Our First Week

We started the week out by going to church. We live in the New Tampa Ward. It seems to be a great ward. We introduced ourselves to the Bishop and he was so surprised. He had no idea that his ward was being assigned a missionaries couple. They were so excited his counselor said, "This is like manna from heaven." He gave us a list to work on. We have 3 sister missionaries in the ward. They are like balls of fire. They gave us some suggestions on who they wanted us to start visiting. We also have been working in the office. They really keep Dad going with the accounting. And they keep me busy with the little odd jobs that they don't have time to do. I have done everything. On Tuesday I was really tired when we left the office about 5 I told Ralph, "Lets pick up a hamburger on the way home" and we had one of those "tender mercies" again. Ralph forgot to turn on the street we were suppose to turn on. He said I will just turn on the next street and go home a different way. Which happened to go by our church. As we went down the road there were people waving signs which said "Free Barbeque" It was our missionaries and they were helping the YSA with a free barbeque. So we went in and had our dinner there. We worked again at the office on Wed and Thurs. Thurs we went to visit a sister from a part member family. It was a long ways away and she was not home, but her son was there. He gave us her number and Dad called and talked with her later. We will see if the visit motivated her to come to church on Sunday. The sisters came over one night and help Dad with the GPS. She loaded the addresses of all the in-actives and part member families into it for us. That sure saves a lot of time. On Friday we left the office in the afternoon to go visiting again. This is a hard job, but we will do it. However I had an eye opening experience. These are members of the church mostly in-actives. We knocked on a door and a man came to the door and he was stark naked. He said, "wait a minute, because all I have on is my short shorts." they were short of nothing. He closed the door and got dressed and came out to visit. I was shocked to say the least, but he came out and acted like it was just normal. I hope I don't run into that again. Sat. Morning we got up and took another missionary couple with us and went to the Temple. It is such a beautiful place . It was great to be able to go there. I am glad they will let us go over to Orlando for that. It took us a little over and hour to go there.

We have arrived!

We arrived in Tampa Florida on Wednesday. They took us to our apt about 8:00 PM. It had a mattress and box springs which we were grateful for. The frame is yet to come. It has sofa and love seat and a large tall coffee table. No food, dishes, pans etc. We went out for breakfast and to a grocery store. Spent a lot of money for food. It is hard to buy food that you have in food storage at home. Then they sent us from the mission office to buy other essentials. Like the dishes, pans, garbage cans etc. Now we can at least eat. We are in a very nice 2 bedroom apt in a gated community. It has a pool and a workout gym. They have assigned us to the New Tampa Ward. We will meet everyone on Sunday. At least we have church at 9:00 AM. They want Ralph to help in the office at least 2 maybe 3 days a week with financial. It is in a big mess. They had 25 new missionaries arrive last week and they had 15 go out. They are really scrambling to find apts for everyone. It is going to continue that way. The weather is great here right now. Not too much humidity yet, but the temp has been in the nineties. Enough to warm my bones. We have to have the air on all night to keep cool. It is beautiful here. The traffic is not great, but with the GPS we are getting around Ok. The temple is 2-3 hours away and they told us we could go when we wanted.

October

We were able to participate in the third regional seminar in Semarang which is the capital of Central Java. This presentation was made to a group of Christian's educators, about 75. They receive the FEP program so well. At the end a retired protestant minister gave the closing prayer not understanding the prayer we didn't ask for any translation because a prayer is a prayer, but Elder Anderson a missionary who was present, came up after and said did you hear that prayer. Well yes, we said but we didn't understand and he said that the minister prayed for our church that we would grow in Indonesia and we would be successful in taking the FEP all over Indonesia. We went and visited with him. He was one that had vocally participated quite a bit in the seminar and contributed much to the discussion. He was very complimentary to what was presented. Soeryo then said, that we shouldn't go home that night because we needed to stay a while and interact with these people, which we did and we stayed then changed our flight plans. This turned out to very positive. That night we went out to dinner on the ocean front and Soeryo invited his mother-in-law to come with us. This was a sweet lady who spoke very good English, we had the missionaries with us and as we sat at dinner that night they both asked so many questions about the Church. Soeryo's mother-in-law is Muslin and wears her Jil-bop and she had one question after another for the missionaries. It was good. Now, prior to this we had the opportunity to tell Soeryo the Joseph Smith story and introduce him to the Book of Mormon which he found to be very interesting but not much comment at that time. We went back to our hotel room and planned to get up early and tour the town the next day before our flight back to Jakarta. Soeryo became our official tour guide. We rented a car and went to see a China Muslin temple, to a large Mosque, a Christian Dutch Church build in 1753, China town, and old town Semarang, and before we left to the airport we had dinner at an old restaurant which was build in 1937, before the Japanese occupation, not much different than when it was built except for the electricity. Each time we would get into the car to see the next attraction he would ask several questions about the church, we would talk some time to answer his question, then a quiet moment before the next question. This went on for the whole day. We had the opportunity to tell him about the church being the same organization that existed in Christ church when he was upon the earth in the medium of time. We told him about our young men's and young women's program, primary for the children, that our young men take upon themselves the priesthood starting at the age of 12 and by the time they are 16 can bless the sacrament before the congregation then at 19 are able to serve on a mission which he knows about because he has met many of our missionaries. We talked about our temple some of the sacred work that goes on there. He immediately started to compare with his holy sanctuary at Mecca. At one point in the conversation he said that he couldn't change that he needed to stay the course and pray five times daily. We have never talked to him about change but in his mind those thoughts were being entertained. Now we don't proselyte Muslins, but if he asks to be taught and it is approved by president we could teach and baptize him. However with the political ambition he has and all the friends he has in high places it would destroy his temporal life and career. We know that the Lord has placed him here to help us promote the Family Enrichment Program, and he can do that and be more effective as Muslin than as a member of our Church. As we boarded the airplane, he sat in the first class section and we were in economy and as we arrived in Jakarta he asked if we had a way to get home and we said we will call a taxi, but he insisted on bringing us home and more conversation took place as we traveled home. He commented that he enjoyed being with us and for that reason wanted to take us home as well as saving gas and pollution. We can't help but think that our being ordained as Minister of the Lord Jesus Christ, and have His Spirit with us, and having been endowed with power from on high is the reason for Soeryo's desire to be with us.

The last week of the month we traveled to Parlilitan, North Sumatra to do our second clean water inspection of the project in process. We found that they are have problems getting supplies into that remote area so we took a list of supplies they needed and were able to purchase them here in Jakarta and ship to Medan where they will pick them up for use in the project. On our way home and after looking at a map we decided to take a different way home. We soon found out that with the lay of the land and mountain terrain that this was longer than the way we took to get there. However, as we approached Lake Toba we found ourselves on top of a mountain range looking down on Lake Toba with such beauty. We were four thousand feet high looking down on the lake. We thought that someone in a hang glider would enjoy that ride better than us. The beauty of Indonesia is incredible and pictures don't do it justice.

The next day as we left the mountain region near Lake Toba we travel through a couple hundred miles of palm tree plantations (these are trees having clusters of berries that are harvested for palm oil, the largest export crop for Indonesia) we received a phone call from President Marchant announcing to us that our replacements had been called and they will be arriving in the mission field about February 15. We were not ready for that phone call! In fact as we reviewed our call and timing of our call, this is a month earlier than our call. Upon our return to Jakarta on Friday President Marchant asked that we call Elder and Sister Millecam from Vernal, Utah and talk to them about the work and Indonesia. We have found that when mission calls are made to Indonesia many couples have reluctant feelings about Indonesia, which after being here we find they are unfounded. We found, as expected, that they were overwhelmed with their call. Well, we knew how that feeling was like. We relieved their feelings by telling them of the great work that is being accomplished here. Its sounds like they are a great couple and they will be able to accomplish great things. It leaves us with the feeling now of transition and thinking about how we can leave things which will help them get into their work. It's for sure that we are going to leave them with plenty of things to do.

Upon arriving back at Medan we were invited by Parlindungan Purba to visit an area next to the sea where a village was in need of clean water. As we arrived we could not believe the conditions which these people live. They were poor! Parlin told us that these were fishermen and that fishermen are the poorest people in Indonesia. We could see the channel near their homes where they docked their boats and it appeared that their boats were not sea worthy. It hurts to see the way some of our brothers and sister have to live. All this makes us grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we know he lives and loves all his children regardless of where they may be on this earth.

September

This has been Ramadan month for the Muslin's. They fast from sun up - to sun down. That means the work on our projects has slowed down some because they say they don't have the strength to work hard. Last year Ramadan month was during the month of October, this year is month of September. We understand the Muslins work on the lunar calendar thus the reason for the September Ramadan. Next year it will in August. At the end of the fasting period is Idil Fitri which is something like our Christmas Celebration. They buy gifts for one another and go to the homes of their families to visit with family and friends. The nice thing about this is that 2/3 of the population of Jakarta has left to go to their homes in other parts of the island of Java and now we can drive around Jakarta without traffic jams. This has been nice, but will only last until Monday and everything will be back to normal.

We have had our Second Region FEP seminar which was held in Makassar, in the Region of South Sulawesi. We were not able to go due to a conflict with a wheelchair ceremony in Menado which is in North Sulawesi. That is on the same island but on opposite ends of the island. Elder and Sister Anderson from Provo who are the new Public Affairs missionaries living in Singapore went to this seminar in our place. They are a real strength to this program. The new FEP simplified manual was ready and first introduced at this seminar. This will be a great booklet for the poor and less educated Indonesians and villagers in the rural areas. Soeryo keeps talking about this special feeling that is inside of him when he works on this program. He mentioned the last time when he was preparing a power point presentation for the Sulawesi Seminar that he lost track of time and it was midnight when his wife came to him and pleaded with him to come to bed. He said that he has energy he as never had before. His wife has come to him with tears in her eyes thanking him for the FEP program and what it has done for their family. In response to an E-mail to Wendy Sheffield (author of the FEP) he has said this, "Just to share with you, my own family are doing the Family Night regularly now and it is just like a tradition in the family, …and amazingly the "Magic/vibration" of togetherness, family spirit, kids confidence and their achievement in school as well the care/understanding among us, ..all of those make me and my wife truly blessed and surprising…thank you so very much for your FEP. I make the FEP vision here in Indonesia "Strong Family – Strong Nation INDONESIA 2015" (I just have a wish one day I could talk/share in Faculty of social work of BYU about FEP development in Indonesia)." We have shared with Soeryo the Joseph Smith story and given him a copy of the Book of Mormon. We do not know if any thing will come of it but there always has been a special spirit when we are around him and we know the Lord has prepared him to help us with the advancement of the FEP in Indonesia. He is truly committed to the need of strengthening the family in Indonesia.

On September 6 through the 8th we went with Soeryo to present the FEP program to the Ministry of Education of Indonesia in a seminar where the experts from all 33 Regions came together to discuss different ways to strength the educational system in Indonesia. They had 9 areas to review to help strengthen, one of which was FEP. In the opening they only mentioned of the FEP to strengthen and the eight others were not mentioned. They divided the participated into these nine areas and each group was to present their ideas on how to develop a program for presentation into the school system. There were six people assigned to the FEP and we sat at their table to answer any questions. One lady asked about the importance of prayer in the Family night gathering, all agreed about prayer being very important. Then we asked how they felt about singing in family night and this same lady said that it was not important. Then We (Sister Walker and I) began sing the Indonesia folk song "Di Sini Si senung" and everyone joined and sang and clap their hands as be sang. We then asked how they felt after singing the song, there was no argument the songs make one feel good and that it needs to a part of Family Night. We then separated ourselves from them so they could do their work of developing the curriculum. As we watch we would see more participants gathering around the table, sometimes eight or nine. They then would send them away, only for more to show up. It was obvious that FEP had the attention of the seminar group. The end result is that the FEP program will be used to strengthen the family and thus strengthen the education system. We now have two Ministries of the Government budgeting funds to be used the strengthening families, the Ministry Social Affairs and the Ministry of Education. The year 2009 will be a good year for Indonesia and for the family.

We traveled to Menado on Friday Sept 12, for the wheelchairs ceremony for 50 wheelchairs LDS charities gave to a Christian church to use for charity. The Christian Association in Menado has combined to fight against the Mormon Church in Menado and thus our branch in Menado is very small and does not grow much. Our intent in developing a relation with Ricko Giroth is because he is a powerful leader and has a lot of influence on the Christian Assocation and perhaps we can change their perception of the Church. We think that it will work. We were received very well, The Government leaders were there and members of this church. We were also invited to go from retirement home to retirement home to give out wheelchairs to the aged. We went early so we could see some different things or places there. We made arrangements to rent a large boat and we invited the missionaries and branch members to go with us to Bunakan Island, a beautiful island about one hour north of Menado. It was a beautiful day; just off the coast of the island is a coral reef which is spectacular. All but three of us went on to shore to see the island. We went snorkeling on and around the reef. It was the most beautiful snorkeling we have ever done. Millions of fish and many colors of fish and coral we have ever seen. We went to church there on Sunday and were asked to speak. There church is very small but they have a good spirit.

We got back from Menado on the evening of 16th and boarded the plane again for Medan where on the morning of the 17th we travel 10 hours by car to Lake Toba and stayed over night there before going onto Parlilitan for the opening of a Clean Water Project by 10:00 AM the next day. This happens to be close to the western side of Sumatra. Living conditions are very difficult there for these people, they are very poor. The land doesn't seem to be very productive for them. Most all this area we traveled through was Christian area. They seem to make things work for them. We have noticed that Christian people seem to be closer to the Lord than the Muslin. We do not know why but it seems to be true. We met with the village leaders and the religious leaders whom were very anxious for our help in making a clean water system. As we participated in the Opening Ceremony we laid the first brick for the inside wall of the cement tank which will hold 50 cubic meters of water. That's big. Then they had a feast. Sister Walker and I being the guest of honor were given the pig's head to carve. This was not a pretty sight. We thought we were going to get sick from the food we ate that day, for we eat dog, horse, fox and pig, and pig's liver. The pig's liver was the best of all that was there to eat. This clean water system will be a blessing to these people and it is really needed. At about 2:00 pm we left to return to Lake Toba which is a resort city there with a good hotel. The next morning we were chaffered by Vera and Sihol Munallung who are brother and sister and recently returned missionaries. They are converts to the church of not many years. Sihol joined the church first and went on a mission and during his mission was allowed to come home to baptize his parents. We toured the Lake Toba area even taking a ferry across the lake to the island where Vera and Sihol's mother was born. We swim in a hot spring, and we mean hot spring. This is Batak culture which is different. The buildings structure is different and customs are different. The houses are built on stilts and the pigs are raised under the house, see pictures. What an experience we are having here in Indonesia, the people, language, and culture in each area are so different, but the people are good people, good looking people, friendly people, people who want to shake our hands and say something to us even though we can not understand them, but it is understood with feeling and with the heart. We love the gospel and we know it is true.

August

The month of August has gone by with such speed that it hardly seemed like a month. This has been the month of anniversaries, the anniversary of one year on our mission in Indonesia and 44 years of our marriage. Both seem to be unbelievable. Sister Walker with her fair complexion and beauty is attracted to the Indonesians so much that when we are in the villages everyone wants to be with her, shake her hand and have pictures with her in the picture. If I'm around they will want me in the picture, not that I may be handsome but because it's the right thing to do. We were in the tops of the mountains of Nanggung where only a four wheel drive could take us (a 1972 Toyota Land Rover which is ready to fall apart) to villages where they have not seen bulas before. There the children where scared to come close to us. It was necessary for us to hike into a distribution tank, Sister Walker stay behind and I had the driver stay to be with her to make sure everything would be alright. We were gone about one hour and upon our return Sister Walker was sitting under a canopy and sitting around her were all the children of the village and many of the parents. I had to stop to take a picture; she was surely in her element. We had our computer with us to view some of the pictures that our new On-Site Monitor had taken whom we hired to monitor the projects in Nanggung and Cikidang. She was showing the children pictures of our family and Terry snow shoeing in the snowy mountains (they had never seen snow) and biking on the slick rocks of southern Utah which they thought was cool. Wherever we go I'm trying to keep a schedule and hurrying to get things done and look back to see where Sister Walker is and I find her in simple language visiting the people, giving candy to the children and getting right in their hearts, which is a reminder to me of why we are here. I would not have been able to serve here without her; she has been such strength to me in scheduling, writing for new projects, communication to Hong Kong and many, many other things. On our anniversary we had to go the Lembong to take care of some problems in the Clean Water Project. We took the Train again which is such beautiful trip. We enjoy looking down on the rice paddies and mountains, gullies and other scenery. It is so beautiful. Even though we were at work, we couldn't have planned an event better for an anniversary. That evening after we got our work done we had dinner with Elder and Sister Davis at a Chinese restaurant. Elder and Sister Davis and Elder and Sister Roberts who manage the Clean water Project in Kaliwungi have become very special friends to us. They have been a great strength to us in managing these water projects. I can say that Sister Walker and I have become closer and have I have a greater love for her than ever before as we have served the Lord and our family, also our family has expressed, they have also be blessed by the services we have given. I remember that Elder Hanks once said while serving in California on my first mission that 80% of this mission was for ourselves and 20% for those we served. I believe that our family with us can be counted in the 80% category blessings we now see and blessings yet to come because of the service given. Our first Region FEP Seminar was held on August 13th with Parlindungan Purba as host and Soeryo as the presenter. Both these men have become our close friends. This was set up by Prof. Gunawan Director of the Department of Social Affairs who too has become a close friend. Soeryo presented the FEP so well with material he gathered from the FEP Seminar held in Jakarta when we had the visiting professors from BYU. He prepared his own power point presentation used information from the professors and on the side showed the DVD of the family home evening. He presented for one hour and a half with great interest shown from everyone. He had the audience laughing and had fun but at the same time learning about family home evening and family enrichment. We sent a text to Elder Subandriyo and informed him the Soeryo had done so well, he text back and said hooray now we have an Indonesia trained. Now Indonesians can train Indonesians. That's becoming more self- sufficient. We were informed by Prof. Gunawan that there will be six more Region Seminars before we go home to attend. Then he names them. We find we will go to places that we haven't been before, Such as, West Sumatra at Padang, West Kalimantan at Pontianak, South Sulawesi at Makassar, Papua at Jayapora, West Java at Bandung, and Central Java at JoJakarta. Three of these are on islands we haven't been to before and one is at the far eastern edge of Indonesia. We have wondered why we would have to go to these Seminars with the trained presenter (Soeryo) and it is because of the support we give by being there and the presence of bulas which gives the presentation credibility. We have also been told by Professor Gunawan the Asian Conference of Family Enrichment will be held on November 17, in Bali and we will be invited to attend. We just met our new Public Affairs couple missionaries assigned to Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. They live in Singapore. They are most impressive and will be a great strength to us. They will also be invited to attend all that is possible. Also during the month we attended two ceremonies in Central Java at Kaliwungu where there was a presentation on good hygiene and sanitation. This is a part of teaching the people of the village where we installed a new clean water system how to use this water for good hygiene and sanitation. There was a doctor and nurses who talked about principles to help the people use the water to their advantage. They had about three hundred of the people from the village there which was impressive. They always had live entertainment and food. Most people come to get the free meal that is served and then leave, so the food isn't served until the program is complete. The other ceremony was held at the end of the month for the closing of the clean water project. This phase of the project was about $100,000 and brought clean water to 18,500 people. There are two large water tanks at 100 CM3 and many other tanks to supply the water to the villagers. There are also two sources of water to supply the water needed. As we held the ceremony we were able to go outside and actually turn on the water in the parking lot for all to see the clean water. And was it clean!! They celebrated by singing and dancing in the parking lot. LDSC gave free food packets to the villagers and medical supplies were also given as part of the celebration. Elder and Sister Roberts managed the construction of this clean water system and they were honored for their services with beautiful leis. They will be going home this week and what a great honor that was for them and we are going to miss them. We also attend a ceremony at a primary school in the Kaliwungu area where Nontin is a teacher. LDSC is in the process of the production of 100 chairs for their school. There were present officials from Jakarta Ministry of Education and local officials as well. We have been blessed to be here in administration of the Humanitarian funds that is donated so the sick can be visited, the poor can be clothed, and the hungry can be feed. This is what the Savior would want from all of us.

JULY

Another month has gone by and we don't know where it has gone. It was full with a lot of activity. Our Family Enrichment Program (FEP) is just beginning as there are two Ministries seeking funds in their budgets for next year to foster the family night concept. One of those is the Ministry of Education which is trying to test the concept in a small segment of their jurisdiction before going nation wide, at which time there will be millions distributed. We are meeting with Soeryo who managed the events of the Seminar, on a weekly basis. We are preparing for a seminar in Medan next week. We told Hong Kong that this project may be closed in about six months financial but otherwise this project will never be closed. Family Home Evenings will be promoted for a long time in Indonesia.

We visited a community center near Sukabumi two weeks ago to help them with some funding for equipment for the center. Mention of the FEP program manual was made and Dr. Zaenab she said that she was there at the Seminar in Jakarta and felt that it would be of great benefit for this village and wanted to present it to the parents of the nursery, however she said that the manual was too complicated for the parents to understand. She added that the parents in the villages of Indonesia don't have more the a 6th or 7th grade education. We were shocked and realized that we were going to have to simplify the manual for the villages. We came back to a meeting with Elder Subandriyo and Soeryo of GNKS and they agreed that the manual had to be simplified for the 75% of the Indonesians who live in the villages. It will be about 25 pages. It will be cheaper to print and less costly to distributed with the DVD throughout Indonesia. It is universally agreed upon that the DVD is the best teacher to teach Indonesians how to have a family home evening, the manual is necessary to help them on subject matter for lessons.

President Marchant will be distributing this manual to all the member families in Indonesia at District conferences in October and missionaries will be using the manual for a way to visit with parents and families prior to being taught. The missionaries can't proselyte in Indonesia so this is a way to meet families and afterwards teach them the gospel. We believe that this will make a big difference in the way Indonesians will perceive the church and maybe help the gospel roll forth. You all may have seen the article in the Church News on "Indonesian Program focuses on family". (Aug 2, 2008) We were blessed to have been inspired to help start this program.

Our clean water seminar with Elder and Sister Frandsen turned out fairly well. They came into Jakarta on Monday morning July 7, and left on Sunday afternoon for Thailand. We had a full program for them every day meeting with water engineers, designers, supervisors of clean water crews and water monitors. We visited three different water systems on the Island of Java. We all learned a lot about clean water systems and needed the training. Looking over these projects that have been constructed over the past four years we can see great improvement in their construction. Pipes are being buried, tanks are being covered and villagers are better prepared to maintain the systems.

Up to the time that we came to the Jakarta there was only one Engineer and contractor working in the Clean Water Systems for LDSC. Now we have expanded this three times. And these two new engineers and designers and contractors are members of the church who are hiring members of the church to do the work in supervising villagers in the construction of the systems. What a blessing this is for many members of the church who find it difficult to find jobs. But also a great blessing comes to the 160,000 who are in the process of receiving clean water for the first time in their lives. We are just completing this month a system in Central Java, near Solo where 18,500 will be receiving the clean water and that contractor will be moving to North Sumatra near Medan to work on another project there. We will be visiting that site about three times before the end of the year.

We have just submitted three more new projects to Hong Kong for approval. We just received word that they likely will be approved. One is for the village center near Sukabumi where we will be furnishing it with three computers, three sewing machines and tables, chairs and desks for the adult education, nursery, and medical clinic which is all in this village center. We will be using family members who need Eagle Scout projects to help collect children books for the English classes. The second project is for chairs-desk combination for a school in the Solo area. Nontin who is the NGO for our water project just finishing in Solo also has a school there and we will be helping her with a 100 chairs desks for her school, and the third project is money to buy material, yarn, and hooks for crocheting baby hats and blankets for babies in hospitals. This project has been very successful in teaching Indonesian sister how to crochet and sew. We have been told that we have used our entire budget for Indonesia this year and we will not be able to submit any other projects. Here we are in August and it looks like we are through for the year. Not quite so. That was for area initiatives. We have Major initiatives which cover wheelchair projects and clean water projects. We have a lot of work to do in major initiatives. So no rest for the wicked??

We have a new couple that just arrived in the mission two weeks ago; they are Elder and Sister Reber. They received their call from Lindon,Utah, but are originally from New Mexico. They are a delightful couple and will be fun to work with. We hope they will be able to help us a bit. We have had five couple missionaries go home and two more in the fall which leaves us with just three couples besides ourselves. That's 10 couples to four. We need the couples for these Branches to help them grow. Word needs to go out for more couple missionaries and they need to volunteer to come to Indonesia. We love the work. We feel great strength spiritually as we serve. We know the gospel is true.

JUNE

The month of June was spent mainly in preparation for the Family Enrichment Seminar which was held on July 4 & 5. It took a lot of time and kept us very busy, yet we still had to keep up with the water projects and cleft palate surgeries.

The seminar was incredible. This is what we have been working on for the last nine months and it turned out very good. We anticipated having 300 in attendance and there were 377 who attended. The following day was to train the participants to train other people how to have a Family Home Evening. We were expecting 100 to come and there were 150. We have received very good reviews especially from the Minister of Social Affairs who would be equivalent to Mike Leavitt in the USA. He was very pleased with the seminar. Now we can say it is like dropping a big boulder in a lake and watching the ripples go out from there. We are now feeling the ripples and many people are asking to have a seminar in their Regions. The first will be in Solo in Central Java where the Minister of Education wants to include this family evening program in packets that will be sent out to millions of Indonesians. We can hardly believe this ripple. Another ripple came from Medan where our friend Palin Purba (a legislator and President of the Lions Club) is setting up a seminar for the Medan Region. He had four ladies here to learn the program so that they could present it in Medan. A ripple is coming from Bengkulu where we helped in the earthquake emergency relief last September right after we arrived in the mission field, and there are others.

This evening as we were evaluating the seminar and the success and areas that could be improved with the Professors and Author who were visiting from BYU, Soeryo who is the chairperson of the Seminar an advocate of the Family Enrichment Program told us about his experience in holding family home evening. He said that in order for him to recommend this to the Minister of Social Affairs he needed to try it out for himself. He said that it was hard at first, but as time went on each week it got easier. By the 3rd week his boys were asking when they were going to have FHE. He has three boys who are 11, 7, and 3 years. His family was enjoying the experience and have felt some very positive effects, but the real effect was when the teacher of one of the boys called to say that their son had changed completely. He had been shy and reserved and now he will stand up in class will sing and answer questions. She wanted to know what had changed in their home to cause such a change in this boy. Their experience in home evening has given their son confidence and self esteem. This family just happens to be Muslim. What a testimony that becomes in such a short time from some one who is leading out in this program.


We could not believe the excitement after the seminar was over with the maneuvering with different groups wanting pictures take with different ones wanting to stand next to us. Many we didn't even know. We think that they have seen us in their offices as we went from one Minister's office to other to promote the program. We have made a lot of friends in high places within the government through this program. We have visited with Ministers of Education, Christian Affairs, Islamic Affairs, and Director of Family Planning, Woman Empowerment and on and on. We also visited with several NGO's who have great interest in the program. Out of this, Latter-day Saint Charities and the Church has gained great respect from many places. Alwi Schihab who is one of our friends made two different references to the Church in his presentation before the audience. President Marchant spoke in Bahasa Indonesian and made reference to Brigham Young University being own and operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints all before television cameras and news media. We have seen the Lord's hand in all of this with one stumbling block after another overcome which is testimony in of itself that the Lord wanted this program for Indonesia.

Then on Friday we left here at 7:00 am. Registration was to begin at 8:00 am, but there were a lot of people there already to go in. It was just amazing they just kept coming. The program was good and everyone seemed to really enjoy it. The next morning we left early again they were taking the participants by bus to the other location. When we got to the hotel they had to call for another bus, plus they were all the mission cars and many people drove there themselves. I talked to one man there and he had got up at 3:30 to get there in time to ride the bus. We had over 150 there. We thought maybe we would get 100 to come. They all enjoyed the less formal situation and also the group was divided into 3 groups so they were able to have more participation from the groups. It went from 10 to 3:30 and it was hard to get people to leave they wanted more. I would have to say it was a huge success and worth all of the work we have put into it. We had an evaluation meeting after with Subandriyo, Soreyo, the Palmers and the people from BYU. Everyone felt it was great. Sister Sheffield who wrote the book was so helpful and is going to aid us in getting the story about Indonesia into the booklet. She is an incredible lady and her story about how the book came to be is also incredible. This is truly the work of Heavenly Father. We told her about some of the hurdles we have had to go over and she made the statement that you know it is the Lord's work then, because if you don't have any stumbling blocks (which is Satan) in your path you know that he was in there working to stop the program. We saw so many stumbling block especially in the last weeks. The President would not let any of us wear our missionary badges either day. I wished so many times I had it on because people wonder who we were.