Week 76

NEXT WEEK IS MARCH!!!!!!!!!

How does this keep happening?!? I remember when I typed in Week 20, and I thought that was amazing. Well, time just keeps marching on, and we are grateful to be healthy and happy and busy. We have complete faith in where we are led. We have mentioned that we would like to do something with the Primaries. But, we can see that it is not the way we are being led. Perhaps Heavenly Father would like to see the local members figure it out. It is sometimes hard to accept answers when they differ from our desires, and especially when there is such a need. However, this is His work, not our work and so we will step back and go the direction He takes us. (sigh)... We are very grateful to be here, so we will do as we are told.

We've had so much going on this week. Last Sunday afternoon we got a text asking Elder if he would give one of the Sister Missionaries a blessing. Sister Manalu is Batok, from Sumatra, and a fabulous Sister Missionary. We don't take that request lightly, however when we go anywhere we either have to call Bono to come in or take a taxi. We really try not to interfere with Bono's Sunday afternoons, so I text back and asked about the problem. She was so sweet and told me that she was in great pain, and felt terrible. So we called Bono, and took care of the blessing. Now, we also told Sister Hutcheson (the other half of this wonderful companionship) that we thought Sis. Manalu should get checked out at the ER. We gave them money for a taxi, and told them to call us when the knew something. They went and were sent home (because the Dr. was not a "spesialist" and could not help). The next day she was terrible, so we sent them back and soon they called to tell us that she would require surgery and a 3 day stay in the hospital. Elder and I went to the hospital and stayed the day with Sis. Hutcheson, until we knew the surgery went well, and everything was under control. There was some shuffling of Sisters so that the stress of the work, and hospital would not be on just one person and by Thursday morning the Dr. said she could go home. We took them to lunch...but alas.... she got home and could not keep anything down, and by Friday afternoon she was vomiting blood. We had been texting all day and night, but when that happened we told them to take a taxi back to the hospital and we would meet them. The same Dr. that had treated her the week before(who was not a spesialist) told her she had a peptic ulcer because she had consumed to much juice :( ! But they kept her, started an IV, and gave her something to settle her stomach. She is still there as of tonight. We have gone back and forth all week, but it is nothing compared to the love and dedication of sweet Sis. Hutcheson. She has stayed by Sis. Manalu's sided 24/7. She sleeps on a mat on the floor, she eats when anyone gets there to bring food. She sang to Sis. Manalu when she was so very sick, and has provided comfort every moment. I cannot say enough about her Christ-like love and companionship. Sister Manalu has taken to calling me Sister Mom, she could call Sister Hutcheson, Sister Perfect! Added to all of that are ward members & Elders visiting, bringing food, a sleeping mat, pillow, and blanket, ice cream, and support. Those girls have felt so loved.

We have still held piano lessons, seminary English, done some visiting, and last night the Solo 2 youth asked us to teach them some dances! AGAIN! So we taught some western line dancing, some just movin' around, some slow dancing, and the ever requested "Virginia Reel"!!! It was held a Uskup Catur's home, outside, and it was like a sauna last night. So, for those of you who know us, I did a bit of sweating (3 or 4 gallons), even Elder did some heavy sweating. At Seminary English we played a game that Grover's gave us. The youth drew a card from the deck, and each card had an assigned action. Most were to read and answer a question, or have someone else answer, or do something like touch your nose etc. One question was: What kind of a person would you like your future husband/wife to be? Yos drew that question, and had to answer it. He just pointed to Novi(a girl in the class) and said "like her". CAN YOU IMAGINE THE EXPLOSION! Everyone just howled, and Nofi about died, but Yos didn't even flinch. Yos (you remember), was the one who put a watch on the freezing stick figure they were to dress and who only had on it's underwear. What a character! Elder has been working hard with Friska to get her Australian Visa. (She is the sister who was call to Australia on a mission). She has 4 different names, none of which is a last name. Sometimes they just put FNU or LNU (first or last name unknown). However, they have had people called Mister or Miss Fnu or Lnu. He is also helping her with Preach My Gospel in English. She was going to New Zealand to the MTC, however New Zealand is harder to get into than the U.S., so we are hoping we can get her to Provo.

Finally, we must tell you that Jumali, Dika, and Brother Suriyanto were all at Church today. These are all less actives that have benefited from "being found" and visited by the missionaries. We had a baptism today in the Jebres Ward. A father of a family, the only one not a member..how wonderful! When we got here, no one in the family was coming, but the ward has done some amazing fellow -shipping and the Elders some amazing work. Now the entire family is active and coming. Next week the same is happening only in the Banjasari ward... and it's the mother being baptized. Three of those two sets of Elders are being transferred tomorrow. We have come to love them like family and will miss them. We feel so blessed to be a part of the Solo family, to be close to these members and missionaries, work with them, and have fun with them. A little bit heaven...

Feeling Heavenly,

Elder and Sister Greenway

Week 76 Photos

On Saturday evening the 23rd of February, we were invited to Uskup Catur's home for a Valentine Party for the youth of the Solo 2nd Ward. They had asked us to come prepared to teach some dancing to the kids like we had done with the Single Adults this past summer.

Here we are demonstrating a waltz-like dance step.

We also taught the Virginia Reel and for the most part they got all of the steps and actions correct. Regardless of their expertise, they had a lot of fun with this one. If you want to seen them in action, check out the blog!

Before the dancing we gathered all of the youth together with a few leaders and got some pretty good group shots.

We ended the week with the baptism of Joko. He had been the only non-member in his family and everyone seemed really excited about his becoming a member. The missionaries who taught him are Elder Suwarsid and Elder Masangcay.  That's Brother Joko behind his children and next to his wife.

Week 75

Dear Valentines,

I hope you were all feeling the love coming from the Southern Hemisphere this week. When I was a little girl(boy that sounds like an ol'-timer) we would go to our friend's homes with our valentines and kick the door and run. When I got married, my east coast husband thought that sounded like malicious trespass to him. Once we moved away from Spanish Fork, NO ONE HAD HEARD OF THAT TIME HONORED TRADITION, and by the time we hit PA. ... well I just gave up. Alas, I am 61 years old and finally found that Sister Knorpp also spent her Valentine's Day as a child kicking the door and running like mad. How about any one else?!? Last week was Valentines, and Logan's B.day, this week is little rambuncious Anna Marie's first birthday. It's bad enough to have had 4 grandchildren born while we were gone, it's another to have them turn 1 year old!!! Happy, Happy Birthday sweet Anna, tell father, John, you want a fedora for your birthday.

Monday was a great day!!! First of all, we received the care package (it came in a world record 12 days) our sweet Emily sent us. She always includes dark chocolate!... and Country Butcher Beef Jerky!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! among the the other wonderful items like fish oil pills. This package also included seeds for Bono, our driver. We asked her to pick up some seeds because you can't just buy seeds here. Well, we all know Emily and her thoroughness at any task. She bought 25 varieties of seeds, with each type having various kinds. For instance 5 kinds of tomatoes. BONO WAS SOOOOOOOOOO THRILLED!!! He cataloged each type and assigned a letter and number to each variety and kind. Emily's kids will be lucky missionaries. That was our first stop on Monday, the Kantor Pos (Post Office). Then we did our Home Teaching for February. We visited Brother Mulyono. He always brings us Sprite pada es, (Sprite on ice). He compared Indonesia to the U.S. He worries because there are people here who wait at the intersections, and when you must stop, they ask for money. He was angry because they are lazy, and he didn't think we had that problem in the U.S. (sigh). Then we were off to Semanggi, an area where there were a number of less active living. We stopped at Friska's home because her mother knows everyone. She helped us so much, and this week we will go visiting the names left on that list. Some had moved (like to Hong Kong), some were active so were on the wrong list, and some were needing a visit.

Tuesday and Wednesday are piano days and Seminary English days. Just a bit about those... Didi, Dandi, and Devara (siblings) will be playing the piano for Sacrament the first week in March! Yeaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh! Tyas, Niken, Katerin, Luki, Lala, and Dinda have all been really progressing on super simplified hymns I have for them... last week was "Come, Come, Ye Saints". And, we brought treats to English on Tuesday and talked about days of the week, and months of the year. We sang, "Today is Monday, today is Monday. Monday wash day, everybody happy? Well I should say". It was soooo fun because after we sang it once, then we did it again cepat!!!! (fast) We also talked about holidays and events for the months. Elder would say, "Valentines! That means CHOCOLATE!!!!" Then he would toss chocolate to them. But he did it for Valentines, Easter, Halloween, and Christmas. They were thrilled. Then Wednesday we talked about seasons. We dressed a stick figure who lives in the U.S. in February. So there is the stick figure standing there in his undershirt and boxers. Then I said, okay, now what he must he put on to go to school. Yos raises his hand and tells me to give him a watch! I just cracked up... yeah Yos, that ought to keep him warm. So then Davi said socks, so we were encouraged... then Yos raises his hand and said, a hat. So there is the poor freezing stick figure with his boxers, his undershirt, his watch, socks, and hat. Elder and I were laughing so hard. He was finally dressed, then we showed a power point of the seasons. THEY ABSOLUTELY LOVE THE SNOW. They can identify the seasons now, and appropriate clothing for them.

Thursday we were asked to attend a wedding (on Valentines Day) for Martinus, and his Malaysian bride, Dorothy, he had just met face-to-face for the first time that night. It had been an Internet romance. I've mentioned before that LDS weddings here are like a mini-Sacrament meeting. Now, I don't want you to think that Elder and I spent the whole week laughing, but someone had chosen as the opening hymn for this wedding, "Count Your Many Blessings". We had a difficult time getting through it. But the full-time missionaries sang "Love At Home" right after the marriage ceremony. The couple usually listens to a talk by the Bishop, and then he has them stand and hold hands while he performs the ceremony. At then end, the groom kisses the bride on both cheeks, then they sit up front in two chairs facing the congregation. The missionaries sang, then a counselor in the Bishopric spoke, and then another fellow, then the closing song and prayer. We have had our picture taken at about 10 weddings now, some are with people we will never see again. We feel honored to be there, and represent the Church.

Theeeeeennnn, we came back to Paragon, where the Coral Restaurant was having a "spesial" Valentine Dinner. It included: "Couples Love Photo, Chocolate Pralines, Kissing Fish Soup, Loving Chicken Salad with vinaigrette dressing, main course with love, and creamy pink loving creme." So Knorrps and Greenways took the whole deal. You had to have reservations, and they checked with us as we walked through the lobby the day before to be sure. The food was actually pretty good, but the picture was a crack up. They had a table sitting out in the lobby, all set up as in the restaurant. They had us sit there for the photo. It wasn't until we were sitting there having the picture taken that we noticed the ice bucket with a bottle of wine. Soooooo, if the picture somehow goes viral, we may be home sooner than later.... Our time spent is so varied, from weddings to English, from confirming new apartments for the Elders to purging the ills of sick missionaries. We love the variety, but of course our favorite time is spent with the members.

We are whittling down the Solo 1 less-active list. Jumali is still coming, we are working hard to encourage the members to reach out for others. The missionaries can be more focused now, because they are not running after members that live on another island. We will start on Banjasari next, probably in a couple of weeks. We would still like to see some work done with the Primaries. I think I will just need to start going to Primary as often as possible. But, all in all, when we go to Church each Sunday, we feel the love we have for these members, and they are so generous with their love in return. The most important thing is that it is all worth it. This is Christ's Church, the same Church that was on the earth during His ministry. He did not give up, he taught and loved and ministered, and those near Him saw the miracles. Well, we know when we are near Him , we have seen, and will also see the miracles. We also can feel when we are not putting in enough effort.

It was a great, busy, eventful week. Thank you for your interest in the work. Thank you for your words of encouragement. We LOVE hearing from you. We LOVE hearing about your lives, and works. Please email any time. We will do our best to "reply".

With "kissing fish soup..love"

Elder and Sister G.

Week 75 Photos #1

This past Sunday, Sister Greenway accompanied the Solo 1 Ward's Elders Quorum in Ye Elders of Israel. I hope you can hear the attached recording. (not a video)

 

 

Valentine's Day Dinner Celebration at the Coral Restaurant in the Solo Paragon Residence and Hotel. Elder and Sister Greenway.

Elder and Sister Knorpp.

Our Hostess / Waitress.

Dessert!!! It was all very elegant. That is not a design on the plate; it is chocolate, with lemon and strawberry flavors.

When we went shopping during the week, we saw this promotional. All day, groups were performing on/at a Valentine's display. Here a pre-school group was singing and dancing under the direction of their teacher in the blue on the left.

Here is the Happy couple, Martinas and Dorthy. He is from Solo, Indonesia and she is from Malaysia. As was noted, this was their first meeting ... and their wedding ! Best Wishes !!!

Week 75 Photos #2

Elder Greenway has begun working with Frisca, a young woman who has received her call to serve in Australia. This is her mother's hair salon. We had stopped by to ask about some less actives in her area.

Here is Retno cutting a customer's hair with Bono in the foreground.

You can see the shampooing chair there on the right, and the blue barrel holds the water for shampooing.

We also visited with Suyono. His occupation, along with most of the people on his street is making badminton shuttlecocks. This is an oil burner / heater on which he flattens / shapes, and trims the cut and trimmed, chicken-feather quills.

Here Suyono is starting the feather placement.

More feathers ....

This shuttlecock is close to being finished. He needs to sew the feathers together to maintain the shape of the shuttlecock and also place a black, rubber, outer sleeve over the tip. He told us he can make about 12 complete units every hour.

Week 75 Photos #3

I decided to include some more random shots of what we see on a daily basis. When visiting a less active member named Alma, this was his home on a side street. He had almost no furniture.

When you go shopping, when you get to the meat area, you are greeted with FRESH fish. The "unfortunate" aspect, however, is that the area really smells very strongly of fish. That's Garame on the top.

This is a becak (bay-chahk). He'll tip the whole vehicle forward to assist your entrance onto the seat. You generally negotiate the cost of the trip before you start. If you don't then you pay what he asks. I've never had a problem. My trips usually cost about 10,000 rupiah - about a dollar.

This fellow is one of the innumerable street vehicle tenders / parkers / traffic directors. He will direct you to a parking place if you are an auto, and then direct your backing out of the space when you leave. 2,000 rupiah. If you have a motor cycle, he'll park it, cover the seat to protect it from sun and rain, and pull it out of its place when you are ready to leave. 1000 rupiah. He'll also watch over you vehicle to prevent theft.

Here he's helping one of his customers.

Here's the Banjasari Ward's youth choir with leaders.

Sister Greenway with Riski. "Sister - candy, please????"

Just me.

Most of the streets seem to be vendor specific. This three or four block long street has many vendors who make vehicle license plates - as custom as you want. The state does not provide the plate - just the number - you then have to get the plate made. The number is good for 5 years.

This is a typical scene at a stop-light. 10 seconds before there were no motor cycles. They jockey up to the front while the light is red. And fill in any available space - no matter how small - just so long as they can fit in it.

I thought you all might like this. When I got my Toyota serviced, this was the Service Area. Absolutely spotless!

Week 74

Gong Xi Fat Cai 2564!!!!!! Yaaaaaaaayyyy!!!!  (Gramma whistle...whistle) Whooooohoooo!!!! (translation)

Happy Chinese New Year 2564!!!!! yaaayy!!!!  (Gramma whistle...whistle) whooooohoooo!!!!

The colors red and gold are all over Solo!  Huge dragons fly around everywhere, Chinese lanterns abound, and the roads are crowded with holiday traffic. It is the year of the snake, which is said to bring good luck!!!  Of course, all this could be in tribute to the Chinese New Year, OOOORRRRRR it could be Logan's birthday this Friday, and Joel and Rebekah could be going allllll out to celebrate.   He is one of the totally energetic cousins, so have fun!!!!!

We are having a great time with our Seminary English Class.  Tuesday we played Short Vowel Bingo, reviewed inside-outside, above-below, etc.,and introduced the 2nd Article of Faith.("transgression" was a whole new experience for them).  If they managed a "bingo" they got a Snicker bar, because it is an American candy bar... well they all got a bar by the end of the evening.  Wednesday, we practiced who, what, when, where, how, and why by having them roll the dice and reading a question pertaining to one of those.  Then their team had to answer the question using a sentence.  ex. What did Joseph use to translate the gold plates? Joseph used the Urim and Thumim.  They really had to work at this, so the next night we played board games we found on line at a ESL site.  They are learning... some faster than others...and we are loving to be with them.

Despite the rain, piano has been wonderful, too.  We have been working hard on preparing them to play hymns.  Riko played today for Banjasari.  About a month ago I told him that "Called to Serve" right out of the hymnal was not too hard.  We went through it once and today he played it for the congregation to sing!  Sooooooo proud of him!!!!  It is nice to hear so many play and enjoy it. We ran to the dentist before piano this week.  Yup! About a month ago I chipped the back of a front bottom tooth.  It was really a bother, but if you saw the hospitals here you would really think twice about going to the dentist.  The bother of it finally won, so we asked Bono who the Grovers (the Senior couple before us) went to.  WOW!!!!  It was clean and modern and efficient.  It took her about a half hour, was done very well, and cost about $25!!!!!  I'm thinking about having some other things taken care of .....

Did we tell you that Friska got her Missionary Call to Australia?  She was so shocked.  She will be starting to work this week with Elder Greenway on Preach My Gospel in English.  She will go to the MTC in New Zealand.  He is getting to be an old pro at helping these young people get their Visas and put things together.  There are about 10 youth from Solo planning missions before October.  One is our Aster, Ratmini's daughter.  I hope she is called to the states so she can use her English.

The hardest thing we did this week was go to Boyalali. We will be cutting our visits to one a month for now.  They cannot come to Solo to church, and the church will be a while getting there.  By law there have to be members living in a community before you can send "the Church" there.  So no members, no missionaries.  We have come to love these women very much, and we wish that we could change the circumstances.  They are faithful at reading the Book of Mormon, they love the Gospel, and they are delightful.  It is so hard to slow this down...they would be members in a heartbeat.  I remember when Emily was in Ecuador and the husband in a family would fly off to New York and ten years later he was still in New York and the rule was that you could notbaptize just the mother without the husbands consent.  Emily was so sad...now we understand. The Sisters weredevastated.

While we were there, we watched as the grandchildren played.  The were constructing toy cars out of the stems ofhuge banana leaves.  They would slice them into the shape of a race car using an old knife, then they tried to make tires out of a rounded stem from another plant, but they wouldn't roll.  So Elder helped them punch holes into water bottle lids, then the kids would shave a toothpick shaped  sliver from and old piece of wood to make the axle.  Wonderful!!!  Kini and Markini had made "sticky rice" bars, (looks like a rice crispy treat, only it's real rice, and boiled sugar).  They also take rice flour and mix it with water, stir in some peanuts, then spoon a ribbon into hot fat.  It make a sort of salty peanut cookie.  We really will miss the village and the people.

We have amazing Elders and Sisters here. (We always do) Elder Hasibuan has finally decided it would be a good thing to learn English.  So he has been conduction DDM in English.  We all want to record it, because he is so funny.  He told Pres. Groberg of his desire in his weekly email to the Pres.  So Pres. Groberg told him that to help the Elder he would now be communicating in English with him!  Elder Hasibuan was pantomiming himself trying to read his email.  It was so fun.  These fine missionaries work so hard.  They ride bikes all over this city in heat and humidity, they are kind and thoughtful, they love the work, and they strive to be serious servants of the Lord.  We are very proud of them, all.  We have always loved having the missionaries around.  They have blessed our family and home.  They have added to the Spirit each week, and we have felt their goodness.  When we get home, we will try to do better at helping them by serving with them, and by being better missionaries ourselves.  These missionaries struggle with the member's lack of enthusiasm just as the missionaries do all over the world.  "Open Your Mouth" is one of their goals each week.  We really want to try to be better at "opening our mouths" about the Gospel when we are back in our own vineyard. Jumali has been to Church each week for three weeks since we found him. His wife is now having the lessons.  We were so blessed to be able to "open our mouth's" to him.  That is just this vineyard.  How about your vineyard?

You are always in our prayers.  You are always in our thoughts.  You all mean the world to us. 

Forever,

Mom & Dad

Week 74 Photos #1

Melanie chipped a bottom front tooth and its ragged edge was causing her discomfort, so Bono directed us to a Dokter Gigi (dentist) that the Grovers had visited.  Her name is Ellen Laurensia and this is her office sign.



And the front entrance to her office.  We found it to be very clean, modern, efficient, and affordable.


We also visited with Kini and Markini with the Sisters.  That's Kini's husband in the background.


While the Sisters were teaching, Sister Greenway and I took a walk and also visited with the neighbor kids and Markini's son.


Beside Kini's home is a Kristen Church.  Here is the minister and his wife.  They invited us into their home, but we needed to head back to Kini's.


These are their two daughters.

Week 74 Photos #2

This is a view looking up Kini and Markini's street.  That's Markini's home on the left.  Kini's home is on the left, too, out of the picture.



Here is another neighbor, heading home with a load of firewood.  I asked him if I could take his picture ... so he struck a pose.


These are Kini's goats.  They are raised for food and/or for sale.  Goats bring a good price during the Day of Sacrifice (that follows Ramadan).


Kini and Markini's garden.  It has cassava, cabbage, clove, beans, corn.


A neighbors, bamboo fence holding back the jungle.


Anjing - dog.  This is Kini's.  Its mate had a litter of pups when we first began visiting.  Kini sold the pups a couple months ago - for food not to be pets.

Week 74 Photos #3

More kids eventually showed up and one had a "banana car"  The others kids wanted one too, so he went to work.




Markini's son and side-kick.

I helped punch small holes in plastic soda bottle caps.  They were an upgrade from the original.


The original - note the wheels on this model.

Week 74 Photos #4

Everyday scenes:  This little, OLD, lady was walking up the road as we were leaving Kini's.  She's carrying corn stalks for fodder for her family's cow.  


I had noticed this wood scrap pile from a local saw mill on several visit.  This time, however, some enterprising individual started stacking and selling it in wrapped bundles.  He was saving the hassle of sorting and wrapping for those willing to pay him to do it.



Plowing a rice paddy prepping for a new crop.  This used to be done with water buffalo, but we've only seen one yoke of buffalo since we've been here.


Newly planted paddy and you can see another field being plowed in the background.


I showed you Raja Ayam from the outside in earlier posts.  This is looking at the dining area from the front door.  That's Sister Knorpp and Purwono, their driver.


Here's the cashier.  A filling meal with drinks for six people will cost about 100,000 rupiah.  About $10.00 US.  


This is the kitchen.

And this is where the Bakso, Soto, and Mei Ayam are prepared.  Yes, it's a stand outside the front door.