Indonesia Jakarta Mission: February 2018

Mom and one of her many, many friends!!!

A minimum of 7 shirts a week.

Schmid Family Tree display in our apartment. Two framed 4-Generations Certificates, Mom and Dad Photo Memories book & Family photographes. This is the first thing we see when we enter the family room.

The Family History and Proselyting in "Tandem" Mission is making steady progress. We realize that if we want to be successful in the end, we have to keep, goal minded, plugging along. At times, we feel that, in a sense we are a couple of "modern day pioneers." Later in this update why.All the past 55 some years together we experienced that the great moments were memorable. Some even fabulous. Rest assured what made us successful was to base most of our efforts on "Consistency." Athletics was my source of information. No consistency, no victory. Mom's source was in consistent, applying strict, punctual keeping track of everything of The Family with added awareness & implementing of timing. She perfected that while managing the home & 5 children who, no surprise, all had complete different personalities & characters. Not excluding demands of personal attention & needs. Was she challenged by the "Fab-5"? Absolutely ! Most of the time. Because Schmids since centuries perfected the art of stubborn & persistent. How she did it?: Giving each of them personalized & customized attention.It became her "secret" to victory and success of sorts. Remarks of, "You treat us all differently" when responsibilities were given and privileges were temporarily taken, were made from time to time.

Back to today.

All that, including the training at the Provo MTC would have gone "bunkers" if we would have insisted and persisted to gravitate that approach to what we do here. Since it's not about us but 100% about them, Mission work that is, we have gone in "huddles", "pow-wows" and extensive flexibility training more than we expected. Including to be most flexible to each other. Note that at this stage of our lives, flexibility is becoming somewhat challenging in a variety of ways. We've become habitual in much. Also, we do not jump off the couch that easily anymore. Run down or climb up stairs with a different pace. Even though we have a "hand written" shopping list ( we don't know how to use electronic ones on our gadgets) we often notice that we forgot items from that list.

*** We are trained to introduce and implement fabulous Family History Plans. In addition the exciting 4-Generations Asia Initiative to get members and non-members' four generations "Online", thus names become "Temple Ready".***

Our most energetic Mission President added the well received Proselyting to our responsibilities here. That part, including him being inspired to have us labor in Surabaya. We never questioned why. We perceived it was Inspiration on his part. Since a while we know for sure it's been Inspiration. Why? We pondered about how to couple the two responsibilities into one. Family History & Proselyting that is. Eureka! At one point planning our MILT I got it. We will start our Teaching part of MILT with a question:

"What do you Know about Eternal Life?"

Answer or no answer, it starts a very interesting conversation. Why ? That single question, the visited will not Immediately realize. We both do ! It clearly couples (links into today's lingo) Family History to Proselyting. Proselyting is about bringing people to Christ. Both combined ( in tandem) attach it all to:

1. Jesus Christ. 2. The Restoration & 3. The Book of Mormon.

Back to now again:

We get distracted from our daily plans way more that we desire. What is the challenge here? The way things work here. The way people use the time and respond to opportunities. Sticking to their ways, most do not jump on created opportunities immediately. Ironically the word for time in the Indonesian lingo is "Jam". Really? Yes! It has caused us to be "jammed" or in a "jam" often.

Some examples that "jam" us:

1. Just the traffic here is the biggest surprising, chaotic form of the English word for "Jam". Twenty four seven, three sixty five that is.

We cannot plan more than one visit to the Family History Room at a time. When someone is scheduled for 2 o'clock pm. (jam 2 sore, pronounced: 'jam dua sorrrray') showing up at 3,30 pm or not at all, is no surprise. Occurs regularly. No malice intended at all. Rescheduling is an absolute normal part of scheduling. You keep options open all the times. I learned from a "belanda" ( pale face) that 2 o'clock pm is the time that can be stretched like a rubber band till, potentially, it snaps. No show & reschedule that is.

2.Getting discouraged is aided by the fact that our progress in speaking the local language, even though it is progressing very well, is not going as speedy as we expected or desired. Why? If folks speak slow we can somehow follow the conversation. The only thing, apart from "slaloming" a motorized scooter ( sepada motor) that they do "poison rapidly fast" is speaking. What do we do for a response? Tried a lot of 'things'.We have recently, finally found the "silver bullet" to counter our frustration with our performance. Ironically, most ironically we turn to the very people who at the cause of our obstacle ( Jam ) to get things done in a "Timely Expeditious Manner".

3. We watch the traffic as by-riders ( tough for Mom, she likes to be in charge of driving instead of just "enjoying" the ride) The chaos in traffic here woud instantly cause continuous "Road Rage" at home. Not here. People just about immediately move on. The people of whom many have next to nothing of wordily possessions don't let another negative bother them.

4. Getting soaked by the "Hujan Deras ( heavy rain) or "Jalan Banjir". ( streets changed into rivers) That includes riding their scooters and cars in foot high water covered streets, hitting covered pot holes in the process.

Miraculously: They stay friendly as ever, humble as usual & most of the time smile contagiously. Just loudly & spontaneously laugh things off instantly.

*** Complete therapy to us. So, we love going to Church and participate in activities. Us feeling down, tired & being discouraged is gone instantly. We feel inspired again. Our usual work ethics based on commitment is back. We have become a little more patient and used to the way things work out here. ( Will we ever?) We can handle another week of mediocre electronic equipment in the Family History Room not working at all. Find others lending us their laptops. Hook them up to our personally purchased portable WiFi called a "HotSpot". We gladly, voluntarily fork over the monthly paid service. Result of the regular "Therapy" sessions: Invigoration maximized. The show must go on and sure it does and will. We're determined to have faith that things will improve. As long as we do our part The Lord will help us.

Okay. What are the exciting improvements ? Many more attending our 4-Generations Online Program with Certificates of Completion presented during the Sacrament meeting as requested by us. The "trophy" approach for years in my Tennis business to encourage folks who would otherwise never get "External Recognition" for their tennis skills, works just fine in our mission as well. It's like holding out a "carrot" of sorts. Irony? Carrot in the Indonesian lingo is the same as the Dutch word for carrot: "Wortel" ( like many words are the same in Dutch & Bahasa Indonesia. A sign that the Dutch history here left a permanent mark on todays' Indonesia) Three Certificates presented last Sunday. Five more next Sunday. Perhaps even more since miracles do happen. Last Friday the fulltime young Elders organized a "Cabang Dua Film Night" and thirteen investigators plus many members attended the feature movie (short version) of The Joseph Smith Story. By the way the word for movie here is another Dutch word: Film. Our new Branch Presidency is a clear sign of things gravitating another notch to the level of changing a Branch to a Ward. Next Sunday another baptism & more "on deck".

Elder and Sister Schmid.