Week 73

Dear, dear family and friends,

February! I can't believe it. Well, we now have a child in Idaho, Utah, Ohio, Pennsylvania (2), and Virginny. What is that? What ever happened to my idea of building a commune on Grampa's Mapleton farm? Whatever happened to my idea of moving it to Pennsylvania, and buying some old farmhouse, raising chickens, milking goats, etc. etc. etc. Oh wait! I guess that was just MY idea. Somehow, I failed to convince the others they would love to live with me forever.... IMAGINE!!! Oh well... I'm only the mother. The "movers" (Joel and family) had tons of the Carlisle and Virginia Wards' help. The Elder Quorum Moving Company is a good choice in moving companies. It is just good at heart! We are very grateful for all who took the time to help.

Wednesday, I got "bitten" by some sort of stomach virus, and haven't seen much but the walls of my apartment since then. But, as long as I don't eat anything of consequence, I am alright. (Emily, does this sound familiar?). However, we did accomplish a number of things previous to that, and Elder marched right along without me. Monday, we had the District to our apartment for a review of the importance of Family History in Missionary Labors. Elder and Sister Knorpp are doing a FABULOUS job of getting Family History Centers, and laborers in place. There was actually no real Family History organization in Indonesia until they came. They have been teaching and training their huge hearts out. The live in Solo,(actually right down the hall from us), but they have been to Sumatra, Jakarta, Jogja, Magalang, and Samerang to train and get Family History personnel in place. They have just been here six months, but they have accomplished plenty. Anyway, part of their assignment is to teach the missionaries to teach about Family History. So when we get a certain amount of new Elders, we bring them here and let the Knorpps do their thing. The Elders get to go on line to do some research, and they also get fed. Monday we did sloppy joes again, plus veggies, plus chips, plus watermelon, plus hot fudge cake with ice cream. It is so fun to cook for missionaries. They are appreciative devourers!

On Tuesday we planned English for the Week, and Piano lessons, then we went-a-searching. We found that Bambang Heru Pambudi Wibowo does not live at an existing address, and besides that address is not in the Solo 1 Ward. So we will move his record, for the time being, and ask the Jebres Ward members about him later. We found that Bapak(father in Indonesian)Sugito lives very close to us, and to the Elders. He lives in a 10 ft. by 15 ft. room that has 4 bed platforms in it, divided somewhat by tarps (which means that there is more than one family) His wife has had a stroke, is diabetic (common in Indonesia), and can't get around. The reason he doesn't come to church is tithing, and he drives a becak. We will for sure send the Elders, and I think we will talk to the Bishop. We headed off to piano at the Kapatihan building then ran to the Supomo building for Seminary English. We showed them our power point presentation of "Hop On Pop" by Dr. Seuss and let them each read the pages to review vowel sounds and we also worked on the First Article of Faith in English.

Wednesday, my back and elbow (yes elbow, the right one{no comment, Ty}) were achy, but those of you with arthritis understand that that happens. We worked at home in the morning, and then set out again to find the lost of the Solo 1 Ward. We found Nanang Raya Supinta, who had moved, but Bono knew his new address... which was way south in the county... and when we got there we found out he works, parking cars, very near to our apartment. His son was very nice, but we will return to talk to his Dad. It was about that time that I felt like I would definitely not like to venture on with the day's plan. But part of those plans were Wednesday piano lessons. As Bono was hurrying to get me home, I was hurrying to handover my piano lessons to Elder, to handover to the Sister Missionaries. Can I tell you how grateful I am that Sister Hutcheson's (from Oregon) mother made her take piano lessons?! I called she and Sister Manalu and they just stepped in and taught my lessons for that day. Elder was teaching English that night, so we hurriedly went over the lesson plan, again, and I crawled from the car and went up to bed. (Dad writing) English class consisted of review of the vowels after we went over the 1st Article of Faith. I then did a hangman game with the answer being, "We have a body like Heavenly Father." It is so interesting, that as they play the game they don't waste any of their guesses. I then got them us to sing and move for, "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes. With hand-drawn facsimile's of the head, body and limbs (stick figures) I went over all of the facial features, limbs and other areas of the body. One question they had was what hair on the face was called. So I provided beard, mustache, goatee, side-burns. Then they ask what hair on the back was called. Hairy back was my reply. Oh, well!?!?!

(Mom again)  "Thursday was a wash... But Friday Elder went to Zone Training meeting and ran errands with Bono. I always feel better if something is accomplished in a day.

(Dad again) Friday, I went to Zone Training Meeting. This is a meeting of the Zone lead by the Zone Leaders following their Zone Leader Training with the President. After setting up for the meeting, Bono and I went to Solo Baru (New Solo) to check out the new mall that was just completed there. It is only about 10% occupied at this time with a lot of store build-out underway. It is huge and quite fancy. We then went to Solo Square to get a couple things - then back to Soepom for the start of the meeting. These young elders are great. Elder James and Mongan conducted a great meeting with full participation of all of the missionaries from, Semarang, Jogja, and Solo.

(Mom again) We are very blessed to live in a Hotel (well, there are apartments on the first 9 floors). So we have a gym and a pool we can use. I wasn't swimming, because I didn't own a suit, for the first year we were here. But then I noticed that Indonesians swim in just about anything. Some Muslim women are completely covered, kind of like a downhill ski racer, when they swim. Others wear a sort of cut-off version of that. Some women wear shorts and T-shirts, and well that's what I finally figured out I could do. So I have been swimming most mornings at 6 while Elder and Knorrps exercise in the Gym. I would rather swim than sweat, (they don't air condition the gym in the morning). It has been so nice to really move, we do so much sitting. We understand that this sounds contrary to the Solo world around us, and it really is, which makes us even more grateful. You know the words "where much is given, much is expected"? Well, we know those words. We have been given so much. We are so relieved that we don't get to be the judge of who gets what. We just need to look out for those in need, and try to help them the best that we can. We just ask for guidance, and go do. Elder and I have a "hassle theory"(we recognized it a long time ago). If our life is free of "the hassles" of service, if we find ourselves without the "bother" of opportunity to serve others, then we are certainly not moving upward in the right direction. We know all of you, and are happy to just continue to learn from your example. Thank you for that!!!

Swimmingly yours,

Splashy Sister and Studly Elder.