This is an interesting map of Indonesia superimposed on the United States.  The middle, small island is Java where Jakarta is located with a huge population of 10 million and 28 million in the metro area.  It is the most populated island in the world.

 Jakarta wedding

 Bali  wedding

 Sumatra house

 Judy with some beautiful Indonesian school girls at the museum

John will some Indonesian students at the museum

We visited TaminMini, an Indonesian culture theme park with the Seiters.   There were many beautiful structures reflecting the various architectural styles of some of the ethnic groups in Indonesia. Also a beautiful lake with the large islands represented by gardens in the shape of the actual islands.  There was a superb museum that featured costumes, pottery, jewelry, weaving and other crafts.  Also visited the bird aviary with many exotic birds. We hope to get back again to see the things we missed.

Our computer picked up a virus that ate the operating system, so we have not had a computer for 2 weeks.  Things are different on it now, so I will try to post some photos. 

 Below is the opening page of lds.org which shows a photo of 2 of the missionaries in our mission, Elder Marsudi and Elder Wagstaff.  This appeared for about a week.  We were all surprised to see 2 of the missionaries in the Indonesia Jakarta mission on this worldwide web page!  

   Elder Wagstaff  and Elder Satiawan worked in the office with us for about a month

 

Sunday dinner, February 24, 2013 in our apartment.  From left:  Elder Collett from Utah, Johan, Frank Sun from mainland China, James visiting from the US on business, and Elder Dalilis from the Phillipines.  We had chicken and of course, lots of rice!  Frank Sun is the Service Center Manager for all of mainland China.  He was here getting some training from the employees at our service center.

A little about Indonesia.  Indonesia is a country of 250 million people, 90% are Muslim.  There are many religions here.  Many Christian churches, Hindu, and Buddhist.  Indonesia is made up of about 300 different cultures.  They all have their own language and customs.  They became one country because they all worked to dispel the Dutch who had ruled them for 350 years.   The Japanese invaded them in 1942 and ruled for 3 years. The official language is Bahasa Indonesia.  They became independent in 1945.  The weather is very hot and humid.  We have thunderstorms frequently and hard rain, but it only lasts for a short time.

We find the people to be very friendly and helpful.  We are enjoying our adventure and learning lots every day.