Arrival in Indonesia!!

 Leaving Jakarta Indonesia and Moving to Timor Leste!!!
Below are some pictures of the missionaries here in Jakarta.  We had a going home lunch with all of the Jakarta missionaries.  We will miss them so much.  They are fun and full of light and the love of God.  They make me smile whenever I am around them.  

We had a very heavy rainstorm two days before we left Jakarta, Indonesia for Dili, Timor Leste.  It started to rain in our kitchen through the lights in the ceiling.  Then it started in our bedroom.  We were mopping and catching the water in buckets.  After an hour or so we decided, it was not going to work because there was so much water and there was no way we could catch it all.   We decided that we could not spend the night in our apartment, so we headed to a hotel for the night.  

Below are some pictures of all the Christmas Decorations at the hotel.  We were surprised that you could get gelato for breakfast.  So of course we had to add that to our breakfast.

When we got back to our apartment.  We found that the ceiling in the kitchen had fallen in and we had a big mess to clean up.  I don't know if Indonesia was so sad that we were leaving that it wanted to give us a goodbye present or what!!!  Haha  It was definitely a wet and messy send off.  

We went out for sushi one last time before leaving Jakarta.  I love sushi and didn't know if we would be able to get it in Timor Leste.   This is a picture of us with our good friend Nining from Jakarta.  We hope to see her again before we leave Indonesia.  

We left Jakarta and had a little stopover in Bali before heading off to Dili, Timor Leste.  There are only two places that have flights to Timor Leste.  One is Bali and the other is Darwin, Australia.  So, we had to go through Bali to get to Timor Leste.   So, we spent our preparation day in Bali enjoying the ocean and the beach.  Bali is one of a beautiful island of Indonesia.  Bali is Australia's Hawaii.  Most Australians don't go to Hawaii they go to Bali.  We also had dinner with the Sister Missionaries that are serving here in Bali.  The sister missionaries are so kind and sweet.  We will miss them all.

Our hotel room had a ladder from the balcony area that you could climb down right into the lagoon.  
It is a rough life, but someone has to do it!!!!

 

January 8, 2026 - Arrived in Dili, Timor Leste.  Below are some pictures of Dili area and our apartment.  Our apartment is quite nice, and the complex has a weight room and a swimming pool.  So, we should be able to get some good exercise in before we start our missionary work in the morning.  Timor Leste is not the safest place in the world.  Our apartment complex is surrounded by high walls with barb wire on top.  There is a gate that is locked that you drive your car through.  I have been told it is not safe to walk around outside after dark.  So, we do our walking in the morning.    We enjoy walking along a path next to the beach.    We have a small Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints congregation here.  We are having a wonderful time getting to know them and being part of the Body of Christ with them.  They are all so kind and welcoming that we feel right at home.  The Gospel of Christ binds us together and we feel a strong bond to all of them.   It is a little difficult to know what language to speak here.  All of the people speak Tetum.  Which I don't speak.  Many speak Bahasa Indonesia. Which I don't speak well and only understand sometime.  A few speak Portuguese which I don't' speak.  Some people speak English.  So, I usually start with English and if they don't understand then I try Bahasa Indonesia but if they still don't understand then we both just smile.  A smile can communicate kindness in all languages. Timor Leste uses American Dollars as their currency.   But if you give them a five-dollar bill and you get change, you will get the coins in Timor Leste coins that you can use just like US$  Indonesia is an interesting place.  Most of Indonesia is 90% Muslim.  Bali is 90% Hindu and Timor Leste is 90% Catholic.  This makes for some very interesting situations.  

 

Timor Plaza -Shopping Center- This is where we do most of our shopping.  We can get most things here in Timor Leste.  But sometimes they are out of things.  We have not been able to get oatmeal now for about 4 weeks.  Vegetable can be hard to find.  We were able to find cauliflower once but have not been able to find it again.  We eat a lot of eggplant, sweet potatoes and bok choy because there seem to always be in the stock at the stores.   The supply chain is not that consistent.  But there is always fruit and something to eat.  

The blue little minivan is the public transportation here. They have many in different colors.  There are blue ones, green ones, pink ones and yellow ones, etc.  I don't know for sure, but I think the color lets you know what the route is.  They are called microlets.  They have a route like a bus, and you pay 25 cents to 50 cents to ride them.  Many times, they are full so you will see people hang out of the doors and just holding on to the edge of the door frame.  Safety issues are not the same here.  




Cleaning up trash on the Beach.  A few mornings a week, some people come and try to clean up the beach.  Many water bottles and other trash wash up on the beach every day.  However, some of the trash is from people who eat on the beach and just leave their trash there for someone else to pick up.  

After one of our morning walks, we stopped for a coconut water.  They sell these coconuts all over the place, so they are easy to find and refreshing!  The cost $1 or $2 depending on the day and who you get them from.

We hiked up to the Christus and along the way they had all the stations of the Cross that the Catholics do.  It was about 600 stair steps and also some walking that was not steps.  It was a very good morning exercise and a wonderful time to be in nature and enjoy the Christus Statue.  The statue is looking out over the ocean and beach here in Dili.  I love it because it looks like Christ is looking out for us.  

The last set of stairs are pretty steep.  But the views are worth it!!!

We saw some goats on our way back down the hill.

After the hike!  Back to the beach!

You can see the Christus statue behind us on the hill.

On our way back home from our hike up to the Christus Statue we found the golf course and driving range.  It is a 9-hole course.  But the course goes back and forward over the same open green area.  So, you tee off for hole one from the driving range and you cross over the whole area.  When you finish the 1st hole then you tee off going sideways over the same green area.  So, if you are in the middle of the course, because you shot a short shot, then many people could be shooting over you crossways to get to different holes.  So, you could have different golfer crisscrossing each other to arrive on the green of their hole.   I don't know if I explain that well.  But I think you will need to wear a hard hat in case someone else hits a short shoot. We haven't tried the course yet and will let you know how it goes!!! 

This is the fruit and vegetable market that we like to shop at.  In Dili they have some outdoor fruit and vegetable markets.  This is the biggest one and the one that has the most variety.  It is somewhere that we go about once a week to get fresh fruit and vegetable.  They have a lot of fruit, but the vegetables are hit and miss.  We get tomatoes, cucumbers, mangos, pineapples, bananas, avocados, sweet potatoes, watermelon, etc. here.  So, as you can see, we are not going to stave here.  The fruit here is fantastic!

Scenes from the streets of Dili

Garage collecting

People dump their garage at the corner.  The garage truck comes and puts the garage on a tarp and then lift it into the truck.  They don't have the automatic lifting units that we have in the USA.  It is a lot of manual labor to pick up the trash.

Rainbow and our bill from the restaurant.  I thought it was interesting that the restaurant bill was just written on a small piece of paper.  

Pictures from English Class

I teach three English Classes a week.  One beginner, One intermediate and One Advanced.  This is a picture of some of the students in the intermediate class.  Many people here want to learn English because if they can speak English they can get better jobs.  Many times, these are jobs outside of Timor Leste.  Many of them hope to get jobs in Australia and then they send money back home to their families.  Most people here don't have a lot of money.

Until next time!!