We got up at 12:30 am to watch the funeral of Pres Hinckley. We have satellite here since we live in the compound. However it was in Indonesian. So we got the laptop and set it on KSL radio and turned down the volume on the TV the only problem was there was about a 2-minute delay, but that was Ok. Sunday they didn't cancel church here, but the Indonesian Branch held a short Sacrament Meeting and then they started to watch the proceeding beginning with the procession from the mortuary.

After the meeting we went back because we have been helping to teach that family. They taught them the plan of salvation, and they liked it, but we are still wondering if there is a real interest or just wanting information about the church. What a good family. They want me to teach them how to make chili.

Monday morning we left for Surabaya the plane of course was 2 hours late leaving. We went to Zone conference and we got there just as they were having lunch. The Pres. wanted Ralph to show the missionaries about all the projects we have been involved in. He loves to show the pictures and talk about them. The elders have helped him to put together his pictures. After that we went to a really luxurious hotel, The Shangri –La.
The Front of the Hotel

The Swimming Pool Area

We went to a blind school for a ceremony, because LDSC had donated some Braille equipment to the school. They were so appreciative. On the way there the Elders passed us on their bikes. What a sight weaving in and out of all the traffic. Pres Marchant told Sister Marchant to close her eyes. If only their Mothers could see what they were doing. Makes me wonder about what Terry is doing that I shouldn't be seeing. They beat us to the place we were going. Traffic is not quite as bad in Surabaya as Jakarta, but close.


After we went to the ceremony we went on a tour to a cigarette factory. That is right. I wondered if we should do that, but it turned out to be really interesting. There was about 300 women working there and there is not much automation it was mostly done by hand from the rolling each cigarette to packaging. Their hands were working so fast you could hardly see them move. I couldn't believe my eyes.

On Wednesday we went to the Presidential Palace again to meet with Nurhayati Assegat. She is such a delightful lady. I don't think she is going to be helping us too much however. Then in the afternoon we went to meet with Gunawan Sumodiningrat he is so fun to visit with. He is really excited about what we are going to be doing and is going to be a lot of help. We had a graduation that we were suppose to be to for the English students. The traffic was so bad because it was the day before the Chinese New Year. (sort of like New Years Eve.) We were about 40 minutes late for the graduation and we went in and found out that they were waiting for us. I felt so bad. Anyway it was a long day.

It was nice to just have a day to catch up again with the washing etc. Dad had to speak to the Indonesian Branch about Self- Reliance. We also had English class, but no one came, because of the Chinese New Year. They all take a day off around here when there is any kind of holiday. It doesn't matter who is celebrating. At least it didn't take us almost 2 hours to get to the church.

We have to go up to Bandung and back tomorrow I hope that Dad can take the trip in one day. He is doing much better though.

We are getting all ready to go to Bali. The Davis's got us tickets for a really cheap price, but we just found out that the person they trusted to buy the tickets took off with the money and left town. So now the tickets are not so cheap because we have to buy them again. It is only costing us $130. For each of us and that includes the money we lost.

We went to Borgor on Monday to a Gong Factory. It was so interesting-they had these fires going where they were heating up this metal and then they would take it out of the fire and start pounding on it. Then we watch as they shaped them the way they wanted it. It was like going back 2000 years to see the way they were doing it.

We taught the English class on Tuesday they are such good young people. We have our drivers son in the class he has just finished his mission and he would like to go to school, but this test they have to take (the Michigan test) is so hard that none of them are able to past the test. In order to apply at BYU Hawaii they have to pass this test. They are working on getting the Perpetual Education Fund here in Indonesia, which would help so of these kids to get an education. These are bright kids and they deserve to have a chance in life.

We have started to have meetings to prepare for the Family Enrichment Program. We met with Elder Subandyrio and Jemmy on Wed. We were going to have a conversation over satellite with Elder Palmer in Singapore, which was so interesting how that works. We could see right into the office there in Singapore, but he was not at the office so we were not able to talk to him. So Elder Subandryio just asked him to fly down for the meeting on Fri. We were suppose to meet with Metro TV, Jemmy, Elder Palmer, Elder Subandriyo and us on Fri here at the office. Everyone was here, but we had a really bad rainstorm and Ira from Metro TV was unable to make it here. Traffic is so bad here in Jakarta that rain can just stop everything. We are going to be meeting every week for a while. We have meeting scheduled next week with the secretary to the First Lady again at the Palace and then we will go from there to the Minister of Social Affairs and meet with him again. I can't believe the things we are doing and the places that we are going. Elder Palmer is coming again next week. That is if he can get here. John took him to the airport to catch his plane they were gone for almost 6 hours and they came back because they couldn't make it to the airport on time for his flight. They left at 2:30 his flight was at 6:00 and they came back here at 8:00. They are trying again this morning, but it isn't raining yet so maybe they will make it.

The translators here have been working feverishly trying to get all the translating done and ready for President Hinckley’s funer. So I guess all the talks are written so they it can be broadcast worldwide. I have never realized that before. They will be starting on the conference talks here soon.

We are flying to Surabaya next week to go to a closing ceremony at a blind school where LDSC donated some Braille equipment. I wish we could go to some of these places and see something interesting there, but we just fly in and fly out.

The wheel chairs are here too and Dad needs to get them distributed to the different places. He is saying if he doesn't think he is going to be able to get it done next week and maybe we won't be going to Bali. I told him maybe he won't be going. So he better get his work done.
Well I hope you all have a great week.. The snow just keeps coming. We are really getting the rain now.

As hard as this month has been I can't believe that it has been one month already since Christmas. There is so much work to be done that he has to step up the pace. Jemmy who is over the public relations for the church is the one who has been bringing the Physical Therapist here for Dad. He is a really go-getter and him and his wife either know a lot of important people or they are related to them. So they are a great help to us. His Dad was high up in the government and he spent most of his younger life living in the area where the Palace is.

On Tuesday night he had made an arrangement to meet with Gunawan Sumodiningrat who is the Director of Social Affairs (the same job that Gov Leavitt has in the US) He got his PHD from the University of Minnesota. He has other status here also he is a Prince. I thought that Dad would just be going with Jemmy and Pres. Marchant, but when it was time to go Jemmy came to our house and he had his wife with him. So I quickly got ready to go. We had just eaten dinner, because the meeting was not until 7:00 pm. They took us to the Sultan Hotel. A very nice place. Sometime when we go to these place it is just like stepping into America. So then we were thinking maybe we would just go into the coffee shop, but no we went into the restaurant for dinner.

As we talked to them about the Family Enrichment program he was very excited about what we are going to do. He spoke in very good English. He suggested that the conference we are having in July be attended by all of the 38 Governors of Indonesia. He believes that families are in trouble here and he agrees that emphasis on strengthening the family and holding family home evening would help Indonesian become a stronger nation. He likes the FE manual and he is looking forward to being able to have the one that is translated in Indonesian. He would like to have about 200 people attend this seminar, including the managers that work for him in each of the 38 provinces. He was pleased that the Media group would also be involved in the project.

Then he said that October they are having a meeting for all the Ministers of Social Welfare in Bali and he said, "I want you to be there to help." The attendees will be from many countries such as Japan, China, and Australia just to name a few. The topic of discussion there is how to strengthen families in these Asian Countries. It will be held in English. Then he wants us to visit each of the provinces and help with the program in each area. That would be fun, but by the time they really get this going we will be coming home, but it will be great for the new couple that comes here. Dad has really done a great job in getting this together.

Then we had to go to Bandung. They are trying to get a clean water project going there and the village leaders were a little uncertain about who was behind the financial part of this project. So Dad had to speak with them. I was concerned about us traveling up there again, but the Pres let us take his car, which is a much nicer car. We did Ok. And we had a good time with the Davis too. We stayed up there overnight, because Dad didn't want to make that trip in one day. After we had been up in the mountains to see the people about the water we came back and on the way we stopped and picked fresh strawberries. Can you believe that? I said here it is in the middle of January and we are picking strawberries. I will try to send pictures another day.

The week has just got busier. We have taught English class, but we did not go to the English class on Thursday night, because we had just got from Bandung. On Friday the sisters said there was someone there that wanted to visit with us. There has been a gal coming with two little boys to learn English. One time it was raining and she said her little boys had prayed that the rain would stop so they could come to English class, because they have to walk. I was talking to her one night and asking about her husband and she told me that he knew English and he wanted his family to speak English. I said, "where did he learn English?" and she said, "He went to school in Kentucky." Of all places. I told her I had a son in Kentucky and she called her husband right up and had me talk to him on the phone right in class. So the sisters made arrangements for us to meet with them today at the church. It was really great after talking to them for a while Dad asked them if they would like to learn about our church and they said No problem. Which means yes here. He had his Dad with him too. So we begin to teach them. The sisters were helping. After about 1 ½ hours we had to go so we tried to set another date for them. The Sisters said how about next weekend and they said, "How about tomorrow?" So we are going to meet with them again. They are Muslim so I don't know what will come of it.

English Students

We had a dinner tonight in Borgor for the NGO, which have been helping with different projects up there. It was very nice. We went up with the Pres. and Sister Marchant it made the trip go faster. Dad is feeling better tonight even after a busy day so I hope that he is getting better. I hope because it is much better to be busy than to sit around here. We have Zone conference this week and next week we will be going to East Java to a place called Surabuya. That will be a new experience too.

Pictures

This is how they cut our grass

A man sewing on the street

We are in a cart that is typical for the area

This man is plowing his field to plant rice

Exciting News!!!

Our exciting news for this week is that we got approval to do a program that we have been working on. It is to introduce a family Enrichment Program in the country. It is a manual that BYU has published that is a "non-denominational" Family Home Evening program. We started the process of having it translated into Indonesian back in September. Whenever we would meet with people (members of parliament, ambassadors, assistants to the president, the first lady, tv media etc.) about various projects (water projects, wheelchairs, bathrooms for schools, cleft palate surgeries, earthquake relief) we would mention the desire to introduce a Family Enrichment Program to the country. All the while we were working on getting it translated and getting approval for the program from Salt Lake. The leaders of the country have been very excited about this program and they recognize the need to strengthen their families. The biggest TV station has agreed to air commercials about it and even air a program with a demonstration of an actual FHE role play.

We just got approval from Elder Oaks this week to do it. It is very exciting. It is going to change the way missionary work is done in the country. The missionaries will deliver the manual to anyone who wants to receive it and doors will be opened that were never there before. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out. When we told one of our grandson's the exciting news, he said, "I wish we could introduce Family Home Evening to the whole world." Indonesia is a start.

This Family Enrichment program will be presented during a week when a family seminar will be sponsored by LDSC where government, community and religious leader from all over the country will be invited. (we hope there will be about 1000 people) where families subjects will be presented by authors of the FE booklet and other professionals from the US and other countries.

The floods in Solo were bad. Water up to 9 feet in some areas. We were in Madero or we would have probably had to go over there. They have 2 mission couples there and 7 missionaries so they took care of it. We had to request money from the church for assistance, because those families lost everything. A dam broke on a river that caused so much flooding and then so much rain caused the mud slides.

We have an Indonesian Wedding Party again today, but this couple went to the Temple in the Philippines to get married so they spent their money to do that so this party will not be as elaborate as the last one we went to at the church. But I can guarantee there will be rice. I hope we can eat rice when we come home.

There were exchanges with the missionaries this week. With so few sisters in the mission it is hard to transfer them and Sister Hinckley has been here 10 months she has been my main translator so I don't know what will happen because there is going to be 2 Indonesian sisters here now.

Next week we are back to teaching that English class again 2 days a week. So that will keep us busy again.

The start of a brand new year. Things really slow down this week for us. All the parties are over. We were invited to a party at Hendro and Bertha house. They are members of the LDS Charities team. They live in a really nice part of Indonesia. They have a nice house. It is a 2-story house probably the same size as Mike and Jen's house. For Indonesian standards it is a nice house, because the average person here in Indonesian doesn't live in a home like that. They both own really lucrative businesses. Anyway, this party was held outside which is just hard to believe on New Years Eve. They had opened sided tents set up and they had a program. Dad, Elder Subandriyo and Pres Marchant gave talks. They had some music and then a big buffet dinner. It was very nice. Something happened in the kitchen and there was a grease fire and 2 women who are their cooks got burned on their legs really bad. They had to take them to the hospital and then it started to rain really hard so that kinda broke the party up. They had some fireworks, but it was too rainy to do that.

New Years Day we didn't have anything to do so we just went over to the mall and hung out. You could get lost in that mall. It has two big anchor stores and many other stores. Then there are 3 grocery stores in the bottom level. We met the Elders and we took them to lunch at the Burger King. You can get a whopper meal for under $3. so it is a real bargain and it beats rice. Ummi sent us a huge arrangement of flowers thanking us for all that we did in Bengkulu. That was so sweet of her.

Dad is so involved in reports all the time. He has all the office staff doing things for him all the time too. They have just been charging things here and there on any account or project that was convenient. Dad is trying to straighten it all out and get the records right. Elder Subandriyo has also had him tracking down all the projects that have been done and how much was spent and how many people have been affected so he has had the crew in Hong Kong working too. If Metro TV decides to give LDSC an award this year like they have said, this information has to be given to them. So he has been hustling on that all week, besides trying to get 3-4 more water projects going.

Well, this will be the last letter of 2007. What a different year this one has been, we have been places and done things that all seems impossible that we are involved in the the things that are happening.

Monday afternoon the Davis's and us made Yummy potatoes. We boiled a bunch of potatoes and then peeled and grated them. It would have been nice to have some frozen grated potatoes. We made 5 big casseroles. I made 3 large jellos and a gingerbread cake. The cook made all the rolls and cut up most of the fresh fruit and vegetables and a tossed salad. Sister Davis made brownies and Sister Pier made carrot cake. What a lot of food, but there was hardly anything left over. We cooked 4 huge hams. I cut 2 large pineapples just before dinner.




Christmas Trees at different hotels

Christmas Day was different for us, but it was special. We got up early and opened presents. The we fixed apple pancakes for about 20 elders. They watched the movie Cool Runnings and then they watch #2 of The Work and the Glory as the other Elders started to gather. There was 38 Elders and 4 senior couples. After dinner they had all brought a white elephant gift so they played that game. While they were watching the movie the Davises and Dad and I had John take us to a hotel here to see the decorations. It had a huge gingerbread house. It was really gingerbread and frosting with the candy on it . It was as tall as a house.





We left on Wed night for Menado our flight was to leave at 8:45 pm., but it was late and we didn't leave until almost 10:00. It is a 3 hour flight so it was really late before we got there. Then a long wait waiting for the luggage. The people from the Christian Church picked us up and took us up into the mountains to their church. It was an hour and half drive on a very windy road. We took 2 elders and the two counselors from the branch presidency in Menado. We went to the Minister's home and sat around. Then they had lunch. That is the hardest part of the whole thing. They took us out to a beautiful place where they were going to have a ceremony the next day. Then to visit some people.

Scenes of Menado

They decided we should go back to the hotel to get ready for their program that night at 7 pm. Back to the church and a 4 hour Christmas program. Dad gave them the wheel chairs. We only had 4 so we will probably have to go there again. Then back down to town again and the same thing the next day, but at least the entertainment was better they had some good dances, but then it started to rain and we were just out in a field. At least we had a cover over us for the program. We heard a group planning instruments made of bamboo. Instrument played like flutes and clarinets, trumpets etc, the sound was very woody. They played Christmas music, and other. They had manufactured something that looked like a tuba out of metal that added a bass tone to the music. There were no percussion instruments in this group.



It was so hot that we used the umbrella for shade



We left and went back down to town about 5:00 PM and went to visit some poor members of the branch in Menado.





We finally got back to the hotel at 8:30. We had to be up at 4:00 so we could be to the airport by 6:00 am. When we were on the way home John told us that we had to go to a program for the Institute students and they were waiting for us to get there. We went right to the church. The program went on until after 12 and then they told us that we would be going to a great Indonesian Restaurant for lunch. Wow. We finally got home at 2:30 and we had to leave at 4:30 to go to a party that a Indonesian member of the English Branch was having dinner for all of the missionaries.

While we were gone they had a big flood in Solo we should have gone there and we may still have to go. It is really serious though and a lot of members have lost most everything they have. Which isn't very much.



We have been working with Metro TV and the First Lady Office on the idea of introducing a Family Enrichment Program that was introduced to us in the MTC in Provo. The last time we met with Lisa of Metro TV, she mentioned some of the terrible things happening to the families in Indonesia, such as murder, drugs, family separations, children running away from home, and etc., and she was in very much in favor in presenting the Family Enrichment program on TV to help stem the tide of the troubled families. She then introduced her staff to us and asked them to work with us in the development of the program once the translation is completed and samples of the booklet are available.

This will be a bigger project than we can handle, we will need a lot of outside help to accomplish this program. Metro TV boasts a TV audience of 10 Million viewers. Should this be present several times during a week's period time we could have a lot of Indonesian exposed to Family Home Evenings. What a wonderful thing this could be. The booklet would be sent to those who would inquire free of charge. This would also be additional tool for the missionaries to have to interest people about the Church. Currently the missionaries cannot proselyte in Indonesia, but with a family home evening manual they have something to talk to people about in the streets. This could change the course of the missionary work in Indonesia.