Williams in Indonesia: May 2015

We enjoyed a wonderful Family Home Evening with Brother Danu and Sister Catur and their family of three wonderful sons. Danu gave a great lesson on the need to work together to accomplish great things as a family, their oldest son conducted the meeting, we sang songs, and then closed with our favorite candy game and some snacks. An hour of family fun and great memories for all.

Sister Suryaningsih's husband died after a protracted battle with cancer. Here is the viewing. The body is kept here, sans embalming, for two days, and then cremated. The viewing is in a sectioned off wedge of a large covered pavilion, with other viewings going on simultaneously. Family friends come and go over the two days. Bottled water, peanuts and plastic-wrapped cake served. This is a Chinese tradition.

Sisters Williams, Sarwono, Chapman and Toegono.

Coordinating Council was held in Surabaya 2 weeks ago. The 2 Indonesian Stake Presidents, President Djarot and President Budi, the Surabaya District Presidency and the Indonesia Jakarta Mission Presidency were present. Elder Chen, Area Authority Seventy from Malaysia, presided. We received several hours of instruction regarding themes to be taught to all the Saints over the coming year.

Here's some funky, funny, Indonesian quirkiness. This was a sign board at the entrance to a large, up-scale mall at Lenmark advertising coming Mall events. They badly need an English speaker to help with translations. I really want to go back and visit "Chemical Engineering Game" or "Custom Shoes Contest."

Here one can buy "Large Fried Chicken." For those not into large chicken, across town is a competing store named "Small Fried Chicken."

Who would not want to buy out the store supply of "Pickled Lettuce."

Sister Williams and her Dunkin Donuts, usually accompanied by a large chocolate drink.

We went to 3 Western-style stores to find popcorn...jagung berontong...for Sister Williams. When we finally found it, we bought out their entire supply...8 packages of these "Corn Beans."

Sister Williams and I brought Magnum Gold Ice Cream bars to the Timur Elders the night before Elder Blaser left to return home to Arizona at the end of his two year service here. We sang "The Golden Plates" to them and asked them to identify what we held for them behind our backs.

Sister and Elder Lewis, Utah, at the end of their 9 day Family History Marathon with the Saints of East Java. Here at the Surabaya Train Station as they departed for the 5 hour train ride back to Solo in Central Java. They gave so much service here, and met with 100+ members one-on-one for 1-2 hours, and in the end submitting 70 names to the Temples for work.

We continued our visits to the neighborhoods looking for lost members. Here we met some cute girls in one kampung with their very modest Moslem clothing. So beautiful.

Each week Elder Williams spends a day with the young Elders on our bikes making home visits, teaching and sometimes proselyting. Above is Elder Petersen, who wants to become a Navy SEAL following his mission, trading salutes with a gregarious Indonesian Army NCO who shared his beret.

Elder Petersen and the village kids, sharing a bike ride.

Elder Petersen and Elder Chou stopping for hydration on our bikes. It was Hot!"...

...Which did not bode well for those people eating chicken that day.

We spent an evening training our District Clerk and the two Surabaya Branch Clerks. Peter (West Branch Clerk and our driver also), Brother Agus from Jakarta headquarters here to do the training (also the father of Elder Setijawan who was here for 6 months and just was transferred to Magelang), and also Brother Susilo (East Branch) and Brother Dean (District Clerk.) We have spent several evenings training clerks here over the past few months, as well as updating Membership Records in a major way.

We have been to Bali twice in the past 10 days. We were assigned to visit Bali Branch to organize an Elders Quorum there. Sadly, the EQ Pres (to be) did not come to church due to a sick family, We spoke in Church, and spent the next day waiting for a flight back to Surabaya. Flights were in short supply due to a holiday. Happily, that meant enjoying the beach and resort at Jimbaran (InterContinental.)

One of our favorites....krupuk and peanut sauce.

We made a second trip to Surabaya this week for a Senior Missionary Retreat.

President Donald

Our brand new Humanitarian missionaries, Elder and Sister Mitchell from Ogden Utah. They are stationed in Jakarta. They will be in Surabaya in 2 weeks for a day. We will drive them to Lamongan as the Church is funding a village water project there. We have been asked to function as site monitors.

We visited a traditional theater in Bali. The play depicted the conflict between Good and Evil. We did not care for the production or crude references.

A beautiful terraced Balinese hillside.

A wonderful lunch at the rim of Gunung Baruk. Great views of the volcano, large cauldron which reminds us of Crater Lake or Ngorongoro Crater, and of beautiful blue Lake Baruk in the distance. Last erupted in 2010. Ate wonderful food here, including Sate Lilit (Sate Bali....fish meat paste wrapped on a bamboo stick and roasted...so delicious), Ketan hitam, sate babi (pork sate....not common here since pork is halal in Moslem, but this island, Bali, is Hindu),

A typical Balinese Temple

Pres Donald, Elder Tucker, and Elder Petersen, and the Sisters in the back.

The Monkey Temple, aptly named.

A beautiful stone building and wall. Really beautiful. Inside, the bathrooms, not beautiful.

Very young Balinese girls dancing for us at the entrance to the Grand Mirage Hotel as we returned from a long day of sight-seeing.

A Balinese woman selling T-shirts.

What a cute little Balinese girl. Sister Williams was bent over talking face-to-face with this little girl when a monkey jumped onto her back/back-pack, which resulted in a loud shriek. The monkey quickly retreated. The store owner has a sling-shot he uses to keep the monkeys at bay.