Down Time

 This may be my shortest blog ever. I can usually gauge the length by how many photos I took in the week and if it wasn't for a few pics from Sunday, I'd have nothin' much to show for the week. I hope the reader will bear with more written content and less visuals this time.

We experienced one mini-miracle of being in the right place at the right time. While wandering the buffet breakfast on Sunday morning, we ran into a woman called Pip, traveling with her 21 year old niece who lives with her. They are Australian but the aunt works as a consulate in Indonesia for the Australian government and was in Manado for professional reasons. They saw our badges and approached us. Come to find out they are both members of the church but Pip hasn't been to church in 20 years. Niece Claudia's family is active but when asked what she does while living with her aunt in Indonesia, the answer was "gaming." Pip was aware that there was a branch of the church in Manado. We told them we were headed there to church in an hour and asked them to join us. I think more for Claudia's sake she said yes so we shared a cab so we could direct them there, though they probably could've gotten there just fine with Google Map's help. We just didn't want them to talk themselves out of coming!  Pip speaks Bahasa so she probably understood more of the meetings than we did. The Branch President had asked us to speak and so we had both prepared messages, seeking the Spirit in what we felt the Lord wanted them to hear. My topic came to me like a bolt when I woke up at 2:00 am so I went with it.  As it was, they had two other speakers talk ahead of us and a 4-verse interlude song that seemed to go on forever so I started to speak at 13 minutes to the hour and slashed my talk to bare minimum shreds, giving Elder Dunlap time to share the shortest impromptu talk ever recorded about the importance of exactness in starting on time and ending on time, tying it in with exactness in obedience, all in a two minute sound byte. Ah well, so much for the "great impact" of visiting senior missionaries, leaving the branch with wisdom and challenges to work on. It was what it was.

             The Manado Branch Relief Society 

                     Zooming in on the Aussies

The Monday morning before our departure, we ate with Irda and Salim and one of their star pupils of the orphanage they sponsor who's gone on to get a college degree and now teaches at the orphanage. The Elders had expressed interest in volunteering at the orphanage to play games and sports with the students so we told them of their willingness to continue our association with them. They seemed pleased that we wanted to be of service. I wish we could see the big picture of any of our efforts but usually we don't. 

                      People meet for a reason                

                                                Salim is an American born in Washington DC, who converted to Islam when he married Irda. Such is the influence of women on the hearts of men.

We hope in small and simple ways, we are building bridges of friendship and understanding between religions and ideologies.

We took one last walk along the shoreline before we headed to the airport. Christian churches abound in Manado. We were surprised to find a Buddhist temple .                

And could this actually be a Jewish synagogue?

                              Our guess is no 

Truth be known, we came back to Jakarta in pretty low spirits. Between Rob's sickness and concern over Luke our grandson, we weren't on the top of our game. Never was the language barrier more obvious to us, that try as we might to compensate with other strengths, we are definitely hampered by our inability to understand the Indonesians in meetings and in one on one conversations, which we feel is the one thing we offer; the ability to not TALK so much to them but just to LISTEN to them and what needs they are expressing to us. The young missionaries were so awesome in translating for us in official capacities but couldn't be there for every conversation, unfortunately. The expense to get us there and feed and house us for 5 days seemed hardly cost effective and not much bang for the buck to our thrifty sensibilities. We expressed a few of these sentiments to our wonderful and understanding president when we returned to report. "Are you sure we're the right people for this job? We feel woefully inadequate." He proposed an awesome solution. The Kusumarmantos are a newly called MLS senior couple and get this, they are Indonesian and speak Bahasa! What a bonus! Language barrier solved! We are very excited to work together with them in visiting the outlying branches. They are the personification of meekness. Their inherent strengths are the missing ingredient we know we lack and maybe combined we can make an actual impact.

The Tandimans and Kusumarmantos 

 

On our return, we also started receiving some of the reimbursements due us from way back to Timor-Leste days. For the first time in our lives we are millionaires. Hah! Lest you think we've robbed a bank, 16,000 rupiah equal $1.00. 100,000 rupiah is $6.12 so it only looks like a tremendous wad o' cash. 

Quite the fanfare 

So what are we doing these days in Jakarta to feel like missionaries? Well.. let's see, I've been given a new assignment to teach English Connect 1 to the missionaries who still need the basics. I love that. I'm still transcribing gravestones like mad. I've decided to become even more of a digital missionary during these slower periods, sharing church content to the Indonesian friends we've made on WhatsApp. We've been taught it's the way modern missionary work is being conducted that gets results. We'll give it a go and see if we can reap a harvest or plant a few seeds. Fortunately, I do know how to use the share icon. Rob had a great "guys day out" with Freddy, sans wives. Freddy recently was reactivated and then baptized his son. His wife is in Korea, her native country so the timing was good for him.

 Rob sure keeps us eating healthy too. He's turned over another new leaf since his last bout with his belly and is cooking us many soups with greens, the equivalent of, we're not sure we'll find in the States. They are abundant here and so cheap. Now that we can control what we eat and when we eat, we have embraced daily fasting as par for the course. It's been our only secret to health that the Lord has taught us. When we close our eating window, he can then open up His window of heaven to shower down blessings. Yes, food can be our best medicine but it's when we stop eating that he designed our bodies to repair itself on the cellular level. 

And one of the true blessings of slower times is the blessing we've been given to study the scriptures in greater depth than we ever have before. Sometimes word by word. I will cherish this mission forever for that! We treasure the conversations and discussions that the principles found in the scriptures elicit. Our testimonies have grown and so has our faith in Jesus Christ's promises to his covenant children that are so sure. We can trust Him with our lives! We've had so many "aha" moments and newer understandings come to us. It's startling how many paradigm shifts of insights we've had these past 20 months. It is nothing short of astounding. When would we ever find the time for that if not while serving a mission? 

Additionally, we feel even more closeness in our marriage than we had before we started. Oh yes, we have had to work through many of our issues and trigger points. You just can't afford to stay out of sorts for very long doing the Lord's work so bad moods have to be fixed pronto, especially the ones you keep having over and over. You figure out what tender nerves are being  touched and why they sting so bad. Then with that awareness of why we react the way we do in certain situations, we can take those things to the Lord in prayer and repent of them and ask for help in changing them. One thing we know for sure, we are works in progress but we've come a long ways in changing things about ourselves others might not see. When Elder Rasband spoke of the need for senior missionaries, we have learned from experience, that missions don't need us as much as we need the experience of a mission. Even at this age, we have so much to learn about ourselves and overcome. We are our best converts to the Gospel of Jesus Christ from our mission. 

Wherefore, do not spend money for that which is of no worth, nor your labor for that which cannot satisfy. Hearken diligently unto me, and remember the words which I have spoken; and come unto the Holy One of Israel, and feast upon the word which perisheth not, neither can be corrupted. 

2 Nephi 9:51