Week 29: More and more and even more experiences in Indonesia!!!!

Living in Indonesia and listening to the sounds and tones of bahasa Indonesian and attempting to speak the language every day is a challenge.  Especially a language that is not latin based.  Our minds search for a root word but we can’t find one ha ha.   Because Robert doesn’t hear perfectly we are actually developing relationships at the hospital.  We found a routine that has helped Robert hear better. 

Robert has wax build up in his ears which contributes to difficulty hearing until his ear canals are cleaned.  We have a great relationship with a new Dr. here and we go over to the hospital and the Dr. vacuums out the wax from his ears. The Dr. smiles, jokes. and speaks to us in English and loves to clean the American missionary’s ears! The amazing thing is the cost of the Dr visit with the Ear, Nose and Throat specialist was $6.07  with a very short wait! We pay 22 cents to park at the hospital and 14 cents at the hearing aid store.

We then went to more friends we have gotten to know at the Starkey hearing aid office and the audiologist tested his hearing which is stable, there was no cost because he had already paid for the hearing aids in America. Great service and low low health costs.

We walk down some amazing narrow little streets to visit wonderful families like the beautiful family photo that we are including

This week we visited a Catholic Charities School.  Robert and I met the manager of the school foundation in a restaurant and he asked if we would come to his school. We visited this week and he asked if we and some of the young missionaries can mentor and evaluate the school work  the students work required to be written in English once a week.  We will begin this next Friday for one hour a week.  We will do this project for the weeks that we are available.  The teachers were thrilled to have “native” English speakers available for a few minutes as possible.

We visited an orthopedic hospital with a young man who had not been seen since he was a toddler.  He received an evaluation and physical therapy from a charitable fund to teach him how to massage his muscles and improve his walking and posture.  It was such a great experience to attend with him.

Sewing began on the newborn infant hats service project from the Relief Society to the Hermina hospital.  Wow it was so much fun and the  women know how to laugh and make service and ministering joyous!  There was such great laughter and fun as the sewing and cutting filled the evening hours until the sunset in the home of a woman from the ward.

We  attended a “Keroncong” free music concert in the outdoor stage of a local bookstore.  It was presented by Americans from a University in Richmond Virginia.  It was a terrific musical evening as we attended with 5 friends from the local wards who wanted us to share in this musical and cultural experience.  There was also a  traditional Wayang shadow puppet show. One was an American version shadow puppet story of “Jack and the Bean Stalk” and the second was a traditional Javanese story.

Kerongcong concert from America University of Richmond Virginia

We spent many hours helping correct family history data entries to a “standardized format” and another day assisted an elderly man scan many of his photos and important documents he has collected for years.  We took our scanner to his home and it was a great time sharing with his memories and uploading to “Family Search" and “Memories”. He is in the group that we are traveling with to Manilla in September to the LDS temple.  We continue to teach lessons to many in our group.

July 22, 2018  Banjasari Lingkungang Surakarta Indonesia Stake

Today, Sunday July 22,  we attended a baptism of a Young Man into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  He will be confirmed Sunday July 29th.   We have been helping the missionaries teach him and learn about the restoration.  He accepted the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It was a great day.  Enjoy the photos!

We are  anxiously hoping that Bruce our oldest grandson can complete the documentation for an expedited Passport and travel to see us departing August 4 and arriving August 6 …..and returning home on the 14th.  This was a last minute opportunity! We will share some amazing experiences with him!  He will travel  right along with us doing our missionary ministering and share some cultural experiences also! Hooray! 

Love, Elder and Sister Miller