New District Presidency for Malang and Surabaya Areas

This week we were busy with a 3-4 day district conference.  We picked up the Mission President and his wife (President and Sister Donald) at the airport on Friday and enjoyed a three day conference from Saturday through Monday.   Elder Funk, (Area Presidency and a member of the Quorum of the Seventy) and his wife also flew in for the entire conference. During the conference a new district presidency for the Malang and Surabaya area was called.  Above from left to right is President and Sister Donald, then the new district presidency, us, then Sister and Elder Funk.

Elder and sister Funk with us outside of the Timur Surabaya Chapel.

It was a very busy three days.  We made visits to local members, distributed Christmas packages to members, and held many training and general meetings. I sang in three or four choirs and played piano for the primary children's chorus.  The meetings and visits were wonderful, but I think we wore our driver out!  Our driver, Peter, transported us to and from the meetings, airport, member's homes, to and from our home, and to and from President and Elder Funk's hotel early in the morning until late and night!  Many times he would have to wait outside or in a classroom for hours at a time for us to finish our meetings. (Yep, I believe he deserved a little rest here!)

This visit was with a wonderful family! This is the Elder's Quorum President and his family in the Timur Surabaya Branch.  During this visit I gave out "Choose the Right" stickers to all of the kids and talked with them about making good choices. (Every time I say "good choices" I now think about our grandchild James' discussion with his dad one night about how Laman and Lemuel need to visit grandma and grandma in Indonesia so they can learn how to make better choices! :) 

I also posted this picture on my Facebook.  I just love this family! (Her husband is actual sick and asleep in back on the mattress.)  The mother will be baptized in two weeks and I really admire her for setting such a good example for her children.  The anak perempuan (girl) speaks some English and tutors me in Indonesian every time the sister missionaries and I visit. I brought them over a Christmas package with a few toys, canned milk, cookies, rice, etc, and the first thing this little girl reached for was the canned milk (susu)! 

After the last meeting, on the last day of the conference, we gave our driver the rest of the afternoon off and took a taxi home.  I actually "kind of" captured a bit of what it is like to drive here in Indonesia. These pictures (below and above) are direct shots out the back and side windows without me zooming in on the camera.  These motor cycles are actually this close to us.  Sometimes they hit our side mirrors or rest on the sides of our car. Once Keith and I opened up our window, talked with the three passengers on one of the motorcycle while waiting for a train to go buy, and invited them to our "gratis" (free) English class at church.  (I alternate teaching English class every month between Timur and Barat branches as a public service with the missionaries.)  There ARE traffic lanes on the roads, but no one EVER uses them...I guess they are more like "suggestions". 

 This is a picture of Keith going on splits with two elders in the rain. 

(After seeing how bad the traffic is (above) you may want to include him in yours prayers for safety.)  I don't know how Keith did it with the rain poncho on, but he managed to literally trash his shirt with muddy back-splash off the back tire of his bike.  I figure we will now just designate that particular shirt for all of his rainy day bike splits.  We sure have some awesome missionaries here though; they are hard working and self-sacrificing!  We love them!!

Above is a Korean pastry machine. We watched this man hand load each little circle pan and then fill each pastry with chocolate of vanilla after they finished baking.  We bought this dessert for one of the families we visited. (I don't have much time to cook anymore and there are very few ovens in Indonesia.) 

Back after much demand: MORE SAFARI PICTURES!!!  In our last Blog we did not have time to share all of our nifty safari pictures (We took the elders out on their P-day to a safari two hours away.)  Above, Keith and I are standing in the middle of a rice patty. (It looks the Indonesia that I imagined seeing initially.) Below are some really interesting statues in the safari area. 

Below Keith is standing by Jack-Fruit (Nangka).  We have yet to try it, but when it comes into season we will and let you know what it is like.  We have heard that it is good.  Anyone out there tried it?

Ok, so never tease a live elephant with carrots!  This one would have climbed into our car if we'd let him. It would have been really fun if his trunk wasn't so wet and full of mud!  I spent the next 20 minutes wiping the mud off inside the car!  I have to say that the Indonesian safari parks are really awesome, because there aren't a whole lot of rules.  It felt a like our trip to Africa in the safari trucks. We got to feed and touch most animals!

The park had several Komodo Dragons and they looked really tough.  I wished that Kevin Miller (Keith's previous missionary companion) was with us to teach us everything in the world about these cool reptiles.  I find them fascinating!

 

I kept waiting for the camels and llamas to spit at us, but they never did, even when I teased them with the carrots.  Keith had fun teasing peter, our driver, AND the llamas by trying to feed a llama on top of peter's head.

We got fairly close to the lions, cheetahs, and bears.  Our car probably looked like just another animal to them. 

These two pictures are just for Keith.  I don't know why he likes monkeys so much, but he does. The top picture is one very large orangutan (Indonesian for "people of the forest".)  I kept wondering what he was thinking...the orangutan, not Keith...

This picture was taken on a swinging rope bridge over a river filled with very large crocodiles.  Guess no one worries too much about liability here in Indonesia...

Ok, now for our weekly grandchild--or grandchildren in this case--of the week.  (These are Chris and Malinda's kids in Tucson, Arizona.) 

May your week be filled with good family traditions and the true meaning of Christmas.  The picture of Ephraim reminds me that the most important Christmas gift is not purchased in a store. 

We love you and are grateful for your support.  Merry Christmas!

Love, Keith and Kathy

Monkey Business

Today for Preparation Day we took 4 young missionaries to the Safari Park about 90 minutes away in the mountains near Malang.  What a great time we had.  We saw more undeveloped, rural farm land and forest, which was so refreshing to our eyes, ears and spirits.  Miles of rice padi's, so lush and green, terraced into the hills, full of standing water.  No water buffaloes to be seen however.  Otherwise much more reminiscent of my Indonesia of 40 years ago than what I have thus far seen. 

We drove our car through the safari park. Lots of animals.  Afterwards we had a chance to have up close and personal animal experiences for rather nominal charges of about $1.25 per person.  For some reason I have always been indescribably happy about orangutan's. They just seem so gloriously funny, sensient, interactive, and red.  I have always been fond of redheads.  Orangutangs, actually Orang Hutan, man of the forest/jungle in Indonesian terms.

I am pretty sure we are the only Senior Mission couple, heck, maybe any missionary, period, to ever be bitten by a tiger.  Both of us, on the thigh.  Playful bites, in retrospect, but at the time all we knew is we felt like rather fragile play-toys to this animal.  He is a cub, playful, distractable, unpredictable.  One minute we were spectating, and the next moment shrieking and checking for blood. Thankfully, none.

Maybe he smelled the deer steak with mushroom gravy we had just eaten for lunch. By the way I have never been to a zoo where they serve some of the animals for lunch in the café.  It was a really remarkable restaurant.  Less than 10 feet away from our table was a thick Plexi-glass window separating a grassy area and swimming pool inhabited by 3 large and very amorous tigers, including some white tigers.  It was like an amazing Disney Park without the crowds.  I kept checking for animatronics, but I'm pretty sure Disney animals would not be doing what these tigers were doing.  Multiplying and replenishing I suppose.

Early in the week we spent a wonderful 2 hours with a wonderful Indonesian family, and conducted a Family Home Evening with them, culminating with a rousing game of "Don't Eat Pete".  Our children will remember this game from our young family days.  Now this Williams Family tradition has been passed on to Indonesia.  We used Indonesian M&Ms, made in Makassar, a city up in Sulawesi.  Not quite the same as what we are used to, but they loved it.  We left the game with them. I suppose they will have to rename it "Jangan makan Sugianto", or some such.

This family was just getting over a round of Cacir Air, chicken pox.

Durian.  An acquired taste for some.  This was really good.  Shipped in from Sumatra.  The Javanese version, reportedly smellier, ripens in January or so.  Thick, spiny, green shells, divided into fibrous compartments housing about 10-12 large seeds coated with a sweet, slimy, grey-yellow-white fruit, very malodorous at times, variably described as rotting flesh, 6 week old sweaty gym socks kept in the bottom of a young man's school locker, or maybe a fetid Surabaya sewer at 3 PM on a very hot day. Yeah, I'll have another one. They eat them raw, baked into cakes and ice cream.

 

We have enjoyed many very heavy rain storms lately, resulting in some local flooding.  Really amazing natural displays.   They cleanse the air, help scrub the sewers a bit, wash the streets, cool the air, and blessedly keep all the motorcycles off the road.  It's the best time to drive, providing you can see and avoid the deep pools.

We ascended and descended to the 6' x 8' room of this wonderful 80 year old man, soon to be baptized, on this narrow steep staircase.  Many poor people here rent a room in a guest house and share cooking and bathing areas. 

 

We often get fed, although the feast this lovely woman provided us surpassed everything in my experience...we each got a whole fried chicken and rice followed by a bowl of chicken nuggets, whole fried fish, grapes, oranges, cake, brownies and ice cream. I was already sweating bullets from riding my bike in heat and high humidity, aggravated by high concentrations of sambal, very hot Indonesian peppers.  I was drenched when I left her house. 

I often enjoy the opportunity to accompany the young Elders as we stroll through the gangs and kampungs, giving us a chance to casually talk with anyone out.  We meet many new friends this way, occasionally resulting in a chance to enter their homes at their invitation and share with them a Gospel message.  This night we met with a family of five and shared with them the message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the prophet Joseph Smith, the gift of the Book of Mormon Another Witness of Jesus Christ, and of the blessing and necessity of living prophets in our age.  Here with Elder Setijawan and Elder Andersen, great missionaries.

On the missionary side of things, I had two remarkably spiritual experiences today doing missionary splits for eight hours. We taught four lessons, and two of them moved us to tears. One was a former Catholic nun who joined the church just One month ago after being contacted at the front door by missionaries in her neighborhood. At the first contact, in a rather unusual approach, they presented to her the doctrine of baptism for the dead. She exclaimed that she had been praying for this answer for the past 10 years. She intends to attend the temple in Utah next year and is praying fervently every day to meet the prophet. She gave a beautiful, moving and tearful prayer during our visit today.  

The second person is a 19-year-old Moslem young man who agreed this evening to a baptismal date in two weeks. I have never felt the spirit so strongly during a lesson. It was marvelous. He gave a prayer truly inspired by the Holy Ghost. This young man kneeled with us, and prayed eloquently in the name of Jesus Christ in terms only an angel would use, let alone a 19-year-old Moslem boy. 

In over two years here, I have never heard such beautiful, heartfelt and eloquent prayers. 

We also gave a lesson today to a 80-year-old widowed man who is getting baptized in three days. He is a bicycle tire repair man and works on the street. He lives in a one room apartment with a shared kitchen and bathroom. His room is about 6 feet wide and 8 feet deep. It is very humbling. He was very humble, meek, and eager to have the Gospel in his life. He loves paying tithing. 

Certainly very many problems remain in Indonesia, which only full acceptance of the gospel can cure, but these experiences today were certainly tender mercies to me from the Lord. 

Saturday and Sunday we attended several baptisms of new members in both East and West Branches here in Surabaya. 

Elder McCleary, Brother R_____, his son in law President Cendi
of the Barat Branch, and Elder Pujianto

Sister Aryanto, Sister Hasibuan, R____, Sister Sperry and Sister Fisher

Even in this city of congestion, dirt, noise, and odors, there are tiny pockets of nature.  Here we have a few Plumeria blossoms floating in water in a bowl in our kitchen.  Such a lovely scent, redolent and reminiscent of Hawaii, Cassandra, Hope and Sam.  Happy memories!

The lovely scent of frangipani exceeded only slightly by the juicy white sweetness of rambutan (rambut = hair in Bahasa Indonesia), this peculiar, red, hairy, tropical fruit seen below, and the source for lychee fruit.  So delicious fresh.  Just peel the rather soft, hairy shell away.  There is a soft nut in the center.  So delicious.  My fave fruit here actually, even better than durian, mango, banana. 

More zoo photos...

We had llamas, zebras, deer and elephant trunks a good 2 feet into our car today.  Fed them carrots and bananas we bought outside of the park. I swatted a zebra and he responded with a hard kick into our left front quarter panel.  This vehicle damage report is going to take some "splainin."

One of our amorous tigers taking a cold shower



I blinked first.  He kept stealing my name plate and putting his fingers in my pocket.  He loved zippers.

Grandchild(ren) of the Week.  Halloween with Marc and Britni's kids, Kinsley, Malia, Ami and Holden.  We sure miss them. 

Thanksgiving for Miller Time

After a day full of teaching and proselyting we had a nice Thanksgiving meal with the missionaries at Pizza Hut last Thursday.  The pizza there is surprisingly good.  Not turkey dinner, but good.  We felt blessed. American fast food has made huge in-roads here.  McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut, Carls Jr, Circle K, 7-11, A&W. Hugely surpassed in quantity anyway, by thousands of roadside eating stands where you can buy an unending number of food dishes, snacks, drinks.

Sister Williams is happy whenever she can hold a baby or play with a child.  She speaks "baby".

We went to a young family a few days ago, the Kurniawans, pictured below, to meet them, for dinner (goat and chicken sate, rice and peanut sauce, watermelon!) and to share a message with them. While there the electricity went out for a few minutes.  When it came back on we sang "Love at Home" with them, we in English and they in Indonesian.  It was lovely. We talked about the importance of Malam Keluarga (Family Home Evening) and read scriptures about the importance of parents training their children in the Gospel, having fun together, teaching them to work, be honest and work hard. They want us to come back some time and show them some silly little games we used to play with our kids..."Don't Eat Pete!", Hippety-Hoppety, etc.  Indonesians don't play games, generally,  It seems not to be in their nature or culture. Maybe they are too preoccupied with things like eating and a having a place to live. Not that they don't have fun in other ways, but organized games are not a tradition.  Yet many seem intrigued by the idea.  We brought UNO, Skip-Bo, Scrabbble.  We'll see how they like them.

Moslems bury their dead.  There are graveyards like this all over the country. Reminds us as members and missionaries how much work there is to be done.

Kathy has been been sending home very brief videos of all the missionaries, and WOW have the Moms loved it!  The responses have been so touching!  Missionary couples can do so many extra things in the mission field!  While visiting with locals we can share real-life experiences that younger people have not yet acquired.  We really need more missionary couples in the mission field!  We are taking the place of three couple missionaries and are spread very thin. Below are Elders Anderson and Martineau in Surabaya Barat.

 

Smells are everywhere.  Mostly unpleasant ones, fecal smells, or mildew smells.  Sometimes great smells…food mostly.  You learn to try to ignore the gutters/open sewer lines, except when walking over or around them.  It’s uncommon to see concrete here in decent repair.  Looks like it has been poured/repaired a thousand times in its lifetime.  A real patchwork, uneven, broken, gaping holes.  Not a good place for disabilities.   Below is a common sight here...a roadside open sewage channel.  Watch your step! 

A welcoming couple at the Surabaya cruise ship port.  They have a floor dedicated to local Javanese culture where you can learn to draw wax batik designs, listen to live Gamelan music, paint face masks and other arts. This couple received a pass-along card!



 

This week on "P-Day" we were able to meet one of Keith's original missionary companions (from 1973-75) at the cruise ship port in Surabaya! Kevin and Denise Miller came in on a cruise ship and spent the day with us! It was so wonderful to spend time with them!  We took them to a small authentic batik factory and watched the Indonesian women create the patterns with hot wax, dip the cloth into a dye bath, then boil the wax off in large vats over an open fire, only to repeat the process in another area of the cloth with more wax, more dye, sometimes many times, to allow for many color patterns on the cloth. In the show room Kathy bought a batik skirt (which they altered for free in 2 days) while Keith got fitted for a matching batik shirt.  The cost was very cheap.  It cost $100 for batik material that probably took 1-2 weeks to make! 

 





The artists work in a group of four to six or so.  The women ( infrequently also men) draw hot wax from a central melting pot, and then use a fine applicating funnel to draw fine designs onto the cloth.  The designs are free-hand drawn on the cloth first, based on the artisan's own choice or the request of the purchaser. They have a leather pad on heir laps to prevent hot wax burns. These become very heavy with built up wax over time. 

Kevin standing in front of a man boiling the wax off the batik cloth in a large vat of boiling water before giving it back to the artists to apply more wax design prior to giving it another dye application in a different color.  He is doing this over a hot open fire.  The room tends to be smoky and hot.

Kevin has not always been so sedate.  Here he is in 1974 in a skit by his District at an all-Mission talent show.  Pak Miller on the right.

Kevin again on the right in 1974 or so.  Judging from body language, do you think this General Authority visiting on a Mission Tour had the rapt attention of the missionaries?  It reminds me a little of a New Testament scene. Maybe the 12 Apostles...

We took them to see one of the two church buildings here in Surabaya, here at Timur.  We met the missionaries at the church and Kevin testified to them that even the smallest seeds sewn in Indonesia were significant.  He told them about the sweet reunion he'd recently had with some of the families he'd baptized.  We could feel the spirit as he testified to the missionaries! 

Ok.  Here is a treasure.  Magnum ice cream, made here in Indonesia.  It is frozen heaven on a stick, rich vanilla ice cream coated with delicious rich dark chocolate and coated again in butterscotch cream.  One of these at 4 PM after a hot afternoon out riding a bike and teaching with the Elders and standing under the AC in the Indomart will rejuvenate even this 60 year old man.

As promised, our Grandchild of the Week...James with his favorite dinosaur.  Makes me think of the "jaws of hell"...

 Till next week, say your prayers, read your scriptures, and Be Thankful!