Minggu 77

We had a normal P-day.

On Tuesday for District Meeting only Sister Tucker and I were late since Elders text telling Bro. Manalu what time to come get us was not received by his phone until 11:30, three hours after I had sent it.  We got there at about 11:10 after making a phone call to him to see where he was. We had padang for lunch, which we usually have after DTM.  Elder Kyle spent his hour on facebook after our meeting.  The district and zone leaders have facebook pages they work on an hour a day.  Our districts is Mormon Medan.  They were waiting for a gentleman to come to the church but when they tried to call when he was late, they got no answer, so we walked over and tried to visit another investigator with Elder Kyle and Hendro's who was ill, or just uninterested in visiting, then we got our driver and went to go visit another family, the Telambanuas (not the same family as was baptized a few weeks back). While there I learned it is expensive to get married in Nias, It cost him about Rp80,000,000. Basically because of the money paid to the wife's family, and the activities associated with the wedding.  Some traditions might be reasonable to leave behind. We then went to another investigators home where they taught an abbreviated restoration discussion with a lot of Book of Mormon discussion. There were probably 7 neighborhood ladies who sat in on the discusson.  I then went shopping, and Elder went to our apartment to pick up the thermometer for Sister Edwards, who is sick with a fever and upset stomach. I got an sms to see if we would get them some dinner also as their stove was not working. Elder did make it so their stove worked, before we left.

We were planning on taking the sisters to visit a couple of people but Sister Edwards has not been feeling well.  In the late afternoon we took Sister Edwards to the hospital for blood work.  She has had a fever for a couple of days. While we waited for the blood result (about 3 hours) we came back to our apartment since it is close to the hospital we took her to.  She slept and I helped Sister Mintono make dinner.  She did Ayam kecap Manis.  It was really good and easy to make.  After dinner we went back for the results.  The doctor told her it was Typhoid but after sending the results to Elder Williams (MD) he said there was a chance it could be Typhoid but that would take more time to determine, but thought it likely some other infection that would have to run its course.  Of the 8 or 9 medicines they gave her, Elder Williams told her to only take one for sure and one other if she wanted to.  So after our hospital visits we got home a little before 9 and called it a day. 

Sister Mintono cooking in our kitchen.  Her job before her mission was cooking at a food place.  The Elders from Solo said they had really good food there and Sister Edwards loves when she cooks for them.

On Thursday Elder spent the early part of the afternoon at the church.  I went and stayed with Sister Edwards so her companion could go out with Mei (just sent her mission papers in) to visit an investigator and also to get out of the house after 3 or 4 days of being stuck inside.   At 3 we took Elder Wills and Elder Martoyo to go see the Mendrofa family, while there we asked directions to Bona's home.  It took us a while to get there after stopping and asking about 7 people along the way how to get to the correct street.  After a couple of fairly narrow gongs, we left the car and a young man took us for a walk through several different walk ways and to Bona's home.  Bona's father (Sister Mendrofa's brother) was at a FHE we had in December 2013 at the Mendrofa home when then Elder Mendrofa came home to visit his ill father. He had seemed open to learning about the gospel, and one of the elders visited with him, but only gave him his phone number without getting Bona's father's phone number, because he thought he was Elder Mendrofa's father.  So we visited as best we could because there were a good number (I would guess about 20 or so) of noisy youth who gathered in the doorway and outside the windows, making it impossible to have any meaningful conversation.  So the Elders obtained his permission for Bona to join the church, and made arrangements to come back and share their message with the rest of the family.   That night we had dinner as Solaria in the Medanfair Plazza Mall.  Also did a little shopping.

 These are just some of the group that covered the windows and door to the house.  They all have to shake your hands.  They get so excited because the touched a bule and got a picture with them.

 They one with Elder Martoyo's hand on his shoulder is who we went to meet with.

Elders talking about English class and church websites using pass along cards.

On Friday we went to church so Elder could meet with Vince at.  He showed up just as it started to rain, so it made it hard for Elder to show him how to use the weed-whacker to cut the grass and do all the things he needs to do.  But they got through it.  We had Bro. Manalu take the Elders, so they could go make some visits, as Elder Hendro doesn't like to ride bikes in the rain, he gets ill because of doing it.  We stayed at the church hoping Sari would come to meet with the Elders, since Sister Edwards was still ill.  Sari never showed up so at a little before 7 we headed for our apartment for the night.

On Saturday I inspected the elder's home. I had one keyboard lesson at the church and then we had our meeting with BML, and then of course we taught English and then visited with those who stayed until after 6, and headed for home and called it a night. The missionaries and some members and investigators and English students were going to go play futsol.  They try and play every saturday night.
Today  we had branch council after church and I then taught 4 keyboard lessons.  We got home about 4pm and had Sari and Mei coming over at 6pm for our temple prep. class.  We had a quick dinner and were ready when they came.  I also got Sari onto the Missionary portal website so she can start working on some of the things there.  She will have to do it at a warnet or use my computer at the church when she can.  Most people here don't have internet at their homes. 

 Elder Kyle and Elder Hendro when they went out with Pres. Donald and Elder Tucker.  They are at a recently baptized family's home and yes, that is a baby in the sling. Ingenius idea.  You make due when you don't have much of anything.

Nainggolan family.  All active except Father and oldest boy.  Elizabeth wants to go on a mission when she turns 19 in the fall, she is one of my keyboard students, and Mei just sent her paperwork in.  The younger boy was baptized the end of December.  Pres. Donald is next to Elder Tucker.