{"id":1405,"date":"2008-06-24T07:02:01","date_gmt":"2008-06-24T14:02:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pierfamily.com\/wordpress\/2008\/06\/24\/23-june-2008\/"},"modified":"2019-08-21T14:54:39","modified_gmt":"2019-08-21T21:54:39","slug":"23-june-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.pierfamily.com\/wordpress\/2008\/06\/24\/23-june-2008\/","title":{"rendered":"23 June 2008"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00c2\u00a0\"casaba-tree-blossoms-june-2008-close-up.JPG\"<\/a>\"pink-and-white-roses-june-2008.JPG\"<\/a>\"casaba-tree-blossoms-june-2008-long-view.JPG\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Some pictures from our yard – The Cabassa tree is in full bloom and so it is covered in white flowers. Unfortunately they will end up on the ground and have to be cleaned up, but the tree is still beautiful. These pink and white roses are in full bloom – they are probably my favorite among the roses.<\/p>\n

23 June 2008 – Monday<\/p>\n

Stupid, stupid, stupid !\u00c2\u00a0 I am talking to myself. On Saturday I did something that caused my left hip to start hurting. I decided I did too much work and my old body was complaining. It was not really bad and it only hurt when I moved wrong or too quickly. It did not really bother me on Sunday so this morning I decided as long as I was careful that it would be fine for me to do some light work in the yard.<\/p>\n

I went back up on the North hill and cleaned out a section that I wanted to cover with the new weed protection fabric. I think this is the third layer in this area but this time I am going to use rock instead of bark as the covering. I think this will make it much easier to keep down the weeds. Everything went well until I was finishing up and was moving some rocks back into place. I picked up the last and largest rock and as soon as I did I knew I had made a big mistake as pain shot through my left hip area.\u00c2\u00a0 So now I am taking Aleve, some muscle relaxant, and basically sitting around for the day. At least this gave me the time and desire to catch up and post this journal. \\<\/p>\n

After a very hot bath and some relaxing Mary and I went to Pier 49 for their all you can eat Monday lunch. It was very good and I ate much too much but decided I could drink one of my diet concoctions for dinner. When we were through, Mary dropped me off at the house and then went to meet with the Rebers so show them how to do a report and how to fill out a re-imbursement voucher. She did not need me there for that. She will make an appointment for Wednesday when I will go through the files with brother Reber about the projects Elder Subandriyo had asked us to work on.<\/p>\n

In regards to the programs, here is a letter from the Taylors telling about how Elder S spoke to the central youth about the new program for helping young people get into better schools and how well the young people are doing in the HS English class. It really makes me feel good when I read how programs we had a hand in starting are doing so well.<\/p>\n

Extract from Elder and Sister Taylor\u00c3\u00a2\u00c2\u20ac\u00c2\u2122s letter of June 23, 2008<\/p>\n

Friday we had to turn around and go back to Solo ( a 1 \u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00bd to 2 hr. drive) to take our high school English students to a fireside with Elder Subandriyo, our area authority.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 We didn\u00c3\u00a2\u00c2\u20ac\u00c2\u2122t find out about this and our assignment until very late on Wednesday night.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 We had to be gone all day Thursday so we had to give the kids the assignment and let them run with it.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 We were assigned to give some kind of musical number.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 They ended up singing \u00c3\u00a2\u00c2\u20ac\u00c2\u0153Teach Me to Walk in the Light.\u00c3\u00a2\u00c2\u20ac\u00c2\u009d\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 They sang the first verse and then each of them recited one of the first five Articles of Faith, then they sang the second verse and then recited the next five Articles of Faith, then sang the last verse (all in English of course).\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 Rian, one of the young men accompanied then on the piano.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 They did a fantastic job and\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 we were so proud of them.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 Rian also had to bear his testimony in English and Omni, our only girl, had to be the pianist for the whole program.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 We have more youth in our English program but only five of them could attend as some were still taking school exams.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 They had a fun time in the van laughing and singing.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 They were all worried\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 about having to recite the Articles of Faith so they were practicing all the way.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 We just love these kids like our own grandchildren.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 The whole fireside was in English.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 Elder Subandriyo gave a really motivating and interesting talk about the importance of education.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 He also announced a new and exciting program sponsored by the Returned Missionary Fund,\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 where they will give any student completing grades 9 and 12\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 with an average score of 8 points or above (B+average) one million rupiah ($100.00) to use for school fees or uniforms.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 Those finishing grade 6 with that same score will receive a half million.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 This program is to encourage the kids to study hard and get the most out of their education and also to build strong leaders for the future of the church in Indonesia .\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 This is a tremendous blessing to those who qualify as most of them come from very humble circumstances.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 Now the exciting part\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c3\u00a2\u00c2\u20ac\u00c2\u00a6grades came out yesterday and five out of seven possibles qualified for the million rupiah, including Ginsa, the young man who needs desperately to raise 2 more million.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 The fun thing was they all scored higher in English than they did in their Indonesia class. And Albert (see below) may qualify now\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 that he is a member, although he doesn\u00c3\u00a2\u00c2\u20ac\u00c2\u2122t know anything about the program yet..<\/em><\/p>\n

Now the frosting on the cake\u00c3\u00a2\u00c2\u20ac\u00c2\u00a6. Saturday we had the baptism of Margretta and today we had the baptism of Albert and Tasha, his mother.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 Both baptismal services turned out super.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 We also had the confirmation of the three of them today.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 There was really a wonderful spirit there.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 The branch really supported them.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 This is really getting the members excited about missionary work.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 It is a wonderful privilege to be a small part of this work.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 It is so rewarding to see people accept the gospel and change their lives.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 Today people were commenting on the actual physical change that has come over these three.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 The gospel of Jesus Christ is TRUE and we are so grateful to be able to share this message with the people here in Indonesia .<\/em><\/p>\n

After a nap, my back was much better. That is I could walk up and down the stairs with little pain. There is hope that by tomorrow I will be able to get in and out of the car without gritting my teeth.<\/p>\n

One of the things I did before throwing out my back was to look for the leak in my new\/old water feature that I got ready on Saturday. Of course it was almost at the very bottom. I wondered how to fix it when I remembered about Seam Grip which plugs all kinds of holes in inflatables. I found our supply but it had long ago dried up so I gritted my teeth and drove down to Out N Back to get some. Keith has done some good things and it looks like it is well stocked. Unfortunately there did not seem to be enough sales help for the number of customers. I almost started talking to some of the customers to see if I could help.<\/p>\n

I just was going through the pictures I took while at the MTC. It seems like that was a long time ago and not just 18 months. So much has happened since then and so many people have touched our lives. We really had no idea of what was ahead for us but the love and friendship that we felt in that small group of couples was great. I did not take enough pictures and I did not write down names – I will not make that mistake the next time.<\/p>\n

Even with my being stupid about my hip, it was a good day. It feels good to read the scriptures in Indonesian. Although my hip does hurt, I can still do many things and I am sure it will be better tomorrow. But the best part is the information from Indonesia that says a number of the programs we started are moving forward. The Lord has touched our lives today.<\/p>\n