29 January 2007 – Monday

Another Monday that was not a P-Day. Regular morning with the gym, study, etc. We did get to talk to Jim and his family via Skype, but the connection is just not very good. I do not know if it has to do with broadband width or what. Whatever the problem at least we got to see Olivia and she got to see us for a short time. I also spent some time getting the files organized.

We picked up the Bennetts before 10 and we all went over to the mission home where we had a PEF meeting. Elder Bennett set in with us. The committee includes the CES director for the country brother Tandiman, President Jensen, Elder Subandriyo, and Hendra who is head of finance. The meeting was not very productive. The problem with the bank has not been solved and may not be solved. The bank feels they must issue the check to the student and the church is not going to go for that. Elder Bennett suggested the check be issued to the student and the school so that both must sign. Of course there is no check it is a direct deposit and I am not sure how that might be worked out.  There are some things we need to do – mainly sending e-mails to get permission for translation.

After that meeting the other folks went off to shop and have some lunch. I stayed at the office and sat in on the Career Workshop for Elder Ng and Elder Go who are being released. I could not understand most of what was being said but I noticed that once again Lukito talks a lot and the participants do not do a lot of work. I was reading the teacher’s manual and it suggested that it should be 20% talk and 80% work. I am going to have to figure out some way to get more activity and less talking without offending Lukito.

The workshop got over at about 4:15 and we headed back to the Harris’ hotel and then Sam dropped us off at the apartment. We had a lot of stuff to carry up – hopefully some day we will get down to only needing to buy food each week.

Our missionary work seems to be mainly working with the elders assigned to our branches, teaching English and putting on workshops. There is little real missionary work done. I believe once we get settled in, we will spend more time going out to visit the less actives at night. Of course since we can not yet communicate with the people, I am not sure how effective we will be. I think I call the Van Dongans and ask them how they do it. They have been very successful in their area getting members to start coming out again.

30 January 2007 – Tuesday

An interesting day – kind of P-day to make up for yesterday.

I was up at 5:15 – it is really great to sleep a full 7 hours – and headed for the gym at the regular time. Unfortunately it was not open so I decided to walk some laps. As I was walking a middle-aged lady went past me in a power walk. I picked up the pace for a while but did not really want to work up a sweat until I got to the gym. However later she went jogging past me. So I decided I would jog some and then walk some. By the time the gym had opened I had managed to put in about a mile on the track.

In the gym I did some sit-ups, did time on the bike and then switched to the treadmill to get my heart rate up above 120. The bike is great for my legs but it does not get my heart above about 115. After the gym we had a pretty normal morning except I had to go to the complex office to get a form for checking in to the new apartment and then to the cashier to try and work out the problem with return of the deposit. Do to my running around we did not get as much read in the Kitab Mormon as usual.

We picked up the Bennetts at about 9:50 and took them into the office. While we waited for the man from Jakarta Raya to show up Sister Bennett got on the Family History computers. The member arrived about 10:45 and Sam got his e-mail account set up. It turned out he was not really interested in a job – he needed an e-mail address so he could get some money from his brother in the Netherlands. He did ask for some help with setting up a business to export coconut oil. But since he only can produce about 2.5 gallons a day I do not see how he can get enough to be worth exporting. I suggested he get in contact with brother Lukito from his branch and ask for some help. I will check the web to see what the demand for it might be. Maybe we can come up with some way to make it different.

After he left at about 11 we took the Bennetts and went out to Bogor. We went to the Wild Animal Zoo which is much like the San Diego Wild Animal Park. That is you stay in your car and drive through the animal’s habitats. We were able to get within a few feet of tigers and lions. We took a couple of hundred pictures – so many we filled the card and I had to delete some of the ones we will not want to keep.

The Bennetts seemed to enjoy it and I found it OK. I did not have the best seat in the house – I was riding in the back so everyone else would have plenty of room. I prefer that to sitting three across in the middle seat.

We had thought we could also go to the botanical gardens but by the time we had toured the driving part and then went through the walking section it was a little too late. So instead we headed back to Jakarta. As we drove out of the park we came to a section of business that are aimed at the visitors to the WAZ. One of them is a nursery which had nice looking bouganvileas. I had Sam stop and I got one for $6 – half the $12 he first asked.  Mary was looking at a bowl and I can kick myself for not buying it. I think we will go back and look at the wood pieces someday before we leave. I just have to remember to have a good selection of bills with me. They do not like to give change. They always claim to not have any.

Once we were there we dropped off the Bennetts and came home only long enough to drop off things and get some money changed. Then we went back to the Harris Hotel and had dinner with the Bennetts. The buffet but not great. They do not seem to believe in keeping food hot and the fish was not as good as usual. But the desserts were great.

We then waited with them until Ari brought their passports, their kitas, and the contract for the lease on their new home. At least they will have a driver, a car and a roof over their head tomorrow night. They have to leave for the apartment by 5:15 a.m. I told them we would not be there to wish them goodbye.

I am really glad we got to know the Bennetts before they disappear into central Java. I do not imagine we will see them very often but we will keep in touch. I think we did the right thing by making sure they did not have to sit in their hotel room for the better part of a week. They said they appreciated our taking them along and they had a good time. They are going to be great for getting people active and boasting the missionary work. They are will be much better at that than we would have been. The certainly knows the strengths of the missionaries and sends them to the place where they can do the most good.

While we did not do much work in our area of missionary work today, I think we did do some good work in helping the Bennetts start to adjust to Indonesia.
31 January 2007 – Wednesday

The Bennetts should be just getting on a plane to head for their area. I am sure they will have many great experiences there. I woke at 4:30 but dozed a little until 5:30. Worked hard on the bike for 30 minutes. My legs are getting stronger. I seemed to have lost a few ounces and seemed to have hit the goal for the end of January. Hopefully I will do as well in February. I wish they sold Ultra Slim Fast here.

I spent much of the morning organizing what needed to be done today. It turned out to be a lot. It took so long that we only had about 20 minutes to read from the Kitab Mormon before Sam arrived. The first step was to go to the Mission home where we found out that our car would not be ready until Friday or Monday. We also found out that we could not exchange our rental for one of the mission vehicles because they were needed to pick up the new missionaries from the states. We did manage to pay for our weeks rental of the old car we turned in.

So from there we went to Global Doctors to see a dentist about getting my tooth re-cemented. Unfortunately she was not going to be in today so I had to set an appointment for tomorrow. From there Sam drove us to the American Embassy where I got the Power of Attorney notarized. It was getting into Fort Knox. There are a number of steps the car and people must get through just to get near the embassy. I am not sure we ever made it but for about $30 we got it done. The trip back out was just about as difficult.

Next we stopped by BCA where we picked up our code unit that allows us to pay bills by computer. After that we went to Post Office so we could send a letter to Kaden. Their stamps have no glue on them so you get nice looking pieces of paper and use your finger to put glue on them. The PO was not busy at all and the people were very nice. If it was a little cleaner it could be anywhere in the US.

As we were walking in to the building a man who was helping with parking called us Elder and Sister. Since my badge says Penatua and not Elder we decided he might be a member who was not active. Sam is going to tell the missionaries about him and ask them to drop by and talk to him. Maybe we found a lost sheep. It seems like missionary opportunites come up all the time.

After the PO it was time to go to the office where we put in a couple of hours. Mary worked on her English class work and I went through the files looking for things that I might need to know about. I also made the changes to the Career Workshop schedule. I have decided it will be hard to plan more than three months in advance.

At about 2:30 we headed back to the Mission home again. This time we had to wait until the President and Sister Jensen came back with the new missionaries. It turned out there were only 4 instead of the expected 5. One of the Elders got sick at the MTC and did not come with this group. I suppose he will come later – but I do not know if they let them travel alone. We got a chance to say hello to the Elders – they kind of remember us visiting them at the MTC but not really. We were also able to send the Power of Attorney off via DHL and it should be in the Utah by some time early next week.

While we were there waiting I talked to Elder Subandriyo about the pilot for the English class and he said that we would give it a try with the next group to go home. That will be in early May and there will be two elders and one sister. I am really excited about this but there are still a number of things that will need to be worked out. Including where they will live and who will teach them. But if the program is truly inspired and we do all we can do, I am sure the Lord will help us make it a success. Over the weekend I will do more work on the idea and then get both the President and Elder Subandriyo to sign off. I am glad I have over three months to work on it.

We got home about 4:30 or 5 and have spent the evening reading the Kitab Mormon,posting some of my journal on the blog, and other interesting things. We never did get around to really eating dinner.

I was surprised to get a call from Sister Bennett saying that they arrived safely and were in their new home. It turned out that they were immediately put to work by the Elders to help them visit a new member that had not been coming to church. They were introduced to the humble homes of the members – there was only one chair so most of them sat on the floor – and had success by getting him to commit to coming to Church on Sunday. They are going to be a great asset in that area.

They did find one problem. Their driver does not speak very good English and so it is hard to communicate with him. But they found a member who has really good English and he went with them. There is also the Elders who can help out. I am sure they will learn Indonesian rather rapidly. I will call them on Sunday and see how they are doing.

Now it is after 10:30 and it is raining really hard. This apartment is set in a way that the rain hits the bedroom windows so we will be serenaded to sleep tonight. A perfect end to a very busy day. Wow the thunder is really rolling across the landscape and the rain is getting heavier. This means that more humble homes will be flooded tonight.

25 January 2007 – Thursday

It is the Leishmans last full day in Indonesia. I wonder what they were thinking about this morning as they were out walking laps. Even though we have spent quite a bit of time together, we really have not gotten to know them. I am very grateful for what we did learn from them over this last month. I can not imagine what it would have been like to learn everything from scratch.

The alarm woke me – at least it called me out of the semi-sleep I think I was in. I remember hearing some of the morning prayer call and hoping I would go back to sleep. Then I think I went through a period of semi-consciousness before the alarm went off.

I did not do a real workout today. I put time in on both the treadmill and the bike but not a lot on either. It was one of those mornings when I was doing it from habit and my heart was not into exercising at all. I think I managed a total of 30 minutes which is better than sitting on the couch all morning.

Today will be busy. I imagine we will go with the Leishmans over to the mission home, then we have a district meeting and English class. I am not sure I am at all prepared for this evening. I am far from comfortable teaching English to children.

Went to the office with the Leishmans at the regular time. We kept ourselves busy until it was time to go to Sinopati. I asked the Leishmans if they had a picture of the office they basically created. It turned out they had not so I took some pictures of them in the office.

At the mission office I saw a couple of people I needed to see and then Mary and I left. The Leishmans were to be interviewed by the president and then would take a taxi to their apartment. We drove out to Tangeran and found a Carrefour where we could buy some office supplies. Then we went to district meeting – Elder Roper gave a good lesson on Hope. Unfortunately Elder Collins has been sick most of the week. He was only able to go out one day. I would imagine if he does not get better the president may have to transfer him to a clearer environment.

English class went very well tonight. We started on time and quit on time – we are going to teach them that this is how English classes will be in the future. Elder Roper thought that was great. He said he wanted have me for a companion. After a song and prayer we broke into the two classes. In ours we reviewed last week’s lesson about long and short ‘E’. I got elder Tiemann to be the long E and I was short E. I wrote a word on the board and they had to decide if it was a short or long E and point to the right person. It went OK but not great. But the second part went really well. I had them learn how to hold a short conversation with some one. I started with how to ask for a person name and went on from there. I would write the Indonesian and the English on the board and then give them the answer. I then asked someone the question and have them answer.Then they would ask me. I went through a number of simple questions and responses. I think most of the young ones liked it – those without parents less than those who did have them.

When we got home, Sam had to help us get things upstairs. As soon as we got settled, we tried to call the new couple to say hello and offer them any help. We had a hassle getting to them – the Harris told us they were not there. Since we had called Sinopati and had been assured they were there, I called and asked for the manager. He finally checked the nationalities of the guests who had checked in today and got the room number. Unfortunately when I called they did not answer their phone. We will try again tomorrow morning.

We want them to feel welcome and if they want to they can come with us as we meet in district meeting and whatever else they would like to do. I do not want to have them sit around alone all day. That is I do not want them to have the same experience we did. And at least we had the Kanes as company while they are basically alone.

26 January 2007 – Friday

I am actually writing this on Saturday night. Friday was both a good and a bad day.

It was good because we are now on our own – to make our own mistakes. We will have to rely on the Lord and not the Leishmans to give us guidance.

We woke early and went down to say goodbye to the Leishmans. I think they were happy and touched that we cared enough to make the effort. Elder Leishman showed me the last ins and outs of some things and we hugged them before they got in and left for the airport.

On our way back to the apartment we asked the desk man for some help on moving. He agreed to have someone up with a cart at 6:30. I moved all our clothes that were on hangers and then right on time he arrived and helped us move. It took just two loads on his cart and we were moved. It was much easier than we expected.

We then unloaded some of the boxes and suitcases until it was time to shower and get dressed to head out for a busy day. As we got moving around in the apartment we realized that it was quite a bit smaller than the two bedroom one we had over in Dahlia. It is also not in as good of shape. But it will be our home for the next 16 months so we will learn to live with it.

It was also good because we got to meet the Bennetts – the new couple that came to Indonesia on Wednesday. We were determined that they would not have the same experience we had when we first got here, so we picked them up on our way to Jakarta Raya district meeting. It gave them an opportunity to get away from the hotel, meet some of the missionaries, and see how a district meeting is run.

The Bennetts are from Prescott, Arizona and had served a mission to Oakland 10 years ago. They are very different – she is small and thin and he is big and heavy. Both are very nice. I changed some of his large bills to smaller ones and then later at the bank I changed more for even smaller bills. They seem to have come well prepared money wise.

They seemed to enjoy the district meeting and even participated with some comments. Elder Decker – the new district leader – has only been a DL for about three weeks. Two in So Lo and one Jakarta. Elder Thomas gave a good lesson on hope.

After the meeting we went to the bank so we could transfer the rest of the money for our new car. First we tried to do it at ATM and we found out we were above our limit. So we had to go to a teller and them made the transfer. I am slowly learning how the bank functions around here. Next we went to a food court where the Bennetts treated us to lunch at A&W. I must say that it is not my favorite place and the root beer tastes strange. Also they have stopped using real ice cold mugs so I doubt if we will eat there again. KFC is much better and I still want to try Wendy’s and MacDonalds. I also want to try more local foods.

On our way to the University we stopped at the Harris and let the Bennetts get some rest. I am glad we did not take them with us to the University. We got to the University much too early and the wait in the heat was terrible. The class started with about a dozen people and swelled to over 30.

I thought these were all fairly good English speakers but found that is not true. I am sure our first lesson was well above the level for most people. I stayed on my program and gave them Shakespeare – at least one or two people seemed to enjoy it. One woman was brave enough to read part of to be or not to be.

After the class, the head of the University suggested we break the class into two and we quickly agreed. We will have a beginning class and an advance class. Mary is going take the beginners and use what she does on Thursday for her advance class. I will take the advance class and hopefully teach them conversational English.

One man introduced himself and expressed the feeling that while he could read and understand much of what he read, he could not get what he wants to say out into English. I think I will try to spend some time next week talking about that and seeing where we can go with it. Mary and I agreed that we will not rely on the school to make copies of home work or anything else. They do not seem to have a copy center. The level of schooling in their University is well below that of most 2nd world educational systems.

The bad part happened on the way home. I all of a sudden needed a bathroom very badly and there were no public ones on the way home. We rushed to the chapel where the office is and I almost made it but not quite. It is not an experience I care to have again. No permanent damage except to my pride.

I did not feel really sick – but since then my stomach has been just a little off. I am wondering what I might have eaten at A&W disagreed with me. Others had that I had and never had any problem.

By the time we got home I was very tired and the time seemed to pass slowly. We did our reading in the Kitab Mormon. I spent some time cleaning up and putting away more of our stuff.

We plugged in the computer and was thrilled to find that we had a good enough connection to actually skype using the camera. (Just as I was typing that Tom called on Skype! The connection was not very good but it was nice to hear him. He will call back when Kelly is up. It seems that William is ill and not in any condition to talk to us.) We were able to get in contact with Bob for a few minutes and we are to call back on Sunday night or Monday morning because the girls will all be there.

So all in all I guess the good outweighed the bad – and as Shakespeare said: All’s well that ends well.!

27 January 2007 – Saturday

Slept well and woke just before 5. We had to leave early so I did not go to the gym.

We spent the day in the Jakarta Raya branch chapel giving a career workshop. At 9 there was only one person there but we got a call that more were coming. By 9:30 we were up to 5 and 2 missionaries.

Brother Lakito gave the whole thing in Indonesian. They do not do the full 12 hour course. In fact they seem to really only have about 4 hours of content and if no one asks questions or is willing to be video taped doing an interview, it seems he just fills time. The Indonesian people are – at least for the most part – quite shy and it is hard to get them to participate. I think I will suggest that the instructor spends more time on the ‘Me is 30 seconds’ and the ‘Power Statement.’ That is the core of the program and if they do not develop those concepts it will just not work the right way.

Luckily it seems the younger generation is becoming a little more aggressive. It is something that the multi-nationals and the bigger Indonesian companies are looking for. In the past people just wanted a job – the Human Resource director we talked to on Wednesday said that they wanted people who wanted to work hard and rise to the top. They do not want people who just want a job.

Since the whole class is given in Indonesian, I must be honest and say that I was rather bored at times. I did try to listen to what was being said and understand some of the words. I can hear more and more of them but I still do not understand them. I felt better when I talked to Elder Thiemann – a missionary we met in the MTC – and he said he still can not understand a lot of what is being said.

While I was siting in the Workshop, Mary went shopping with Sam. On the way back they stopped and picked up 16 meals from KFC. We feed the participants and often someone just drops in for lunch. We also fed the missionaries. 16 dinners cost a whole $38. I must say that the Original Recipe is the same here as in the states. It is not popular with Indonesians because it is not spicy enough. They have a spicy chicken and then they dip it in lost of hot sauce.

What is most exciting about the day is that we are doing so well reading the Book of Mormon. Of course it helps that it tends to repeat itself – especially in 1st Nephi – but this morning we read and there were some long verses that we could translate completely and others that only had a word or two that we did not know. I think once we get to a point where we can read it, we will be able to speak more and then perhaps we will be able to understand when others talk.

While we were in the workshop, it started to rain. It is much needed but it also means that somewhere people will have their houses flooded. It seems that the debris that people throw into the river – actually more like canals – block up the drains and so the canals back up and flood the same homes again and again.

I heard a story yesterday about one of the A.P.s – Elder Farr – who on his first day in the field left his brand new scriptures and all of his clothes on the bed while they went out to do something. While they were gone it rained and when he got home everything was under water. Despite that start, he turned out to be one of the best missionaries in the mission. The paper often shows people in some part of Jakarta wading through waist deep water.

Earlier in the day we wrote to Bob and asked him to call Gordon Creer and get his e-mail address. When we got home we had a letter from Bob with the address. I immediately sent off a long email telling about what was going on and asking him to send me other address so I could write to them. I am particularly interested in Don Peterson’s so I can ask him why the Power of Attorney we gave to Mike is not working on the sale of the house.

In our short conversation with Tom he said the problem is the new lender’s attorneys who want to make sure we really are selling the house. Lawyers!

22 January 2007 – Monday

The start of another week – the last one for the Leishmans. I slept well and woke at 5:20 feeling very good. It was like I had just enough sleep for one night. I decided to go down early and walk the track until the gym opened. I put in a good mile but discovered that I had not brought a towel. I did not want to go back to the apartment and get one so I only did some sit-ups and less than 20 minutes on the bike. But that was enough to work up a good sweat and I was nicely surprised when I got on the scales and saw that I lost about a pound over Sunday. I think I will go back to the gym later in the day.

This morning we are going to go to an orphanage where the Leishmans put in a water system and re-built their kitchen. It is kind of like a last hoorah for them. I would think that they will spend most of the rest of their mission time getting ready to leave on Friday. That means starting Friday it is all ours.

We were gone much longer than we expected because besides going to the school for blind handicapped children we also we home teaching out in the wilds. I thought we were going to an orphanage but it turned out that it was a Christian run school for children who are blind and have at least one more handicap – mental or physical. It was a humbling experience to be there where some 70 students – age 3 to 20 – from lower social levels live and learn. The school is funded by a small tuition – if the family can afford it – donations, and however else they can get money. There is a staff that seems to vary between 30 and 60 depending on the money available. The school is quite clean – at least under the circumstances – and the teachers seem to really care for the children.

Last year LDS Charities gave them a new well, storage tank and helped upgrade their kitchen. We were there to let the Leishmans say goodbye and to introduce us to those who run the school. They are going to make up a list of things they feel they need and we will try to help them. The problem is that the Church is not into providing things that are not related to wheelchairs, water, or neo-natal – at least not at this time. The earlier project made it through because it did deal with clean water.

After the school Sam drove us out to the boondocks of Jakarta – actually it was closer to Bogor than it was to Jakarta – to hometeach a member of the Raya branch. We seemed to drive forever and then Sam drove into a lane that was only about 2 feet wider than the SUV. If someone was walking in the lane, we had to wait until they could get into a doorway or some small alcove before we could pass.

The man of the house was not home but his wife was. It is a nice home by Indonesian standards and they have a small manufacturing business along side. He makes some kind of tool hanger that he sells to big companies. They have a daughter who graduated from a Indonesian university in accounting and now lives in her own apartment. Their son is going to BYU Hawaii and will graduate this year. The mother mentioned that he often called for money and it was up to her to find a way to send it. It was humbling to see this relatively poor family making sure that their children had opportunities that they never would have thought to have.

They live far from the branch and it takes 90 minutes on a motorcycle for the father to get there. The mother can not ride that long so if she goes it must be by public transportation that will take her from 2 ½ to 3 hours each way. She does not go very often but he is quite faithful – when she does it is an all day thing. The faith of the Indonesian saints is amazing to me.

Sam took us home the short way which meant traveling on a road that was basically destroyed. He could not go over 5 miles an hour and had to move all over the road to avoid the worst of the holes. I am not looking forward to doing that each month. Once we got to the main road it was a much smoother trip home. I managed to nap along the way.

Home to eat lunch, watch the end of a movie, and then took a short nap. When we got up it was time to clean up the books and paperwork that has accumulated since we started our mission. We went through and put everything in piles according to what it was about. We then went through and organized the piles. We can not really get this well done until we move in to the apartment and have bookcases. We will also get plastic stacking boxes to hold materials.

The one thing we have not done is go through the receipts we have been keeping. Some will we will be able to turn in for reimbursement and the others will go toward taxes. What we did not find was the amount that we still need to pay on the car – I will have to get that in the next week and make the transfer.

23 January 2007 – Tuesday

Although I woke a couple of times during the night, basically I slept from 10:30 P.M. to 5:30 A.M. Maybe I am finally getting adjusted to being on Indonesian time. The only problem now is that I am still tired after 7 hours sleep.

Made it to the gym in time to get a treadmill and spent a good, hard 40 minutes walking. I got my heartbeat up to into the 130’s and maintained the 120’s for at least half of the time. There is definitely more people using the gym in the morning than when we first got here. I was happy to see that my weight went down to about 83 K but I would not be surprised to see it go up a little today. I have one more week to get it down to a solid 82.5 and I think I can do that.

After taking a long shower, I read from the Book of Mormon in English. I am in Alma where he and Amulek are confronting Zoram. It is a good section because not only is the gospel plainly taught, but both Amulek and Zoram except the truth, repent and become strong preachers of the truth. It shows that no matter what you have done, through the power of the atonement you can repent and find peace. It also reminds me of why we are here – not just to help with employment but to invite others to come unto Christ.

Darn machine ate my typing!

We read the Kitab Mormon for about 45 minutes and we were able to do many verses without looking up more than one or two words and with some we did not need to look up any. Mary pointed out that she can now read a lot of the words and not need to consciously think about them before coming up with the English word. The next step is to start thinking in Indonesian and needing to work at translating the words into English. This is the where the missionaries are – they say it is hard or impossible to teach the gospel in English because it is too much work to try and come up with the English translation. Hopefully we will get somewhat close to that before we go.

At 10 we went over to the Leishman’s – soon to be our – apartment and waited until about 10:45 when the man came to close out the Leishman’s internet. Unfortunately he could not connect ours. Later in the day I called the engineer and he seems to feel he can connect us by giving information over the phone.

We were dropped off at the office at about 11:15 and we have been fairly busy ever since. Not that we had anyone come in for help with employment but we worked on our English, made some lists, worked on Indonesian, and watched the rain come down. It has been raining all day – no complaints because the country needs it – and for the first time we got to see how some streets become big ponds.

The Leishman’s came to the office at about 3:00 and we decided to shut down so we could get some rest before heading out to Tangeraan and dinner with a member family. I think it was originally only for the Leishmans as a goodbye gesture but we got invited as an after thought. The brother is in the district council and the sister is in RS.
The trip out to the dinner appointment was long and wet. At times it was just pouring rain. The traffic was usual but not completely stop and go as it sometimes is. But it ended up taking us about 13/4 hours to get there. I will never know how Sam found the right place.

We did not have dinner at their home because there was no room big enough so we went to her place of business. She owns a beauty shop, health massage, and steam room. Not unlike sister Radmall recently opened at home.

Dinner was very good. It is the first time we have eaten at a member’s home with traditional foods. The fried chicken was as good as I have eaten. There was excellent saffron rice, pressed rice, and lots more things that I do not have names for. There was a dish of thin sliced potatoes that were fried in some sweet and spicy coating that I really liked but could only eat with something else. If I tried to eat it alone it set my mouth on fire.

She had some unusual wood piece which turned out to be a tree that they cut into sections, peel off the outside bark and then hollow out the center. It looks like they have carved the outside but she assured me that it was all natural. That once the bark was off the trunk it dried to the rough texture and different shades. I started thinking of how it could be sold and asked some questions. When we started to go, she gave me a good size piece – I really did not want to take it but they insisted.

We also met two of the brother’s friends from Sumatra. One had majored in English at the university and could speak very well. He said that he had been teaching ex-pats Indonesian for the last three months. I imagine that is a pretty good business to be in.

Elder Roper and Elder Go were also there. Elder Roper is just plain funny and so we had a good time. It turned out that the direct bus to their house stopped at 7:00 so for them to get home would mean they had to walk in the rain to one place, take a bus that actually went away from their house until they could catch another bus that would take them home. After checking with the Leishmans, Mary offered them a ride home with us. They were thrilled.

From how they had been describing their house, I expected to see this run down dump. I was really surprised to drive up to a nice looking house in a very decent neighborhood.  We will not know what the inside looks like until a week from Monday, but I would be surprised if it is not nicer than most families have in Indonesia.

The trip home seemed to take forever but somewhere along the way I fell asleep and after that it was fine.

24 January 2007 – Wednesday

I woke at about 5:00 this morning – a little earlier than the last two days but I still had a good sleep. I did not get to the gym until almost 6:00 and by then the treadmills were in use so I did sit-ups and then spent a rugged 20 minutes on the bike. I do not know if the calorie counter on the bike is anywhere near correct but it certainly feels good to see the number climb so fast. I alternated medium and very fast pumping so that I could get my heart rate up. When I got on the scale I found that another pound was gone. After the big dinner last night, I thought it would be up today. I think I will be below 180 by the end of the month.

Back at the apartment I did the usual morning things – breakfast was a banana and four Ritz crackers. I did some work on the English class for Thursday – I am going to try and get the children more involved. That was a suggestion by Elder Roper last night.

After that we sat down and finished chapter 10 from the Kitab Mormon. I am very encouraged because more and more words are starting to make sense without going to the dictionary. Of course it helps that Mary remembers so many. I need to go back and again read the verses we studied today. I think that way I will remember more. I also find that my ability to read out loud is improving. Hopefully by my birthday I will be slim and able to carry on a simple conversation in Indonesian.

The Leishmans dropped us off at the office and we spent about 90 minutes working on English for Thursday and Friday. The internet was completely down so we could not check either mailboxes. Hopefully there was nothing important in either one.

We took a cab to the mission office. We left early so we would have time to talk to a number of people. Hendra printed off the branch lists we needed and we had a nice conversation about the goals for Jakarta branch for the coming year. I was impressed that they not only set goals but wrote plans on how they would achieve them. I think Hendra will be the way into the confidence of the Jakarta branch. Hopefully I can find ways to help them achieve their goals. They did confirm the three new members that we saw baptized two weeks ago. I am looking forward to passing the sacrament there this Sunday.

We could not talk to the A.P.s because they were off traveling. I think being an A.P. might be fun because the president really allows them to do a lot of work and travel. We had lunch with the staff – that is we ate our apples with them. We were joined by Elder Subandriyo who had to run home to get his dress shoes for our visit this afternoon.

We also got to talk a little with the president. He and sister Jensen were getting ready to go pick up the new missionary couple. Unfortunately he is still feeling bad from whatever he got over a week ago. I hope I do not get anything that bad. However if I did, I would just stay home and rest. Unfortunately that is not a luxury he has.

Elder Subandriyo drove us to our meeting with Raphail Yunianto,  the Human Resource Director of the Media Group that owns the largest TV station in Indonesia and a lot more businesses. On the way I found out that president Jensen sent Subandriyo a copy of my proposal for English training for Indonesian missionaries. He had not really read the proposal carefully so I talked to him about some of the thoughts. Later when we were waiting for our appointment, he had a chance to read the proposal and I think he is interested.  I hope that we will get a chance to at least get a pilot program going sometime the first half of this year.

Our meeting with Mr. Yunianto went really well. We talked some about ourselves, why we were in Indonesia, what programs we were offering to members and non-members alike, and finally we got down to summer internships that they might be able to offer Indonesian students at BYU Hawaii. It sounds as if they might be willing to extent internships to as many Media, Accounting, and Hotel majors as would like to apply. We also learned something about what type of people they were looking for. He mentioned that often an applicant had all the educational qualifications but lacked the drive to be successful. They are looking for self-starters who want to move up in the organization. Obviously that is possible because he appears to still be quite young and has a very responsible position. Now we just need to get things rolling from our side and let BYU Hawaii know that we need applicants for the internships.

Elder Subandriyo drove us back to the mission office because the traffic was too heavy for him to drive us to the apartment. We hoped to meet the new couple but the president was tied up with some kind of problem involving a missionary in one of the branches and we did not want to disturb him so we left. We caught a cab back to the apartment – he took us a different way than Sam usually does but he still kept it down to $2 so I gave him a 25% tip. I am really a big spender.

We went down to the café for dinner – with tip $6.50.  There was one funny experience tonight. This morning I mentioned to Mary that since the door automatically locks it would be easy to lock yourself out of the apartment. This evening as we left for dinner I did just that and so we had to get the staff to let us back in. Next time I must remember to knock on wood.

We spent part of the evening packing for our move and part of it watching a really bad movie on TV. The time would have been much better spent working on Indonesian. That is the time spent watching TV. The packing went well and I do not think it is going to be hard to move on Friday morning. However Friday is going to be really busy because we have to move, go out to Jakarta branch, and then get back for the English at the University. It should be fun. If worse come to worse we will call the elders and tell them we will be late to their district meeting. I do not want to miss it completely because we did not get to go last week. It is not good to miss two weeks in a row. Besides I want to meet the new district leader.

Now it is going on 11 P.M. and I am about to turn off the lights and go to sleep.

19 January 2007 – Friday

I slept well and long. Probably because I was wiped out last night. I did wake about 4 something and got to hear part of the first call to prayer, but managed to go right back to sleep. That does not happen very often. Woke to the alarm at 5:30. Unfortunately Mary did not sleep get to sleep in – she was awake before 5.

At the gym I did my short routine with 20 plus minutes on the bike – it says that I use as many calories as 40 minutes on the treadmill but I am thinking that it out of wack. Also did 55 sit-ups. Unfortunately I did not do any time on the treadmill because by the time I was finished with the bike they were all filled.

As I was getting on the scales a 50ish man with an Australian accent started to talk to me. I mentioned that it was hard to get any weight to come off and he said that he was reading that when we got into our 50’s – then he looked at me and added – or 60’s. This made me chuckle to myself and realize that I was obviously looking my age. The scale was not any kinder – but I will just keep plugging along with exercise and watch my calorie intake a little better and perhaps some day it will start to work.

We went with the Leishmans to a large hospital to see the Humanitarian project that they had been working. The Church provided an incubator and 10 baby cribs for the neo-natal unit. The hospital was huge with people coming and going in a constant flow. Although it was not up to US standards it was clean and orderly – or as orderly as a hospital that must take care of 3000 patients a day can be.

We had a very interesting talk with the doctors who were over the unit. They told us that at times they had up to 50 babies in need of an incubator. Today was a quiet one and they only had 26 in incubators. That meant they did not have to double up and babies. All of these are of course premature children as healthy babies are seldom born in a hospital because it costs too much.

The doctors who work there – it is a government hospital – make about $150 a month. They supplement that with a private practice that brings their income up to about $500 month. Nurses make less than $100 a month in a government hospital but some may also work in a private hospital to make more. Most of the nurses in neo-natal are not University trained but are trained by the hospital. To become what we would call a RN they must go to school for 5 to 6 years and then they might make $300 a month between private and government pay.

We also got to see the new floor where the neo-natal unit will move in a month or so. It is large, open and has lots of light from the outside. Everything seems to be first quality construction – at least for Indonesia. The only problem is that they still need about a dozen incubators to handle the peak times. At $2K each it is unlikely they will get them anytime soon. I am thinking of writing to the Edgemont 11th ward and suggesting that they sponsor another incubator but that is not the Lord’s way – it should come through LDS Charities – so I doubt if I will.  But even one more incubator might save up to 50 babies a year. The unit at this time has a 45% mortality rate.

Another interesting thing is that there in no such thing as a parent’s waiting room. So if your baby is in the unit, you sit and sleep out in the hall until it is ready to come home.

After that we went to the office where I learned more about reports, worked on some things about the English class and read from the scriptures. Mary worked on English class preparation and sent a long email to Cindy. It is great to have some way of contacting the family again. I am not sure that sister Leishman approves but until we get our internet connection at our new apartment it will have to do.

After office hours we all went to a very upscale mall – it had 8 floors with a couple being reserved for different food establishments. They really seem to eat at malls. Everything was quite expensive and we did not buy a thing. I am sure we will go back and get some glass pieces and take more time looking around. But it really is not our kind of mall.

When we got home we started watching TV and had dinner. Mary made fried rice and we order a couple of servings of sweet and sour chicken from the restaurant in the complex. It was not as good as the other times we had it, but it still was better than most things we have eaten here. The total cost of dinner was under $5 including a tip to the delivery guy.

Mary is still watching TV and I am about to start studying Indonesian. I think the real challenge of this mission will be learning Indonesian. The rest will be simple compared to that.

20 January 2007 – Saturday

I slept well last night but woke about an hour earlier than I would have liked. I used the time to study Indonesian. I am re-reading the early part of 1 Nephi and trying to remember what the words mean. I hope that some of them will stick in my mind so I can use them in making sentences. I helped open the gym and put time in on the bike and treadmill. I think I lost some weight but I will not really know until I break through 83 kilos.

The last couple of mornings the city has been very overcast – perhaps foggy – in the morning. I liked it better when the sky is clear and blue. It means it will be hot but the view is much better.

We spent about 30 minutes reading the Kitab Mormon. As usual there were lots of words we had to look up. We are at the point where Lehi is explaining his dream about the tree, path and the iron rod. I decided to write down the words we had to look up – after 7 or 8 verses we had collected about 20 words or expressions. During the day I will try to learn at least some of them. There was one verse where I was happy to see the word pohon – tree – because it was one of the few that I knew.

We went to a special event today. President and sister Jensen were made members of two Indonesian families. It would be impossible to describe everything that went on in any detail but I will give a brief summary. We got to the University where it would be held about a half hour before it was to start. There was a red carpet from the entry to the elevator and from the elevator to the banquet room. We were treated as very honored guests because we were in the President’s party.

When it was time to go into the banquet room we entered under an honor guard of naval officers with cross swords. The ceremony went on for about 2 hours. Much of it was taken up with each male head of a household discussing if they should accept the Jensens into the family. This seemed to be a rather old tradition that probably goes back to when a new person would be accepted into a tribe. Anyway there was a lot of talk that none of us could understand because it was in a dialect that is used on Sumatra and there were no interpreters who knew the language. But it was a lot of fun because some of the men were really loud and talked for a long time.

In the end they agreed that the president should be allowed in and there was a major ceremony that included giving of fish, rice and water to the Jensens.

Then the same thing had to happen with a second family because the ‘parents’ – that is the chief and his wife – were from different families. So a shorter discussion was done by the men in that family and they were again offered fish, rice and water.

Also during the ceremony the Jensens were given a number of ceremonial blankets. These were beautiful things and the patterns seemed to mean something. After all of this was done, they lined up all of us who were members of the president’s party and we were given special blankets that commemorated the event.

Then there was some singing that was followed by one of the longest closing prayers in history. We were then offered a buffet of interesting food – most of them quite Western – with lots of desserts.

The only problem was that while we were eating, there was entertainment going on and they had huge loudspeakers cranked up to about 200 decibels. We were sitting rather close to the biggest array and it was impossible to talk without shouting.

After eating it was time to leave. We gave our thanks to the chief and his wife before leaving with the other senior couples. I must say it was an amazing experience and if it had been about an hour shorter and there had not been speakers beating music into our brains from a few feet away, it would have been even better.

The Petersens, the Kanes and ourselves went to the Ranch Market. This is a market that pretty much caters to Westerner and well to do people. I think that the Petersens like it because it has a lot of American brands and they do not care what it costs. The Kanes and ourselves are not into buying expensive food just because it comes from the US or Australia. Elder Petersen said they only buy Australian beef that costs about 40% more than Indonesian beef.  I am sure it is because they are worried about health issues and I understand that. However I think as long as it is cooked properly it does not matter.
21 January 2007 – Sunday

This was our early Sunday to be at Tanggeran by 8 we had to leave the apartment at 7:15. I had a real good night sleep – 7 hours or so with the alarm waking me at 5:30. The strange thing is that when it was time to leave I was once again sleepy. I think I am not use to that much sleep in one stretch.

I was somewhat disappointed because I did not hear as many words this week as I did last in Raya. I think part of it is that the Raya chapel has a better sound system. But I do think I am going to get my ears checked. I have been saying that for a couple of months now but I have been too lazy to do anything about it.

About the only constructive thing I did in 5 hours of meetings is to get the English classes and the Career Workshop announced in Priesthood. I stressed the fact that they were for Non-LDS and they should tell their neighbors about them.

After the last meeting, Agus met us and we talked about coming to the chapel on some Saturdays to be available to the members to help them with finding a job or finding a better job. He thought that was a good idea. Of course we could only do that on weeks when we were not holding a Career Workshop somewhere else in the mission.

I am determined to make the Employment Office more available to the people in the district. I would love to turn the Career Workshops over to Agus and Lokita so that I could go to the branches and work with people.

We had a real lazy Sunday afternoon and evening. After a simple lunch of watermelon we took a nap. Then we read from Kitab Mormon – we are at the part in 1st Nephi where Lehi has his dream about the Tree of Life. There are lots of words that have not been used before and so it takes a lot of time to figure out how the translators came to use some of the words. I can only take so much struggling and then I want to stop.

After the nap Mary got a call from Sister Jensen about a class for pianists and choristers in the district. She wants Mary to help with it. Earlier today Mary was asked to play the piano while the relief society sisters practiced a song they will sing next week. She will not be here for the actual performance so I guess they have someone else who will play. She was also asked to substitute today as their pianist for the regular meeting. We guess they knew she could play because they saw her play on Wednesday night at the Fireside. I would guess she will get to use her talents any number of times while we are serving here.

Dinner was omelets – it is about the only thing we actually cook. I imagine once we get to the new apartment and have more pans, cookie sheets, etc. we will do more things but I doubt if we will ever do much. We find that simple meals work fine for us. When we want something else, since it is so inexpensive, we go out to eat.

The ceremony from yesterday was on the TV tonight. We both were on a number of times including one where we were right in the forefront of the picture for a long time. It was when we were being presented our commemorative shawl. The same scene was used as a background for the credits so we got a lot of air time. But the important thing is that president Jensen was able to talk about the Church and give it a good plug. I am sure not very many people watched this particular documentary but even in 5% did it would be millions of viewers.

To top off the night Mary watched ‘Junior” with Thompson and Schwartsnegger (sp?) while I read from my Harry Potter book. It is surprising how much of ‘The Half Blood Prince’ I had forgotten.

It has been a month since we landed here in Indonesia – actually 4 weeks and 3 days – and it seems like we have been here much longer. That is we are pretty comfortable with our mission, the country and the people. I am sure we will become even more so later as we spend more time on the street – something we are determined to do – and as we get to know individual Indonesians better.

I have mentioned that for a city of 12 million with lots of poverty, millions of cars, and obvious air pollution, that it is amazingly clean, the people seem very patient and happy, and they drive with almost no accidents or anger. For pedestrians it looks like a nightmare. There few corners with lights so everyone just walks across the street slowly and hoping that no one runs over them.

We have had some spiritual experiences – today I felt the spirit as a woman spoke about children and the love she had for them and her Savior. Also when sister Leishman spoke about her experiences here. I feel that I have been inspired in my proposal for a new way of teaching English to soon to be released missionaries. Also in the idea of doing more to get non-LDS to English class and Career Workshops. I feel we are here to plant more seeds, tend the growing church, and to be examples to the members and those missionaries who come after us.

We will now do some more Indonesian before turning off the lights. I hope I sleep as well tonight as I did last night.

16 January 2007 – Tuesday

I actually slept until the alarm went off at 5:30. So I guess I just need to stay up until 11 or so before going to sleep and then I will sleep through until morning.

Normal morning – gym, shower, a glass of orange juice for breakfast, get dressed, and read the Kitab Mormon with Mary for companion study. We are up to 1 Nefi 7 and doing much better. I can get quite a bit of what is going on and Mary can fill in most of the rest. What gets us is where they use unusual word combinations to say what seems simple in English. We figured out what one group of word was supposed to mean each time it is used but we will have to as the translators to explain why those words mean that phrase because as far as we can make out they no don’t make any sense. But of course there are many things in English that would not make any sense to a native Indonesian learning our language.

Today should be rather laid back. Unless someone comes into the office for help getting a job there is nothing on the schedule. Mary will probably practice the piano for tomorrow night and I want to get my hair trimmed for Zone Conference. I want elder Leishman to take me through some things – like what we are going to need for the workshop in Tangerang on the 27th. I am sure once we have done one or two it will be easy.

Tonight we and the Leishmans have a dinner appointment with some members from the Raya branch. We think it is German food – it should be interesting.

This morning after we arrived at the office, elder Leishman gave me all the keys. I guess that means we are about to take over. A little later one of the people we are helping to find a job came in and the Leishmans left to do some shopping. I spent some time explaining about how important networking was and how he needed to expand his network. I re-worked his cover letter for his resume so that it sounded more interesting. I also spent a little time working with his English pronunciation and invited him to come to the English class on Thursday night. We do not think he is a member so perhaps a good contact will be made.

He was in the office for almost 3 hours. Mary worked on her English class material and practiced the piece for tomorrow’s fireside. About the time he left, the Leishmans came back. Soon after that we closed up the office and went to buy some books on job opportunities in Indonesia but when we got to the office they did not have any at this time. I guess I will go back later.

We then headed out to the Raya area and went to the mall where we were to meet for dinner. For some reason the Leishmans wanted to spend almost three hours there. Mary and I were soon bored so after going to a bookstore where I bought a Harry Potter book we found a place to sit and read. We also went to the biggest Ace Hardware stores I have ever seen and bought Mary a nice but expensive Braun hair dryer. Hopefully she will not burn it up.

Another thing she bought was a 2nd grade book that is written to teach Indonesian children to read Indonesian. In the first lesson she managed to fill up two pages with words she did not know. I would have filled up five.
The dinner turned out to be almost worth the waiting. The food was quite good – European style and the best we have had since we were here – and the people who took us were delightful company. While we had been waiting Sam somehow got his hair styled. He looked really strange – like some kind of rock star.

17 January 2007 – Wednesday

I woke at about 3:00 am and never did get back to sleep. I used some of the time to study Indon- esian and some trying to get back to sleep. I got to the gym before it was open so I did three laps of the track. It was probably a mistake because I was so hot that by the time I got into the gym I was not very interested in doing much. But I managed to do 50 sit-ups, 10 minutes on the bike and 30 minutes on the treadmill so I think I had enough exercise for the morning.

We had time to put in a half hour on the Kitab Mormon – we ran into another part that we could not really translate.

We were at the chapel by 8:30 and got to say hello to all the other couple missionaries. I was good to see those who are out of Jakarta – we hope to go visit them in the near future. Zone conference was interesting but I am not sure it was 5 hours interesting. Bishop Burton came and talked and took quesitons for about 45 minutes. Then he had to rush off to meet with more government people. He will be back for the fireside tonight.

The evening fireside was very good. It was well attended by the members of the Jakarta branches. Mary played well the choir sounded wonderful. Bishop Burton talked about his relationship with the living prophets from David O MacKay right up to President Hinckley.

He told about his experience of meeting President MacKay when he was an eight year old boy. His father was bishop and he used to take his sons with him when he visited members of the ward.

One day while Bishop Burton was play a very intense game of stick ball, his father called him to get ready to go. Of course he did not want to but he knew that there was no use in trying to get out of going with his father.

As they were visiting a house where the husband had recently died, up drove a large black car and out stepped President MacKay. After speaking with the widow, President MacKay and Bishop Burton’s father started talking. Unimpressed with being in the same house as the Prophet, Bishop Burton went out and set on the top step of the porch and thought about the great game he was missing.

President MacKay came out of the house and sat beside him. He then told Bishop Burton the story of how when he was a young boy, he went to general conference with his father. After one of the meetings, he was sitting on the front row of benches when President John Taylor came down and sat beside him. President Taylor took off his coat and rolled up his sleeves. He showed young President to be MacKay the scars of the wounds he received in Carthage jail on the day Joseph Smith was killed.  Bishop Burton said that he has never forgotten that experience.

After the fireside, it took about a half hour to get away from the chapel. Everyone wanted to talk to everyone – many especially wanted to talk to the Leishmans who will soon be gone. On the way back to the apartment we were invited to join the Petersons, Van Dongens, and the Leishmans for dinner at the Park Hotel. I was not overly excited about going to dinner but thought it would be the right thing to do.

Dinner was good because of the chance to talk and get to know the couples. The food there is only OK – the fries are excellent – and expensive. We ended up sharing a not very interesting tuna sandwich and then had dessert. I ordered apple pie with ice cream. What I got was a small apple tart with a small scoop of ice cream. Not bad – but also not anything to write home about.

By the time we got home I was very tired but stayed up for a while reading Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince before turning off the lights.
18 January 2007 – Thursday

Managed to sleep until about 5:15. At the gym by 5:45 and put in 45 minutes on the treadmill. Also did 50 sit-ups. However my weight refuses to go down. Not sure why but I must be eating more than I think I am.

We spent about 45 minutes on Kitab Mormon – made it through chapter 7. We found some strange English in one of the verses. Something like ‘the which rebellion.’ That would not work on an English exam.

Only elder Leishman came to the office with us. Sister Leishman wanted to work on her talk for Sunday. I spent 90 minutes or so working on an advertisement for English classes, the class I will teach tonight and the homework for the University course we will teach next week. Mary worked on her lesson for tonight. She also answered some e-mail that we got from Jim and Kristy. S he also checked our bank account and found that the money made it from the states. We can now pay for our car, etc. and shold have enough money for 4 to 6 months.

After we were done with that elder Leishman and I sat around talking about things and Mary took a short nap. We left the office and picked up Sister Leishman and journeyed over to the mission office where we dropped off our lease, talked to one of staff about getting insurance for our car, and then to Hendra about branch lists. I think he will give a complete set for the ones that are our responsiblity.

When we left Sinopati we went to SoGo mall to get some Krispy Kremes for the Leishmans to give as a treat tonight. It is the last time they will be at the English class. I am writing this as we travel to Tanggeran.

The district meeting was done mostly in Indonesian and I was too far from Elder Roper to understand much about what was going on. However when elder Leishman made a comment about praying for success before they went out in the morning. I was prompted to tell them that after they prayed they had to pay attention for the Lord giving them the opportunities and blessings that they prayed for. I told the story of how I was complaining about a leadership meeting when the Lord inspired me to realize that He had me go to meetings to gain a spiritual experience and it was up to me to pay attention so I would hear and understand what it was I was at the meeting to learn about. I promised the missionaries that if they would prepare, pray and work had, the Lord would provide them each day with one spiritual experience that would make the day worthwhile. Later I asked them to write down the experiences that they got each day.

I was happy to see that about a dozen members showed up on time for English lessons. So I decided to start and let the rest join when they came. I thought the lesson went well. I was very excited and spoke much too fast at first but the missionaries got me to slow down. I had much too much to cover but I think the time we spent on the alphabet was well worth the effort. We had about 10 young people and a dozen for Mary’s class. I am sure I will get better as I get more experience. The students in my class range from very little knowledge to some that were quite good.

Since it was the Leishman’s last night, it took some time to get away. The trip home took just over an hour. It would certainly be more convenient to live out that way but since the office is at the Salaten chapel it would not make sense to live out there.

As we were leaving one of the members told me that we needed to learn the bahasa – I told him we were trying and that we were determined to master it within the year. I think the members will respect us much more when we are able to participate in classes and speak to them.

13 January 2007 – Saturday

I woke at the early hour of 2 am but sometime between then and 5:20 I went back to sleep. It seems that I am able to function on somewhere between 5 and 6 hours of sleep. At least for a few days and then I have to crash.

Went to the gym and spent about 40 minutes on the treadmill and doing sit-ups. I would have stayed longer but we had to be ready to leave for Bogor by 8 am with the Petersons. We did not have time for Kitab Mormon study so we will do it in the evening.

The trip to Bogor went quickly. Bogor is located in the mountains about 30 miles South of Jakarta. From the little time we were there it seemed much cleaner and cooler. There is a pretty steady breeze that cleans out the pollution of some 4 million people.

The Kanes house was much as I expected. Big and open with a back and front yard – not big ones but at least somewhere that could provide some yard work. The main problem is that most of the house is not air-conditioned.  This means I would not be comfortable living there.

We were in Bogor because Elder Peterson had to sign for 50 wheelchairs that were being delivered to the Kane’s garage. In normal Indonesian style instead of making one delivery in a truck large enough to hold all 50 chairs they had a small pick-up over loaded with half the load and then a two or three hour wait. But this gave us time to catch up on things that they have been doing.

The Kanes are in 7th heaven. They can walk to lots of good places to eat and shop, they have been accepted by the ward, they have a great driver, and they have a lot of good projects to work with. Add to this a countryside that full of green hills and clean sky and you have a perfect location for them.

After the second delivery arrived we all went to lunch at a restro that makes soup at your table. It has become a special favorite for the Kanes. You order what soup you want – a group soup – and there is a stainless steel pot of water on a burner right in the middle of the table. Actually each long table has four or five. To make a long story short we had a soup make of vegies, noodles, and mostly seafood. It was tasty and interesting but certainly not something I would choose to eat very often.

After lunch, we had to hurry back to Jakarta so the Petersons could go to a choir rehearsal. We came home and have basically shut down for the rest of the day. We did spend some time thinking and preparing for our English classes on Thursday at Tanggeran and then a week from Friday at the University. There is a lot more work to do but I think we will be OK.

Nothing much special about the evening. We watched some TV and read some from the Kitab Mormon until Amazing Race Asia came on. As I have mentioned before it is identical to the US one only the area is more restricted and the people are much nicer. However tonight there was a bit of fighting between the two strongest couples. It was too bad that what was probably the strongest team was eliminated because they could not catch a taxi after the last task.

14 January 2007 – Sunday

Our fourth Sunday in Indonesia and I have started out in the dog house. I managed to sleep until almost 5 a.m. when I tried to shave only to find out the battery was dead. I went in to the bathroom to plug it in and the light spilling out woke Mary. She was not happy at all and I kidded her about being grouchy. It was not the smart thing to do. Hopefully she will go back to sleep and wake up again in a better mood.

We have another problem this morning. We are not sure when Sam is to pick us up for church.  By the time we figured this out last evening it was too late to call the Leishmans. Besides the phone seems to be back to it’s non-calling stage. Hopefully it will be more cooperative this morning or I will go over to the Leishman’s at 6:30 and ask them.

I found out that we did not have to be ready until 8:30 so Mary caught a few minutes more sleep and I read from the Kitab Mormon.

We had a full morning and early afternoon at the Raya branch. We did not have the elders interpret for us and we both felt good about how much we could understand. Of course we have a long ways to go and I found that in classrooms where there is no amplification I can not hear as well. I am going to find out next week or the week after to see where I can get my hearing checked.

I have decided that we are going to be part of these branches – not just visitors. I am trying to put together something that will remind me of their name, what they do and about their family. In 3 months I want to be able to meet most members by name and have enough Indonesian to at least say a few sentences to them. I volunteered to pass the sacrament in two weeks. I want to show them that I am servant and a fellow PH holder. However after thinking about it I am somewhat worried that I took an opportunity away from some AP holder.

After the last meeting of the block we had a baptism ceremony. It took about 30 minutes or more to get things set up but it was wonderful to see three people enter the waters of baptism. Elder Metier was able to do all three. A great way to spend the last Sunday in the area – he is going to So Ho on Thursday. They do not confirm the members for one to three weeks – they want to make sure they are committed. I pointed out that this was usually the case in the early church. They wanted to see how the newly baptized person showed their faith before giving them the gift of the Holy Ghost.

After the baptism, a lot of the members met in the entry and many pictures were taken. This was because of the baptism and Elder Metier and the Leishman’s leaving. It was quite a bit of fun and the noise level was really high. There are no sound absorbing materials in the entry.

The spirit of the Indonesian saints can easily be felt. Many of them speak quite good English and almost all of them know a little. If it was not for the language difference, I am sure we would find any meeting much the same as at home. I do notice that the members here do not participate as much as at home but when they do they get quite involved. The sister who spoke in Sacrament had written out her talk but it did not sound like it was read. The brother who spoke – a member of the Mission Presidency it turns out – did it without any notes but with plenty of feeling. All in all it was a wonder Sabbath day.

It took us almost an hour to get home. It was really good to walk into the cool apartment, get out of our Sunday clothes, have something to eat – mainly a fruit salad for me – and relax. An hour later we went over to the Leishmans and Mary sent off some e-mails. The most important was the one to Tom asking him to transfer a lot of money to our account here. Hopefully it will be here sometime Tuesday.

Now it is almost 6 and I have to decide if I am going to try to take a short nap to get me through the evening or just go as long as I can before falling asleep. I think I am going to do the nap route.

Nothing much happened after our naps. I have just finished reviewing some Indonesian before turning off the lights. Hopefully I will get a good night’s sleep.

15 January 2007 – Monday

I managed to sleep in until almost 5:30 and was at the gym by 5:45. I put in 50 minutes on the treadmill and did 50 sit-ups. I was happy to see that I had lost a pound or so over the weekend.

This is our P-day and so we could take the best part of an hour in reading the Kitab Mormon. We were humming along feeling pretty good about ourselves – that is a combined ‘ourselves’ because Mary knows a lot of words I do not – when we hit 1 Nephi 5:21. It had a lot of word and concepts we just could not get our minds around. Even after we had checked the electronic dictionary we were not sure what was being said. It was a good way to humble us and make us realize that we have a lot to learn. But we are determined to master Indonesian and I am sure that with the Lord’s help we will.

One of the things we really miss is an internet connection so we can communicate easily with our children and friends. In two weeks we should be in the apartment with highspeed internet and we can spend much of the day catching up. I have lots to post on the blog – including a lot of pictures.

Sam picked us up at 12:30 and we went over to the mission home to meet the person who would be taking us to buy our car. While we were waiting Mary talked to the sisters in the translation department and found out that they were worried about us because we had eaten off the street. I guess it is something that the senior couples just do not do. I like the food so much that if there was a place like BYU within walking distance of our apartment or the office I would eat there. As it is we will have to wait until we go to the mission office again.

The trip to the Toyota dealer took a long time – it seems they got a little lost. It is so different buying a car here than in the states. There is no bargaining at all – there is a price and you pay it. We are getting a $250 rebate but I think that is unusual and is only because the church buys all its cars there. We ended up paying about $12,500 for the Avanza and we should be able to sell it for at least $9000 when we leave. If so the cost will be about $300 a month. If we can sell it for $10.5 it will be more like $225. Either way it should be less expensive than leasing a car and it is new so the ride should be better. Sam really likes the idea of driving a brand new car.  We put $500 down and can pick it up in a couple of weeks.

On the way home we stopped to eat at A&W. I am sorry to say the burger would not make it in the US. Really overcooked so there was little flavor. I now must try McDonalds and see if they have a good hamburger. If not we will just have to buy some hamburger and cook our own.  They will be expensive but at least they will not taste like cooked shoe leather.

The treat of the day was Baskin Robbins ice cream. It is the real thing – pralines and cream tastes exactly the same in Indonesia as it did in Redondo Beach. We treated Sam to lunch and a cone – I realized that his food cost $4.25 – very expensive for a person who makes $190 a month.

After that we went to a bookstore where we bought more books to use for teaching English. I am sure we can put together a lot of good things from those we have bought. It is going to be a challenge to teach but it should also be rewarding.

Our final stop was the church where Mary practiced a piece that she will play to accompany a choir from the Salaten branch. Sam was supposed to play it but since a general authority is coming he asked Mary to play instead. There are people working all over the building. It is getting a real face lift to welcome Bishop Burton. While Mary practiced I tried to get on line and do some e-mail but I could not even get to AOL mail so I read from the new English books instead.

We made it home by 4:30 – Sam will pick us up for choir practice at 6:30.

Sister Jensen called and told us that the senior couples are going to inspect the missionary apartments.  She gave us instructions on what was expected and how often. If we do it on P-day that means that Sam does not get a day off. Maybe we will take another day for P-day. That would give us a break in the middle of the week. We will just have to see how things work out.

Choir practice ran for two hours or so – much longer than I expected. I was able to spend part of the time sending e-mail from the office. However the e-mail slowed down and so did the links to other sites so I decided to give it up for the night. I listened to some of the choir practice. It will sound fine and Mary was doing a good job keeping the piano soft enough that it did not drowned out the singers. The choir has some good voices but they certainly do not have the volume you get with Samoan or Tongan singers.

Once we got back to the apartment we pretty much did nothing until it was time to go to bed.

It has been a busy and profitable day – hopefully we will have a lot of those in the future.

10 January 2007 – Wednesday

No gym this morning. Instead we were out of the apartment by 7:15 and went to a university to observe an English class being taught. We were picked up by two sister members who work for the school. The class was taught in a non-air conditioned room and it did not take us long to be very warm. The teacher has quite good English but his class is so varied that he seems to be handicapped in what he can teach. My only real criticism was that he needed to have the students do more and him less. I found out that they do not give homework – I think that is a real mistake. At least for those who really want to learn English.

Mary and I were asked to speak to the class so they could hear American speech. Mary told them about our family and I talked to them about the importance of learning English well. I gave them some tips – such as reading English out loud at least 30 minutes a day. I suggested that any time they spend on improving there English will make a great difference in how much they would be paid. One young woman was obviously taking in everything I said. You could almost see the spirit of desire in her eyes.

After the class we met with the manager of the school and told him we would be willing to teach the teachers and the staff for one hour each Friday. They said that would be fine. I also told them that anyone coming to the class would have homework to do to be prepared for the class. I said that they would be getting some Shakespeare. Luckily I can go on line and download and get just about anything. I will start with the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet or something like that.

After the meeting we were driven to the office where we spent the next 3 ½ hours doing almost nothing useful. Elder Leishman tried to work on the internet problem but nothing seemed to help. We can not get to PEF so we can not do much with that aspect until they get the line fixed across the Pacific or we get the Leishman’s apartment.

Speaking of that I got an e-mail from Mr Rees saying that the terms of the lease is acceptable and we can sign the lease whenever we can get together. That takes a load off of my mind.

At about 2:45, the two Indonesian members who go are in charge of Employment for the district and area came in for a meeting. We have rough out the schedule for Career Workshops for the year and talked about some other things. They are both great men – Lokita seems to be of Chinese descent and Agus is Indonesian. Both speak very good English. They do the workshops for everyone except the English missionaries.

We got back to the apartment at 3:30 and went over the Leishman’s an hour later. Mary sent a long e-mail off to our list while I talked to the Leishmans. Later Mary joined us and we had a good time talking about their adventures during their mission. They are really a fun couple and have been excellent missionaries. I hope we can do as well. Of course it helps that they have been  here for almost two years and know everyone. Elder Leishman told me it took him a good 6 months to get comfortable. I am hoping it does not take us that long.

We came home to have a simple dinner of instant noodles and then watched a repeat of a ‘Numbers’ episode. I called the Kanes and had a really nice talk with them. They are having a high adventure and are the most positive people I think I know. They have each had a couple of bouts of diarrhea – I guess one of those was quite bad. Elder Kane is determined to bear his testimony in Indonesian next fast Sunday. I am sure he will do that. We are going to ask the Petersons if we can ride out to Bogor with them on Saturday – I would love to see the Kanes and their house.

Now I need to do some Indonesian – I have not really done any today.

11 January 2007 – Thursday

I slept until after morning prayer call – about 4:15 – and after a futile try to go back to sleep I read from the Book of Mormon in English. I am just getting into Alma and the rule of Judges. I know that Mosiah felt that the Lord wanted the Nephites to have judges instead of kings but it seems to me that they would have been better off with a king.

I got to the gym just as it was opening and put in a strong 30 minutes on the treadmill, did 50 sit-ups, put 10 minutes on the bike, and did some upper body work. By the time I was done I felt like I had put in a good hours of exercise. The scale is still not moving downward – but I will keep at it. One thing I have done is to stop drinking real root beer and have gone back to diet Coke. I figured that I was drinking 2 to 3 root beers a day for a total of 500 to 750 calories. With diet Coke I only get 4 or 5. I think that will help.

Breakfast was a glass of orange juice. It is now time to read from the Kitab Mormon.

It was a wonderful and not so wonderful morning. It was wonderful because the internet is again working at the office so we could get the information we needed from PEF files and we could read and send e-mail. It was not so wonderful because there are a number of problems with our property in Orem and Provo. The Orem property has not closed escrow and the people are not paying their rent. The Provo property has some work that needs to be done and it is causing some problems for Mike. Add to this that for some reason the bank does not think our complete power of attorney that we gave Mike includes our bank accounts and it adds up to a big mess. Unfortunately I can do little at this distance so I can only hope Mike and Bob can work it out. I am really sorry that this is putting so much on Mike’s shoulders but I am sure he can take care of it.

We went to the mission home so that Sister Leishman could teach the English class. Mary and I went to BCA to get our debit card, sign up for on line banking, and for online transfers. The latter takes 10 working days to get going but at least now we have a real bank account and a way to easily access it. I will write or call Tom tomorrow and ask him to transfer some money – a sample just to make sure he has everything right and then a major one to get us enough money to buy a car, pay our debt to the mission office and live for a few months. I figure once the car is bought we will need about $1700 or less a month for mission expenses certainly under $2000. At least that is what I am hoping will happen.

After we were finished with banking and sister Leishman was finished with her class we headed off to Tanggeran for district meeting and English class. It was good to see Elders Roper and Thiemann – they are in a tough district but seem to be keeping their spirits up. Elder Thiemann gave a very good lesson on prayer and missionary work.

The English class is a simple one – at least the one for the beginners. Elder Leishman is a very good and patient teacher. I am not sure I will do as well. I do think we need to start the classes on time – it is a bad example for the members to start whenever they get there. But it seems they try to get to the class on time but the traffic makes a big difference.
When the class was on Friday night they use to get more people to class. They changed because Sam was supposed to start a computer class. Maybe we will change it back to Friday night and not open the office at all on that day. I hate to think of the traffic on the way home – it will be terrible. I wonder how classes after church on Sunday would be? We could do it every Sunday because the Raya branch gets out early enough for us to get to Tanggeran before the last meeting was over at one. If we are going to put on classes we need to have them when people will come.

The trip home seemed like it took forever. It did not help that the classes did not end until 7:30. Anyway we came home had ice cream for dinner and headed for bed. I am going to read some from the Book of Mormon – English version – before going to sleep. Hopefully I will not wake until at least 5:00 tomorrow.

12 January 2007 – Friday

We have now been in Indonesia for 3 weeks and I still have not solved the sleeping problem. I woke at 2:30 and did not go back to sleep until sometime after 4. I know this because the morning prayer was being broadcast as I finally dropped off.

The problems at home that Mike has run into kept running through my mind. I really can not let them get to me as I have too many things to do and learn before the Leishmans leave in two weeks. I will call Tom and see if he can figure out some way to help even from 800 miles away. I can hardly wait until we get an internet connection so we can use e-mail and Skype from our apartment.

From the looks of this morning we are in for another bright and hot day. It has been bright enough that even native Indonesians have been trying to cover their head from the direct sunlight.

I did not go to the gym this morning – that is two days this week that I have missed. I decided I would set my alarm for 5:30 so I have time to get to the gym when it opens. I must work out each morning if I ever hope to lose this weight.

Other than that a regular morning with a glass of orange juice for breakfast. We had a good companionship study reading more than 10 verses from the Kitab Mormon. Mary reads about 70% and I do the other 30%. She is getting really good at reading and translating. We are trying to remember to say Kah instead of Kay for Ke – Sah instead of Say for Se – etc. Unfortunately that was not corrected back in the states. People still know what you mean but it give you a non-Indonesian accent. Not that people are likely to mistake us for Indonesians.

We were at the office for only about 40 minutes and then everyone headed for Sinopati and the Raya District Meeting. The meeting went well. Elder Matier gave us our lost translator so now we can each have one. Elder Thomas gave a good lesson about over coming concerns. Since this will be the last time he will be at a district meeting Elder Matier bore his testimony.

After district meeting we went down to BYU for some lunch. I had told the missionaries we would buy them lunch. The Leishmans went with us but when they saw that there were flies around the food they decided not to eat there. I did not care if we got sick or not – I wanted to experience street food. They take a piece of coated paper and make a cone. They lay down a base of rice and then you chose what to put on top. I chose potatoes, green beans and beef. Mary had the same plus something that looked like a big won-ton.

We decided to take the food back to the mission home to eat at a clean table. I started to eat with my hand but switched to a spoon. Some of the Indonesians that work there noticed that we were eating street food and they that was cool. Elder Matier said that when we eat from the street and try to speak Indonesian that we gain respect from the people. We really want to have the Indonesian saints to know that we are here to help them and that we respect their land and it’s customs. Elder Matier said the next time we ate together he expected me to eat with my hand.

The potatoes were quite spicy and the green beans were quite good. The beef was a little tough but it had a good taste. Mary said her won-ton was more like an egg roll. We both ate almost all of our food and now will wait to see if we get sick. Elder Matier said we would not because BYU was one of the best places to eat. From the amount of flies there I can not imagine what the other places are like. We could not linger after dinner so we said goodbye to the missionaries – including sister Larson who we know from the MTC – and headed back to the office.

Suzy our steady employment customer came in and spent something over an hour to send out more resumes. It will take some time for her to find a job because she is over 40 and most jobs are for people under 27.

After we closed up the office we dropped the Leishmans off at Casablanca and had Sam drive us to So Go to shop. The traffic there was light, parking was easy, and there was no waiting in line. We loaded up with goodies from the bakery and from Krispy Kreme as well as necessities before heading home. Unfortunately by that time the traffic had become heavy and it took us 45 minutes to get home when it only took 15 minutes to get there. But I have become accustomed to this and since I do not have to drive in it, I just take it in stride. Of course if the air-conditioner ever goes out that would quickly change.

It was really nice to come into the apartment and have it nice and cool. As long as the rent includes the utilities there is no reason to conserve. But once we start paying the bill, we will turn it off when we leave in the morning.

I forgot to mention that because of Bishop Burton’s visit next Wednesday, there is a lot activity around the chapel where the office is located.  They are cleaning, trimming, etc. I would guess that everything that has needed fixing for the last 6 months will get taken care of before he comes.

It is now just two weeks before the Leishman’s leave and we will be doing everything by ourselves. I am sure it will take some time before we get fully up to speed but I do look forward to getting a chance to try some new things. I feel the Lord sent us here for a special purpose. I do not know if that is to get PEF established, find a way to get more people to come to Career Workshops, find a way for members to find better jobs, or perhaps to find a way to help native Elders get into BYU Hawaii. Whatever it is I pray, that we will be able to fulfill our call and leave Indonesia feeling that have been instruments in His hands for good.

07 January 2006 – Sunday

I had my first real night’s sleep since being in Indonesia. I turned off the light before 10 and woke about 5:30. I hope this is the first of many nights to come.

It is fast Sunday and we are going to Tangaran so we left at 7:15. We went to two sacraments, 2 Sunday Schools and one Priesthood/RS meetings. We were asked to bear our testimonies in both sacrament meetings. Mary did really well and I was able to struggle through. In both cases I felt very good about bearing my testimony in Indonesian and I think we surprised people to do even the little we did. One member asked where we learned to speak Indonesian – it turned out that is what he does. I told him we should make a trade – we would teach him more English and he could teach us Indonesian.

We did not use the elders to interpret – I did not understand much of anything but just the effort to understand kept me wide awake and interested. Hopefully in a few months we will be closer to understanding and able to express ourselves better – lebih baik.

They kept a nice pace of testimony sharing. Most obviously had something to say – spiritual experiences, love for their Heavenly Father, Jesus and their families. It felt right to be there sharing the spirit.

I noticed that they do not have a member of the branch presidency stand in the circle when they bless a baby. I mentioned to the district president – President Richey – that I thought the manual called for this. He said he would check to see if that was correct.

When we got home we had a simple lunch of fruit and bread. After that Mary went off to take a nap and I am sitting here watching the Colts – Chiefs game. I am not sure when it was played in the US but it is fun to watch a real football game after seeing so much soccer.

As I was thinking about the importance of Indonesian missionaries learning English so they could go to BYU Hawaii to get an education that would allow them to obtain good jobs, I had what I think is an inspired idea.

I am going to propose that each Indonesian missionary have the opportunity to take a one month intensive English course as an extension of their mission. It would concentrate on preparing them to take the Michigan test, but it would do more than that. It would teach them to read, comprehend, speak and write quality English.

Mary points out that this is a strange proposal from a person who can not really do any of that. She said that my written proposal does not appear to be from someone who has a quality knowledge of English. I pointed out that I am well aware of my weaknesses and that is why I married her. I come up with the ideas and the rough plan and she puts it into acceptable language.

I am excited to show this to Subandriyo and get his reaction. Since he was the one who told me the story that got me to thinking about the subject, I believe he will see the merit in the basic plan.

Mary went through the proposal and made some corrections. I am not sure exactly what she changed but hopefully they were all for the better. I started another page with thoughts about the actual course. Hopefully as time goes on, the plan will evolve into a full blown program.

Elder Leishman called this afternoon and said the missionaries at Raya had found our electronic dictionary and they will bring it to the district meeting on Friday. Now we will have two so we will each have one.

08 January 2007 – Monday

Because I was awake for an hour or more during the early morning, I slept in until 6:30. I almost did not go to the gym but decided that even 20 minutes was better than just sitting around the apartment. I ended up doing about an hour of exercises. I found that if I start relatively slow and build up to 6.3 or so, I do not sweat as much and so I am willing to put in more time. While I was on the treadmill I tried to memorize D&C 4 in English. We have about a week to learn it both in English and Indonesian. Mary will of course do that but I will be happy to be able to do it in English.

As I was finishing up at the gym, an Indonesian man started talking to me. It turned out he is a member of a Christian church that has branches throughout Indonesia. He is a retired politician who was a member of Suharto’s government and helped train the current president. He does not think they learned very well. He has an apartment in Casablanca which he rents out at a very reasonable rate but unfortunately it will not be available until next January.

It has a fairly lazy day. We are sitting here watching the Dallas – Seattle game with the knowledge of how it will end with Dallas fumbling in the last minute of play. But we are also translating Indonesian. I am working my way through the first lesson from the Priesthood manual. Mary is over half way through the Stories from the Book of Mormon.

Earlier we went for our afternoon walk – Mary made it up to a full mile which is good with her knee problem. It did not help that it was really hot.

We did a dozen verses from 1st Nephi – sometimes we can go through a compete short verse without needing to question a word. Often there are just a couple of words we need to look up. I try to look up any word that we are not sure of, even if the meaning can be figured out by context. I like to see the root of the words that the translator chose.

If I could just absorb 20% of the new words that I learn each day into my vocabulary, I would soon be able to understand more of what I read without turning to a dictionary. I could also compose sentences. I think I will set a goal of writing 20 new sentences each day. In that way I will learn by using. Someday I hope to reach a point where I do not have to translate from Indonesian to English to understand what is written or said.

It is now just after 9 pm – it seems like it has been a long day.

09 January 2007 – Tuesday

I woke at about 3:15 and sometime between then and 5:30 I went back to sleep. Batch sleeping seem to still be my fate while in Indonesia.

Arrived at the gym to find it very busy. All the treadmills were filled so I put 30 minutes on the reclining bike. According to the figures, 30 minutes on it uses more calories than 50 minutes on the treadmill. It is possible that is true since I actually have to provide the energy to move the bike and on a treadmill all I need to do is to keep moving. After that I tried to do some sit-ups but my lower back hurt when I tried to stretch out. I think sitting and pushing for the first time in a long time took a toll. So instead I got on the treadmill so I could run my heart rate up to about 130 for at least a while. I only did 10 minutes but it felt good. Unfortunately there was no change over the weekend as far as weight is concerned. I have to remember that it usually comes off in chunks not gradually.

Back at the apartment I went through the normal routine – I had Frosted Flakes for breakfast while watching Indonesian TV and trying to catch at least a few words that I knew. It could be frustrating if I let it worry me.

We had an appointment with a university this morning to discuss how we could help with their English program. Elder Subandriyo set it up and went with us and the Leishmans. Once the meeting got started – there were 6 of us and 8 or 9 from the university, it soon became plain that we were not on the same page. They wanted us to come in and teach their students and we want to come in and work with their staff. Since we are not certified teachers it would be illegal for us to teach students. But we can work with the staff.

I volunteered for Mary and I to go in tomorrow morning and sit in on one of the English classes to see how they teach. Until we see what and how they teach I see no way to make suggestions of how we can help. The Leishmans reminded us that because of our mission responsibilities, we had to be careful about how much time we became committed to the school. My thought was that we had lots of time if we did it early in the morning or on most afternoons. Not to mention Saturday and Monday.

After the school we went to the office where we had a new applicant. I do not feel that we did him much good but hopefully we will get better at this. I am afraid that some applicants have wishes that do not fit with reality. I am all for dreaming but I also believe we need to help them realize that sometimes we are not qualified for the job we would like to have.

After he left we went to the mission office. Elder Leishman had to sign some papers and we turned in a receipt. We found out from President Jensen that the Zone conference had been changed to Wednesday the 17th. Everyone else seemed to know except us.

Now we are back at the apartment and quite tired. Mary is already lying down and I think I will join her for a short nap.

I took my nap but Mary never fell asleep. Even though she nods off in the office at times, she does not seem to need a nap as much as I do.

Sister Leishman sent over a nice pasta salad and some rolls. They made an excellent dinner. She must truly enjoy cooking because she always has something to share. They are both wonderful people. I wish we could get to know them better – maybe when we get back from the mission we can get together.

I have not been able to print out my proposal for the Indonesian missionaries because it is in Word Perfect and of course everyone else uses Word. If I had an internet connection I could paste it into an e-mail and send it to myself and print it that way. But I am not sure when we will be able to do that.  Tomorrow I will take the computer to the office and have Mary re-type it into Word.

After dinner we just sat around watching some TV. Before turning off the lights I am going to read from the Book of Mormon and translate some more of the PH lesson for Sunday.

04 January 2007 – Thursday

It is almost 10 pm – at the end of a long if not very busy day.

This morning I woke very early and never went back to sleep. So I was out of the apartment and walking by about 5:30. When the gym opened I spent 50 minutes on the treadmill and did some sit-ups and arm reps. Not much yet but at least a start. I need to get some tank tops so I can cut down on my sweating.

When I left the gym I took another man’s keys and did not realize it until I tried to open our door with them. I then had to take them back and apologize. The morning went about normal after that except I took a nice 45 minute nap before getting ready to go to work.

Other than review some of the reports that we will be using, we did not do much. Elder Leishman and I walked to the local store and got some apples. I think we will be doing quite a bit of shopping there. The selection is pretty good and the prices see to be OK.

We then went over to the mission office. Mary watched sister Leishman teach English to some of the office staff, elder Leishman and I took care of some business. Subandrya set me up to buy a new Toyota. It is going to cost us about $12,000 and we should get back at least $9K and we should get back $10K. So it should cost us between $150 to $180 a month for our car instead of $400. But even if we only get $8K back it is still less than leasing.

I talked to Sabandrya about the 15 loans we have in PEF and explained that we had to find them and see what they had done with the loans. I mentioned that Elder Carmack had asked us personally to see it got done and so I intend to do my best. Later he talked to me about personal tutoring so motivated young people could pass the Michigan test. I said we would love to do that – but only if he chose truly motivated students. I think we will work well together – at least I am hoping so.

After the ladies were done, we headed off to Tangaraan for district meeting. Traffic was very good so we got there almost on time. This is the district with our friends elders Roper and Tihman. The district seems to be on an upturn with a more positive attitude. Elder Roper and his companion had a number of weeks when they had 5 contacts. I told them that they were the missionaries that were going to change the reputation for Tangarran as being the worse district in the mission to the best.

We were supposed to have English lessons after the meeting but only 4 young people showed up by 6:30 so we had an abbreviated version that was OK but not much English was learned. I am thinking about introducing Shakespeare to the class – I think having them read it and perhaps even put on an abridged version of one of the plays might be fun. If it works for 3rd grade students in the states, it just may work here.

We were on the road by 7:15 and home just after 8. I turned on the TV and we got to see most of The Amazing Race – Asia. It is a little less exciting than the US one and the people are way more polite. Maybe a little too polite? After that Mary went to bed but I watched the end of Get Shorty II.  It is a fun movie but I must say the acting is not as good as the first one.

Now it is time for me to read a little from the Indonesian Kitab Mormon and try to get some sleep. I am rather surprised that I have not collapsed from lack of sleep.

05 January 2007 – Friday

I woke about 4 a.m. but managed to go back to sleep until almost 6. I quickly dressed and headed for the gym. Met elder and sister Leishman as they were doing their morning stroll. Sister Leishman’s knee must be feeling better.

This morning I never really got into being on the treadmill. I put in 40 dull minutes and then did some sit-ups. I think on mornings when I have to rush to get there near 6, I am less likely to enjoy myself. I believe I finally managed to remember Memilih, Bertambah and Bertahan – I came up with Saya memilih pertambahan  ketahanan saya – I take that to mean I choose to increase my endurance.

After that it was the normal getting showering, cooling off and having breakfast. I splurged and had frosted flakes with banana. I am sure I used up all of my exercise calories with that. But at least it is better than eating without exercising.

Now it is time to study Indonesian…Kitab Mormon.

Once we got to the office elder Leishman and I tried to hardwire the internet connection but without any luck. I left him with the problem because Mary and I had to head for Raya to join the district meeting. The drive went fairly fast but I think in the future we will leave earlier so we are never late.

Elder Metier has been told he will be transferred in two weeks, but he will be able to be part of the two baptisms before he goes. Elder Thomas will leave at the end of the month. We had a very good meeting. They are doing well, teaching 15 discussions a week, and they seem to be working well as companions. We got to take part in all of the meeting. I gave the spiritual thought and some gave some comments about the need for the English speaking elders to work hard with their companion. I explained that the ability of the Indonesian missionaries to speak English may well effect their whole life. Elder Metier said that he never heard it that way. I feel the district is doing well but much of it has to do with their district leader. Working with the missionaries will be some of the highlights of our mission.

We got back to the office at about 1:15 and not do much before the woman came to continue her job search. She chose 8 more jobs to apply for and we are hoping she will get some responses by next Friday.

We then closed up the office and went grocery shopping. While we were at Carrafour I bought a new translator to replace the one I lost last Sunday. We have really missed having one and felt the money well spent. Because it is Friday I expected the store to be really crowded but it was no more so than usual and we got out quite quickly.

I took my afternoon nap – it seems to be something I do whenever I get a chance – and then we went over to the Park Hotel to eat dinner. It is our first ‘date night’ since we got here. It is a beautiful location – the flower arrangements are spectacular – and the food was good but not great. It certainly was not worth the $35 it cost and the $9 hamburger was not as good as what I would get at Wendy’s for $5. Unless it is for their seafood buffet, I doubt if we will go there again.

We came home and watched The Thomas Crown Affair. It is really a good movie – it must be because I have watched it at least four times and each time I have been entertained. Only a good movie with good acting can hold up like that.

06 January 2007 – Saturday

I just realized that we have passed the first month of our mission. We went into the MTC on Monday, December 4. It seems like we have been serving much longer than that. I think that is a good thing. I do wish that we had a good internet connection so we could write and talk to our children and grandchildren. Hopefully by the time we move into our permanent apartment the internet will be back to 100% and will stay that way for the next 16 months.

Speaking about the apartment, I called Mr. Rees this morning and he agreed to lease us the Leishman’s apartment with just a 10% increase in rent. From what I have found from other ads in the paper that is very fair. I will write up a lease on Monday and try to get him to sign it as soon as he gets home from Bali. I feel that this is an answer to my prayers – this morning I asked the Lord to help us contact Mr. Rees and have him agree to rent to us at a reasonable rate. Everyone else I have contacted want about $1350 to $1550 a month while this will cost us about $1100 with utilities. That may seem high but for a nice, secure place in Jakarta it is very reasonable.

I had a normal morning – waking at about 5:15 and getting to the gym soon after it opened. I spent over 50 minutes on the treadmill. Most of it was spent trying to memorize D&C chapter 4 in English. Next comes Indonesian – we need to know it for district meetings with Raya and for mission conferences. It seems they always repeat it in English and Indonesian at these meetings. I seem to be still losing at a regular rate. Hopefully this will continue until I reach my goal and then I can maintain it without so much sweating.

By the time I got back to the apartment and cleaned up, I was really tired so I took a nice nap. I would feel guilty but until we get control of the car, keys and the office there is little else for us to do on Saturday. After I woke up we spent some time reading from the Book of Mormon. I would be surprised if we made it through even once during our mission. But perhaps I am being too hard on myself. Sooner or later the language should start to make sense – at least reading it should. Speaking will come next and finally hearing what native say. I am hoping to reach that stage in a year.

After our Kitab Mormon reading, we went for a walk around the grounds. We really need to do this every day. Mary lasted for 3/4 of a mile – which is good in the heat – and I decided to also call it quits. Between the treadmill and the walk I did about 4 miles today.

Mary really wanted to go to the book store at the mall, so I agreed. The trip there costs about $1.30 – the trip home costs 80 cents. Once there we went up to the bookstore where I got a number of How to Teach English books and Mary got some children’s books. The part of the mall we were in was mostly electronics and furniture. Lots of store selling computer notebooks – all of them much more expensive than in the US. $600-$800 gets you only 256K of memory – 1 to 2 G costs $1200 to $1800.  There does not seem to be any real bargains.

There are a number of stores that sell what is obviously pirated DVD games and movies. $5 gets you the latest and greatest. I avoided the temptation of buying some of the movies that we have not seen.

Before we left the mall we stopped and had ice cream at a shop selling Australian ice cream. It was pretty good but not as smooth as Baskin Robbins and about as expensive. Mary pointed out that the only other white faces we saw while in the mall was at that store. I think it is too expensive for most Indonesian families. We needed a cab to come home and a very nice security guard went out of his way to find us a Bluebird cab. It is the only kind we are told to use. It is a very reputable firm and the driver do not try to rip off the Europeans and Americans. The guard knew that was what we wanted and waved off anyone else.

When we got home we went through the books I bought and found some were poorly done but will make good examples of how not to speak English. There is one excellent book that did not seem to have any mistakes. Of course it is the most expensive but it is the one I would use for teaching advanced English. One of the books is filled with games and activities which we can use. Even the not very good books for teaching English have value for us. They usually have the correct Indonesian example so we can use them to help us with our Indonesian.

Mary took a nice nap – I tried to but was not successful. We watched the end of a StarTrek movie and then had dinner. Omelets and fruit – very good. The fruit here is excellent – the watermelon tonight was delicious – and inexpensive.

I forgot to mention that we did laundry this morning. I am still trying to get use to the idea that we must manually hang the clothes out to dry. While Mary fixed dinner I brought in the laundry and then iron one of mine and one of Mary’s shirts. After dinner I hand washed the dishes. All of these would not be necessary at home. However it is hard to complain since we are living in a beautiful high-rise apartment and for at least one month have complete maid service. I must take pictures of the maid’s sleeping and bathrooms. I can not imagine having someone living here with us.

We did not really do anything after dinner except study some Indonesian – not with much dedication – and watch some TV. I did review some PEF training and looked through some info on a DVD but all in all it was less than a productive night.

As I try to read in the Kitab Mormon I find that I can read about 50 – 60% of the words which is a pretty good improvement over a month ago. Hopefully I will continue to improve. Mary is to a point where she gets about 80% of the words – part of this is because she has been reading Stories from the Book of Mormon in Indonesian and of course some of the same words are used.

It is now 9 p.m. and I am going to try to stay up until 10 so that I will not wake up at 3 in the morning. We do have to get up early so we can be ready by 7:15 to be at our first meeting at 8:00. It is going to be a rather long day at the Tangarang branches.

1 January 2007 – Monday – Happy New Year

After waking at 3:00 am I was able to go right back to sleep and did not wake up again until 5:30. I barely had time to get moving before it was time to go the gym for my daily workout. Along the way I ran into brother and sister Leishman. Her knee is feeling much better so she decided to test it this morning. He told me that he was able to get on the internet so I asked if later we might be able to send off an email just to let our children know we are OK.

I put in 50 minutes on the treadmill and then did some crunches and sit-ups. I am feeling great and I seem to have lost at least a pound over the weekend. I start the year weighing 85.7 kg including my sweaty clothes.

Back at the apartment I showered and then ate a small breakfast. I do not seem to have a real appetite – unless I am around sweets of course. Not that I can not eat a lot of food only that there is no drive to.

Mary has fallen back to sleep and I think after studying some Indonesian I will join her. There is little else to do today.

We ended up being fairly busy this morning. I did not take a nap. Instead I studied Indonesian. If I am ever going to learn to speak it, I must work hard each day. Later we studied together by translating the first 8 verses of 1st Nephi. We are able to get the general meaning of about 85% of the words but we do not always get the English meaning.

I had a nice conversation with the Kanes. They are doing great – if they were not so nice I would be jealous. They seem to have been busy each day, had a party at their house, and have a driver that is a gem. Elder Kane is determined to learn the language – he wants to be able to prepare and give a talk in 6 months. I am sure he will get there sooner than that.

About 11:30, Mary and I went for a walk around the grounds. We walked about 3/4 of a mile together and then I walked another 3/4 mile by myself. I would have walked more but started to really work up a sweat so I stopped. I do not enjoy sweating. Next time I will be sure to take a towel along.

Back in the apartment we watched the ball fall in Time Square. There is exactly 12 hours difference in time. I called down to the desk and asked if they had a phone book – that does not seem to be a concept that they understand. She called back with some restaurants that we could call. We also found that the hotel next door may have 5 restaurants. I will check them out after I take my nap. If any of them look good we are going over there for dinner.

After my nap and lunch, we work on Indonesian until we get a call from the Leishmans inviting us over to use their internet. Mary sent out a shot message letting everyone know we are fine and will send more when we get a good internet connection. I am just not sure when that will be.  We spent some time talking to the Leishmans about their mission and how they felt about it. They said it was not what they expected but then they probably never are.
Back at the apartment we do more Indonesian – including watching some on TV – and just killing time. It seems we do a lot of that right now.

02 January 2007 – Tuesday

I woke just before 4 am and thought it was almost 5 am – I was congratulating myself for sleeping in when the local mosque started broadcasting morning prayers and I knew it was not 5. However I managed to get back to sleep and slept in until 6:30.

This made me rush to the gym arriving without a towel. Since once I start really sweating I have a hard time pushing on I only did 30 minutes on the treadmill. But that still got my heart up to 127 and I will go back this evening and do some more. I did get a chance to study some vocabulary – but I am not sure any of it stuck.

We are looking forward to seeing the Kanes today and spending some time with them..

Mary and I studied 1st Nephi together. By the time we have worked our way through 5 or 6 verses we are pretty much ready to move on to something else. If it was not for Mary’s excellent memory and vocabulary I would stop much sooner. Anyway I think things are starting to come together – slowly but surely.

Sister Leishman woke up feeling poorly so just Elder Leishman and ourselves went into the office. We were able to get on to internet enough for me to send a single message via the chruch’s e-mail. Then Elder Leishman informed me that they did not like us to use the chruch’s e-mail to send personal messages so that was the end of that.

Before we left the apartment I called the Kanes and they said they would meet us at the mission office at 11:30 and we could get our bank accounts set up. So we left the office at about 10:45 – leaving Elder Leishman to work with a man coming in to learn some English.

The Kanes were already there and we found out they did not need to set up the account in Jakarta. So we got the paperwork we needed and their driver took us shopping and to get some money exchanged. We first stopped at a shop that carries only imported goods. Everything is very expensive but we were able to get black pepper and I bought two cans of diet A&W Root Beer. Since they cost $1.50 each, I will save them for some special occasion. I can get regular A&W for 40 cents at our little store.

Next we went across Jakarta to get our money exchanged. It was a lot different than my experience at the bank. No paper work, no ID and a better rate. We exchanged $1700 which made us multi-millionaires in Rupiahs. The young women who helped us can count money faster than a machine – they do it by flipping through the bills. It is a real sight to see.

Then we went to the So Go market where we managed to find just about everything we needed at a reasonable price. The Kanes can get better prices for most fruits and vegetables in Bogor so they did not buy as much. We had a problem with our American Express card and so it was a good thing we had a lot of cash. Of course we also bought some goodies at the bakery…it is a good thing it is not close by our apartment.

By the time we were done there it was too late for us to go to the bank and the Kanes needed to hurry up to get back to Bogor in time to open their account. So they just dropped us off at the apartments.

I then went through the hassle of trying to call American Express to see what was the problem. They finally sent up a very nice serviceman who knew exactly what to do and I got through. It turned out the problem is a local one because the company shows that we will be in Indonesia until 2008. Tomorrow I will try to call the local number and see if they can tell me what is wrong.

We had lunch and now are about to try to take a nap.

I took a nice 2 hour nap and would have slept longer if Mary had not woke me. I decided we would splurge and so we ordered from the restaurant downstairs. I had a hamburger with fries and Mary had sweet and sour chicken. The total bill, including 10% tax was $5. The burger was over cooked but OK – Mary’s chicken was very good.

I kept watching the news to find out how USC did in the Rosebowl. Finally I found out that they easily beat Michigan. So they should end up #2 in the nation. If they had not lost to UCLA they probably would have ended up national champs by beating Ohio State. Little Boise State beat Oklahoma State.

I am now going back to studying Indonesian by reading from the Book of Mormon. I find that I can read pretty well but when I try to go from English to Indonesian I do not do as well.

03 January 2007- Wednesday

I slept in until 5:30 but was up and out walking by 5:45. I walked because the gym was not open. I was it’s first customer and put in a good 45 minutes on the treadmill. I think I did a total of about 3.5 miles total. I just wish I did not sweat so much – it makes my exercising much less enjoyable. After the treadmill I did a little work on my arms and then a couple of sets of sit-ups. I am not working too hard on my body until I get down to about 170. Which is about 15 pounds away. At least this year I only have to lose 25 pounds and not 35 like the last time. I think I took off about 4 pounds last week.

This morning as I looked out over Jakarta I thought of how big it was and yet how there are not a lot of high rise buildings in my view.

You sprawl across the land
a giant made of red
roofs small busy people
jammed together traffic
motorcycles scurrying
like ants among the cars
trucks, buses – many lanes
where two are marked.

Rain soaked, hot and humid
old and new, brown, green, gray
multi-colored landscape
active mountains waiting
to erupt creating new
covering the past.

I will finish that someday soon because I am sure my feeling about Jakarta will change over time. I really would love to just explore the city – get to know it from the inside. Maybe some day Mary and I will come back and do that.

Sister Leishman was feeling better so we all went into the office this morning. We did not even get out of the car but headed for the bank to open our account. It took about 45 minutes to get all the paperwork finished. The people were all nice – especially the woman who was supervising. She spoke very good English and tried to tell us everything we needed to know. However I was glad we had Sam along to get the details in Indonesian.

We now have an account but we can not really use it for a week. So we will come back next Wednesday or Thursday to get our ATM card.

Back at the office by just after 11 and we spent the next three plus hours trying to get one woman enrolled in an on line job search. I hope that there is a quicker way to do this because that was just too long. As sister Leishman pointed out, most Indonesians are quite introspective and so it takes lots of patience to get anything out of them.

After she left we ate our lunches and then came back to the apartment. We happen to turn on ESPN and found that they were showing the Rose Bowl – it was fun to watch USC play. Of course we already knew the outcome so we did not watch it to the end. Instead we took naps – at least I took one – for a couple of hours. I was really asleep and was not happy when Mary woke me up. But of course if she had not I would have been up all night.

We had dinner – mine was a banana – watched some animal programs on TV and then I got back into reading the Kitab Mormon. I am going to stick to 1st Nephi 1 until I know the words. In just 15 verses I must have 40 words I need to learn well enough to recognize them when ever they come up. I need to see the root words better. But I think the work is beginning to pay off. A few more words stick each day. However listening to Indonesian on the TV is still impossible. But I do have 10 more months.

During the day sister Leishman mentioned that after this week’s English lesson we could do them ourselves. I took this as a hint that they are ready to turn some of the work over to us. I later mentioned that perhaps by the 10th or so we could handle all the work so they could start getting ready to leave. I think she will be more than happy to let us do that.

So another week is coming to a close – we arrived in Indonesia almost exactly two weeks ago. I can not say that it has felt much like what I expected, but I am sure that as we take on more and more responsibility it will.