Things are Looking Up in Magelang

Magelang's larger meeting facility was rented August 1 and is finally
getting renovated.  It's an old Dutch home that will cost over
double the 3 year rental rate to remodel to Church standards.
But it promises to be a very nice place to worship.

Sister Jeffery's favorite view of institute class---fully engaged in learning.  Groups of two preparing a response to one of Sister Jeffery's questions.

Jogya Institute group above, The group keeps getting bigger and bigger!!!
Magelang Institute below. Small but sweet.
 Putri is a new investigator, It is nice to have another woman so Sister Jeffery isn't the only one in class. 

Next, Joe and Julia Sorensen arrived for a visit from the US.  Julia is Elder Jeffery's little sister.  Joe Sorensen meets Sisters Xiao and Lee  who are excited to meet more of the Jeffery family.

Julia and Joe's favorite part of the visit was meeting many of the Indonesians
that we know here.  Joe has been blessed with the gift of tongues and
started picking up Indonesian words right and left.
The Indonesians were delighted with his eagerness to communicate with them
Here he is with  Jogya members, Ari, Agus, and Winoto.

Jogya district with newly called missionaries.
Indra has been called to Toronto, Canada, Mandarin speaking
and Hernan has been called to the exciting
Indonesia, Jakarta Mission.
 (back)McKeon, White, Poffenbarger, Jeffery.
(front) Hernan, Indra, Wijaya, Xiao, Lee.
Elder Jeffery looks a bit distracted.

We have become quite capable tour guides for Borobudur.
Sister Jeffery has even learned to bring along an umbrella for shade.
Julia and Joe admire the relief of a ship.

The monkeys were a blast to play with.  Joey had fun
chasing them and getting them to eat out of his hand.
But the monkey below was quite "nakal" as he stole our water bottle.
He ran up the tree with it, tore off the outer wrapper,
twisted off the cap and proceeded to take a drink.
Bananas and peanuts must make monkeys thirsty.

Mel took this pic of Julia, Joe, &
Julie from the top of the obelisk.  

We stopped by Mahar's office too.  His business uniform is batik shirt every day.

Kelik with the tourists.  We particularly liked the palm tree.  We think it should be called a
 Christmas  Palm

Bu Elen, Ivan and Hendrik met the touring Sorensons too.  We didn't take time to shoot pool though.

Unteas, Tian and Onik with us tourists.
Sisters Unteas and Onik
will be going with us to the temple next month.
It will be their first time out of the country and
they are quite nervous.  Julia and Joe shared their
sweet testimonies of the temple
The difficulties and challenges will be worth it.   

Tian dressed up for scouts.
Scouting is sponsored by the schools
so all youth participate, including camping trips.

On the way home from the coast, we stopped to see Titik shown here with her mother and granddaughter.

Dieng has Hindu temples/shrines, but not as big as Prambandan's

Still plenty of tourists wanting photo ops.  

Stopped to meet Debi's family in Wonosobo and celebrate Callysta's birthday together.

Elder Brown shows off the Magelang missionary house.  

Sorenson's joined us for Ward missionary meeting and also for a teaching visit to Juhartono's.  They told of their love for each other and the ordinance that seals them as husband and wife.

Sorensons made it to Church and Institute in Magelang too.

Julia wanted to climb a volcano.  We picked a smaller mountain this time but it was still steep.  Here is Julia scouting the trail up the mountain.  

Through the clouds an up to the summit.

Hiking Andong peak with Sorensons and new friends too.  Daniel and his mother are actually moving to Texas next month, so we may see them in the U.S.A. too.

Once along the ridge line, the trail wasn't so steep but you can see the incline we tackled coming up.   They are not real good with switchbacks either. Once at the top, we had a fine view of the valley and where our car and driver were waiting for us at the bottom.

Brother and Sister.
 Julia was born while Mel was a young missionary in Indonesia 40ish years ago.  Ari says they are two cut from the same cloth.  OK, he didn't use that idiom but Ari thinks they are very much alike.  He enjoyed seeing them spending time together.

Julia needed to finish up souvenir shopping.  She found some real treasures she was excited to take home.    Then they ate a quick bite with a little street vendor.  Julia loved the food in Indonesia and tried as many new things as she could .  By the way, cost for two dinners was less than $2 U.S..

Ezra, Meme and Andre joined us and Elder Brown for a FHE at our place.  Ezra had drawn the poster to send to Elder Brown's mother for her birthday.  This family is planning to be baptized in two weeks.  We are happy to have them in our circle of friends.

We support the young missionaries as we attend zone meetings.  They are competent teachers working together to invite people to Christ.   

The new Jogyakarta district with visiting training sisters.
(back) McKeon, White, Jeffery, Hanks, Lee, Winanto, Jamiko
(front) Nggiku and Wijaya .

Elder Jeffery helped teach Sister Jamiko's grandmother, Asnibar, 42 years ago.  Circles of Life.

Sukarlis and K. Boenari  Elder Bonari will be heading home in a week and we will miss him.  Fine Indonesian elder who will be a strength to the church for many years to come. Circles of Life.

It was raining, so Dickey and Sukarlis donned trash bags to go into it.  Elder and Sister Jeffery tried to wait out the deluge, but eventually walked home in the rain after waiting two hours.

Meanwhile Elder Jeffery found some sate.  Oops we caught him with his mouth full.

With  no place to go with the rain pouring down, Sister Jeffery tackled the wall that had been smeared with marker. Then moved on to floors.  . 

Happy birthday to Mahar and Bayu two of our dearest friends in Magelang.

A celebration to mark 1000 days since the passing of  Pak Margono.  Great tradition here.  When someone dies, friends and family gather to celebrate the person's life after 7 days, 100 days and then 1000 days.  The extended support is beautiful as they celebrate a life will lived.  

No Sister Jeffery is not standing on a box. It is most obvious in pictures that she is a head taller than the women here. 

Sisters Rondiyah and Jeffery visited all the Primary children's parents and even a few potential primary children's parents to ask the parents to support their children's participation in the annual Primary sacrament meeting program. 

 Practices have started ad the children are excited to share their testimonies and songs.

 English class in Magelang has lots of families with children attending.  So we had Ants go Marching four by four, Ten Little Indians,  and Twenty Bottles of Pop on the Wall to teach counting.

 Here we have a survey to take that helps them learn how to ask questions.

Brother Timatuous's mother enjoyed our visit.  She is delighted when ever I come along.  Yet I need our driver Ari along since she only speaks Javanese.

Food, food, food.  Our friend Maria from Jogya has started making a deli chicken soup in her warung.   This mostly open air kitchen is by the side of her home and she cooks for the students that live in the Kos (boarding house) that she and her husband run.  

Elder Jeffery tried fried leaves.  He found them quite tasty but the jury is still out with Sister Jeffery below. She probably likes the potatoes better in the picture below that.
 Elder Sukarlis is looking at some of Elder Jeffery's new favorite noodles.  They are called kwetiau noodles and with a few vegetables, a little meat and spices, it is a wonderful meal.  We think we can find the noodles stateside and share them with family and friends when we get home.  Yum, yum.

The Joko family joined us for dinner last week.  They know of a great Padang restaurant that has some fabulous rendang. Brother Joko has been hard to reach for an appointment, but dinner was a fine time to visit.   

The Family History Senior  couple, elder and Sister Hansen came to central Java to help get names ready for the upcoming temple trip.  Vital records are scarce in Indonesia and the work can be discouraging.  The Hansens have been preaching the importance of  recording your own life and as far back as you can.  We can build for future generations.  Elder Jeffery is sitting in the middle translating.  (He often feels in the middle when he is the only one around that speaks both English and Indonesian.)  Elder Hansen has also started a personal project of photographing headstones and entering the information into the Family Search data base.  Sister Jeffery got oriented and is excited to help get some records accessible.  It is the same as the starfish stranded on the beach analogy.  Sure there are millions but we can help at least one.  

 Just a few final pics of motorcycles.  The expressions of the children are priceless.

 The other day we were out and about.  The sky was crystal clear and the mountains were beautiful.  couldn't resist stopping for a snapshot.