BACK TO NORMAL!!!

As I ended my last post it was Scott's Birthday. We had a nice celebration that morning before the new missionaries came. Wasn't that nice of the new missionaries to come for Scott's Birthday!

Every six weeks we have what is we call transfers. This is the week that new missionaries come into the mission and old missionaries that have finished their mission go home. Also, the missionaries that are here can be moved to a new location in the mission. This week we had a senior couple and three young missionaries go home. Of the three younger missionaries, one went home to the Philippines, one to the USA and one went home to Indonesia. When they go home, we have a little going home evening where we all get together over zoom and they get to say goodbye to everyone and bear testimony of Jesus Christ and the love that God has for all of us. Then all the other missionaries get to say their goodbyes to the missionaries that are going home. This is followed by the tie or scarf (tie for Elders, scarf for Sisters) cutting ceremony. The Mission President, President Mak cuts their tie or scarf. The missionaries then signed it, and it becomes a keepsake for the Mission President. It is really quite moving so it makes for a really nice evening. It is also a bit sad to see these young men and women, with such strong testimony of Christ, leave us and go home. But it is also rewarding to see what wonderful disciples of Christ they are and know that the world is a better place with these kinds of people in it. We have only been here for 6 weeks, but we have grown to love them all and will miss their smiling faces, that radiant the light of Christ, coming into our office. Young people like these make you have hope for a kinder and more loving world.

We had 6 new missionaries that came in this transfer. 4 from the USA and 2 Native Indonesians.

They come in from the missionary training center. (MTC) The four Americans spend 6 weeks in the Provo Utah MTC. They learn the language and are trained how to be a missionary. The 2 Indonesians came from two weeks in the Philippines MTC. They only stay for 2 weeks because they don't need to learn the language! Ha! Ha!! Some of the training they get is how to be a missionary in a Muslim country. In a Muslim country there are things that you can't do. Like knock on doors and hand out Book of Mormon and things like that. You have to wait until they ask you questions and show interest in learning about Christ.

I had talked about the riots and the destruction of the bus stations, etc. But now! Life is back to normal! I am super surprised at how quickly the bus stations and MRT stations are getting repair. Only one bus station is not repaired and back in operation after one week. For this week a few of the stations weren't operational but the bus would just stop on the side of the road and let people get off and on. But now you would hardly know that anything had happened. There are no more riots, and everything feels back to normal. So, on Saturday September 6th we headed up to the Monas (the national monument). Last time we went there it was closed because it is always closed on a Monday. It is a tall tower that you can see out all over the city. We took the bus and when we got there, there were these men with horse drawn carts. They wanted us to pay them to takes us from the bus to the entrance to the Monas. We thought it would be fun, so we did.

As we were in line to go into the Monas, all these kids were asking us questions. Rick said we should take a selfie and they all jumped in for the shot. (Scott didn't make in it the selfie)

After we got our ticket, we had to wait for our turn to go up into the Monas. Everyone was just sitting around waiting for their number to be called. We were able to have some fun conversions with many people. One little girl was so shy but wanted to talk to me in English. It was fun as I was able to get her to talk to me after I spoke to her in Bahasa! I said "Siapa Nama Anda?" Which means what is your name. Then I said, "Nama Saya Julie." Which means- My name is Julie. After that she felt less shy and was able to talk to me. Below are a few pictures of people just waiting for their turn to go up into the Monas.

Views of Jakarta from up in the Monas!

In the bottom of the Monas there is a museum about the history of Indonesia! It is all done with dioramas.

When we came into the Monas area, we noticed a lot of police and military personnel and military vehicles parked all around the Monas area. When we came out of the Monas, we walked by all the military vehicles and spoke with some of the soldiers. I asked one soldier why they were all there. He said that they were there in case they were needed. This is probably why there are no more riots with all this military force in the middle of Jakarta.

After our visit to the Monas we went for lunch at the market that is in the Monas (Merdeka square) park area. This is a very typical lunch market that you see all over Jakarta.

Statues on the street as you come out of Merdeka Square (which is the park area that the Monas is) The first statue is of Sukarno the first president of Indonesia and the leader of the country's independence movement. The second statue is Arjuna the hero of the Mahabharata. This comes from a Hindu epic story. Arjuna is one of the five Pandava brothers in the Mahabharata. He is a master archer and charioteer during the great war is Krishna. Arjuna is an incarnation of Vishnu. For those of you that don't know Vishnu is one of the principal deities in Hinduism, part of the Trimurti (the three main aspects of God) The three are Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver and protector and Shiva the destroyer and transformer.

We had a humanitarian project at the church the following Saturday September 13th. It was a nutrition and baby/childcare day. Indonesia and other counties have some nutritional and childcare needs. This was a day where parents could bring their children to be weigh and measured to see how they were developing. The parents were able to learn if their children need more or better nutrition so that the child would grow properly and not be stunned. It was a very successful day. Many people were able to learn about good nutrition for their children and better understand what their child might need for proper development and growth.