that no amount of reading or discussion will finally convince anyone to be baptized. That it was only when you prayed and the Lord answered that you would know. Mary joined in with her testimony and I thought the spirit was very much with us.

Later he started asking about why we were called Mormons and it reached a point where I thought he was confused and elder Decker was not really answering his questions. I told him that there was never a ‘Mormon’ church and that it was only a nickname that other people called us because the full name of the church is quite long. Which is why we often call ourselves LDS. After that he seemed to understand. We could have stayed there for days but we had other things that needed to be done so the elders set another appointment for Friday. We can not be there, but I think elder Decker will do fine.

We dropped the elders and Jemmy’s wife – he had to leave earlier for another appointment – off at the mission home. I forgot to write earlier that when we were at the MH for the first time, the office elders mentioned that they had just bought a 2 Gig memory stick for $19. Since most of the ones we bought are full, I asked if they would get a couple for us. I gave them $50 and they happily went off to bargain. When we got back to the office, I found that they had gotten 2 of them for $35 – Elder Allred loves to bargain. So after they loaded a short movie they had made about the flood on one of them I took them both and left.

We were able to spend about an hour at the apartment before leaving for an appointment to talk to a university class about English. Actually we were told that we would be asked questions and we would just answer them. Sam said it would take an hour to get there so we left 90 minutes early just to make sure.

Once in the car I almost immediately fell asleep. About 40 minutes later I woke up and looked at my watch. I asked if we were almost there and Mary pointed out that we were only about 3 k from our apartment. I thought she was kidding me until I looked up and saw what we call ‘This is the place’ monument still in front of us and I knew she was telling the truth. We were in the middle of the worst traffic jam that we have experienced so far – even worse than the one the other night.

We ended up taking well over two hours getting to the university and the students were patiently waiting for us. The next hour and something went by quite quickly. They were a very good class and after we told them something about us and why we were in Indonesia, I spent most of the time talking to them about how to prepare for getting a job, I told them about the importance of networking, about the careers that seem to be the most likely to lead to a good job, and a little about self-employment. Some of them had very good English and all of them seem to be able to follow what I had to say. Afterwards Mary said that I did not really give her a chance to talk – she is probably correct.

The trip home took less than 45 minutes – about 1/3 of the time it took to get there. The total length of the drive was about 25k – 17 miles. So it was a long but rewarding day – one of the best we have had in Indonesia.

19 February 2007

The alarm went off at 5:30 and I managed to get out of bed 15 minutes later. I almost decided not to go to the gym, but realized that was the wrong decision to make. So I went and did some sit-ups and put 15 good minutes on the bike. Not enough of course but at least a start back. I was nicely surprised to find that I have actually lost a few ounces since I was there last. I supposed I had put on a couple of pounds. That gives me encouragement to get busy and try to get down at least a three or four more before the end of the month.

Regular morning after that. We read the Kitab Mormon until the maid came for her weekly cleaning. We will need to do more reading sometime during the day – we did not study during the trip so we are behind.

I got a call from Lukito who told me about the phone card we need for the computer so we can use it anywhere. It will cost about $165 for the card and $30 a month for the service. But that means we can use the computer when we are at the branches on Saturday. I think I will ask for volunteers or perhaps the missionaries to help when we are our office so Sam can at least have a couple of Saturdays off. More thought will have to go into the final decision but I want to make sure we are available to help when the people can get to us.

The young lady came to clean and if she did not move, we would never know she was here. I need to learn enough language that I can at least carry on some friendly discussion with her and others so they do not think we are not interested in them. I am sure they are told not to bother people when she works but we need to let her know we do not consider her unworthy of our attention. We need to let our light shine for her to see.

Mary spent part of the morning getting our request for repayment of expenses ready. She could not find one receipt and she looked everywhere. I finally found it mixed in with some papers that had no relationship to it at all. We are not at all neat and organized – it is amazing we can find anything. Maybe one of the reasons we have this call is to help us learn to be better planners and organizers. If so we have a long ways to go.

I spent much of the morning catching up this journal. It does take time but I think it is worth it. I do need to be better at learning names – or at least writing them down – so I can use them in this journal.

After the cleaning lady left, I took or at least tried to take a nap. Sam came and started to put together the computer table we bought – he ran into a snag and so we just left it until later.

Unfortunately Sam could not find any place that was showing ‘Night in the Museum’ and nothing else was on that we really wanted to see. So we just went to SoGo and did our shopping. Somehow Mary found $90 worth of groceries and other things to buy. I pointed out that was more than we would spend at the store in Utah. At least we should have some good meals from what we bought.

On the way back to the apartment we stopped at the mission home and found everyone except the two office missionaries were gone. I think they all took the Chinese New Year day off. Strange how folks take any holiday off – even if it is not one they celebrate.  The president and sister Jensen flew off to Sumatra for the week to be with his new Indonesian family. The A.P.s went to Bogor. The two elders that were left did not look like they were doing much. I was not able to leave our reimbursement request so we will come back on Wednesday, drop off the request and get any mail for the Tangerang elders.

I can not say that we spent the evening in much of a productive way. But we did get to see the first episode of the newest Amazing Race. As we were watching it I said to Mary – ‘Here we are sitting in a nice apartment watching our favorite show – it hardly feels like we are on a mission.’ But now we are going to study from Gospel Principles in Indonesian. Besides it is our P-day – the first really one have had in a month. Excuses – excuses.

Earlier today I did not find anyone on line or at least not with Skype on. I missed not talking to some member of the family on their Sunday. I guess they were all busy. Maybe next Sunday night – their Sunday that is. I wonder if anyone is actually reading these and if Cindy is collecting them for us.

Gospel Principles are easier to read than conference talks but we do not have an English version so we can not really check our translations…which means we take our best guess and hope that we are correct. The next time we are at the mission home, I hope to get an English version.  We found that the hardest  parts to translate are the  scriptural  quotes but at least for them we can check  the English.

17 – 18 February 2007 – Saturday and Sunday

Saturday – We woke at about 3:30 a.m. and Sam came to get us at about 4:15. The trip to the airport went fast – no traffic at that time of the morning. It is too bad that it is not that way all the time so I could drive. We met Agus and his wife at the airport. Although I am not yet ready to tackle the airport without help, it seemed that it would not take long to learn. The security is much lighter than at any other airport we have been through. They go through all the motions but no one really cares. I think you could put any liquid you wanted into your carry-on and they would say anything. We brought open water bottles through all checkpoints with no trouble. Metal was pretty much the same – anything less than a HK-91 would not have been questioned. Most people do not bother to unload their metal – they just set off the machine and then security runs the wand over their body. I did not notice anyone be questioned about what that metal thing was that set off the machine or the wand. Maybe it is different for international flights – I certainly hope so.

We flew in a well kept up 737 with good service. I slept much of the way to Surabaya. We got there in time to go to the hotel so we could check in and drop off our bags. The rooms would not be ready until later in the day.

The Surabaya chapel is only about 3 years old and is quite nice. The grounds are lovely – much nicer than you find at home. I took some pictures to include in our mission scrapbook. The Career Workshop was well attended – 9 people. Agus does a great shortened workshop and gets people involved. Hopefully Likito will do as well with the Christensen’s here. I took Mary’s advise and got the people use to the camcorder so that when it became time for doing the mock interview, they did not think anything about being recorded. I will do the same thing next week.

After the workshop we went back to the hotel so we could settle into our rooms. There were no Taxis around so Agus negotiated a ride in an angkot. It was our first experience with public transportation and it was surprisingly nice. Of course there were not 30 people crammed into a space made for 15 and there was only one stop so the breeze kept us cool.

I must say that for a middle priced hotel the Novotel is something else. Everything is first-rate – the grounds and the buildings are beautiful. The only thing that would have made it better would have been an elevator to get us up one flight of stairs but other than that it was a great place to stay.

We had less than an hour before we headed back to the chapel for the evening meeting. When we got there the whole place was locked up – we could not even get into the yard. It turned out everyone had gone to eat and we very apologetic when they came back to find us trying to \figure out how to get in.

When it came time for the meeting there was no one there. However by 5:30 we had a nice group of leaders – no branch specialists – and Agus again did a great job. It was mentioned that one of the problems they have is in Indonesia people are reluctant to mention they have lost their job. Therefore not only do they not like to network, but they do not even let people know they are unemployed. I am going to ask the Christensens what they think we can do about this and what other countries with the same problem may be doing.

At the end I told them that Lord plan for the happiness of his people depended on them paying their tithes and offerings and that they seek riches to use righteously. I also said that the younger generation needs to be educated in careers that are needed in Indonesia. I bore my testimony that if people would follow the Lord’s plan, they would be blessed and the church would grow stronger because of this. A member of the district presidency interpreted for me. He seemed to do an excellent job – he teaches courses in English in a local University.

After the meeting we went back to the hotel, had dinner and collapsed. I was in bed and asleep by 8:30. But before going to bed, we went down and had the ‘traditional Indonesian’ buffet that they put on 6 nights a week. There was an amazing array of food but we tried only a few things. Unfortunately I did not find the chicken sate until late in the meal – it was great. This is small chunks of chicken on a skewer, bar-bar-qued over coals and glazed with soy sauce. Oh and the salad bar was pretty good also. Mary was more adventurous and tried a few new things. I can not imagine how they can offer so much for less than $8 a person including the 21% tax that seems to be added to anything you do at a hotel.

Thinking back: My mouth is almost healed and my cold did not really bother me. I did cough a few times and my nose ran from time to time but overall things are looking up health wise. Surabaya seems to be cleaner than Jakarta. The sky is clearer, the traffic not as heavy, but the basic atmosphere is about the same. Lots of small shops, lots of pedal-taxis – so there are no three wheeled taxis – and lots of motorcycles. Of course we only saw a very small part of the city and hopefully we can go back in the future and see more.

Sunday – I slept for almost 10 hours and it was great.  We went down to the breakfast buffet – we did not know that it was included in the price of the room but would have been happy to pay the $5 if it was not. Other than an omelet nothing was very good – the breakfast buffet at the Harris is much better. There was a tater-tot looking dish turned out to be a crisp shell with nothing inside – really rather strange.

Church was excellent. A young woman who was released from her mission in November let us know what was going on in Sacrament. I forgot to mention that Edler Thomas who we know from Jakarta, Raya was also there yesterday. He is the companion to Agus’s son – which is one fo the reasons his wife wanted to come on the trip. That does not make a lot of sense but I am too lazy to change it.

The branch is small but it seems enthusiastic. There was about 45 -50 at Sacrament. I especially enjoyed Sunday School because the teacher got all the class involved in the lesson about miracles so that she did not just lecture. This was the first class in Indonesia where I saw so much participation. Went they were talking about PH blessings, I got out my missionary handbook and Agus read to them about how the ordinance of blessing the sick should be done. They were wondering if there was no consecrated oil available was it OK to use something else. I wanted them to know that it was not but that they could still give a blessing of comfort.  Later, when they were talking about how some people wanted a person with some high PH calling to give them blessings, I mentioned that when someone in our house was sick, we always called in our hometeacher to give the blessing because I felt he had a special calling for my family and therefore was the best person to use.

PH was OK but the teacher did not ask many questions and so there was not much participation from the audience. This is somewhat worrisome because just last Sunday there was a good WW Leadership meeting on teaching and class participation was stressed.

I met two interesting English speaking people – unfortunately as usual I do not remember their names. One was an American who married a Chinese woman and moved to Indonesia 17 years ago. He knows Japanese, some Mandarian, Indonesian and of course English. 5 years ago they started a school that taught English and Japanese. It was a struggle at first but after the first year they started to grow. They added Mandarian and now have two thriving schools. I would like to go back and see the school in action. They have been observed by others who want to know their methods. These people are amazed that Indonesian children can learn these difficult languages so quickly and well. I am going to write them and ask for their help in employing qualified members of the church. I also hope that they might franchise their schools and give members a chance to own the branches.

The second person is a Spanish man who married a younger Indonesian woman who was a member of the church. After some time he wanted to know more about her beliefs and so he took the lessons from Elder Decker and his companion – he learned in English because he really does not know much Indonesian.. He came to know that it was true, accepted the principles and was baptized last August. We had a good talk about what his testimony is based on – he just knows it is true, that God lives, that Jesus is his savior, that Joseph was a prophet and restored the church. He does not believe in Adam and Eve, etc. but it does not bother him because that is not important – which is of course true. I was surprised to learn that his wife was the SS teacher who did such a great job – she looks much too young.

After church we went back to the hotel – Agus and his wife went visiting – until 3 p.m. We both took short naps and then we all headed for the airport. The airport only opened 3 months ago and is built quite a ways out of town. It seems to be well laid out and there is lots of room for it to grow.  Since we spent over two hours there waiting for our flight home, we got to know it fairly well.

The flight home was interesting because I sat in the middles seat and Mary sat by the window. The aisle seat was taken by a mother with a child I judge to be about 7 or 8 months old. Although the mother tried her best, the child did a lot of fussing and moving around so that much of the time I ended up with only about half a seat. Luckily I could lean against Mary – we put up the arm rest – or I would have no room at all. I must say that my working on Patience and Charity as attributes really helped in this situation. I did not get upset and tried to help but there was little I could do but be patient.

Sam was waiting for us and we were soon on the way home. We dropped Agus and his wife off near the mission home – they then had an hour taxi ride to their home – and still made it home in less than an hour. It was really good to walk through the front door of our home away from home.

We ate a couple of snacks – other than breakfast and some pastries at the hotel we had not eaten – and headed for bed. Our first adventure to Eastern Java was fine but I am not looking forward to repeating it again next weekend – especially since we will be gone for two evenings. I guess I should not complain – the Christensens will be spending the best part of a week here and probably spends much of their mission traveling.

16 February 2007 – Friday

I slept well – in fact I think I slept too well. I did not get out of bed until almost 7. That seems sinful but I really did need it or so my body thought. After that we had a normal morning with our reading from the Kitab Mormon. We are finding that we can get most of the words, but the meaning is much harder because of the way the message is expressed in English made it hard for the translators to put it into Indonesian. I suggested that we start reading current talks by the General Authorities which tend to have language that we might use each day or at least they are usually easier to understand.

We received a nice e-mail from Taylor and we immediately answered. We hope that other grandchildren will write – letters from home always lift our spirits. We remember our family in all of our prayers and we are sure that they remember us in their prayers.

We went to the office at the regular time. They have finished all the kits and now all they need to do is deliver them. I would guess that by tonight the project will be over. Agus came in and we went through what we need for our trip tomorrow. I was happy to hear that we will not need to travel to the CW after this time. Once they are trained the DES will put them on. That makes a lot more sense than our traveling there to just sit around. I do think we will visit them some time during the year but not each month.

This means that we will be able to have our office open on a couple of Saturdays a month and then be available at Raya and Tangerang once a month also. We could have the office open from 10 to 2 on Saturdays and maybe Lukito and Agus could be available at Raya and Tangerang once a month – like on the first Saturday.

As I consider our purpose here in Indonesia, I felt like what we should be doing the most is training or helping to train the branch and district employment specialist to do their calling so they can help the members at a very local level. They can learn to help those who are unemployed or underemployed to be more successful in preparing for and finding more jobs.

I also think we need to be more involved in getting the members of the branches and missionaries aware of the need for them to form a better network so our members will know when jobs become available. With as many members as we have, they must have access to new job openings at all times. Perhaps that would be one of the things we need to do – or ask couples to do. To encourage members to tell the employment specialist about jobs they know about.

I see there is much more to do than we have been doing. Of course it would be better if we spoke Indonesian but being American can also help us get into places that are not available to most native Indonesians.

We went to the Jakarta district meeting and spent most of our time training elder Decker about his calling. We helped them establish a district standard of excellence and gave them some counsel about setting their goals each morning so they can be successful.  I think Elder Cheney will be a great help there and once Elder Decker gets his feet under him better he will be fine.

Back at the apartment we rested up before going to the University. Once again there were problems at the university and we could not have our class. It turned out it was time for finals and so there were no rooms and everyone was busy. We will not go again unless we know ahead that they are ready for us.

So it was back to apartment where we made sure we had everything we need to take on our trip. We will pack tonight and we need to be up at about 3:15 to be ready when Sam gets here at 4:15 – that is much too early to travel and hopefully this will be the only time that we will do this. Thank goodness we will have tomorrow night off to rest and I think we are safe on Monday.

Mary has learned to pay bills on line – the security measures are really good so that we do not have to worry about being ripped off. It also makes it very hard to send money to the wrong person.

15 February 2007 – Thursday

After waking during the night and having a good bout of coughing I went back to sleep until after 6. I woke feeling quite good and thinking that perhaps the work yesterday did sweat the cold out of me. I certainly hope so as there is really no time for being sick.

I read the Kane’s latest news to their family and realize that we are having a very different mission from them. I imagine we are having one that is quite different from any other couple except perhaps the Petersens. Where the other couples seem to be right in the middle of Indonesian life, Mary and I are on the edges. Elder Kane speaks about how the travel around in ankots – small buses – going for long walks, and they are now thinking about buying and driving a car. We travel in our own vehicle or in good taxis. They live among the people and we live in a high-rise apartment. They go and do what needs to be done and we must tailor our week around going into the office on some kind of regular basis. I am not complaining but I do think I am slightly jealous of their greater freedom and wider experiences.

We received our first couple’s newsletter and it only re-enforced my thought that a native couple should be called to our position as country directors of ERS and we should be put out with the branches and missionaries. Not only would we then be able to spend more time with members but the Indonesian people would be better served. I am going to send this suggestion to president Jensen.

We had a long and fairly productive day. We spent the first part of the day at the office getting things ready for our English lesson and then helping with more hygiene kits. I was feeling quite good and so I was able to spend at least a couple of hours helping.

There was some excitement as Elder Subandriyo, the Jensens and the Petersens were invited to visit with the First Lady of Indonesia. She wanted to meet them because of all the humanitarian work that the Church has been involved in since the tsunami. It is the first time a Church leader has been invited to visit with anyone that high in the government so it was a great honor.

From the chapel we went to the mission home where we picked up some supplies for the Tangerang missionaries, church magazines for everyone, a flyer for our English class, and other odd and assorted things. I wonder what the couples further away do when they need things like this. While we were there we got to meet all the Zone Leaders who were in for a conference. We said hello to Elder Matiere who seems to at least be somewhat recovered from whatever sent him to the hospital earlier this week.

By the time we started out for Tangerang, I was feeling poorly. I had forgotten to bring any nose spray or DayQuil or anything to help me with my cold. Big mistake. I was able to sleep for some of the trip, which I am sure helped.

District meeting was OK – elder Collins lesson was not the usual quality that we have received from others but he gave it a yeoman’s try. We could add little to the meeting which for once did not focus on the negative things about the area.

Thank goodness for Elded Roper. He was the main reason I made it through English class. Due to the fact that it was pouring rain, the attendance was small. No one who must travel by motorcycle would come out in that kind of weather. So we had only had a couple of handfuls of people – about half of what we usually have. But Agus’ family had fun learning ‘Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree’ and ‘ Do What I Do.’  We reviewed long and short E, time, and did an exercise about what people do.

The drive home was a nightmare – even for Jakarta. We hit a backed up section of the toll road and Sam said – it will take 90 minutes to get to the front. I thought at first he meant home but he meant to go the 5 kilometers to the turnoff. He was wrong – it only took an hour to go those 3 plus a little miles. Thankfully we only had to travel those 5 k and then could get off. The people going the other way had that to go much further before things would open up.

By the time we got home, we were both hammered. Mary went right to bed, while I stayed up just so I would be sure to go to sleep. I spent part of the time reading Elder Ballard’s talk on ‘Being Wise’ from the last conference in Indonesian.

14 February 2007 – Wednesday – Valentine Day

I slept well – waking only once. My mouth is getting much better and my cold seems to be progressing in my usual manner. Which means I should be much better by the time we fly out on Saturday.

I spent my personal time reading from Book of Mormon Stories. I am using them to learn words but I really need to start trying to speak phrases – even if they are simple and wrong. It is the only way I am going to gain enough confidence to try and talk to members in Indonesian.

Talked briefly with Tom – Kelli Ann had her hair cut to her shoulders. At first I thought she had cut it herself but she had the beautician cut it. I guess Shauna was rather surprised when she saw it. Her little girl is growing up.

We read from Kitab Mormon – I am not sure how much this is helping to learn Indonesian. What is said and how they say it does not have much in common with everyday conversation. I now know how the Indonesians who learn grammar and vocabulary but not how to talk to others feel when they come to English class.

Just as we were leaving, Elder Subandriyo called and asked if I was coming in. He said that they were busy doing hygiene kits and there were some Moslem sisters helping. So when we got to the chapel, I started taking pictures so that I could use them in an article. There was someone from a newspaper or magazine already there taking notes. Mary and I pitched in and either I sweated out some of my sickness or I am going to be dead tomorrow.

I went on one distribution run and must say that it was much better than the ones to flooded areas. At least the destination was different. We unloaded in a small shop area – Indonesian shops that is there version of a strip mall – and a cart took them down narrow streets to where they would be distributed. The district chairman was not there so we could not hand any out to people – I want to find out how this ‘district chairman’ thing works. I was surprised at how neat the small family homes seemed – at least from the outside. The ‘street’ was about 3 feet wide with the usual water gutters running along them. What made the streets seem so nice was all the plants lining them. They may not have a lot of money but they still find enough to buy plants to give the outside of their home some individuality and beauty.

Just as we were getting ready to leave the shop area it started to rain – actually to pour. It still amazes me how much water can come down so quickly. It went from a rather nice day to water running everywhere in a minute. Soon water was pouring off roofs and running down in rivers to the street. After 10 minutes of trying to wait out the storm, someone got us some umbrellas so we could get to the cars. We only drove about 300 yards and we were out of the storm which was still pouring behind us. It was like two different worlds.

When we got back to the chapel I thought about going back to the apartment, but there was lots of work going on and they needed to load for another delivery so I helped with that. There was so much to go that we filled three cars and if I had gone, Elder Petersen would have had to stay back. Since he is the Country Director I made myself scarce so he could go.

While we were finishing up the loading, the Moslem group – which was larger than I realized – left. Instead of going to the office and sitting down until Sam came back with our car, I went up and helped the now greatly reduced crew make kits. I got really good at wrapping crackers in a towel while John’s wife did the rest. We got so that we were producing as much or more than the larger groups.

By the time Sam came back I was soaking again – hopefully I sweated out the cold – and I had him bring me back to the apartment. I tried to take a nap but had just dropped off – or so it seemed  – when Mary came home. I had made the mistake of dropping the inside latch so she could not get in without waking me.

I spent part of the night reading from BofM stories in Indonesian. I hope that I will learn some more vocabulary this way and remember the easy words that keep repeating themselves. I went back and read the story I did this morning to see how many words I remembered. I only had to look up 2 or 3. I do not think I really know the words so that I can use them in speaking, but I know what they mean when I see them.

13 February 2007 – Tuesday

I slept in a semi-sitting position in one to two hour segments throughout the night. It really was not bad as I would get up, numb my lips, coat them with medicine and then go right back to sleep. This morning they are much better – hopefully the next two days should see the redness disappear. My cold did not seem to bother me – when I would wake up, I would cough to clear my throat and that seemed to be that. I am sure that over the next couple of days my cold will get worse – at least that has been the pattern in the past – and then clear up. If this is the worse thing that I catch in Indonesia it will be a good 16 months.

I rather dragged through the morning in the apartment and I think it is going to be a long day. I really do not feel all that sick it is just everything takes too much energy. We had a good time reading from the Kitab Mormon – Mary knows most of the words but I am able to add some things from time to time. My reading out loud is improving but has a long way to go. What I am not doing is learning vocabulary each day…truly my greatest weakness – or at least when it come to language.

We went into the office and although no one came in for help we were able to do some work on other things. Mary got ready for her Thursday English class, I worked on reports and caught up with the church e-mail.

I had a nice talk with Elder Bennett – he and Sister Bennett are pretty much settled in. He was able to get his car quickly because of the things I had told him about the temporary license and insurance. I think I will write up a sheet for new senior couples telling them what to expect and how to get some of the things that we all need to do done with minimum fussing around.

Also while we were there the supplies for the kits that they are going to be making started showing. Truckloads of blankets, towel, and crackers came in – more items will be delivered through the day.

We left at 12:30 to go to the mission home and get our new car. While there Elder Subandriyo asked me to re-write my last article on the floods and that Deseret News would be doing a story on the floods. I will just add some statistics about the hours, how many LDS families were affected and such. I am also going to do a story on the kits and their distribution.

A funny thing happened while we were there. Elder Subandriyo showed us a letter from Elder Packer asking him if he could chose a second name – it seems that they are having problems with him just having one. Elder Packer said that if he could not come up with one, Elder Packer had some suggestions. Elder Subandriyo wrote back and asked if he took a second name did he need to get re-baptized. Mary asked him what his friends called him in school and he told us ‘Yoyo.’ I suggested that would be a great first name – or perhaps second name since when you only have one name who is to say it is which. It is not a family name – it is just what he was called by his parents.

Sam got the new car, the paperwork and transferred our stuff. At first he had a little trouble because he has been driving an automatic for a couple of weeks and it took him a while to get use to the stick shift. The new car is great – it is shorter and narrower than what we had before but it should get better milage and except when we need to carry 7 people it will be fine. The important thing it is ours for the rest of the mission and there will be no monthly payment.

By the time we got home I was very tired but service men started arriving to fix some of the problems and I doubt if I will get to nap until after they all leave. I read in today’s paper that those who took a 30 minute nap at least three times a week were 37% less likely to have a heart attack than those who did not. I wonder how those who take 2 hour naps every day can expect to gain? Anyway I plan to make sure I get my naps in …

It is like grand central station in here right now. One group is fixing the bathroom problems while another is cleaning the air-conditioners. It is the latter that are the noisiest but ever so often the plumbers manage to let us know they are working.

I open up AOL and found a lead story about a man killing people at Trolley Square. Immediately I wonder if Cindy or Bob’s family was there – or anyone else we might know. It was on Monday night – family night – when it would be full of families from the area having a night out together. There is little in the way of details about who was killed or wounded. Now all we can do is wait to hear from our family to make sure everyone is OK.

I try to nap but the cold will not let me sleep – I can not imagine what tonight will be like. I try to read some Indonesian but can not concentrate for more than a few minutes. I don’t want to watch TV all night so I must find something useful to do – maybe get Mary to read some more in Kitab Mormon.

Patience – I am really doing better here. Whenever I start to get worked up over something I remind myself that it is not worth getting upset about and back off. I am sure that I will do some backsliding along the way but hopefully I will be able to continue to work on this attribute.

Charity fits right in with Patience – by looking for the good and not what is wrong is not easy and I have a long ways to go here. But I think that is part of the reason the Lord sent me here – to see the positive instead of the negative in the people and ways of Indonesia.

We got good news – the apartment finally closed. That means we have money to pay off some loans and the last of our credit cards, Mike no longer has to worry about collecting rent there, and we will have more income.

12 February 2007 – Monday

I only slept until 5:00 and could feel that my cold was moving up to my nose – I got up and got a glass of orange juice and took some Vitamin C. I am not sure that it will help but with that and continuing my praying for relief, I at least felt better. I did not go to the gym because I just did not feel like doing any exercise.

However I started reading the Indonesian Book of Mormon Stories and find that I can move through them fairly well. I am not sure how good this is for teaching me patience – I get rather disturbed when I have to look up the same word three times in the space of two or three pages. My short term memory does not seem to exist – at least not this morning. It also helps that I have a picture to look at and the stories are familiar. However I remember that not long ago I could not get through even a page in 15 minutes and had to look up every second or third word. So I am progressing and learning patience – what more can I ask at that time of the morning.

Also on the positive side – I think my mouth is getting better. It still looks terrible but except for that ones on my lips, the blisters seem to be healing and not itching as much.

It was a good day – at least it was for the way I have felt. We had short conversations with Cindy, Bob and Tom – with Bob we also got to see Rachel. With Tom we got a naked William and a clothed Kelli Ann. Everyone seems to be fine. It is a shame that we do not get a better connection. Maybe we should try MSN chat or something like that. But I think the problem is that our connection here is just too slow.

The cleaning lady came at 8:30 – Mary left with Sam to go shopping for the items needed by the missionaries at about 10:00. This meant I had to leave the door to the apartment open because I could not be in the apartment with a woman and I could not leave and let her just work. She did a good job and finished right at three hours – she deep cleaned the bathroom and did surface cleaning everywhere else. I think once a week will keep the apartment looking good. The bill came to 60,000 rp and I gave her a 10,000 rp tip. – a whole $1.

When Mary and Sam got home from their shopping we headed off to see two of the three houses we are responsible for. When we got to the first one – it took forever to get there – we found one of the elders was so ill that he needed to go to the doctor. So we dropped off the supplies, took a quick tour of the house, gave the elder a blessing and then took them to the doctor.

We then headed to the second house where we found that none of the elders were home. We called and found one pair was nearby so we went and got them. We took a much longer look at this home and found that there was a lot of things that need repairing. The elders keep it quite well but we need to do a real through inspection with everyone there. Then we need to clean one area to show them how and let them clean the rest. I am not going to be too hard on them until some of the problems that were not caused by them has been repaired. Once they know we will get things fixed I expect them to help by doing their part.

One of the major problems with the houses is that the owners have used the cheapest water based latex paint made by man. It is pretty much like chalk and just can not be cleaned at all. I have suggested to the president that they re-paint with good scurbable water based enamel and then hold the elder responsible for keeping it clean. It is unfortunate that these homes had not been inspected in a long time. The program has always been in place but I guess it was felt by some senior missionaries that it was not really important to continue inspections.

The trip home also took forever – the Jakarta traffic is certainly back to normal. I think it took 75 minutes to travel less than 15 miles…but I did sleep part of that time so at least the last part went fast.

We got home just in time to have the air-conditioning repair folks come in. They of course did not get everything done so they have to come back tomorrow. The story of work here in Jakarta. But I am learning patience.

Speaking of that it seems the car is ready, licensed, and insured – however I decided to wait until tomorrow to go get it. I just want to make sure everything is OK this time. I will not be excited about getting the car until we actually get to drive it out of the compound for the first time.

We got an e-mail from the next couple – the Roberts – that is coming to Indonesia in March. They had lots of questions and I answered them and gave them some thoughts. They later wrote back with more thoughts and questions which I also answered. I prepared the two reports on the inspections and sent them to the president.

Dinner was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for me. Mary had noodles – simple meals work here. Especially when neither of us feels near 100%.

We spent part of the evening reading from Kitab Mormon but for the most part all I wanted to do was stay awake long enough that I might sleep during the night. I could not really concentrate on studying and I was not interested in watching TV, so I pretty much wandered between reading, TV and the computer. Not what I would call an profitable missionary night. It is like Mary has always said- I am a real pain when I am sick and she is correct. Luckily that is not all that often.

11 February 2007 – Sunday

I slept in until almost 6 – it is getting to be a habit. My mouth looks really bad – it should draw a lot of comments today. Yesterday I forgot to mention that both of us got our hair cut. They tend to cut hair a little shorter here but I like the way mine looks. Mary statement was that ‘it will grow out.’ One thing is for sure it is a lot easier to take care of this way.

We read for about 45 minutes from Kitab Mormon. Mary is able to pretty much translate what is being said – sometimes we miss key indicators of who is talking or the tense which throws us off but other than that and forgetting words we really should know it goes well. It is harder to translate articles or talks because, unlike the KM, they do not often repeat thoughts or phrases.

We went to church at Jakarta, Raya. Elder Cheney was there in place of elder Thomas. When we met on Friday as a district, I missed that they had changed. Everyone of course asked me about my sore lips. I am not sure everyone understood but they appeared sympathetic. Sacrament meeting was about obedience. I asked Elder Decker not to translate but to be available so we could ask him the basic idea of what was being said. It worked out pretty good but I think I should asked for a few more ideas.

As I listen more words are starting to stand out. The problem is that they do not instantly – or even very quickly translate into something I understand. However each week gives me hope that in the future I will at least be able to pick up enough to understand what is the core of the message.

We then went to the Gospel Principle’s class. They had two investigators and that is great. I wish Tangerang would get a few. Elder Decker taught the class by having individuals read part of the lesson. When it was over I mentioned to him that on Friday he had taught a good lesson on asking questions so that you know if an investigator understands what is being taught but he did not put it into practice for his lesson.

What made this more interesting is that for PH they had the WW Leadership meeting for all the branch leaders and it was on being a good teacher. It was in Indonesian but I could follow much of it because Elder Holland wrote things on the board. One of the important things that he mentioned was to make sure the class members had a chance to participate by asking good questions.

It lasted for 90 minutes and was going to go on after that but since it was in Indonesian I decided I should come home and watch the whole thing in English. I am sure that the mission must have a copy of text – or perhaps they have an actual DVD.

I have been praying today that I would not come down with the cold that it seems like I am getting. There is too much to do for me to be sick. The problem with my mouth is enough challenge – I am hoping that by next Sunday it will be pretty much cleaned up. Unfortunately I do not think my faith is strong enough because I can feel the cold moving up my throat to my nose. I wonder why colds are often announced that way – they germinate in the throat?

We took naps – I took a fairly long one and Mary took her normal short nap. When I woke my mouth was itching and my so was my throat. I think that is not fair!

Mary fixed spaghetti – it was really good to have a homemade dinner. We also finally took the time to go through the receipts and divide them between those we need to be reimbursed for and those that are personal and can be taken off our taxes. I still find it hard to believe we are allowed to take all of our expenses from our mission as a tax deduction.

We spent some time cleaning up the apartment so that when the cleaners come tomorrow they can give the all the surfaces a good cleaning. It will be interesting to see how they can spend 3 hours cleaning – but for a total of $6 no matter what they do I can hardly complain.

It really does not seem right to be around the apartment for so long. If it was not necessary to give Sam time off to attend his own branch – they seem to be busy all day Sunday – and do personal things, I would just as soon spend Sunday visiting less-actives or something. Maybe in the future we can go to the office – we can take a taxi that far – and be there in case anyone would like some help looking for a job. That sounds like a good idea – at least we can give it a try.