Monday we woke up to a fairly heavy rain fall, we're not sure they will be making the hike today, we'll have to check with the young missionaries and see if they went or not. Talked to them later in the week and they went and had a great time. Elder called and visited with his parents this morning and had a good visit. I called my father this evening for his birthday. We did our normal Monday P-day things. Laundry, preparing for English, primary and PEF classes.
On Tuedsay Elder got a little computer work done at the church before the power went out for several hours. We ran the generator but it wasn't keeping the air conditioning running and the internet, so he gave up on the computer until later when the power came back on. I met with four of the YSA woeking on their workbooks for PEF, and Elder Mendrofa (Batasi) joined the group. He just got home on Sunday so he isn't yet sure what direction he wants to head in (not a big surprise there). Have seen a number of posts from other Elders who recently returned home, we had about 17 go home this past weekend. I guess Elder Costner lost 2 suitcases (the ones that had his souvenirs in them) somewhere on trip home. Hope they have found them by now. At about 2 pm Septi was supposed to come and have a little farewell gathering, but by 4:30h e was still a no show, so everyone got together and had a late lunch (PBK, traditional grilled pork meal) without him.
The two Elders with a bunch of the Young single adults eating grilled pork
On Wednesday we had an early morning, we got up about 3am and went with Pres. Rico and Septi's famiyto take him to the airport and send him on his way to Senopati. We got everyone back home, and Elder Tucker and I decided it would be a good day to rest and get some of the planning/preparation type things done, so we headed back to the apartment. We finished a chapter in the BOM, and Elder worked on putting together a proposal for a "Member Short-Term Project" he has identified 9 families in the branch he thinks could benefit from a "self-reliance" project where they are given a number of young chickens to raise and see if they can use them as a start to produce additional food/financial relief for their families. He still needs to get some surveys for the individual families and the branch completed.
Septi and his family in front of the Airport sign
The soon to be Elder Sinaga
On Thursday we spent the day at the church. Elder visited with Steven for about an hour, and then in the evening we did our grocery shopping at Brastagi's. Elder got a call from Ari telling him that the HTC service center in Jakarta couldn't work on his "American" HTC phone, so we'll have to go out and find a new phone I guess. Then stick his "American" phone in a bag of rice and leave it there till we're ready to go home and see if it has dried out enough to work.
On Friday we had DDM with new missionaries in the morning then had lunch together. We then went to Sun Plaza and bought a new Samsung Galaxy phone, and also stopped in at a optics shop to get a replacement lens for Elders glasses, but it looks like they will only make it for reading, not sure he will get any of the adjustments for the stigmatism in his left eye. Oh well, at least he will have a backup pair of glasses.
On Saturday Steven was to come to church at noon, but never showed up, guess he could have gone into work, and that would be a good thing. Later because it was a national holiday weekend we didn't have a lot of people come to English. We had the assignment to make "Es Buah" again for a branch activity, celebrating their independence day (17 August) from the Dutch, we were able to get all of the fruit except the sirsak (sour fruit) which is usually readily available at almost any time of year, we looked and had our driver look, and he was only able to find one fruit, and it was a little overly ripe, well along in the fermentation process. So we only use the 1/2 of one that we had left over from the previous Sunday when we made it for when the Broberg's came to dinner. Also we tried it a little different this time, we put a couple of 2 liter bottles of Sprite on the table so you could mix it with the "Es Buah" if you wanted, well it looks like it was a good idea, cause most people did mix the two together, and it was all consumed before the evenings activities were over. We did have a couple of people come to the activity who have not been there in quite some time, 1) Julyana Maya Sary Aritonang who was an active member here in Medan 4 years ago, but has been in Malaysia for the past 4 years going to school and working, she has just moved back to Medan, also 2) Lina Naibaho, who lives across the street from the church, but is usually in Jakarta, so this was her first time at an activity in some time, the Sister missionaries had visited with her a couple of days ago, 3)Maria Sinaga, who I still have not figured out who she is. The activity was great fun. Everyone had a good time. Sister Sinaga made the food for dinner, again. She does a very good job. I just stay away from any extra sauce or spices because it is plenty hot for me already.
One of the games. This is the men but the kids had a turn and so did us women. I also participated. They are eating what is kind of like a rice cake but made from long swirls.
Mulah is our Drivers son who was just baptized. He has a nail at the end of the ribbon, trying to get it into the bottle.
Elder Tucker having his turn. This I didn't do. Wouldn't be easy in a skirt.
The Elders, Elder Tucker, Elder Barlow (Bountiful, Ut), our just returned Elder (brother) Mendrofa, and Elder Pujianto (Bekasi)
The Sisters, Sister Believe (Manado) she goes home next month, Sister Wihanda (Semarong) spent a year at BYU-Hawaii and myself
Sunday we probably had the lowest turnout for church since we have been here. Lots of people have celebrations for their independence day. The schools, the neighborhoods, the government and the churches so lots pulling people away. I had only one investigator in primary. When we got to church on Sunday morning Elder noticed that the door to the storage room, font area was not locked. At first we thought maybe our driver hadn't locked it because he used that door alot but on further looking around I noticed that our TV was gone again. Elder went up stairs and found where someone had broken in again. We think it is the same people. They came prepared with a screw driver this time and used it to get in when they couldn't get in where they had last time. They totally chopped the wood up around the door handle until it all came off and then tore a whole in the screen door to open it. They did not get into Presidents office this time at least. The only other thing we have found that they took was the propane tank for our stove in the kitchen. At least they didn't get the keyboards this time. We got one that is attached to the base and is alot bigger and heavier so maybe they didn't have time to try and get it. We also keep the projector at or apartment for right now so they didn't get it either. Such fun. It could be just about anyone. We are always having people watch us as we come and go from the building. We had the 2 Elders over for dinner so they could go over the maps and branch lists to learn more about their areas and the people in them since they each get their new companions on Wednesday and then they are both training.
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