First Week

We are not in John Day anymore!  We arrived in Jakarta Indonesia Monday evening.  As you can see, our new neighborhood is very busy! (Busy, except for that street down below.  I'm not sure why it isn't used much.)  This is the view from our balcony.  It's very beautiful!  We are 14 hours ahead of the time in John Day, so we are working on learning to be awake in the daytime and asleep in the nighttime. 

 We should be in the rainy season, but they have not had rain for 6 months.  Our weather widgits have predicted rain a couple days now, but we haven't seen any yet.  The mission president and his wife picked us up at the airport and brought us to our apartment building.  They handed us off to the Snows, a senior couple from Caldwell, Idaho.  They arrived 3 1/2 weeks before us.  They had gotten our apartment all ready for us with dishes and towels and food.  Sister Snow had washed everything for us, so we could just use stuff, without having to wash it first.  Maybe the other senior sisters helped also.

Tuesday was Zone Conference, so we got to meet half the missionaries in the mission.  The other half had Zone Conference on Thursday, in another city.  Indonesia is as big geographically as the US, so the mission president and some of the missionaries have to fly to meet together.  You can't go that far and come back in a day or two without flying.  Everyone was very welcoming to us for zone conference.  I marvel at the language abilities of the missionaries.  We met an elder from Burns, Oregon, who translated for us a couple hours, then an elder from the Philippines translated the next hour for us.

Wednesday, we met with Elder Lee, who started out as a Humanitarian missionary, like what we are doing, but he lives here and could see the value of the connections he made, so even after he was done with his Humanitarian mission, he has continued as a Service missionary, so that we have someone in country continuing relationships and project oversite, even when we have to leave.  He is so very nice!  He set up appointments for us for Friday and this coming Monday so we can get started right away.  We started training with the other Humanitarian couple who live 7 hours away from us, but are doing our training over the internet.

Thursday was a down day for us, sort of.  We did laundry, had a little more training, took a nap, and went shopping close to home.  It was so good for me to get out, otherwise, I was starting to get scared.

Friday, I went to Immigration and got my kitas, permission to be here, so I can travel around the country and stuff.  Then we went to meet an NGO that manufactures prosthetic limbs.  There is a high need for this service and the people that run that organization have wonderful hearts!  They were very good to us as well, answering all our questions, explaining where they came from, how their founder started the organization after seeing a man without legs along the street one day.  We will travel to a couple events where people receive their limbs, next month.  This will finish the project up for them for this year.  Before that happens, we would like to submit a new project so they can get an earlier start on this again for next year.  I was really heart warmed, seeing the cool super hero decal type decorations on the prosthetics for children, especially as I know some people who would love to have such a cool look if they had to have a prosthetic device to wear.  President and Sister Tandiman took us out to dinner at a delicious Indonesian restaurant right by the mission home, to top the night off.  And the Lambsons, another senior couple, showed us how to walk home from there, if we are ever in the mood for that.

The Lambsons took over helping us Wednesday when the Snows left to visit missionaries and hospitals in other parts of the country.  They have been really wonderful, showing us where to get food and shop and helping Rich get all the necessary apps to get taxis and Uber type rides and pay for services we will need while we are here.  Furgos, another senior couple, who are working in the mission home, invited us for dinner this evening (Sunday).  It was wonderful Indonesian food!  Very tasty!  When they can, people are helping me avoid the firey, hot spices, that Indonesians love.  I really appreciate that!

Special treat for today, Sunday--we got to attend the Bangkok Thailand Temple dedication (remotely of course).  What a great treat!  It was beautiful and touching to hear stories of faith from people who live in Thailand.  President Monson announced that temple 8 years ago.  Elder Rasband offered the dedicatory prayer.  There was such a special feeling in that meeting!

So, that was our first week in Indonesia.  It is a beautiful place, which will only become more green when the rains come.  I had heard that the traffic is crazy.  It is a very different kind of crazy.  I haven't felt unsafe because no one is driving too fast.  The taxi drivers just put on their blinker and start to merge and other drivers just let them squeeze in, even moving all the way across 3 lanes of traffic to make the turn they need when necessary.  And while that is going on, swarms of motorcycles move between the lanes of cars and around the car trying to cross all those lanes of traffic.  So far it is working for us, though I have heard a stat on motorcycle accidents so I know it doesn't work all the time.  There are security guards and police everywhere, so things are pretty safe and most are very helpful and friendly.  I see city workers doing landscaping work everywhere and even workers sweeping streets and sidewalks (sweeping with a broom).

Hope you all are doing well!  We miss you!

Elder and Sister Lallatin