Minggu 11

Monday, since it was P-day for the Elders and Sisters, we stayed home most of the day.  I did go with the Sisters fabric shopping.  You will be proud of me.  I only bought one piece of fabric and am having a skirt made from it.  2 meters cost 70,000 rp or just under $7.  To have the skirt made will cost about $6.  There is a street within walking distance of our apartment that about 3 blocks long with streets going off of it that are all fabric and bedding stores.  So much fabric. We only went about a third of the way down the street in about 2hrs.  I will definitely be going back for more fabric.  Lots of Batik.

 This is one of the side streets that is covered.  It twists and turns all over and we were afraid we might get lost with all of the twists and turns.

That night we went with Elders Marsudi and Murphy to visit a family, the Manollongs, for FHE and encourage them to make contacts with their friends.  They actually had a neighbor man attend.  They also have a daughter serving a mission in Indonesia right now.  They served us this wonderful dish that they call Batak spaghetti.

On Tuesday, the Branch President and his wife invited all of the missionaries over for lunch.  Sister Ema said she would serve just traditional Indonesian food.  It was all very good and not to spicy. That evening we went with the Elders to teach an investigator at a members home who he knows.





 This is at President Rico's home.  He is the Branch President.  He lives there with his parents, his wife and a brother.  We were invited for an Indonesian meal.  It was all really good.

This is the side yard at Pres. Rico's. The building is like an outdoor kitchen.  Their house is not at all typical of the homes we usually visit.  Those of Chinese decent tend to have much more money than others.

On Wednesday, we spent some time at the Church and then we went out with the Sisters to visit a less active Sister, Sister Fransisca and then we went to Sister Susanna's home and visited with her daughter Evona.  Evona's father is a member but has started going to another church.  She is getting ready to be baptized.

This is the rice paddy next to Sister Fransisca's house.  We have been watching it grow

On Thurdsay, early afternoon I went with the Sisters and bought them beds.  They had been sleeping on old mattresses on the floor.  They said it was more comfortable to just sleep on the floor. They will be delivered tomorrow.  We do still need to get them mattresses.  That night we went out with Elders Marsudi and Murphy to visit Bro. Nefi.  The video that was shown was Small and Simple things.  About member missionary work.  His wife is an inactive member and openly disagrees with things.
Friday, we had an early meeting via skype to set up continuing language training for six months.  We then had district meeting at the church.  Later that afternoon our new car showed up.

 This is a picture of our new car

On Saturday we spent some time at the church because the appointment we had scheduled cancelled. In the afternoon we taught English.  Also the 2nd counselor in the Mission Presidency came for the weekend.  He had some business to conduct.  Our branch is not attached to a stake.just and area.  We spent some time with him visiting and Dad even spent more time with him.  We took the Elders to drop off white shirts and ties to two of their investigators.

On Sunday we left for church early to pick up the Elders so they could pick up of teenage investigators they have.  Their mom wanted them to get a ride one more week before she would let the borrow her motorcycle to get to church.  We had our driver drop us off at the church with 2 of his kids and he took the Elders to pick up the boys.  We ended up with 60 people at church. Our numbers are very slowly climbing.  During Sacrement Meeting Elder Tucker was sustained as the 2nd Counselor in the Branch Presidency.  After Church we had a Baptism for three people.  Our Driver Bro. Manalu was baptized by Pres. Rico and Elder Tucker baptized a boy (Mario) who is around 9 and a girl (Evona) who is 8.  He even did it in Indonesian with no mistakes.  We then had Branch council meeting and then took Pres. Meyer out to visit a couple of people.

 This is all of the Missionaries with those being baptized and those who were baptizing them.

This is a family who have a son out on a mission.  We met with them when we took Pres. Meyer out visiting Sunday evening

 Some random pictures.  Use walking through the Jungle to get to a members house.  It took about 15 minutes to walk from where we had to leave the car.  On the way back their dog kept with us to protect us since it was dark.

 These last pictures are at our favorite street place to eat with the missionaries.  It is called Nias.









Minggu 10

Monday,   Took the day to do our laundry, clean our apartment, and catch up on some writing, also studied, and plan to go out with a threesome of Elders this evening, as Elder Marsudi is in Jakarta for a Zone meeting.  Had a FHE with the Mendrofa family, Oldest son serving a mission in Indonesia currently, rest of the family struggles making it financially, and because mom is the only income (dad's poor health) she has to work on Sundays, so we have never seen the parents at church, the younger son comes on occasions when someone can remind him and pick him up.  So we had 3 Elders, Sister Tucker & I, their home teacher & his wife, mom, dad, son, 4 neighbor kids, and a family (mom, dad and a young child) with the same last name, so we assume it was family.  I lost count but looks like about 17 people in the house.  We got there and the power was out in the neighborhood, so they had tiki torche like cans, but smaller going in the room, so everyone shared hymn books and used phones to be able to sing the songs.  The elders had planned a game but without any light the game would not have worked, so we discussed the upcoming American holiday (as they seem to love everything American here), Thanksgiving, then went around the room and each person expressed what he or she was thankful for.  Before we had the closing song and prayer the father who has lung and breathing problems, came out of the small room he was in, and asked for a blessing, so those who could participated in giving him a blessing.  We then closed and headed for home.  The visiting family participated and afterward asked for the elder's phone number, Elder Barrus (who had never met the family) provided him his number, and assuming that it was Bro. Mendrofa did not ask for his number, after the fact he now realizes that he was looking for an opportunity to have the elders come teach them.  So we will have to see if we can get his contact information from the family.  Overall it was a very uplifting experience for everyone there, and hopefully it helps the Mendrofa's and provides a teaching opportunity with the other family.  

Tuesday, Spent the early afternoon with Pres. Rico and his wife Emma looking for beds for the sisters.  It was hard finding a place that stocks or will even try to get what we are looking for, which is simply a set of bunk beds.  They all have a very modern styled one piece mattress and supporting structure they stock and wanted to sell us.  Finally we located something that might work.  We will have to try again next week.  We were also looking for a frame for one of the elders who currently have a mattress on the floor.  After thinking about it we decided not to get him one as it is unlikely that we will have 2 sets of elders after the first of the year, because of a reduction of the overall number of missionaries in Indonesia (partially due to a government restriction on the number of non native missionaries in the country).  We watched the news the other evening (in Indonesian, we have a TV, just no English speaking channels) and discovered there is a volcano (Gunung Siabung) erupting in Indonesia, in fact it's on Sumatra, about 19 miles to the southwest of us.  No we can't see a thing from here.  Usually our visibility is about 3 to 5 miles, and our apartment windows face the east.  I have only seen the mountains to the west once, from the 4th floor of a parking structure on a relatively clear day.  We plan a trip to the mountains on our way to Lake Toba on Monday the 25th.   In the evening we took a couple of elders and a member and had our appointment cancel out on us, so we tried to visit another inactive family without success.  As far as activity in the branch goes, as I understand it, in the past there are about 30 of the members who have been attending out of the 182 that show up on the records (whether they are really here or not, I have already documented the death of two of that number, when I mentioned them to the clerk, he responded, "oh yah, I remember their funeral now that you mention that").  We are getting to know the area better I have been marking on a map book where people live so we can find them again, after using Google Earth to document exactly where they live.  When comparing the map to google earth in some cases the map does not reflect reality very well.  The people here are also quite mobile, and move on a regular basis.

This map shows where the volcano is in relation to Medan(the pink arrow near the bottom

This is the group that went on splits with the Elders and Us.  Tinggi and Agus rode bikes and went to teach Toyo and Roni with Elder Barrus and Elders Murphy and Sutadiyono and Hendrik(in yellow shirt) went with us in the car.

Wednesday, We visited with Jesse after we got our new internet hooked up (he was the only one on line that we could tell) he suggested using the GPS coordinates to identify the locations of the people, if I can figure out how to do it, I might just give it a try.  He also suggested we include more spiritual experiences and not just the day to day activities, which is harder to do.  A lot of what we have been doing so far is basically a lot of work, and it's much harder to know you are having a spiritual experience when you’re focused on trying to just understand what is going on in a conversation.  That having been said, we do have some good experiences where it feels like we are being guided by the spirit in the things we say or do, actually just the fact that we can figure out how to say something is evidence that the spirit is helping us communicate with the individuals we visit with.  When we meet with
investigators or members, we usually have several opportunities to be part of the conversation, and do a reasonable job speaking in a manner that they can understand us.  There are some subjects we have to use English and have the young missionaries translate for us.  So I guess at this point I would say we may be taxing the limits of the spirit just being able to communicate in a meaningful way with those we meet with.  The other faith promoting activity we have been engaged in is that one of the goals given us by the mission president is to get the branches attendance and tithing worthiness to a level that will allow them to move into a church owned facility, and out of the rundown rental building they are in, within a relatively short time (in this case a couple of years), that means we have to get from a sacrament meeting attendance that when we arrived was just above 40 up to an average of 80,  so far we have seen an small increase each week, which as far as I am concerned has been an answer to prayer.  We do have a lot of young men, three are in the process of sending papers (when a member of the mission presidency is scheduled to come on the 24 of this month to make a change in the Branch leadership) in to serve missions, so that's not bad out of the number of active members.  We took the sisters and tried to locate one family, discovered the mother had died, and the three mature children live in the house.   This evening we visited with Ajai and had a discussion about the Aaronic Priesthood, Ajai is a 13 year old who is the only member of his family, he lives with his mother, her boyfriend, and a half-sister, he joined the church because of the influence of a member of the branch, Edy who I have written about before (15 year old orphan, Edy's older brother is the boyfriend in Ajai's family).  Ajai comes to church pretty much whenever he can get transportation.   We then went to visit with the Sinaga family, the father is the Elder's Quorum President, talked about going to the temple and family history, agreed to come back in a week and help them put some information in on the computer.  Their son is one of the three getting ready to serve a mission.  The other two have everything ready to submit, Septi's only holdup is he needs a letter from the government so he can get a passport then they can complete the process, but first his parents have to go get his birth registered, which I haven't been able to figure out why is taking so long.
Thursday, Went with South Elders to teach Roni and Toyo, brothers who's mother thinks they need religion in their life.  We were supposed to pick them up for church this past Sunday, but when the elders checked they were not at home to be picked up.  The elders later learned that their mom had told them to be home at 10PM on Saturday, and they were late, so she locked them out until 10PM on Sunday, so in a way they weren't home Sunday morning to be picked up.  But meeting with them have been going very well, and tonight they both set a date of 15 December to be baptized.  At the end of the discussion, Ibu Mary (mom) asked, shouldn't they have to attend church or something first.  Response, Yes, of course, and that's why the 15 December date, so they have the time to do just that.  We are planning to pick them up this Sunday AM for church, while we still are using the rental car, only missionaries allowed after we get the car provided from the church.

Friday, Attended DDM this morning, had lunch and then I spent some time getting changes made to records with Bro. Ronald, then in the mid afternoon we went with Elder's Murphy and Marsudi to visit an inactive member Hendryk Simanjuntak who is listed as having 3 teenage children who are members, his wife is not very supportive of his membership, she likes the church that is just across the street from them.  As we visited, based on a photograph on the wall, we discovered that he has an additional son who he baptized, and 5 younger children, for a living he sets up a stand on the street and fixes flat tires.  The son he baptized was at home, as the family can't afford to pay for school for him any longer, joined us for the visit.  I felt impressed to encourage them both to come out to church this week and again when the 2nd Counselor in the Mission Presidency visits the following Sunday, they said they would (standard response).  Then we went to the northwest edge of the city, and took a 15 minute walk through the jungle to visit a couple of young men Daniel Nababan (23) and his brother Jesse (16 non-member, his parents, who live in a village 4 hours away, will not give their permission for him to be baptized), had a very enjoyable visit with them and afterwards were fed green bean porridge.   We had it once before and it's actually pretty good, made with coconut milk and what look and have the texture of split peas (some are sprouted a little).

Saturday, We are starting to get excited to have our new car delivered on Monday.  Did some shopping today, some building cleanup, in the evening we also taught English with about 10 students.  Then drove southwest to visit with Sister "Kiki" the previous Branch Presidents wife, her husband was released after being Branch President for about 15 years, he is currently living on Java, going to school to get his doctorate in Microbiology, he will be there for 4 years.  When visiting with the Mission President, it was his plan to call me as the replacement, and a couple of weeks before we got here he was able to call a native member, for which I give many thanks.  The streets were flooded a good part of the way there.  Her son was also there a recently turned 17 year old, who is not planning to serve a mission, but as soon as he finishes high school, will start college. 

Sunday we got up early and went with the Elders to pick up 2 of their investigators, the young men talked about earlier.  We ended up with about 10 investigators at church and the father and son we had visited with Elders Marsudi and Murphy actually showed up also and looked like they enjoyed themselves.  The father knew quite a few people there.  Also the baptized sister of one of the boys getting ready for a mission showed up.  The sisters had ben planning to see her and she wasn't home when we went by.  Come to find out that she had texted the sisters to let them know she couldn't make it but the sisters didn't get the message because they had had their phone lifted by a driver of a bacek they were on.  We then had the Elders and Sisters over for dinner.  We made tacos, rice and I even found some black beans.  I made some salsa and tortillas from scratch.  It was a lot of fun and then they all took off for appointments.

Week 9 - Durian fruit, what an experience

We had a great dinner Sunday night with the Elders and Sisters at our apartment.  We had spaghetti, green beans, salad and French bread and pumpkin chocolate chip bread for dessert.  They are a great bunch and their families should be proud of them for working so hard and diligently to bring others the knowledge of the gospel.
Monday we went to the store to get the things I needed to teach a homemaking cooking class on Tuesday and then we went to the church.  We met the Elders and Sisters there as they were going to try a fruit from here call durian.  To let you know a little about this fruit - it is illegal to take on a plane or into a hotel.  It smells horrible and the smell permeates everything.  We kept the doors to the church closed and you could still smell it in there.  Elder Marsudi and Elder Sutadiyono think it is great.  Elder Marsudi cut it and took the inside fruit that you eat out for everyone.  It was really bad.  It was hard to keep down.  Our 2 Indonesian Elders ate most of it.

 This is what Durian looks like

 Elder Tucker holding a Durian and probably not breathing

 Elder Marsudi cutting them open and taking out the edible parts

 The Elders and Sisters getting ready to try it

 Elder Tucker and Elder Barrus trying to keep it down

The Sisters enjoying their pieces

Tuesday went to the church in the afternoon for a homemaking meeting.  They have a homemaking meeting when ever there is a holiday and people are off work.  So many in each family has to work just to make ends meet.  I taught how to make Navajo Fry Bread.  Most families don't have an oven so I tried to come up with something I could do in a wok or fry pan.  We used a wok to cook them.  The sisters got to make the pieces after I showed them how.  They loved it and had a lot of fun.  They thought it tasted great also.  The youth were also at the church as they had had an activity earlier with the Elders playing soccer at the park and had come back to the church for lunch and to watch the Mountain of the Lord.  They all got pieces of the bread also and couldn't believe it only had flour, water, salt and baking powder in it.  They thought the strawberry jam on it was the best.  After the activity we went with one set of Elders to an appointment with an investigator.  Ibu Mary.  She really wasn't that interested but really wanted her sons to listen and find a church.  The sons are about 14 and 17.  After that appointment we went back to the church for an appointment with Hendra who was just baptized to take about the priesthood as he was to receive it the next Sunday and they wanted to make sure he understood about it.

Wednesday the Sisters called and asked if the could come over and bring lunch off the street.  We said sure and so they came and we ate nasi goring (fried rice).  We talked about some of their concerns and some of the things we would like to see happen in the branch.  It was a good visit.  We then met with the Elders to go teach Jonathan.  He is a member but has been struggling with a few things.  He and his three sisters are members but not his younger brother or his parents.  His parents came home during the lesson and they sat in on it.  The Father for the first time was actually asking sincere questions about what we were talking about.  The Elders were amazed.  The said it had never happened before.  The father thought it was special that we would come from America and leave our families for two years just to teach the people of Medan.  We have hopes for the whole family at some point.  The younger brother is also being taught and the father has said he can be baptized if he wants.  Then we went to visit and investigator, Agus, he has been to English a few times.  He is about 20 and wants to please everyone and is getting pulled in many directions from parents, pastor, friends and missionaries.  He will have to ultimately decide for himself what is right to do.

Thursday the Elders came over when the new internet guys came over so they could translate.  Hopefully some time this next week we will have good, unlimited internet.  We also got an email from Senopati (Mission home) that our mission car has shipped and we should have it delivered on the 18th of November.  We are quite excited since we have been paying to rent a car for two months.  We then went did some shopping and then met the Elders and went out with them to stop by an investigators home and just see if they were there.  The wife and her brother were home so we went in and taught them.  They had lots of questions and seemed interested.  Don't know if it is the church or just the history.  They really wanted to know about that.

Friday the Elders showed Elder Tucker where they get their hair cut and he got his first hair cut here.  It looks pretty good.  The Elders told him not to let them give him a shave though because it can be dicey some times.  We then had district meeting.  After that we went out with the Sisters to visit Sister Teng who is the only member in her family except a married son in Utah.  She is great and we like visiting with her.  We then went back to the church and met up with Sara who is a young adult and also a counselor in the Young Women Presidency.  She went with Sister Jibson out to teach and we took Sister Hutcheson with us and went to visit Sister Francesca who is not active.  She had some questions that we tried to answer and she said they had both been out of work and didn't have the money to get to church but her husband had just started working and they were waiting for the first pay check.  She wants to start coming back to church before Christmas she said.  We hope that happens.  We then stopped at Nias (a street place) to get dinner and took it back to the church to eat while we waited for Sara and Sister Jibson to get back by bacek.  Then we took them all home.  We did find out that when we get the mission car we will not be able to give rides to members or nonmembers.  Only missionaries.  That will make things a little harder but those are the rules for a reason.

Saturday we went to the church to help the Young Men who were supposed to have their turn to clean and set up for church.  No one showed up.  We did what we could down stairs.  Then we went out with the Sisters again, before English class, to one of their appointments at an inactive young adults home.  She was not there.  The Missionaries run into this a lot.  They will make appointments and then the people will either not be there or they pretend they are not home.  It can get quite frustrating.  English class was good.  We had 12 people there.  May we had not seen before but had come at other times.  It is hard to teach because they are all at different levels.  We are considering making a beginning class and a more advanced class.  We would just have to decide on a time and day when people could and would come.  Elder Tucker did not feel well all of Saturday night but made it to church Sunday morning.  We did come home right after church so he could take a nap.  He was feeling somewhat better by that afternoon so we went out with the Elders to a teaching appointment to a man who has been investigating for quite a while.  He is struggling with a smoking problem or he would get baptized.  We talked to him about working on quitting.  We will see what happens.  He has a son (about 10) who is scheduled to be baptized on the 24th.  We then went to an appointment with a family who used to be very active and has stopped.  The one daughter (about 17) wants to come but her parents are making her do a communion like class at another church first that is like 9 months long.  When we got there the lights were on put nobody answered the door.  The Elders tried calling an the call kept being rejected.  They will keep trying.



Week 8: Zone Meeting in Jakarta

Our driver picked us up early Monday morning, then we picked the Sisters up and one set of Elders, the other set took a taxi.  We then drove to the airport which is an hour and a half drive on a good day with minimul traffic.  We were at the airport with lost of time to wait since the new mission rules say you are to be at the airport at least two hours before your flight.  I think they got tired of paying for missed flights.  We arrived in Jakarta after a two and a half hour flight.  Elder Tucker spent the whole flight visiting with the gentleman sitting next to him.  He is an architect.  It was interesting to listen to. A little English and a little Indonesian made for an interesting time.  Sister Jibson helped with words a few times as needed.  Elder Tucker gave him one of the pamphlets he had and he also agreed to take a Book of Mormon after we got off the plane.  He wanted a picture with us, also.  He agreed to also listen to the missionaries when he is in Medan.  He works for the government in Nias (an island off the coast of Sumatra) and also in Medan.  He was afraid to take the Book of Mormon on the plane.  So much of the government is Muslim and he is christian.

The gentleman from the plane who wanted a picture with us.

We then had another taxi ride for about an hour or so to the mission home.  While at the mission home we took care of some business, bought a few things like scriptures in Indonesian and such.  We had lunch with our missionaries (street food).  We were able to meet Elder and Sister Gong (the Area President, there for a mission tour and all zone conferences) We then went to the hotel that had been booked for us since the Mission Home was full.  It was a four or five star hotel.  We even had a really good steak dinner at one of their resturants.  It was pricey but so good.

 This a picture of our hotel room

 This is the view out of our window

We are in the back yard of the Mission Home.  To the left is where the AP's live and to the right is where the caretaker lives.

On Tuesday morning we went to one of the church buildings for zone conference, by taxi of course.  We were supposed to be there by 7am.  We had a great meeting with Elder and Sister Gong and President and Sister Donald instructing us.  They talked alot about what it would take to increase from 2 stakes to 5 stakes.  They also really stressed always asking for referals from everyone.  There was a lot of missionary participation.  All companionships, including the Senior couples,(there were 4 there) had to teach about the atonement for 5 minutes and then trade off.  It was interesting since none of the Seniors new we were going to have to do this also.  They then had a testimony meeting and then Lunch.  Pizza and fruit tarts for dessert.  It was great.  Hadn't had pizza since getting to Medan.  Everyone had the afternoon off to spend with each other, etc.  We went back to the hotel and then walked to a mall that was near by.  We walked over to Elder and Sister Lisks apartment which is the building next to the hotel.  It was pouring rain, of course.  The Lisks are the Mission office couple and the Lucharines are the welfare, humanitarian couple and they live in the same complex.  We all met for dinner at their apartment.  It was great.  Homemade soup, bread and fruit.   We left for the airport at 7am the next morning and met the Elders and Sisters there.  We caught taxi's home.  We shared with the sisters. 

Thursday was our Halloween party for the branch that the missionaries put on.  We spent the morning at the church setting up.  Our driver could not get our car and meet us until 10am so we took a bacek to the church.  We then took off to do some shopping and then returned about 3pm.  The party started at about 5pm with people starting to come about 5:30 or 6pm, which is normal.  We were so excited because Brother Manalu's(our driver, who is not a member) whole family came.  We had a presentation on Family History and then we played some games which were a great hit. Then they had dinner, which they always buy off the street for everyone.  We had candy as treats.

The Elders carving pumpkins(hard to find and expensive) and watermelon

 The Sisters decorating the Chapel/Cultural Hall for the party.

Some of the finished product

 The kids had a blast playing musical chairs.

 The adults were just as eagar to win as the kids.

Bobbing for apples was lots of fun.  Lots of wet faces.

 The last game was rolling a hard boiled egg with your nose across the floor in a relay race.  The hard part was that at the end of one way it is up hill.  Everybody had fun with this also.

 Elder Marsudi passing out dinner.  It was a piece of chicken with rice and a spicy hot seasoning wrapped in a leaf of some sort and then wrapped in paper.  It is about a dollar for each meal and I can't finish all the rice.  I am getting better at eating with my fingers which is what most people do.

                      More of the group at the party starting to eat their dinner.

Friday we spent at the church. Saturday we went to the store again to get somethings for Sunday dinner since we were having all the missionaries over.  We spent time at the church cleaning and setting up for Sunday and we had our English class.  We had 10 students come.  It was great.







Week 7 - To the Beach and and three Baptisms

Sunday,  Might guess. Attended church today.  There were 42 people in Sacrament meeting today.  Got an email from President Donald with criteria for Medan getting its own Church owned building instead of a rented facility.  It requires an average attendance of 80 for 4 consecutive quarters, and tithing worthiness of 80% the previous year's average for the mission of active adult members.  But he believes we should be able to realize that goal in what he considers a relatively short time.  I think it could be possible also, but they will have to make great progress getting those who are members to return to activity, the often cited reason for not coming is distance, and many claim to have been offended at one time or another.  We do have 3 baptisms scheduled for this coming Sunday, which will help, but they are already part of those who are attending.

Monday,  Early in the morning we had our driver take the district missionaries to the beach as Elder Broberg is being transferred on Wednesday.  It's a couple hour drive east of here, we went to Pantaicermin Beach.

 Our district at the beach, Elder Murphy, Elder Broberg(our district leader who was being transferred to Jakarta as a Zone leader), Sister Hutcheson, Sister Jibson, Elder Marsudi(our new district leader) and Elder Barrus.

 At the beach, it has tables and chairs for people to eat.

 Elder Tucker gazing at the ocean thinking back in time to his surfing days

 Elders Barrus and Broberg

 Our missionaries with us also.

 The Elders thought we should have a picture taken documenting our trip 

Took a few photos of a man spending the morning, about 3 hours, working a net catching fish about a pound, shrimp about 2 pounds and 1 nice sized crab.

 

That evening we went with the North Elders to visit with the Mendrofa's , another inactive family (mom, dad and a 14 year old son).  They have a son who has been out for a year and is currently serving in on Jawa, in Surabaya.  Dad has some health issues, but looks like he uses it as an excuse to not work, his wife is the only support for the family, and has to work on Sunday's to make ends meet.  The 14 year old follows his dads example.
Tuesday, Collected rain water for filling the font, as the water in the building has not worked for a couple of days.  Joined the South Elders in teaching Hendra, who is one of the ones planning to be baptized on Sunday.  Then accompanied them to Sister Ezra's home, where she fed the four of us.  Rice, noodles, chicken & pork, it all had a very good flavor, I passed on the fried chicken feet.
Wednesday, At the church building early waiting for a plumber to come and work on the water tank and lines.  He didn't show, collected rain water again.  Then at 4 in the afternoon showed Hendra "The Restoration" in Indonesian, because the South Elders had flown to Jakarta.  Then we took Sister Jibson and the Sister Trainer, Sister Baantjer to visit Abdi, a member of our branch.  Sister Baantjer had served in Medan for 6 months at the beginning of her mission.
Thursday we went out with the Sisters and stopped at one inactive members home but she was not there.  We then went with them to an appointment about an hour away.  It was to an inactive family who really was never very active.  They were very friendly and we had a nice visit with them and the fathers parents even came over.  I think it was mainly to meet the bule's (white people).  We then visited with her brothers family who lives down the way.  They are also inactive and we have visited with them before.  We had a great lesson on the blessings of the temple.  If they could get over hurt feelings and commit to travel the distance to church they could be such a strong family in the branch.
Friday, we spent at the church getting the water lines fixed and working to get the font filled.  We also had district meeting. 
Saturday we spent the morning at the church and then went to the Sisters apartment as we are supposed to do their monthly inspections.  They have no beds, just mattresses on the floor.  They also don't have curtains on their bedroom window or a smoke detector.  We will have to see what we can do about them.  There is a check list we need to work off of but didn't get it until later.  We then had English class at the Church.  We had 8 people in our class and two of our regular girls weren't there because one was graduating from college.
Sunday we had our regular meetings and also ward counsel.  We also had our baptism.  We had three young people baptized.  We even got the font filled enough, but it did take until the last minute.  It is a good thing the Indonesians are generally shorter.  The missionaries also have a couple of baptisms scheduled for next month.

 The Sisters who taught Cindy, Jonathan her brother, who baptized her, Hendra with our new Elder Sutadiyono and Elder Barrus who baptized him and Elder Murphy who baptized Samuel and Elder Marsudi. 

 Us with our driver (Sopir) Manalu

 Some of the traffic we encountered on the way to the beach along with produce stands all around.

Another picture of the same general area.