Week 10: Two Strangers and a Miracle!

Since October 2017 the missionaries have been teaching a man I will call Pak P.  He knows the Bible stories well.  He has a very keen mind.  In his early twenties he was in a  serious accident with a train and he lost his left leg below the knee.  Life has been rich to him at times and right now life is a struggle on the streets for Pak P.   He speaks very good English.  At one time  his employment centered around teaching the  English language.  Elder Miller and l met him soon after our arrival and would assist the Sister Missionaries in the lessons they taught.  Pak P  was immersed in a deep and searching investigation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  He has a thorough understanding of the Bible and asked many  thought provoking questions surrounding the principles of the gospel and doctrines along with his increasing desire to live God's commandments and live the Word of Wisdom.  Elder Miller enjoyed responding many evenings to Pak P's questions by SMS. 

Friday, Pak was interviewed and his conversion was profound and he asked to be baptized the following Sunday.  On Saturdayafternoon Elder Miller received a call from Pak that he was walking across the street and his artificial leg broke in half.  A few moments after they finished speaking an SMS message read,  "I'm finished it's completely broken".  We turned around and cancelled an appointment and had our driver take us to his home, we called the Elders to assist in supporting Pak  and they met us there to begin to access the situation.  It was 2:30 on a Saturday and many stores close at 4. It was a moment I will not forget to see the distress on Pak's face and the horrible condition of the prosthesis.  He removed the leg and it was ruined, not from this day but from years of wear and repairs with tape and cloths etc.  Pak had a plan.   "Please Elder can you  find a cobbler to repair with some leather pieces "  he felt that was a solution.   Elder Miller said he would bring the leg back before bedtime repaired and asked to take the leg and see what he could do to repair so Pak could walk, so he could go on with his every day life skills,  ride his scooter and it was important for him to be able to make it to his baptism.  

Our driver took us to a hardware store, we called other stores, more stores closed and no luck. No cobblers were available after a search on our smart phones.  Elder Miller could not buy the materials he needed.  The best he could do was to purchase  two rolls of strong black tape and we went home to do the best he could with the tape.   When we walked into our apartment  building the absolute first person that we met as we walked in the door was the Engineer over the entire apartment and hotel complex building who is our friend.  Elder Miller walking and  approaching him holding the leg in his hand. Pak S was shocked to see the leg in his hand and  Elder Miller explained the urgent situation.  Pak S without one second of hesitation took the leg and studied the completely damaged prothesis and said "I will repair"  Margo said to him, "We need this in a few hours".  His response was that it would be completed! It was now 5:30 pm.  At 7:30 we returned and the leg was repaired and the leg  was now inthe  best condition it has been in for many years. of weakness. Resin, glue, hard plastic, rivets and even flesh colored waterproof tape, it was a miracle! 

Our testimony is that God works through  strangers and many different people and ways to bring about His work of ministering.  Pak S we have no idea if he is Muslim, Christian, or his faith  but he is a man who saw a need and without being asked served a stranger.  When we asked him how much he charged for the repair.  He said' Oh Sir nothing, it was my pleasure".  Two strangers and a miracle.  Our emotions were overflowing.  This was a tender mercy and we cannot describe in words the joy it was to give Pak P his refurbished leg at 8;30 pm.  Pak P rode his scooter to the church today and was baptized. He called Elder Miller tonight and said to him " I just realized what happened today has impact for eternity.  I am so happy and he asked that we might find a way to teach his family who live on the Island of Batam near Singapore"

Week 9: "As I Have Loved You"

There is a scripture commandment in John 13:34  “ As I have loved you love one another.” One responsibility as part of our missionary service is to support members of our faith through planned activities held throughout the Surakarta Stake in Indonesia.  It was Chinese New Year this week so the schools had a holiday on Friday.   The Young Girls 12-17 years old traveled by train and cars and came from all areas of the Stake to a Water Park in Yogyakarta.  There were 60 girls who had a fun time playing on the water slides, wave pools and lazy river etc.  After watching them enjoy the park for 4 hours we decided that teenage girls seem to find the same enjoyment being together in Indonesia as in the United States.  We traveled on this adventure to strengthen friendship with the girls, the leaders, and their friends.  In the late afternoon after the girls returned to their homes, we went to the Yogyakarta LDS Church and taught with the Elders a young married woman searching for Christ and religion.   We then participated in an English language class with 6 students and it was a lot of leaning and fun!  The Elders did a great job.

 Elder Miller and I  stayed overnight in a hotel and Saturday morning we drove by car to Magelang and waved goodbye as 40 Young Single adults ages 18-30 river rafted.  It was so much fun to talk and laugh together as they hurried off on the river adventure with life jackets, helmets and ores.
Finding ourselves close to a World Heritage Site we went to Borobudur Buddhist temple with our driver.  It was amazing.  This was our first adventure out of the Solo city area and it was quite dramatic to see the temple site.  We climbed the stairs to the top and while there we responded to two different  groups who called out to us “Hey Elder and Sister”.  We are easily recognized by the wearing of name tags that identify missionaries around the world.  We greeted the two women and we shared where we all  were from. The woman told us she was born in central Java but had left the country as a child.   They were on a cruise and had docked and were visiting   I looked at her face and my daughter in law gave me a book “As I Have Loved You”  before we left  for Indonesia about a woman telling her story as a child about living in a privileged home In Java,  but during WWII she was separated from her family and was in a concentration camp. The story illustrates strength from strong faith.   I remembered in my mind a picture on the inside cover and I asked her, “Did you write a book about a story of a little girl and a doll?”    She answered ‘Yes, I did”.  It was her story and  her childhood.   It was a little miracle.  The story is dramatic and touching written by  Kitty DeRuger. it was such a pleasure to meet her.

 A few moments later another two couples traveling together called,  “Elder and Sister’ and it turns out they were the parents and grandparents of our good friends Luanne and Mike Callahan’s son’s wife.   They live in Alaska and Idaho.  It is a  small world!   More little amazing miracles in the country of Indonesia. Elder Miller baptized a young mother who had been taught the gospel lessons by the Sisters and our help since we arrived.  Her husband is a member.   She accepted the invitation to be baptized by immersion, and wants to live God’s commandments.  It was a special day.

All our days are filled with meeting, greeting, assisting, and teaching and loving the people here in the Surakarta Stake.  We miss you and want you to know that we know God lives and He knows each of us by name.  We invite you to get to get to know our Heavenly Father through His son Jesus Christ and promise your prayers will be answered through the Holy Spirit.  

Love Elder and Sister Miller

Week 8: Great Potential for Change

I’m sorry we don’t have many pictures to post this week. We have been so busy
we often forget to take pictures. Seeing the unique, and usually very difficult living
conditions of many of the families that we meet creates a compelling sense of
urgency to our work.

Every day we wish we could give each family everything they need to lift
themselves out of poverty but not only do we not have the resources but our
responsibility is different. Our work is to enable people to improve their lives by
inviting them to come to Christ. Exercising faith and trusting the Lord motivates
people to lift themselves both spiritually and temporally and builds strength and
hope for the rising generation.

Indonesia has great potential for change. The area where we live may be one of
the poorest and hence the most humble, it is amazing that nearly everyone believes
in God; from the most humble person on the street to the president of the country.
They are not ashamed of their faith in God and church attendance in the Christian
churches is high. Few people drink alcohol and almost no one has a gun. Most cities
have an area that is best avoided by westerners and Solo is no exception but this is a
very small part of a very large population.

The Muslim people, 75% of the population where we live, are very religious, love
their families and are respectful of us. They are very protective of their religion and
we respect their desire to do this by being very careful never to appear in any way
to be intent on converting them to Christianity. Of course, those who approach us
with an interest, we are very happy to talk to about our faith. The majority of our
work is with families where usually the Mother (Ibu) or the Father (Bapak), are
already members of our church. Sometimes the whole family are members but for
any number of reasons have drifted away. We have yet to visit any of these families
and found the Bapak or Ibu to be anything but kind, gracious and grateful that we
found them. The children giggle and hide behind their mothers and Margo always
has a small piece of hard candy and has no trouble coaxing them out.

It is hard to describe the living conditions we see every day without being
disrespectful. Based on the standards that we are accustomed to, our hearts break
for the very, very few possessions. Most do not have furniture and sit, eat and sleep
on the floor on a small pad. Many access water and toilets through a neighborhood
well and washroom, however people are always clean, with hair that is well
groomed and virtually everyone has a beautiful smile and warm handshake
followed by touching their hearts with the hand that shook yours.

No matter how little they have, our visits always prompt some gesture of food or
drink. If they have none to offer, occasionally a neighbor will drop in with
something to give on their behalf. There is a beautiful bakery near our home and

Sister Miller has taken to a daily visit to buy loaves of fresh bread to offer every
where we go. The words to one of our favorite hymns are never far from our minds;

“Because I have been given much, I too must give,
Because of The great love dear Lord each day I live.
My glowing fire my loaf of bread, my roofs safe shelter over head,
That he too may be comforted”

Sister Miller loves the scripture in John 6:48, 51 where Christ says he is the bread of
life and if anyone will eat of that bread he will live forever.

Yesterday we met a beautiful very elderly appearing sister; we had met her
husband a previous day, in a clean simple home. He has a small cart where on the
street he sells inexpensive children’s plastic pocket toys all day long and she sits on
the hard floor of her home and cuts and seals plastic bags for long hours each day.
Her knees and back were bent and painful. In Indonesia it is culturally OK to ask
people how old they are so after we got to know her a bit she asked Sister Miller
how old she was. (She was captivated by her beautiful white skin and blonde hair.)
We were both all shocked to discover they were both 5 years younger than us. Life
is so hard and it ages people much differently than we are accustomed to. His poor
eyesight makes it impossible for him to read his scriptures and very poor hearing,
making it difficult for him to communicate. It was almost impossible to control the
urge to give him my prescription glasses and hearing aids. In fact, I offered him my
glasses but they only made things worse.

My publisher contacted me this week and is actively in the process of editing the
manuscript of my book to be published and available in June 2018. (Hearing the
Voice of the Shingo Principles: How Principles inform a Sustainable Culture of
Excellence) This has been a life-long aspiration and will soon be on the shelves of a
bookstore near you, or amazon.com

Love,
Elder and Sister Miller

Week 7: Steps Leading Us to Christ

Sister Miller is such a great companion to have.  Some days she says she thinks I am losing it and some days I think she is losing it.  But I have evidence.  I know she is definitely “not” Elder Miller and I know she does have another pair of shoes just like the ones she is wearing.  This is only the evidence that we are trying to think of others and not ourselves.  She keeps the young missionaries laughing as they are the ones that seem to notice our funny things.  Usually we don’t do them on the same day thankfully.  

Each week we love the people we are serving with even more.  I guess that is a natural product of service.  Since arriving in Indonesia we have not only seen terrible poverty but we also have been to two funerals and seen many who have suffered strokes as a consequence of diabetes.  It seems that most of the victims of this decease are the men; usually in their forties and early fifties and often with young families.  I think the poverty contributes to the diabetes as for many rice is about the only thing they can afford to eat and white rice turns into sugar in the body. Virtually everything else that is eaten that is cooked is fried.  This picture of the grocery store where we live shows an entire row of cooking oil.  It doesn’t show that also scattered throughout the store are towers of special promotions for more cooking oil.  One of the reasons for this is that very few people have an oven and certainly not a microwave but most have a propane cooktop.  We have a nice apartment and all we have to cook with is a gas burner and a rice cooker. All of the warungs, or small outdoor food stands, fry virtually everything they sell.  Most of this food is very inexpensive and many people eat food every day from the warungs.  If they earn a bit of money that day it buys that days food.  Because the healthcare system is poor and most people cannot afford it, diabetes often goes untreated until it is too late. 

      This week we attended the funeral for the father of one of the young missionaries from Indonesia.  His Father has battled the terrible effects of diabetes for many years.  The elder, shown in the center of the photo is a wonderful missionary and is currently serving on an island almost at the bottom of the Philippines.  He flew home for the funeral and the day after, Sister Miller an I went to their home and together with the two oldest sons, were able to provide some measure of comfort and support to their large family; including the grandmother that also lives with them.  The family culture in this country often revolves around supporting the grandparents when they are old and unable to work.  Their is no social safety net so if you have not saved for retirement most people continue to work until they are unable to work anymore.  Many of the older women take care of grandchildren and often prepare food that is sold during the day on the streets by the parents .

     We are highly motivated to use this time to become more healthy ourselves.  We try to get to the fitness room at our residence most days and I can honestly say that I have not worked out this hard since High School Football days.  Sister Miller looks great and we have the energy to work until eight o’clock each night.  

     Last night the Bishop of the local ward was so kind to invite many of the less active members and several who are not yet members to their home for a “family home evening”.  Sister Miller and I taught the lesson.  We put a picture of Jesus Christ at one end of the room and a picture of a family at the other end then gave everyone a paper foot step and asked what they might do this week that would move them closer to the Savior.  As they shared their proposed actions we made a pathway of following the footsteps that will lead us back.  As it turned out the steps didn’t get us all of the way to the picture which was a great opportunity to remind us that if we have done all that we can do and still come short, the Savior will come to us with open arms.

     We are so very blessed to be in his service and to have nothing but this work to occupy our minds and our time.  We pray the Lord will bless each of you in the many wonderful things you are doing with your lives and in your families.

     Love,  Elder and Sister Miller