This is a picture from the flood – it is not a river but a road that was near a river. Two or three days later people were out drying out their bedding, etc. They are so used to flooding that while I am sure they do not like to have their homes flooded, they take it as part of living. As I wrote earlier, there was an article about a family who had lived for three generations in a home that flooded two to three times a year. It would be hard to imagine this happening in the US.

09 May 2007 – Wednesday

I decided that I would not do any catch up until I had the current day at least started. Slept very well last night. For the first time since we got back from the conference I slept past 5 a.m. It feels good. I mentioned to Mary that it was strange that even though we do not do that much physical work each day, I am still tired in the afternoons. I decided to blame it on the heat…after all they take siestas after lunch in most hot countries – that seems very civilized to me.

I am back to reading from Book of Mormon Stories. It is interesting to see what words that I still do not recognize. Sometimes it is just because I am lazy and do not look for the root word – but most of the time it is just because I do not remember the word from the last time I read it.

I think that the mission is helping me to be in the world but not part of the world. Today I was following a story on the web that was more sensational than anything meaningful and I stopped and thought ‘how useless is this’ and closed up the site. It was not that there was anything wrong with what I was reading – it was just useless. The Kitab Mormon says that such things are ‘hal-hal manusia yang sia-sia’ or ‘tidak berguna’ – that is they are “things of the world that are ‘useless’ or without value. I am not bragging about this – I am sure it is the influence of the spirit because I am on a mission that is prompting me. I should have learned this 40 or 50 years ago – how much time have I wasted on such things – and of course how much will I waste in the future.

We read about 2 ½ pages in the Kitab Mormon this morning. I really thought we were humming our way through but it just seems to take about the same amount of time so an hour translates into 2 – 3 pages. We do spend more time now trying to really understand why something is translated the way it is. We still miss tenses – mainly because there is often none there – and who is doing the action. But mainly we come quite close to what it says in the Book of Mormon – unless of course the Indonesian translation is not close. I like reading from 7:30 to 8:30 because we can then relax some before we leave for the office.

Indonesia has lots of water – but it has very little naturally clean water. This means that you either buy bottled water – which is what we do. Or boil your drinking water – which is what most of the poorer people do. Hardly anyone drinks water directly from taps or other sources. The Indonesians may be able to handle bad water a little more than we can, but they also know that they can get really, really sick if they are not careful about their water. I do not know how many people die in Indonesia each year from waterborne disease but I imagine there are 1000s. What is interesting is that the papers hardly ever mention deaths here – not traffic deaths, etc. Only if there is a major disaster associated with the deaths is it likely to make the news. I guess there is just so many people dying, that it is not considered news here.

Back to normal at the office. We spend some time getting our monthly reports into Hong Kong and I did some things for my Thursday English class. But mostly it is busy work that needs to be done but is not very exciting. Since paperwork has never been my strength it is interesting that the Lord has given me a chance to improve in this area. As we were leaving for the day I realized that I did not do one thing that I could have done today – but it will still be there when we get back on Thursday or Friday.
We can not go home teaching at Salims because it turns out he is on Sumatra helping his brother with his business. I think we will go out and try to home teach his wife before the month is over. I do not want to miss him two months in a row. We also need to call and go see Rudy – just to say hello and to see how he is doing.

On the way home we go by the Ambassador Mall to try and find the things Mary needs to start crocheting. She has decided that is something she can do while we are in the car. We find a place that sells yarn and the other things she needs but the yarn is 4 times as much at it would be at home. Since this is a little shop in a mall that is obviously catering to natives, the prices should be right – but Mary does not think she wants to pay that much for yarn. We are thinking about asking Cindy to pack a small box full of yarn and send it to us. Yarn is light and she should be able to get a lot in a small package. But before we do that we will look for other places that sell yarn.

Once we are home, it is great to take off the tie and settle down for another night at home. I take a nice nap and then work at the computer until it is time for dinner. Mary fixed a big meal of spaghetti – the only thing that is mission if garlic bread. I eat a rye roll with dinner – Mary thinks rye with spaghetti does not sound good. I found that it was fine.

I continue to read in the Indonesian version of Book of Mormon Stories. I find that I can go through a number of panels without help but then will hit some that have a number of words I do not remember. We later read from the Kitab Mormon and in a hour make it through 3 ½ pages of fairly easy reading. Ammon is in King Lamoni’s court and has started to teach him about God. This lesson is used as an example of how missionaries can introduce the Christian concept of God to Buddists and Hindus – or anyone else for that matter.

I have been reading about a four hour program on TV that discussed the Mormons. From what I have read it seems the program was fair to the church but that there was also some things that were not doctrine and that polygamy – especially Jeff’s ideas about it – was given too much time. It would be interesting to see what was broadcast – I wonder if Tom happened to record it on TIVO.  One thing for sure it stirred up a lot of comments on different religious blogs.

I would guess that in the long run it will be of more help than harm – that some people will wonder what there is about the LDS church that makes them news and start investigating or asking questions. I doubt if they are planning a 4 hour program on the Catholics or the Methodists.

08 May 2007 – Tuesday

I slept OK but not long enough. I seem to be back to waking up between 4 and 4:30 and not really going back to sleep. It makes for a long day and also it makes a nap almost mandatory for me.

We had a busy day – at least up until 4 or so. It was the normal morning except we read earlier than usual. I wish Skype worked better – it becomes annoying when it cuts off or becomes static every few minutes or seconds. But it is great to see or hear the children and grandchildren even for a short time.

The office is becoming busy – well at least people are starting to come in. Today we had our second client in less than a week. Since before this we have not had one, that is an infinite increase. Besides that Agus’ son Egar came in to help us. His father wants him to improve his English. He is typical of those who speak and understand English well enough to function in the US but not well enough to really participate in college classes where there is a need for understanding and communicating with what is going on. I had him start to read an article on golf and found that he had no knowledge of golf and did not know who Tiger Woods was.

Later I had him start calling those who have participated in this year’s career workshops to find out how they are doing and if they had jobs. Hopefully in the future the district and branch specialists will do this – that is the way things are supposed to work and what we are going to try to get working so when we leave, there will be a support and reporting system that works.

I did something to my computer that locked it up so that I could not get in. I took full responsibility but I think that someone has been either using the computer or trying to use the computer when we are gone. I am going to change the passwords regularly so that if one gets out – I do let Sam use our computers from time to time – that it will be useless.

Mary worked on her English and says that she is about ready for Thursday and Friday. The reports did not go as well because we do not have the information we need for the people who got jobs or started a business during the month. I wrote to the Christensens to ask them what to do and they did not get back to us until after we had left the office.

At about noon our client came in and I worked with him. He already was registered on Jobsdb so we just went through and applied for more jobs. I do not think he will have a problem getting a job. He seems very sharp and has already turned down some because they did not pay as much as he is now making. At least he is looking for a job before the old one runs out.

After closing up the office, we had to run back to the apartment to get the equipment so Lukito could give the short Career Workshop to the missionaries who are heading home. We thought we could not be there because we were invited to a special program at the school for the blind that the Leishmans had helped – but it turned out that we were wrong and the event is not until Thursday. We will probably go over to the mission office after our office hours.

The main reason we went to the mission office is so that Hendra can fix my computer problem. This he does in about 5 minutes and thanks me for bringing the computer to him instead of asking him to come to our office. The funny thing is that I never would have thought to ask him to do that. We left the office laptop for Lukito to use tomorrow. Later I realized that I should have also left the rest of the equipment there because he needs to use it for Bekasi. Someday we will get organized.

I said hello to everyone and spent some time with the translators talking about how hard it is to translate from one language to another. I mentioned that as we were reading today in Alma 15:16 – or is it 16-15? Whatever – where the English Book of Mormon starts a thought but does not finish it, the translator of the Kitab Mormon completed the thought. I guess he could not stand to let it just dangle there. It is interesting that in all the many times I have read that verse I had never noticed that it was never completed. But when we are reading it so carefully often new things show up.

Back at the apartment I took a few minutes to enjoy the hot sun shining into the livingroom. I guess the dry season is coming and there will be more and more days when the sky is not covered with clouds or pollution so that I can soak up some rays. I did not do it for long because it was so hot and I read from the Book of Mormon Stories so I was not ‘wasting’ time. However after that I did manage to take a nice long nap.

The Christensen’s called from HK and we talked for a short time. Then, since I knew they were in their office, I sent a Skype call. The connection between HK and us is no better than that between here and the US. I am sure it is because of the slow connection here. It was down to 49 kbps and that is much too slow for a good connection with up and downloading. The chat feature is much better.

I did not do much personal studying today. However I did read from PMG about how the non-English speaking missionaries are encouraged to spend the mornings speaking English. I am sure the president knows this – I did not know it when I suggested this to the missionaries – but does not stress it. I am going to point out in the district meetings that if we are going to ‘obey exactly’ then perhaps they should start doing this. The brethern obviously know how important English can be to the non-English missionaries and that is why they encourage them to learn the language so they can be more useful in the Kingdom but also because it may help them throughout their lives.

07 May 2007 – Monday

Today is P-day but we have some things we need to do so after a normal morning – including reading Kitab Mormon – we head out at 10. First we go to the office because we need to send some e-mail and do some other things there. After that we wanted to go hometeaching but when we called – it is at least an hour each way – no one answered. We will do it tomorrow or Wednesday. I called Elder Kane and asked him to set up an appointment to see the mushroom project and hope that we can duplicate it for our members. Also we want to see the textile school so we can know exactly what it offers and how often we can enroll members.

From the office we went to the mission office. Stopping first to get food at BYU – I took a picture so I can put it in the blog so people will finally see what I mean when I mention eating there. We ate at the office and talked to the folks there. Hendra showed me how to change the password on the computers – I am afraid Sam is letting people get on our computers and that could be a problem. We also picked up some Kitab Mormons to give out – we will go see Sister Paulina today and give her one or two.

After the mission office we went to Carrefour to get Mary a new briefcase and some other supplies. We got her a really nice ‘Marmot’ knock-off. They duplicated all the logos and if the advertising blurb was not written is such poor English someone might be fooled. But it is well made and for $12 it could not be touched in the US. When we got to the counter of course there was no barcode anywhere so we had to wait 10 minutes while someone roller skated over and checked the price. It turned out to be $1 less than we thought it should be.

We were home in time for me to take a short nap before the cleaning lady came. I have finally reached the point where I look before I turn around, open a door, etc. so I do not accidently run over her. She is quieter than a mouse – almost like a ghost.

For dinner I finished off the pizza from Saturday night. We read Kitab Mormon early tonight – it seems to be getting easier but there are still many words I do not know. I also read from Elder Holland’s talk in Indonesian – it does not get any easier.

We watched the final episode of the current ‘Amazing Race.’ I was rooting for the blondes because I thought it would be good for a pair of women to win. But they came in 2nd. If I was the producer of the program I would give a million $ to the winner, $200K to 2nd and 100K to the 3rd. This seems fairer to me than the winner takes all.

We have been doing laundry since Friday – it seems we manage to come up with a load most days – today it was sheets. It is interesting how mundane things such as washing dishes – and remembering to rinse in clorox water, hanging laundry, and ironing shirts have just become of being on a mission. It goes along with reading the scriptures, PMG, and lesson manuals.

A mission has started to change my perspective about what is important. Other than family I do really miss anything that we have left behind. I would like to be able to work in the garden – more for the chance to be doing something artistic than seeing the results. I have little desire to listen to music. I do miss reading novels at times but it is no big thing. I now take about a month to read one instead of a day. What is important is learning the language, trying to help people find jobs, teaching English, etc. That is trying to do what the Lord sent us here to do.

06 May 2007 – Sunday

Much of today was very busy. We had to get up a little early because we need to leave just after 7 for our 8 a.m. sacrament meeting in T1.  Sunday morning is a wonderful time to travel in Jakarta. There is almost no traffic and the trip that takes from 1 to 2 hours on Thursday took about 30 minutes today.

We went to T1’s fast meeting. Mary was asked to play the piano for the meeting and so we sat on the front row. We still can not understand enough words to know what they are talking about. Especially during testimony meeting – at least not until they reach their testimonies. We did not have anyone even giving us a synopsis for the first meeting. At times this is frustrating but we will keep trying until we can hear and understand. Learning patience may be the most important thing I get out of this mission.

We did not go to a T1 Sunday school class. Mary wanted to work on her lesson and I want to sleep. She had more success than I did. But I had a chance to talk to some of the members and relax some.

The T2 sacrament meeting was better than the 1st because we had elder Rigby to give us some clues about what the people were saying. This does not mean we understood much by ourselves but it did help me pick out some of the words that I probably would have missed. We found out that the outing we are invited to attend on the 17th will leave at 5:30 a.m. This means that we will have to leave our apartment by 4:15 to reach the collection area. Luckily for us it turns out that Sam’s trip does not leave until 7:00 so he can drop us off and still make his. So we do not have to worry about a taxi running us around the countryside to run up the fare.

We went to T2 Gospel Principle class. Elder Smith did a good job but I do not think that teaching is his best attribute. Most of the elders take too much of the time speaking and not enough letting the investigators talk. They should ask more questions, make sure the investigators understand the teaching, bear testimony, tell stories, etc. But of course they tend to stick to the manual and do not bring much from the outside. This is good and bad – it is good if the investigators are involved but if they just sit there and listen it is not very interesting.

There was an investigator in the class that I thought did not know much English but about half way through he asked me for the English version and seemed to know how to read it. After the class we talked some and it turned out he had very good English. He said that he had been investigating many churches and had come to the LDS church before. He also told me that he had done some terrible things in his life. I told him that there was few things that the Lord would not forgive him for doing. I probably should have mentioned that one of those was murdering someone. Anyway it will be interesting to see if he continues to read, study, and come to church.

Mary then went to teach her class and I went to Priesthood. There was very little done in PH – a young man was ordained a Priest. They sustained him in the PH meeting which is not how it is supposed to be done – I will write the president about that – and then talked about Home Teaching. When they got to the lesson they as usual did not try to include the young men so it is completely boring for them. At some time I am going to suggest that they let the missionaries teach the AP while the MP hold their meeting.

After church – Mary ran over. She said she talked too much but the lesson went well – we took the missionaries – Elder Rigby and his companion – to give a lesson to the woman that we went to a couple of weeks ago. Now that Sam knew the way he got us there in half the time. The lesson did not seem very spiritual to me. It was one of those cases where the missionaries do all the talking and the investigator gets too much to absorb. I do not think the spirit was there at all until just as the lesson was over and they asked the investigator to pray. This was the first time she had prayed – at least while we were there – and as she prayed you could hear the emotion in her voice. She choked up and there were tears in her eyes. She excused herself and Mary asked the missionaries to make sure they helped her recognize the spirit that she felt as she prayed. I am not sure they did.

We dropped the missionaries off at the bus station and headed home. On the way there we found out that Sam was supposed to be playing for his ward’s choir practice. He had not known that we were going to with the missionaries. Luckily we got home quickly and I told him to take the car to the church which saved him 20 – 25 minutes of walking. We really do need to find an alternate driver for Sunday so Sam can go to his meetings in his branch.

I forgot to mention that he was up most of the night before. One of his friends was in a motorcycle accident and broke his ankle. Sam went with him to the hospital and watched the operation – he has pictures – and then stayed with him until 2 in the morning. Since to get to our place by 7:00 he had to get up at 5:00 he did not get much sleep. I told him to go out in the car and sleep for part of the meetings. I did not want him to fall asleep while driving us.

The rest of the day was spent catching up some of the journal, cleaning up some of the stacks of papers we have managed to accumulate, and reading from the Kitab Mormon. I continued to study my vocabulary words. I even studied some in the car while we were traveling. I think that is a good thing to do and it helps the time pass.

One thing I have found that by the time I crawl into bed, I am very tired. I usually try to read some Indonesian or study some vocabulary but after only a few minutes I turn off the light and drop off to sleep. It is strange to be so tired when there very little physical effort in our mission. Walking up and down the stairs at church is about all there was today. I guess I am just getting old or something.

05 May 2007 – Saturday

It was back to normal today. Slept well, woke too early, and had a normal morning. We had time to read a full hour in Kitab Mormon – this is becoming more and more enjoyable because we not only are learning to read Indonesian but we are also learning more about the Book of Mormon. We are finding things that we have read over a number of times that seem to have a different meaning when you digesting it word for word.

We went to the office and I caught up with some of the e-mail. I also wrote the April ERSC history report and sent it off to Hong Kong. We still need to do the ones that include number. One of the great pieces of news is that we actually got a report about employment from the districts. They were a little light in information and I am sure they did not cover each branch, but it is a start.

Mary spent the time working on her lesson tomorrow at Tangerang 2. She is putting part of it into Indonesian so the young women can have something to take home with them. She has spent a lot of time on this lesson – I am sure she will do great.

At 2 we went to SoGo to stock up on groceries and baked goods. We should really stay away from there but it is the only place where I can get fresh squeezed orange juice which is what I have for breakfast about 5 of the 7 days of the week. So while we are there it seems a waste not to buy a few goodies at BreadTalk.  Anyway that is my excuse and I am sticking to it.

By the time we got home both of us were very tired so we snacked on some of the things that we bought and took naps. Besides eating, reading Kitab Mormon, and catching up some of this journal, the rest of the day was very quiet. Mary of course continued to work on her report and I started reading Elder Hollands talk in Indonesian. Just the first two paragraphs produced a nice stack of flip cards – I am going back to using them to try and increase my vocabulary. Which I tried to learn on and off during the evening.

This mission experience is different from what I expected. It is not filled with great spiritual experiences each day. Or perhaps it is and it just seems so normal for it to be that way, that it no longer stands out. I know that when we were serving in the MTC it got to a point where it took something out of the ordinary to make an impression. The ordinary spiritual events that were taking place all around us seemed ordinary and we probably would have been surprised if nothing spiritual happened.

An example is today. I opened the church mail site and there were the two reports about employment. The first ones we have ever received. It means that the district specialists contacted their branch specialists and then sent in the report. That may not seem like anything special but the fact is that as far as I can tell that has not been done before. Before this if there was any figures they came because the senior missionaries either contacted the branches or found out that someone had a new job or a new business. I know that is what we did for three months. Basically we released those who had the responsibility for doing this work. Once we decided that was not the correct way to do this, trained those we are responsible for, and told them when we expected the report, behold the Lords’ way of doing things started working.

I remember reading in the Welfare manual one day and it quoted the D&C where when the Lord revealed his plan for helping the poor, He told the church that it should be done in His own way. But how often do we think we know better than the Lord and do it in our own way. I know I have been guilty of that in the past and I am sure I will do it in the future – but hopefully not as often.

I would imagine there are times when the Lord looks down on our efforts and thinks ‘Why does my son Bill not learn that the correct and easy way to get things done in My Church is to do it My way. Not because I want any glory but so he and those he is working with can enjoy all the blessings that I would like them to have.”

4 Friday 2007 – Friday

A travel day but first we had to pack. I went down to the bakery and got a lot of goodies that we ate for breakfast – later I did the same thing for lunch. For the most part all of the items were good but the apple strudel was my favorite. We managed to read from the Kitab Mormon and still have time to meet the Noordas’ driver at 8 a.m. The Noordas had volunteered their driver and their vehicle until noon. The Kanes suggested we get up and leave at 6 for a drive to the ocean. But we did not want to start that early so we compromised for a trip to a mask factory.

It turned out that no one could really tell us where the mask factory was and it was also mentioned that it was not very excited. So instead we decided to head for the mountains. As the driver made his way through the town – he was from Malang and his mother still lives here – we came across an area where there were lots of temporary stalls that was filling up with all kinds of crafts, food shops, and activities. We were too early for most of the shops to be open but we managed to find a number of things to buy and we got to watch a young lady handpaint a sheet of rice paper. She just holds it on the flat of her hand and paints. It takes a really steady hand to do that.

We then headed through Malang and up into the mountains. He took us through some beautiful scenery to a park area. We took some great shots of the valley, of the loads of grass going down the hill on motorcycles and in carts, and a truck being loaded with cabbage. The park rents out some of the land for growing crops that need a cooler climate. There is corn, cabbage, and carrots growing under the trees.

When we got to the part of the park where it was a short walk to the waterfall we found a family of monkeys that did not like us disturbing them. I got some good pictures of the mother suggesting that we go elsewhere. The walk to the falls was through lovely scenery and the falls itself was beautiful. We notice that the water was as crystal clear as any we have seen in America and commented on the fact that it was the first clean river we had seen. This is because the stream runs through rock and so it does not pick up the red clay soil that every other river seems to have.

By the time we got through touring the falls it was time to head back down to the hotel and get ready to leave. We finished our packing, ate a light lunch and settled our bill – a little expensive for Indonesia because of the fancy meals we had on Wednesday and Thursday. The hotel itself was not expensive for what they provide, but the meals were about twice what they were at places like Novotel. But the trip was worth it – if just for the company.

The Hashs were nice enough to pick us and the Kanes up and take us to the airplane. The rest of the Jakarta group had ordered a van to take them. The Noordas and the Bennetts were leaving soon after us – it turned out they stopped and went to the street fair we had found earlier and had told them they should look on their way out of town. The Roberts and the Barnards had a van – they call it here a ‘travel’ – taking them back to Solo – a 5 hour drive.

When we got to the airport the terminal was closed. It seems that since there are only two or three flights in and out each day they only open an hour before the flight is supposed to leave. We got to wait outside in the heat. But it was a good opportunity for me to meet a man who had been given a copy of ‘Kitab Mormon’ by Elder Hardy when he was here on his mission. The man had not read it because he decided to stay with his church. I told him that if he ever felt like knowing more, there were branches of the church in Jakarta and gave him a pass-along card. They say that each convert has about 7 contacts with the church before they join. Maybe our visit will come to his memory sometime or looking at the card will spur his interest and he will want to know more. I will never know but that does not matter.

The experience of checking bags – thankfully I got us a porter who pushed us to the front of the line and made sure our bags got checked correctly – and going through security was really something. Everyone makes the metal detector goes off but no one even makes an attempt to find out what is being brought on board. The Kanes brought on a full liter bottle of water – nothing like a liquid check here – and I think you would have to be carrying a gun in your hand to even cause them to ask about anything. I decided that plane they lost over the ocean could have been a bomb and since they never found the wreckage no one would ever know.

The flight went well, our luggage came off quickly and until we got into Jakarta traffic everything was great. It took somewhere between 90 minutes and 2 hours for us to get home. The Kanes took about an hour longer. It was sooo good to get into our apartment and take off our shoes. Be it ever so humble – which ours is not – there is no place like home.

3 May 2007 – Thursday

We managed to read the Kitab Mormon for almost a full hour this morning. We have not been getting our two hours in because there is too many activities early in the morning. At least that is our excuse. All the couples had breakfast together. It was a pretty good breakfast but not as good as the ones at Novotel. The Roberts agreed with us.  It was nice to sit and talk to our friends in the Gospel. There is a bond of love and friendship that seem to be very special as we share the experiences of serving a mission for our Lord. The Bennetts invited us to go with up to see the Kanes – they have a 42 foot motor home with two slide outs. It must be like a mansion inside. I imagine we will make some friends here that are unlike any others. Because no one will be able to really know what we feel when we talk about our service here.

After breakfast we met to have the last two presentations. Ours came first and I think we did quite well. Mary and Sam’s short movie – pretty much a slide show with effects and music – went well. A number of people commented about our garden. Mary did an excellent job of telling about our family and interests. She also covered English classes. I then told about how they could help us with ERS and how important it was. I really did not have enough time to go into too much detail and hope that the handout will let them know what we need.

The Roberts were the final couple and they just talked from their heart. After our more business like presentation, it was the perfect way to finish the presentations. President Jensen then spoke some about how he and sister Jensen felt. He played a DVD that they made to send to the Indonesian missionary reunion at April conference. That wrapped up the conference.

At 1:00, most of us went off to take a tour of the city. President Jensen and Elders Kane, Van Dongen, and Noorda went to play golf. The tour was mainly a bust.  About a half of the tour was what we saw yesterday. There was a tour of a section of town that is a cooperative that makes Tempe. This is a soybean product that is not bad tasting and very nutritious. Pretty much the whole town is involved with small back rooms and areas used to process the soybeans, make them into sheets and dry them. None of this would pass the health department in America – or for that matter most 1st or 2nd world countries – but it works here. What was fun was to have the children tag along. I am not sure if there were so many because it was a holiday or because their families can not afford to send them to school. Either was we grew a big crowd of smiling children who love to have their picture taken. As always they were for the most part clean and neatly dressed – I did notice that there were not a lot of shoes.

The best part of the tour was when we told the driver we did not want to see another temple and could he show us a pottery factory. After one poor choice he finally got us to a fun little shop where there was a lot of very inexpensive but nice looking pottery. My guess it was all seconds but since we are probably going to leave most of it behind when we leave the $7 we spent was not a big thing. Nearby there was a pottery shop where we saw them hand-painting pots to be fired. It was too bad that we were flying home and so there was no way to get a big pot home. We are going to look for something like that around here. Maybe in Bogor.

We got back to the hotel in time to have high tea – without tea of course. This was an everyday thing and we found it the first day. There were lots of Indonesian treats – most of them sweets of some kind. The Bennetts joined us and then sister Kane. After we had our treats, sister Kane whipped out her dice and we taught the Bennetts a new game that we just learned the day before. It is a lot of fun and there is both luck and skill involved. We played two games and the Bennetts each won one…now they are hooked.

It was a relaxing evening. We went down to the restaurant and found almost all the couples already there. The golfers were still not back and the Hashs had gone back to their house. Since they live in Malang they did not see any reason to take the tour. Everyone sat around talking about the conference, the work, their families, etc. When the golfers arrived the party started to break up. Everyone was rather tired and there were a lot of us traveling tomorrow so bed sounded very good.

2 May 2007 – Wednesday

We woke about 5:15 and I was surprised that the sun was streaming in the window – the sun comes up earlier here because we are so far East. Normal morning except we only had 30 minutes to read the Kitab Mormon instead of an hour – we will need to make up for that this evening. We called the Kanes and suggested we have breakfast together. It was an interesting and delicious breakfast but it cost $10 a piece while we could have eaten at McDonalds for $2 each. That is what we will do on Friday morning.

After breakfast we took a tour of the hotel. It is an amazing place. It is huge – about a full city block – and full of antiques. I am surprised it makes any money. About the time we were through with the tour, the other couples from Jakarta arrived and so everyone started talking to everyone. We finally met Elder Noorda – sister Noorda did not appear until we started lunch. Lunch was exotic but to me not worth the effort. I would have been as happy – if not happier with a 50 cent dinner off the street.

The Couple’s meeting is interesting. Each couple takes about 30 minutes to talk about their family and what they are doing on their mission. To me the proselyting missions have the best callings. They work closely with their branches and leadership. Especially the ones who have only one branch to work with. The Bennetts in Semarang, the Hatchs in Malang, and the VanDongens in Bandung all are in that situation. The Van Dongens have completely changed their branch – doubled their attendance, started a choir, etc. I have written about them before.

In just two months the Bennetts have raised attendance from 65 to as high as 120. Give them 6 months and they will have to divide the branch. The Hashs are working closely with their small branch – they have the most difficult task but they are humble and hard working so it will just take some time.

But of course I also know we are where we are supposed to be. If or better when the Intensive English classes get going, many things will change here. When we are able to provide jobs for the older men, women and less educated but dedicated priesthood leaders, lives will be changed. And when we have developed resources for good schools and education we will be able to guide PEF applicants to meaningful and well paying careers. Finally when we are able to get out and meet the less actives, clean up the branch records, etc. we will help the branches become stronger and help those who are missing the blessings of activity to realize them.

We had a one hour break – it was really needed – and then a two hour dinner. I enjoyed the dinner. Not so much because it was great food – it was OK – but because we were able to sit and talk with other couples as we waited for the next course. After dinner there was a band and I even danced with Mary. She really deserves for me to learn how to actually dance – some of the couples were really good. We then had two more reports before we headed off.

I almost forgot. They had a language activity to test our knowledge of Bahasa and Mary won with 56 out of 62. I was second with 53. She got a large ceramic piggy bank for a prize. We thought that was funny because earlier in the day we had seen them for sale but could not figure out how to get it home. Luckily it was the small pig – the big one would have been a real problem.

2 May 2007 – Wednesday

We woke about 5:15 and I was surprised that the sun was streaming in the window – the sun comes up earlier here because we are so far East. Normal morning except we only had 30 minutes to read the Kitab Mormon instead of an hour – we will need to make up for that this evening. We called the Kanes and suggested we have breakfast together. It was an interesting and delicious breakfast but it cost $10 a piece while we could have eaten at McDonalds for $2 each. That is what we will do on Friday morning.

After breakfast we took a tour of the hotel. It is an amazing place. It is huge – about a full city block – and full of antiques. I am surprised it makes any money. About the time we were through with the tour, the other couples from Jakarta arrived and so everyone started talking to everyone. We finally met Elder Noorda – sister Noorda did not appear until we started lunch. Lunch was exotic but to me not worth the effort. I would have been as happy – if not happier with a 50 cent dinner off the street.

The Couple’s meeting is interesting. Each couple takes about 30 minutes to talk about their family and what they are doing on their mission. To me the proselyting missions have the best callings. They work closely with their branches and leadership. Especially the ones who have only one branch to work with. The Bennetts in Semarang, the Hatchs in Malang, and the VanDongens in Bandung all are in that situation. The Van Dongens have completely changed their branch – doubled their attendance, started a choir, etc. I have written about them before.

In just two months the Bennetts have raised attendance from 65 to as high as 120. Give them 6 months and they will have to divide the branch. The Hashs are working closely with their small branch – they have the most difficult task but they are humble and hard working so it will just take some time.

But of course I also know we are where we are supposed to be. If or better when the Intensive English classes get going, many things will change here. When we are able to provide jobs for the older men, women and less educated but dedicated priesthood leaders, lives will be changed. And when we have developed resources for good schools and education we will be able to guide PEF applicants to meaningful and well paying careers. Finally when we are able to get out and meet the less actives, clean up the branch records, etc. we will help the branches become stronger and help those who are missing the blessings of activity to realize them.

We had a one hour break – it was really needed – and then a two hour dinner. I enjoyed the dinner. Not so much because it was great food – it was OK – but because we were able to sit and talk with other couples as we waited for the next course. After dinner there was a band and I even danced with Mary. She really deserves for me to learn how to actually dance – some of the couples were really good. We then had two more reports before we headed off.

I almost forgot. They had a language activity to test our knowledge of Bahasa and Mary won with 56 out of 62. I was second with 53. She got a large ceramic piggy bank for a prize. We thought that was funny because earlier in the day we had seen them for sale but could not figure out how to get it home. Luckily it was the small pig – the big one would have been a real problem.