Arrival in Indonesia!!

 Sorry I have been slothful and not writing in my blog.  Here is what happened in November and December 2025.

My friend Lori asked me if Jakarta was a fun and easy walking city.  I had to laugh because it is not at all a fun and easy walking city.  The sidewalks have poles, holes, benches, trees and other things in the way, so you are always having to look down to make sure you don't trip over something.  The Indonesian people park their cars and motorbike on the sidewalk as well.  Also, some of the food cart sellers will park their carts on the sidewalks.  Sometimes they even drive their motorbike on the sidewalks.  Cars will turn into an office building or parking area without looking to see if you are walking there on the sidewalk before turning.  You need to be always looking out to see if it is safe to move forward.  They also sit and eat on the sidewalks.  In front of where we live many food cart owners come to sell their food so many people hang out in front of the Mission Office and smoke or eat or just hang out.  The Indonesian people, especially the men smoke a lot.  So, I would say it is a major obstacle course when we go out for our morning walks.  It is always an adventure.  Below are some scenes from the sidewalks of Jakarta.  These are not the streets or parks but the sidewalks.

November is my birthday month.  The missionaries from the Jakarta district were so cute.  They came into the office, singing and gave me a cake, some flowers and a birthday card.  It was very sweet of them.  I really appreciated it.  On the cake they wrote Happy Birthday Mama Baird.  I really loved that.  But unfortunately, as they were giving me the cake and the card and the flowers, the cake slipped out of the box that it was in and fell.  So, the cake got a little smashed.  

In November we had a wonderful Thanksgiving Dinner with all of the missionaries that are in Jakarta and the ones that were going home that week.  When the missionaries go home, they first come to Jakarta and having a going home dinner and a devotional where they share their experiences and testimony via zoom with the whole mission.  For thanksgiving, Dhika was able to find a turkey farm that we were able to buy two turkeys.  The turkeys turned out to be pretty small and not a lot of meat on them, but it was enough for everyone to have some.  We had a great Thanksgiving dinner with all of the regular things, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, green beans, rolls, sweet potato casserole and to end the dinner we made pumpkin pie, apple pie and banana cream pie.  It was quite the feast.

Every six weeks we have transfers and we get some new missionaries and some that are finishing their missions go home.  This time the new missionaries didn't get their visas.  We are having some difficulty with the Indonesian Government.  They think that the missionaries coming in from other countries are taking jobs that a native Indonesian could have.  They don't understand that the missionaries are volunteers and not a paid position.   So, we had no new missionaries this month, but we are hopeful that they will get their visas and be able to come to Indonesia at next transfer which is early January.   We did have 8 missionaries that went home. 

Elder Albert - American                             Elder Christiadharma - Indonesian

Elder Brahmantyo  - Indonesian                        Sister Sweat-  American

Sister Harris - American                   Sister Gonzales  - Australian

Sister Smaellie - American                       Sister Voelkel  - American

                                                                            Me with Sister Gonzales

Indonesia being a mostly Muslim country, it seems kind of strange to me, that they have Christmas Decorations all over Jakarta.  Many in the mall and in all the stores.  We were walking through the Ashta Mall and there were performers singing. They were singing in English, Christ centered Christmas song.  This was strange to me; I wondered if they knew what they are saying because it was in English.  They were singing Joy to the World and Silent Night.  O come let us adore Him Christ the Lord.  Anyway, we really enjoyed their singing and the Christmas spirit that it bought.

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Office Christmas Party

At the church and mission office we had a Christmas party.  We each got a present and they put a number on each gift.  Then you drew a number and that was the gift that you received.  Then we all went to lunch at an all you can eat Brazilian steak place.  It was like Tucanos Brazilian Grill in the US. The place that walks around cutting off all different kinds of meat for you to eat.   I am usually not a big meat eater, but the restaurant was very nice, and we had a very enjoyable Christmas Party.

Mission Tour

The highlight of December (beside Christmas of course) was the Mission Tour.  The Mission Tour was when President Tai and Sister Tai came to tour the mission.  President Tai is the Asia Area General Authority Seventy.  We had a wonderful mission conference where we talk about our love for God and how we can better serve him and help others.  Sometimes we don't have any control about what happens in our day.  But we can try to have perfect mornings and perfect nights.  We usually have control of what we do in the morning and what we do at night.  We can try to be better at reading our scriptures and saying our prayers, etc.   Seize The Day!!!

The Christmas Party for the Mission at the Mission Tour Zone Conference

After the conference we had a little Mission Christmas Party.  We had purchased gifts and wrapped them for many children in the orphanages here in Indonesia.  There are many children here that live in an orphanage.  We also made cookies.  I personally made about 500 cookies.  The cookies were given to the children at the orphanages and to friends that were struggling or needed a pick me up.  Below are some pictures of the missionaries performing at the Christmas Party.  

Ward Christmas Party

We also had a Ward Christmas Party.  Where you collected gifts for families that are struggling and we ate some Indonesian food and had a fun program.  Below are some pictures of our district missionaries performing a Christmas Song and dance.  

Missionaries Going Home in December

We had one young missionary and two missionary couples go home this Month.  When the missionaries go home, we have a going home devotional.  This is a time for them to say goodbye to all the missionaries in our mission and friends that they have made here.  We do this via zoom so all the missionaries and all their friends can be involved.  It is a fun time for the missionaries that are going home to share their testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to say goodbye to all their friends here in Indonesia and to all the other missionaries.  

Elder Burt  (American)

Elder and Sister Schroedter   (American)

Elder and Sister Kusumarmanto    (Indonesian)

Christmas Eve - Pizza
Our family has a tradition of having pizza on Christmas Eve.  It is homemade pizza.  Well, we didn't have homemade pizza, but we did find a restaurant where we could find a pizza.  It was not exactly like what we are used to, but it was pretty good.  




Christmas Day
We had a lovely Christmas party in our apartment with all the missionaries in our district and with the Mission Leaders, President Mak and Sister Mak.  Scott and I made chili and cornbread and made a lot of cookies and candies.  We had a secret Santa gift exchange.  I got a Starbuck's mug that has Jakarta on it.  I will value this gift and bring it home with me.  Then the missionaries wanted pancakes for dinner.  That was fun to have breakfast for dinner.  We will miss them all so much when we go to Timor Leste.
They are all so kind and fun to be around.  They make me smile to just think of them and their wonderful spirits.  

Just a few more pictures of Christmas scenes from Jakarta.  The tree just outside of the Ashta Mall had TV screens that would change the picture.  It was fun to watch all the different holiday picture that would be displayed there.  My next blog will be about our last few days in Indonesia before our move to Dili, Timor Leste and our move to Timor Leste.  Merry Christmas to All and To All a Goodnight!!!