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...

 It was an interesting week in the office but an interesting week in the office does not make for very good pictures so here are some pics from our Bali conference that I did not post yet. Enjoy. Hanoman, the White Monkey in a Balinese dance about the Ramayana story Balinese woman making hand drawn batik. She is drawing on the cotton cloth with melted beeswax which will block the dye. Other layers and colors will be added later to make a beautiful batik. The Bobos on the left, Lambsons in the middle and Drapers on the right. Some of our group of Seniors. This picture and the ones that follow were taken in a sacred monkey forest on Bali. These are Balinese Macacs.  Notice the statue that the monkey on the right is sitting on. I have no idea why the type turned blue but it won't change back, oh well. I will leave you with a few pics from the countryside of Bali  

  Today I will share a little bit of Indonesian Culture because we were in the office all week. Everywhere you go in Indonesia you will find food carts. These mobile restaurants sell all kinds of local dishes. This fellow is preparing Ketoprak, which is a delicious local vegetarian dish consisting of lontong, vermicelli, tofu and veggies topped with peanut sauce.  The owners place their carts along the road in strategic places where there is a lot of foot traffic or room for motorcycles to pull off the road and grab a bite. I have seen them in every city I have visited in Indonesia. 

  In two days we went to 8 different schools in the small city of Cileungsi, near Bogor. The original request was for us to visit one English class for one period to allow the students to have a chance to converse with native English speakers. Word spread, and it soon turned into two days of traveling to 8 different schools and meeting with kids ranging from elementary to high school age. It was a hoot, as you will see in the following pictures. On the first day Sister Lambson wasn't feeling well so I was on my own. The first school was an elementary school. The students sat outside on tarps because they don't have a hall large enough to hold them. You will see a lot of hijabs in these pictures because most of the students are Moslem and some of the schools we visited are Moslem schools. All schools wear uniforms here. The little girl up at the front is conversing with me in English. Soooooo cute. She drew a picture for us too which I will show later. The man in the scout unifo...