Senior Tucker Missionaries: Week 5

Sunday we had our driver pick us up at 8:00 AM to head to church. Once there I shared a text message I received from President Donald, Mission President, that asked what arrangements we had with our driver, because there was a driver who was going to be available the 17th of Dec. when the Mission Couple he drives for goes home, he has two children and no prospects of employment once the couple leave Indonesia. This Brother is willing to relocate to Medan and speaks English and Indonesian. While we thought it would be nice to have an English speaking driver, we concluded that as we had already extended employment to the other gentleman, we would keep our commitment to him. Later the driver complained to the Branch President because the hours we needed him were later in the day than he was hoping they would be, and that he could earn as much money driving his "angkot", a van which he owns and uses for public transportation, he also drives a "becak" in most places a three wheeled peddle car, but here in Medan it is a motor-scooter, with a one or two seat side car. So I agreed to pay him for the time he worked, and would look for another driver, after hearing this he said the hours were not really the problem, and that he would be happy to work any hours it he had additional pay. Since I originally thought I would offer between $200 and $250, we were able to reach an agreement at Rp 2,500,000 or about $222 a month, but would likely only need his services until 17 December when the other driver becomes available who speak English.

We visited with Erin on the phone for a few minutes, before we were cut off, and were unable to reconnect for some reason. Also watched the first session of General Conference that we had downloaded at church, as we currently have a 10gig limit on our monthly internet usage. We are looking to get a different service in the future that offers unlimited usage.
We are still working on this whole "time difference" thing, trying to figure when we should call to talk with kids and grandkids. We are experiencing a lot of different things, exciting rides down the road with lots of traffic, and lots of rain in the evenings, Also eating a lot of different food than we are used to eating. We are having a lot of fun also.
We joined the Elders and Sisters Monday (which is their Preparation Day) at the church. One of the Elders is from central Java and he cooked lunch for all of us. It was all very good. Some of it was a little hot for me. I am getting better at eating hot things.

Elder Murphy (TX) and Elder Marsudi (Solo) and our driver Manalu in doorway.

Elder Barrus (Utah) cutting up pineapple

Sister Jibson (Michigan), Sister Hutcheson (Oregon) and Elder Murphy pulling the tops off of hot chilis.

The hot chilis that are going to be put into a sauce for the food.

Sister Jibson and Sister Hutcheson working on the chilis

The table with the food on it as we were getting ready to eat.

There was fried tofu, fried soy bean curd squares, cucumbers, tomatoes, pineapple, rice, the hot sauce, a vegetable dish with eggplant, and fried chicken parts.

Elder Barrus ready to eat.

We were in the home of a family Monday night having FHE where three of the teenage children are members of the church but the parents are not, nor are the two younger children. We had a lesson about prophets, for the upcoming General Conference Broadcast in Indonesian which takes place this coming Saturday and Sunday (takes a week to get it translated and sent here), a game (sticky notes with the name of a prophet put on your forehead, and you had to ask questions to try and figure out who you were), we had brought some desert, but they had prepared some food for us, so that is what we ate. The dish was called Kolak, made of singkong (cassava) and pisang (banana) gula jawa (local sugar), santan (milk squeezed from coconut) the banana and cassava are cooked in the liquid, it was very very sweet, even too sweet for me. Then we had a chocolate and vanilla jello like dessert.

The Sisters, Elders and Jonathan, Dearly, Katherine, Cindy and Stanley eating dessert.

Playing the Prophet game. It was lots of fun and everyone enjoyed it, even the nonmember parents.

Elder and Sister Tucker enjoying their dessert

Tuesday we spent two hours at the bank opening an account so we can try and pay our bills here, and get cash without too much trouble. We had a couple of Elders with us to help translate, We are still doing our laundry by hand, but will be buying a washing machine soon so we can save some time there. Then we went with the Elders to two of their appointments. Taught a young man (20) Hendra who has been visiting with the missionaries for some time, had some friends asking him questions that he did not know how to respond, and the person who introduced him to the church is inactive. You could tell that he has felt the spirit witness to him of the truth. The next meeting was with two (~19 yr olds) who were doing a school project, they were assigned to visit several churches and see what they could learn. The one seemed very sincere in her desire to learn, the other was more focused on the notes she was taking, and them about half way through took very few notes and was much more involved in the conversation, they took a Book of Mormon and committed to read and pray about it.

Wednesday, We had no appointments scheduled with Elders or Sisters, so we gave the driver the day off, and stayed home and did laundry and studied most of the day.

Thursday, went out with the Sisters in the afternoon and visited with an inactive member of the branch, Fransiska Hutabarat, known as Sister Fransiska, her husband joined the church about a year ago, but both are inactive, they have a 7 year old son. There are 2 main groups of people in Medan (which is a very Christian city for Indonesia) Batak and non-Batak, those who are Batak use and go by their last name, those who are not, use their first name and not their last name. And Sumatra is different than the Island of Java, in that most families keep a documented family history, and have a given and a surname, on Java they mostly have only a given name and no surname. And then that evening spent a couple of hours visiting with Erwin Harefah, his wife and 3 young children, they live a long way from church, and the only form of transportation they have is what I would call a flat bed becak, (the below photo, with a piece of plywood laying flat instead of the passenger cart, that the father uses to transport materials on and wouldn't work well for his family. Church starts at 9:00 AM and would have to take unreliable public transportation to get there. Much of our time initially is going to be spent getting to know the members of the branch, there are about 180 people on the records and about 40 attending on Sunday, and 8 missionaries and about 10 or so others attending.

The above is our rental car in the background and in the foreground is our driver, Mimbar Manalu's "becak" which is one of the vehicles he drives for public transport, and his personal use.

Friday, visited with Sister Susan, an active sister who has a daughter preparing to be baptized. After visiting with her we visited with a 17 year old member, Elizabeth Nainggolan, her parents are members, but have not participated for a year, in fact they attend another Christian church, Before the family joined the church, the children were baptized elsewhere and then when about 17 or so have to attend a confirmation class for 8 months, well her parents are requiring her to attend the classes on Sunday, which prevents her from almost any participation, therefore the missionaries try to spend some time with her every week or so. School here is also Monday through Saturday.
Saturday and Sunday we spent at the General Conference broadcast at the church building. I listened to a couple sessions in English, and then a couple in Indonesian, for the Indonesian sessions I had the printed English so I could understand better what I was hearing. Audrey wasn't feeling well Saturday night and most of Sunday. Sister Hutcheson also wasn't feeling well and the Branch Presidents wife. Probably a bug going around.