Monday we left our apartment at 5am a headed for the airport to catch a 7:50 flight to Jakarta. It usually takes about an hour to get there, I don't think the taxi driver ever used the brake until we got there, so it only took about 35 - 40 minutes, it helped that there was no traffic, but he probably averaged 65 mph, the speedometer was usually around 110 kph, sometimes a little more or less. We had plenty of time to wait for our plane. We visited with the young adult that sat next to Sister Tucker for a while about the church, and gave her some contact information. Took a taxi from the Jakarta Airport to the Mission Office. Checked on a couple of things we had ordered that have never shown up in Medan while we were there. And helped the Humanitarian Mission Couple put together the request to the Area Presidency for assistance in Sinabung, for the volcano evacuees. We hit the send button while I was still sitting there. Then Sister Tucker went to go get her hair cut, she hasn't been willing to try anyone here in Medan, neither has the one Bule missionary that came here with us. Elder wishes 4 weeks ago he would have refused to go see the barber, his hair is just starting to lay down again, after he took it down to about a 1/4 inch on the top. We went to a mall near the mission home, and got some Indonesian basket work, and also a box of chocolate to use the small tin as a cookie cutter for Valentine's day. Had sandwiches for dinner and read some that evening, the Donalds had already left for Bali, as President had business with the Branch over the weekend.
Tuesday, we went to the airport again to catch the plane for Bali, met up with the Lucherini's and Lisk's at our gate. Checked into our room at the Novetel Resort in Nusa Dusa, Bali about noon, very nice resort, we ended up in a 2 bedroom suit, with kitchen, dining room and living room with 2 patios all on the ground floor, a lot better than our apartment in Medan and at least twice the size. Since we got there about noon a group of us got together to eat in the outside dining area near the pool for lunch. Elder Tucker then played ping-pong and Sister Tucker joined him and went swimming, then we got together and walked to a restaurant for dinner somewhere near the resort complex. We arranged for drivers to take us on a tour tomorrow morning.
This is a statue we saw walking to dinner the first night
At dinner the first night, Welshes, Lisks, Donalds, Williams and Lucherini's
Wednesday, After a devotional this morning, we met our drivers and went to Ubud. We went to a Batik shop (Elder bought a nice art piece with tropical fish as the theme), then off to a silver smith shop (Sister bought a pendent for a chain and earrings to match), and a wood carving shop. Then we had lunch, and finally went to the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary, in Padangtegal, Ubud, Bali. Apparently many of the "Sacred Monkey" have handlers and they train them to take something from you and you end up paying to get it back. Sister Tucker had one jump on her purse and back trying to get it but between the two of us we held on and the monkey gave up first. Then headed back to the hotel and got ready to dinner, we were going down to the beach to have sea food for dinner. When they said go to the beach, they meant "the beach", we walked through the cooking area of the restaurant that had a few tables set up, and out onto the beach and down to about the water's edge, where they had a lot of tables set up. Had a variety of sea food, Snapper, Grouper, Dory Fish, and a few others I can't remember, then also got some shrimp prawns and squid, with some rice and vegetables. We went swimming for a short time to relax then headed in for the night.
Working on silver pendents
Some of the wood carvings we saw. Very intricate
At Lunch
Sisters Donald, Lucherini, me and Welsh
At a Hindu temple with the monkeys
Dinner on the beach. Shows how close we were to the water.
At the beach with everyone including the Kusamemanto's
Thursday we got up fairly early to catch a shuttle to the marina, to take a catamaran trip to Lembongan Island, winds were not very favorable in the morning, they put up one sail, and used the prop the whole way. Took about 2 hours for us to get there, a good distance was along the south east coast of Bali, heading east and north to the Island, where the cruise line has a club house. Elder went out and played in the ocean for a while then at about noon we all headed out on the skiff to the reef area to snorkel for about an hour, there were quite a few fish, a lot that Elder recognized from the saltwater stores for his aquarium. We had a good lunch provided as part of the package, went swimming in the ocean and pool. Then we went on a tour of local village, and Elder almost bought a chambered Nautilus shell 8 inches in diameter for $12.50 but he was trying for $10 so didn't buy it. Elder didn't think it was a local shell anyway. They also showed us how they harvest and dry seaweed and talked about what it is used for. We headed back to Bali late in the afternoon, and used the sails most of the way with the prop to assist, I would guess we made in back in an hour and twenty minutes or so. For dinner we all ate in the open dining area at the resort. That night three of the couples went swimming for an hour and a half, it was the ones that are still in their 50's, Donalds, Lucherines and us. Didn't really swim just relaxed in the water and visited.
Rick on the catameran
boat in the bay over the seaweed beds.
On our way back to the catamaran after a busy day
Friday we headed to the airport and back to Jakarta. While waiting for the plane, we got an email approving the Humanitarian Aid Project for Sinabung. So we will have a lot of work after we get back. The plane leaving Bali changed schedules, and we had to leave 2 hours earlier than planned originally. So now we have a 5 hour layover in Jakarta. Elder spent a lot of time reading in Indonesian, and managed to leave his Alpha-link (little handheld computer dictionary) sitting on a table in the Jakarta airport. We got home at about 11:30 PM. As we unpacked we also discovered that we (Elder) lost about $100, He had slipped the pouch we keep extra cash in off his belt, and stuck it in his pocket. He was tired of pulling it out to get money. It must have come out sometime when he was getting something else out of the pocket. But he thinks the best story is that one of the monkeys on Wednesday pulled it out of his pocket while trying to keep them from running off with Sister Tucker's purse (He at least thinks it's a good story).
Saturday we cleaned the church,. Sister Tucker taught English, with the young missionaries help. Elder took off with our driver and picked up Bro. Kiki, the previous Branch President, who was home for semester break to go visit a couple of addresses that we had been unable to locate. Managed to visit with one of the members, another was not at home, and the last had moved but we got some information to help us track him down. As we drove around I was also able to pick his brain about some of the other members we were having difficulty locating. Oh Yeah, still no running water in the church, 2 weeks now, Elder opened the line and he don't think there was any coming from the government. It's a good thing we didn't drain the font, after last Sunday's baptism, at least we have been able to use that water where it is needed.
Sunday we had a ward council meeting to discuss the service project the is to be done this week. It is going to be a busy week with the Lucherini's here and getting the project done on time.
Congratulations to Dani & Jayson on the court date being set for the adoption of Lynette.
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