Tuesday, Elder Tucker had a presidency meeting. That afternoon we tried to locate a young man who is listed in the Branch Directory, Ronald Efendi Sinambela (27) after talking to a couple of people we were able to locate the correct house but no one answered the announcement of our presence, we only knock on the door very gently or tap on the metal gate/fence or window frame and announce your presence, usually by saying permisi (excuse me). So the Elders will have to stop by again another time if they are in the area.
While we were looking for an address
Wednesday all the missionaries were invited to have lunch at Sis. Emma & Pres. Rico's home. We had gotten an address for Lidiman Sinaga (55 yrs old) from his mother and had some time so went the Elder Sutarno and Davies to see if we could locate him. The street he lives on continues for quite a distance and it looks like they have two different numbers systems (Elder says systems but there is very little order to the way they number the houses here) we were unable to locate where his address might be even after stopping getting out and talking with several people on the street. So as we were in the area we went out to introduce the new Elders to Daniel and Jesse Nababan, and to show them how to find where in the Jungle they live. We found both of them at home, and after a number of attempts we were able to get their attention and they answered the door. We then went back to the church and switched Elders and went to visit Ibu Merry who had been in the Rumah Sakit (hospital) she has low blood pressure and was quite sick for a while. Since she had just gotten home that day and she had people at her house we decided to show the video Finding faith in Christ. We then had a short discussion and then left.
At Pres. Rico's home after lunch
Walking in the jungle. Behind us is a chicken farm.
Thursday, we took the Sisters and went to Sister Situmorang's and taught her mother. We showed her the restoration video and had a discussion. We then took Sister Dora Situmorang and looked for Jenny Sihombing as Dora knew her and how to find her house, before she left on her mission, but Jenny's mother had died in the passing time and the house has gone vacant, but did get additional leads on Jenny and her sister from Dora. We also talked about several other people Dora may be able to help us locate. We went shopping at Medan Fair, for some DVD's and a small daypack. Later Elder Tucker visited with Tinggi and Agus about what they needed to do to get ready for their missions. Elder Costner and Suwarsid informed us that they had returned to what we believe is Ronald's house and spoke with some additional neighbors who told them the person who lives there is rarely home and that he was about 26 or so, so it looks like we may at least have the correct location for him.
Friday we had DDM in the morning, then we all had lunch (fried chicken and rice), Elder worked on the Urinal Valve trying to see if he could repair it because he had looked and had not been able to find one that he could use to replace it with. So he took it apart last night after we got home, and left it to soak in vinegar, then boiled the rubber washer that had been incorrectly installed to see if he could reshape it. Well after he finished with the rebuild he put it back together and on the Urinal, and...it worked properly. The only problem is that now that we have water to that urinal he discovered that the urinal is poorly mounted to the wall, and it leaks when you flush it. We did Apartment inspections today, measured for plywood on bed frames so the mattresses won't sag between the bed slats (no box-springs here). We then met with and taught Raje with the sisters at the church. Raje is a homeless gentleman who has been visiting with the Sisters for about 6 weeks or so, he has a baptismal date for the 20 of April. For him being homeless only means he does not have a home to live in, he works nights at a hotel, and finds places to sleep during the day, and uses the facilities that are available to maintain his appearance, so he in no way resembles what we would consider a homeless panhandler. We also went and visited with Ibu Merry and her sons, we had a very good visit with them, the sisters shared a scripture with her and made a few comments then turned the time over to Elder for comments. So he shared some experiences with her about his coming to know the scriptures were truly the word of God, this took about 7 minutes or so and the whole conversation was in Indonesian. Ibu Merry then had more to say than we think we have ever heard her say about her feelings about the gospel, and her decision to be baptized next month. After we finished at about 8 we asked the sisters if they wanted to stop and try visiting with Lya, she hasn't answered calls or texts from the Sisters, so we thought she may have already gone back to Kuala Lumpur. The sisters were hemming and hawing, so Elder decided for them, and we headed over to where she lived as it is quite close to Ibu Merry's home. To our surprise she was still here in Medan and home, so we visited for a short time, and extended an invitation to come to church, as we are planning to take a photo of as many who show up Sunday.
Saturday we picked up the sisters to go visit Sister Desni, but she cancelled her appointment because of a political campaign she is involved in. We ended up at the church cleaning for most of the early afternoon, then taught English, it was about the language you need for discussing food and cooking. Well, all Elder had was a bowl of cereal this morning, and I hadn't had anything. Not a good subject when you are hungry. Right after English Sister agreed to take the sisters to meet a couple of people, it took us from 6:00 until 9:30 to complete our visits. The first one wasn't any more than meeting the guy at a street corner where he was parked in his becak, so headed to the other location at 6:30, finally found the place an hour north of town, after asking 6 people for directions on how to locate the address, then the person who answers tells us the person we are looking for lives elsewhere, we finally found him and visited with him, his wife and daughter, he'd Dutch and has lived here for the past 21 years. They have friends in Yogyakarta, Java who are members of the church, and provided a referral for the visit. The sisters have an appointment to go back and teach the family. Got home and had dinner.
This is our English class. I gave everyone a candy bar since we were talking about food. We had more people than we have had in a while so Elder Tucker and I didn't get one. The missionaries all come to class since 4 out of the 6 are learning English also, although they do quite well.
Sunday we had a Elder Sutarno speak and also Sister Situmorang. It was like her homecoming since this is where she was introduced to the church and still knows many of the members. We then had a combined meeting where Pres. Rico talked about some of the things he learned at a training meeting the weekend before. He talked about the what a proper tesitmony is and showed pictures of the church in Surabaya and said that that is what we are working for and that the missionaries couldn't do it alone, that they needed the members help. He also announced the date of a branch temple trip and encouraged those who could to be ready to go then. We will be going the end of July for 5 days. Two days for travel and 3 there. We also took a Branch picture after Sacrement meeting. There were quite a few people not there today. We think it might be because tomorrow is a Muslim holiday, so no school, etc. The pictures Elder took. The ones Pres. Rico took were panoramic but haven't gotten a copy of that yet. This afternoon we had Elder Davies over so he could skype home as it is Mother's day in England. Then we spent the rest of the evening at home.
This is the picture Elder took but because of the poles in the building not everyone can be seen is one picture. We don't have many primary age kids. Of the ones here only 2 are members.
Elder also took a closer picture in two parts.
Second part.
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