Minggu 37

Elder woke up early monday morning with an unsettled digestive system, so we took it fairly easy. In the late afternoon we noticed a brown envelope partway under the door (mail delivery for Mission Office), received our June Liahona in English, it is only published in Indonesian about 6 times a year.  We are still waiting for our Conference Issue, it sure is nice to still have access to everything online.  Elder did locate a KJV Indonesian/Inggris Old and New Testament, so that is nice to have now.  We noticed another large white enveope in with the magazine as I was going through what was in it.  And sure enough it was Septi's mission call, so we sent an SMS to his dad, letting him know that we don't have a driver today, so they will need to come pick it up which he did. We told him he needed to SMS us when he got home and opened it so we would know where and when he reports.  We were going to go to Bro. Manalu's for a "BBQ" but since Elder din't feel so great, we decided it would be better not to go.

On Tuesday we went over to the Sisters house, and assembled the bookshelf we purchased for them last week.  Then went to go visit Sara Nababan who had spent the past day in the hospital, when we got there her mother and younger brother were there also, her younger brother Jesse 16 1/2 wants to be baptized, but for the past year or so his parents have said no.  After we had visited for a while the sisters shared a brief message about God not allowing us to be tempted above our ability to resist, from 1 Corinthians 10:13.  After a little more discussion and developing a little bit of a relationship with the mom, Elder asked as best he could, "if Jesse wanted to be baptized, would you let him"  her first response was he had already been baptized and was a member of the HPPK Church, which is a Batak Protestant Church here, with origins in Lutheranism I believe, so she didn't think it necessary.  So we continued to visit and explain a little more about the church and the apostasy and need for authority, then showed the Restoration video, and had some additional discussion and bearing of testimonies.  Mom said she had previously had a bad opinion about the church, as it was taking her children away from her, and their customs.  She said she had a much better understanding about the church and felt better about it, and gave her consent for her son to be baptized, and she would discuss it with his father and see what he thought.  At about 2 PM we dropped the Sisters off at Nias, and Elder got some lunch for us to take back to the church and eat.  As we were getting ready to eat Elder noticed, through the window, a street vendor selling bread who had stopped, made a u-turn, not an easy task on his bike and cart in front, and he paused a couple of times looking at the church and thinking, then he stopped in front of the drive, got off and was having a conversation with Bro Manalu, who was out front washing our car.  Elder could see him talking with Bro Manalu, but he kept staring at the sign on the building with the Church name, so he finally decided it might be better if he visited with him instead of Bro. Manalu.  They talked for a few minutes, and then Elder invited him to pull his cart in the driveway, and to come in the building and sit and visit about the church.  He said he has seen many different churchs in Jakarta, but he was just confused about them.  So we sat in the church and talked mostly in English, he left with a BOM and a commitment to study and come to church this Sunday, also gave Elder his contact information so the Elders can visit with him in the near future.  Shortly after this I mentioned that the internet wasn't working in the building, so Elder went upstairs, and noticed the kitchen blender sitting on the floor up there, also that someone had tried to open the door on the supply cabinet without using the key, so opened the door and everything was okay so straightened the door and relocked it then headed downstairs without checking the internet. Elder figured the missionaries or someone was using the blender and just didn't bother to put it back in the kitchen downstairs.  After a few minutes he remembered the internet and was on his way up the stairs when Bro. Manalu asked something about the Keyboard.  He thought he was asking why it didn't work, or if he could play it (which Elder thought was strange, because he always practices on it when we are here), so he went back down stairs again to see that someone had taken it, so started to see where they may have put it, so went into the RS/SS room just off the chapel, and it wasn't there, but then again neither was the new flat screen TV we got just before conference. It finally dawned on him that someone had gotten into the building and stolen most of the electronics they thought were worth taking, or that they could handle.  He went back upstairs and checked the office. The door was locked, so he checked the young men's room and discovered how they got in. They kicked in the bars that were on the window, and broke the window framing, and climbed in that way and took much of the stuff out that way.  Elder then went back and checked on the office and looked in the window in the door, and saw that everything had been broken open and gone through.  So he unlocked the door and checked it out, they took both video projectors that were locked in the file box, the computer off the desk, and the DVD player that was still in the box in the cabinet.  The door to the outside was unlocked, but wasn't broken, so I still struggled in understanding how they got in until I looked up and saw that they broke in through the ceiling, they had gone into the overhead through the primary room and then down into the office, and out the door with the supplies.  So most of our evening revolved around the building.

Wednesday most of the day was spent cleaning up the mess left behind at the church and putting together the information for the Mission Office and to submit a Police Report for insurance purposes.  After putting together an inventory list, the two Indonesian Elders, went to the police station, to try and file the report, but after a few hours there they were told they needed a letter from the church stating the property was taken.  So we had to get a copy of the letter Pres Rico went home to prepare to send to the Mission Office.  He sent the two Indonesian Elders because he was afraid they would take advantage of the situation and charge for the service if a buleh and or Chinese person wanted to file a police report.  We also had the missionaries over for dinner since some of them were leaving the next day.  We had Hawaiian haystacks since Sister Believe had given us some noodles that were like chow mein noodles in taste that her mother had sent her.

Thursday we took an early morning trip to the airport to take Elder Costner and the sisters to catch their planes, Sister Believe is going also so she can pick up her new companion who is arriving from the MTC in Provo.  We also tried to see if we could bring Elder Headrick back into town, but we never were able to figure out what his flight schedule was.  So he just had to catch a taxi or the train to get here.  We then spent the afternoon and evening working on English class, and preparing to teach priesthood this coming Sunday. 

Friday our tutor sent an email letting us know that the servers in the MTC are out so we won't be working on language with him this morning.  We attended DDM this morning and early afternoon, had lunch and took Elders Headrick and Suwarsid so they could visit with the Manullangs, They were able to learn a lot about the difficulties Sister Manullang is experiencing. We then visited with Jonathan Hutapea and his father, out of the blue his dad asked if it was okay, and if Stanley was old enough to be baptized, because if he was he was willing to give his permission.  Which is interesting as about every 2 or 3 months we ask him and he always says no he is not old enough.  And Stanley has not been allowed to attend church because the families old preacher came over to the home and had a long discussion about them being bad parents for allowing their children to stop attending the families church, the mom and dad both got excited and stopped Stanley from coming to church again.  So we thought it might be a good idea to review the lessons with Stanley and see if he still wants to be baptized.  On our way home we dropped the Elders off at a hotel for a concert that Elizabeth Nainggolan was performing in.  It was about 8 so we headed home for the night after we dropped them off.

Saturday, after stopping by Gramedia we helped clean the building.  Elder had Bro. Manalu go get gas for the car, buy bottled water for our apartment, and get some screws and nails so he could reinstall the window bars in the classroom upstairs.  Then we got the building setup for seminary / institute and English Class.  Today we had 20 people in intermediate English, and 3 in basic English.  That evening we took the Elders to dinner at Nias.

Today was pretty normal.  We did have five boys in primary.  After church we had branch council meeting.  Then Elder and Pres. Rico went up stairs to finish things up.  While they were up there one of the branch members got a call about Sis. Desni having emergency surgery so Pres. Rico, Elder and I and the Relief Society Pres. went to the hospital to visit the family while they waited for the surgery to end.  While we were there they came out and said that they had to pay 1,000,000rp (about 100 dollars).  It was for plasma and they needed to pay for the it right then.  She was still not out of surgery when we left.  We haven't heard anything yet.                  

No pictures this week.  Just didn't get any.

We are so grateful that Lynnette was sealed to her family on friday.  We are so lucky to have her in our family.

Minggu 36

On Monday we took our P-day and had the Elders and Sisters over for breakfast so that Elder Costner could call home for Mothers day.  I was able to talk to my mother and all of our kids and grandkids today or else yesterday or last week.  It was wonderful.  Miss them so much.  We also studied, cleaned, relaxed and ate.

Tuesday we spent the day at the church where we cleaned a little, Elder did some computer work as we had a family move from Semarang Branch and it looked good initially, but based on what he saw in the records, he is guessing they are inactive and their residence is about a two hour drive to the east, over on the coast.  The power went out at about 4.  We stayed at the building just in case someone stopped by, but finally at about 6 it was getting warmer than either of us cared for, and Elder didn't want to set up the generator, so we headed for home.  We thought we would walk to the Sun Plaza, and see if they had a book I could read in Indonesian and have a copy in English also to help learn the language.  Just as we were walking over the river outside our apartment, I asked about it maybe starting to rain, and Elder didn't think much about it, as he didn't think it really looked like rain when he looked out while we were in the apartment.  Not more than 10 seconds passed and we felt a few drops, then within 30 seconds, the sky opened up and poured rain on us.  Fortunately a becak stopped just in front of us so we paid for a ride to the mall.  The book I got to read was "The Lightning Thief", thought you would like to hear that Brody.  While we were at the mall we also got a pizza at Pizza Hut for dinner.  Walked to the front of the mall to leave stepped outside and it was still pouring, so decided to catch a cab and head for home.

Wednesday Elder had Presidency meeting with Pres. Rico at noon, then Elder Tucker and I went with the Sisters who had scheduled 5 appointments out in the Mandala area.  First with Cindy & Chaterine Hutapea, who were not home, (I think they went to church to attend Seminary Class) so we taught their parents and older sister.  We then went to see  Sister Ezra, she also was not home. Visited with a fairly new investigator, Tiraimin.  We had a very good discussion covering about the 1st third of the plan of salvation discussion.  She had a lot of well thought out questions, which the sisters, (for whatever reason) wanted me to be the one to answer.  We then headed to Nuramauali who is the sister to Tiraimin from the previous appointment, on the way there the sisters asked what Elder thought they should do with her as an investigator, I suggested that if she is still unwilling to do any of the things they ask during the week between visits, I would think it appropriate to let her know that they cannot continue to visit and teach until she starts keeping some of her commitments, because it was just occupying their time and not the best use of it.  Well today she said she didn't have time to meet, because she was busy and had a lot of work to complete, but that she had completed her assignment for the week. The last thing we did was teach Ririn (Bro. Manalu's daughter) and her friend who has been coming to church with her the past two or three weeks.  He does live in quite humble circumstances, as Elder understands, it is a house he put together a few feet back from the train tracks, there were 8 of us in the room, and sitting on the floor we occupied most of the empty space, it looks like there are three small loft type areas for the kids to sleep in, and he and his wife get the floor below.  But because it is an illegal residence, they don't pay any thing for it, and theirs is just one of the many that line the tracks.   

Thursday,  Went out to visit with the Mendrofa's and deliver their letter to them.  Elder Tucker and I went without taking the young missionaries as support.  We thought we might just drop the letter off and leave so they could read it, the whole family was home so we ended up going in and visiting for a while.  Surprisingly we were able to communicate on a few different subjects in Indonesian, without having the young missionaries for support.  Late that afternoon we took Elder Davies and Suwarsid (who were on splits) to a scheduled appointment to visit with Bro. Simanjuntak.  We got there and found no one home, or at least no one was answering the door.  So we waited at the door for a while but finally gave up and went back to the car.  As we were setting in the car, his neighbor, (she is Bro. Simanjuntak's sister-in-law I believe) rode by on a motorbike and waved to get our attention, so we had the Elders go visit with her and see what she knew.  She told us that Bro. Simanjuntak was headed home, and would be their shortly, so we waited to see if he was going to come.  He did so we visited and the Elders shared a brief message they had prepared and turned the remainder of the time to me.  Concluded our visit with him and his second son, who usually joins us when we come by.  Bro Simanjuntak's older brother from Bekasi (suburb of Jakarta) was also there (in town for the funeral the previous week) and listened to what we had to say.  The Elders then concluded the visit, prayed and were ready to go, so I thought I had waited long enough and asked his brother if he knew anything about our church, to which he responded "No, what's the name of your church?" So with that we were able to move into a discussion about some of the church's teachings and share a copy of the BOM with him.  He lives in the same area where Elder Costner is being transferred to next week, but he may live an hour drive away from the church, that may sound like a long distance but in Jakarta that is not necessarily true, it took us about an hour to travel a few kilometers to our hotel in a little heavier than normal traffic.  After we got to the car the Elders and I had a discussion about not missing opportunities to see if someone is interested in learning about the gospel.

Friday we met with our tutor for about 45 min., then we picked up Elders Costner and Davies to go to University of St. Thomas (a Catholic University) to be guests at an English class.  Our assignment was to spend the class period responding, in English, to questions from class members.  And of course the many photos that needed to be taken before and after the class.  They love taking pictures here and what are called selfies.  They are always doing that.  When we left, the girls who had invited us (students in our english class) gave us two small cakes and me an Ulos, which is a traditional Batak cloth that is draped over the shoulder or shoulders during ceremonies, ie: weddings, funerals.  They also tried to give us money but we said we did not need money and we were glad to help them.  We then headed to the church for our weekly DDM, followed by lunch at about 2:00 and the cakes.  That evening Sister Tucker and I went to the Medan Fair Mall to see if we could get a desk chair and bookshelves for the Sisters apartment.  We also stopped at the DVD store that the missionaries kept telling us they liked to get a TV Program series in English with Indonesian subtitles.  We ended up getting 3 seasons of "Eureka" so we could watch as occasion allows.  As we entered the store the two employees said hello to us and said we must be Elder Costner's friends.  So I ended up visiting with them and a married couple, who were also looking for some DVD's, about the church.  Ended up getting the couples contact information so the Elders can schedule an appointment to visit and teach them, and also provided contact information to another customer who joined in the conversation.  We stopped at an electronics store and purchased a portable power source to charge phones or other electronic devices that need power.  Then got the chair and bookshelves and headed for home and dinner.

 In the class room.  Some of the students, waiting for class to begin.  

 They all wanted their pictures taken with us.  Elder Davies was the hit though.  Some of the girls almost swooned when he was introduced.  It was quite funny.  He was so uncomfortable.  He had most of his pictures taken with his hands up because they wanted to hold his hands or hang on him.

 Coming back from finding a bathroom.  Anywhere we go they give you at least water to drink if not soda or juice.  Getting better at waiting when at all possible.

The girls who invited us to come to their class.  5 of them come to our English class, also.  It is a pretty large campus.

On saturday we spent a couple of hours helping the Relief Society sisters clean the church, then Elder moved tables and set up the class room for me to be able to teach my English class today.  I spent some time going over some files that Sis. Imelda asked me to review.  They were assessments from here school she has to do in English.  I had spent most of my spare time this week working on the new English lessons and getting ready for Primary.  Elder had a 2 hour meeting scheduled with the Seminary & Institute Director for Indonesia, so he could do In-service training with our two teachers here.  So I was completely on my own for English today.  The two English speaking Elders taught a beginning class to about 5 or 6 students, and I had about 18 in my class including the 2 Indonesian Elders.  It went quite well.  I think they liked playing go fish the best once they learned and got the hang of how to play.  The basic instruction in the In-service lesson was on the pride cycle in the BOM, Elder is not sure if Sister Imelda (who had to teach a 15 minute lesson as part of the instruction) intended to try and get a message through to a brother who was to be in attendance and is struggling with that issue or not, but it was a well timed message.  Bro. Paul Simanungkalit continued the theme using 4th Nephi for his source.  We then closed up the building and headed home for the night.  So for a week that was fairly slow in getting started, after Tuesday we were able to make some meaningful contacts and spend our time in more than preparation for teaching opportunities we have coming up.  After we got home Elder had to focus on the language he was going to have to use to conduct Sacrament meeting tomorrow and I went over final preperations for Primary and typed and printed the Sacrement meeting program.

Sunday we took a taxi to and from church.  Our numbers seem to be struggling these past few weeks.  We are back down in the 40's for attendence.  We have lost some of our newly baptized members who have had to go back to their villages.  We are trying to stay in contact with them through facebook and texting.  Giving them encouragement and suggestions.  We had no children show up today so I met with the primary people for a few minutes and told the new music person I would show her some ways to teach the songs next week and gave her her own music book.  I also showed her the app she could download to hear what the songs sound like.  Our Primary room has no keyboard or anything.  They have never taught the kids songs before.  They just pass out books to everyone.  Anyway we were all able to go to sunday school and Relief Society.  We hung out after church for a while and visited with some of the youth.  We talked about how important it is to get an education. We then went home and relaxed.  We were out of bread and hadn't made it to the bakery so I decided to make some. It came out pretty good but the knives we have kind of cut it.  We watched some BYUtv global that I can get on my computer.  Hope everyone has a great week.  We love you all.

Minggu 35

On Monday I spent most of the day putting together the information for the new Intermediate English Class we will be teaching.  We did the laundry, relaxed and studied the rest of the day.

On Tuesday we were out trying to locate where a member of the branch lives, but only had a little more success than previously.  We at least think we found the Gang he lives/lived on which, it is in the same area we had looked previously only the people along the Jalan say that the Gang has changed names over the years, only no one they talked to recognized the name of the person.  In the early afternoon while still looking for Bro. Barus, Elder got a text that Bro. Simanjuntak's wife (43 year old mother of 9) had died, so we headed over to their home to visit with Bro. Simanjuntak and family, his wife had not been doing well for a week or so, and was in the hospital because she had a stroke, but they misdiagnosed her problem and were treating her for something else, and because of the families limited funds they use government health care, which only allows 3 day hospital stays, and then you have to leave and be readmitted.  By the time we arrived there were nurses at their home preparing her for burial.  We had Bro. Manalu take the sisters to go to a couple of appointments, so after our visit with Bro Simanjuntak we got a ride with President Rico who brought the Elders, because he did not know where the house was, back to the church. They are planning the funeral for Thursday.  We visited with Sister Susana and her kids in the late afternoon.  That evening we went shopping because our apartment had little food available for meals, and then headed for home. 

Wednesday,  we got up very early to take a taxi to the church and be there by 4 AM,  President Rico decided that he could go to the airport with us to take Tinggi and Agus, so he was willing to drive.  He got to the church about 4:15, loaded up and went down the street to pick up Agus.  His aunt and cousin also wanted to come so they talked about how we could all fit, then loaded them in the vehicle and transported Harto to Medan Fair Mall, where he was going to take public transportation to the airport with several other branch members.  We then had Agus give us directions to get to Tinggi's where we picked him and his parents up.  We got on the road a little after 5 and drove through town and right past our apartment.  We got to the airport, took lots of photos, said our goodbyes and our missionaries boarded their plane, and we departed for the city.  Got home had some breakfast, studied, took a nap, and then headed to the church for Presidency meeting.  That afternoon we met with Ali Reza and family.  They are struggling with UN red-tape and getting refugee status here after a 2 year wait without receiving any answers, other than you just have to wait, while they can't work here but only receive an allowance, but live in 2 rooms of a multi family structure, and got a cancer diagnosis from a local Dr.  We offered the advice and comfort & friendship we could.

 Agus and Tinggi in front of the airport sign

Tinggi with his mom and dad and Agus with his mom and dad as he calls us.

Thursday we attended the Funeral of Magdalena Simanjuntak we only stayed from noon till one, it started at 10 AM and was scheduled to go until 4 PM, while there we were able to go into the home to offer our condolences (an opportunity which many use as an opportunity to teach a sermon) to the family, this is done over the sound system and broadcast to the remainder of the attendees (~150 people) who are seated in the yard and street outside the family residence. Most of those in attendance probably spoke Indonesian, but the whole funeral was in Batak, so we understood even less than we usually do. It was kind of fun to remind the sister missionaries who were also there, that they were experiencing a very similar experience to what Sister Tucker and I go through most of the time, so I made my comments in English.  We then went to the hospital that Sister Desni had checked into. It appeared to be a better facility but I am not sure she is getting improved treatment, they are still not sure what the problem is, although she appears to be experiencing internal bleeding, they say they may operate in order to see what is going on. In the evening we had a very good visit with a family (Hutagallung) who Elder Sutarno and Davies contacted from their record book that had not been contacted in about 4 years, they had been taught 3 times, and because they live so far from the building were unable to attend at the time, so we will see if they are willing to put forth the effort to come to church this time.  On the way home we stopped at Nias and had some dinner.

Friday we met for an hour with our Tutor and then attended DDM, we also had lunch of course. I went to the office supply store and then did some preparation work for English tomorrow.  We picked up the Sisters and went up to see the Harefa family and showed them the DVD "The Restoration".  There is usually a good spirit there when we visit with them but it was even better tonight,  so after the video, we asked for their comments and both Bro and Sister Harefa said it brought back feeling they had when they joined the church, now we will have to see if that will transition into action on their part this coming Sunday.  On the way home Elder told Sister Believe if she and her companion were hungry, she could decide where we would get some dinner, She decided to stop at a street vendor and get some martabak, a wonderful dessert, Yes, but a dinner, No.  So we had a grilled cheese sandwich when we got home.

We cleaned the building on Saturday and then got set up for English and decided to bring tables in from the various rooms so they could use them for writing on, this may seem like an easy task, but we don't have folding tables.  Our tables are heavy solid wooden tables, some having to come from upstairs, on stairs that are uneven.  We had 19 people in our class today.  After English we went to see how things were going with Alos, who is an investigator who likes to visit with the Elders and learn but he doesn't do very good on any follow through, other than come to church occasionally.  Well he had a couple of friends who had been taught previously, and three young ladies, one of which was his younger sister,  so we showed "The Restoration" and had a good discussion afterwards.  Alos's sister being the one who asked the most appropriate questions.  Then we took the Elders and met the Sisters at Koki Sunda for dinner.

 Most of our English class

The rest of the class.  About 1/2 are members.  The others are just people who come to take advantage of the free english or are investigators.

I ordered a taxi for Sunday morning.  We went to church and spent the first 20 minutes or so getting things set up and turning things on.  During Sacrament meeting I was called as the new Primary President.  I have one counselor, Ruf who is great but has only just come back to church after a year of being away.  We also just got a music person called (Fenny) who was just baptized about 5 months ago.  I will be trying to train them and see if we can get some sort of schedule going.  We can have any where from 0 to 8 or so kids.  We had 6 today.  Three are members but their parents aren't.  It should be interesting trying to communicate with them all.  We use google translate and all try to remember to talk slowly.  We will get it to work somehow.  

Happy Mother's Day to all the women out there.  We are so grateful for our opportunity to serve the Lord and the people in Medan.  There is such a need in all missions, especially missions outside the states.  It is an experience that I would not change.  We love the people here and want them to have the chance to here about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We love you all.  Thank you for your support.

Minggu 34

On Monday we spent most of the day at home paying bills and catching up on things.  In the late afternoon we went to the church to check on things and to be there when the internet guy came out to try and fix the churches internet.  I didn't get done so he has to come back tomorrow.  Then we stopped by the Elders home so Elder Tucker could fix a bed that they had broken.  We then took a bike key to the other Elders who had forgotten theirs.  Luckily, their appointment wasn't to far away.
Tuesday we had to be at the church by 10 am so the internet guys could come back.  I went to Carrefore to get somethings that the Sisters needed replacing in their house. (a new fan, a rice cooker (everyone has one here), and a new water dispenser).  The internet guys showed up about 11:00 am after I had gotten back from the store. I went out with the Sisters to visit Sister Mendrofa and Sister Teng.  Our next appointment rescheduled for another day so we dropped the Sisters off at their house and I went back to the Church.  We headed home about 5:30 so I could get some cookies made for Tinggi, Agus and Septi, who were coming over for lesson 4 in the temple prep class.  We have really enjoyed working with these boys to get them out on their missions.
Wednesday Elder Tucker had a Presidency meeting at the church at noon.  Boy we are getting old. Neither of us can remember what we did in the late afternoon or evening this day.  This is what happens when you don't write things down.  Our schedule is so up in the air that I have to put things in the calender after the fact most times.  We got home late and then I had to make two loaves of Banana Nut Bread for the YSA activity the next morning.
Thursday we were supposed to be at the church by 7am for the YSA activity so we could leave by 8am.  We left at about 8:30 am to go to a park called Kampung Ladang.  It was about an hour drive to get there.  We had a lesson prepared by the Institute Instructor/Relief Society President. Elder Tucker got to give an opening thought as the Branch President was delayed getting there. After the lesson we took some pictures of the group and then had a snack.  After that they played some games.  Some getting to know you better games and then just some fun other ones.  After that Pres. and Sister Sinaga came with lunch.  Then the youth were given an hour or so to just go have fun with some of the things that the park offered.  Later that afternoon we went with the Sisters to visit Pak Jhoni and his family.  He has been an off and on again investigator for quite awhile.  He really likes to speak English with the missionaries and I think that is what started it.  He had some questions for Elder Tucker about the Book of Mormon and the Bible.  Elder Tucker did a really good job explaining it using the Bible to show his points.  He got them to commit to come to church and start reading to Book of Mormon which he had never done before.  We then went to Ibu Nuramali and the Sisters talked to her about keeping commitments and such as they are considering dropping her as she is not progressing or keeping here commitments.  We then headed home at about 9pm.

 During the lesson, looking up scriptures

 Elder Tucker ended up in the middle and some how it ended up girls against guys for these games

 The girls, notice the piece of newspaper they had to stand on and not be on the grass at all.

 The boys built the tallest tower out of newspaper

 This is the whole group that was at the YSA activity except Elder who was taking the picture

Friday we had our tutor in the morning and then we had DDM and then lunch like we almost always do.  We then went with the Elders to visit Sister Desni who was in the hospital.  The Elders and Elder Tucker gave her a blessing and we visited for awhile.  We then went back to our apartment for a little while and then went and picked up the Sisters and went to Harefas.  On the way to the Harefas, which is about an hour drive, we stopped and bought a birthday cake as it was Sister Harefas birthday. This is the family we have been visiting since we got to Medan.  We have gotten them to come back to church a few times. The children really like being there.  We just have to get the parents to make that commitment.

The Harefa Family

Saturday we spent the morning at the apartment since I needed to work on things for English class and also work on the new English curriculum we were given from Sister Gong.  It is a 16 week course.  We will start this class next Saturday.  It is an intermediate level and uses mormon messages and lots of games and activities.  We will see how it goes.  I also spent some time finding things in case I needed to do something for primary.  We then went to the church and worked some more and got ready for English class.  We had 5 students who came and one missionary. The Indonesian missionaries like to sit in on the classes as they are supposed to learn English also. Sister Imelda showed up just as class was over and wanted me to help her with some reports she was doing in English.  She is a preschool age teacher of English.  After that we went home.
Sunday we took a taxi to church.  Rick conducted the fast and testimony meeting.  I bore my testimony in Indonesian.  I was challenged to do it by our tutor.  I also taught the second hour of primary with the Sisters.  We had 2 children of some investigators there.  That was the whole primary today.  The President moved to Jakarta in February and they haven't replaced her yet. They ones that do it sometimes usually let them all go after the first hour so they can go to Relief Society so then the children just run free the last hour.  We are slowly working on changing that. After that we had a break the fast and a combined goodbye for the two Young Men leaving Wednesday for their missions.  I made a big pot of spaghetti.  I guess it was ok because they ate all of it.  President Rico then brought us home after they finished doing tithing.  We have spent a quiet night at home.  One of the few nights we are ever home.