Mount Bromo Volcano

Ofni (pointing), Elders Rondonuwu, Quinn, Smith, Mulia,
Widodo, Johnson, Go, Sisters Tandiman, Nababan, Elders
Marsudi, Muloyno, and Hernandez 

We are in the middle of the rainy season in Indonesia.  That means it rains every day--not just a sprinkle, but really rain and sometimes lightening and thunder.  Living up on the 21st floor, it can even get exciting at times, but I digress...  The missionaries really wanted to travel to Mount Bromo, even though the tour book said that the mountain clouds over during the rainy season, right after the sunrise. All the tourist information I read said that virtually all the tours arrive in time for the sunrise.  President Groberg, our mission president, gave us permission to leave at 5 a.m., but no sooner.  Okay.  We decided it would be fun no matter what because we were all together.  We commenced the journey at 5:15 a.m. with the 8 Surabaya missionaries, 2 cars, 2 drivers and ourselves.  The other couple, Elder and Sister Kepler had a personal emergency they had to attend to and opted to stay in Surabaya.  We left with a drizzle surrounding us.  We met the Malang missionaries along the main road and tucked them in our cars.  It took us forever to find the mountain because our driver wouldn't look at the map we had and wouldn't listen to a mere woman (who, incidentally, had studied the whole area and maps!).  Needless to say, I was quite ticked that we turned around completely and ended up back at the main road to Malang, wasting an hour!  But, when we arrived, it was worth it!  We rented a very safe (?) mode of transportation and headed up the mountain.

At the top of the main crater, there was a huge cloud, but
it was fun to explore around in the mist and rain.

At the top!  Steve and Elder Smith

Looking into the crater.

We then drove down into the crater and across the bed of it
(which is 10 km across) to Mount Bromo, one of three
smaller volcano mountains within the large crater.

As soon as we had a nice look around, the clouds completely covered the whole mountain.  What a miracle that we got to see it! We arrived back home at 7:30.  What a great day!