Kesabaran – Kuh-sah-bar-an – patience; tolerance. As I have mentioned before this is an attribute that I have been working on. I am trying to learn to be patient with everyone as the Lord is patient with me and my shortcomings. It is the old mote and beam saying from the bible. I certainly try the Lords patience with my procrastination and my weaknesses. Therefore like the servant who asked the Lord to forgive his debt and then demanded another pay his debt to him or he would take him to law.  It is probably one of the hardest Christ-like attitude to develop – especially if for 60 years you have not been that way. A mission certainly reminds one of his weaknesses and of course her strength.

15 April 2007 – Sunday

District Conference continues with the main general meeting. For this the mission rents a large hall that will sit about 700 people. We picked up the Kanes and their luggage and got to the meeting by just after 9. We got to meet all the missionaries because they had formed a reception line. At 9:30 a district primary choirs started reciting and singing about the Articles of Faith. It was fun to see the young people who come to my English class on Thursday taking part. I tried to catch their eyes so I could smile at them, but no one was looking for me. I am sure I just look like any bulai – their name for any light skinned person. It is hard to tell one of us from another.

The meeting went from 10 to noon – the main speakers were Elder Jackson and President Jensen. My headphones went out before President Jackson spoke but I was able to follow some of what he was saying – I am encouraged that slowly I am starting to hear the Indonesian words. At least when they are spoken by those who are not natives. I am not sure I will ever be able to hear and understand the native speakers. The way the pronounce words is different from what I am storing in my memory. But at least I hope to reach a point where I can speak in church if I know what the lesson is about.

After the main meeting we thought we could go home but there was a special meeting called by Elder Jackson for all the new members from the last two years and we were invited to be part of it. I think it was a great idea for the newer members to be recognized and welcomed in by a leader that they looked up to. It was also good that Elder Jackson reminded the branch presidents that there was a need to give the new members a calling soon after they are baptized. Hopefully this will spur them to do this – it is not done now. After this meeting we bid the Kanes and VanDongens farewell and headed home.

The rest of the day was spent eating, napping, studying Indonesian, reading from the Kitab Mormon and watching TV.

14 April 2007 – Saturday

Tekun – Tuh-koon – Diligent; hardworking. The Indonesian people are surely hardworking and once they get started they are certainly diligent. But like all of us there are times when they are not diligent unless reminded and asked frequently. Which is why we held the branch employment specialist training meeting today. We have not been getting reports from any of the branches or districts. It appears that this has been the case for many months and no one has reminded them or asked for the reports. So they just stopped giving them – if they ever did give them. Now I have to be Tekun in asking the country director for them each month. I will start reminding him on the 25th and hopefully by the 5th we will have at least some from this District.

A long day but good day of meetings. After a normal morning – including reading Kitab Mormon – we went to the Harris Hotel and had breakfast with Elder Kane with Sister Kane joining us later. Sister Kane says we all eat too much – she is probably correct. We then all went to Zone Conference. Sister Jensen gave a great talk about our appearance as missionaries – how we were representatives of the Lord and should look it. She took as an example a very bad looking hymn book and said that does not represent the Lord’s church. That everything in the Lord’s church is done right and looks good.

Although there were a number of very useful points discussed in the Zone conference, it really is more for the young elders and sisters than for the couples. After that I had a meeting with the branch Employment Specialist. I was pleasantly surprised to find that 7 of the 8 made it to the meeting. Lukito went through their responsibilities and I finished up with a short talk – luckily most seemed to know English – about how they had important callings and the most important part of it was to provide the names of who needed jobs and any jobs that came up in their branches.

The next meeting of the day was District PH Leadership meeting – the first meeting of the District Conference. It was good. I especially enjoyed the talk of Elder Jackson a area 70 from India. He gave an excellent talk for PH Leadership that went through the leadership and explained their responsibilities. He also took them through the quarterly report that does not seem to get turned in by the branches so it would seem that it is made up at either the district or country level. It must be like the reports we are supposed to be getting but may never have been ever turned in.

The surprise of the meeting was that I was recruited to sing with the Jakarta Raya PH choir. I did not get any practice with them, in fact I did not even know they were going to sing. But Hendra said that I was part of the branch so I was invited to sing. I carefully put myself as far back as I could so it would not be so obvious that I could not follow all the tune. The first song was fairly slow so I did fine with it – in fact the whole choir did. However the closing hymn was much faster and I dropped out a number of times. But I was not the only one…the choir in general dropped off in quality. I am just happy that the branch sees me as part of them. I have passed sacrament, been to a service project, and now have sang in their choir. Hopefully as the months pass I will draw even closer to them.

The evening meeting was the first general meeting for District Conference. The best part of it was the choir from Bandung led by Elder VanDongen. They were at least 50 strong – which means 90% of the active members were in it – and the sisters were all wearing bright red jackets and the men had bright red ties. When the VanDongens went to Bandung there was no choir and about 25 people came out to church. So their work was quite evident. It is the kind of work that only couples can do so that is why it is so important that couples who are financially and physically able need to plan to go on missions while they can. I turned off the flash and took pictures of the choir singing. When I showed them to elder VanDongen he was thrilled. I promised to send them to him via e-mail.
While we were in PH meeting the sisters had a RS meeting so they did not get to go shopping as they had hoped. The couples are requested to go to all the meetings and now I am glad I did. One thing I did was to take off the headphones – they translate into either English or Indonesian depending on who is speaking – and just listen to the Indonesian speakers. I need to get use to hearing the speakers so I can pick out words.

After all the meetings the senior couples went out to eat at a Chinese restaurant that has been recommended by both Rudy and Subandriyo. Sam dropped us off and made sure we had a place to sit before leaving. I gave him enough to have a very good dinner somewhere. When we opened the menu we found that it was all in Indonesian and for the most part we had no idea what it said. Much to our relief the Chinese family sharing the table with us – it was a row of connected tables with people just sitting in groups along them – spoke perfect English and was more than willing to explain the menu for us. Mary I ended up choosing the dishes – we were closest to them – and luckily everything turned out great. The total cost of the meal with tip was only about $25 for 6 people. The Chinese family explained that the food and restaurant was traditional Chinese – so traditional that none of the staff spoke enough English to help us with the menu.

So we ended the night having a good meal and good company. We took the Petersons back to their home – they had let their driver go home – and then the Kanes at the Harris Hotel. By the time we got home it was 9:30 – 13 hours after we had left.

13 April 2007 – Friday

Well we made it through the day without any problems – at least not so far.

We were up and out a little early today because we went with the elders and sisters from the zone to see Taman Mini which is rather like the Polynesian Visitor Center. The difference is that while they have representative buildings from all parts of Indonesia, there is not the people in native dress to tell you about the people and culture. We were going to go in the bus with the missionaries, but Sam told us that it was very big and if we did not take the car we would have to walk everywhere. So it would be hot and sweaty and we would have no way to get home except with them. President Jensen said about the same thing so we decided to take the car.

Since the Petersons thought we were going in the bus they had told their driver to take the day off. When we told them about our decision we suggested they ride with us. So Sam drove their car – it is bigger – and off we went.

It is really an amazing place but it is much too big to see in the few hours we had. So we saw a couple of things, watched an I-Max movie on Indonesia, and had a large boa constrictor wrapped around out bodies. The trip was made better by having the Petersons and the Kanes with us. Hopefully we will have some time to sit down with the Kanes and have a good talk. I mentioned having dinner with them tomorrow night.

We took the Petersons back to the mission home and picked up our car. I had a nice talk with brother Tandiman about PEF and found that we could get a set of coupons from Hendra to send to the ‘lost sheep.’ We will send them reminders and try to contact them each month by phone or have the couples drop by.  Nothing new on the financial problem and we are stuck until that is fixed. On the positive side brother Tamdiman said that now that we have the whole thing on a DVD in Indonesian the Planning for Success workbook should not take long to finish.

We then went to the office to do a couple of things that could only be done there. I printed some things we need for the training meeting tomorrow and Mary made an announcement for the CW to be held in Samerang next weekend. The Bennetts had called and asked for something they could hand out on Sunday. They think they will have about 30 people there. That would be wonderful but it also means we need to take lot more workbooks and registration forms with us.

I forgot to mention that earlier Sister Jensen said the Bennetts are doing great. The elder report that they walk down the street and talk to everyone and tell them about the church. The elders just follow along behind and get names and addresses. I would guess the Roberts are going to be about the same kind of missionaries. There is a reason that they were sent to the area that is going to be the first stake in Indonesia.

We came home and ordered pizza – our traditional weekend treat.

I forgot to write on Tuesday that we had a great missionary experience. We were sitting in the office when the phone rang and the person answering tried to talk to me. I realized he did not have enough English and I certainly did not have enough Indonesian so I got Sam. It turned out he had just moved here from Surabaya. He had been taught there but when he said he wanted to be baptized he had some problems with friends and family. When he got to Jakarta he somehow got our number and called to say he wanted to get baptized. Sam got all his information and called the office elders to tell them to contact him. When we checked on Thursday the elders said it looked like he would be baptized. That is truly a golden contact.

12 April 2007 – Thursday

Jadi – Jah-dee – One of those great words in Indonesian that means: going to, will, would occur, ready, born, ready-made, confirmed, agreed, OK, to become, and to be. There are also a dozen derivations like menjadi, terjadi, etc. Usually we start with ‘to be” and work our way through the rest.

Woke at just after 5 and studied from Gospel Principles. A quote by president MacKay stopped me cold because it included a list. Lists in general are a killer because they contain words that are not in general use when speaking to others. Most of the time when we come across them in Kitab Mormon we work on a couple of the words and then just read the rest from the English version. Normal morning – 2 more pages from Kitab Mormon.

At the office I spent most of my time working on English class. Mary continues to gather stories that the couples can use in their English classes. Sam surprised me by bring in a traditional meal that he bought off the street. I asked him if it would make me sick and he answered “I don’t know.” I was pretty sure he would not take any chances with what he fed me so I happily ate it. It was much better than the devil egg sandwich that Mary fixed this morning would have been. He included some thing that I assumed was fried tofu but he said it was peanuts. It was tasty – maybe a tad hot but I am getting use to hotter food.

After the office hours we came back to the apartment and enjoyed a short nap before getting back in the car and heading for Tangerang. The traffic at first was terrible and we thought we would not make it in time, but Sam took the alternate route and we sailed in with 10 minutes to spare.

District meeting was normal. They still are not having much success in getting investigators to come to church so they do not have any progressives. However they are teaching more so that is good. We talked about referrals and they continue to come up with reasons why they do not get any. I pointed out that of all the things that the leaders put in at the end of TMG as what a missionary needed to do. The only one that they made bold was “everyone’ when it was talking about who to ask for them. Elder Thiemann gave a lesson on The Book of Mormon and I pointed out that they needed to be sure that they had a spiritual testimony about the Book of Mormon or they will not be able to testify to others about it’s truthfulness.

English class went alright but I still do not feel that we are accomplishing much. I am starting to get so that the children trust me and so some of them are actually volunteering to do some things. Hopefully it will reach a point where they look forward to coming and participating. The small group things works well but we really needed some parents in the class to watch the smallest children.

The trip home went quickly – I ate half of my egg sandwich. We got home in time to watch the last 45 minutes of ‘Without a Trace.” Soon after it was over we headed for bed. Even though we were not able to help any one with work, it was a good day.

11 April 2007 – Wednesday

Mempersiapkan. Mum-purr-see-op-can – To prepare. The Lord giveth no commandments to the children of men unless He mempersiapkan a way…etc.

I woke about 4 and could not go back to sleep because I started to think about the English class I need to develop between now and May 15. I will probably be spending much of the next month working on this. Today I have to develop a way to select the first four participants to the pilot program. Elder Subandriyo wants it to be a competition. I need to figure out how they will be selected. My first thoughts are to have them write in English a page saying why they think they should be chosen, what they want to learn, why they want to learn English, and what will they do with this knowledge if they are chosen. They will also include a resume in English and a letter of recommendation from their branch president (not in English) including if they hold or are worthy to hold a temple recommend.

If this program works or maybe better to say when we get this program to work, it will have the potential to change the lives of many of the saints and the Church in Indonesia forever. Perhaps it is the main reason we were sent here. All I really know is that the idea for the program came through inspiration starting with a short story that Elder Subandriyo told me soon after we got here. By small things….

Once I decided to get up I spent an hour reading from the Kitab Mormon. Not to actually read it but to see how much I could read and then to check it against the English. I enjoy doing this but it is also at times frustrating that I can not remember simple words that I have seen and read a dozen times. But each day it seems I gain a little knowledge so will keep trying and praying with the knowledge that it will come.

For breakfast I had papaya and pineapple, The pineapple from Bandung was as good as advertised. Very sweet and delicious – the papaya was a good supplement. Big papayas – that is about 2 – 3 pounds sell for under $1.

We read almost two and a half pages from the Kitab Mormon in our hour this morning – that is a 25% increase in our reading. Either we are getting better or the words were easier today.

I did very little in the way of ERS today, but I certainly kept busy. First I created an outline for applicants to the Intensive English class that I have approval to do a pilot for. We are going to select four to six of the best applicants from the Jakarta District, To even be considered they have to provide a number of things that will probably weed out the ones who are interested but not committed.

Then I revised the proposal for the class so that it fit closer to what we now envision. I sent both to Elder Subandriyo for his approval. He made a couple of suggestions and also a decision but mainly he left it alone. In his return letter he mentioned he sent a copy to the new mission president so he is going to know us before he ever gets here.

This is a major undertaking and if I did not know it was originally inspired by the Lord, I would be very worried. But since I know that if it is successful it will fill a big need not only here but perhaps around the world, I am going to do my best and trust the Lord to guide and help us.

I sent e-mail to a number of people today – some of it related to the mission and one to bishop Pletsch telling him to send out some more couples. We also received a letter from sister Amber Tippetts – our teacher at the MTC – in Indonesian so we would have a chance to practice. I could read it without looking up any words. I think she kept it simple so we could feel good. All in all it was a good day at the office.

We were home quite early so we spent a lot of time reading church magazines, studying Indonesian, napping, and then we watched the Saturday afternoon session of conference. Finally we read another hour from Kitab Mormon. I keep hoping that the sheer volume of reading and studying will somehow make the words sink into my brain.

Belum – Ba-loom – Not yet. I think I mentioned before that this is a favorite word here in Indonesia. It is used in place of No because it gives the questioner hope that it will someday be done. The Indonesian never like to say no – it is not polite.

10 April 2007 – Tuesday

Normal morning – I have been having papaya for breakfast. I do not know why I stopped buying them. I really do like them and the price is ridiculously low. So it is papaya, fresh orange juice, and a piece of chocolate cake. I am not sure that is the breakfast of champions but it works for me.

We continue to read in Mosiah in the Kitab Mormon. King Benjamin’s talk still ranks among my favorite sections of the KM. It does lose something in translation into Indonesian but I would guess that if I had learned it in Indonesian I would say the same thing about the English version.

Regular hours at the office. I found a huge amount of information on universities in Indonesia on the web. More than I could absorb and made worse because most of it is in Indonesian. I think I am going to have to find someone to help with the gathering of resources. Sam wanted to work on his resume so I went into another room and read more from KM until it was time to leave.

We went to the mission home and picked up a letter from Olivia – a lovely picture and some of her Dora stickers. These are the stickers that Kristy bought for her and are featured on Olivia’s blog. Olivia seems to have her mother’s talent for art.

I talked to Elder Subandriyo about the English class. He is going to go through with it – now all I need to do is come up with how we are going to choose the students for the pilot class starting about the 15th of May, come up with a curriculum, a place to have it and who will teach it. A piece of cake. Actually I am going to get Sister VanDongen to help as much as I can. She taught English so I would guess that she can be a lot of help. It is both exciting and scary to be involved in this. I know the Lord has inspired me to come up with the program and I will ask for His help in making it a success. Once the pilot is done we will have to see how we can make it work for a larger group on at least a quarterly basis or as needed.

While at the office one of the workers – I am sorry to say I do not know his name – gave me his son’s resume. He mentioned he graduated from Hotel school and I told him that Novotel in Bogor was looking for some help. I suggested he see Elder Kane and get the information I had sent to him last week. Hopefully he can get an interview there. If not I will see if I can get him an interview with the Marriott chain. It is nice to be able to help when someone is actively looking for a job. Hopefully we will have some success so that people will start to feel that coming to us for help is worthwhile.

After the mission home, we went on a two hour shopping spree. First to SoGo where we got the more expensive things and of course stopped at Breadtalk for some goodies. Mary was thrilled because they had fresh Rye bread. While we were there I went up and got some cash from the ATM – we are going through it quite rapidly this month and it is not going to get better next month.

Our next stop was Carrefour where we stocked up on office supplies, food and I bought three white shirts. I have been going through shirts faster than I have been going through toothpaste. I just can not keep from ruining white shirts. Lucky for me that they cost from $4 to $6 dollars here. They are not great shirts but they will do for the mission. I figure if I go through 1 shirt a week, I will only end up spending $200 or shirts over my mission. Hopefully it will not be that bad. So far in 4 months I have managed to ruin 4 or 5 shirts.

We then went upstairs and Mary bought more office supplies. As we were checking out we noticed a sign advertising the new Harry Potter book – they are taking advance orders at $33 per copy. I am not sure if that is in English or Indonesian. Even at that price it is probably cheaper than having someone send a copy from the US.

A quiet evening with me mainly writing in this journal and looking up some things for Elder Subandriyo. Mary paid some of our bills – it costs us about $200 a month for utilities. We read for another hour from Kitab Mormon. Mary thinks that it will take us about 3 months more to finish it for the first time. The second time should not take as long.

06 April 2007 – Friday

It is good Friday and that means everyone in Indonesia has a holiday – there seems to be one of those about three times a month which makes for short work weeks for those who are employed at the mission home.

Regular morning – they go by so quickly that I often can not figure what I did for the four hours before we leave for the office. Of course today there is no office. Instead we head for Jakarta Raya and the district meeting.

As we are driving the rain starts. This makes 8 out of the last 9 days that it has poured rain for an hour or more. Since it is a holiday it does not tie up traffic as it usually does, but there are streets that start to flood after only a few minutes. The motorcycle traffic is of course really punished by the rain. Many of them just pull over under any overhang they can find. Underpasses are a favorite with long lines of them waiting for the rain to stop or as their riders put on their rain gear. A few have no rain gear and must get somewhere so they just get soaked. Since it rains here about 6 months of the year – really hard for three – they are quite use to it. But that does not make it any less uncomfortable.

Raya district meeting went well. Elder Cheney gave the lesson and he seems to be struggling a little more with the language than most of the missionaries who have come since we have been here. But he is trying hard and is very humble so I am sure he will soon pick it up. The district is doing well and have a number of progressive investigators which is good.

After the meeting we drove through the rain to the mission home. Stopping first at BYU to pick up lunch. I must be getting use to the spicier food because I enjoyed every bite of potato which is the spiciest of the vegetables. I am not ready for Padang – which is very hot and Sam says he will be surprised if I ever get to like it – but at least my mouth does not melt when I eat off the street.

We went to the mission home because Mary had a date to go material shopping with Sister Peterson and Sister Jensen. Since they took Sam and our car so I was stuck at the office. I studied Indonesian for an hour and then got a taxi to take me back to the apartment. He took an unusual way home but it did not cost much more than the way I know so I guess he was not taking me for a ride. I might have had a more circular drive except I mentioned that this was a ‘Cara baru’ – a new way for me and I think he understood I knew he was going the long way. We only take BlueBird taxis because they have a good reputation and the drivers do not want to be turned in for gouging a customer.

At home I listened to some of conference and then took a nap. Mary got home about 4:30 with a load of beautiful material. The expensive goods are $7 a yard but most of it is around $2. She bought enough for a number of dresses, skirts and blouses. The seamstress will come to the office to take her measurements and then sew the clothing. They say she is very good and very inexpensive. So I would guess she will end up with two custom made dresses and 4 blouse and skirt sets for under $130.

We ordered in Pizza for dinner. That is our usual Friday night meal and gives me breakfast and lunch tomorrow. This time they really did put extra cheese on my pizza so it was very good.

We are about to start reading the Kitab Mormon for the second time today. That will make about three hours for me today – I think it really helps but I still am not remembering as many words as I should. But progress is being made so I am learning patience – also faith and humility. All attributes I need to work on.

The hour goes by quickly – well it does when we are able to translate well and very slowly when we get hung up somewhere. Luckily for us we get hung up much less now than when we started. Tonight there was just one verse – a long one in Mosiah 1 – that we just never got. But others we could basically read straight through.

It is strange how some words will not stick in either of our minds – instead of the usual ‘sesuai dengan,’ ‘masing-masing’ is used by the translators to mean ‘therefore’ which is not quite what we think it means so we seldom come up with the correct translation.

During the evening I have been recording music from the web…I do this mainly as a habit because I have little time to listen but perhaps I will buy a small mp3 player and transfer some of these to it so I can listen during the many hours of driving. Or perhaps it would be better for me to download conference or other talks and use them.

05 April 2007 – Thursday

I have slacked off again about writing in this journal. That is a shame because that means I have lost some of the thoughts that come to me and that some of the experiences of my mission are also lost.

Tuesday after our regular office hours, we went out to see Sister Pauline. She is the one who lives and has a business that is on the medium between two sides of a busy road. We went out just to keep in contact and to buy some fertilizer for our plants. She was there alone and we had a short meeting with her. We did not bring up anything about the church until a man came by and started asking about our badges. He said he was a Christian and would like to read the Book of Mormon. I just realized I messed up and did not get his name and address so the missionaries could take the book to him. However I did call Elder Thiemann and tell him that Sister Pauline needed a Book of Mormon to give him. Maybe by little steps we will be able to bring her back into activity.

Wednesday after the office we went out to see Rudy – the rich Chinese man who we met through the missionaries. He had called and asked if we could come by so he could give us the picture of Christ that he had promised. We had a nice visit and while we did not talk specifically about the church we talked about Easter, prayer, and spiritual experiences. I am hoping that as our friendship strengthens I can get him to read some of the Book of Mormon. But even if not it is nice to have another friend here in Indonesia.

There has still not been a single person come into the office for help in finding a job. However we have had some leaders ask for help for some of their people. I have used the last couple of days to work on different parts of my ERS calling. I feel this is a long process that may take most of our mission to set up. However I am hoping that by the time we leave, the process will be so ingrained that it will continue to work even if there is no ERS director here in Indonesia.

Wednesday I had Sam start calling the 14 lost sheep from the PEF. He got hold of about half of them and found that all had used the money to go to school but about half of them still do not have a job. I am going to have Sam call those and ask what type of job they would like and then have the District Specialists work with them. Once we figure out how they can make payments, I will have Sam call them each month and see if they have paid.

We decided to go to the CW at Samarang on the 21st. This way we can see the Barretts and perhaps they can take us around to see some schools that might be good for PEF applicants. I am somewhat torn about this because we are spending the Lord’s money to do something that may not be greatly beneficial to the work.

OK that is enough catching up – back to today.

I woke at 5 after almost 8 hours of sleep. I decided not to exercise, instead I studied from PMG. I read the chapter about how to study effectively. I decided I really needed to start using a Study Journal – something I have attempted to do a couple of times but failed. However since committing myself to “Be exactly obedient” – that is how PMG says it – I decided to try again.

Those three words are really tough ones. I rank them with ‘endure to the end’ and ‘Love the Lord thy God with all your ….’ and ‘let virtue garnish thy thought unceasingly.’ I see them as goals to work towards. Goals that will help lead to Eternal Life. So I am going to try to do what is asked with the knowledge that in doing that I am heading in the right direction.

I am excited about our progress in the language. Mary still is far further along in reading and knowing words but that is great. I find that I can read from the Kitab Mormon and pretty much know what is going on. Mary started listening to the latest conference in Indonesian and we were both happily surprised at how many words we can not hear. We still are not able to translate what is going on but at least the talks are more than just a jumble of sounds. I am sure as we continue to study, pray, and use the language, we will reach a point where we can communicate with the people. I am thankful to the Lord for all of His help and encouragement.

We read almost three pages from Kitab Mormon this morning. Mainly because Mary now knows so many words but that is OK. I am still learning more and more each day. We still stumble over tenses and sometimes who is speaking, but we are getting closer to understanding what is written. I am sure that in another couple of months, Mary will be able to just read what is there.

The rest of the day was a rather normal Thursday with the office, a trip to the mission home to pick up mail for the missionaries, a short stop at SoGo for necessities such as orange juice and goodies from BreadTalk.

Cindy asked us in a recent e-mail to describe BreadTalk and it is not easy to do. The best way to describe it is to have you imagine the back room of a bakery with about a dozen busy bakers working. Now move that room – with it’s ovens – to the middle of a supermarket and make one wall glass so you can stand there and see everything being made.

As soon as a product is finished baking, cooling and being stuffed or decorated or dipped or whatever, it is brought out of the room and put on shelves to be sold. Only the sliced bread is wrapped – everything else is just sat out on trays on shelves where the customer can come along and pick it up – hopefully using the supplied tongs and not their fingers – put them on a tray and then takes their selection to the cashier.

Yesterday when we went there, it was packed with local women – upscaled women because SoGo is that kind of market – filling up trays with goodies. We have never seen so many customers there at one time. It was almost like they all arrived on a bus just to shop at BreadTalk.

They do not make donuts – there is a Krispy Kreme for that – and they do not seem to do some of the breads all the time. Mary has fallen in love with their rye bread and was disappointed that there was not any available. We both like their baguettes of French bread which we often bring home and eat with butter or peanut butter for dinner.

So that is BreadTalk. I do not think it would not work in the US because that many bakers making small batches of thirty or forty items would be much too expensive. Also you could not put all the open bakery goods out in the open on shelves – you would either have to put them in a case with doors or wrap them.

After the store we headed to Tangerang for district meeting and English classes. I gave the spiritual thought in district meeting. I talked about a suggestion in PMG that I mention above – ‘Be exactly obedient’ and my thoughts about it. How for me it is a goal to strive for and the closer we come to doing that, the more the Lord will be able to guide and bless us.

I do not feel that my English class was as good as it could have been. But I did find something new that I am excited about. I decided to print the first Article of Faith on the board and have them say it a number of times. I tied it in with the Indonesian version that all the older Primary children should know. I think I will do this each week – working on one article each month.

The trip home was a little long but I could not go to sleep. It is a shame I can not sleep or study more in the car because we spend so much time there. I keep thinking that I should take a pillow with me but I have not done that yet.

02 April 2007 – Monday

“These things aught not to be.” Elder Holland on how we talk to our spouses and it hits me right in the chest. How often I have said things I should not. This is another Christ like attribute I really need to work on. I am sure that this is the main message from a prophet for me in this conference. I hope that all of my children hear this talk and learn faster than I have…losing this vice is more important than losing weight and much harder.

“Nothing in this world is so bad that whining will not make it worse.” A Hollandism. Great talk even if it did hurt to listen to parts of it.

It is P-day – the first one we have had for a while. We spent the morning listening to Sunday morning conference on the web. We then read from the Kitab Mormon. The maid came and did her quiet clean-up while we continued to do our thing. Today I finished the laundry – three full loads over the last couple of days. Mary cleaned out the refrigerator.

We tried to Skype with Tom but there was some problem with a new version that he downloaded. Shauna later sent us a nice e-mail. None of the other family seemed to be on the net Sunday evening. Maybe next Monday-Sunday. We did get some great e-mail from friends in the ward and others. Lynn Wardle is watching over our yard – at least he is looking at the yard. The other day Bob said he would go down and make sure the sprinklers were all working. We usually lose one or two heads over the winter – especially along the driveway.

At about 1, Sam came and picked us up. We went to the mission home where we were able to take care of most of the things we went for. Then it was to SoGo for our shopping. After getting cash from the ATM, we went to the bookstore has a large stock of books in English. The problem is that they are all expensive – paperbacks are from $11 to $20. I think I will for books for my birthday. At the grocery store, I was able to buy a Kedong-dong – I will try it tonight or tomorrow. We bought way too many goodies at BreadTalk – unfortunately I am sure that the BreadTalk idea would not fly in the US because the cost of help would be too much.  Our last stop was the postoffice so Mary could send off some letter home. We all dipped our fingers in the glue to help put on the postage. Back home by about 3. Since then I have been studying Indonesian, listening to more conference talks and watching a little TV.

I am trying a new approach to learning Indonesian. I am choosing English words and learning the different Indonesian words with the same meaning. I am going to try to learn words that I can use in everyday sentences. Something that is not always true of the words we learn from the Kitab Mormon. I do not think I am going to use prune, digged and dunged all that much. Or for that matter ‘master of the vineyard’ and ‘natural olive tree.’

I was very impressed by Neil Anderson’s talk – ‘Its true, isn’t it? – Then what else matters.’ (It spoke to me in a different way than Elder Hollands.) ‘We simplify and purify our perspective.’(It reminds me how hard it is to choose between goods. I must make sure I am choosing what the Lord wants and not what I want – even if what I want may be good.) ‘A time and a season.’ ‘I am sorry Nannie. I lost my CTR ring and can not choose the right.’

1 April 2007 – Sunday

A rather laid back Sunday for us – at least after noon. In the morning I was looking for when the conference broadcasts would be available on lds.org and found that BYU was broadcasting them live. When I checked there I found that they archive their TV broadcasts and we could watch and listen to Saturday’s conferences on demand. So before we had to leave, we watched the first 45 minutes of Saturday afternoon’s conference. I sat Total Recorder to capture the audio portion while we were gone.

President Jensen – i.e. Sinambela – was asked to be the guest preacher at the Huria Kristen Batak Protestan Geraja. This is a very large, very famous Christian church in Jakarta. The members are mostly from Sumatra or at least their roots are there and is supported by the Sinambela family who adopted president and sister Jensen soon after we arrived here. It is a great honor for him to be allowed to address the congregation. The choir from the Selatan native branch was asked to sing.

Sam picked us up at about 7:15 and we went to the church so we could caravan to the church. We took 5 of the sisters with us. As usual we – that is the Jensens, Petersens and Piers – were asked to sit in a special area near the front. The services were very interesting and they had a wonderful spirit. They alternate spoken text and music – and collections. There was four choir numbers – the best was a group of young adults that were dressed quite casually and sang in English. There were not a lot of them but they had wonderful voices and sang with great volume. Our choir was OK but you could tell they were not gifted singers.

Once we figured out how to read the program, we were able to sing along with the congregation for most of the songs. The songs are in a book that includes the words – it was not until the last song was over that I figured out that the numbers and symbols above the text told how the notes were to be sung – at least the beat per syllable.

President gave his talk in Indonesian without reading anything except the scriptures. I think he did a good job but I am not sure because I was reading from the bible in Indonesian. Mary later said that she could follow him for most of what he said.

After he spoke there was a baptismal ceremony for three children – two infants and one boy about 1 to 2. It is a simple ceremony with the parents answering questions from the priest. Then the priests dips his hand in the water and wipes the head three times for the Father, Son and Holy Ghost – then he lays his hands on their head and I imagine confirms them as members of Christ’s Church.

That ended the services and everyone went through a line to congratulate the parents of the newly baptized children. After that we went up to a room where there was a traditional Batak ceremony where each of the children received a small piece of pork – from a whole pig on a platter. This was after all the families had said something in Batak that sounded ritualistic. Then food was served .

We then went back to our chapel where I met with president Weaver of the English branch for a few minutes. I asked him about how I could get to meet the HR people from the companies the ex-pats work for. I want to know how to find out about jobs that might be available for our members and what were the best schools for young people to go to. He suggested that we have a luncheon so we could talk to them all. Hopefully this will open a few more doors of opportunity for us.

The Weavers have been here over 5 years and so must leave. They are being re-assigned to Africa. The children are excited because they do not want to go back to the US. They have never really lived there and so there is no attachment. They live in big homes in guarded communities, go to very good private schools, and associate with other children with the same privileges. It will be interesting to see if they ever consider themselves Americans or will spend their lives as ex-pats themselves.

We got home just before noon and listened to the other half of Saturday afternoon conference. I tried to record the morning session, but the connection was so poor that I gave up. Hopefully I can record it some other time when the traffic is not so busy – maybe tonight while we are asleep. We read from the Kitab Mormon – we are working our way through the Parable of the olive trees. It is just as confusing in Indonesian as it is in English. At least we have learned prune, digged, cut off, and throw into the fire…not to mention nethermost

Mary fixed omelets for dinner – the first evening meal we have actually prepared at home for a week or so. It was very good.

No April Fools day here in Indonesia. I imagine there will be some on the music boards tomorrow – or tonight in our case.