June was a month to travel, visiting Humanitarian Projects and Partners and experiencing Indonesia up close and personal.
We flew into Surabaya very early Wednesday June 3rd. Elder and Sister Williams and President Budi, the District President, were waiting for Brother Subandryio and us at the airport. We then drove to Lamongan. There the contract was signed by the local water committee, the contractor, Brother Sutarno, and Elder Mitchell.
Then we flew on to Yogyakarta where early Thursday morning we were at United Cerebral Palsy, UCP, our partner for wheelchairs in Indonesia.
UCP is working towards being self supporting and with the help of LDSC they should be there in 3 or 4 years. Here a technician builds a wheelchair, in the future, maintenance will be a big part of the services they will provide.
Wheelchair recipient is a father of three who has a business selling honey online and then delivers it with his wheelchair equipted motorcycle. The motorcycle has a sidecar he can roll his wheelchair up in and controls he can drive with from his chair. This allows him to be self reliant and provide the support his family needs.
Indonesian people are very friendly and hospitable. Often we are fed traditional food by them as we visit in their homes.
The Solo Chapel
Solo Members showing their member garden where they are growing some of their own vegetables in their small yard.
Following these visits we drove to Solo, about 2 hours away.
Friday morning Satarno, the contractor for humanitarian water projects for LDSC, took us to a project that he built about 6 years ago on the slopes of the Merbabu volcano,
The large granite plaque indicates this water project was built by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
This project was well built. The water source is a spring high up on the slopes of mount Merbabu. The local water committee has managed and maintained this project very well and it appears that it will serve the community for many years to come.
Citizens who use the water are very pleased with the service they receive and are happy to pay their water bills that provide funds for management and maintenance.
Indonesian people are industrious, hardworking and they love their families
The roads are steep so to keep the rains from washing them out, natural stone has been laid by the villagers as cobble stone, to "pave" and protect them.
On Saturday we visited the royal palace of Solo with Sister Donald and Elder and Sister Lewis
Sunday we attended the Solo Stake Conference in the ballroom of our hotel.
The Yogyakarta Ward Choir sang amazingly.
Notice the matching skirts!
Our missionary interpreters were outstanding and allowed us to hear English translation simultaneously with the Indonesian speakers through headphones.
Monday we flew back to Surabaya with Elder and Sister Lewis, the Family History Senior Missionaries for Indonesia.
We played games with them and enjoyed a fun Family Home Evening.
Tuesday morning Elder and Sister Williams, the Senior Missionaries in Surabaya, picked us
up and we rode with them to the opening ceremony for the Lamongon Water Project.
Streets are covered with rice drying in the sun.
A worker rakes the rice with a wooden rake to help it dry so it can be shoveled into bags for shipment.
A woman cleans the rice while it dries on a tarp in the sun on the road.
School students and villagers gathered for the opening ceremony for the water project
Elder Mitchell and the Water Committee chairman at the ceremonial ground breaking for the bore hole.
One last picture at the community center before we leave for Jakarta after a very productive week.
