Who but family history folks love to visit cemetaries? It seems that in Indonesia goats also get a kick out of it. We went to a local graveyard to discover what kind of information could be gathered from tombstones. As it turns out, names and at least one date appeared on most stones!
Java has about 1,000 people per square kilometer...very crowded. It seems the cemetaries are just as crowded!
Our driver's mother was buried here. When Franky finally found the grave some ladies come over and quickly poored water over the tombstone to wash it. We were then expected to pay them for the service. Just last week there would have been many fresh flowers here for Idul Fetri, the Muslim holiday which includes honoring departed family members.
This is Yuli the YW Pres. in Bangarsari Ward I have been working with. She will attend the Manila Temple in 2 weeks. She has identified many family names to do temple ordinances for. She is one of the unusual Indonesians who has relatives who have kept journals with lots of family information in them.
Manila Temple
We did some FH training at a single young adult fireside last Sunday. There were actually about ten more people who arrived later than this photo was taken. Indonesian rubber time, we call it, can mean an event can start as late as 1 hour. We finally started 20 minutes late. We were able to garner 4 more people to get started with their family history and a promise from our new Springville, Utah Elder, that he would begin his family history as soon as he returned home! We also met with the Surakarta Stake President this week and arranged to do leadership training with him and the high council in two weeks!
We spent our P-day with our driver and his family on a trip to the falls. I missed the name of the falls but it was beautiful and cool. Cool we needed after walking down over 1,000 steps to get there! We saw lots of monkeys and some beautiful countryside.
This mama monkey let us come right up to her. Others tried to steal food right out of our hands!
Our lunch was sauted chicken and rabbit served on lontong, which is rice cooked in a banana leaf so that the rice took on a solid shape and was then sliced onto our plates. The meat was served on top of the lontong with peanut sauce, very spicy but enak (delicious). We sat on the floor, of course.
The Hong Kong Temple is the other temple Indonesians attend. They save for many years to go. While the price of a plane ticket is only about $200 it is a huge amount for them to save. It has been exciting to help the families that are going prepare their ancestors names for temple ordinances.
Yesterday afternoon we got a text from the Stake FH Center Director asking us if we could come to her home, about an hour's drive away to bless her father who could not walk due to osteoporosis. We stopped and bought Franky, our driver, a white shirt so he could participate. It was very dark by the time we arrived at the small home in the country. By Indonesian standards it was really quite nice as we had chairs to sit on and I could see they had a washing machine. She is a high school teacher of science and physics. Elder and the son-in-law helped the father into the living room from his bed. He has been down for about 3 weeks and not improving much. He was given an encouraging blessing of which he could not understand a word, but he was very appreciative. Then Sis. Tutut told us about her 15 yr. old daughter, her only child who was killed 3 years ago on her motorcycle. She asked many questions about the spirit world and wept openly for her daughter. We were so thankful we had studied Doctrine & Covenants 138 that morning as we were able to offer her words of comfort about where her child was. Elder felt strongly that her daughter was doing missionary work in the spirit world and that she was associating with her departed grandmother and was very happy there. What a special experience for us and hopefully for Sis. Tutut. She seemed very appreciative of our visit. It is a joy to associate with the good people here in Surakarta.
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