Week 44: Strengthening our Heart Muscle

The challenge as a missionary is strengthening our heart muscle…. because are hearts are enlarged one day or breaking from emotions the next because of the reality of poverty and how very little food, or items many people have in so many of the visits we make and the people we pass each day on the streets. Wonderful people that have basically a place to sleep. For most there is a mattress or mat on the floor.  When we arrive in a home, quickly one or more of  the family will leave for a few minutes to hurry to a neighbor or a little warong street food cart very close to their homes to gather makanan for us.  They sit quietly and watch us eat, never eating themselves. Everyone is generous and happy to have us in their home. We actually visited a member this week who lives in a tiny room adjacent to a fire station and they cook food for the firemen and other neighbors. Many people make their living by selling food.

We are always offered food when we meet with families. 

Perfect posture is demonstrated  as we watch beautiful women walk and carry their food they have prepared to sell each day to carts on the streets.

This week there was a huge gathering in the city and a 36 hour performance of the “Wayang” shadow puppet show to celebrate “World Wayang Day”. We stopped to watch for a few minutes. Robert and I while raising our children had them enrolled in musical instrument lessons, story time at the library, scouts, singing, sports, dancing, juggling, olympics of the mind, religious instruction, student government, orchestra, choir, language learning etc and it is the same in Indonesia. In Indonesia, just like America, parents with the means available are giving their children different experiences, these young boys are being instructed beginning at an early age in music and Javanese puppetry.

We have decided to “join ‘um” and eat lots of chilis! In this photo you can see these tiny bountiful red and green chilis and just imagine a big number chopped up by Robert and added to our vegetables for Sunday dinner. Something has happened to our taste buds and we are enjoying the peppers so much we have begun adding them to our own cooked food! We wonder if food will seem very bland when we come home. But the hot taste is not the same as the Mexican taste we remember from home. This week it was very interesting when we taught the English lesson about “things we like” to our police students, we brought some medium salsa we purchased at a grocery store in town that carries a few American commodities. We added some tortilla “like" Indonesian snacks and took the chips and salsa for our students to taste. Our friends did not like the “hot” salsa. In fact, they would barely taste a tiny bit because it was so hot! They decided the hot taste was different and too long lasting!! Indonesian hot food is not the same as Mexican hot food in America.

Remember from the “Wizard of Oz” the singing and dancing to follow the” yellow brick road” ? well today we include the picture that we will always remember from serving in Solo the “yellow brick” hand painted house. Isn’t it wonderful? This 80 year old man is our great friend! He actually found pictures of his wife this week and was so thrilled to share them to be added to his Family Search Memories. Elder Miller will include this photo of his home because it tells so much about his personality! He told us this week he used much of his money painting his house.

 

We did lots of driving this week. Another great zone conference in Semarang on Wednesday. Many young missionaries traveled by train or airplane. Here is a photo as we began to gather and the elders did a great job in a quartet.

The young man in the middle is a Doctor who just returned from volunteering at humanitarian clinics in Lombok after the earthquakes. He ministered for almost a month. He is the Uskup or Bishop in Yogyakarta. We drove to Yogyakarta for our Sunday meetings.