Transfer Day for the mission: Elders Bastian, Basuki, Lewis, Thiemann, Manullang and bro Swanto. Elder Lewis is one of the new elders, we have had the pleasure of serving with Elders Basuki and Manullang in the Tangerang and Raya branches. Elders Bastian and Thiemann are in the office. Next picture is Elder Lewis, Thiemann and Manullang. The last picture is of Elder Rowberry trying to get 3 cubic feet of his possessions in a bag that holds just 1 cubic foot. Some choices had to be made. Elder Rowberry has served in the office for about 6 months and now was being transferred to Solo to finish out his mission. He is a wonderful and dedicated young man who will be a fine PH leader.

24 April 2008 – Thursday

I seem to be really having a hard time writing in this journal. So I am going to make today’s entry very short.

The highlights were a trip to the Craft Fair where we joined the Kanes for a couple of hours of looking at lots of Indonesian crafts and of course buying some. We went from the fair to the mission home where Mary taught her English class and I spent time with the Elders. It was transfer day and the last day of Zone Leader’s conference so there were lots of Elders in residence. I got to see Elder Manullang, elder Teng and one of the Basuki brothers. I got to say goodbye to Elder Rowberry and Elder Lewis – one of the new missionaries who are heading East. I also got to know Elder Hunter who is taking Elder Rowberry’s place in the office.

We have had the privilege of working with some great missionaries. Each of them are different but each are dedicated to the work. Hopefully when we get back we can have a number of them over to our house for a get-together or two before we leave again.

After Mary was finished, we headed off to Tangerang for DM and English classes. The traffic was terrible so everyone was late. Elder Cheney held his last District meeting with Tangerang. He is moving to Jakarta Raya and will be DL there, so we will still see him regularly until we leave. Elder Prause with elder Laki and elder Herman with elder Djarkodi (I do not think we know him) will be the Tangerang Elders.

So DL went well and we again counseled that the T1 elders introduce themselves to their neighborhood and let them know that they were there to help if anyone needed a couple of strong backs.

We finished just in time to hold English class. We started with just the missionaries and 2 inactive sisters that have joined the class. But we were soon joined by Agus, Cathrin and their children. We had a good and fun class where we worked on present tenses, opposites, and the first three Articles of Faith. We will miss the class next week so I gave Elder Herman the things they would need for the class.

We had Anny with us and we kidded her and Sam about their wedding tomorrow. They are a good couple and I think they will do fine. It is going to be hard on us next week without having Sam to drive us around. We will spend most of the time at the office getting things cleaned up for the Rebers.

23 April 2008 – Wednesday

It was a rather busy day for a P-day. We read from the Kitab Mormon in the morning and the afternoon. For about 4 hours we had the lovely young Muslim lady cleaning our house and a crew in replacing the air-conditioners in two rooms. We kind of worked around them because at times it was hard to find any room someone was not working in. I worked on my talk – I especially pondered a talk by Elder Packer about the Light of Christ that he gave at a New Mission President seminar. It was a long talk and I was surprised that he felt a group of established PH leaders such as that gathering would need a detailed – I imagine it ran a good 45 minutes – lesson on the subject. It brought home the fact that we all need to review again and again the basic doctrines of the Church. Each time I do I learn something new.

In his talk Elder Packer said that after the apostasy “the heavens were never closed.” That the Light of Christ is always in everyone who comes into the world, the Holy Ghost still visited the earth to testify and inspire, and that God still answered the prayers of the righteous. What was missing was the Priesthood – the authority to administer the ordinances of the Gospel.

After everyone left we had a short break before getting ready to go over to the mission home to be escorts for elder Bastian and Burr so they could go to president Smith house. We had to wait for a taxi and when we got one it turned out that he had no idea where to go so we had to coach him. The traffic was terrible until we got to Sudirman and then it opened up. We got to see a true fender-bender that turned into a hit and run. Unfortunately for the runner the traffic was so bad that those who were hit could get out of their car and confront him. They finally got him to pull over to the side. At least we had some entertainment while we waited in traffic.

When we picked up the elders, we told the driver where we needed to go and he had no idea how to get there and neither did we, so we paid him off and got into another taxi with an experienced driver.

President and sister Smith’s have a gorgeous apartment. Sister Smith and their daughter – who just was released from the Fort Lauderdale Spanish speaking mission- came home about 15 minutes after we got there. Not long after that president Smith showed up while sister Smith was still helping Elder Bastian with his headache problem. Since that was going to take some time, I helped the president take apart and put back together his TV – Stereo system in their beautiful new cabinet. Since they have a lot accessories, it took some time and a lot of work. But we finished just before it was time to leave. We were very happy when he turned it on and everything worked.

After a very interesting taxi ride with a driver who again had no idea how to get to where we wanted to go, we made it back to the mission home in time to share the Hashes farewell dinner with them, the Marchants, the Walkers and a brother Ron Smith who happens to have been the Walker’s next door neighbor in Utah and was visiting Jakarta on business.

We had a nice dinner and lots of good table talk for a couple of hours before brother Smith and us said our last goodbyes to the Hashes. We shared a taxi to our apartment and saw brother Smith off to the Marriott.

We got home rather late so while I did some work on the computer, Mary relaxed for a short time and then went to bed. I read some from the Liahona and then also went to bed.

The hearing aid office – very new, very clean and very modern. They provide a comfortable place for Mary and Sam to wait for me.

There must be millions of crackers/crepes sold each day. This load is not all that big, but the saddlebags on the side are not as popular here in Jakarta – or so it seems to me – as in other cities we have visited. The next picture interested me because the woman seems to be holding the top box with one finger. The last one I call ‘traveling office supply store.’ He is carrying the kind of paper we use in our copiers and printers.

21 April 2008 – Monday

I slept like a log for the first time in many weeks. However I woke early enough to go to the gym and have a good workout for about 45 minutes. The other important thing that happened this morning is that we had a great Skype conversation with Jim and his family. Charlotte smiled and cried for us. It is great when Skype is working well. We read 5 pages from the Kitab Mormon and experienced the brother of Jared seeing the Lord’s finger touching the rocks.

There was a number of housekeeping tasks we needed to do today. First we went to the hearing aid office and got more information about the aid that Anton recommended. Then we wen to the Wisers and dropped off a package that they will send for us. Our next stop was the Sogo mall where we bought a couple of books – one about Hong Kong and one that is a picture book about Jakarta. The Jakarta one really captures the feeling of city as we have come to know it. Then we had lunch at the food court before going to the market and getting a few things we needed.

From there we went to the office so I could get some files I need to transfer to this computer. I want to work on them at the apartment because of the frustration of the internet at the office. Of course today the internet was great and both of us got what we needed finished. While we were at the office one of the downpours that this country is famous for occurred. I tried to capture the feeling on a movie but it just does not work. Mary was able to get all our PEF contacts posted and got all I wanted done so we came back to the apartment.

We read for over an hour from the Kitab Mormon – the Jaredites are working their way up to complete destruction. This is probably the second most uninteresting part of the Book of Mormon for me. Actually it is the first – I actually can enjoy the Isaiah sections in English. But no matter the language the fall of the Jaradites just leaves me cold. Why the Lord felt that Mormon had to write so much about the process of their fall into iniquity and war I will probably never know. It does not lessen my testimony of the Book of Mormon but it also does not add to it. I am sure that there are others who find it very uplifting and spiritual and that is why it is included. But after 50 years and teaching it many time, I have yet to find it relevant for me.

I went through the pictures I took at District Conference and found that there were some really good ones and some that are very puzzling. I can not figure out why the indoor ones with flash turn out worse than the ones where I do not use a flash. The color was so bad that I had to turn some of those where I used the flash into black and white photos.

I continue to work my way through the November Liahona and the conference talks. I thought I was doing well until I got to Elder Hilbing’s talk about “Not dampening the Spirit.” I do not think I have read more than one or two complete sentences without needing to look up at least one word and often more. I do not mind being humbled, but this is a little much. It just goes to show that you have to be careful what you pray for.

For future use – District Conference

18 April 2008 – Friday

I woke late and just wanted to lie in bed. I do not feel sick but I do not seem to have much in the way of energy. Hopefully I am not coming down with something. I have no time to be ill. As we read from the Book of Mormon from the Kitab Mormon this morning, I was struck by Mormon’s decision to agree to lead the Nephite army even though he knew that they could never win because he was convinced that they would never repent. It also does not say that the Lord told him to do this or even that the Lord approved of him going against his vow not to lead them. But I have to believe that he would not make such a major decision without God’s approval.

We had a nice 30 minute Skype visit with Sister Hartford from BYUH. We talked about the Distance Learning English program they are running a pilot on starting at the end of this month. The purpose is to have incoming students better prepared in English so they can go right into academic classes and not just take English and Religous classes the first year. We are going to try to get 4 to 6 of our ex-IEC students to sign up for the 6 week pilot. She was also very interested in our IEC and High School classes. Sister Hartford had invited Sister Bunker who is also involved in the program to join her.

I was going to go back to the hearing aid store but while we were traveling there I called and found that the tech was going to be out for a while and I did not want to waste time. So instead we went to the mall for lunch and to go to Sogo. Then we went to the office so I could make an agenda for tonight’s ERSC meeting and Mary could practice the piano. I checked the mail and found that Sister Bunker had sent us an outline of the class and the application form.

Since we had some time before we had to leave for Tangerang and I was still not feeling right, we had Sam take us back to the apartment we read from the Kitab Mormon and then I took a nice nap.

Like most events that we have to travel to Tangerang for the 45 minute meeting took 3 ½ hours to complete. But the time was well worth it as we were able to cover all the agenda and set up a plan to work on some of the problems that we would like to see addressed over the next year. The reporting system and a way for the specialists to get job opening information from the members are the two big things that need lots of work.

We are going to miss working with Lukito and Agus. I hope we can keep in touch after we leave. I know that it will not be the same as working with them from day to day but it would be great to find out how they and their families are doing.

I am happy to say that by the time we got home, I was feeling much better and hopefully a good night’s sleep will take care of the rest. The Lord has truly blessed us with good health while we have been on our mission. The mission also kept us spiritually healthy.

17 April 2008 – Thursday

As I think back on the day, I come to the conclusion that it was a very typical day in our mission. There were some wonderful spiritual experiences mixed in with a lot of normal activities. The morning included studying Indonesian by reading conference talks, going to the gym, reading from the Kitab Mormon and doing more research for Elder Subandriyo’s project. The four hours seem to rush by and before I know it I am hurrying to get everything together so we can leave for the office. In those four hours I have done many mundane but necessary things while enjoying some spiritually uplifting exeriences.

At the office it is hard not to become frustrated with the internet because so much of what we do is done through over the net. We were able to say hello to the Rebers and found they had no questions. But it was almost impossible to read or send e-mail so I finally gave up. I then used the time to prepare my English lesson for tonight.

Sam had borrowed the car this morning so he could go to be interviewed for his passport. But he arrived at the chapel early enough that he could drive us to the mission home. There Mary gave her English lesson to the staff. While she was doing that, I talked to the Walkers. They are doing a great work. From looking at Walkers  you would not think that they were the fighters.  But when they are doing the Lord’s work they are fighters. They have got through a number of projects that they were at first told could not be approved. But they felt the projects were so important that they just kept at it until they got them through. Much like Nephi when he would not give up on getting the plates from Laban. It has been a pleasure to see them grow in their calling.

Then I met with President Marchant and Elder Subandriyo. I gave Elder Subandriyo the first fruits of my research and we talked about what he wanted to accomplish. Before leaving we picked up the mail for the Tangerang elders.

District meeting was very good. We had a short lesson on finding and as I read out of Preach My Gospel, I learned that the missionaries are to just start teaching a gospel message without any lead in. As we talked about the fact that they did not have a lot of referrals, I asked them if they knew all their neighbors and had they asked them for referrals. They said that they really did not and so I challenged them to spend a day and just go through their neighborhood introducing themselves and letting their neighbors know they would love to be of help to them. That is was part of what they were supposed to do while on their mission. They of course can not trat but they can be neighborly. Hopefully they will try this – they actually did a little role playing exercise about how to approach a neighbor washing a car.

Our English class is growing. Besides Agus and Cathlin’s family, a young man and a young woman who the Elders had met and invited to the class came. Also one of the inactive sisters who we had tried to help start a small business came. I think my beginning class went well. I had everyone introduce themselves – the young woman is 15 and her English is quite good. We went through opposites, then a review of prepositions, then we played fruits and vegetable Bingo, and we ended with identifying musical instruments. Next week I want to come up with a way to put all of that together and have them write sentences using the words. I think I will make a list of what we have learned and let them choose what words to use.

We were worried about the traffic to and from Tangerang because they were supposed to be doing some testing. However everything flowed smoothly both ways. We always count that as a tender mercy from the Lord because an hour trip can quickly turn into a nightmare if there is any problem along the way.

I forgot to mention that we picked up our nativity set made from cinnamon bark that Elder Palmer brought us from Singapore. Unfortunately we did not know he would be here for less than a day and did not get over early enough to pay him. So now we must figure out how to do that before we leave.

16 April 2008 – Wednesday

Normal P-day around the apartment. We both worked on projects, cleaned, read scriptures, studied, etc. I mainly worked on Elder Subandriyo’s project to give the youth a desire to have hope so they can dream and set goals to reach those dreams. I know it is hard to believe that most of the young people in Indonesia do not think about or plan for much beyond today or at the most next month. It is one of the saddest things that I have found in Indonesia. But if you do not have any real hope for changing your future or dream of changing your future, there is not much use in thinking about it or even worrying.

As I wrote that I realized that there is one thing that most young men here in Indonesia think ahead about and that is going on a mission. But I do not think they plan for it as much as they know it is there. They just live from day to day until it comes.

As I looked for success stories for Elder Subandriyo to use, most of those I found were about over coming physical handicaps rather than poverty. But President Grant and President Kimball over came poverty to be successful business men and of course church leaders. President Kimball came home from his mission and wanted to go to a university but had no money so he took a job moving heavy freight. The cost of taking the bus to work and back home was 10 cents each way so he walked instead so he could save the money. Poverty is not an excuse for not getting an education or for being successful.

I like President Grant’s story because not only does it show you can rise from poverty, but also that if you do your best, work harder and do more than asked you have a better chance of getting noticed by the boss and will be rewarded for your efforts. And the rewards are not always immediate as he found out when he needed some financing.

Mary will play the piano for the Jakarta Raya branch choir at the District Conference on this coming Sunday. Sister Penni is in the blue dress and will lead and sing a solo part. She is very talented and loves sister Pier.

We really like this picture of a load of bright boxes. I was very lucky to get this shot because we were in heavy traffic and if I had missed we would never had caught up with him again.

Thanks for the pictures. We love to see them and hear about what our family is doing.

15 April 2008 – Tuesday

It has been a good morning. I studied Indonesian, went to the gym, and we read from the Kitab Mormon. But what made it special was that there has been new pictures posted on most of the family blogs over the last couple of days. Cindy and her family went to Boulder, Charlotte turned 4 months – but is not turning over it seems, and Kelli and William got to go to the Tulip festival. Those and other pictures allow us to see the grandchildren growing up. It is hard to believe that William is two and Charlotte is already 4 months old. I was also amazed at how grown up Tyler and Krista look.

We spent our regular office hours where I spent most of my time working on cleaning up the computer files and writing notes to the Rebers that I hope will help them. I figure they can always ignore them or throw them away. Mary worked on her English lesson and then practiced the piano. I sent some of the information about the IEC and the HSIC to the sister at BYUH. We also got to say hello to Tom, William and Kelli – William loves to talk. The only problem is that we can not understand a word.

We had one great experience while in the office. We helped sister Yoshie’s driver with some English material and told him about the free English classes on Thursday night. It turned out he had been taught by Elder Rowberry in Solo. I got his name and phone number so the elders could make contact with him. Hopefully it will come to something.

We made it to Senopati in time for Mary to teach her class. Elder Subandriyo had asked me to stop in and talk to him about the Job Training schools that we had researched 10 days ago. He ws very interested in what I had found out and wants to put together a pilot program for trying in Central Java. I told him I would get some letters for PH leaders together and he will follow up on it later. I do not think we will have time to help out but maybe we can go to at least one meeting.

We then started talking about BYUH, English classes, going to good school, etc. As we were talking I mentioned that above all we needed to give the youth hope in getting out of the cycle of poverty. That many of them just give up because they see no way for them to get a good education or a career that will lead to a good paycheck and security. I told him that as we talked to the young people that we found that almost none of them even have a dream that they want to achieve. That they do really think about the future or set goals for the future. They just exist in the now.

As we were talking the spirit touched Elder Subandriyo and he sat back in his chair and stared at me for a moment. Then he said to me that as a young man he never had any dream of the future because it did not seem that he had any control over it. But now he saw that this is something that we must change this for the rising generation.  That we must show them there is hope for their future and that they are in control of it. That they can dream. We must teach the parents that they must support their children in their dreaming and help them to achieve them. He wants to convince the PH leaders of the need of holding firesides where he will look the youth and their parents in their eyes and tell them that this needs to be done. As I looked at him, he almost glowed with the spirit. I think it was one of those times when a vision of the future opened and Elder Subandriyo saw his role in bringing the Lord’s plan to the people of Indonesia.

He then asked me to research scripture, talks, etc. and give him an outline and ideas for his fireside talk. I guess that I do not have to worry much about what I am going to be doing for the next 6 weeks. What a blessing it has been to learn from him throughout our mission. How blessed we have been to be tools in the Lord’s hand in helping the Saints of Indonesia in ways we never imagined before we came here.

Mary and I had a chance to talk to President Marchant for awhile about a number of things. He has a lot on his plate at this time. I asked him a couple of things about qualifying for baptism and he sent me to the Handbook of Instruction to look them up for myself. Sam and Anny had a temple recommend appointment with him and so we stayed around until they were done. They are really excited about their coming marriage. They are so unprepared that it is scary but they do seem to be very much in love and so hopefully, with the Lord’s help, it will work out.

It was a very good day for me. I was able to help others, fulfill my calling as a missionary, and study the scriptures. I was able to clearly see and feel the Lord touch one of his servants with personal revelation and to see the immediate effect of that experience.

14 April 2008 – Monday

Just received a call from Elder Bennett and as we were talking he mentioned that the Noordas go home in July just a few days after the Bennetts leave. I was struck by the fact that by the end of August six of the 11 missionary couples now here will be gone. If there are no other couples called soon, the only replacement will be the Rebers. There will be no couples in the Surabaya District, two couples in the Central District and four couples – including the President and Sister Marchant – in the West. I certainly hope that there will be at least enough couples called to have one in each of the Central District chapels so the HS English Classes can continue.

After a usual morning of going to the gym, studying and reading from the Kitab Mormon, we headed off to the office. We got on Skype with the Rebers so we could answer their questions. We had trouble at first keeping a connection but we finally got it working well. The Rebers are going to be great missionaries. They are working hard on the language – they have started to read the Kitab Mormon. I told them not to discouraged, just plug along and use their dictionary.  We  spent the rest of the morning working on different projects that need to be done before we leave. Mary made new registration forms for the workshops and practiced the music she will pay for the Jakarta Raya choir at District Conference. I started going through the computer files again to see what could be consolidated and what could be thrown out. I also looked for things that needed to be explained.

After noon we went to the mall where we treated ourselves and Sam to BurgerKing. We have only done that 3 or 4 times since we have been here. They really are just like home except they have chili sauce in their dispensers instead of catsup and fry sauce. Before we ate, Mary went to a bead shop that had just what she wanted to finish a couple of sets of beads. It was one of the few shops that was really busy in the mall. Most shops have no customers during the day. I am amazed that they can afford to stay in business. Maybe nights and weekends are very busy.

We did our grocery shopping. Mary was excited because she found dill pickle relish. It is strange how small things like that become important or seem important. Our final stop was BreadTalk for our fix of goodies. I am rather glad we do not have anything like BreadTalk in the states. I would guess they would do great in the malls there, but I do not know of anyone who has tried it.

The rest of the day was at the apartment where we read from the Kitab Mormon, studied more Indonesian, worked on pictures and this journal, etc. Mary crocheted and worked on English games. We got a nice letter from a professor at BYUH that Elder Subandriyo had spoken to. She was excited about the English classes we started because they really want the students to come better prepared to participate in class so they do not need to spend a year taking only English and Religion classes. It turns out her home teacher is the president of the university and seems also to be excited about the idea. I mentioned that unfortunately we were going home soon and the couples who are teaching the classes will soon follow and there are no replacements in the pipeline. Since I know that these are inspired programs, I realize that I need patience because the Lord will work it out according to His schedule. I am just thankful that we were able to plant the seeds that hopefully will someday grow to become strong and fruitful trees for Indonesia.