Minggu 33 Jakarta and Mission call

On Monday we visited with missionaries upstairs in the Mission Office, who were there to use the computers, and then all those within a reasonable distance were getting together to go ice skating and they wanted to know if we wanted to go, but we decided that we wouldn't go.  President and Sister Donald went shopping and were working in the office.  President suggested we take the afternoon and go to a movie or something if we wanted.  Well we were happier just staying in the mission home and reading and relaxing.  That evening the service couple and their advisors (the Lassen's) from Hong Kong came to the mission home for dinner and FHE.  The Bishop from the English Branch (his wife was in the states visiting with family) also came.  For FHE everyone shared some thoughts about a conference talk they enjoyed.  After everyone left Sister Donald and I visited in the kitchen and Pres. Donald and Elder visited about the Gospel together for a few hours, until well after 11.

Tuesday we left at about 7:30 AM to go to Taman Safari which is a drive through zoo and other entertainment venues in the mountains near Bogor which is a couple of hour drive south of Jakarta.  Along the narrow road to the park there were many vendors selling carrots and bananas so you can feed those animals which are allowed to wander around in several open areas of the park.  Those animals who do not play well with others are of course separated by tastefully placed gates and fencing,  there were also park "rangers" in cars with megaphones to remind anyone getting out of their cars.  In the lion and tiger areas you were advised it would be safer if you kept your windows rolled up (which we did except when we wanted to get really good photos).  I thought the display setup was actually very well done.  We did have a number of herd type animals come put their heads (at least as much of their head as would fit) through the car window opening to see if there was any food. We went with Ari (the Mission Presidents driver and he also works in the office) and his wife and baby son.  His wife had never been.  We had a very nice time with them.

 These are the bananas and carrots we bought to feed the animals

 The above pictures were all taken on the drive through part of the Taman Safari

 Elder Tucker with a Lion cub

 Elder Tucker riding an Elephant

 Sister Tucker on an Elephant

 Ari and his family on an Elephant

 They even had penguins.  It has got to be really hard to keep them cold.

 There were really alot of Muslim women dressed like this.  All covered.  In Medan, at least where we go we haven't really seen this.  They mostly just wear the head covering.

They ended up with three motorcycles in here at the same time 

Wednesday,  Early morning we went to PLD where President reviewed the instruction he had provided over the past 9 months he has been here, and basically asked what are you doing with the information and instruction you have received. I.E. SMR (referals), Carry BOM, Covenant with God, Set goals (aim higher), Keeping cupboard full/teaching pool, Effective weekly and daily planning, Use all the clubs in the bag, Area Books, Obedience/righteousness/faith.  After the conference we went back to the mission home got our luggage and caught a taxi for the trip to the airport, in the late afternoon, there is no telling how long it might take to get there so we left ourselves plenty of time for traffic.  We traveled back to Medan with our missionaries.  We arrived at our apartment in Medan a little after midnight.

At PLD(zone conferenc) the Jakarta zone and medan.  It is a really big zone.  President is considering splitting it.

Thursday we stopped by the church, discovered that Elder Costner never remembered to check the rat trap, apparently it had been caught shortly after we left about a week ago, it was the largest rat we had caught so far and to say the least he was quite ripe by the time Elder found him, he gathered him up and cleaned some then left the fan running for a day or so.  We went to the grocery store today since we were having all the missionaries, Tinggi and Septi over for dinner.  We had brought Tinggi's mission call back from Senopati with us.  Spent late afternoon putting together powerpoint and preparing to teach Temple Prep class tonight.  Then the early evening getting dinner prepared, everyone got here about 7.  After dinner, Tinggi opened his call, he reports at the same time as Agus, and will serve in Indonesia, which is what he really wanted.  That night after we taught a Temple Preparation class, Tinggi took Septi and his suitcase home on the motorcycle he uses. 

 Everyone before Tinggi opened his call

 Tinggi getting ready to open his call

Reading his call.  All the calls come in english so some need some help understanding it all.

Friday a guy stopped by looking to trim the grass at the church, so Elder put him to work as it had not been mowed (Rp 30,000) for a quite a while, for an extra Rp 10,000 had him clean the gutter on side of the property, he had already done the front as part of mowing the lawn.  We went with the Elders to visit Bro Pardede and Reza Tan (Bro Pardede went to his home and brought him over so he could visit with us) had a good visit, encouraged Reza to get together and visit with Pres Rico.  Since there was a power outage there was a lot of traffic trying to get out to Ibu Merry's.  We managed to be only 15 minutes late, which here isn't really late, it's actually considered being on time.  She wasn't home but Toyo and Roni were, we visited and read chapter 22 in the BOM with them.

Saturday we took the Elders to visit a neighbor of Sister Desni, spent about an hour there then we spent an hour visiting with Sister Desni.  This was the first time we got her to open up to share why she struggles participating at church.  Elder signed up Chaterine Hutapea & Sari Sinaga so they can access LDS.org and FamilySearch.  That afternoon we taught english to about 18 people.  We finally got the new curriculum from Hong Kong that they want us to use.  We announced in class that on the 10th of May we would start the new classes and they would be 16 weeks long.  We then took a drive to Yoseph's with the Sisters and back home, basically a two hour drive, because he wasn't at home. 

Sunday we took a taxi to church as our driver had sold his angkot.  I ended up teaching primary to the one boy who was there.  It was interesting for an hour and a half.  The internet wasn't working well so I couldn't get into an bible videos or anything like that so we read from the Book of Mormon stories, I went through a lesson from one of the manuals and we then watched the movie, Joseph Smith, Prophet of the Restoration which at least had Indonesian subtitles.  Mulai is our drivers son and is not a member.  He is probably between 7-9.  I've never gotten a good answer from anyone.  We then had Branch Council.  It began pouring rain during Church.  We were supposed to go to a birthday party for Sis. Francisca's son. She has lots of things she doesn't understand and we can explain and she still has the same questions the next time we visit.  She has started visiting with the Jehovah Witnesses.  Here they dress and look just like our Sister missionaries except without name tags.  Can be confussing.  Anyway she invited all the missionaries to his birthday party.  On our way home we decided the streets were so flooded that we would never make it to their place.  It is about a 45 minute drive on good days, so we called the Elders and had them cancel for us.  We spent a quiet night catching up on things.

The day we left for Jakarta they had a Youth activity at Pres. Rico and Sister Emmas office.  They watched 17 miracles (with Indonesian subtitles) and then they had them write their testimonies and how they felt watching it.  Sister Emma (YW Pres.) made this poster to put on the board at church.