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.

May

The month of May has gone so fast. It seems that the pace of the work is picking up. The first part of May we hiked the new water project in the Lembung area of Bandung which is about a two hour drive. Elder and Sister Davis are there as the site manages of the Clean Water Project. The water comes from clean mountain streams and is drinkable. We hike about eight kilometers in total through some of the most beautiful mountain train ever. What a blessing this is for these people to get clean water for the first time in their lives. Most of the water has to be piped in two 4" PVC pipe twelve kilometers before it is distributed to the five different villages. Large cement tank are constructed to distribute the water to surrounding villages. These five villages were not sure we were serious about this project because they have had so many groups come and with the idea that they could do the job, but would soon back away and not proceed.

We went to the opening ceremony for the project. This was quite the celebration. They had some stuffed lions on a couple of platforms with large poles that 4 guys put on their shoulders. Dad and Elder Davis got on the lions and the men pick them up and carried them up a small hill to where the program was being held. There was a band playing music all along with them too. (women are not important here) This was some celebration. After they got all the speeches over with. They had food, music and singing. Then they put the elders on the lions and they did all kinds of trick and things as they were dancing around. I don't know how they were able to carry Dad up there. I had to be very hard on their shoulders and then did are these acrobat things too.

The Cleft Lip and Palate project was scheduled for latter part of July; however the surgeons who have volunteered to perform 50 surgeries decided move the schedule to the first part of June. The Area Presidency has asked us to present a puppet show to teach about good hygiene and addictions. This required us to scramble a bit to get everything ready as the puppet stage and puppets were in a different area of Western Java. We took the puppet show to the Bogar Branch on Sunday and visited with the youth about presenting the show to the patients and parents at the hospital on Thursday afternoon. I was concerned because of the late notice and about their ability to do the job but the Young Woman's President was so positive about it that she had enough volunteers. Today we saw her at a funeral service and she said that the kids were practicing the show that day.

We went to a gong factory and then went to a little place that make these puppets that we see everywhere. There was a man sitting on the ground carving the heads of these puppets by hand. He just sits there all day. Then inside their house they had shelves and shelves of puppets. We picked out a set and it wasn't quite like how we wanted it so they vanish the heads the color we wanted and then they dressed them also. It was so fun to watch as the Father was carving and painting the heads and his wife and daughter were dressing each one of them.

The next week we hiked parts of the Nanggung clean water project with Elder and Sister Kane. This was kind of a hand over ceremony to Elder and Sister Walker since they are leaving. This water project is in the Bogor Region where the Kane's served. This is the same kind of terrain that we experience in Bandung except this is rice growing country where the mountains are terraced for the rice paddies. (see picture) So much of the water in rice country is contaminated with chemicals; this water is not good for drinking. Here we have to go deeper into the mountains to find the spring water.

We also hiked the pathway project we took over from Elder and Sister Kane. This is quite a hike just to get to the pathway and then the pathway is about 600 meters long. They have been taking a long time to complete this project and we gave them just two months complete it or it will get canceled. They understood that we were serious and would organize the villager's workers to get it completed. This pathway of concrete is to help the children get to school and back to there home without getting muddy and wet. It will be used by all villagers as well.

We are getting ready now for the Family Enrichment Program Seminar. We will be having a meeting on June 5th and filming of the Indonesia family home evening we take place on July 7th and 8th. We are excited about what this is going to do for Indonesia and the effect this might have on the growth of the Church here.

We have also submitted a project for a Seminar on Clean Water Project, teaching current and future engineers, designers, and contractors about Clean Water Projects. The projects calls for some specialist from SLC to be the teachers and we will take tours into the current water projects to evaluate what might done to increase the longevity of a clean water system. This project if approved will take place in mid-July.

Time is going by so fast. Half our mission time has gone. It just seems like we just got here. We have a lot of work to do and it looks at this point there will be plenty of work for the next couple who comes to Indonesia. We love the work and the people. They treat us like a King and Queen. We are always ask to set on the front row of Ceremonies and everyone wants to shake our hands, except the little kids who are scared of us. They warm up to us as we spent time with their parents and shake their hands.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

A Birthday Song for Grandma!

April

Wheelchair Deliveries
Our good friend Jemmy Mongan who has helped us so much with the family enrichment program mentioned that he had a good friend who belonged to a Christian Church that needed three wheelchairs for members of his church. After we got the wheelchairs shipped to various destinations like Surabaya, Central Java, Semarang, and Jogjakarta, where our couple missionaries were to distribute these chairs, we took three wheelchairs to his church one Sunday. That was quite the experience. There was a lady there who was 87 years old, who needed a wheelchair. We had taken one for her. Then we took some wheelchairs to a couple of older men who lived close by. As we went to the house of the one man we entered it and there was no furniture in the place that he lived, but in a small dark bedroom there a wooden bed with nothing else on it except a little man. He had a small rag, which looked like a small towel. The men lifted him into the wheelchair and wheeled it out into the sunshine. The preacher of the Christian Church told us that he had not been out of the bed for about 6 months. His little granddaughter jumped right up into his lap. It was so cute. We then took one to another man. Jemmy's friend was there also. We invited us to his place. He owns a little grocery store and he took us to his office and we talked to him about our church and the English classes. He was interested in both. Later Jemmy called and invited him to church next week. He said he would be there, but he wanted us to be there also. We went to church today and he was there and had a lot of questions about the church. He is going to attend District conference next week in Jakarta and bring his family.

We had a wheelchair ceremony on top of a mountain and was quite the sight. These are really poor people. Three people were brought and carried in. One woman who had brought her husband in was sitting there just sobbing. I went over to comfort her and she just hugged and hugged and hugged me. She spoke through an interpreter and said she just couldn't believe that anybody would care about them like that and just give them something that they needed so bad. Now her husband was crying. She showed me the bones that had been taken out of his hip of course that is all they did so he was not able to walk. So this was a gift to her as much as it was to him because now she could help him get around. It was very touching and brought tears to the eyes of us all. Before the ceremony was over there were about 20 men and woman who had a new wheel chair. Their faces were as bright as the sunshine that was all around us.

We went to another wheel chair ceremony. It is gratifying to be apart of being able to give something to someone in need. A family brought a picture of a teenager who had a tumor below her knee. Her leg was as big as a large cantaloupe. Then they showed a picture of her where they had amputated her leg below the knee. We gave them a wheelchair.

Family Enrichment

We now have a partner in the Family Enrichment Program (FEP) who is National Movement of the Social Interest. They will be implementing the FEP. This Non Government Organization (NOG) manages the Indonesian Social Affairs. Their government's mandate is to expand n1. National Health Care, 2. Education 3. Strengthening Families. They where looking for some way to strengthen families and we happened to be at the right place and the right time. We were about ready to give up when Elder Sugandriyo suggested that we talk to your good friend Parlin Purba is the Legislator for the Medan Region. He has handled 500 wheelchairs for LDSC in that Region for us and has been very much a friend. They made an appointment with Parlin Purba and that's all it took. He was able to direct us to National Movement of the Social Interest.

We have a couple here Bertha and Hendro (they are on the LDSC team) who are professional in the recording industries here. They are going to make a family home evening video to go with the Family Enrichment booklet. We spent the morning with them discussing what needed to be on the DVD. The DVD will have government leader's support and financial sponsor's statements. Offering a segment on how to organize family night, a family planning chart, and helpful hints for a "Weekly Family Night", ideas for lessons, and for activities, and clips of several families expressing how "Weekly Family Night" has strengthened their family. Events of this seminar will be televised and special attention will be given to the DVD clip on an Indonesian family ma family home evening which is anticipated to be repeated several times during the week. At the end of each DVD presentation of the family night, explanation will be made as to where a Family Enrichment Program manual can be obtained. It is intended that a copy of the DVD will be distributed with each family enrichment Program manual. The NGO is prepared to obtain sponsors enough to finance 100,000's of these manuals.

Then we went to another meeting and met with a group that are going to sponsor the whole seminar. The Lord really provided a way for his work to be done, because these people are amazing and they are going to pay for the whole thing and make all the arrangments for it. We are just going to have to support them. We are having some people come out from the BYU to speak and be involved in the seminar including the author of the FE booklet. They are impressed I think that we can come up with professional people who will come and be involved like this. Elder Palmer is helping them to also speak in 2 other countries here nearby. It is going to be on the 4th and 5th of July.

Water Projects

We have the clean water project started for Central Java which will carry over to North Sumatra in about four months. We went last week to Central Java for the opening ceremony. It seems that the Indonesian people like to have ceremonies for everything. Opening, then closing and next week we go to Bogor for ceremony for a clean water project which is in process, but just a different stage. At each of these ceremonies they have to have their Indonesian food, now that is something we could do without, especially in the rural areas of Indonesia where we question the way the food has been prepared and cooked. Most of the Indonesia food is cold when you eat it. Sometimes we think it has been around for days before it is eaten.

We just got word yesterday that another clean water project will be approved which will bring the total water project to four projects in process. These water projects are in different Regions of Indonesia whereas in the past they have mainly be in the Bogor Region. With these projects there will be nearly 200,000 people who will have clean water that have never had clean water before at an average cost of about $5.50 per person.

Medical Care

We had an appt with Dr Risma. We had taken some of the little beanie hats to her and she asked if we would come to her hospital and meet again. She took us into the nurseries where all the preemie babies and the babies who were in ICU. They had 4 full nurseries with babies. 1. Very critical care babies 2. Critical care babies 3. Serious care 4. Good. We saw a baby who was born with no skin covering over the stomach area. They had all of the little organs in a plastic bag (just like the way it was with Preston. They were working to increase the cavity so they could put them back into the area where they belonged. They have a lot of good equipment, but they told us they have to improvise a lot. Like the plastic bag they were using in this case. They had a baby that had just been born the day before and he weighed 2 ½ pounds, so tiny, but he was doing Ok. However they said they didn't have any more room there so his twin could not be brought there. So he would problem just die. This is a very poor hospital, however they said that parents can't afford the care that these babies need so they usually just abandon them. So most of these children if they make it are just sent to an orphanage. They said sometimes when the babies are better the parents will show up. There were 3 Drs we met there and they were all women. Very good Drs, but they have a lot of work there. They were caring for about 50 babies. They said that sometime they put 2 babies in one incubator, but they can't do that if they are critical care, but there is such a need and not enough equipment for everybody. They asked if we would be able to buy some baby scales for them. We are going to try and help them with this.

We got approval for 100 more Cleft Lip and Palate surgeries. Dad was really elated and almost jumped for joy. We have worked so hard to convince them that we needed to do these things. We had to prove to them that Smile Foundation were not doing any work here in Indonesia.

Missionary Work

Jemmy's friend who is Brother Weten asked us to come to his house. We drove quite a ways to his house when we got there is a grocery store which the family operates. Brother Weten has another job and his family manages the store. As we visited I explained that in our church we handle the Sacrament Service much different and he needed to come to our church. He said "I will do that".
He has a lovely wife and two daughters; I would guess about 14 and 16. Brother Weten came to church the next Sunday which was General Conference for us and he was overwhelmed with the feeling of the spirit as he entered the chapel. He brought a friend with him who works with Catholic Humanitarian Service. I offered some wheelchairs for him if he had some recipients who were in need. We haven't heard from him yet, but we feel we will hear from him. After Brother Weten and his friend heard about three speakers at General Conference Jemmy took them on a tour of the building telling them about the programs of the church and then we sat in the foyer of the church and told the Joseph Smith story. After we visit and answer many questions, Brother Weten asks, "How does one become a member of your church". The missionaries are now meeting with them; they seem to be very receptive to the message of the restored gospel. He said that he wants to bring his family back to church, he wants them to feel the feeling he felt when he walked into the chapel. Last Sunday he came and brought his family and his father. His mother would have been there but she had a small accident and stayed home. He is intrigued with the idea that the church is organized the same way the church was organized at the time of Christ and continuing revelation with a Prophet and apostles. His wife seems to be very interested as well as the daughters. We believe they will become members of the Church. They each have their own copy of the Book of Mormon.

****

We went to Bandung on Thursday afternoon. That evening we went to a movie with the Davis. We went to Rin Tin Tin. It was a really fun movie. When we came out there was a couple behind us and they said we were sitting right behind us guys and notice how much you were laughing and enjoying the movie. They asked if we were Christian and we said yes. They were too. We talked to them for a while and told them about the English class at the church. They said they might come. They wanted to take our picture and got our email address. They have sent a copy of the picture already and said they hope to meet us again. You just never know when you are planting seeds for someone else to come along and convert them.

We spent a couple of days this week trying to find a new place for the Elders in Beksaki to move too. They have been living in a real rattrap and that is no exaggeration. We went one afternoon and looked with four elders at several different places then we took them for pizza. Those guys acted like they were staved too death. I don't think we could have brought enough pizzas to fill them up, but we didn't even try. They were so grateful. We went back the next day with Pres Marchant and the elders to see the places we thought would be OK. They all decided on one it is not real great, but it is 10 times better than what they have been living in.

We went to Zone Conference on Thursday. We had a good conference. It is mostly just instructions for the elders. When we came out of the conference at 3:30 our driver, John was asleep in the car we had a really hard time waking him up. He said he was sick and asked Ralph to give him a blessing. Elder Davis and Ralph gave him a blessing. Another driver said that he had thrown up about 10 times. President Marchant told us to get him right to a dr. He sent his driver with us and he drove his car home. They run a lot of tests on him and finally about 7:00 they came out and said, he had acute appendicitis and we needed to get him right to the hospital. We called Elder Subandriyo to find out where we needed to take him. We picked his wife up on the way to the hospital. We got to this "hospital" not real high tech and they could not read the ultra sound that had been done at the clinic so they had to do X-rays. Finally they came and said after all of this that they didn't have any beds. Boy!!! So we went to find another hospital meanwhile after having the IV that he had been given at the clinic he started to really perk up and he begged us not to take him to the hospital. His wife doesn't speak English and she couldn't understand the danger that he was in. When we got to the hospital he would not sign the paper to give them permission to treat them. We tried to talk to them and we not getting anywhere. Finally Ralph just got mad at him and said he was no longer our driver and that we were just leaving. We went out and Ari the other driver followed us. John grabbed all of the papers of the tests and he followed us out. Ralph turned around and told him that he would just have to find another way home and tried to tell him again that if he went home there was a good possibility that he would die. He finally turned around and went back into the hospital. Wow!!! He had the surgery the next morning. We got home at 12:30 am. He is doing OK now, but we may end up paying for the whole experience because he is our employee. I hope not, but we will have to do whatever. We are without a driver now for a while so I don't know what we will do. The President said that maybe Elder Walker would have to start driving. I believe that is when I will stay home for sure. This traffic is not fun.
On Friday a zone activity to the beach had been planned. They always use the mission couples cars to drive. They assigned one of the Indonesian Elders to drive our car. I was a little nervous at first, but he did a good job.

Anyway, We do have a lot of things to do and we are keeping busy with the humanitarian work, but we have had some distractions. We are trying to still get the wheelchairs off the dock. Which is proving to be quite the thing. The government here really know how to work things in order to get more money. We also have 2 water projects that we are working on getting approval and that is becoming a challenge also. But Dad just keeps plugging away at it. I have been working on this scrapbook this week. I just put 4 pictures on the page with a short paragraph about the project and the amount of money spent. It is not that hard. It is just finding the right pictures and information.

We just learned that the Welfare Service Missionaries in Bogor, who will be going home and end of May, will not be replaced. There are several projects they are currently managing which will fall upon our shoulders to do. This will increase our time traveling by car to clean water projects and to manage other projects as well. They will expect us to keep up with all our other work as well. I don't know how we are going to do it. We are going to be very busy.

The work of the Family Enrichment Program is going forward, we have an organization to finance the seminar in July and the booklet is translated and printed in Bahasa Indonesia. We are preparing to film the family home evening presentation, using a local Indonesian family. We have had some road blocks but the Lord opens another road and we just keep going. We see the hand of the Lord is his work everyday.

Last week we had the opportunity to visit a new place in Central Java. We live in West Java, then there is Central Java and then East Java. We went to Jojakarta. The mission couple the Taylor's met us at the airport they took us right to the church where they were teaching an English class. It is like the one that we help teach only it is for the Jr and Senior High school students there in Jojakarta. They have class 3 times a week, but on Fri night they have American night and Sister Taylor fixes them an American dinner. She had fixed spaghetti with meatballs and they sang On Top of Spaghetti all covered with cheese. It was really fun. We stayed with them at their house.


We got up early on Sat so we could go see Kaliuran a working volcano, but you couldn't see the top of the mountain because it was cloudy and rainy. We hiked up to a waterfall there and there were monkeys everywhere. We had brought bananas and fed the monkeys on the way up and then we brought some peanuts to feed them again. I had a package in my hand. I had thought I need to keep these secure so I had them cupped tightly in my hands up against my chest. Well a monkey jumped up at me grabbed the bag and was gone before I could even blink my eyes. He spilled them all over in the process though so they all came running to get the peanuts. I think I will give up on monkeys. They are just too sneaky.

We then went to the Pramabanan Temple. It had about 30 little temples all around it, which were destroyed when there was an earthquake in 2006. They are trying to put some of them back together, but it seems like an endless task to me. We were able to see the Volcano though in the distance. It was very interesting. Wish they could visit some of our temples and see what a real temple looks like. We then went and did a little shopping, and we saw a lady actually making some batik fabric. What a process! It is really interesting. We went to church with the Taylor's the next morning. They have a really good branch that they are working with. These people in the church everywhere we go are really strong in the gospel. They treated us so good. After church we took them to the Golf course for another wheelchair ceremony. It makes me feel really out of place to be there on Sunday, but the Muslins big day for church is on Friday.

We had a lunch at the pres house, which was for all the employees of the service center this week before they all had some days off. It was an Indonesian Dinner and I quite enjoyed most of the food. I think my tongue has been fried so many times it doesn't taste or feel it anymore. The celebration this week was for the Accession of Christ. Don't ask me who makes up all these holidays.

The whole district had a 3-day camp out of all of the Youth. At first I thought it was a ward campout, because I saw some babies there, but it was just Mothers who went to help with the food preparation. It had been raining and it was wet and muddy, but they didn't seem to care. They would run around in their flip-flops and then they would run through a stream of water and clean them off and away they would go. The President talked to them. He had them read in their scriptures and the strength of youth booklet and they all had them. Even with it raining and wet and they were having a great time. It was a faith building experience for me to see how these youth were just having a great experience despite all the obstacles that they had in front of them.

So here we are to Easter. The President is gone to Central Java for a zone conference so I thought I better have the Elders over for an Easter Dinner. The AP to the Pres both were leaving in the afternoon, but they said they would delay their flight as late as possible so they could have dinner with us. Sat I fixed yummy potatoes, Jell-O, carrots and made a cake for some strawberry short cake. We also had some ham so it was a nice Easter Dinner. We had Elder and Sister Pier come for dinner too. We really don't have a lot of room to feed everybody, but they don't seem to mind as long as there is enough to eat. Elder Bastain the other day said I don't care what we have for dinner as long as you cook it. I love the food that you fix. That was quite the compliment. I don't have them over to eat that often either. Elder Teng asked the other day when we were coming to inspect the apt. And I said maybe it will be a surprise inspection. He said, I don't care, but I hope it is soon we need some cookies.

We went to these places in Jojakarta. This is a temple built by the hindu. It had several smaller temples around it which were destroyed two years ago in an earth quake. In the background you can see an active valcano. We went up to a waterfall there by the valcano. It was all very interesting. It was raining most of the time we were there, but it is always warm so you don't pay to much attention to the rain unless it really rains like it does sometimes.

We have had a busy week. The time goes fast when it is busy, but it seems like we have had two weeks in one because we have had to do so much. The Baldwins who are the missionary couple that we report from Hong Kong came in last Saturday. We went to church up in Bogor where he met with the Branch Pres. We met with Brother and Sister Kane

They spent Monday with us and went through things in our office and asked lots of questions. We spent all day with them until 8 pm. We had to be in Bogor at 8 am so it was an early morning. We visited the toilet project on the way. Then we went up into the mountains to a water project which is two miles away. All of the men hiked up into the mountain to see the head of the spring. Sister Baldwin did not have hiking shoes so the women stayed back, but we went into the village which was a good mile up into there. We had fun visiting some of the village people. I forgot my candy and the kids were very scared of us. Dad slipped off the trail and fell into a rice field. He was all muddy when he came back.

We left early again the next day and went to Chimpanek where there is another toilet project planned to begin really soon. Then we went to the Safari. We all had a good time there. The Kanes met us there. The Baldwins really enjoyed the time there and there was so much more to see and they would have liked to spend more time, but we had so much planned. We had to leave to go see a pathway that LDSC is putting together for some school children. It was a long hike and it had been raining so the pathway was really slick. I was really uncomfortable and was glad when we were all back safe. We went to see another project. We had to hurry home because Elder Baldwin had a meeting scheduled with a district president here in Jakarta at 6:30. I had asked it I needed to be to the meeting and he said no, but Elder Walker has to be there. When we pulled into the driveway Elder and Sister Davis were standing there and the said they were going to Amigo's and asked us to come along. I decided to go with them and left them all standing there in the driveway.
I got very brave this time!

A very pregnant chimp

We met Pres and Sister Marchant, Elder and Sister Taylor and Pier and the restaurant. Sister Marchant and I were sitting together and the server went to put fruit drink on the table and I don't know what happened, but he poured it on both of us. We were all laughing and we told him it was Ok. The owner came over and her apologized and felt so bad. He didn't realize that he had spilled it on me too, which I was glad because they went and brought a blouse for Sister Marchant, which she flatly refused to take, and I was glad I didn't have to deal with that. I told the owner that it was just an accident and to not worry about it. He said, I saw you up in Bandung and I remember your badge and I know that you are good people. We have eaten at Amigos in Bandung. They gave us all chips and salsa, which they charge extra for here and also big fruit plates for dessert. So it was great, but I hope the server didn't lose his job.

The next day we flew to Solo to see another water project. The men again climbed up into the mountain. After we went and saw the area where they had the floods in Dec. These people don't have anything and now they really don't have anything. It really makes me sad, but yet they are so happy. They just take life in their stride and they go on. We flew back and the flight last one hour, but it took us over one and half hours to get back to Senopati.

We had a nice trip up to Medan. We took some time to go and visited a church that someone told us was really nice. It was very interesting. It was built and is run by a Catholic Father, but it has Hindu architect.

Our friend Purba picked us up after our church on Sunday to take us to the wheelchair ceremony. He had a lunch for us. One of those famous Indonesian lunches where they bring all kinds of things in little bowls and put them on the table. After he said to us do you want some tea or coffee? Elder Subandriyo, Pres and Sister Marchant and the two of us were all there. We said, "We don't drink coffee or tea." He said, "That is interesting, because you all have a light in your face and in your eyes. Is it because you don't drink these things?" We all thought that was interesting that he was seeing that. He is not Muslim. He is Christian and before we ate he said a prayer and when we were through eating he had Ralph offer a prayer. The wheelchair ceremony was really special. I watched as different people came in carrying someone in their arms that needed a wheelchair and it was so exciting to see as they placed them in a wheelchair and to watch the look on their faces. One lady came in crawling on her knees. There were several little children also. It is truly a blessing for them. We don't know how blessed we are until we see things like this. We are grateful for the opportunity we have to be apart of this great work. We watched them as they loaded the wheelchair up on a motorcycle that has a cart on the side of it. They would put the person in the cart and the wheelchair on back of the cart and then they would take off. Friday, they had a district Relief Society meeting and also a training meeting for the Branch Presidencies. It was the Hindu New Year so everyone had the day off. I don't know how many more New Years there are going to be. We have had the regular NY and the Chinese NY, the Muslin New Year and now Hindu. I am wondering what is next. Anyway they all spent the whole day at the church. This happens every time they have a holiday they like to spend it together so they have something always going on at the church. I worked with the District RS Pres and got her to help get the yarn and she made some instructions in Indonesian so the ladies can crochet these little preemie beanie hats. There were about 20 ladies and some of them did OK, but it was hard to help them because they could not understand me. But I hope that they catch the spirit and they are able to make a bunch of them. My idea is to teach these Indonesian sisters how to make them so when we leave they can carry on this project. The district Relief Society Pres was helping too, but there were too many too help.

This has been a rather sloooow week. We haven't had much too do. We went to the wheel chair ceremony at the golf course. It is a really nice place and they served us a good Indonesian dinner. They had something of everything that we could enjoy. Jemmy followed behind and told us what was too spicy.

We had a meeting with the Social Affairs people and there were 8 people there. We could not understand a word and after Jemmy and Elder Subandriyo said that things are not going very good there. We had a bit of reality set in which is disappointing but things are still going to work out for us. This is something the Indonesians know here in our office but we didn't have a clue. When the Indonesia Government gets involved in projects it is for money for the government or for themselves or usually both, and since there is not money or profit from this project for personal interest, the interest level seems to have diminished. They want us to put on this big production and pay for everyone to come including food and hotel and they want to just sit back and watch. They know that this is an important subject to address on Family Enrichment but without the money factor it doesn't have their committed attention.

We are now turning our attention to the Media Group which is a part of Metro TV who has expressed a desire to help us and we were going to have them as a partner in this project. The Social Affairs Departments will be participants in the seminar both as attendees and presenters in the seminar itself. We met again with Alwi Shihab who called us first to report that he had read the booklet and felt that it was very good and it is something the Indonesians need. As usual he was very gracious to us. He volunteered to be a presenter at the seminar and he would help in the fund raising effort from private corporate and government business interest. He also gave us many names of important people to have as sponsors. He made this statement "I hope the Mormons are successful in getting many new members to join your church, it would be good for Indonesia". I don't think he really knows how good this would be for Indonesia, or maybe he does!! I wonder just how much President Packer has told him about the church, and how much he knows.

We went to lunch at the Hotel University. A couple of the students there have been coming to the English class on Thursday nights and their director said they had heard about them coming to the class and were wondering if someone could come there and teach a class of English. We said that a set of Elders would be able to come once a week. They were surprised and asked how much it would cost. When we told them it would be free they couldn't believe it. They said at least we can pay for transportation and we told them that wouldn't be possible. They have us come to lunch all the time. Yesterday we had Chicken Cordon Bleu. The elders always enjoy the lunch so they are happy to spend an hour teaching them.

Today we went to the golf club again. This time it is for the women golfer. So it was another good lunch. We couldn't understand anything, but we were there. We gave them 5 wheel chairs. It is just a long time in the car always no matter where we go.

We are also busy with wheelchair projects at this time. We just had 500 wheelchairs come into Medan the middle of the month. We have schedule a ceremony for the first of March. The NGO is the Lions Club Mr. Purba who is President of the Club in Medan who is also the Legislator for that Region. He is a very likeable man. He will have an extension of the cleft lip and palate project going there right now that was started in December. We will interact with the doctors there. This will be a good experience as we see those who have needed a wheelchair receive their first wheelchair and will be able to be mobile. These children who receive the cleft lip operation; it's an incredible thing to see the change that comes to their faces and their demure. They are free from the emotional stress and this increases their self esteem. We will look forward to this experience. We also have 500 wheelchairs coming into Jakarta (we have difficulty getting them clear to come into Jakarta without duty, we were not successful, but we have remedied that problem) which we are going to ship all over the Island of Java to be distributed by other missionary couples.

We had the Elders to dinner on Sunday. We try to do that when the Pres is not here. I just fixed Lasagna, French bread, broccoli and fresh pineapple (2), brownies and ice cream. There was not one crumb left. One of the Elder's Mother had sent him a cookie mix for his birthday. He had come over and mixed and baked them too. So there was a lot of food. I hope that Terry gets to have dinner with the couple missionaries at least one time. We love having them here. They are so good to us. Last night they had made a drink like Orange Julius and they came over and gave us some. They asked the other night though if I always cook our dinner everyday and Dad said, "She sure does." They said well we are willing any time to clean up any of the leftovers.

We have spent most of the week in the office. Dad has been trying to put together a time line from the beginning of the things that have taken place with the Family Enrichment Program for Elder Subandriyo. He has had me digging in my journal for dates of when we went to see this person and where etc. It is a good thing I a record of it. Elder Subandriyo also wants us to put together a scrapbook from about 2002 through now of all the projects that have been done by LDSC with pictures and a little description of each project. That is a lot of work. So I guess I know what I can do with my time in the office.

Elder Subandriyo and Dad had a couple of meetings this week. One with the Social Affairs office with a gal named Susi. She is the director of Women Empowerment. She is going to be on the steering committee for the Seminar. At the last minute Elder Subandriyo couldn't go so I went with him. The next day they had one with Alwi Shihab. I would like to meet him, but they didn't take me this time. He is going to help with the seminar. He thinks it is going to be great.

We took the sister missionaries to Burger King for lunch. You would have thought we had taken them to an expensive restaurant. They were so excited. There is a new sister that came in last week. She is from Calif. I also made cookies and we went to Berkasi to inspect the apt of the Elders there. They have 1 English elder and 3Indonesian elders living there. They live in a terrible place. I feel so sorry for them. The roof leaks every time it rains which is almost every day and they have water coming in the kitchen from another source, which is probably sewer water that they have to scoop out of the kitchen every day. I hate to go there because it is so awful, but it builds their spirit to have us come and bring them cookies.

Elder Garn who is a member of the seventies and is in the Area Pres from Hong Kong is here. He has meeting with all of the Dist Pres. Elder Garn and his wife were both born in Tremonton and graduated with Dad. So Dad is anxious to meet him. They will be in meetings all day today.

Tomorrow we have church, but during that we have to go to a golf tournament for a wheel chair ceremony for the Social Affairs Dept. I know it is Sunday, but they don't know that. So we have to do it. We will not be participating by golfing however. That would be funny. It is a big National tournament I guess. We got a formal invitation but of course we can't read it. We just go when we are told and hope we are right.

We really had a great week. It was great to get away and be with all the couples in the mission. There are 10 couples right now here. Between June and September most of the couples will be going home and I don't know how many couples that are going to be replaced. We have already been told that the Humanitarian couple in Borgor are not going to be replaced which is going to put a real burden on us because we will have to go up there all the time to check on the water projects.

We got to Bali about noon on Monday and we were met there with a leis greeting. It was so neat. We all had a lunch and some went swimming and to the beach. We went with Induh (Jemmys wife) and the Davis to a little Indonesian shopping place. Induh helped us to get some good deals. I brought a batik quilt for $12.50. I can't make one for that. We had a dinner that evening at a special restaurant that the President took us too. We had some special Balinese food. Some of it was OK some was not. Then they had some special Balinese Traditional Dancers, which was really good.

We had the conference meeting the next morning at 8:00 so we were up early to get ready for that. We met with about 10 other couple missionaries. We received instruction from our mission president and from the Public Affairs Specialists in Singapore. Then we all gave presentations about ourselves and what we are doing. It was good to see what the couples that have been out longer have accomplished. After the conference all the other couples went to play but we had a really neat gathering with 4 people from the governor's office. We talked about getting them some wheelchairs and they were really excited and asked when we would have time to meet with the Governors wife. We made an appointment for Friday Morning at 9:00 am. The need for wheelchairs is so great and it is difficult to get them here duty free.

The next afternoon we went with Jemmy, Induh and some of the other couples. Jemmy took us to an interesting place where the Hindus go to a Temple and take their food to be blessed along with them and there is quite a ceremony. Then he took us to a monkey forest. They are all over this place and you buy peanuts to feed them. There is a guide that goes around with you to make sure that the monkey are good and don't bite you. Dad and I were walking along a path and all of the couples had gone ahead of us. All of a sudden a monkey jumped right up on my shoulder. I was more than shocked. The guide told me to hold very still. I thought that was so the monkey would not bite me, but she was trying to get my camera off my wrist so that Ralph could take pictures. He took several pictures and she tried to coax the monkey to get off, but it was very comfortable. She finally took her shoe off and was ready to beat it and it jumped off. I was quite relieved. That was an adventure to say the least.

We finally had a whole day just to go and see Bali. Jemmy and Induh again arranged to take most of the couples. They took us to a little program with Balinese Dancers it was so very good. Then to a silver factory and we watched them handcraft all kinds of necklaces, bracelets, watches etc. It was very interesting. All by hand. We went up a mountain to a volcano, but it was in the clouds. We had a lot of rain on and off all week, but we really weren't ever out where we got rained on. We did have lunch up there and would have had a beautiful view of the volcano it the clouds hadn't been there. We spent the afternoon touring some other places and got back to the hotel just in time to freshen up and go to a valentine dinner party. The President had to go home after the meeting on Tuesday, but he had Jemmy set this all up and he paid for it. We had a steak dinner and a singer that entertained us with songs in English. The Ocean was just down the road a ways from the hotel, but we never even got a chance to walk down there. Nor did we get to go to swimming pool at the hotel.

Balinese Dancer

Dad holding a bat

We went to our early appt with the Governor's wife and found that her husband had been called to a special meeting with the Pres. and she had gone with him, but her first assistant was there along with many others and we had a very good meeting and we are going to get some wheelchairs for them through LDSC. So we are going to be able to go back to Bali again for that ceremony. I am amazed every week the things that we are doing. We can see that the Lord is leading us to these different places. He places us at the right place at the right time.