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.