17 – 18 February 2007 – Saturday and Sunday

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

16 February 2007 – Friday

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

15 February 2007 – Thursday

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

14 February 2007 – Wednesday – Valentine Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

13 February 2007 – Tuesday

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

12 February 2007 – Monday

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

11 February 2007 – Sunday

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

10 February 2007 – Saturday

A full day off before us – it should be interesting. I woke at about 5:45 and decided I really did not want to go to the gym. I know that it is not the right attitude to take about exercise but it is how I have been feeling. I say to myself that I will go later in the day – but later never comes.

Not only did I not feel like exercising but after being up only a short time I wanted to go back to bed and sleep some more. I think that comes from not exercising. I did get up and make a word list that I am determined to learn today. One of the sisters at the mission home told Elder Cheney – one of the new missionaries – that he needed to learn 10 new words each day. I think Elder Cheney is the type of missionary who will have no trouble doing that. I would be happy to really learn 5 new words a day.

There are things we need to do today. We need to go through our piles of receipts and put them into personal and those that should be reimbursed by the mission. I then need to learn how to fill out an expense sheet so that I can get reimbursed. Also we need to pay some bills. President Jensen said they would like us to pay off our lease in 13 months instead of 16 so we are going to pay 10 million a month instead of 8.25 million. I am not sure why that is but it does mean the last three months we will not have much in the way of expenses.

It was a strange day – it never felt quite right. We spent a lot of time during the day studying Indonesian, paid some bills, and got a few other things done, but we never really did anything that was really missionary work. I do not plan to have this kind of Saturday again. In the future I think we will at least take a cab to the office and be available just in case someone drops in for help. We could also work on our English lessons.

The problem is that at the apartment it is too easy to turn on the TV or get on the computer. I know that we should have better discipline and as our mission goes on I imagine we will but all in all I think it would be better to go into the office on the Saturdays we are not traveling.

Olivia’s blog is great – it becomes a living scrapbook. From what I saw there, I think she learned to clean her room from one of her relatives.

09 February 2007 – Friday

Our first really peaceful day in a couple of weeks. I slept in again until 6:30 and so no gym. That is 7 hours of good sleep and I think I needed it. About 7:00 I was at the computer when a call came through from the Mitchells and of course while we were talking to them, Bob called. It is great to see and kind of talk to our family. We must however be careful not to let our Skyping them turn our minds away from why we are in Indonesia. I do not think that will happen because even with some stressful moments we are truly enjoying serving here.

We spent 45 minutes reading from Kitab Mormon. Each day we seem to be able to understand more and more. I also think my ability to read the Indonesian out loud is improving. After companion study I did some more personal study on Patience and Charity.

Sam came for us at about 10:30 and we went over to the mission home. One thing about our call is that, other than those missionaries who live there, we get to the mission home more often than any other couple. This gives us a chance to meet with all the wonderful Indonesian people who work there and of course with the A.P.s and the office missionaries.

Today we were there for the Jakarta, Raya district meeting and for Mary to meet with Sister Jensen and the district music committee. We also were able to make sure that Cliff Rees did get paid today.

The district meeting went well. If we are there, Jakarta, Raya usually conducts their meeting in English. One of the Indonesian missionaries does not have very good English but they translate for him. I gave the spiritual thought – I told how I was studying the lesson on obtaining Christ like attributes and that I discovered that I could not just have one of them. That to have any one of the attributes I needed to develop all of them.

Elder Decker gave a short lesson on how to ask good questions when teaching the gospel. I pointed out that while it is important to follow the directions in TMG that the first three lessons should be taught in order, that the missionary must be also open to changing the order if moved by the spirit. Elder Decker read a section from PMG that said exactly that. I also mentioned that we must have the spirit to truly teach the Gospel – that when we do not have the spirit we become Gospel salesmen and not missionaries.

While we were there I met with President Jensen and asked him for some help in how I could help the Tangerang district to stop being negative. He shared some thoughts from TMG and said that he was going to talk about that in the next Zone Conference. I asked if it would be OK for me to go out with the missionaries and actually experience what they experience on the street. He said that would be fine and that since he was president, that I was the first senior couple to ask to do that. I am sure that some senior couples are already doing that in other areas – he just has not heard about it. However maybe I will be the first in Jakarta to spend some time riding the buses with them. I do not plan to spend a full day – just two or three hours to get the flavor of what they do each day.

Later he asked us both to come in and talked to us about inspecting one of the Tangerang missionary residences. He wanted us to make sure that some modifications that were supposed to be done by the owner had been done. We mentioned that we would be going out on Monday and would not only check but bring back pictures so he can see for himself.

For lunch I had Sam walk down to BYU and got lunch for us. It is only the second time we have eaten off the street but I think that as we find more places that are safe to eat that we will do it more often. Total cost of two very filling meals – neither of us could eat all of our food – was a total of 70 cents.

While Mary met with the music committee I tried to study, but I kept falling asleep. Since it pretty much out in public I felt strange so I got up and walked around. I can not understand how I can be sleepy so soon after sleeping for 7 hours.

We went to the University to teach English but they did not know we were coming. I think that many of the staff was still trying to clean up from the flood – the elevators were all under repair – and so there were not enough people there for classes. David – the manager was there and said that there would be one next week. I told him that it was good of the University to provide shelter for the flood victims and he in turn thanked us for providing some meals. I told him that it was really Elder Subandriyo and President Jensen he should thank.

With the cancellation of the class, there was little to do but come back to the apartment. On the way into the apartments, I picked up a free copy of a new English newspaper that seems to have started up. In it was an account of the finding yesterday of a body of a murdered woman among the trash under a bridge. It was almost across from our office in the Selatan chapel and we had seen the crowd gathered around the body on our way in. Mary did not actually see the body, but I did. At the time I supposed that she had died from the stress of the flood. Other than when Dona died it is the only recently dead body I have seen. I am pretty sure it is the only murder victim that I have seen. There are few reported murders in the papers. I do not know if that means there are few murders or that they are so numerous that unless something is unusual about the murder they are not news.

It was strange to be home so early. I took a nap – not a very restful one. By the time I got up it was time for dinner. Mary fixed omelets – about the only meal we actually cook it seems – while I heated up some rolls that sister Leishman left in the freezer. She makes great rolls. After dinner I washed the dishes that had accumulated.

The rest of the night I tried to work on Indonesian and PMG – I can not say that I learned a lot but I did try to not just sit around all night. I think the hardest part of our mission will be times like this when we have hours to fill – we must learn to fill them with activities that causes us to grow and become better missionaries. It is too easy to fill them with watching TV or being on the computer. At least it is too easy for me. In PMG it says that what we do when we are alone tells us what kind of person we are. I think that it could be modified to what we do with our spare time tells us what kind of a missionary we are. I think I would give myself a B for tonight.

08 February 2007 – Thursday

I guess it was too much to expect two normal days in a row. The alarm went off at 5:30 and I turned it off and rolled over for another hour’s sleep. When I finally got up I had no desire at all to go to the gym. Actually all I could think of was how much the area around my mouth hurt. It seems that I must have gotten the juice from some of the chilies I was cutting on my hands and then I wiped my mouth. Yesterday it was just starting to blister but this morning it is really bad. Thankfully it looks worse than it feels but it is definitely not a fun thing. I will have Mary take a picture so we can send it to our kids.

I was just getting going when my cell rang and it was Elder Subandriyo asking me to write another article about the kitchen and include some pictures. So I spent well over an hour on that. This meant I had no time for reading Kitab Mormon. I think the article is pretty good but doubt if it will get printed the way it is written.

Why I say that is because when we got into the office, there was an e-mail directing us to an article on LDS.org that is a well edited version of what I had written on Monday. It does include all of my pictures. No byline of course but it was nice to see my story out there for everyone to read.

We spent the morning catching up on e-mail and getting ready for our English classes tonight. We made a list of things that we need to get accomplished at Sinopati. What I thought was interesting was that after I decided to work on learning patience, almost everything we need to do is to find out why something is not done when or how it should.

I got a call from someone at the Toyota dealership saying the reason I do not have my license is because the police station that is supposed to be processing it was flooded and no one was working there. Who knows when that will get straightened out. I am sure that $20 in the right hands would do wonders in getting it done.  But I am going to be patient – or at least try to be.

I did forget one thing that happened before we left the apartment. I was at the computer and a Skype call came through from the Mitchells. I tried to answer it but I could not hear anything. I tried everything I could think of and then I remembered that I had put the sound on mute last night – by the time I had things worked out it was too late to get back to them. I was bummed.

About noon we left for Sinopati and of course when we got there everyone was out for lunch. Eventually most people showed up but it turned out very few things got done. Another chance to practice patience.

To make a long day short, we went to Tangeran’s district meeting. They have a difficult area and usually have a lot of reasons why the work is not going well. We are trying to get them to come up with new ideas on how to get things moving. I am thinking that the President take the missionaries out of the area for a couple of months so the members realize that they need to support them. As we were sitting there I wondered if we need to spend some of our time going around with them – at least we could visit members.

We started English class right at 6:00 and other than the 6 elders we only had 2 people there. But I am determined that the classes will not wait until people get there. Actually my class did have to wait because there were no children there at all. At 6:10 three came and then at about 6:25 Agus’ family came. We learned about colors and time. I do not think it was great but the children seem to have had a good time.

The trip home went faster than I expected – the traffic is back to normal and that means slow. But Sam took some back streets and got around the main jams.

The good news of the day is that the apartment seems to have closed today. That means Mike no longer has to keep hounding the renters for money. Now if we can get Herb Bergman to put in the furnace, things will be much better.

I am feeling my age tonight – I do not know if it is because it has been a long and busy day or if the rash on my lips is starting to bug me – or perhaps both. Anyway I look forward to crawling into bed and getting some sleep.

Patience Elder Pier – Patience.