Minggu 76

On Monday we spent the whole day in preparation and rest.  Elder did spend a little time on the phone visiting with his dad.

Yesterday Elder Kyle flew to Jakarta for MLC.  At noon we headed to the Church building, on the way there we passed ALL 5 of the other missionaries, who were on their bikes riding as a group down Gajah Mada, when you consider the traffic on the streets here that is actually a difficult task, if Elder would have been quicker he would have loved to have gotten a photo of them.  I spent a little time on the computer working on family history which I do some when we have down time or when Elder has things that need to be done at the church and I don't.  I go with him and spend time with that or reading scriptures or other things.  

On Wednesday we met together for district devotional meeting (DDM).  We reviewed the information that was discussed in the Mission Leadership Council in Jakarta yesterday.  After the meeting the sisters went to get them and us some lunch from the restaurant just the next block over, Elder had them get him the Duck and I had the chicken.  He had never tried the duck here for one reason or another, but this was actually very good, the flavor was exceptional, yes he said it was a little greaser than chicken, but he enjoyed it.  It was about 2 or 3 times more expensive there than at the other place they usually go for Padang grilled chicken and rice, and yes of course the duck and chicken came with rice also. 

On Thursday Elder took a taxi to church, so he could be there by 9am.  He was hoping to meet with Vince, to show him how to use the weed-whacker and what he expected him to do for the Church grounds.  He wasn't sure if he would come or not, because after they had agreed to the meeting time, (because it was a holiday (Chinese New Year)) the Institute and Seminary decided to go on an activity to the waterfall south of Binjai.  Vince and Elder had exchanged SMS's the night before, and his interpretation of his response was that he wasn't going to be there.  Sister Imelda wanted the missionaries to go on the activity, but the young missionaries needed to be out working and I am not willing to hike those kinds of hikes anymore, because of my back.  And since Elder knew the hike he knew I would have had a difficult time going with my back, so he decided not to go either.  Since the lawn still needed to be mowed, Elder went just in case Vince was going to come.  Sister Eva came to the building and she swept and cleaned up the clippings from Elder having mowed the lawn.  I had Bro. Manalu take me to the Church about noon.   About 3 Elder got a text that the Elders needed some transportation, because one of their bike was at the shop and because on the way home someone stole Elder Hendro's pack with everything in it (camera, credit card, drivers licence, scriptures and more).  We took the Sisters to go visit Fenny who said she would come to church Sunday.  Many tend to say that just to appease the missionaries and don't really plan on showing up.  In the evening we saw both Harefa families and the Sarumaha family. 

On Friday Bro Manalu was dust moping the chapel and commented to Sister Eva, who was there again, that Pres. Donald was coming this weekend. so she started cleaning and joking about needing to clean the building because Pres Donald was coming.  So Elder had a conversation about the fact that there are many opportunities to clean the building on Saturdays when several of the organizations are assigned to take care of building cleanup. That afternoon we kept Elder Hendro company while Elder Kyle went with Pres. Buyung to an appointment, as Elder Hendro was upset about losing his possessions.  Elder went to Pres. Rico's office, with Pres. Buyung taking him on his motorcycle, to see if they were wanting to go to dinner with us, as he had never responded to any of Elders text messages or to Pres. Donalds email.  They were not in the office, their staff said that they took the holiday off, and would not be in the office until tomorrow.  We got a text from the Donald's saying that they were at their hotel, so we told them we would come pick them up at 6:30 and take them to dinner.  We have a very pleasant dinner at Dr. Koffie (because they have a western style menu, for Sister Donald, whose digestive system will not let her eat Indonesian style foods) with the hope that Edi would be working so we could visit with him, but he had the day off.   

We picked up President and Sister Donald at about 11am and we went to the church so Sister Donald and I could use the car and go with the Sisters on their visits, and Elder Kyle, Hendro, President and Elder went to visit Harto at 11.  The Sisters, Sister Donald and I went to visit one of their invesigators who had just had a baby 10 days ago.  It is about a half hour to an hour drive depending on traffic.  It was a really good visit.  Sister Donald took some pictures but I haven't gotten a copy yet.  We then headed back towards the church but stopped first for some lunch at A & W since Sister Donald can't eat the spicy, hot Indonesian food because of stomach problems.  We also stopped at the store to buy some bread so I had some for the sacrement tomorrow.  I bring it every week right now.  When we got back I started to get ready for English.  I didn't think many would come since it seems the whole week has been one big party.  We ended up with seven students counting the Indonesian missionaries.  There were also two childern at English so Sister Edwards and Sister Donald taught that class.  After ward Sister Donald and I got a taxi and it dropped her off at the hotel and then me off at home.  Elder got home about 9:30 after dropping off the Elders at their home and Pres. Donald at the hotel.  

Sunday Sister Donald came to primary with me since I was by myself again.  Two of the Elders also came in and helped to translate.  They were great with helping the kids understand what I had just read from the lesson.  President and Sister Donald had to leave right after church to catch their flight.  It was a busy 3 hours.  President had alot of interviews to hold.  Since we are a Branch that is not tied to a district or anything, we are under the Mission and President is basicly the acting Stake President.  We do do alot of interviews over skype.  We are a 21/2 hour flight and on a different island from the mission home.  I then taught 4 keyboard lessons after church and then we headed home to rest.  It was a very busy weekend.

Minggu 75

We had breakfast and district meeting at our apartment this morning, Tuesday.  While at the Church today we printed out a copy of the talk Novita was needing for reference, and she came by the church to pick it up.  Elder is getting a bike ready that Mei would like to have, but it still needs some additional work.  On the way home we picked up some supplies from Gramedia for the church building.

On Wednesday the Elders came by the Church so they could have an hour on the computer to maintain their Facebook site.  Then we took Elders Kyle and Hendro out to see if we could visit a few members.  Our first stop was Sister Tri's but she was not home, she was at her home village but Vani was home so we spent a little while visiting with her. Showed them where Marius and Sister Kiky live, thought they were not home as we expected.  We then went to see if we could locate Putri Trina, took us a little while to locate the gong (a very small street that sometimes our car can't even get down), but with the map book and GPS we were able to locate it, because there wasn't any convenient parking we sent the Elders in and we stayed at the car.  When they came back they explained that Putri had moved some time back, but a distant relative or at least someone who knew her was living at the address, but she didn't know where exactly she had moved to.  Also discovered that the sisters had visited there, and were trying to teach the person living there now.  Then we thought we would go visit Hendryck Simanjuntak's family, when we got there he was at home, as we visited he explained that he had broken a law, and had indeed been in prison for the last 8 or so months like we thought.  We had a good visit and tried to commit him to come to church this coming Sunday.  Dropped the Elders off at the church and headed home for the evening.   

On Thursday we spent the early afternoon at the Church.  In the late afternoon and evening we took Sister Edwards and Mintono to drop off a letter and visit with Fenny, she said she had to get ready for work so only stayed a very short time, the letter was from Elder T. Sinaga for Ruf.  Then we went from the north side of town to the south to see Ruf's inactive aunt Fransisca, who has struggled with being confused about the gospel since we started visiting with her when we first arrived in Medan.  She can't seem to keep information in her mind for more than a short time.

On Friday afternoon while Elder worked on the MLS and computer problems I went and got the grocery shopping done for the week, and then spent the rest of the day reading and studying.

On Saturday I taught a couple of Piano classes while Elder worked on the computer.  We met with the Branch Mission Leader and then got English started.  After English, we got the building ready for Family Home Evening (Malam Keluarga),  We had a brief opening and lesson, then a game of "do you love your neighbor?" with people having to jump up out of their chair if they had the particular characteristic named by the person asked if they "loved their neighbor" and then everyone scrambles to find a different but available chair, and there is one fewer chairs than people so the person standing has to ask the next question and the game continues.  And I am sure it is a great game if you understand the language well and can understand when they speak quickly, and if Elder isn't the only one in the room with white hair.  And by the way congratulations Leudell!  We then had dinner, and they played another couple of games.  We got the building cleaned, set up for church and closed up a little after nine.

 Some of the people at our activity. Notice most are Young Single adults or teenagers.

 Sister Edwards teaching them how to play "do you love your neighbor".  They had a blast playing it.

Playing "do you love your neighbor"

Today we actually got home at a pretty decent time since Pres. Buyung was at church.  He was able to find another job that doesn't make him work on Sundays.  Pres. Rico was also able to be there for Sacrament meeting.  Tonight we had Sari and Mei come to our apartment and we went over Sari's mission call and got her signed into her myldsmail account and went through her paperwork with her.  The mission calls and all the paperwork come in English so we sometimes have to help them understand it.  We then taught them the first lesson in the Temple Preparation class.

Minggu 74

On Monday for P-day we took the missionaries to Danau Toba and Samosir Island. The Elders were so excited that they showed up right at 3:00am, when they were planning on getting here at 3:15am, must be excited.  They all got their statistics reports and short emails to home done on our laptops and tablets, and we got out of the apt at just a little after 4.  Bro Manalu was here but then again we called him at 3:30 to make sure he was awake and coming.  The drive was uneventful and we arrived at the ferry at about 8am, thinking it was leaving at 8, but it was still there, so we bought a ticket, and waited for its departure time, which had changed again and we departed at 8:30.  Once on Samosir we went to the Stone-chair, known because of the chairs carved out of stone used by the king and others when he would sit in judgment of a subject.  It is now a tourist village, but all except one of the homes are lived in.  We then went to " Pantai Pasir Putih " or  "White Sand Beach" almost half way around island.  We had not gone there before.  The drive home was not bad.  We dropped the sisters off at their home about 10pm, and brought the elders to the apartment so they could print out their plane tickets for transfers tomorrow morning. 

 On Samosir Island, mountains and rice paddys. 

 The white things are graves.  They are shaped like their houses.

 At the beach, where people live.

 The beach with the main land across.

 The missionaries at the beach just after lunch.

 Sister Mintono, myself and Sister Edwards

 A water buffalo on the Island

 These are the houses that are characteristic of the the Toba people.

Elder Kyle, from Georgia, Sister Mintono, Sister Edwards, Elder Zollinger and Elder Barlow on the ferry back from Samosir.

We planned a nice slow restful day to recuperate from yesterday's activity.  So we spent the morning and early afternoon getting laundry, and finance type things done, then in the early afternoon we headed for the airport, Elder Wills from Cottonwood, Arizona was scheduled to arrive at 4, but because of plane delays we did not see him till 5. We knew we would be at the airport for a while today, since it is an hour or so drive one way depending on traffic, so we went to the Wendy's which just opened in the airport, sat on some stools at the counter and ate some donuts we bought at Dunkin Donuts.  Once Elder Wills showed up we relocated to a table near the windows that had cushioned comfortable chairs that looked out on the baggage claim area.  We got some dinner, talked and waited until his companion Elder Martoyo came in from East Java, he was scheduled to arrive at 8 but landed a half hour early.  We took them to their new home and headed home ourselves and got there about 9:30.

We had district meeting this morning with the new district.  Looks like the electrical is finally fixed.  They ended up replacing the meter box, and now things are working well again.  The workers also got the cabinet made and installed for the oven and cook top in the kitchen, they just said half of the air conditioners in the building have to be off when you are using the stove.  That's okay we don't think anyone in the branch will use the electric stove until they get a notice from Senopati that they are not allowed to use the gas stove anymore.

Found the following post from Hanna Hutchinson, one of our first missionaries, who is home now: "Pretty much every city thinks its traffic is the worst -- Atlanta, LA, and Houston moan about theirs' plenty. But those cities aren't the only ones clogged with smog, road rage, and drivers considering peeing into empty soda bottles before they hit the next exit. In fact, none of them is the worst in the world.

The king of awful traffic? Jakarta, Indonesia.

According to Castrol's Magnatec Stop-Start index (clunkily named after a gas product, of course), Jakarta's caught in the most traffic jams on Earth, with approximately 33,240 stop-starts per year. The index pulled data from TomTom navigation users to calculate the number of stops and starts made per kilometer, multiplying that figure by the average distance driven every year in 78 countries."

Brother Manalu told us that he had a school activity he had to attend today 30 minutes before he needed to be there, and wondered if he could use the car to attend.  Elder told him no, that the car was only for missionary use, so we had him drive us back to the apartment, and then he used his becak to attend the mandatory activity.  So we spent the late afternoon and early evening getting a few things done around the apartment.             We spent the late morning and early afternoon on Thursday at the church getting some work done on the computer, and also so the Elders could use the computer for an hour for their Facebook site.  In the afternoon we took Sister Edwards and Mintono to the Harefa families, we also stopped to see Joki.  We had good visits about the temple and with Nidianus we discussed the doctrine of doing work for the dead, as he and his wife had no knowledge about it.  After we got back into the city, we all went to Nias for dinner, then home for the night.                                                                                                      Seminary was held in the building Friday and the Elders were able to meet with Dhani since he kept his appointment with them.  Then in the early evening we did our shopping so we could feed the elders and sisters on Sunday.                                                                        On Saturday Mei came to work on her cleaning project, and we put her to work in the library, cleaning each shelf and all the books on them.  She worked hard the whole time she was there, about 4 or 5 hours.  She posted her panoramic dental xray on facebook, so we know she is making some progress on her mission application.  We talked about Pres. Donald being in Medan on 22 Feb, and that it would be good to be finished and be able to give it to him while he is here, and have her interview.  But she is still struggling with the immigration office on getting all the documentation they want from her for a passport.  Mei asked if she could have the bike that was stored on the balcony off the library room, Elder said it could possibly be used for parts to repair the last bike that was left, but that it was beyond repair.  Neither of my keyboard students showed up today.  At 3 we had our meeting with Bro Pardede.  We then set up for English, and started with 4 students, and finished with 20.  We also had a young girl who came with her mother and learned with the sister missionaries.  During English Elder Kyle and Elder went and picked up the last non working bike from their house, he then loaded both bikes in the car to take to Rodolink to see if they could get one working bike out of the pair.   Well after an hour of labor and the new bearing and races being pressed into place, and additionally servicing the brakes on front and back the total price came to whopping Rp65,000 or $5.25. Sari an investigator came to the end of English and wanted a keyboard lesson.  She is one of my students but I had not seen her since before Christmas.  So we did a lesson.  The missionaries and a bunch of members and nonmembers went to play futsal.  We got home and I made Elder the chicken tortilla soup he had been wanting.                                                                    The institute age people watched the CES broadcast after church and after my keyboard lessons.  It was in Ogden and I saw my nieces Bretleigh and Rachel in the choir.  We got home at about 3:30 and I made dinner for the missionaries.  We try to have them over when we get new missionaries and just before transfers, at least.                                                     

 Dinner with the Missionaries.  Elder Martoyo, from Surabaya, Elder Hendro, Elder Kyle, from Georgia and our new district leader, Elder Tucker, Sister Edwards, Sister Mintono and Elder Wills from Cottonwood, Arizona.

 These boards are found all over Indonesia, instead of flower arrangements they give these and they line the roads.  They give them for weddings, funerals, graduations, opening new businesses and just about anything.

 Ajai with an old bike of the Elders.  He is the only member in his family.  He is just leaving from attending seminary.

Dinner while we were in Jakarta for zone conference.  The week before Lucherini's went home.  President and Sister Donald, The Woodlands, He is Bishop of the expat ward, Elder Lucherini, us, Sister Lucherini and the Lewis' (the family history couple who work out of Solo but are in Jakarta alot.)

Minggu 73

On Monday we flew to Jakarta for Zone conference.  After a short visit with Lucherinis, Lewis & Sister Donald we all, including Pres. Donald walked to Outback for dinner.  There were some in the group that claimed we walked through the outback to get there.  We took an obscure alley down the road from the Mission Home, and then hiked through a wet and muddy field, that was full of goats, and as a sister reminded us it was also full of goat marbles, to use her phrase.  We met Bishop Woodland and his wife at the restaurant, he is the current bishop in the English speaking ward in Jakarta.  We had enjoyable visits during dinner. We walked back through the outback to the mission home and caught a cab with the Lucherinis to go check in at the Park Lane hotel, which is near the Lucherinis apartment.

Tuesday we visited with Seth and his family on skype, it was a fun visit.  Elder & Sister Lewis came to the hotel, she and I headed to a nearby restaurant at a mall for a brunch with all the young sisters and Sister Donald.  It was alot of fun to just have the zone Sisters together.  Elder Lewis and Elder Tucker caught a cab and went to Senopati.  He spent some time in the mission office studying and visiting.  While visiting with Sister Donald, President invited Elder into his office and they talked for about an hour while Sister Donald and I continued to visit.  After we got back to the hotel we had dinner at the Hotel Restaurant, Rivas, then once in our room we reviewed and made some last minute changes to the power point for our presentation tomorrow.  Sari's mission call arrived yesterday, so we get to take it back with us to Medan.

On Wednesday we went to PLD.  When we got there President told us our flight had been changed from 7:30 pm to 5:20 by the airlines, so he told us we needed to make sure we stayed in our time limit for the presentation.  We were scheduled to present after lunch, well at about 10:45 he announced we were up to present.  We were both happy with the way our presentation went.  After lunch Elder was visiting with President and he mentioned that it must be hard to work in such a small branch for as long as we have, and that the only other couple in the same situation was Elder and Sister Welch who have been here 18 months and go home on the 5th of Feb.  After explaining some things that Elder Tucker and I could do if we were in Jakarta, he asked if he thought we would be interested.  Elder didn't think I would be but I am so we are trying to decide and hope to skype with President soon to get more details.  Our new district leader flew back to Medan with us.  While in Jakarta we found out about transfers on the 3rd.  Elders Barlow and Zollinger will both transfer.  We took a taxi to the airport, and flew back to Medan. 

The two Jakarta Zones at conference

On Thursday Mei canceled her time to work at the church, because she had the opportunity to do some work for Pres. Rico.  so she may try to come tomorrow.  When we got to church, Sister Sinaga was there to pick up Sari's call to take home so Sari could open it with her family.   We commented that we would love to be there when she opens it, so she invited us to join them.  We had the sisters go buy all of us some lunch.  The sisters took off to do something, while they were gone, their investigator came to the building, so I joined her in the foyer and visited with her while we waited for the Sisters.  I then joined the discussion.  In the evening we headed to the Sinaga's and waited for Sari to get home from work, we visited for a while, then she got home and opened her call, she was very surprised and a little nervous, we have been saying all along that she might end up outside Indonesia, and sure enough she is going out of the country.  She said she was going to New Zealand and would be speaking English.  After we looked at the call we discovered that she was actually going to the MTC in New Zealand, and would be serving in Perth, Australia.  Headed back to the church and dropped the sisters off, so they could go visit Cindy who is being baptized on Saturday evening.  We then went to Brastagi so we would have some food in our apartment.  

Sari opening her mission call.  Her brother is serving in Indonesia right now.

On Friday we arrived at the church and Bro Sutarno (from Solo) and a couple of his workers were there getting things started on the building, we visited about the work that needs to be completed on the building.  At about 2pm Elder started filling the font for the baptism, in anticipation of their successfully completing their interviews.  If we didn't start now the font would never be full in time for the baptism tomorrow.  Mei came and did some work around the building this afternoon.  We were hoping Sari(the investigator) would come to her keyboard lesson, but again she was a no show.  We have not seen her since before Christmas.We stayed around the building until both interviews were complete.

On Saturday we had our branch mission leader meeting,  then I had one keyboard lesson. We also had English class but we ended early for the baptism.  Our 5 o'clock meeting didn't start till about 6, because Lukas fell asleep at home and was late for the meeting.  But we were finished with the meeting in time for them to install the stabilizer.  But their 15 minute install took almost two and a half hours.  The guy doing the installation worked on the lines where they come into the building to see if he could improve the connection, to increase the power coming into the building, it may have helped a little but not enough, the power is still cutting in and out.  We got home a little after 9 tonight. 

 Sister Mintono and Sister Edwards with Cindy and the two sisters (Mei and Elisabeth) who introduced her to the gospel.

All the missionaries with Cindy and Lukas before their baptisms.

Today the power situation sure made meetings fun.  It kept shutting off and then coming back on.  Made for a very humid day.  It was heavy with rain.  After church it finally did rain. I gave two more keyboard lessons and then because of the power problems it took a long time for them to get their computer work done.  We got home about 4.  A neighbor has a bacuk and offered to take us home instead of calling a taxi so we took him up on his offer. Elder met with two other youth who are about ready to start their paper work for a mission. Vince will be done with school about the middle of may and so will Elisabeth but she will have to wait until she is old enough in September.

Elder Barlow and Elder Zollinger with the Sinaga Family (Sari is in the Black Jacket)

Elders with some of the youth and young adults.