Week 41

To the wonderful people who are our family and friends,

When last week’s letter went out we had not yet been able to speak to Adam about the joyful event that his family experienced last weekend. Some of you may not be aware that their family adopted a little girl last November. Well, Tuesday the adoption became final and beautiful Elia Melanie was sealed to Adam, Amy, Nate, Eli, and Cecily... June 16th in the Salt Lake City Temple. We were so grateful to those of you who could attend, and pretty emotional that we were not there. But the joy outweighs everything else, and we are grateful for that eternal and sacred sealing ordinance.

You may also remember that a few weeks ago we were worrying about our grandson Luke, Matt and Tanya's baby, who was born a bit early because a kidney ailment had been discovered. A recent ultrasound shows that there is a definite problem, so he will be seen by a urologist this next Thursday. We are of course praying and hoping that any needed correction will be minor. Again, pretty emotional, but grateful for Luke's strong and faithful parents.

Then there is the fact that Joel finished his last class (with an A- average I might add) and has graduated from UVU! There are a few of his grade-school teachers that would be shocked, and others that we need to thank. This is reminiscent of the "parting of the Red Sea"! Another of the many miracles that have been part of his life. We are so grateful and proud of him. Add to all this; John has a new position with his work and is moving back to Pennsylvania; Joel is moving into our home in Pennsylvania until he begins work; .... and you can see we have had a very busy week on skype, and email.

Otherwise, we have also been busy with the work at hand! It is amazing the happiness you feel when someone comes back to church. As we have visited, we have kept in touch with the young missionaries, sending them out to talk to those we find. We have seen some definite miracles, and the Young Single Adults have also been out visiting. They are the key... they can accomplish so much more than we can. We have been out searching almost every day. On Wednesday we had a real miracle. We set out to find Agung at the address on the Solo 2 Ward list. Dear, dear Bono drives then stops and asks, then drives and stops and asks, until we find the street that leads to the alley, that leads to the pathway, that turns and leads to the other smaller pathway that leads to the home where sadly Agung has moved from… but!!!!!! where his 2 sisters live, who are also on our list!!!! (only we didn't know they were family because they don't have family names usually in Indonesia!!!) Now, they are all married (nix on the YSAs) but they were active for ten years before they moved to Batam (an island) for 7 years where there is no church, and now they are back. We gave them new copies of the Book of Mormon, invite them to Church, explained that we have become a Stake, and even got permission from their kind Muslim father to have a prayer in their home. We are sending the Elders, and the Sisters to see them.

On Thursday we went to Wonosaren, and area in the Jeberes Ward. We found Bro. Sutomo (Bro. Sukro's father), and Bro. Sukro is almost our age. This dear old gentleman spent the whole afternoon walking us (in his bare feet) all over that neighborhood finding a bunch of families that we would never have found. We visited dear Sis. Renum, the mother of Agus, who we were looking for. He was at work, so she joined the party and took us to see Joko, who is active, but he gave us some needed information. Then Sutomo, Bono, Renum, Elder Greenway and I headed for Eni's, a sort of active woman who served a mission the same time Bono did. We were looking for her brother, who was asleep, so she joined us and we found the family of another girl who was not home, but her mother was at home. The mother is a member, attending another church, but the older sister is an active member in Surabaya and also served with Bono.

ARE YOU TOTALLY CONFUSED?!? We just kept writing all this information down, and then at DDM on Friday, we just handed out slips of paper with all these addresses and information to the Missionaries. It was a very fruitful week.

On the lighter side, we have been asked to do some very interesting things since we arrived. Next week, actually July 4th, we have been asked to do a 2-hour presentation for the Surakarta Stake Youth Conference. We are to include a warning against the addictions and evils of pornography. Elder Greenway is to speak in church the Sunday after that, we are to do a presentation for Zone Conference, and today the Stake President asked us if we could teach "dense". Maybe every week "dense"..., or maybe twice a month "dense"??? We kept looking at him and he kept saying "dense", which is exactly how we felt! Finally, Sister Irma came by and we asked her to interpret. They conversed a bit in Indonesian, and then she laughed and said that the Stake President would like us to teach "dense", ...however she included with that a little "dance"! Ohhhhhhh!!!!! Elder and Sister Roberts, a mission couple years ago, taught square dancing, etc. We told him we would look into it.... AAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHH :{    So, if any of you have any good computer site for "line dancing", "square dancing", etc., please, HELP! Next week we are making cookies with about 40 primary kids, and after that, 15 Young Women are also making cookies. THAT is a piece of cake! (or should I say cookie?)

Finally, we told you about the Sister's referral in Boyalali, about an hour away. There is no church there and the women they are teaching are happily, and earnestly accepting the Gospel. In fact, they want more copies of the Book of Mormon to give to their entire church! When the Sisters asked if the President was prepared to send Elders to Boyalali, he basically told them they needed to be realistic.

But today, Elder Greenway sat and visited with Elder Subandriyo, the Area Authority Seventy, and together, in their enthusiastic minds, they already have the building built in Boyalali. We are hoping this enthusiasm leads to expanding the area. We are hoping we will continue making weekly trips, with the missionaries in tow, to Boyalali to teach, ...then Elders will be living there, ...then the building, ...then the Temple...... The water project is nearing completion, so "the time is far spent, there is little remaining".... Time to be anxiously engaged!

We love to be part of this work! We can learn to love "densing", we will do whatever it takes to move the Church forward. We hope you are praying for the people of Indonesia! We are and we are praying that the Knorpps, the new Senior Couple coming in July, know how to "dense"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

With absolute faith!
Elder and Sister Greenway