Young Single Adult Activity plus other things.

Ibu Jum came to Family Home Evening at the Jeffery house and what a fun time it was too.  The two grandchildren enjoyed exploring and showing off.  We met her husband who currently worships in a moslem mosque but plans to join his wife in worshipping Jesus Christ with us.

We visited this family with the missionaries.  Evidently they were active members of the church for many years until dad got sick.  He wasn't able to attend church for a while and without a functioning home teaching program he wasn't visited.  He misses the members, but was reticent to come back.  We assured him that he can.

The Jogyakarta ward held an open house with tours of the
 building to inform visitors of what actually goes on
 in the meetinghouse.
But Indonesian's love to have fun, so these pictures are of the
 games we played.  How do you get 5 men to turn over a mat
while still standing on it?  In actuality you don't.
 Too many chiefs and not enough Indians.
 The Jayanto family in the background had a single leader, dad,
 who directed them through the task and won the competition.

Sister Jeffery's attempt at the game with
the sisters and and investigator.
Maybe her head taller
height slowed us down to second place.
Sister Naingolan was disappointed
but as usual, always full of smiles.

The meaningful part of the evening though was getting investigators and returning members to visit with ward members.  Here an English class participant in a head scarf known as a gbob visits with missionaries.  Below Sister Wuri visits with Maria, a woman whom the sister missionaries have been teaching.  Below that members are meeting and eating with a man from Timor Leste and also with the same man we'd met earlier in the afternoon.  This was the first time he'd been inside the church building in over 3 years and members made him feel very welcome.  His 15 year old son is now taking missionary lessons to prepare for baptism.

Dewi, President Joko's wife, came to Magelang to sell
her batik clothes and cloth at our local mall.
So we did a little shopping.  Mel wasn't that impressed
with the shirt and malls don't inspire him much anyway.
  Sister Jeffery returned later with the girls and
 bought some fabric which she's taken to a tailor.

The young single adult activity had another change.  Evidently the largest group of attendee's from Solo couldn't make it for an overnight experience, so we had to plan the event a third time.  Here Bayu and Deborah explain a game planned for the event.  This committee meeting gave us a third chance to hold a combined Magelang/Jogya Institute class.  Below Indra posts his "word of the week".  Sister Jeffery invites each student to start each class with a word from his scripture study.  This helps get everyone participating from the very start and we all grow from other's testimonies.

General Conference wasn't to be missed.  Prophets and apostles sharing important messages from and regarding Jesus Christ and his work in inspiring.  The man on the right, Budi Cat, lives almost 2 hours away by car, even longer by bus, from the church, but he came down to spend all of Saturday listening.  We've been trying to meet him for the 7 months we've been here, and this was a sweet time to get to know him.  

Scenes from the YSA activity which had about 40 singles in attendance plus a few of us hangers on there too.

No this isn't dancing, although Elder and Sister Jeffery did teach dancing later in the day.  Here each boy had to hold a girl by the hand and by the ear, not the most common dance position.

Sister Jeffery eats what we decided is an Indonesian burger.  A layer of sweet sticky rice combined with a layer of tofu based stuff called tempe wrapped in a banana leaf.  Yummy.

We printed up a picture of our wedding and told our romantic stories of yesteryear.

When the afternoon slowed down, we brought out the board games which got at least a few singles interested.

The missionaries volunteered to help our member and friend Supriyono replace his roof.  Elder Jeffery has helped with several of these projects in the U.S.A..  American's have this heritage of the barn raising where the home owner or another leader arranges all the materials, then on the day of the construction, many hands show up to help raise the barn or put on the roof.  Here though we showed up with 2 missionaries in tow and the branch president.  The branch president really wasn't interested in the roofing project.  The home owner sent us back to where the project was being conducted by three workmen.  The clay tiles had mostly been removed by the workmen, but they left enough of them for us to take off in less than an hour.  They were very concerned about our safety as you can see the thin bamboo slats provide almost all the structural support.  The new ones were at that moment being soaked in the river to strengthen them.  The workmen left soon after this picture as it was too warm for them in the heat of the day, but they didn't want us working while they were gone either.  Supriyono served us lunch then.  Yes, somehow the barn raising concept hasn't translated here.  We will need to find different ways to provide meaningful service.

The mother of a valiant family in Jogya passed away 100 days ago.  It's Javanese custom to have a gathering at that juncture, so these pictures are of most of the ward meeting at the daughter's home.  It was a joyous occasion with talks, stories, music, and food.  Not a bad tradition.

Elder Siaaha has moved to Magelang to join the faithful priesthood here in the mountains.