Julie's Indonesia Jakarta Mission

Third Week in Jakarta!!!

Selamat Hari Kemerdekaan Republic Indonesia!!!
(English Translation) Happy Independence Day of the Republic of Indonesia!!!

Hello from Indonesia!! On August 11, I was still recovering from food poisoning, so we spent our first day off exploring the area around where we live. Indonesia is still a developing country with many things that are very modern and posh and many things that are still very third world. Here are some photos of the very nice modern malls that are near our house and then the food stalls just outside it. I find the differences strikingly very interesting. It is kind of like living in two different worlds. We went into one of the malls near our house (all malls have guards at the entrances) and on our way out the guard saw our name tags, (which say, Sister Baird, Gereja Yesus Kristus Dari Orang-Orang Suci Zaman Akhir- meaning - Sister Baird - Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) and he started talking to us. Scott can speak Bahasa Indonesia, so they had a conversation about Jesus. He was interested and wanted a Book of Mormon. So later in the week Scott went back with the younger missionaries. They were able to talk to him and give him a Book of Mormon. They invited him to church, and he said that he would like to come and bring his family. Hopefully we will see him at church soon.

Indonesia is celebrating 80 years of Independance. Indonesia (The Dutch East Indies) was under Dutch Colonial Rule for over 300 years. During WWII, the Japanese came into Indonesia and occupied it. At the end of WWII the Dutch tried to come back into Indonesia, but the country wanted to be independent. Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta made a declaration of Independance on 17 August 1945. Sukarno became the first president of Indonesia (1945-1967). Indonesia, officially, has been a country for only 80 years. Their Independent Day is today August 17, 2025. There have been some celebrations and flags and banner all over the city. Below are some pictures of the military parade that was happening last Monday at the Monas (National Monument). The Monas is the tall tower with the flame at the top. We wanted to go up to the top of it, but it was closed on Mondays. We will have to go back on a Saturday.

After visiting the Monas, we went to the Istiqlal Mosque. The Istiqlal Mosque is the largest mosque in Southeast Asia and the ninth largest mosque in the world. It can hold about 200,000 people. Istiqlal is an Arabic word for Independence. We had to remove our shoes and carry them with us in the green bag that I am holding. I also needed to wear this lovely head scarf to cover my head and arms. I was wearing capri, and Scott was wearing long pants, so we didn't need to have something to cover our legs. The tourist that came in shorts had to wear a long skirt thing to cover them. The mosque floor is covered in a thick red carpet and the walls and pillars are mostly stainless steel. They have five floors in the mosque which symbolizes the Five Pillars of Islam which are - Declaration of Faith, Obligatory Prayer, Compulsory Giving, Fasting in the Month of Ramadan and Pilgrimage to Mecca.

Across the street from the Mosque is Our Lady of the Assumption Cathedral, better known as the Jakarta Cathedral. Compared to many Cathedrals around the world, this cathedral is small and not very impressive. But it was a nice place to stop and rest and enjoy the beauty of the Architecture and the peacefulness of Church.

Indonesia is very proud of their 80 years as a country and many things are going on. In one of malls in our area, they have a display of artist postcards about Indonesia. The artist made a painting and then added their hopes for Indonesia's future. We enjoyed looking at the art and reading some of their hopes for a brighter and happier future. Below are some of the artist's works.

This is what a typical restaurant looks like. We had Nasi Goreng (Fried Rice). Also here is a picture of what most women wear. Most people here are Muslim. The women wear a head scarf, long sleeves tops and either long pants or skirt.

Here are some scenes from The Streets of Jakarta!

For some reason many young men will sit on the curb of the street. I am not sure why they sit on the sidewalk like this. It seems to me that there would be better places to hang out. I will try and find out why they do this. (My guess is that they don't have a job and so they are just hanging out with friends.)

I think it is crazy how they take the whole family on their motorcycles. Most of the time without any helmets for them or the children. If someone is wearing a helmet it is the driver (usually the man).

Scenes on the subway!! They wear bucket hats even here in Jakarta!!!

For part of our job, we go and check out the missionary's apartment to make sure they are safe and that they have what they need. We went to three of their apartments. One in Tangerang and two in Bogor. At the sister's house in Bogor, we found that they needed a new bunkbed and one new mattress. At the Elders house in Tangerang, we found that they needed one new bunk bed and four new mattresses and a new desk for one of the Elders. After checking out their apartment and bikes we went to lunch with two of the missionaries. This is a typical restaurant that we eat in with some of the missionaries.

This is a picture of the Church that we attend on Sundays. The first week we went to the Indonesian Ward. I understood about 1% of what was being said. We will keep going (maybe every other week) and maybe I will understand more next time. The second week we went to the English-speaking ward where I understood 100% of what was said!!! HAHA

On Saturday the Bahasa Indonesia speaking ward, had an Independance Day celebration. First, they had a bunch of games ending with a tug of war. Scott anchored our team, and we won the tug of war, even with the two of us being old people. The games were followed by a reenacted of the events on August 17, 1945, when the proclamation of Independance was announced. This was followed by a talent show. It was fun to watch and see how much they love their country and how much fun they were having celebrating their country's independence. One of the male members of the Indonesian Ward was talking to me about how Americans look so different. He was amazed at the different hair colors and eye colors. He thought it was so weird that we had blue, green and brown eyes while all Indonesian have brown eyes. He kept saying how weird that was to him. It was very interesting to me how we all think so differently. To me different hair color and different eye color is normal and to him it was very strange. We all look at the world through our own eyes and our own experiences, the world is a very interesting place!!

Sunday evening, we decided to go for a walk around our area, and we came across a Independance Day Celebration. There was singing and dancing and food (even a KFC food truck- but mostly Indonesian food stalls). They had people dress up in the traditional customs of many of the different islands and cultures that make up Indonesia. They even had a dragon float. The FWD building even had it's lights turned on to red and white with the number 80 lit up on it. (Red and White are the colors of the Indonesia Flag. (usually the building changes light colors - from blue to green to red to yellow etc.) It was a really fun evening. We had a good time celebrating Independance Day!!!

Interesting things that have happened. Some good some not so good!!

First, we went looking for sheets for our bed. Our apartment bed came with only a fitted sheet, a comforter and pillowcases. We discovered that they don't have top sheets, and they thought it was weird and something you would only find in a hotel. We had a new missionary couple coming in from Hong Kong and they were able to bring us a top sheet. Also, we had no butter knifes in our apartment. We thought that would be an easy find!! But no!!! The Indonesian don't use butter knifes and all the silverware in the stores are either forks or spoons!!! Surprise!!! And then there are Mice!!!

One Friday morning I was taking out the trash and to my complete horror a mouse jumped out of the trash can and ran under the sofa. Scott came to my rescue after he heard a blood curdling scream. He tried to get the mouse but in ran into the kitchen and into a cabinet. The maintenance and cleaning staff came in and tried to catch it and only chased in under the stove. So, they set a trap and caught a mouse. There were some holes under the oven, so Scott taped the holes up with duct tape just in case they were more mice. The next morning the mouse had eaten through the duct tape. So another trap was set and now I think we are mouse free. I hope so because I really hate mice in my house!!!!

Here are some pictures of the beautiful Batik fabric that you can find here. Batik is Indonesia's traditional fabric.

We found TopGolf (it was not what we think of as TopGolf in the USA- it was just a golf store with clubs and bags and things - no fun driving place) and a donut shop which displays their donuts on this weird grey knot thing.

The garden at the roof top of the mall!! A lovely place to hang out in the evening!

Interesting things in the Grocery store. A whole isle of different teas. Durian Ice cream, which I think is the worst flavor. Interesting Oreo Cookie flavors and a whole wall of different ramen flavors.