Appreciating the little things in life.

Sister Jeffery made the best bread we've eaten here in Indonesia.  The Barbie oven works just fine.

These guys wanted their picture with Elder Jeffery, and he wanted a picture of their backpack made from a rice sack.

Sister Jeffery enjoys talking with Sister Hanks.  She's even taller.

In Solo we went to our new friends, Dave and Reny's country estate for lunch.  Dave is a Michigan native who moved here a couple of months ago when he married Reny.  They live in a home with a very open floor plan ( very few walls).  It was built by Reny's family many years ago.  They are now tackling the projects of renovation. 

We visited with Endang Prihatini (Elder Jeffery's first Indonesian baptism 41 years ago) and her sister, Irma, with her son.

Irma told Elder some of her truly inspiring stories which we'd like to preserve for posterity, while Sister Jeffery and Endang looked up Institute lessons.  The Jogya Institute will get the benefit of Sister Jeffery's teaching every Friday night  and Elder Jeffery will be there too for language support.
Here's one of the stories:

Irma spent her youth as an active member of the Church with great happiness living at home with her father in rather poor conditions til she moved at age 10 to a new house. The house though was quite a ways from church at least for seminary. In SMA (high school) she walked each morning to seminary a distance of over 5 kilometers. To do that she had to be up at 4 a.m., but she enjoyed seminary so much it never occurred to her that it was a sacrifice. From seminary she would generally get a ride to school. After graduation she started dating Catur and he too enjoyed church activities and participated fully for over a year. When deciding about a mission the President who needed to approve the paperwork talked her into waiting and considering motherhood first.

Catur was baptized just before he and Irma married, but they moved into his parents home. That move meant they were involved as employees of the family business which was very prosperous. Irma describes the family as very rich, and generous with her as they lived there for a year. However, for that full year she wasn't able to attend church and her newly baptized husband didn't either.

This situation was somewhat like that of Alma and his people when they were required to work and denied outward signs of worship. She continued praying diligently for relief and the opportunity to get the blessings of attending church. Working as a cashier she remembers one Sunday meeting some women coming through her checkout line with Bibles and children in tow. The scene increased her longing to go to church again. Her mother joined her in earnest fasting and prayer, and one day Catur came to her and asked if she would still love and support him if they were poor. “If I were a carpenter, would you still love me?” She answered of course and told him what he already knew, that though she loved and respected her in-laws she wanted a place of her own.

When Catur's mother found out that they were leaving, she was extremely mad. Irma literally kissed her feet asking for her indulgence, but she was too mad because the newlyweds had received the best she had to offer and still rejected living with her. They didn't have a place to move into, but left anyway and moved to a small domicile with only a mattress for furniture. The mattress was their sleeping spot and wardrobe combined.

It wasn't long until Irma asked her husband if they could begin attending church. That first week he had Sunday commitments to install television antennae so they didn't get to church til the 10 a.m. Sacrament meeting. Catur was very shy and hardly lifted his head throughout the meeting. They only stayed one hour, then Catur returned to work. The blessings of attending one hour of Church started to come in and they bought an old used motorcycle, but Irma knew there were more blessings in store if they could stay for a full 3 hours. So she proposed to her husband that they figure up how much they made for a 7 day week and then try a 6 day week with Sunday being the Lord's day. Catur accepted. It was actually almost 2 months before he took the time to check the effect of that decision. When the data was complete, the result was nothing short of miraculous. They had prospered and have obeyed the law of the Sabbath ever since.

President Donald gives encouragement at zone conference, which was as exciting as ever.

We gave a presentation about the ways to help 1. investigators, 2. missionaries, and 3. members know how to recognize the Spirit to help in conversion. PMG gave four keys 1. Edify yourself, the missionary, 2. Prepare an environment for the Spirit by teaching and testifying (Sister Jeffery made sure the missionaries understood that there very presence brings the Spirit), 3. Adapting messages to individuals needs, 4. Committing to act on promptings and doing the right things brings the Spirit. We started our presentation by setting up Lehi's dream landscape with a Tree of Life poster at the front, with Pres Donald standing there as Father Lehi, with a flashlight, an iron rod (metal mop handles) leading to the tree. The missionaries holding onto the rod were active members, the ones on the stage were mockers, the ones behind a blackboard, the gulf, were those with major problems or sins, several were just wandering in the back of the room clueless of the need to find the tree. With this backdrop we taught the 4 principles and asked for participation on how to get people to address the barriers and the mockers.  

It was a fun experience, but because it was held in the chapel area of the building we didn't take any pictures. 

Coming home on the train was sleep time for Elder Cravens and almost everyone else.

Elders Martineau and Hymas use the time to talk religion with other riders too.

The Jogya institute class reports attendance by taking a picture of attendees and posting it on Facebook. Cool!

Elder Furness from Tapei and Riky Mak of Jakarta came to Jogya to teach self reliance.  We took advantage of their attendance to ask about programs to help teach members to start and grow businesses.  These two seem to have many ideas as helping people with employment challenges enables them to focus on the spiritual.  There is a class to help people start and grow a business.  We hope to start the class here in Magelang.  Employment prospects are limited and we need to help members of the branch earn enough to take care of their families and be able to stay in Magelang.  

On Saturday night Anita, now from Jogya, showed up for English class in Magelang.  She knew it was a fun place to be on Saturday evenings, so she brought two of her friends.  What followed was an impromptu Young Women's activity.  Lots of laughter as we played "Hot Seat" in both English and Indonesian.   

On Sunday Magelang Branch got a new Relief Society presidency.  The former president, Rondiya (center top) had served at least 13 years in that position.  Her replacement (top right), Vincewati, a member of just over a year, asked for her as the first counselor.  Here they are in the garden overflow from the church, holding their first presidency meeting while the youth Sunday School class is being held a few feet away.

Right next to the basketball court where Elder Jeffery stays fit is a small decorative spot in the garden.  The local parking attendant shows that even this small pond can produce a sizable catch. 

Sister Jeffery though would rather get her groceries the old fashioned way at Indomart.

This is perhaps a precursor of weeks to come.  As we went to visit a friend and found him calling lines at a volleyball game in his neighborhood.  As the country prepares to celebrate national independence day this month, we are told this sort of thing will get more common.