Minggu 30

Monday the hike the Elders were all going on today was cancelled, so we spent our morning getting things done around our apartment, studied and put together a powerpoint presentation for the first lesson on Temple Prep, which we will start with 4 young people who are at various stages of mission calls.  Discovered today that Tinggi's paperwork is held up in Hong Kong with Elder Funk, because he has decided they need an identified amount that the missionary is able to contribute before he will forward the papers to SL.  It is unfortunate that he decided to make the decision without providing notice that he was planning to do that, it would make it much easier in talking to young men and women as they are doing the paperwork.  In the past they have not required any participation on the individual missionaries part, and they aren't asking for a lot, just an amount that represents a sacrifice on the part of the potential missionary, because in most cases they live at a much higher standard of living as missionaries than they have ever lived before.  Tinggi (18) & Agus (19) both work but, as both are on their own and much of what they earn goes to just surviving.  Agus has no living mother and his father has not been around since he was very young, and Tinggi's parents do not support him in his being a member of the church.  So we are looking into what things we might be able to "employ" them in doing to earn an amount that will be acceptable.  We communicated this to Pres. Donald, and he said he would get Tinggi's papers forwarded based on the information we had provided.  We went to Sister Ezra's home tonight for a FHE,  they had killed one of her pigs that morning, that was the evenings dinner.  There were about 35 people there.  We had Tinggi and Agus stop by the house to give Tinggi the shoes I don't wear, so he can use them for his mission.

 Ronald, Harto , Jonathan and Stanley watching the pork cook

 This is what we had. Pork, rice, chicken, vegetables in a broth with chicken and a pineapple, onion and other things concoction.  The bowls of water are to clean your fingers before and after you eat.

Sister Believe, Chaterine, Cindy and their father (who is not a member) and our driver Bro. Manalu

Tuesday we got some cables purchased so we could hook General Conference broadcast up to the sound system in a couple of weeks.  Also did some paper and computer work at the church.  In the evening we went with Elder Costner & Suwarsid to visit with Bro. Pardede, had a good visit about Sabbath observance.  About 8:30 we stopped at Nias and got some dinner to go, as there were no tables left to sit at, the other Elders also showed up there to get themselves some dinner.

Wednesday, since our internet decided to stop working on Tuesday night, we wondered if they turned it off again, because they decided we hadn't paid on time.  Earlier last month we went to the office and tried to pay them, and they said come back after the fifth of April and we could pay our bill.  Well they had not turned it off, and I guess it was just out for 12 hours or so.  We then took the Sisters to go visit Yanti, who was baptized a couple of weeks ago, Spent the late afternoon at the church building and then went and did our shopping at Brastagi.  While there a couple with 2 children came up and introduced themselves and asked if we would help them with their English, they said they were from Iran, so we invited them to our English class, that we have on Saturdays.

This is the view from Sarah's room at her kost.  We met in her room with Yanti, her friend who also lives at the kost.

Thursday,  Sister Tucker went with a couple of Elders and our driver to go see Sister Ezra & then Djoni who visits with the Elders, more to learn English than anything else.   That evening Elder Tucker had an appointment to visit with Agus so he stayed at the building waiting for him to come at 5, he actualy got there at a little after 4, then Tinggi got there, we needed to talk about how they could save enough money to contribute to their mission costs.  That night we went to see Ibu Merry, but she was not there, so we just visited with Toyo and Roni.

Friday we had DDM in  the morning and Padang for lunch.  This afternoon sent Elders Sutarno & Davies with our driver to an appointment with Daniel and Jesse.  The other Elders headed out to Mandala to see a couple of people, and Rorot was one of them.  While they were gone Tinggi and Rorot pulled up on the motorbike, Rick sent the Elders a text letting them know that he was at the church.  Agus got there at the same time on his way home from work, so they removed the burned out florescent bulbs, and they went to the store to get new ones, then we worked to replace them.  One of the fixtures blew out the two bulbs we put in, so he'll have to see if there is a short or something that is doing it, before we try another bulb.  Rick sent them to get another bulb and a couple of new starters for the light in the room with the font.  On our way home we stopped at Gramedia(book store and office supply) and picked up ink for filling whiteboard markers.  While Rick was filling the whiteboard markers the dropper attachment came off, and ink spilled all over the glass table, floor, his feet, and papers that were on the table.  It took us about an hour to get the floor and everything cleaned up.  It was a lot harder to get cleaned up than we thought whiteboard marker should take to clean up.

Saturday we cleaned up the church a little.  Discovered that the marker ink that we bought last night was not whiteboard marker but instead was ink for a permanent marker.  I guess that is why the floor in our apartment was so hard to clean, Rick ended up using bleach to try and get the ink out of the polished stone flooring.  After an hour it looks acceptable, you can see a little shadow still but I think it will fade...we hope it will fade.  There was a fireside at church on Family History, and the Iranian couple that we met while shopping Wednesday night at Brastagi came for English, well with the unannounced Fireside on Family History at the same time, we invited them to listen to the presentation, translated into English for them by Elder Costner.  Surprisingly they have a great time, We think more because they are refugees here, and do not speak the language, and have almost no interaction with other people, as refugees they are not allowed to work, but receive a check from the government here, and will move on to the US or Canada in 6 months to 2 years.  In the mean time they are climbing the walls.  They are both Muslim, but happy to visit with the Elders but my guess is that it is more just for the social interaction than learning about the church.  

Sunday we took a taxi to Church since Bro. Manalu's daughter had something at her school that they all need to be at.  We had about 62 at church again.  The Herefa family including dad came to church today.  That is the family that we got to commit to come to church at least once a month.  They live about an hour away and only have a flat bed becak for transportation.  Elder and I taught the temple prep. class to the Agus, Tinggi and Septi.  We then had a break the fast with cakes and breads to eat.  The missionaries came for dinner and we had chicken enchiladas, chips and salsa, refried beans and black beans and Mexican rice and tomatoes and cucumbers sliced up.  We also had brownies for dessert.  The flour tortillas and corn tortillas(for chips) were made from scratch as was the salsa.  Thanks to Jesse and Camry for sending us the Masa so we could make the corn tortillas.  While they were eating we watched One man's treasure which was about some missionaries looking for a treasure.  It was pretty good and we liked it because it is like our district with two sets of Elders and one set of Sisters.

President Rico emailed us a copy of the Branch picture that he took with his panoramic camera.

We wish there could have been more there but some regulars were not there that week.  At least 8 - 10 people who usually are at church weren't there that week.

 

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