Minggu 15 To Jakarta and Branch Christmas Party

Monday, we left at 8:00 AM for the airport.  Audrey had called the night before to order a taxi.  I called to make sure that he was headed to pick us up, and the dispatcher said he was on his way.  He drove up a minute later, and while we told them the night before we would meet him at the guard shack, he went into the basement, because the lobby area is closed while they try and put a new parking area in (fell in the river), so we likely walked right past him as we were headed to the guard shack.  No difficulties in the airport, we had plenty of time for our flight.  While we were sitting in the airport I thought, it would be interesting if I were to run into Juni (from Nias) again, and later as we were getting to our seats on the plane I thought I heard someone call my name.  And sure enough several rows behind where our seats were was Juni, so we visited for a moment and agreed to get together and talk after we got to Jakarta.  Got off the plane and visited for a few moments, after the first of the year (when his work schedule slows down a little) I plan to send him an email reminding him of his commitment to read the Book of Mormon.  Some may chalk it up to chance that we happened to meet on the plane again the second time, this is the only other trip either of us have taken since we met the time before.  I guess it could be chance, but I think not.  Caught a taxi to go to our hotel, we asked and never received any direction, other than our flight plans, and hotel accommodations.  When we got to the hotel it wasn't a giant hi-rise, it was an older attractive 6 story structure, with very nice woodwork.  As I got out of the taxi there was another taxi behind us out of which exited another older "bule" couple with name tags.  It was the Williams who are serving in Malang in east Java, we had not met them, so now there are only 2 other couples that we have not met, the Welchs (serving in Manado, the Island of Sulawasi, the only other couple not on Java, they are in a similar sized branch that is not part of a district, about the same situation as us here on Sumatra, in fact they had an accident with their car before we did, both were one car accidents) and Andersons who serve in Surabaya in east Java.  As we both tried to check in we were informed we had no reservations, tried several different names the reservations could have been under, so I called Ari, who made the arrangements, and let him talk with the clerk, found our rooms, and informed us it would be an hour or so (5:00 PM) before they would be ready.  So we sat in the lobby and visited, later we went to a mall, found a Burger King, had a hamburger, and walked around for a little while.  When we got back to the hotel, there was someone playing the piano just outside a desert shop, so we stopped in to see what they had,  we were informed that as it was after 5pm desert was 50% off, all right what a steel, RP 15,000 each piece, so we got four slices of cake and 2 waters.  Because we did not take our order to go it was full price, and each water was as expensive as the cake.  That being said it cost around $17, for what we got the deserts would likely have been 5 to 7 dollars each at a restaurant in the states, so it was still a reasonable deal.  Got a call from the Mission President, asking if we could come in to the office at about 9 the next morning, to visit before we went in to get our identification cards renewed.

 

 We had dessert in the hotel lobby and listened to the Christmas music being played. The Christmas tree is made from water bottles tied together.  Really quite pretty.

 

Tuesday,  As we could not get the internet to work well we did not have our skype session with our language coach in the morning.  Early this morning we did get a text call from Ari, he told us to checkout of the hotel and he would pick the four of us up to take us to immigration to update our "kitas" identification, as they expire the end of this month.  So we ate breakfast, after we had eaten the hotel management informed that the free breakfast with the room was only for one person, and they would add the total to our hotel bill, even if the voucher identified that it was for two people.  When we got to immigration, we found out that they had been closed for the previous 3 work days, because they ran out of the plastic cards they use, and just got some this morning, so we were able to go in and get processed. Otherwise we may have needed to stay a couple of more days.  We ended up going from immigration to the airport and caught our planes back to Medan and Malang respectively.  As we were pulling up to the apartment we noticed the electrical junction box just across the street from where our room is, was on fire, and there were a bunch of guys trying to put it out by throwing water from buckets on it.  We never saw the end result, but noticed a lot of people on the street below watching for quite a while after we got to our apartment.  Got into our apartment about 5 PM, had dinner and called it a night.

The view from our hotel room.  The mission home is on the far left by the green building.



Wednesday,  Went shopping first thing in the morning for the things we would need for the Christmas party we are in charge of on Friday night.  We figured about a hundred people and planned food for about 120 just in case.  We were making Lasagna, green beans, French bread, and sugar cookies (we figured we needed enough for about 60 or 70, but were going to bring enough for 90) then the Branch President had a caterer prepare for 60 people (lots of rice, and some meats and vegetables in sauce to go over it).  Then in the early afternoon we started doing the decorations for the activity, set up the tree, and garland etc around the cultural hall/chapel.  The Relief Society President and a Primary Counselor arrived early and helped set up, latter a number of youth showed up and helped.  It ended up looking pretty good.  Had a power outage at about 3 PM, while the youth were practicing for their "drama" presentation for the activity, I went and got gas for the generator, so we would have plenty in case it goes out Friday during the activity.  Then we took the Elders and Sisters to Nias and got all of us dinner (7 people Rp57,000 or $4.75) to get some dinner.

                        The youth practicing their drama for the Christmas Party

 

Thursday, Our new tutor must not have started working yet, we were up and ready but he never contacted us via skype this morning.  Spend most of the day in the apartment cooking 144 sugar cookies and lots of lasagna, 6 big pans worth.  Elder Costner and Murphy came by and helped make some of the lasagna, then I asked if they would go purchase a microphone, and an adapter so the computer could be hooked into the amplifier at church.  Before they left we got a call from Abdi (Young Men's President) and he needed keys to get into the building,  since we told our driver we would not need him until sometime in the early evening, we didn't have a way to get there.  So they were going to come over and pick up my keys, it took a little while since it was raining hard and they were on a motor (motorbike),  when they showed up they said they went to the church to help decorate and discovered that it was finished, so they picked up some lunch brought it with them and spent the afternoon visiting and eating their lunch at the apartment.  Then that evening we went to the church and got the items the Elders purchased earlier in the day, then that evening took the elders and we went out and visited with Toyo & Roni and their mother.

 

Friday, Study-buddy, then had DDM, which I partly attended, because I was working on the sound system so it would work for the activity.  Then went to pick up the food that was still in the fridge at the apartment, and brought it to church and, got everything finished and ready to go.  As expected about 4:30 we had a power outage, so got the generator out and running, after about 30 min the power came back on, and stayed on the rest of the evening.  We got started late, but what's new, we were waiting for Pres Donald, and Pres. Rico who picked him and the APs up at the train station, their plane had been delayed a couple of hours, so we didn't really get started until 6 PM.  The activity went well, there were some technical hitches during the drama, but we got through it all, Santa visited the kids, and we served dinner to about 100 members and guests, having just enough food for some to have seconds. 

        After the Christmas Party some of the youth posing for a picture along with the Sisters and our new District Leader, Elder Costner.  They were all in the Drama.

 

Saturday,  got to church about 11 AM and helped clean up a little, and put the sound system back together so we could use it for church.  Had to repair a couple of wires that had been severed during the night by hungry rodents.  Also visited with President Donald while putting things back together.  He is here to conduct some business for the branch, and then attend a friends wedding here on Sumatra. He asked if we were disappointed in not being able to travel and visit all the locations in Indonesia and do the PEF functions. We are a little disappointed in not being able to travel and see more of the country, but we do hope to see a few more places here before we leave, we do have a lot more time left for that.  With the native couple doing PEF it does not make sense for both of us to try and function.  Come April he will have to figure out what he is going to do.  He said he appreciated that and that he would likely notify SL that we had been reassigned soon.  Also had a couple of hour meeting with Pres Donald & Pres. Rico.  During that time Sister Tucker and Elder Costner and Elder Coleman(one of the AP's) went out to do some visiting.  They also stopped and got some PVC pipe and microphone cable.  Later in the day President Donald told Sister Tucker and I to start giving consideration to where in Medan it would be good for the church to purchase property for a future chapel site, because we would likely be able to purchase it soon, and then hold it until they qualify for the building, so my having mapped where all the members we have visited live was a good thing.  All I have to do is transfer the information from my map book to the wall map of the city, so we can see it in one place.  All of the missionaries joined President Donald at the McDonald's near his hotel for dinner that evening.

We will miss all of you this Christmas, although we will be able to visit our children and grandchildren via skype. Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas. We are just planning to have the missionaries over to eat, watch "Mr Kruger's Christmas",and they got permisson to watch the Hobbit, and play some games and relax, and oh ya, use the computer to visit with their families.  Love to each of you, we do miss and love you lots.





Minggu 14 - To a Buddist temple near a volcano

Monday we took the Elders and Sisters to one of the largest Buddhist Temples.  It was about an hour and a half away. We got there about an hour before it opened because we didn't know what the times were.  The Elders and Sisters played games while we waited for the Temple to open.  There is a big cabbage field right next to the Temple.  It was a very beautiful temple and interesting to see it.

 This is the cabbage field next to the parking lot.  In the back ground you can see some smoke coming up.  That is the volcano Sinabung.

 This is near the front entrance.

 This is the entrance to the temple itself.  They have you take your shoes off before you enter.  The doors are very large.

This is near the entrance to the temple. You can light incense and burn it in here. 

 This is inside the temple.

 This gives you an idea of just how large the doors are.

 Another shot of inside the temple.

 This is a shot of the outside of the temple with Sister Jibson and our brand new missionary, fresh from the MTC in the Philippines, Sister Hasibuan, from Indonesia.

 Elder Barrus lighting some incense.

 Another view of the temple.  It shines in the sunlight

 

 As we were leaving, we watched them harvesting the cabbage, for a while.

On the way home we stopped on the side of the road at an overlook.  The view was beautiful.  We made it home by about 1:00 PM took a nap, and had our driver pick us up so we could go and visit with the Mendrofa family, who's son is here for the week so he can visit his ill father, the son is serving in Indonesia as a missionary.  We had dinner and a FHE at their home.

Tuesday,  Had our meeting with our language coach this morning, and then called Danielle, as it was her birthday.  We were able to talk to her whole family.  At noon we went with Pres. Rico and Emma to shop for Christmas decorations for the branch.  Before we shopped we had lunch together at a Thai food restaurant in the Sun Plaza Mall.  Then we bought a tree and decorations for the branch activity.  Headed back to our apartment where we had to go down to the second basement to find a parking spot.  Well our driver took his turn a little sharper than he should have.  The end result was a damaged door panel and frame below the door on the driver side of the van, then because he was excited trying to get clear of the high curbing on his side of the car, he put the gear shifter in the wrong gear and went forward into the curbing on the other side damaging the bumper on the other side of the van.  We took some photos, and sent an email into the Mission office to see what we need to do.  They told us to get an estimate from the dealer and we will go from there.

Wednesday, Took sisters to post office, while there I had a 30 minute conversation in English and Indonesian with a gentleman who toured the US at the request of the first President Bush, as an Indonesian Minister, after this long conversation he pulls out his book which covered the  financial corruption in his previous church (he claims he was fired for bringing up a need for an accounting of the contributions) after 38 years as a pastor for the church.  He was asking contributions of Rp200,000 but would take whatever amount I was willing to give (to help cover his legal fees as he pursues action against the church for firing him) I never saw the sales pitch coming. I declined not having any money with me at the moment, but I could have gotten some from Audrey if I really wanted to.  Later it dawned on me that I missed the opportunity to buy his book and offer him one of the BOMs the sister missionaries were carrying. Elder Lisk called to visit about the new car, and that Bro Sujud would let us know when he would visit with us via Skype about the car and that they expected payment by 5 Dec.  I informed him that would be much easier if they would let us know how much we needed to pay for the vehicle, his response "oh yah, Bro Sujud hasn't talked with you yet, he then provided the amount and asked us to forward payment immediately.  I told him we would get it done when we were at home and could get to it.  He then asked about our phone bill payment which they had not seen for the past two months, I then informed him that we had not been provided any information regarding payment, he promptly provided an SMS requesting payment, cheap to say the least, about $13 per month for 2 phones calling all over the country, and many calls back to the states.  Later we dropped the sisters off for an appointment near the part of town we were going to, then we went to Sister Teng's and worked of family history for a couple of hours, without the support of any young missionaries translating,  we were successful in entering all the information she has in the computer, with our Indonesian and her English. That evening we went out to Toyo and Ronis' so the district leader could conduct baptismal interviews and to do some additional teaching.  Well we ended up teaching them, but were going to do the interviews later as Roni was away helping prepare for a neighborhood production that takes place this coming Saturday.  When we left several of us thought the baptism had been scheduled for the 22nd (English speaking missionaries), others thought for the 15th (Native Indonesian speaking Elders) which is when it had originally been planned for, but they had an aunt or uncle die this week and there was discussion whether they should do the baptism on one occasion or the other.  On our way home stopped and got dinner at Nias then went to the church and left the pump running to fill the water tank so it would be available when we needed to start filling the font on Thursday.

Thursday, Met with Scott for the last time as our tutor, he is graduating and moving back to Texas.  I was going to enter a story here about the 'Silent Treatment" I am receiving, but remembered my confidentiality agreement and will abstain.  Started filling the font this morning and as the tank was full it got the water up to about half way between the second and third step of the font.  We were planning to have our driver pick us up at 11:30 to go pick up Elder Barrus and Mendrofa to take them out to visit Elder Mendrofa's father.  So with that time we thought we would go to an ATM and try to activate a feature on our bank card that allows us to do online bill paying.  Aud had visited with their English Help Line, and they suggested we call them when we were at the ATM.  So that's what we did, well while at the ATM we had someone from their help line giving instructions, part way through the machine went back to its original start screen, which instructs "Please insert your card"  the only problem was that it kept our only bank card.  There was a queue forming behind us, and we were getting nowhere with the help line, (Aud wasn't sure if she should cry or reach through the phone and choke the bank operator, whose name as Chokie by the way) so we left and ended up calling the elders, asking to have them contact our driver to come early, and then for them to go to the bank with us so we could get a new card and get it registered so we could do additional tasks with online banking.  The bank informed us they were going to have to charge us for the card, as we wanted it replaced that day, and didn't want to wait the 3 or 4 business days for them to mail it to us. she spoke fairly good English so we didn't really need the translation help this time. We then took the elders out to the  Mendrofa family home.  Went to Medan Fair Mall and had lunch and bought a baby gift for Pres. Rico and Sister Emma's new daughter, Rebecca Wee.  That evening we again went out to Toyo and Ronis' so they could do the baptismal interviews.  While interviewing Toyo, and asking where he was born, his response to the question was a very serious "the  hospital", at which his mother reached over and slapped him on the shoulder.  As we visited it was brought up by their mother that they would be ready for the baptism which was to be held the "next week", at this point it dawned on the young Elder that indeed the baptism was to have been scheduled for the 22nd not the 15th.  So we headed home, let the Elders buy themselves some dinner, and stop by the church to pull the plug on the font.  Our driver informed us tonight that his children had school activities that would prevent him from driving for the next two days between 11:00 AM and 6:00 PM.

Friday, Well as our driver would not be available, we had him scheduled to pick us up at 10:30 AM so he could drop us off at the church and get to the school for the activity.  He showed up at 10:55 AM.  We attended DDM had lunch and then spent much of the day studying and doing some odd jobs around the church with the expectation that we would see our driver shortly after 6:00 PM.  In the afternoon, the Sisters stopped by and said they had some free time since their appointments for the afternoon had cancelled on them, so they went  with us to Indo Telkom so we could pay our internet bill, and try to set up a monthly payment program, we made the payment and they told us to work with our bank to set up the payment plan.  That evening when our driver did not show up a  little after "6:00 PM,  I finally texted him about 7:15 PM letting him know we were quite ready to go home.  His response  "Saya lupa"  a common phrase from our driver,  "I forget"  he finally showed up about 7:45 pm. 

Saturday, As we visited with our driver we had him acknowledge that we would be dropped off at the church so he could get to his school activity, and he agreed to pick us up at 6:00 PM because we had Toyo and Roni's performance to attend at 7:00 PM.  Spent the day cleaning the church, then Aud taught our English class.  At 6:20 I sent a text to our driver, letting him know we needed to be picked up.  He contacted one of the missionaries and said he would not be there until 7:00 PM so one of the young missionaries contacted him and told him that he needed to get there as soon as possible, so he borrowed a motorbike and got there about 7:40, we headed to an ATM so Aud could get us some cash as we are headed to Jakarta Monday morning, and need the cash for our expenses.  Then we headed out to the Christmas production Toyo and Roni had been involved with.  We were given seats of honor in the very front, and then spent the next couple of hours listening to a number of speakers, and because it was so late, did not get to stay for the drama production they were involved in. As it was, the young missionaries were out way later than they are supposed to be.

On Sunday we rode in the Ankot again so our driver's kids could get to church also.  We were there until about 1:30.  Rick was in meetings and the Relief Society was practicing their song for the Christmas party.  We are losing our piano player as Elders Barrus, Marsudi and Sutadiyono are all being transferred on Tuesday.  We will have only one Elder coming in so we will be down to 1 Elder and 1 Sister companionship.  I will miss these young Elders, especially Elder Barrus who has been with us for all of our trials (setting up bank accounts, getting internet, etc.)  The branch doesn't really have it's own piano player and none of the remaining or new missionaries can play.  could make for interesting Sacrament Meetings.  We took the ankot home and spent time working on the blog and getting ready to fly to Jakarta tomorrow morning.
Sorry we were not able to call you until a day late Raeleigh, But hope you have fun at the basketball game.  Also "Selamat Datang" to Dani and Jayson's newest, I don't know how to spell it, and not sure if I am authorized to use her name yet. None the less "welcome".  We are having fun, and yes we are working hard, Its interesting that even on those days where it doesn't look like we have anything scheduled, the day seems to fill in around us, and we end up with plenty to do.  It is much harder when we don't have a driver.  Now that we have been to a Christmas program in Indonesia, I see where they came up with the outline they thought we should follow for the Branches Christmas program, which by the way I am in charge of,  We are having 1/2 Indonesian food(bought) and at the request of a couple return missionaries 1/2 Lasagna & green beans(which Sister Tucker will be making, along with cookies).  We were informed Saturday afternoon that we fly to Jakarta to renew our visa/kitas to be able to stay here, on Monday, and then back to Medan on Tuesday.  So it will be a quick trip.



Minggu 13 - Lake Toba and a Pada Remaja (Youth Activity)

Monday we had permission from the Mission President to take the missionaries to Lake Toba because they really had been working hard and had had 6 baptisms in the last 2 months.  We met at about 2am at the church (we picked the Sisters up) so they could get their reports sent in and then we left about 3am and drove to Lake Toba.  It is an island that was created by a volcano in the middle of the Lake.  It is also the center for the Batak culture.  The drive took about 31/2 hours.  When we finally found where the ferry was we parked and then had to wait until the ferry came.

 The Elders getting ready for Christmas.  Elder Sutadiyono was pretty cold.  I thought it was wonderful.  It was so nice not to be sweating all the time.

The view from right where the ferry will be landing.  It was really beautiful.

This is our ferry. It docks right at this dirty place.  The cars and trucks get backed on so they can get off going forward.  The pack them on.  You can barely get between the cars and trucks. 

The ferry ride is about an hour long.  When we got off the ferry we went and found an out door museum and also went shopping.  Open stores lined the road ways. 

 We are sitting in a circle of statues.

 Sister Jibson and Elder Sutadiyono learning a traditional dance.



The Elders and Sisters along with Brother Manalu, our driver.



We then went to find another site with traditional houses and such.  It is where a king lived.

 These are the type of houses they lived in and people still live in these types of houses today.

 There is special meaning in the number of stairs the have leading to their homes.  Usually between 4 and 6 to say how many children they would like.  The small doors are so visitors have to bow down to the people who live there.

 This is where the Raja (king) lived.

A weaving loom in one of the houses.



These are some of the cloths that a woven.  They are the ones that go over the shoulder.

We then went to the top of a mountain and you could see lots of the Island from it.

 

 Some of the view from near the top of the mountain.  Those are ric padi's below.

 

Water buffalo at the top of the mountain

As we were getting ready to leave on the ferry these young boys kept asking for money to dive for.  As we drove home we saw lots of monkeys.  These came really close to the window of the car.  One sure looks like he has been in a few fights.  Because we hit lots of traffic it took us 5 1/2 hours to get home.

On Tuesday we spent some time at home doing some of the things we would have done on Monday, like laundry.  We then returned our rental car and spent the rest of the afternoon at the church. 

Wednesday we went to the Kantor Pos (post office).  An experience in it self.  You can't just buy stamps places, you have to go to the post office and get just what you need.  We went to Ace and Elder Tucker got some things so he could fix the sound system at church.  We then went to church.  Elder Tucker worked on the sound system and I ended up helping President Ronald make some food for the Youth Activity that night.  We stayed for the Activity and it was great.  It was about preparing for missions.  We had all the missionaries there, plus the Sister Trainers who were visiting.

 The youth played a game where they had to guess what word or words were being held over their heads.  They were timed.  They had fun with it.

 This is the food that they were given.  Elder got the recipe for the drink.  We will have to change it some at home as we don't have all the ingredients in the states.  Of course rice was the main part with the other put on top.

 

Sister Baunger (from Utah) was one of the Sister Trainers visiting.  She goes home in about 10 days.  In the center are Tinggi and Agus who are the young men with their mission papers almost ready to be sent in.

On Thursday, we met with our tutor and the sisters and sister trainers flew to Jakarta.  Sister Jibson is becoming a trainer and was picking up her new trainee fresh from the MTC in the Philippines.  We spent most of the day at the church.

On Friday we met with a study buddy and then went to the church for DDM (district meeting).  After that and our standard lunch on fridays we went with Elders Barrus and Sutadiyono to teach Jonathan, a member and his non member little brother.  We also stopped and visited a member who had joined the church in Australia and had come home when done with school.  Talked to him about coming to church.  We also visited a member who is here going to school and will be going home for a month for the holiday's.

Saturday we met the new Sister, Sister Hasibuan from the Jakarta stake.  We went with the Sisters to find a sister who's records had just been sent to the branch from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  She is from Medan.  She was not home but we got her phone number.  We then taught our English class and then went grocery shopping and went home.  Today we went to church.  Because we can't take anyone but missionaries in our car our driver brought his ankot with his children and we went to church in that.









Minggu 12 - Thanksgiving and a Funeral more Pictures

 The darker clouds are coming from the volcano that we had to drive by to get to the village for the funeral

 A mountain on the drive to the village

 Also on the drive,  the views and scenery were fantastic

 Another view

 Rice paddys

 And more rice paddys

 Lots of homes in the little villages had these in their front yards.  It is corn off the husk being dried

 The brown stuff by the motorcycle is cocoa beans being dried.

 The plants grow right up to the edge of the one lane road.  This road was pretty good.

 We saw lots of Durian trees with the fruit on them

 This is what alot of the villages looked like.

 At the park.  One of the many statues of bible scenes

Another of the many views