Minggu 72

On Monday we had a wonderful day of resting and getting things ready for the coming week.

On Tuesday we went to District Meeting, had lunch and let Elder Barlow have Facebook time to work on the Misionari Medan site.  We spent the afternoon and evening checking out referrals with the Elders.  Unfortunately they were referrals that had been sent on a previous occasion, and visits were already made to these people.   

On Wednesday we bought a "Kembang Goyang" which is a snowflake shaped metal mold to make deep fried cookies. Then we headed to the church and spent our day there and headed home for the evening.  

On Thursday we were able to get Mei to come by the building and bring her mission papers, so we could go over what she needs to finish up to get them submitted.  Later in the day the Electrician came and did some rewiring for the building using a heavier gage wire, then started calling the government to come check out their line running to the building.  I went shopping while they were at the building waiting for the Government Electrician to check out the power.  Elder also dropped off music books that we were having copied so I can teach a couple of additional music lessons.  

Friday morning we went to the Elder's & Sister's homes for inspections.  Then over to the church, to wait for the government electrician to check out our power, he never came.  We let the elders use the computer for facebook time on the Medan missionary site, while they did that Elder finished mowing the lawn & went to  pick up music books for me.  Later we split with Elder Zollinger and we visited with Edi, and then split with Elder Barlow so the other two Elders could go to another appointment because Lucas was stuck in traffic on his way to the church so Elder Barlow, Elder, Bro Manalu and I could teach Lucas. It was quiet hot and humid as the power in the neighborhood was out.  It lasted over 5 hours.  The sisters also have a baptism scheduled for the same day, 31 January.  

On Saturday we found out that Mei had made it to immigration but found out she needs one additional piece of documentation before they will process her passport.  She also got in to see Pres. Rico for her dental checkup.  I taught 2 keyboard lessons today, and then we had an English class.  

Sunday we had Branch council after church and I taught 3 more keyboard lessons.  We are spending the evening getting ready to go to Jakarta tomorrow for Zone conference.

Minggu 71

On Monday Elder went hiking with the young missionaries in Bukit Lawan.  Elder wasn't sure if he was going to go on the hike until they got there. He ended up deciding to go along with the young missonaries. The night before it rained, a lot, in fact the river he has crossed each time before has been slow moving and clear but this time was fast and very muddy. They had a lot of fun on the hike, lots of difficulty keeping on their feet with all to water and slick mud.  They saw a number of different monkeys, and several orangutans, the last a mother and infant.  They also spent time climbing some of the vines and entertaining themselves.  For about 40 minutes or so the missionaries spent their time having her take food out of their hands, and taking photos.  I spent the day doing laundry,cleaning and such. Since we had no internet, which had gone out the night before I couldn't work on Family History or the blog.

 Rice paddies on the way to Bukit Lawan

 The missionaries during the hike.  Sister Edwards, Sister Mintono, Elder Hendro, Elder Zollinger and Elder Barlow

 There are lots and lots of monkeys in the jungle

 Mother and baby Orangutan

 Panoramic view of the jungle

 Panoramic view of the river. notice how high it is and brown and moving quickly

 After the hike with the guide and driver of this bus

On the way home, this is how they ride when the vechile is full

On Tuesday morning we had DM and then lunch with young missionaries.  The sister missionaries and I went to deliver two keyboards, one to Sara the other to Chaterine & Dearly, some of my keyboard students.  Before we went we dropped Elder off at the apartment so he could be there in case the Service Tech. came by to repair the internet connection.  In late afternoon he called and tried to use their English option on the phone with Speedy, on the 2 attempts all he got was Indonesian, so on the second we had the conversation in Indonesian, he was able to determine that they would be sending a tech. out on Friday or Saturday.   

Elder took a taxi to church this morning to get a couple of last minutes changes made to the Annual Tithing Status Report.  Then he walked to Pres. Rico's office to get it signed, and walked back to church.  At about 2 or so Samuel arrived, so they spent the next 3 hours sending the report to Senopati & through MLS.   He also showed Samuel how to do the Quarterly Report. I spent time studing and going over things for English class and Primary.   In the evening we went shopping at Brastagi for the coming week since we are planning to feed the young missionaries on Sunday night, so we can exchange SD cards and photos from Monday.  We noticed that the 4 lights were on on the modem late tonight, so we tried the internet and everything is working fine.  We really don't know why it started working, but we are grateful.

Thursday we met with Novita and Samuel, Novita needed some assistance getting documentation sent to PEF so she could sign up for the new program, and thus get the incentives associated with the new program as she pays the loan back. She graduated in August.  So we spent a few hours going over the program, and doing the computer work to get her into the new program.  We had lots of rain this afternoon, which we have been getting most afternoons.  I comes down fast and hard and floods everything.  Then for our 38th wedding anniversary I wanted to try a new restaurant, the one Edi works at, Drs. Kaffee, it was actually the best restaurant in Medan we have been to.  It has a nice atmosphere, and they brought the meal out in a timely fashion, and in the proper order, appetizers, salad then main entrée, most places here bring the items in a random order.

On Friday after lunch the Sisters came to the church with the ties and skirts they had made for the Elders and Sisters to wear to the next Zone conference next week.  On two of the ties the center was off and had almost no taper at the end, so we took it back to have him fix it.  Then, with the Sisters, we went to see the Mendrofas, from there we went to Sister Imelda's neighborhood and the sisters did some contacting without a lot of success.  We went to Ruf's a little early, because Sister Edwards couldn't remember if Ruf got home at 4 or got off work at 4, turns out she gets off work at 4, so the sisters took off to proselyte again, we stayed at the car waiting for Ruf to get home, while we were waiting, Fenny came out the door of the Kost, so we texted the sisters, and while waiting for them we went in and visited with Fenny.  So we had a good visit with Fenny and then Ruf once she got home.  We then headed to the south side of town, to go see Hotma at 6:30, we had a good visit with her and were able to visit a little with Fransisca and at least got to say hi to her husband and kids.  On the way home we bought a desert that Sister said she liked, Putu Bamboo, steamed bamboo with coconut and red sugar.  Once we got home Elder had it after dinner, it was quite different than he expected, it has a little more sugar involved than he expected, but overall he enjoyed it.  I passed because I am not a real big fan of coconut, especially that much all at once.  Today was probably what we would consider the most normal day of work we have had in some time.  Not that we haven't been working, but much of what we have been working on is just a different type of member support and missionary work.  With one small branch on the whole island there are only so many times you can visit a member in a month.  We try to keep busy with Elder being in the Branch Presidency and me being Primary President along with keyboard lessons and English but sometimes we don't feel like we are as busy as we should be and it does go in cycles.

On Saturday I had a couple of keyboard lessons.  Then we had English class, as usual there were only a few there at the start, but they continued to straggle in as usual.  They have been slower in coming since the first of the year, that and as the difficulty of the class has gotten greater I think some have stopped coming.  We headed home about 6  and I made some chicken tortilla soup, which was good, but the chili powder I used was spicier than what I usually use at home.  It had red flecks in it along with the normal look of chili powder.  I was right, while it was good, it was extremely spicy, more than I like.  Speedy never did bother contacting us again, maybe they figured out that the internet was working so they didn't bother, or possibly they just didn't bother trying.  We spend the evening preparing last minute things for church the next day.

Today Elder was the only one there from the Branch Presidency.  We actually had 6 kids in Primary and 2 in nursery.  To bad the rooms are connected and the door doesn't really close.  It is hard to keep them where they are supposed to be.  Probably the most like a normal Primary that we have ever had.  Novita was there to teach the lesson, although I get everything together and show her what lesson to teach when she comes. Progress is progress.  I stayed with the two nursery kids and a handicapped boy wandered back and forth.  The second hour we met together and they colored a picture and then we had singing time.  Loisa did singing time.  She did a good job and knows alot of the songs which really helps.  I was able to plunk out the basic tunes for the kids to hear on the keyboard.  It is hard because we have to mix the junior and Senior together and only do one lesson.  We don't have the space or people to change it right now.  The missionaries came for dinner and to exchange photos from the hike.  We had Lasagna because Sister Mintono had never had it and requested it.

We love you all and are so glad we are able to skype with our families since they are spread all over the world.

Minggu 70

Sorry this is so last but our internet went out again on Sunday and it strangely came back on today.  We have been waiting since Monday for someone to come back out.  We will see if it is still on when we get home later today.

It was a normal Monday but we stayed home waiting for Sarah and Yanti to come by the apartment.  Yanti was baptized last March and then a month or so later she moved to the village to work.  We have had a struggle keeping in contact with her.  She was a golden contact and we became quite close.  At about 10 we got a text telling us that they couldn't come by because Yanti got a call from her boss and he wanted her to come back for work early, it's a 27 hour bus ride to her home village, Jambi, and she had just gotten to Medan late Saturday night.  She asked us if we could meet her at the bus station so she could see us.  She really wanted to meet so we contacted our driver and asked him to pick us up and take us to the bus station.  We got to spend about and hour with her and Sarah, who is the one who introduced her to the church.  We quickly gathered some things to give her.  We gave her a True to the Faith book, Book of Mormon reader and a couple of Liahonas that we had at the apartment.  Also some leftover candy from Christmas.  She was really excited to get them.  She calls me Nana.  We also got to meet her mom and aunt, who she lives with in the villlage.

Us with Yanti at the bus station waiting for her bus to come.

On Tuesday the internet went out at home so we had to do some checking to find the account information and see if we had a phone number.  We found the account info but no phone number, so we will try and stop by the office and see what they know tomorrow.  We went to the church this morning because Sari was coming to do some more cleaning.  Elder set her up cleaning paint, gum and just collected grime off the folding chairs we use for our meetings.  Elder went to Ace to see if they had a "line trimmer" he thought he could afford, he saw a push mower there for about 50 dollars, but the lawn is not level any more since they did the expansion of the parking lot, so he didn't really think the mower was a good option.  He was about to give up and he noticed a couple of "Black and Decker" boxes and that they were a couple of electric line trimmers, with a power cord included for about $100. He just couldn't stand the look of the grass in front of the building any longer.  So he spent the early afternoon cutting the grass with a line trimmer.  It has only been about 3 months since it was last cut.   That afternoon we headed to Telkom (Speedy) to see about our internet, Bro. Manalu drove past the office, so it took us an extra 10 minutes to get there, but we did manage to get there before 4, when they close, only they closed before that because they had a lot of customers waiting.  We did get a phone number so we can call them.  While I was in the market Elder talked to 5 different service techs and got cut off on all the conversations.  On the 6th the tech told him he would have to call back with access to the modem.  We finished our shopping, and headed for home.  I called Telkom and they will be sending a tech tomorrow to check out the modem.

On Wednesday I stayed at home all morning while Elder went to church at 10:30 for their Presidency Meeting.  He finally gave up on any one showing up at about 2:00 and went back to the apartment and joined me to await Speedy. In the early evening I called Speedy again, and their response was well, if they didn't come today, maybe tomorrow.  Elder was not to pleased.

Thursday we stayed home waiting for Speedy to come.  They said they would call but they usually call when they are already here so it makes it hard to go anywhere.  At about 11 we were discussing giving Speedy a phone call, and before we finished our conversation Elders phone rang.  It would always be easier if the tech they sent to see us spoke a little English, and he did. "Hello Mister".  But that was the extent of his English.  So using his limited skills we were able to communicate sufficiently to understand the problem.  Headed upstairs and within an hour we had all of our devices up and working with the wi-fi again.  Elder hadn't been feeling very good, so we decided to stay home the rest of the day.

We discovered late last night that DM has been changed from Fridays to Tuesdays.  So no DM today.  We headed out and stopped by Pres Rico's office to pick up some reports that need to be finished before the 15th, for this past year.  We spent most of our day at the church building.  Elder did go and get a haircut, the guy he usually has cut it was there, and he told him to take very little off the top, "sepotong sedikit dari di atas" well he took a lot more than he was hoping he would take.  It's been really hard to get a good hair cut here, well when he was finished, he had done the best job on cutting his hair he has had since arriving here, the top is actually about right.  I am happy I don't have to finish cutting his hair again.  This evening Elder spent his time in reviewing the information for convert baptismal interviews, since we have a threesome here in Medan currently, all three Elders have been involved in teaching the family who are planning to be baptized this Sunday, so he gets to conduct the interviews. 

On Saturday I did a couple of keyboard lessons, unfortunately they were both late in showing up for their class, and needed to go join the institute class so they were very short lessons.  We had English class and I taught, and Elder directed traffic so people who showed up late would make it into the class, we started a little late with only 2 people, and finished with 17 people in class, about half of them had never attended before.  There is a group that were going to go play soccer for an activity tonight after English.  Elder Zollinger stayed with Elder so he and Elder could teach the Talambanua family one last lesson after their interviews were complete.  So as best Elder could, relying on the spirit to help him,  he conducted the baptismal interviews for the husband and wife.  Understanding the husband's responses was easier than understanding his wife, he spoke slow and clear, she spoke much faster, so he had to ask her to slow down as she spoke, and even then it was hard to understand everything.  As they were finishing he asked her if she would be willing to share her testimony, which she did and he could feel the spirit of her conviction about following the invitation to be baptized by one with the authority to do so. So they taught one more lesson, afterwhich, the Sisters returned with brother Manalu & the car, they were off buying a dress that would fit this good sister as we didn't think we had anything that would fit her well.  We then took Elder Zollinger to the soccer field so he could join the activity.  It rained really hard after English class with thunder and lightening, once that shoke the whole building and made the windows rattle very loudly,  as the rivers and streams were running much higher than we have seen them yet, also on our way home from the field the road we traveled was up to the bottom of the car doors, with some stalled out here and there.  We stopped by the bakery to get some bread a things and then went home for the night.

It is pouring down rain as I type this so it will probably be flooded as we leave the church to shop and then go home.

Sunday we had the baptism for the Talambanua Husband and wife.  Their three children are not yet old enough to be baptized.  I have the two oldest in Primary.  They are a wonderful family who was introduced to the missionaries by their nieghbors, the Nainggolans who are members.  Not all of their family is active, their youngest son was the one that was baptized two weeks ago.  We so need good strong families in this branch for it to survive well.

Brother and Sister Talambanua and Elder Hendro, Elder Zollinger and Elder Barlow

Minggu 69

On Monday morning we visited with Benjamin and his family.  He looked like a different person, he stayed home from church with Madelyn who wasn't feeling well and when the rest of the family got home he had shaved his beard off.

Not a lot of appointments this time of year, so we spent our day at the church, seeing if we could figure out any more about the electrical.   Elder replaced the breaker that kept blowing with a larger Amp breaker. Then before heading home we did our shopping for the week.

On New Years Eve we took all the missionaries over to dinner with Pres. Rico & Emma, his family was out of town.  They are hoping to move into their new home sometime in January. We got all the missionaries home before 10 pm, except us as trying to get through the traffic in the center of the city was not the easiest. It took us about 40 minutes to travel the 4 km as a crow flies to our apartment, Elder is sure he could have walked it faster.

We did have fireworks real close, they were setting them off in the street right outside our apartment window, so they would explode at about our room level to within reach of our window.

Lots of good food at Pres. Rico's and fun times.

We spent a relaxing New Years day. We gave our driver the day off.

On Friday we had District meeting and our usual lunch with the missionaries.  That night we attended a non-church sponsored FHE at Sister Imelda's home.  We saw our text message inviting us at about 4 in the afternoon. We were told they planned to have pork for dinner. which made me think it would be a standard pork dish they prepare, which we do not care for (pretty much involves most parts of the pig, which I would rather not have as part of my dinner.  We were very pleasantly surprised they grilled the pork and cut the MEAT into small pieces, instead of the standard pork dish they prepare, which we do not care for (pretty much involves most parts of the pig, which we would rather not have as part of our dinner). Then they had some nicely grilled fish, and there was also seasoned and fried tempi, a salad, which consisted of pineapple, cucumber, onion and a few other veg/fruits, Elder has enjoyed it the couple of time it has been served before, and of course rice, sambal (hot), and a hot sweet sauce that is used with Rujak (sp), of course I don't add the hot sauce but Elder does.  It was a very nice dinner. There were about 25 people who came.  We got home in time to Skype with Erin's family (their Friday morning) who was opening Christmas presents since Ben just got home the night before from his 2 week shift flying.  So the first presents they opened were things like a dog collar, leash, food, etc.  So they are getting a puppy for Christmas. Seth and family also got a dog for Christmas. 

 Some of the food we ate at Sister Imeldas.  Lots of it.

Some of the people there.  A few inactives and fairly new members.

On Saturday we did home inspections at the Elders and then the Sisters. The Sisters needed their cooking gas tank replaced.  So while we were there we had Bro. Manalu go get them a new one.  While checking the gas line it was very cracked and hard where it had been exposed to heat from the cooking element.  So Elder cut the bad part of the line off, and got everything hooked up again.   We then took a drive to Home Centra to see if they had a "weed whacker" so we can use it for cutting the lawn, since the gardener the branch employees to do the yard work around the church hasn't been doing anything for the last couple of months, and Elder hasn't seen anyone in the neighborhood to give the lawn mowing job to.  Well unfortunately they didn't have any "weed whackers" of any kind.  So we headed back to the church, because Sari was coming today to work at the building and had Samuel coming for piano.  We only had a 8 (3 of which were missionaries, 2 were Indonesian, though) for English today, because of the extended holiday everyone around here takes off, heading back to their home villages.  Then we took the missionaries and went to KFC for dinner in preparation for fast Sunday.   

Today we were at the church until about 3:30.  Mula was the only one in Primary today. After church I did 3 piano lessons while Elder had meetings and tithing, etc.  We then came home and I cooked for the missionaries to break or fast.  We had a special Mission fast.

We want to Wish Everyone a Happy New Year.  We love you all.