We have had a busy week. Monday we went shopping to get some things to fix dinner. when we were at the store we heard someone say to their little boy they speak English go and talk to them. He was about 6 and he kept hiding behind his Dad, but they spoke English and we talked to them a little bit. They looked at our badges and said you are Christian. We said yes. We told them about the English class at the church on Thurs Night and they were interested but said they were from Bekasi. So our driver, John got their number and they gave him their number.

Tues we prepared to teach the English class. Before we left Ummi and her husband came to see us. She has been here several times, but she said, We want to know about LDS Charities and just what it really is. We tried to explain to her the best we could. She brought a tape and a DVD of music that she had made. She is going to do one for the earthquake in Bengkulu also and she is going to put the logo for LDS Charities on it. We realized after she left that she was really asking about the church and the reason she comes is because she she can feel the spirit and she doesn't know what it is. She is going to have a big party in Dec for all of us. She brought me a purse and some cookies. She is Muslin so we have to be careful. We told this story to Christine and she is going to put her name on the prayer roll at the Temple. It will be fun to see what happens with her. We know that the Lord placed her there in Bengkulu to help us because she was just there.

On Wed afternoon we had some people come from the US Embassy and the peace corp. They are thinking about locating a group here and they were told to visit the Mormons. The met with Pres and sister Marchant, Elder Subandriyo, Us and the four elders. We all told them about us and what we were there for. Then they asked all about their language training and what their schedule is like here etc. They ask about how safe we felt here and about the sister missionaries. It was a very interesting meeting. Of course they don't know about the special protection that we get from the Lord.

We went to English class and after when we were all in the car to go to McDonald's the sisters said, we like Elder and Sister Walker because they give us cookies and take us for ice cream and the Elders piped up and said we like them because of their spiritual and kindness.

On Fri we had an appt at the Presidential Palace of the Republic of Indonesia. With Nurhayati Ali Assegaf she is a special asst to the First Lady. Wow. I never thought I would ever be in such a place, Elder Subandriyo was to go with us, but he had to go to Hong Kong. So he sent a man named Jimmy whose Father was a Legislator at one time. Thank heavens because he really knew his way around that place. We had a great visit with her. We introduced the Family Enrichment Program to her. We told her about what we had done in Indonesia for earthquake victims, cleft lip and palate, clean water projects, and other. She has been aware of all that LDS Charities has done and they are all grateful for the service we do. She seems to have more interest in the manual than Lisa at Metro TV. She said that they have been looking for ways to strengthen families and this might be the answer. She took a copy to read and would get back with us. Ibu is a very strong Muslin lady, and dresses with a Cilbab which is the scarf over the head. She is also the sister-in-law to Alwi Shihab who was the Minster of Religion to Indonesia. Alwi Shihab is a good friend to President Packer and spoke to BYU students at a Forum. The First Lady has also been in Salt Lake City and visited with some of the brethren including President Packer. It is interesting how closely connected the church and Indonesia leaders are becoming. Elder Subandiyro who is Area Seventy for the South Asian area is well respected by many of the Government Leaders and as an excellent relationship with them.
The Presidential Palace

They say we are in the rainy season, but so far it hasn't been to bad. When it has rained it has been at nights so we have not had to be out in it. We went out the other night and I said to Dad here it is Oct I feel like I need to take a sweater with me, because it is that time of the year. However you don't need a sweater here. I do see people with jackets on or sweaters and I wonder why. It is so hot.

The Pres invited us to dinner on Mon Night because they were having the English students there for dinner. I asked what we could bring and he said, bring ice cream and cookies again, but leave half of the sugar out of the cookies, because the Indonesian don't like sweet things. Well I decided to try and make cheese cake instead. So I had to find the things for cheese cake, which wasn't an easy task. I looked for sweetened condensed milk and most things are written on the cans in Indonesian, but I found this can and it said sweetened condensed milk on it even though it was all in Indonesian otherwise. I had to make the graham cracker crust. I made 2 off them. I couldn't find any cherries to put on top though. When the Elders came in for dinner they said, we hear you brought the dessert. I said yes. One of them said I hope you didn't listen what the Pres said, to leave out 1/2 of the sugar. They had been talking about that upstairs. They all loved it though ,even the Pres.

We are helping to teach the English class. There are 7 students that are staying here in Jakarta for a month. The Missionary couple that are over the Employment here in Jakarta are teaching the class. They have asked us to help teach afternoons a week. We are to teach them about prepositions and verbs. So far we have done OK, but it is hard to come up with things to teach them. We give them really easy work sheets. Things that are so simple for us, but is so hard to learn. They can read pretty good, but when they talk they say they leave out the prepositions. They say will say, I'm helping teach English class. Like my first sentence. They always shorten the sentence. I'm getting so I do it to.

That evening we decided to go to the mall. Dad asked the Elders how to tell them where we wanted to go, but I think just the way he said it we ended up in a different place than we wanted to be, but when we started looking around to our surprise it was a really fun place to be. We found some batik things. We brought some a beautiful batik tablecloth and Dad got an Indonesian traditional dress. (a skirt). We took a taxi home.

We had made arrangements to go and inspect the sisters apt and take them to lunch again. We got ready to go and we went to find John and he was not here. We called him and her said Oh I am at the beach with my family. He is still taking time off, but doesn't brother to tell us. We went and the Pres let us use his driver, Ari, He took us and then the Sisters suggested that we go to the Cheese Cake Factory for lunch. We had pizza, and Dad got his favorite thing Chicken and Pasta then we had cheese cake. It was fun and it was sure not as expensive as it is in the US. Ari was glad he was with us. We came back home and finished a project to get it sent in to Hong Kong. Then we decided to go back to the same place and get some tablecloths for home. We found that the next floor up had all kinds of crafts, pearl necklaces, silver, craved wood of everything. We wandered around for a long time. Then we decided to go home. We got a taxi again and he couldn't understand what we were trying to tell him at all. We finally gave him a card with the address on and he said, Ah, Senopati. That is the name of the street we live on. Well he started driving and after a while he stopped at a place and said Senopati. We said, No. So he got out and asked the people on the street where to go. He got in and started driving again to someplace else and then he got out again and asked more people. I was beginning to think we were not going to get home. He finally found his way. We are getting around and what adventures we are having.

We were invited to a lunch on Thurs with the office staff. I got brave and decided to make cinnamon rolls, They were Ok, but just not like the ones I make at home. They were kinda heavy. However everyone raved and raved. They just don't know what a good cinnamon roll tastes like.

On Friday we had an appt at 9:00 at the Metro TV station with Lisa Luhur of the Media Group. We talked to her about the wheelchairs that are coming soon for them. Also Dad told her about the Cleft lip and palate surgeries that we coming up on Nov 8 and she said you let me know the time and the place and we will have a TV crew there to take pictures we want to be a part of that and when she learned about the closing ceremony for the water project in Nov sometime. So Dad is all excited. She is going to try and make arrangements for some more surgeries and she may help with a booklet that the church puts out like a family home evening book, but it is for any one. We are trying to make arrangements right now to get it translated into Indonesia.

We have our district conference this week end so we have the Sat. Night meeting and then it is the meeting from church headquaters for our conference tomorrow. So we have a busy week-end.

We keep busy most of the time. The evenings are really long and not too much too do on Sat. The celebrations with the ending of Romadan or Idul Fitri have ended this week. Things are getting back to normal here in Jakarta. Everything has been closed including banks, stores etc. The traffic is also getting back to normal. It was so nice to go somewhere in a short time.

This 'n That

The missionaries came that we met in the MTC. They brought the clipping of Dad out of the Church News. That was the first time that we had seen it. It was fun to see the Elders, but they had jet lag. We were in a missionary meeting with them on Fri and they were feeling like they were wondering how much Indonesian they had learned. One of the Elders was translating for us and I think they were wishing someone would translate for them too. I could tell they were feeling lost. They have left to go to their areas now.

On Thursday we were invited to a a special luncheon. A man named Batak Sinabela. He is very well to do and owns 1/2 of the hotel and restaurant that we went to. It was Japanese food. It was so good. He had his family there to meet us. His son and Daughter in Law and another daughter. He is friends with Elder Sanbandriyo. President Marchant and his wife were there also. Mr Sinabela could not speak English, but his son and daughter in law could so we talked to them. He spent most of the time helping with his grandchildren. After the lunch they brought out 3 cakes. (black forest cakes) and send them home with us. It was so good.

On Fri afternoon we walked up to the grocery store which is about 1/2 mile away. Then Dad decided that we could walk to another store which is kinda like a Wal Mart. Well, after about 4 miles of walking we got there finally. Things are so confusing here you can't just go around the block. We really got lost, but we finally found our way. Fortunately, we met a member of the English Branch at the store and he offered to give us ride back home. I am so glad. This is one of those moments that the Lord sent us someone to take care of us, because it was dark by this time. We were glad to be home.

We went to the church to watch conference. After the first session the Indonesian Branch had fixed lunch. Some chicken which they cook just like Dad likes it to a crisp, rice, and lots of other interesting things. It was really like eating off the street. They cook in places that are not that clean. They served the meal on glass dishes. We ate in the parking lot of the church. When they were done eating they went over in a corner with two pans and got water from the hose.(not clean water) they had soap in one pan and they rinse in the other. You just have to pray that it is all going to be Ok. When ever I am out like that anywhere I say a silent prayer that the food will be Ok and that it doesn't kill me. After the 2nd session they had a soup that was almost like split pea soup. Dad was in heaven. They did serve that in paper bowls. I was glad. While the men stayed to hear the Priesthood meeting, Sister Marchant and I went with the Sister Missionaries to their little house and we visited with their neighbors to wish them Idul Fitri which is like a holiday greeting, but they have fixed cookies of all kinds and they made us eat and eat. At one neighbors house they had us eat cookies and then they took us out into the kitchen and fed us dinner. By the time John and Dad came to pick us up we had had quite the experiences. They even gave a Book of Mormon to one man who just said he likes to learn about other religions.

Today we went to conference again. They had like a little box lunch that had a bun and a hot dog and another funny kind of a sweet roll. They all love these kind of things it wasn't too bad. Then after conference Elder Subandriyo invited us to go with them out to their new home in the country. It was quite aways away from Jakarta. It was a really nice home. Sister Subandriyo had fixed a really nice dinner. I can't get over what these people do. It was wonderful. They just had a daughter die in Aug. Just before we came here. She was 20 and she had gone to Utah to visit. She died of toxic syndrome. It was really a shock to everyone here. They had lots of pictures of her in this new home. Sister Subandriyo is somewhat of a source for pearls. She makes necklaces etc to sell. She said that she would teach me so I will see what I can do in that area. She also make nativity scenes and I am going to try and get some of those. We were with Pres and Sister Marchant too. Then we went to visit a sister and her family. Her husband just died from cancer. she has four children. She was really living in humble circumstances. What a blessing to be in her home.

Quickly Learning the Ropes

Check out the following article from the Church News for week ending October 6.
Church aids victims of Indonesia earthquake The Church has been providing assistance to victims of a 7.9 magnitude earthquake that struck this area the evening of Wednesday, Sept. 12. (You have to have a subscription to view it online)

A backyard shack

On Tuesday we had an appt with a man that is a member of the Indonesian Parliament. He had set up for a project in Maden which is at the top of Sumatra. That is about a 2 1/2 hour flight. They have missionaries up there. The wheel chairs are ready for delivery. Anyway we made an appointment with this man at 12:00. We met him at the Parliament building and he welcomed us into his office. He spoke English. We talked to him about the wheelchairs and he said that he didn't want them to be delivered until Dec 15th and then there will be a big ceremony with the press and everything. He said, You will be there.... Then we asked him if we could help him in other ways and he started naming the areas that he was in charge of. We told him about the surgeries that had been done for cleft palates and hare lip and he was very interested. He said that he would do some investigating and see if there was a way that we could do that with them too. He talked about an island that he was going to be on at the end of Oct and he got on the phone with Elder Subandriyo and they talked in Indonesian and when he got off the phone he said, you will be there too. We couldn't figure what that was all about. He then called in his asst and said, I want a picture of you with me. I was glad that I had my camera too. Then when we were getting ready to leave he asked Ralph to say a prayer for him. He was so nice to us. We went to leave his office and he walked us out to the front door which was a long ways. We started to shake his hand at the front door and he said No. I am going to walk you to your car. We were both amazed. We are looking forward to going to Maden in Dec.

On Thursday Dad had called to one of the members of the LDS Charities team, Bertha. He had gone over the accounting with a fine tooth comb. (an accountant!!) Anyway he had a few questions for her. She came to answer his questions. They kept records of every single thing right down to the last toothpick. She was able to account to him for everything. When we were working together she had offered to take me shopping sometime. I wanted to get a bedspread for this bed. We left home about 12:00. She took us to a place that you would not believe. I can not even explain it. She said this is where Indonesian shop and she told me not to go there with out an Indonesian. There were thousand of purses, shoes, clothes, jewelry, clothing of all kinds. You name it. But since it is Ramadan which I have explained to you and it is about to end. It is like Christmas. They were a million shoppers. It was worse than any shopping at Christmas time. We found what we wanted. We got a good price and would have had to paid more than double at any mall here. She said it was cheaper there too, because of the sales for Ramadan. The traffic was so bad that it took us over 2 hours to get home. We got here at 4:45 and we had to leave at 5:00 to go to our English Class at the church, which starts at 6:30. We got there at 6:20. If the traffic is ever good like it is on Sunday Morning we can get to the church in about 20 min. that is the only time.

John said there will be no traffic next week because everyone will be gone. They all go back to where they were born to celebrate if they can afford it. Even those who are not Muslins because it is a family together time. However there are a lot of people that can't afford it, but they don't have cars. School is out all week too. We are giving our driver most of the week off, because this is tradition. So we will be close around again.

John, our driver, with his wife and son

However we braved it today, Saturday, We took a taxi. We gave the driver the name of The Outback Steak house. He couldn't understand. So we had to call John and he told him where to go. We went and ate the best food since we left home and it wasn't as expensive as it would have been at home. Getting home was the next problem. We were on the wrong side of the road, but there was no way to cross the road. So we took a taxi, but Dad could see it was going to take him hours to get us home, because of the traffic and the direction we were headed so he had him let us out at a place that had a walk over the road and we walked over and were headed the other direction and we were home in no time. So we made it.

One thing I have noticed here is it is so hot all the time, but everbody is dressed very modestly, especially the muslins and the women who have their heads covered, No one wear tank tops and I hardly ever see someone with shorts on. Another thing that is really strange is women take their babysitter or Nanny to the mall with them and they carry the baby around in one of those slings while the mother shops. Today at dinner there was a couple there that had a baby and a little girl that looked about 2 or 2 1/2. They had 2 Nanny's and they were tending the children while the parents ate their dinner. The nanny's were not eating. They just entertained the children. The mother paid absolutely no attention to her children. The father played a little bit with the little girl.

Sink or Swim

Dad by the Indian Ocean

It has been a busy week again. We got up early last Monday morning and flew back from Bengkulu. When we got here Ralph tried to call Elder Burr in Hong Kong, his secretary said, "he is flying right now to Indonesia. He had sent us an e-mail to let us know he was coming, but since we were in Bengkulu we hadn't got his message. We rush to get all our washing done to be ready when he come. Pres. Marchant wanted to have him to dinner since they were leaving the next morning for Maden up in Sumatra.

On Wed Morning they came to see us and started telling us all that we should be doing and all the reports that were due. After about 45 minutes of this I looked at Dad and said, "Are you ready to go home?" he said, "yes." We then took them to lunch. John picked a place. It was a nice restaurant, but I am having a hard time getting use to this Indonesia food. Burrs were even less impressed. (whoops). They made us take them right to the store so they could get a coke to drink and kill all the germs. We then took them to a couple of Sister Peterson favorite shopping places. Again they were not impressed. We took them to a huge mall here and we ate dinner at an A&W.

On Thurs we took them up to Borgar to Taman Safari. I have never seen so many wild animals. We just drove around and they were everywhere right at the side of the road. It was great. We spent most of the day there.

Who's Who

Holding a White Tiger

We came back and ran to the grocery store to get milk. We had not had any time. We had to hurry back so we could be ready to go to the English class. After everyone wanted to go to have ice cream. We told the Elders that they needed to walk. It is only 3 blocks, but they said no it was OK. They all piled in the back seat of this car which is just a small car. 3 of them squished into the seat and one of them laying on top. Then the 2 sisters and Dad and I. The Elders will do anything for food.

On Friday we went up to Borgar early in the morning and met with the Kanes. We left there and went up into the mountains again. Over lots of bumpy roads. When we got there we had to hike up a mountain. I mean that litterly. There was a small little trail. We hiked through the bushes, high weeds and grass. I lost my footing several times and just about slipped down the mountain. I scared everyone several times. I will try to send pictures. This wasn't in the job description.

On Sat we had to get up early we had to be at the airport by 5:00 am. so we could go to Bengkulu again. We got up there and we bought 17 bibles to take to that little Christian village that wanted some bibles. We viewed alot of the earthquake damage so the Burrs could see what we had been doing. We went to that little place to eat again. I think the food is probably better there than any other place that we have been. I hope I live through the food. We caught the plane back and we were glad to get home about 8:00.

On Sunday we have to be to church by 8:00. I wasn't ready to get up and get going again. We stay for both branches and then there was a baptism that we stayed for. I was thinking I was going to have to fix dinner for the Burr's, but when we got home the President invited us to come again. They are so nice. I was glad when the day was over, but by the time we got the dishes done at the pres house it was after 9:00 pm. I dropped into bed.

Reaching Out

Well another week of fun and excitement or weekend I should say. We flew out again on Sat. Morning. Elder Subandriyo's who is the area authority sent his 17 year old son Ezra with us to translate. It is so beautiful over there and the country is so green. He took us back to the same hotel that we had stayed in before. It is an OK hotel, but the bathroom stinks really bad. It's hard to be in the room. They gave us time to unload our suitcases and we were off again. We went to the rice broker place again. The Police truck came and they loaded up the rice. Then went to the home of the Christian Church to pick up 300 more packets of food for 3 villages. It takes and 1 1/2 hours to get there and there were 8 of us in a car. We went to the 1st village and had the same incredible experiences as last week. These people are so grateful for the help and the treat us so good. We have to shake every hand in the village about 2 or 3 times. The 2nd village we passed through was virtually destroyed. No one was there they had moved up on the mountain and were living in tents. About 5 big tents for the whole village. They said they were never going back to their homes because of their fear of a Tsaumai that they almost experienced. The 3rd village was the same except they were trying to live in their homes or what was left of them with cracks all over and tarps on parts of the roof. They all are so poor. We give the kids all candy,

One little boy was so afraid of us. I tried to give him a piece of candy and he wouldn't even come close to me. All the kids were laughing at him because he would run away from me every time I tried to give him the candy. I finally threw him a piece right at his feet. Then as we were going though the people I would look around and he was really close by, but if I tried to interact with him he would run. Finally he got brave and I got him to take a piece of candy from me and he would quickly run away. Before long he let us touch his hand. By the time we were ready to leave I could give him a high five. We had to really coax him to let us take his picture, but when he saw the picture it made him smile.





On Sunday we were still in Bengkulu but we didn't want to go to the Christian Church again like we did last week. One of those sermons is enough to last us for a year. Ralph suggested that we have our own Sacrament Meeting. They wrote down the Sacrament songs and prayers. We got bread and we each brought a glass of water from our room. I never have been in a better church meeting. There were nine of us. From the opening song to the closing song the spirit was so strong that you could feel it. We had the sacrament and then one of the men gave a talk on families and working toward the Celestrial Kingdom with especially our husband or wife. Then everyone bore their testimonies. Ezra had been sick the night before, but he started to get really sick. Someone took him to the "hospital" they came back and got all the men to go and give him a blessing. When they came back they said, "that they think he had malaria. They had some pills for us all to take. He had to fly back home. Since he has got home they are saying it wasn't malaria. We went back up to Lias to survey where and what we needed to do on Monday. We met a lot of poor people who have lost their homes and everything that they have. Some were living in their homes even though their were cracks all around and part of the roofs and even walls were missing. At one village they had just cut down a coconut tree and they opened the coconut and gave us some of the liquid to drink. It was actually pretty good. Then they gave us the coconut to eat. It was good.





On Monday we put some kits together for the little children. It had a pencil, pen, ruler, eraser, a little pencil box and a note book. We made 500 of these. They always give us a Police escort and their were 10 Police to help us today. We again went to visit 3 different villages. On the way we went passed rubber trees. It was interesting to learn about how they get the rubber from the trees. One man in the village told us he has to gather rubber from 150 trees a day to get $3.00. We again had a great experience in each village. This time we added a few things like some towels and some balls for the kids to play with. In one of the villages we run into a little red headed boy. it was so strange to see him there. We decided that he must be an albino. His parents both had the dark hair and brown eyes. He was a cute little boy.

We love you all. Wish we could send you some of this heat.

Earthquake at Benglulu

These are pictures of a house that went down into the ground 4 feet. You can see the driveway.

We had a lot of good experiences when distributing items to the earthquake victims. We saw a lot of destruction and poverty and a lot of people stepping up to help us. Everyone wanted their picture with us and the kids loved dad's mouse made out of a handkerchief. One woman told us it was not a mouse it was a frog because it jumps.

A makeshift Emergency Room