January 2013

With the start of the New Year we said, "Wow, we are going to spend all of 2013 in Indonesia!  That sounds like a long time!" Yet here it is February 3 and we've been here for almost 7 months and it seems like such a short time!  Keeping busy certainly makes time to fly.  We miss our family and friends but continue to feel like we are here on the Lord's errand and there is still much to do so all is well!  We loved hearing from you during the holidays and thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.  January started out with a bang as we prepared to go back to Jakarta for our big training trip.  We trained with 1 stake council, 1 family history center director, 7 ward councils,  and 6 ward family history consultants in our 10 days in Jakarta. We were so impressed with the Stake High Councilman over temple and family history, Bro. Thomas Siregar and the FH Center Director, Virlia Mongan.  They proceeded to attend as many ward trainings as they could after our training presentation to them.  They were so helpful to us!

 

 After we trained the Jakarta Stake we were outside in the hall of the Mission Office (Indonesia Service Center) and had fun visiting with Anita Serigar, her children Moses and Abigal, Virlia Mongan, and Denny who all spoke English!

 Jakarta 2 Priesthood leaders.

 In Tangerang 1 we all ate McDonalds chicken with rice in the foyer for lunch after training.  This is FH consultant Sis. Ayu with her daughter.

 Sis. Aghysta of Tangerang 2 is excellent with the computer.

 We had a special invite to the home of Sister Steffi Subandriyo, FH consultant of Jakarta 2.  She made yummy Indonesian food for us and some of the young missionaries.  Her daughter helps her with some of the computer work required for family history.

 Elder Subandriyo, Area Authority Seventy, with his wife Steffi and their daughter.  The sign on the wall says: "Families can be Together Forever".  We had Family Home Evening with them about Temple and Family History and Elder Subandriyo shared a dream he had about his departed grandmother who visited him and asked why he hadn't done her temple work yet!  He quickly got it completed for her!

 This is the Bishop of the Bogor Ward, Uskup Lee and his consultant Sis. Jeannet Dumalang and Virlia the FH Center Director.  Jeannet is new to family history.  She wrote to me and said:  "Our last meeting was such an inspiring moment for me who never paid much attention to Family History. God always remind me in a direct way, that's why He inspired my bishop to called me as a Family History consultant."  It's these amazing people that keep us going!

 Janauary was a hujan (rainy) month with lots of banjir (flooding) in Jakarta.  This was the road we traveled to get to the airport!  We could see people in rafts on the streets below.

We were glad to arrive home in Solo, exhausted but happy.  Meanwhile, some friends from Meridian had come to Indonesia and had been taking cooking classes and sight-seeing in Solo while we had been gone.

 This is Kathy and Bryan Whipple.  He served a mission in Indonesia some 30 years ago and continues to return for music lessons on the gamelan while his wife enjoys Indonesian cooking lessons.  They kindly brought us some tastes of home that included bacon bits and Jiff peanut butter!  Lucky us!

We are always in awe at the flora that grows here and the beautiful children.  These are some photos I took in a village neighborhood where we visited for a celebration of a departed family member.   After a person has been dead for 40 days friends and family are invited back to their home to remember them with a short service including talks by ward leaders.  It is believed that the spirit stays in the home for 7 days and then in the yard for 40 days and then departs to the neighborhood for another 60 days.  We arrived at the appointed hour of 9 AM but no one else came until after 10 so we wandered around the neighborhood a bit and took pictures.

 Beautiful colors.

 Durian fruit.  It's so heavy they tie to the branch so it won't fall before it is ripe.  It's about as large as a small watermelon.

 It's hard to see, but there is a garden amongst the trees with a few rows of corn and some casava.

 These men are harvesting peanuts.

 A curious neighborhood boy.

Their faces are so beautiful! 

 A stand of bamboo.  This is used all over the place as scaffolding on building lots.

 A playground at a school.  The slide is concrete and the slope is covered with tile.

 It's hard to see, but there is a kitten in the bird cage!  Haha.

 The family celebration was held in this room.  We all sat on the floor with these friendly Christian neighbors.

This is an extension of the kitchen where the food for the celebration was prepared.

The last Sunday in January we went north to Semarang for our regular monthly visit.  The drive is about 2-3 hours each way on crowded, bumpy roads but we had a good training visit with Agus, the Bishop's son, who will be the assistant family history consultant.

This is a great young man.  He is just finishing up a degree in accounting, plays the piano beautifully and will be a wonderful FH consultant!

 We loved seeing the kids having a rollicking good time as a member drove them around the parking lot, twisting and swerving in this little maintenance truck.  Reminded me of Billy pulling kids on the tube in the boat.

After the church meetings we did an inspection on the Elder's house. 

 This sink had been leaking for months so guess who put on his plumbing hat?

Here are my two favorite photos.  Indonesian consultants helping other Indonesians!  Yahoo!

Widap, FH Center Director in Solo, helping Sister Retno, a faithful member whose Muslim husband gave her permission to do temple work for his ancestors!

Aster, FH Consultant, Jebres ward, working with Adam Marsudi, 14 yrs old.  He has been appointed by his family to be the official computer entry person for them.

These are the Healy's in Jakarta.  They oversee humanitarian services in Indonesia.  It was fun to spend some time with them.  They are from Centerville, Utah and their daughter who lives in Nampa, Idaho is related to our son-in-law, Bryce Gray.  Small world!  

So that's a summary of our January!  We spent a lot of time in the office (our kitchen table) in front of our computers, which we don't mind, but our favorite time was out working with the members!  

We know a lot of you have been struggling to stay warm this winter.  This is how we survive the air conditioning in our apartment...

It beats turning the air conditioning on and off, on and off to keep two old missionaries comfortable.

 Love you all!