Mixing It Up In Indonesia

D. Todd  Sibley, a private member of the church held an Entrepreneur Seminar for members and non-members of the church in one of the buildings here in Solo.  He volunteers his time and pays all his own expenses.  His purpose is to help build the economy here and to help people out of poverty.  The seminar was excellent. He helped them understand what it means to be a real Entrepreneur.  There are many people here who have tiny little businesses in which they sell food or other items on the streets as well as other businesses of all sorts, but some do not understand what it takes to build them into businesses that would increase their income.  He seemed to really open the eyes of many of the people.  He even had the author of "EMyth," Michael Gerber, speak to them on Skype.  It was great!  

A couple of weeks ago I was standing in the hall of the Soepomo building outside the Family History Center on a Sunday morning waiting for Sonia, the family history consultant.  Lily, a very tiny single sister started chatting with me and was going on and on about some problems with her home.  Lily speaks some English, is very eccentric, very poor and seems to be quite alone in the world.  She has always been friendly to me and I have enjoyed her.  Today she just wanted to talk and talk so I finally invited her into the center to see if we could help her.  She was a bit hesitant but we got her started on Family Search.  She didn't know much about her family but she did enjoy sharing what she knew.  I hope she will be able to find some additional information.  I could see that just that little bit of participation was meaningful to her.  

That same day we ran into some people we met in Jakarta who were visiting in Solo.  The young man is Leon, a consultant in Jakarta 2.  He and his aunt from Bogor wanted help resolving some problems with their line.  Leon is a great strength to his ward.  He has good computer skills and his English is excellent so he understands Family Search quite well.  It was fun seeing them.

Here they are again with the other members of their family.

We finally got to visit the botanical gardens in Bogor.  They were awesome!  There were many different trees and plants from all over the world.  It dates back to the years of the Dutch or the Belanda as they are called here.  The Javenese continue to keep it beautiful despite the strange visitors that frequent it. :)

Check out the size of this bamboo!

The old Dutch graveyard was really interesting.  We hope someone has identified Captain Drury as their ancestor and invited him to enjoy the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

In the background you can see the old Dutch governor's mansion.  In the foreground you can see an old American missionary getting the scoop on the Dutch from a Dutch tourist.  He was rather biased on who had done the most good for Indonesia, the Dutch or the Indonesians.  Elder Knorpp talked to him about the Family Search website and all the Netherland family records available there!

This was a really cool tree.  I could have used a pair of pants for climbing in and out of it!

Widap and Ari were kind enough to give me a cooking lesson on Nasi Goreng, one of our favorites, at our apartment.  It's prepared like any fried rice with chicken, onions, garlic, etc. and even has an egg in it, but the chili peppers give it a real kick!  

Yummy!

The warm welcome people have given us in Indonesia has been so appreciated.  Everyone needs a friend and we've found some great ones here.