And they shall call His name........Jesus!

Christmas 2007 at Twin Pine Ranch was once again a time of great food, good fellowship and spiritually uplifting. The annual Christmas play with its revolving cast helped remind us that the true meaning of Christmas is the celebration of the birth of our Savior. This year the great grandkids were all walking so a doll was used to represent Jesus in the crib in the manger. Next year, Beth and Paige (and ?) promise to bring a new great-grandchild so that we will once again have a live baby Jesus. Till then.....

All I want for Christmas......

Joel lost both front teeth yesterday after school. Guess what he wants for Christmas besides Pokeman and a Gameboy!

busy boy

October

Joel's 7th birthday party--Star Wars

Light Saber Cake

Party games

Visiting Maxine Grimm in Tooele--She helped establish the Church in both the Philippines (where she lived for many years) and in Indonesia.

Sarah's science project--making mix and shake ice cream using various combinations of milk or half and half with salt, kosher salt or rock salt.

sampling the scientific results

Dash, Anakin Skywalker and Hermione

Dash showing his muscles after a fun evening of literally dashing from home to home trick or treating

Fall Fun

Last week I helped host five Indonesian delegates to BYU's law and religion symposium. One day I took them to Bridal Veil Falls, The MTC, Kennecott Copper Mine and Antelope Island. Marie and the kids met us at the mine. The wife of one of the delegates was homesick for her children so Joel and Sarah were the next best thing.

Birthday shout out to Uncle Chad!!

Happy Birthday Chad! We all love you because no one is better at getting the grandkids going on a fun project, game or Christmas pageant. This series of photos from Christmas 95 show you getting Brian, Michael and Ashley going with the dominoes on the pool table. Their smiles are typical of many similar experiences over the years. Hope you have a great day!

Lecture on the LDS Church in Indonesia

If anyone is bored with nothing to do on a Thursday afternoon you may want to consider the following: Lecture on the History of the LDS Church in Indonesia on September 27th at 2:00 pm. The public is invited to attend.

House of Learning Lecture Series. Fall Semester 2007. Harold B. Lee Library at BYU
All lectures are Thursdays at 2:00pm in the HBLL Auditorium.

Thursday 13 September — Orson Scott Card

Thursday 27 September — Professor Chad Emmett, Department of Geography, "Taking Root: The Growth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Indonesia"

Thursday 11 October — Brad Westwood, Special Collections, "2D Dreams & 3D Realities: Campus Planning & Architecture at BYU, 1875-1975"

Thursday 25 October—Professor W Spencer Guthrie, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Thursday 1 November — Alice Louise Reynolds Lecture — Professor Martha Peacock, Department of Visual Arts

Thursday 15 November — Professor Mark Choate, Department of History, "Berlin Airlift and the Projection of American Military Power"

End of Summer in Springville

First day of first grade

First day of fourth grade

First pee in the potty

Sarah's 9th birthday party--the gala premier of High School Musical 2

Party guests in boas and sunglasses. The flags are Independence Day banners from Indonesia that will now be flown in front of the Emmett home for all days of celebration.

The guests strike a red carpet pose

And you thought Chad didn't take chances...

Chad returning swamped canoe to shore so Robert Stettler could take his turn at getting a Canoeing merit badge in 1969.

Indonesian adventures

North Sulawesi--Bunaken National Maritime Park. Great scuba diving on the coral reefs surrounding the ancient volcano of Manado Tua.

Sidoarjo East Java. Last year exploratory drillings for natural gas punctured an underground reservoir of hot vocanic mud. That mud has been flowing forth unstopped covering villages and mosques. Now large dikes (at least two stories tall) channel the river of hot mud--with the help of sweeping arms of backhoes--further along into a river and out to sea.

Malang East Java. Sister Etter (part Navajo, Stanford Grad, right) with Sister Kurniawati. Sister DaisyKurniawati is the daugher of Sister Darsi--one of the first two Inodonesian sisters to serve a mission. Darsi was a companion with Mary Ellen Edmunds. Sister Darsi raised Daisy as a single mom. Darsi died of diabetes a few years ago leaving Daisy an orphan. Daisy recieved no mail the first few months of her mission. She then got permission to contact Sister Edmunds who upon learning of Sister Kurniawati's plight decided to act as her surrogate misison mom--sending her weekly e-mails and packages. I got all choked up when I learned of the on-going love between two missionary companions who served together thirty years ago.

Medan North Sumatra. Elders preparing an investigator (in turquoise) for her upcoming baptismal interview. She was orphaned by the earthquake two years ago on the island of Nias and was taken in by this very poor, relatively new member family (the father is blind).

Bandung, West Java. Borther Sijanto and his wife Sisiter Yanti told me their amazing story. One day in 1999 he bought a Book of Mormon (Kitab Mormon) at a used book store. He read it and believed but didn't know what church used the BOM. He never saw the name of the church in the front of the book. He read in 3rd Nephi that the church would be known by the name of Jesus Christ so he looked in the phone book and found four churches in Bandung that have Jesus Christ in their name. He was attracted to the one that said Church of Jesus Christ OSZA (LDS). So he called on Sunday and asked when meetings were. The next Sunday he attended the meetings. As he was walking in through the gate he saw a teenage member carrying her BOM and from that he knew he was in the right place. He was taught and baptized. Later he converted his very devout Muslim girl friend. She joined because in a dream her mother came to her and told her that if she married then her family needed to all follow the same religion and that it was OK for her to follow her future husbands religion. Her family (father and 7 siblings) disowned her for joining. They were married 8 months later--they had known each other for 13 years!. She was 38 at the time and he was 33. They tried to concevie for a few months with no luck so they made in a matter of prayer--within three weeks she conceived. A year after their marraige they welcomed cute little Christine into their home. She is now one years old. She nearly died from a mosquito born fever (dengue) but a preisthood blessing saved here. They both have such strong faith.

Bandung, West Java. Arion Swiss-Belhotel. I was asleep at 12:04 am in room 405 top floor right side when I was awakened to a shaking bed. I got out of bed and took a few steps on a shaking floor and then the earthquake stopped.

Jakarta. Me at the Minsitry of Religion with Pres and Sis Marchant, Elder Subandriyo (right) and Jason Lase (center)--who honored me by giving me a traditional Batak shawl. At the request of Elder Subandriyo, Ross Marchant and I hosted Jason Lase three years ago when he came to the BYU Law and Religion Symposium. We took Jason and a few others to Moab and hiked to delicate arch. Since then he has become the Director General of Christian Affairs. He is a good friend of the church and has stood up for the church on several occassions--including getting the church officially recognized in troublesome Manado--with a Christian majority that is very intollerant of apostate churches (ie the LDS Church)



Jakarta. District Enrichment Activity. Making 300 pillows for future relief kits. Sister Duamlang (right) help me visit many good members in Bogor. She still uses mom's banana bread receipe that I gave her 31 years ago.

Tangerang, West Jakarta Suburb. Newly purchased and reonovated LDS church discreetly located on the back side of a strip mall because the local municipality (under pressure from certain Islamic groups) will not approve regular style Christian churches. The LDS church extends for five entries from the black car. The chapel is behind the five shop openings on the first level and the classes and offices are up stairs. The four letters above the black car are OSZA (the Indonesian abbreviation for LDS). That is the only idenifying mark on the whole church building. Similar restrictions in the East Jakarta suburub of Bekasi have resulted in another LDS church being located in a strip mall.

South Jakarta Chapel with newly renovated steeple and newly added stained glass. Thirty years ago few if any members owned cars.

Emmett's Made Fresh....take three

Chad is now certified as a navigator and can lead you directly to Emmett's Made Fresh. Such was not the case yesterday. Thankfully, we had Beth in the truck with us and she got us there with no problem. Chad and his kids had to walk a short distance after driving right past it. He said something about the the address being wrong on the website. I'm sure he's checking into that right now. Thankfully he has a few more years before his stint as scoutmaster begins and he has to lead Joel and Will to the camp site in the dark on a Friday night. The senior Emmett's - none other than John and Norda - also joined with Mary and most of her girls for a fine dinning experience. The owner said they wanted to name the place "Lehi's Other Dream", but weren't sure the local Mormons would appreciate the humor so they settled on 'Emmett's Made Fresh'

summer fun

Playing T-ball for the Springville Blue jays

FHE visit to grafitti covered abandoned box cars

July 3rd at Bear lake, July 13 at Jordanelle Reservoir

Laura and Clark's reception

Grandma and Jack at Emmett's Made Fresh