Week 92

AAAAGGGGGHHHHH!  Who put time on fast-forward?!

 

Didn't we JUST mention it was June, and now it is "half-past" June!  I don't know, but it feels like science fiction or something like a hole in the space-time continuum. (I'm married to a Trekkie...). Whatever it is, time is flying by and we just continue to be loved to pieces. Speaking of loved to pieces, Emily completed her first class on her way to her Bachelors in Nursing with an A+!  The only other person that I know that ever got an A+ in school was my sister, Janis.  I DID NOT... but I did have an A+ in fun.  To bad there is NOT a major in FUN.  Heck, Mensa would be looking at me as genius material in the Fun category.  You can see that she got her brains from her father.  Both my girls are super smarties... I dunno, I dunno.

 

Speaking of FUN!  The yucky virus did not let go of me until Wednesday.  So half our week was wasted!  We did do piano on Wednesday.  Sister Hutcheson helps on that day, so if it rains (we have mentioned that when it rains everything stops!) we just visit and her companion, Sister Manullang who wants to learn to play piano, practices.  Sister Hutcheson could be related to us.  She LOOOOOVES "Lord of the Rings", (so Elder Greenway thinks she's perfect), and "Star Trek", (I don't even need to say a word), but most importantly she is a treasure as a missionary.  We are so blessed to know her.

 

Thursday we went to Boyalali with Sisters Hutcheson and Manullang. That is always a highlight in our week.  When we go to Boyalali we feel like Ammon with Lamoni.  We are in the palace and everyone is overcome with the Spirit, and all is right with the world.  I wish Sister Blake, who was the initial Sister to visit these Boyalali Ladies, could know how they remain so devoted to the Gospel.  They have a picture of her with Sister Neis prominently displayed in there home.  If it gets too long between visits there, they call the Sisters.  Oh how we wish the Church could have a presence near their home. They are so faithful, they have such testimonies. Every time we go they have questions from their reading of the Liahona, or Book of Mormon.  We worry about them because it seems they will on the fringes for a while.  (Sigh...........)  When we got home we visited at Uskup Catur's for a while. The Sisters had been invited there for a teaching appointment.  Their son, Elder Putra, is the one serving in SLC.  We have a number of Missionaries getting ready to serve from here.  We have been working hard on their English.  Many could go "English speaking", isn't that amazing.  In fact, we have 2 from our Soepomo class, and 2 from our Kepatihan class that would be successful.  Last Thursday, at our Supomo class, we arrived and found out that it was Yos's birthday, and many from the class had had other obligations.  Sooooo, we took those who were there to get ice cream instead.  He kept saying "this is the best birthday ever!"  We do so love these youth! 

 

Friday we attended DDM.  One of the prominent character traits of the Indonesian missionaries is humility.  Most of them come from very humble circumstances.  They are given their "allowance" for the month for food and incidentals, and for most of them it is more money than they have ever known.  They learn to budget, they learn to shop wisely, and they learn English from their companions.  They teach us all about humility.  Elder Wijaya gave the lesson at DDM.  He constantly apologized for his lack of ability.  He would be amazed at what he was teaching us.  We get teary when we think of these fine young men.  Later, we taught English at Kepatihan.  We worked on the understanding the placement meaning for "beside, behind, around, above, inside, below, etc.".  I made a big paper cake and a great, big paper fly.  Then I put the fly in various places beside, behind, around, above, etc. the cake.  They had to work a bit, but they came up with many of the words.  Then we played Vowel Bingo (words with short vowel sounds) and the group Loooooved that.  Young Sister Cori would say "Again, again!", until she finally got Bingo!  Our class is growing there, so we are happy.

 

Today we attended Solo 1 and Solo 2.  The Solo 2 missionaries had THREE INVESTIGATORS!!!!! attend.  WOW....  One will be baptized next week.  He is the husband on Nonik who has been a member for a long time.  They are young and just had their second child.  Joyful, Joyful.  Aren't we blessed to be members of Christ's Church?  Can you imagine how life would be without the greatest of all blessings? We are certainly grateful that at this time in our lives we have been blessed to see how this Truth changes the lives of these beautiful people.  "Men are that they might have joy...!"

 

Kami merasa suka mereka! Kami akan rindu mengasihi mereka... 

 

Still working on the language...

Elder dan Sister Greenway