Julie's Indonesia Jakarta Mission

The Rainy Season is here!! That means it rains almost everyday! Sometime a lot and sometime not too much! Kind of the opposite from Phoenix!!

Our next adventure was---We found Top Golf!!! We went on Monday and on Mondays you can golf for two hours for free if you spend 200,000 rupiah on food and drinks. I know that sounds like a lot, but it is only about $12.50. So, we got to golf for two hours, and each of us, eat a hamburger with fries and have a pitcher of this delicious fruit juice drink. (about 4 glasses each) Not a bad price for a fun two hours in Jakarta! Of course, Scott won the golf game but that is okay! We had a very enjoyable time.

Then next week we went to the Bogor Safari Park. It was about two hours away. When we got there, we got on a bus that takes you around through the safari part of the park. Then after the safari part, there is a walking area that we went through that is like a zoo. They also have some animal shows. There was an Elephant show, Tiger show and a Dolphin show. They also had a Wild West show. I am not sure why the safari park had a USA Wild West show, but they did. We sat in the front near a well. During the show things fell into the well and exposed. We got pretty wet from the water splashed out of the well. They did not warn you with signs that said This is a Splash Area. But we had a very enjoyable time even with getting all wet!

The following week we took a trip to Surakarta (Solo) and Yogyakarta (Yogya). We went for a zone conference and to attend church in Solo. Solo was one of the areas of Indonesia that Scott spent a lot of time when he was here almost 50 years ago on his younger mission. Scott was given the wedding photo of a man named Bapak Suwarno and his wife while he was here 47 years ago. Bapak Suwarno wrote his testimony on the back of the photo. Bapak Suwarno has died and Scott found out from his daughter that the family had had a flood and all of their family photos were destroyed. This was the only photo left of their father. So while we were in Solo we met with the family and returned the wedding photo to them. They were so happy to have a photo of their dad.

On Monday we went to the Kraton - Mangkunegaran Palace (the prince's palace). We had a guide tour of the Kraton. It is the palace where the Prince and his family live.

On Tuesday we attended the Central Zone Conference. Zone conference is when the missionaries in an area get to together and have uplifting talks by the mission leaders. It is also a time for the missionaries to get together and enjoy each other company. Since our missionaries are all over Indonesia, they don't get to see each other every often so Zone Conference is a very fun time for them. It is great to see the love and friendships that has developed between them. They really enjoy doing a few goofy photos.

Then on Wednesday we went to Borobudur Temple. It was built in the 9th century and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Borobudur is the largest Buddhist temple in the World. Borobudur Temple is built to represent many layers of Buddhist theory. From the bird's eye view, the temple is in the shape of a traditional Buddhist mandala. A mandala is central to a great deal of Buddhist and Hindu art. The basic form of most Hindu and Buddhist mandalas is a square with four entry points, and a circular center point. Working from the exterior to the interior, three zones of consciousness is represented, with the central sphere representing unconsciousness or Nirvana. According to this Buddhist cosmology, the universe is divided into three major zones. The Borobudur temple represents these zones in it rising layers. Kama dhatu, Rupa dhatu, and Arupa dhatu. There are 504 buddha statues in total.

The first section (outer section) called Kama dhatu which describes the human lives which are still strongly affected by sensual desires for food, pleasure and comfort. The second section is called Rupa dhatu which describes human lives which are able to control desire yet still bound by forms. The third section is called Arupa dhatu which describes Nirvana and Sunyata worlds. The temple is described by 3 terraces in form of circles. Inside each of the bell-shaped structure there is a buddha. There is a total of 504 Buddha statues. The Buddha's have different hand positions, and each hand position means different things. Some of the meanings are 1. Calling the earth to witness. 2. Benevolence & aims giving. 3. Concentration & Meditation, 4. Courage & fearlessness 5. Reasoning and Virtue.

After visiting Borobudur, we went to Malioboro street in downtown Yogya where we had lunch and ate gelato! Then we took a becak ride. Many years ago, Becaks were only powered by a bicycle is the back of it. Now many are motorized. Almost everywhere we go we get interviewed by many Indonesians, usually high school or college aged people. It feels like they all have a school assignment to practice speaking in English by interviewing some foreigners. We stick out a lot so we tend to get interviewed everywhere we go. It is kind of fun to see how excited they are to talk to us. We are quite the interesting phenomenon.

Becak Ride

Getting Interviewed.

Sights from the Millboro Street- A common pass time is playing chess.

Thursday, we headed to Prambanan Temple. Prambanan Temple is a magnificent 9th century (Sanjaya Dynasty of the Mataram Kingdom) Hindu temple complex dedicated to the gods Shiva (the destroyer), Vishnu (the preserver) and Brahma (the creator). It is the largest Hindu temple site in Indonesia and one of the grandest in Southeast Asia. It is renowned for its tall, pointed architecture and intricate stone carvings depicting scenes from the Ramayana epic. Prambanan is a UNESCO World Heritage site and an important symbol of Indonesia' cultural and religious history. We got interviewed two times here at Prambanan Temple.

That evening we went to the Ramayana Ballet. The Ramayana is an ancient Epic that tells the story of Prince Rama, an incarnation of the god Vishnu, who embarks on a quest to rescue his wife Sita after she is abducted by the demon King Ravana. With the help of his loyal brother Lakshmana, the White Monkey God, Hanuman, and an army of allis, Rama wages a great battle to defect Ravana and bring Sita home. The ballet is accompanied by gamelan music. A Gamelan look kind of like a xylophone, and they hit different places to make the sounds. A gamelan is a traditional Indonesian musical ensemble made up mostly of metal percussion instruments. It has bronze gongs, metal keys and drums which are all played together in layers with repeating patterns. The gamelan is played in the minor keys giving it a very unique sound.

The next day we took the train from Yogyakarta back to Jakarta. Here are some pictures of the Indonesian countryside. Some rice paddy! They are not as lovely as the terraced ones in Bali, but this is how they grow rice.

We went to the Zone Conference in Solo and then when we got home, we had a Jakarta & Barata Zone conference. Many of the missionaries buy batik fabric and make matching dresses or skirt and the men have matching ties. This conference we did a pink batik. This is a thing in Indonesia. We had a primary program this week and all the little kids had matching skirts and ties. It was really cute! A primary program is when the little children, under 12 years of age, do the Sunday service by giving talks and singing song.

We had three new missionaries come into the mission this month.

We had one missionary go home. We will have more go home at the end of the month. We are having problems with getting the government to renew visa and also give new visas for our missionaries. Our missionaries get an one-year visa and then have to renew it for the last year of their mission. I don't know if we will get the new foreign missionaries this November. We have 6 native Indonesian missionaries that we will obviously get, but we have 8 foreign missionaries. They are from the USA, Thailand and the Philippines. I don't know if we will be able to get visas for them in time for them to come at the end of November. They may have to visa wait in another mission until we can get them visa to come here. Pictures of the missionary that went home.