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.