Apartment and Driver in Surabaya, Indonesia

Courtyard of the apartment complex

One of the six pools

When we arrived at the Surabaya Airport, October 6th, Ofni, the Muri's driver picked us up. We went immediately to look at possible apartments. When we were here before with President and Sister Groberg, the one Pres. Groberg wanted us to take was quite a place! Granted, it was only $200 a month, but it didn't have hot water, was open to the great out-doors (mosquitos and all), air conditioning only in the bedroom, and no shower (you bathe with a big tiled square container of water to ladle over your body). Now, we like camping occasionally, but for 1 1/2 years??? At any rate, we spent the day with Ofni, looking at 5 more locations. We decided on Waterplace Apartments. I know, we're wimps, but we're happy wimps! The only inconveniences are no hot water in the kitchen (so we heat water on the burner), only 1 burner, no oven (but we bought a toaster oven and it works great, our "easy-bake oven"), a bed that you can enter from only one side, the other 3 are surrounded, and a really smelly master bathroom. But, on the positive side--the view out our panaramic windows on the 21st floor is fabulous! The swimming pools and playground area are the best you could ever find. There is a very large shopping mall across the street from our complex and we each have our own small study. The Internet is faster than our home connection was and our phone works wonderfully on it. We really couldn't ask for better! We're happy as clams.

We stayed with the Marc and Amy Muri family while we were arranging our apartment and car. They are an LDS family assigned to the US Consulate here in Surabaya with 4 children: Justin 6, Kara 8, Ellie 10 and Jacob 12. They have been so generous and helpful! I hope someone helps them as much when they go on a couple mission!

Living area with our bonsai plant

We bought a 7-passenger car from an American family who were leaving soon. It's been great! Then we prayed for a driver. Steve got the idea to call the Muri's for suggestions and they said, "We've been talking about it and we think you need Ofni more than we do." We have been so very grateful ever since! He's one of the few drivers who speaks some English and because of his taxi driving years, he can find almost any address! What a blessing!

Jakarta Mission Home

The flight from Provo, Utah to Jakarta, Indonesia was over 30 hours long, excluding travel times to and from the airports. Needless to say, we were quite worn out when we arrived at the mission home. President and Sister Groberg warmly welcomed us and fed us a great dinner. We tried to stay awake and go to bed at a "normal time" to help us adjust to the 14 hour time change (jet lag--majorly). We made it till about 8 p.m. and then we just couldn't go any further! We literally dropped into bed with the injunction to sleep the best we could and then be ready for a meeting with the mission president at 10 in the morning. Well... we slept

deeply, like a drugged person! I woke up to use the
bathroom and looked at my watch. Oh, no!!! We had slept round the clock and it was now 9:30! How could we have slept so long and still be so bone weary? I woke up Steve and we hurriedly showered and dressed for our meeting. We left our room and saw that the main floor of the mission home was dark. Oh, we're late for our meeting and they've already gone upstairs and turned out the lights on the main floor! We hurried across the living area and had to unlock the front door to access the stairs going up to the mission office. That's when we saw the first window looking outside...What's going on???? It's still dark outside! Okay, we get it now... it's 10:10 at night, not the morning! We laughed pretty hard as we relocked the door and made our way back to bed. At least we didn't have to shower in the morning!

We spent a week in the mission home, along with Ron and Melanie Greenway, another couple who arrived with us. We had to get our government registration completed, our "Kitas," before we could permanently move to our mission assignment. The time was a blurr with trying to turn our clocks around, but we did exchange money, ride in a becak, buy a language translator and maps of Indonesia, get some training, and we made a quick trip to Surabaya looking for an apartment. One of our highlights of our stay was the zone leaders' conference, which we were able to help prepare the food for. The picture above is of the mission's zone leaders. What a great bunch!

September 19,2011 Mission Training Center

Left to right: Forinashes, Philippines, member

support--Kites, New Zealand, FH Centers over-

sight--Eberhards, Washington D.C. Temple--
and Flynns, Scotland Records Preservation.

Since the MTC was constructing new housing for the senior couples, some were assigned to the Marriot Hotel in downtown Provo. Oh, Darn! We were one of the ones who had to sacrifice:) Everyday there was a shuttle back and forth to the MTC and we enjoyed getting acquainted with our fellow travelers.

We loved our MTC experience, the food, the companionship, the instruction, but mostly the Spirit we felt so often each day. We were close to tears many times as the Spirit touched us.

One of the most inspiring stories we heard was of a couple sent to Tahiti for two missions. One time they were sent to an island many miles away. After traveling on a little freighter for many hours of sea sickness, they arrived at 2 a.m. and were picked up by the branch president 2 hours later. He said he couldn't find the key to their apartment, so they'd have to sleep on the drive-way for the rest of the night. So sorry... When they went to their first church meeting the branch president showed up 45 minutes late, spread the sacrament, blessed it and announced that the meeting was now over. He shooed the couple out and locked the door. There was one other member there beside themselves. They had no list of members, but went out looking anyway. As they walked through the neighborhoods, people would say to them, "Oh, I know a member of your church. They live over here" and would show them the house. The couple kept at this until one day they approached a house and the mother of the house screamed and yelled at them to never come back and to get out of her yard. This went on for several weeks, with the missionaries coming back over and over. Finally she let them in and of course, eventually returned to activity in the Church. When they had been on the island 2 months, they were able to send an email to their children and receive their emails. One daughter had written, "Where in hell are you??" I guess they had reason to worry, having their parents disappear off the radar for a time! When the couple left the island several months later, there were 120 attending sacrament meetings. I guess if this very elderly couple can face these kind of trials and have such success stories, we ought to be able to do our part!

One quote from the MTC we liked is, "You made the decision to serve, now go get your money's worth."