moving on to Magelang

Here is a dad saying goodbye to his missionary son again.  Sweet moment. 

Had fun running the streets of Jakarta with the sisters yesterday.   Mel was chiding me for not stopping to take some pictures.  If I slowed down or stopped I would have been left behind in the dust/mud.  It was raining and the campongs were a bit soggy.  I certainly didn’t want to get left on my own.  I had no idea where we were.   We enjoyed four teaching appointments with an hour + to get from one appointment to another.  These missionaries are extremely dedicated, confident and caring. Lots of fun being able to join in.

This is Elder Wintolo teaching a class of investigators.  He's an Assistant to the President who just a few years ago was praying regularly in a moslem mosque with his father whom he baptized just last October.

Antonius here with Elder Jones.  The Elders were looking over their old notes and found this man who'd quit taking lessons a year ago.  When they contacted him, he was ready to learn and obviously he was baptized.  Antonius is a talented guy who told me while we were teaching him the night before this that he had spent 10 years with Christian missionaries building churches in Iran Jaya.  That's the portion of Indonesia attached to New Guinea where there are still cannibal tribes.

The first day here I lost one of the house keys and Mel's debit card. Thus my Indonesian word for the day Hilang which means lost. The debit card was found and the key replaced. I am sure the key is somewhere in the house. We must have elves about. We went for a walk and took a picture of the goofy statues that are the gate to our street. As we walked around, people asked where we lived. We didn't even have an address, name of the neighborhood or anything. One time we took out the phone and showed them the photo and they knew where we we lived. So perhaps we won't be lost here in town.   

Elder Ammon Hymas here with a good family who lives about 3 hours by bike away.  Yes the young missionaries spend lottsa time on their bikes and they are very happy to welcome us here.  Okay maybe they love us mostly for the chance to spend a little less time on their bikes.  At this home we at dog meat that was chewy, bony and so spicy hot that Julie couldn't finish.  Our driver/President Ariyanto said he wouldn't eat it because he's a dog owner.  We've had the experience once now thanks to generous friends but I'm not going out of my way to do it again.

It is rainy season here and deras is the word for a down poor.  This is the river in town.  You can go whitewater rafting on it but we wouldn't recommend it at flood stage.

The pool wasn't totally empty and the music from a nearby activity was loud, but the Spirit was oh so strong for Indra's baptism.  This young man told his parents years ago that he wanted to become a Christian, but that brought him three months of silent protest from them.  He's now found the right Church and has decided to join it.  He's perhaps the best non native English speaker we've met in Magelang.  

Well we have a driver for the car. It is the branch president so we are spending a lot of time with him. Hopefully we can provide the leadership training we are supposed to provide with the many hours we are together each day. He has been wonderful in helping us get set up and oriented. I can't imagine how we would have done this without him. It would have taken ten times as long, that is for sure. President Ariyanto is on the far left,