Our Visit to a Remote Village

Originally Posted March 23, 2007

I feel an increasing urgency to be effective with time and opportunity; they are precious gifts not to be squandered away. Everyone our age now has an increasing number of friends who have already passed through the veil or who are struggling to hang on to the little time left to them. We are thankful to be doing something we feel is tailor made to our characters and very gratifying.

All of our problems here are little ones; we are just too busy to be overly concerned about them. We are also being constantly blessed with people that pop up in our lives to help resolve them.

Last Saturday our cleaning girl came over and we asked her to look after some yard work. She cut the lawn using hedge clippers and did a surprisingly good job. There seems to be little point to trying to tell them there is a better way. In the afternoon Sister Kane taught a lesson on the art of cooking Crepes to the Sisters at the Relief Society Party and everyone wolfed them down joyfully. As we drove to the church our air conditioner was not working as well as we thought it should and we were complaining about it on the way. I didn't think to look at the temperature gauge and just a few moments after I stopped the car at the church to unload our stuff, the radiator hose blew off the radiator with quite an explosion. I was surprised at how calm I was about it and how thankful I was that it had happened after we arrived at church and were parked safely in the parking lot. The hose clamp had given way and an Indonesian member was right there to help. He quickly headed off on his motorcycle to buy a new clamp for about 30 cents (Canadian). He returned quickly and we had it repaired in no time. The whole thing was a real testimony builder to me because if the clamp had blown 5 minutes earlier in the traffic of Bogor, it would have been a whole different story.

After the Relief Society party we came home and cleaned up before we watched a movie called " The Holiday " , which we really enjoyed. After the movie we went to bed as it was around 10:00. We both forgot about the promised delivery of wheelchairs and we were fast asleep when my cell phone began ringing at 11:00 PM. I never take my cell phone to the bedroom with us when we go to sleep as it needs to be plugged in and recharged and the charger is on the desk downstairs. As it turns out the truck was outside our door and they had telephoned the Mission Home who had telephoned me. We got an additional 12 wheelchairs to give us a total of 29.

These small events are evidence that we are not being left alone as we strive to be of service to the people of Indonesia. As I stood at the church thinking about things after we fixed the car, I realized that I actually have not yet fully consecrated my life to the service of Christ and Heavenly Father. If I had done so, I would never get angry or frustrated about things as I would realize that my life, my emotions, my talents and experiences are all supposed to be assets in the toolbox of the Savior. I would not want to offer an inferior service to God and why should I allow myself the disservice of becoming upset over things that really don't matter that much.

Sunday was a great day and I was given the opportunity to speak briefly at a missionary fireside and I took the cowardly way out and spoke in English with a translator. Monday was national holiday here and was a great day except for a totally paralyzing traffic jam we got caught up in late in the afternoon. We spent the morning at the swimming pool and we used their gym for an upper body workout. It was a nice break from the regular routine. In the afternoon we went downtown to get some money out of the Canadian bank account and do some shopping. Sister Kane decided that we had better use up some of the food in our freezer as we are having more problems with the electrical system so we invited the Lees over for diner and Sister Kane made her pear salad and spaghetti. For those of you that have never tasted it you have no idea what you are missing; for those of you who have tasted it, your mouths are watering at the thought. We had a fun evening and we played games with their family. We had electrical problems throughout the day but we shut down all of the fuses on the upstairs last night and the power stayed on. We shut down everything except for the air conditioner in our room and it worked all night.

On Tuesday morning we were up in the predawn hours preparing for a trip to the mountains to visit the area where the village has been relocated after landslides. The Mission President and his family joined us for the trip. They had a daughter, son-in-law and four grandchildren visiting from Utah. The site is way up in Indiana Jones territory and there are two young missionaries assigned to the project to help with the work. We headed off in the early morning looking into the blackness of the rain clouds that threatened to seriously dampen our adventure. Sister Kane poured her soul into a prayer that we would not be bothered by the pouring rain and although it rained heavily en-route, we arrived at the area with sun and heat. President Jensen wanted a memorable adventure for his family and an opportunity to interview the two Elders – everyone got what they were looking for. President Jensen's grandchildren brought a load of toys for the children and it was a real thrill watching them being handed out. It was one of those great moments in life where both the givers and receivers were richly blessed. The Frisbees were a smash hit with the adults. Somehow there was more than enough gifts and candy for everyone. We couldn't have been happier. The church is providing the supervision and materials for four MCKs ( a combination of toilets/showers and wash basins ) and each MCK has five toilets and five showers.

Two of them are near completion and it was an incredible moment for us to see them. We were astounded at the transition of this village. There were now more than twenty permanent homes where there had only been tents 5 weeks ago. We were thrilled. There have probably been other days that we felt that good – but not many. Sister Kane spoke to one kind old soul, who was 90 and had been the mother of 17 children, only 7 of whom were still living. We got a great picture of the two of them together.

We got back to Bogor just in time to attend the Rotary Club meeting, where they were thrilled to know that we were trying to muster some money for a project to rebuild 16 tiny houses in a complex that had been destroyed by fire.

On Wednesday we were blessed to be off on another wheelchair delivery run, this time to the very beautiful vegetable growing area near Bogor. Giving a wheelchair to the desperately poor and needy is one of the greatest gifts we can ever give to ourselves – it is a sacred experience. We gave away 7 chairs.

Thursday was non-stop teaching, preparation or administrivia. I did enjoy teaching both of the English classes and I used the first half of " Rocky VI " to stimulate discussion at the Cipta Mandiri school for the poor kids, who love movies. I went out and bought additional speakers for my laptop, which I used to show the movie. It was a smash hit. The class at the church later in the evening was not nearly as fun. The missionaries delivered our mail to us when we met with them for the District Meeting after the evening English class and it included our replacement credit cards – life is so good. We bought a new scale and I am happy to report that I have trimmed down to 217. I was at 242 when I was in full blossom last year.

Another Friday evening is upon us and the prayers to the faithful are coming out of the loudspeakers of every mosque in Bogor. The main focus of Fridays is teaching the faculty members at the Pakuan University. The classes go from 9:00 AM until 11:00 AM and I was particularly concerned about this one as we wanted to come up with a strategy to allow the class members to spend more time speaking English and less time listening to it. We had a really productive session. We bought a second cell phone that we can use to call home this weekend for family birthdays and other such occasions. We then went visiting teaching with the Relief Society President and visited two sisters in the Branch. We enjoyed getting out to see them and we then dropped Sister Lee off at her home before going to get something to eat. We will eat one main meal in restaurant 6 days out of 7. We can eat a good meal every day and pay about $ 10.00 Canadian, including the meal for our driver. Why would you cook at home when you can eat out that cheaply. We may never be able to settle in to a non missionary life again after this. I am crazy about the food here.

We have now had two successive days without rain. It must be a signal to the tapering down of the rainy season. It is very nice to relax in the wonderful warmth of the evening air, which is the perfect temperature, and not have to worry about lesson preparation or reports. I have come to enjoy Friday evenings, although every once in a while the limits of our understanding are expanded. It happened to me tonight when a huge cockroach actually flew over my head in our living room. I used to think that I knew what disgusting meant.

I pray for wisdom and strength to be able to do all of the things we need to do and to be able to do them well. We are so very thankful to be where we are, doing what we are doing. We pray that you are all well and please take a moment to send us a brief message. It is always such a joy to hear from you.

Elder and Sister Kane