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.

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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.