Mission Blog of Chuck and Cheri Lambson

  This week we visited the cities of Solo and Jogja in Central Java to write a story for the Indonesian Newsroom about family history. Didiet Nugraha, standing on the far right, is the father of the two young people on the left, Dandy and Devara. He is standing in the palace in Solo pointing to his ancestor. Most people here do not have a family name for reasons dating back to colonial times. The fact that this family has the information to link them to royalty, just a few generations back, has resulted in many generations of geneology and hundreds of family names that they would not have otherwise. The man on the far right of this picture is Teguh Siswanto. He is also fired up about family history however, he is the more common case in Indonesia of having no family name and no written records other than the ones he has gathered by talking to living relatives. The Family History missionaries pictured with him are Elder and Sister Draper. They showed him, and members of his ward, ho...

This was a very special occasion. 45 years ago in the city of Surakarta, Elder van der Vlis and I taught and baptized the Sarjiwa family. Brother Sarjiwa graduated from mortality two years ago. Sister Sarjiwa, now sister Barmiyatun, was a young mother at that time. She is the woman in the orange dress next to Cheri. This picture was taken in Jakarta at the blessing of baby Iden who is the great grandson of sister Barmiyatun. The grandfather is Bishop Eko, who is standing on the far left next to his wife. Eko was a little 7-year old boy back when I knew the family. The mother of Iden is holding him. Her name is Marissa and her husband is Justin Lee. Marissa is the daughter of Eko. The other three are siblings of Marissa. When Marissa was on her mission at the Salt Lake Temple a few years ago I met here there and I learned a little bit about the family at that time. Elder van der Vlis passed away several years ago in Holland from cancer but I imagined him there with us too.   

  If you look close you can tell that all of the people in the front row have prosthetic legs. Some are new and some of the prosthetics are quite old and were replaced at this event. They all received new limbs but most will carry them home because it takes a couple of weeks to break in the new prosthetic so that it is comfortable to wear. Many of those standing also have prosthetic legs. Some, however, are the organizers. This was a joint event organized by the local disabled person's organization and supported by local government, the NGO that makes the limbs, and the Church which funds these projects.  This is a photo from the opening ceremony for the fitting of the prosthetics. The man on the left is from the Foundation Peduli Tuna Daksa, which makes the prosthetics. The next is Elder Lee. He and his wife are local part-time humanitarian missionaries but Elder Lee seems to be working nearly full-time on humanitarian and running his building inspection business part-time. H...