Holy Week

 We're over most of the initial "wonder and amazement" phase of all our sudden changes and now we're fairly settled and comfortable with the new, though temporary reality that is Timor Leste. There have been a few difficult challenges this week for sure but also some real joys too.

The first joy was attending our "twig", hardly even a branch, for the first time. I may have mentioned before that 12 of the 26th members are 2 families that work for the American Embassy, (pictures of them next week). Another 7 members are the DeSilva family - 4 of them rode their scooter and a little public transportation mini-van called a  "microlet" to church and the other 3 got a ride with us..

Sis DeS, the RS Pres, and 2 of her 4 daughters

Brother Jimenez is a member from the Philippines and is the Elders Quorum Pres.

I'll introduce others to you as we become better acquainted with them. The locals are all so humble and lovable. When they shake your hand they touch your handshake to their bowed heads and then they touch their heart with their other hand. Why don't we greet each other this way?? Let's make! Relief Society was a combined women's meeting of 5 of us ladies, 12 and older, EQ also included 3 young men of the ward with the older men with a total of 8 and The Snows taught 2 children in Primary. The Branch President's family was out with sickness. I want you to imagine someday the church in Timor Leste being as large and countrywide-encompassing as the Philippines, and then you'll remember hearing about its very humble beginnings in 2024. 

 Knowing our time is limited here, for our Monday P-day, we chose to visit the most notable landmark in Dili, the large statue of Jesus Christ that you see from the airplane as you descend into the city. It's called the Christo Rei. It seemed so fitting and coincided so perfectly with our in-depth companionship  study of the Savior's last week of his mortal life, referred to as Holy Week, for any unfamiliar with the term. After a relatively short drive to the point of the bay inlet, we commenced a doable hike up the mountain, an ascension of many uneven, sometimes crumbling stairs.

           Let Us Ascend to the Hill of the Lord

All along the way were alcoves depicting the Stages of the Cross, a perfect reason to stop for a breather and contemplate all that had transpired in the Meridian of Time. These renderings had been etched or compressed somehow into metal "canvases" for lack of a better word. I took a picture at each place but will only share a few here: 

The residue of the wax candles actually added some realism to the scene.

How many drops of blood were shed for me?

This one also struck me with some stark realism as I looked at the bramble of thorny twigs on the tree above, looking much like a crown.

The Good News is that after the agony of the Cross, and the Atonement wrought in Gethsemane beforehand, Christ rose again, giving us all the universal gift of Resurrection

                   He is Risen! And so will we!

           Jesus Christ is the Savior of the World

We have felt the impact and influence of our Savior's love for us throughout our mission but especially this week as we've studied daily all that He accomplished and experienced for us. We listened to the "Lamb of God" all through the week and sang many hymns and watched many videos of His triumphal entry, His cleansing of the temple, His final teachings, His miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead, the Last Supper, the betrayal of Judas, His suffering in the Garden for our sins, His unjust and ironic trial, His Via Dolorosa, and finally His hanging on the Cross followed by His burial in the tomb. We cannot wait for Resurrection Sunday! Tomorrow we rejoice! Alleluia!

We have felt, to an even greater degree, such profound indebtedness for His suffering, for the forgiveness He offers us for our sins, for the miracles He gives us. Rob sliced his thumb pretty good during meal prep last night, even into his nail bed, and yet it hardly bled. We can't explain it logically but a visit to a non-existent Insta-Care was not required. We are being protected on this mission despite our own foolhardiness, at times. Yes, we're experiencing our own small agonies; the daily mosquito bites, Rob's Achilles heel aches, and a few other woes and trials for both of us, but we're weathering them all with some divine help from our Lord. We kneel all amazed.

Sorrows last for a night but joy cometh in the morning

So what does He ask of us? Certainly we cannot repay him for the gift of our life and our personal resurrection. That would be impossible. He asks us merely to believe in him. He asks us to keep all His Father's commandments which is actually for our own good too. 

              He asks us to be his Lower Lights

...to guide others towards Him into safe harbors

                   ...to be fishers of men

...to expend some effort in gathering Israel on both sides of the veil

...to help redeem our dead, those who never had the chance to hear of Jesus Christ and the great plan of happiness in their lifetime, by doing family history and temple work

...to love our new neighbors

...and to be of good cheer!

"...For according to the great plan of the Eternal God, there must be an atonement made, or else all mankind must unavoidably perish, yea, all are fallen and are lost, and must perish except it be through the atonement which it is expedient should be made."

Alma 34:9

Now the plan of mercy could not be brought about except an atonement should be made; therefore God himself atoneth for the sins of the world, to bring about the plan of mercy to appease the demands of justice, that God might be a perfect, just God, and a merciful God also. 

Alma 42: 15

Living the dream

 Imagine us. International Jetsetters! How in the world did Heavenly Father construct this ideal mission for us? It's always been a dream of ours to travel to different cultures and meet people from different lands but the reality is we are humble folk more accustomed to buckets than bucket lists. Our minds are dazzled and swirling from the whirlwind of travel we've experienced these last 10 days. Buckle up your belts now and put your seats in their safe, upright position because we are whisking you away with us on the next leg of our adwenture! We've already taken you from India to Bangkok. Next stop- Jakarta! 

             The view of Jakarta from our hotel

We were met at the airport by our insta-friends, TWO senior couples who took us under their protective wings for two days -- The Lallatins and the Levesques. What a treat to be with senior peers who share a love of missionary life!

                           Life in La-Le Land

They asked us where we wanted to go out to eat for our first night in Indonesia. We told them it's been a year since we've had a steak, and absence had made our heart grow fond for something beefy. The Holy Rib restaurant definitely fit the bill. We devoured our steak and rib dinners with the gusto of two carnivores! The irony of our sheer gluttony was not lost on us because it happened to coincide with the start of Ramadan, the month of fasting for Muslims. During dinner, there was Middle Eastern-flavored music wafting through the mall that I was most eager to check out. 

I could've stayed much longer to listen but there were games to be played and ice cream to consume back at their apartment before this triple-date party was over. We played Scum of the Earth and a new card game for us called "Dang it, Nancy" which elicited much hilarity and  conviviality. Conveniently, our hotel and their apartments were right next to each other with identical floorplans. They were unfortunately missing out on the amazing breakfast buffet and chocolate lobby display that we had. 

The significance of two men and a barrel sculpted in chocolate was lost on us but it sure smelled good anyway! (Rob chimed in and thinks this is a drum. That makes more sense.) Sunday morning we did not fast with the Muslims but took full advantage of the new Indo-cuisine breakfast buffet we'd never tried or tasted before. Some of it looked a little frightening so I asked one of the buffet employees to explain it all to us. Rizky gave us a complete overview in excellent English. We called him over afterwards to our table to tell him how much we enjoyed the satay and other offerings he suggested and got him talking about his own life. His parents are divorced, Dad is Muslim, Mom is Christian and he has sided with his mother's faith and currently attends a Christian church. Knowing we aren't supposed to approach Muslims about our message, we felt we could say a few things to Rizky of why we were there. He was very interested and curious so we told him we were off to church but would bring him back a book of scripture he could read. I wish I had taken a photo of him but he was on duty and it just didn't feel like the right time. We did drop the book off to him afterwards and told him we'd check back in a month when we had our permanent visas to talk more. 

Church was simply AMAZING at the Jakarta English-speaking ward and we were immediately enveloped in the familiar joy of the Spirit. Our gospel doctrine teacher was a sharp young man from the Philippines, a returned missionary who had served in Indonesia. There were a few American embassy families in the mix.

               I sat by Rebecca from Taiwan

The sacrament prayers were given in Farsi and English by Amin from Iran. One of the Sacrament meeting talks was given by Esther, a young woman from The Congo. They are refugees but had found and accepted the restored gospel, not sure if in The Congo or in Indonesia. This picture is of her mother and her brother named Grace.

And then after the meeting was over, Alley met Ali from Afghanistan. 

Can you believe what cultural diversity under one roof? And yet our hearts were completely knitted together and unified in our love for, and faith in Jesus Christ. For me, Zion had already begun right then and there in the Jakarta English-speaking ward. We started forming friendships with all these good people with the promise we'd be back in a month to pick up where we left off. Another sleepless night followed as we anticipated our 2:00 am wake up alarm and flight that took us away from our brief but wonderful introduction to our new mission in Indonesia. 

Next stop-Bali!

                Sunrise in Bali just about to break

                           Whaaaat is that???

Technically, this was only an airport pitstop but it did require an outdoor stroll from the domestic terminal to the international terminal so we can honestly say we set foot in Bali. The song that greeted us over the loudspeaker as we disembarked was "How Sweet it Is" by James Taylor. For one moment, it almost felt like we were back in America except the pervasive garb seen everywhere here is women, not in a full length hijab, but with a head scarf coupled with western style clothes. An East Meets West accommodation of sorts.  

Our Final Stop- Timor Leste!

The quaint airport, the kind where they wheel the steps to the plane and then you walk onto the tarmac and into the terminal was our first clue we were not in 1st World territory.

Only 3 flights a day come to TL, arriving from Bali, Singapore, and Darwin, Australia.

You sure this isn't a Pizza Hut?

Another wonderful senior couple, the Snows, were there to greet us and drive us in the mission car to our new digs. We were not expecting the completely charming apartment located two blocks up from the ocean...

the pretty plant-lined path to our front door... (see our daily maid Mary in the window? Laundry service is included too)

 nor the vaulted ceilings... (even the bathrooms feel like we're in a cathedral!)

                   wait a minute, and a pool too? 

The Snows treated us on our first night to a dinner on the beach with Branch President Uber (pronounced Yuber, in this case) and his two young children. His wife works for USAid and was out of town on business.

More insta-friends 

With the soft lapping of the waves and the sun setting on the water, it was so peaceful and lovely, surely this was more like a vacation than a mission! And the wonderment still continues. Each morning we've gone out on a walk to discover what we can about Timor Leste. 

       The culture seems to be a unique mix of

Pacific Island/Portuguese/Indonesian influences

Of course being next to the Timor Sea, they eat a lot of fish here. Even the butter has a slight fishy flavor to it. Maybe the cows here eat fish too. 

     Elder Aquarius, born in the sign of Water,

                loves being so near to it.

 The morning catch

                            Their net gain

               What's on his bucket list today? 

                  Their Beachfront property

                           Their crafty rafts

We so admire their resourcefulness! They've found an ingenious use for old tires too

           Beachside dining tables and chairs

                      Dunlaps on Dunlops

Every day, we are greeted with friendly "Buon Dias", smiles, and waves from the natives wherever we go. One day we met two Caucasian ladies waiting for a super mercado to open. One was from Hungary, here as a teacher, the other was a Bohemian traveler from New Zealand. Linda had been to 8 ATMs already that morning and none had money in them. When the store opened, its ATM was also empty. She was distraught because she had no money to pay her hotel bill. So we offered to drive her to a bank with our mission car. Rob had not, as yet attempted to drive in this traffic that we would call "India-lite", not nearly as heavy and much much quieter! But he navigated just great, like the professional driver he is. She was very grateful and we made a new friend in the process. 

Two things make Timor Leste not quite so Edenesque. The mosquitos are much like their Indian cousins, those naughty, stealthy, welt producing night predators. We had no room in our suitcases to bring along our mosquito netting so here we go again! Coimbatore revisited. And secondly- the prices here. Yow!! NOTHING is cheap here. Practically everything is imported. We've seen $15.00 sticker prices on plastic pitchers. $4.00 for two plastic hangers. It's killing me and it must kill them too. But perhaps this too is a tailor-made situation to make me confront my money phobias and get over them, trusting that the Lord will provide sufficient for our needs. It's all part of my personalized plan the Lord has for me.

And the very best part of this 3 week gig?  We get to teach English to Young Adults again! Oh, we are so enamored with them already. They are so bright and pure and happy. They have unique names like Erko, Memo, Rio, Uzo, and Auxiliadora. They love that we pray to begin and close our classes and join in with their traditional Catholic prayers. We're offering a free 12 week English course and the maximum space of 30 filled right up with university students. For the few weeks we are here, its just unofficial Conversational English which is suited to us. Just with the power of friendliness, they are already asking questions and are curious about us and why we're here and linger longer after class to talk. "What is your church? We've heard never of it" Haven't we recently been learning in Isaiah about Israel being gathered in from the isles of the sea? I prophecy that the Timor Leste branch with its twenty-six members that was just newly formed in January 2024 is on the cusp of huge expansion. I only wish we could stay longer and see the miracles happen! 

"Know ye not that there are more nations than one? Know ye not that I, the Lord your God have created all men, and that I remember those who are upon the isles of the sea...?

2 Nephi 29:4

The Lord God will proceed to do a marvelous work among they that are scattered to and fro upon the isles of the sea nevertheless, after they shall be nursed by the Gentiles... it is likened unto their being nourished and being carried in their arms and upon their shoulders.

1 Nephi 22: excerpts from 4, 6, 8