We've Arrived!

October 30th we found ourselves staying in the mission home after a 33 hour flight to Indonesia.  Thankfully we did not have any problem getting all of our bags into the country with all of our meds and Dr’s equipment.  Thank you for praying for us!  Now we just have to figure out how to get the bags to Surabaya next week…we can only take 20 Kg (=44 pounds).  We may end up needing to arrange to have our bags driven up by someone in the mission home.  Which means we may not get our bags until December. You cannot travel inside of Indonesia --on domestic flights-- carrying more than 44 pounds per person.  They also weigh your carry-ons which cannot exceed 10 kilos.   We are staying in the mission home until our KITA arrives (our visa is approved with an ecclesiastical card, probably in about 8 days).

The first morning Keith and I were jet-lagged to say the least.  We got up and ate breakfast with the Mission President and his wife.  They have an Indonesian Muslim cook who made waffles, eggs, etc.  As the morning progressed I began to feel more and more overwhelmed.  I was tired, not feeling well, didn’t know the language, and didn’t feel like I fit in anywhere.  The Mission Pres. asked me to go on splits with the sisters and for Keith to go with the elders.  Even though I felt totally lost I obediently went with Sister Olsen and Sister Sheffield, both who had been out for 15 months and spoke the language.  We were gone for 9 hours that first day (I went out with them for several days) and what a day it was!

We started out by eating at a “clean” place.  (As with any foreign country, we have to be extra careful with what we eat.)  We then walked for a long time until we caught a bus. 

It was very hot out and humid (we are at the beginning of the rainy season); sweat pours off your body and mixes with the humidity.   The bus system is very popular and therefore very crowded. We rode several buses and navigated the crowds that were unbelievably large.  The sisters had several appointments to teach about the church.  (Keith went with the Elders and only rode the bus without making any contacts the first day.  The second day he was able to give away a Book of Mormon and teach a new contact.)

Here's Keith with a local policeman:

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And a copy of an Indonesian Bible.  The Church hasn't produced a copy of the Bible yet in Indonesian with all our references and footnotes:

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the sister missionaries—Sister Olsen and Sheffield.  They were so gung-ho and fearless.  They also taught me a LOT!!!  On every crowded bus they would give up their seats, turn around and talk to the woman (buses are divided up between men and women).  We were able to pass out a lot of pass-along-cards and get some commitments to attend church.  (One came to church today!)  I agreed to teach an English class Friday at the church and they used me as a walking advertisement to get people to come.  The Indonesians are SO interested in learning English!! It is one of the ways to improve their opportunities in life.  They were really excited to see that an actual English teacher would be teaching.  

It takes forever to get around in Jakarta.  I’m not exaggerating at all to say that it can take 3 hours to go 3 miles.  The traffic is just so heavy!  Here's a view from the windshield of our taxi during a lighter traffic commute:

After emergin, we took an Ankot which is a tiny little car that crowds 13-18 people inside.  Ours had 17 people with several hanging on outside.  You get to know each other really well!! [this is an example of an Ankot from the internet, they come in all kinds of colors and varied styles.]

After walking quite a while and talking to all the little children that I could find, we arrived to teach a new sister.  She was a sweet older lady.  She was educated in England and spoke English.  She made us spam and cheese sandwiches.  I let her know that I was allergic to milk products and politely declined and the sisters said that she would not be offended, for which I was much relieved.  We taught her all about temples and I was happy to be there!  I was able to share with her experiences that I had over the years and bear my testimony about the importance of going to the temple.

Please include in your family prayers that we will get a temple in Indonesia soon!  There are so many people here that need that blessing!  We use the temple perpetual fund here a lot, but it is still difficult for them to save up. 

I had a lot of fun teaching the English class the following night with the Sister missionaries!  It is amazing how sensitive I am now to someone learning a language!  I know how hard it is!  An Indonesian man who had previously never spoken in any class came and I sat with him and one on one got him to speak his English vowels with me.  I had him use repetitive sentences that introduced various nouns emphasizing those vowels.  Before he left I spoke all the English into his cell phone so he could listen to it later.  Great day!

Today was Sunday so Keith and I chose to go to the Indonesian ward with the missionaries.   (The Mission President and his Wife go to an English ward filled with ex-pats).  Today was a bit of a break-though for my language. I know you all are wondering how well I’m doing with the language…keep the prayers coming), but today I was able to talk “survival” Indonesian (some whole sentences and some mixed with English) during church.  I also wrote my testimony down and Keith and I got up together and bore our testimonies.  The Indonesians are really friendly and help you with words in the middle of sacrament or Relief Society.  My problem is that it takes me a long time to string words together and they get excited and fill them in for me.  Hey, at least they know what I’m saying!  Our testimonies  touched members of the branch, especially when they heard that Keith had once served here in 1973 and that he had returned with his “eternal companion”.   They were sad that our mission was to Surabaya and not Jakarta.

 It is so easy to fall in love with the people here.  They are kind and always want to please.  Sometimes that desire to please can present challenges.  Today we had to catch a taxi home from the church (we took a bus to church and it took 1 ½ hr to go about 5 miles because the bus was so jammed from their weekly “party” day--on Sunday no one works and they have parades, parties, and group exercises) and the taxi driver got lost, but didn’t really want to disappoint us.  He finally had to drop us off to another taxi who said that he could find our mission home, but he got lost too.  We ended up walking some of the way back.  We noticed that the people always want to be helpful and compliant even if they don’t know what they are doing. We've decided that we will use the driver in Surabaya; We just can't afford to waste time getting lost on our way to appointments if people are waiting for us to arrive.

Sister Donald and I getting a phone for Elder Williams to use in the mission:

Well I want you all to know that I really am happy to be here.  We can’t tell you how happy we are to be here serving the Lord.  It really does not matter where we are living. I am at peace, I feel safe, and I am happily engaged in good things all day.  (Keith mentioned that this was part of my blessing from the stake president.) The mission president and his wife are awesome people and we love them.  There was so much frustration trying to “get-out-the-door” to go on our mission.  Once we left, Keith and I felt an all-encompassing sense of peace.  We are in the right place at the right time.  (The mission president had a quiet moment with Keith one early morning and testified that we were sent here for a reason and that we were needed at this specific time.)

We love you all and miss you.  We hope you are all doing well.  Thanks for staying in touch with us through our blog and comments! 


PS. We just received word that we will be going to Surabaya tomorrow!! (Nov 4). We competed our KITAS, got fingerprinted, etc... Now to get our luggage to Surabaya... May be difficult, but I don't worry about much anymore... I really feel like The Lord is "making our way".

Week Two: Missionary Medical Training in SLC

Well, we checked out of our room at the Provo MTC, Mission Training Center, last Saturday.  What a sweet experience we had during these few days there. So much youthful enthusiasm to be found among these young Elders and Sisters, learning to be Gospel Representatives across the world.  We felt such devotion, love, commitment and Spirit while there.  We felt quite sad to leave.  We met so many wonderful, experienced, devoted Senior missionary couples there also.  We can only hope to be as wise and humble and charitable as them. 

After an enjoyable afternoon with our son Peter in Orem watching the new Church-produced film, Meet the Mormons, we drove up to SLC and checked into our hotel room at Marriot, where we would spend the next nine days in additional education and awaiting our departure for Indonesia. This week would be filled with intensive training in the LDS Church's eMED system for monitoring and assisting global missionary health.  It is a wonderful resource for education, documentation and communication for all authorized medical providers.  Slightly too reminiscent of EHRs (arrrgh!), but thankfully much less intrusive, complex, and dictatorial, plus absolutely no billing pages !

Here is a typical classroom scene, this picture showing the last day during our "test".  The Petersons from Richfield, Utah, are off to Johannesberg, South Africa to serve as Area Mental Health Advisors. They have a big job ahead of them, assisting many missions and missionaries all the way north to Sudan.

Kathy knew she was in trouble when they flashed this warning during some of the presentations.

It took only hours before repentance was sorely needed.  We went with the Chabras, our new wonderful friends from the Roseville, California area, on their way soon to Uganda, Ethiopa and Rwanda to serve as Mission Medical Advisors, to a superb local Italian Restaurant, Cucina Tuscana, for a marvelous meal of pasta and Osso Bucco and Venetian style hot chocolate, thick like pudding. Here Kathy is getting a local epicurean tip about ordering the veal.

The Chabras, Deepak and Debra.  Dee is a retired Kaiser urologist, and Deb a recently retired Med-Surg nurse.  Such fun and happy people.  We love them.  Deb and Kathy have the exact same birthdate, down to the year even. Very similar temperaments.  We have shared many wonderful evenings and meals at Lambs Grill and Cheesecake Factory and PF Changs, and MTC devotionals, and small group learning sessions, and gym work-outs, and Temple sessions and shopping trips together.  We have shared testimonies and faith and conversion stories together.

Last Sunday we made a trip back down to Provo to attend the Departure Devotional at the MTC for all Missionaries soon departing for their missions across the globe.  This was followed by a devotional for all MTC attendees at which Chad Lewis, now retired All-Pro receiver for the Philadelphia Eagles and Returned missionary (Taiwan) and his wife spoke to the point that we have missionary opportunities around us everywhere.

On Tuesday we again drove down to Provo to pick up our 18 months worth of prescriptions from the BYU Student Health Center Pharmacy and to purchase some additional small gifts for our soon-to-be Indonesian friends. We also attended the evening Devotional along with the new "crop" of Senior missionaries.  Elder Godoy of the Quorum of the Seventy, from Brazil, spoke to all 2000 missionaries there as though he were a father speaking last words of counsel to his son leaving on a mission for two years. He used Alma 26 as his text.  The wonderful irony of this was that his own son was in fact in the audience, training now to serve in Italy.  It was very touching.  And we learned, reassuringly so, that our Indonesian language skills need not be perfect to feel God's spirit and love, as he spoke to us in his best English. The Holy Ghost is our translator.

This evening we spent some precious hours with some of my siblings at a local restaurant.  Below are my sister/superhero "Chuck" aka Jen and her wonderful husband Skip. Not pictured are my fantastic sister Deb and her SO Gary. We had such a nice time laughing and reminiscing together.  I am so blessed. I found out things about my sisters I did not know before.  One cares for prophets, and one doesn't tolerate (with extreme prejudice) bullies.

Below is a touching picture hanging in an Adventist hospital we were introduced to this week. Christ is the Great Healer.

Last Sunday morning we attended Music and the Spoken Word at the historic Mormon tabernacle on Temple Square.  It is the longest continuously running radio show in the world.  It is broadcast every Sunday morning across the world.  It was a beautiful musical program, including "Press Forward Saints", "Have I Done Any Good" and "Glorious Everlasting". We then drove to South Jordan and attended the homecoming sermon given by Matt Williams, my nephew, just home from his two year mission in Texas.  He is a fine young man.  We enjoyed a nice meal and get together with Dave and Grethchen and their extended families, and I was able to visit with all of my sibs except Kathryn who is in Oakland, CA.

Here is a blast from the past.  My son just sent us this photo from 1999 during construction of the Medford Oregon Temple.  Our sons, Marc and Chris, were serving the Lord in Honduras and Dominican Republic.  The angel Moroni is the golden statue atop every LDS Temple and reminds us of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the prophet Joseph Smith in the 1820's by an ancient prophet in America by the name of Moroni who revealed metal plates which were translated and came to be known as the Book of Mormon. It reminds us that God still speaks to us, His children, as he has since creation. The heavens are not closed. It tells us that He loves us.

Anyway, the weeks are flying past quickly.  How happy we are!  It is wonderful to have my wife and eternal companion with me, helping and supporting each other.  We feel unified in faith and a common purpose.  Tomorrow we are attending the Temple here in SLC and in the evening will be visiting some old Indonesian friends and missionary companions in Farmington.

We continue to study Bahasa Indonesia, realizing that in a mere 5 days we will be in Java!  Please pray for us, as we do for you.  Banyak kasih (Much love) !

Being in the MTC is being in the Celestial Kingdom With Telestial Food!

Words cannot describe the experience we've had in the Mission Training Center (MTC) this week. The daily uplifting meetings and group trainings were incredible!  We learned to teach with emphasis on personal spiritual preparation and an emphasis on listening, teaching to needs, teaching with simplicity for understanding, and so forth. We learned that "preparing a lesson" really means "preparing me."  

Even though the cafeteria food was definitely made for 19-year olds, the spiritual food was beyond explanation.

This is me holding Lily and Kinsley before the Stake President set us apart as full time missionaries for the Church on October 9th.  Did I mention that I miss my grand-kids yet?

This is our small District of eight missionaries, flanked by our young Returned Missionary instructors, Sister Frandsen (Russia) and Sister Moore (Peru).  Thanks also to Brother Floyd (Ohio) and Sister Tutt (Vancouver Canada).  What remarkable, dedicated, cheery, humble people.  We love our District companions, the Hagens (Houston Texas), Sister Walton (Ecuador), Sister Hall (Independence Missouri), and the Chabras (Kampala Uganda). The first day I was asked by the MTC president to bear my testimony in our initial Senior Missionary meeting with all 25 couples.  This was a humbling and rewarding experience.  Keith was called as our district leader!  He did a great job and also took care of several sick missionaries and helped out an elderly sister.  I also had fun leading the music several times this week!  WOW, slow tempo is NOT a problem in the MTC!

Happy Birthday Peter!  We went to Tucanos (Brazilian Food) on Wednesday and enjoyed hanging out with our son after a very busy day in the MTC. (We are lucky we're senior missionaries and have different rules than the young Elders!)  We also saw the movie "Meet the Mormons" with Peter today (after a Chick-filet lunch).  It was AWESOME!!  I recommend it to all of you. (Stacy, there is a clip from "Fletch" that you would like).  It is very well done and shows the impact of the Church in the lives of six remarkable individuals around the world!  Not too many dry eyes in this full length film.  Grab a friend and go see it.  You will feel the Lord's spirit.

We also visited with Keith's former missionary companion, Ralph Zobell and his wife Janet.  Wow does this guy know his Indonesian!  He teaches Indonesian to the missionaries via Skype.  He reminded Keith a lot about the language and taught me a lot of important things (like not to use your left hand or point with your finger in Indonesia, etc).  Ralph and his love of Indonesia and all things Indonesian is inspiring.

Guess who we ran into in the MTC cafeteria?  Yep, David Burt, an Elder off to Brazil from our home ward, Medford 1st!  I made him give me a hug...I hope he didn't get in trouble for it.  Oh well, it was probably worth it because I was able to send a picture off to his mother, Lisa!

This is a picture of the Wasatch mountains right before going into our Tuesday devotional where Elder Larry Lawrence of the Seventy spoke.  This was an incredible devotional!!  Elder Lawrence spoke about the battle the Saints are fighting against the adversary.  It was also awesome to hear hundred's of Elders and Sisters sing in the choir.  It sounded like they had been practicing for months, not days.

Below is our full Senior Missionary group for the week.  We have had an amazingly diverse, richly experienced and dedicated group with whom to train.  You all have remarkable stories to tell. Thanks to all.  We love and support you in your calls to serve the Lord across the globe. 

Tomorrow we get to attend the weekly national broadcast of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on SLC's famous Temple Square.  Keith's Dad George always used to lead the choir silently, but with embarrassingly noticeable hand movements in the congregation!  Who knows, maybe he really is using a conductor's baton now...

Love to you all.  We miss and pray for you.  Thanks for following along with us.  

We've Arrived at the Provo MTC

Well it's Monday morning October 13, about 8 AM. We arrived in Provo at the MTC after a wonderful, Very early departure from Medford airport Saturday morning. Thanks to all the friends and family there to wish his farewell. It is wonderful to feel loved and supported.

It was a busy final week of preparations. We worked hard to finish all of our last-minute packing details and getting the house wrapped up. We had many family activities and dinners out with friends which were most heart warming.  

Thursday afternoon was a glorious and beautiful southern Oregon fall day. Warm, golden sunny, and perfect for riding a bicycle, which is precisely what I did for a few hours. How wonderful it was to let the miles will under my bicycle tires as I listened to scripture on my head phones and let the wind rush over me. It was idyllic.

I have a genius son-in-law who is able to help me transfer all of our contacts over to our iPad. Thanks to Chris. Electronic, mechanical and technical acumen is certainly not in my skill set. I find them really to be more of a trial of patience. 

My brother John was kind enough to pick us up at the Salt Lake airport and has loaned us a vehicle for the two weeks we will be here. We checked into the Provo missionary training center, the MTC, Saturday afternoon. The accommodations are small and fairly spartan but reasonably comfortable. Security here is high. We have to pass through a security gate, and multiple key cards and  keys to access our room. The MTC is definitely safe for world war Z. Nevertheless the atmosphere here is quiet and calm and very conducive to learning and spiritual growth. With the exception, that is, of the cafeteria at meal time. You can imagine thousands of hungry young men and young women standing in the cafeteria line waiting for shrimp and steak and sloppy Joes.  I saw a young Elder yesterday with at least Six bowls of cold cereal in front of him at his dining table. We had some nice meal experiences yesterday, having breakfast with a young Elder companionship going to Mongolia soon, and some senior missionaries going to Albania, Tonga and elsewhere. We attended Peter's YSA  branch Church yesterday at BYU held in a dance studio in the PE building. A very nice service. We arrived at the conclusion that there is definitely no reason why Peter should not be dating!  Many lovely young ladies here.

Yesterday evening we drove to Salt Lake City where we had a lovely evening with my brothers and sisters at my sister Debbie's house. Some great desserts, lots of fun conversation, and games. Home by about 9 PM for the usual evening rituals of scripture and Indonesian language study, prayers and in bed by 10:30 or so. A queen size bed is definitely a bit of a challenge, but we are accommodating. My wife loves my snore guard. As for me, not my favorite.

We actually begin our MTC training today at 10 o'clock. The first five days are studying the church doctrinal teaching manual called Preach My Gospel. We have already read this for ourselves, but it will be fun to apply it in some real life practice teaching situations this week.

Wednesday is Peter's birthday, and we hope to be able to spend the evening with him, although we will be missing All you can eat ice cream night at the MTC. Not such a big deal for Kathy!

What a pleasure it is to be able to spend this year and a half without distractions of work and home. We love our home and family,  and I miss my patients so much. We miss the casual comforts and pace of retirement at home, and our life now is certainly very structured for us. Nevertheless we feel blessed by the Lord's Spirit to be able to learn and study and become effective tools in his hands. And it is wonderful to be focused on this target yoked with my lovely wife and The Lord.  How much we have enjoyed our time with our family at home this summer. We have been able to spend several days or weeks Individually with each of our children and grandchildren, and it has been wonderful. We treasure these memories and have lots of pictures to prove it.

We are grateful if you have chosen to follow along with us on this blog during our mission journey. Our blog entries will be a bit inconsistent, certainly not every day, but we hope to have one or two blog entries every week. We will try and keep them entertaining and informative, and include lots of pictures! Please feel free to make comments, ask questions, or email us through the linked email accounts. We will try and respond and answer your questions. How fun it would be if you could actually join us on this journey in Indonesia! Maybe you will!

We are excited to actually get to work with the wonderful people of Indonesia. Training is good and we are enjoying this time, but eagerly awaiting our life in Java.

Much love, 
from  Keith and Kathy Williams

Mission Call Opening Day

I love our mail carrier.  Darlene is such a nice person.  You have to respect a mail carrier who will still dare to drive up your driveway even after being startled by a man in a bathrobe and morning hair (she caught me on a better clothed day, thankfully).  She delivers many items, some anticipated with eagerness, many not so much.  What a magical place, a mail carrier’s bag.  What mystery lurks?  It’s the lure of the unexpected that grabs you.  A letter from a long-lost friend, an invitation to an adventure cruise you’ll probably never take, a notice that you are a guaranteed sweepstakes winner, an announcement of a sale on something you never knew you needed, a summons to jury duty?   Usually Darlene just brings me bills, sometimes solicitations, advertisements, and other junk items I sort and toss in the trash before entering the house.  Sometimes she brings me happy news, like a wedding or graduation announcement.  And then, once in a while she brings you something really awesome,  the kind of mail that makes you want to run after the mail van and give a government employee a big hug and say “Thanks, can I pay more for a first class stamp?”

Such a delivery occurred on Saturday March 29, 2014, when Darlene delivered a big, white, legal-document-sized envelope from the headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints with the distinctive address on North Temple Avenue in Salt Lake City, Utah in the left upper corner. 

It’s a unmistakable moment.  Every Mormon family who has ever sent a missionary off to service of as a representative of our Heavenly Father as a full time missionary knows what to expect.  The scene has been replayed many, many thousands of times in the past century in places across the globe.  We’d been checking the mailbox almost daily.  Now, here it was. It made me think back to the summer of 1973 when I received my first Mission Call as a 19 year old college Freshman living with my family in Wilbraham, Massachusetts.  How much happy anticipation we felt as my family gathered that evening in the living room and read my Call from a Prophet of God, Harold B Lee, to serve for two years in the South East Asia Mission, reporting on September 8, 1973.  My Mom was in tears, we were all excited and raced to find a world map.  We’ve experienced the same joy with our three sons.  Chris went to Dominican Republic, Marc to Honduras, and Peter returned home from Brazil in 2013.  Kathy and I have planned for years to be ready to accept this call to serve as a Senior Missionary Couple when the time was right, and here we were.

After hooping up the driveway, bypassing the trash can, I ran up to show Kathy.  We were elated, but showed great reserve and called all of our local kids to join us at Marc’s that evening.  After assembling together, including FaceTime feeds with our daughter Cassandra in Hawaii, Peter in Utah, and Chris in Tucson,  Kathy opened the letter, and read:

“Dear Elder and Sister Williams:

“You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  You are assigned to serve in the Indonesia Jakarta Mission.  Your primary assignment is to labor as a member and leader support missionary.  It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 18 months.  
You should report to the Provo Missionary Training Center on Monday, October 13, 2014.

“As you devote your time and attention to serving the Lord, leaving behind all other personal affairs, the Lord will bless you with increased knowledge and testimony of the Restoration and of the truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Your purpose will be to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.”

It was signed by Thomas S Monson, President of the Church, and the Lord’s Prophet on earth at this time.

It’s a remarkable experience to have this direct assignment from a Prophet of God. We look forward to having Priesthood hands soon laid on our heads and be set apart in this calling, as was Aaron of old.  We look forward to serving God with fullness of heart, might and strength, lifting and blessing His children in Indonesia as best we can.  We ask for your faith and prayers as we go forth, to have abilities beyond our own, to have the Gift of Tongues to be able to speak to them in their own language, and to be led, minute by minute and day by day where we should go and what we should do and what we should say, always confessing Christ before men (Luke 12:32).  The Lord uses the simple and plain things of His Kingdom to bring to pass His grand designs and great purposes. 

So, thank you, Darlene.  Little did you know as you made your Postal delivery that day what joy and rich experience and opportunity for good you carried in your magical bag.

Thank you to parents, family, friends for your support and love.

And thank you Lord for being able to share in Thy divine plan for these latter days. 

Keith and Kathy

Indonesia Jakarta Mission!