September Scenes

We can't believe September is gone!  We've have had some successes this month and some failures  as well.  We always make "notes to self" after our mess-ups.  The latest "note to self" is:  Even if you have a translator, your message does not always get across!  We made a two hour trip to Jogja to train a High Counsel Advisor, Bishopric, Elder's Quorum Pres. & Family History Consultant.  We had only three of the six in attendance.  Today we went to meet with the same group from a ward here in Solo.  We only had the Bishop come.  Hmm....Next time we make an appointment we will have the list of attendees written down in Bahasa Indonesia to hand to the Bishop!

The training we are doing is from the manual, "To Turn the Hearts, A Leaders Guide to Temple and Family History Work".  It is a new view of family history that helps leaders understand how focusing on temple and family history can help in the salvation of not only the dead but also the living.  We basically introduce family history as a tool to help ward councils in the work of conversion, retention, teaching and activation.  Then we train family history consultants so they can support the leaders and the members in submitting names to the temple for ordinances.





We had the opportunity to attend the closing ceremony of the Ampel water project and the opening of the Magalan water project.  Wow! Do these people like to celebrate!  It's a wonderful thing for them to have clean water piped directly to their village and in some cases right to their homes!

These are the dignitaries at the Magelan opening including the Healy's, senior humaitarian aid missionaries, Pres. Budi, Area Authority Elder Subandryo and the local mayor.  Note the pyraminds of rice and whole chickens across the front of the stage for decoration.  At one point the top was cut off one of the pyramids of rice by the mayor and shared with Elder Subandryo. There were several hundred people there and all were fed lunch at the conclusion of the ceremony.

We especially enjoyed the closing of the Ampel water project because of the children who came to sing for the program.  These are the very youngest ones.  So cute!

The Greenways helped keep the children entertained until the ceremony started by having them sing. This is "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" Indonesian style.

The program also included a group playing gamelans, a traditional Indonesian musical instrument.  The musician hits the tone bar with the mallet in the right hand and then stops the sound by touching the bar with the left hand

 The Gamelan Band

Everyone wants their picture taken with the white foreigners.

 The water is brought to Ampel from a spring above a waterfall in the  mountains behind us.

 Clean water for Ampel.

We had another wedding this month! Tian and Yuliani were married at the church where they served dinner afterwards to  everyone.   A week later they had a traditional Javanese Wedding Reception to which 1,000 people were invited and again fed dinner.  They will go to Hong Kong in November to be sealed in the temple.  The reception was amazing!

As you can see, the couple was beautiful!

Part of the ceremony included the bride and groom  kneeling before their parents and asking for their blessing on their union.

The meal arrived in 5 courses!

Special quests were dressed in traditional Javanese atire.  This is our Surakarta Stake President, Budi Susanto and his lovely wife, Isti.