On Sunday we were on our way to go to church. John's Mother in Law had a stroke during the week and we had been so busy. Dad decided that we should go to the hospital instead of to church. We go to the English Branch first. So we took the Elders and dropped them off at church. We went to the hospital and she asked Dad to give her a blessing. Then we went back and went to the Indonesian branch to church. It is sure a challenge to get anything out of the meeting. Lukie who is Elder Subandriyo's son translates for us in Sacrament Meeting and he is really good and we do get alot out of sacrament meeting, because of Lukie. He has been on a mission and has just returned. He went to Georgia on his mission, but he is leaving soon to go to BYU Hawaii. Then is S.S we get bits and pieces. In Relief Society the sisters translate, but they are mostly hard to hear. After church the sisters wanted to go and visit John's Mother and another sister whose little girl was in the hospital. They were both in different hospital one of them was quite aways away. So everyone piled in the car. 2 elders, 2 sisters, and 3 other people plus John's little boy. It seems there is always room for everybody, but this car is not even as big as our van.

When we returned home at 5:00 the Pres came out and asked us all to come into dinner. I was glad, because it had been a long day. Dad got up on Monday morning and he was sick- we think from some food we had eaten at a restaurant. We just stuck around home on Mon and mostly Tues. He seemed to be feeling better. On Wed Ummi had called and wanted to come and see us. She came in and talked a little bit and then she started asking questions again. Dad said, are you wanting to know about the church and she said yes. So Dad gave her the whole story of Joseph Smith. I said, I don't thinks she is getting it all, you need to get the missionaries here. Dad finally told John to go and get the Elders. They came down and taught them. It was hard to tell how they were feeling, but we will see. We gave them a Book of Mormon and they said they would read. We will have to wait and see. The elders said at first they were kinda of guarded because it seemed she just wanted to know so she could tell her friends, but then they said they didn't know because there seemed to be a little interested. Her husband talked several times while they were being taught and that is the first time he has even said a word and we learned that he doesn't speak any English so he hasn't been understanding anything we have said. So it was good to have the Elders here.

Thursday we had to be on the road by 5:00 am. No time to think about Thanksgiving. Elder Subandriyo went with us. We met the Kanes. The closing project was held at a very remote tropical mountain location. It was a little seclude place that you can go and rent little cabins for a little getaway. The scenery was spectacular and it was a very relaxing place to be after we had ridden over the very curved and bumpy, bumpy roads to get there.

There was a large Sundanese orchestra playing traditional music while we waited. The mayor was almost 2 hours late. So it was a long wait. The ceremony was nice. They served the traditional Indonesia food. It is really hard to eat. Some lady that was after Dad told him he had to have some of this and it was wrapped and cooked in a banana leaf and was suppose to be really good. Dad opened it and it was a half of fish and the eyes were looking out at him. It was cooked, but it looks so bad.

We had to be ready to go the next day at 5:15. Pres and Sister Marchant and Subundriyo and another guy went with us. We went to another very nice place and the scenery on the way there was so beautiful. The road was not as bumpy, but it was sure curvy. We stopped on the way up at a tea plantation and took some fun pictures. This ceremony was the same, but it started on time. After the ceremony and the dinner. (which Dad put food on his plate, but didn't touch it.) He said I am through eating this. I said you just need to have a pepto bismol after each meal. The Pres said we are not very far from the Indian Ocean and I want to go there. So we all went there. It was really pretty. We spent about 2 hours just relaxing and enjoying the scenery.

The next morning we got to sleep in we didn't have to be ready to go until 7:30. We were invited to a pre-school program that John's wife is involved in and LDS charities helped them by giving them some tables, chairs and books. The children preformed and they were so cute, but they had about 4 speeches in Indonesian. And guess what they served to eat? Dad was just dying. I just eat rice and some other things to look like I am eating. They make some good cakes and things here and they had some of those too.

He woke up Sunday morning and said he was feeling better. We went to Church and after it was the Indonesian Branch's ward council. They asked us to attend. We were there waiting for it to start and the Branch Pres who just loves Dad said, Elder Walker we always have lunch before we start our meeting. That was almost the straw that broke the camels back. They have these packets they serve that have rice and who knows what else. We had to sit there and eat. They just eat it with their hands, but they always go and find us a plate and spoon. They are so good to us, but boy we could go without even eating.

I couldn't leave this picture out. These men were sound asleep- we could have walked away with the whole fruit stand!

Dad and a little Indonesian lady.

As each week starts out I always wonder what it is going to bring. Last week Dad had it all scheduled out what we were going to be doing. Dad got busy working and Elder Subandriyo told him that they were closing out on the projects in Aceh. That is where the tsunami was. He said that we would be going to represent LDS Charities. He came and told me that all was canceled for the week because we would be leaving on Tues to go to Aceh. We had Brother and Sister Palmer here from Singapoe. They are the Public Relations couple for the Asia Area. We had a meeting with the Public Relations people here on Monday afternoon. The Public Relations committee here are trying to set up a Family Day with the First Lady and they want to use this Family Home Evening Manual. The Palmers brought us 600 little beanie hats and some with booties to give to some hospitals for the little preemie babies. Then we had dinner at the Pres. house. We served cake and ice cream and they all sang Happy Birthday to Dad.

The Islamic Relief Group picked us up at the airport in Aceh and took us to the Hotel. We stayed at a really nice place called the Oasis. They had a great restaurant and we got some good American food. So Dad did get a good birthday dinner. We got a good sleep too.

The Oasis Hotel

On Wed morning the Islamic Relief group picked us up at 9:00 they took us to one of the schools which was to be gifted to the people of Aceh. LDSC provided the money and the Islamic Relief have been building these 10 schools. We arrived and were greeted in grand style. 2 dancers greeted us and they had one umbrella which they used to shade Dad as took him to his seat.

They brought us all a little box of cakes and treats. They had a welcoming dance and then speeches. Dad had to give a speech and then he went with them to sign all the papers and then he went on a tour with all of the big Whigs. They then drove us around to see all of the schools. As they drove us through these areas they told us that everything in this large area had literally been destroyed including all of the vegation including trees. He said you would see bathtubs floating around stoves and refrigerators everything. There are all kinds of buildings, houses and the trees are really large. It is almost hard to believe it really happened. We went back to their office where they fixed us a nice Indonesia lunch. Thank heavens for rice!!! We then went for a five hour ride to Biruem. We drove through the mountains and it was so beautiful. the scenery all along the way was just incredible. We have no chance to see anything other than what they take us too. We did see the ocean once from a distance. Rice fields, banana plantations, coconuts. We arrived at a very bad hotel. The room was just that. The bathroom there was a sink and a toilet. a hose for a shower, but not division for it. The water just run on the floor of the bathroom. We were very close to a Mosque so we heard the call for prayer at 4 am for about a half an hour. Other than that we had a pretty good sleep.

The next day we were taken on a tour of a small medical clinic. It was nice, but not great. We went to a larger place which was their hospital. LDSC paid for these and another small clinic. They took us on a tour of the hospital because the Governor was coming to this ceremony, but he was late. The Governor arrived and there was a special dance for him. It was really fun to see all the pomp and display that was put on for the Governor. They had name tags on all the seats for the special guests. Dad sat on the front roll with the Governor and I sat behind with the Palmers. They called it the peasant seats. Dad gave another speech and he signed more papers then he helped the Governor cut the ribbon for the hospital and took a tour with him.
Dad with the governor

Dad's Speech & Girl Who Translated

We then took the 5 hour trip back to Aceh and were able to be in the nice hotel again. We flew to Medan to meet with a Dr there about doing some cleft palate surgeries. He wasn't interested when he found out that we were not going to pay for the whole surgery. We finally got back to Jakarta and since it was so late we took a taxi to our home. On Sat. we got up at 4 am and left at 5 am so we could be in Sukabumi before 8 am when they took the stitches out of those little children that had the surgeries the week before. I was astounded at the change in these little kids. There were some happy little kids. We went into the room and watched them remove the stitches. They didn't have enough help to hold these little kids down that were kicking and screaming as they were taking them out. So I started to help hold them. The administrator which we had met last week and was quite a jovial type guy came into the room where I was helping. He asked me if I had any medical experience in this area. I told him only the experience of having 9 kids. He really laughed. It was quite the experience. We left there and got home about 4:30.

The Delivery Room

For Thanksgiving we will not be doing what we had planned. We have to go to a closing for a water project up in Borgor. Of course they don't celebrate Thanksgiving so this was not even considered when they set the date. So we will be going there both Thurs and Fri. No matter what, we are grateful for the many blessings we have in our lives, for the opportunity to be in Indonesia (who would have ever guessed we'd be here?), for our wonderful families who we miss and send kisses and hugs to, for our special friends who are so good to keep us informed about happenings in their lives, for a warm home, for good food and for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We hope you will all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and remember all that you have. If you feel any of your lives are sad or lacking, please come join us and you will see how much you really do have - We truly are a blessed people!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Everyone send Dad a Happy Birthday Message. You can post a comment and it will send it to his e-mail automatically if you would like!

Monday we went down to Bogor which is about an hour away if the traffic is good. We went to a closing ceremony for a project which was called the Toilet Project. A small restroom was put together for a elementary school in a poor area which has 400 students attending the school. They have never had any toilets there at the school. LDSCharities teamed up and helped to put this together. It has two toilets and a urinal. They were so happy. It has to be locked up so the whole neighborhood doesn't start to use it.

We had to be in Borgor at 7 am on Thursday to meet with the Kanes. John our driver came home and we went with the Kanes to Sukibumi, a 2 hour drive. This is where they were going to be doing the clelft lip and palate surgeries. We went to the hospital and there were 66 children there getting their blood tested to see if they were healthy enough to have the surgery. It was so sad to see them all. Some of them were really bad. It almost made you want to cry for them. We took pictures and shook hands of the parents. They were going to do the surgeries on Friday and Sat. We stayed atthe Kanes on Thurs night, becuse on Fri they were having a outing for the missionaries for the zone at the Safari. They needed the car and John to drive some of the Elders. So we went with the Kanes with their driver. Friday we were able to attend the outing with the missionaries at theSafari. It is such a great place.

On Saturday we went to the hospital and they were letting the patients go home that had had the surgery on Fri. The surgery lasted anywhere from 15 mins to an hour. We saw some of them who were leaving to go home. It was just a miracle to see what had happened with them. They were doing more surgeries and they let us put on a gown and mask even John and go right into the operating room and look at each patient and watch what was going on. They were doing 2 cleft palate surgeries which are more complicated and several of the lip surgeries. It was just amazing to watch what was going on there and how they were doing the surgeries. This is a good hospital. They do have some sophisticated equipment, but not much. It is a better hospital than most of them here though. The Dr. we were working with is a really good Dr. I had Dad ask him if he could do an EKG and he said yes he would be glad to do that. So he is going to do it next week. We have to go back next week to see when these children come in for a check-up. I get really tired of being in the car.

Another week past and gone. Last month went really slow, but we havea lot of things going in November so it should be better. Monday I had to make 2 cheese cakes to take to a dinner for all the senior couples at the Pres. house. We had done washing and I had just barely got all the clothes folded and the kitchen all cleaned up from cooking when we had a knock at the door. In comes Pres and Sister Marchant and Elder and Sister Hallstrom. They just came in and helped themselves to a tour of the whole place. The ironing board was up in the bedroom, because I was getting ready to iron. It's not everyday that you have someone from the 1st Quorum of Seventies just come in and take a tour of the house. I guess we passed the test. We had dinner and they all loved the cheesecake.

We had zone conference on Tuesday. Elder andSister Hallstrom spoke and also Pres and Sister Marchant. It was really enjoyable and great to be involved with the other Elders and Sisters of the Zone. There were about 55 missionaries there. Pres Hallstrom told us that there are 29 areas in the church and there are 3.5 billion people in China, India and Indonesia which is what they have in all of the other areas together. So that means that we have areally big job.



We went with the Elders and they showed us the back way though all kinds of interesting things to get over to the mall. People really live in poverty. We took them to Burger King for dinner (2 of them). It is about a 2 mile walk. It is nice to know how to get there and not to have to take a taxi. These pictures show us on the trail on the way to the mall you can see the high rise in the back and all the little shacks that are all along the way on both sides of the trail.



We went to the English class and the Elders were unable to be there so Dad taught the advance class by himself. we have more than 20 people in the other class and the sisters needed the help. Dad wanted to have the English class for dinner last night and feed them strogonaff. We had them here and showed themthe movies "The Other Side of Heaven" and "The Work and the Glory". They really enjoy seeing movies.