Week 2 - Arriving in Jakarta

On Saturday, Audrey and I attended an endowment session in the Provo temple.

Well the training is complete, and I think everyone left more unsure about their assignment than before the training.  Elder Gay was unable to attend any of our sessions, but Elder Sitati gave an overview on Sunday, and both he and Elder Falabela were at the SLC training on Tuesday.  It was Tuesday when they finally informed us that the Asia area is the one area where they have not yet hired a  Area Self Reliance Manager.  So they suggested we rely on the spirit to guide us in what we should do in Indonesia.  They also wished us well.  Excited to see how the trip goes, they also heard yesterday that the Mission Pres.  Will pick us up at the airport in Indonesia.  At the Hong Kong airport they at first did not have a gate assigned for our flight to Indonesia.  When it was finally assigned we found our way there by train and lots of walking.  About a hour and a half before the flight was to leave they changed gates.  Shortly after we got to the new gate it was changed again and by the time we got there it was moved one more time.  We arrived in Indonesia without any complications, but as we were landing the stewardess announced we were landing in Kaula Lumpur, then corrected herself, we knew from the map on the TV screen that we were actually in the correct place, but it could have made some wonder if we actually were headed to the wrong city and country for that matter.

 

This is our plane that we took from Los Angeles to Hong Kong.  It was a 15 hr flight

 

As we traveled from the airport to the mission home, President Donald asked if were willing to work with a branch in Medan, which is on the northern end of Sumatra.  He explained that the native couple serving as PEF &  Self Reliance missionaries have it fairly well handled.  So Audrey and I will meet with them and see how much we think we want to be involved.  We talked about heading up to Medan late this week after we have some identification documents processed with the government this Wednesday.

This is the front of the Mission Home

 





Audrey and I took a walk on Saturday around the mission home and there is a vast divergence in life styles in the area.  Going from large consulate homes, and large office skyscrapers and high-rise housing next door to provide employee housing to very humble and shabby ghetto type housing scattered throughout the area, and between and next to all the expensive buildings. We turned down one lane and it turned out to basically be a walk way through a residential area, with families out in front of the structure doing their cooking and household chores.  We stopped and visited with a couple gentlemen who were out on the streets, one sent his buddy off to get something after we had visited for a few minutes, he came back with what looked like soda cans, we politely declined his offer of something to drink, after a little more discussion, he had his friend bring back 3 beers, and offered Aud and I each a beer.

Also visited with another Indonesian who had a street stand selling potted plants, it looked like a permanent setup and he had a number of attractive orchids on display, and a number of succulents, and some other potted plants. and were able to visit with them in their language, and we were able communicate fairly well with that.

We went out to dinner Saturday night with the 2 couples who work in the office, the Lucarinis and the Lisks.  We went to this huge place called the pacific plaza.  It had the Ritz Carlton hotel in it and about 6 floors of shops and restaurants.  We ended up at a place called Thai alley.  We had our first experience in a taxi by our selves coming home from dinner.  We road both ways to church today in a taxi with the Mission President.  It was at least an hour drive each way.  What an experience.  You are better off not watching as the driver is driving.  Could be quite scary otherwise.

Attended church today in the Jakarta area, it was the Tangerang Ward in Jakarta met a lot of people, several who we knew because we had studied the language with members of their family, while we were preparing to come to Indonesia.  We met with Brother Kusamermantos who is serving as a native PEF missionary with his wife,  they will be serving until April of next year, Pres. Donald, Bro. Kusamermantos, and we visited together about the things going on in PEF and Self Reliance.  When we were finished we decided to get on a plane Tues morning to fly to the Solo area, and participate in an Employment Seminar that they are doing in the Surkarta Stake.  All in all our time with him was well spent.  It also helped both of us understand and work on how we can move forward together in the future.