Monday evening we went to FHE at Sister Imelda's new home. We took Elders Wills and Martoyo. She moved up near her brothers Nefi & John. Sarah Nababan has moved in with her, because her younger brother has been being difficult in the home they shared, with other family members. They had prepared dinner for everyone, and as we were eating, Sister Imelda shared that Sarah had prepared the meal that morning, a little worried at that point since they don't refrigerate anything usually. But all tasted good, got the elders home before they had to be there, and we headed for our apartment.
On Tuesday Elders stomach was feeling a little upset while we were having District Meeting, Elder Martoyo said he was up during the night throwing up and Elder Wills' stomach was upset. Mine was ok other than it reminded me that it was there, but it usually feels that way after we have eaten at places other than home. They are afraid something they ate last night wasn't quite right. We had district meeting at our apartment, and started with breakfast, of German pancakes, fried eggs, and bakso. After district meeting we went with Elder Kyle and Hendro to visit the Telambanua family, then also to see one other but they were not expected home until late in the evening, so we thought we would go out to the Mandala area. The Elders had tried to contact Sister Ezra to see if we could meet with her friend, who we taught a little over a week ago, but never got a response, the phone kept cutting out. Once we arrived we discovered that her friend was not home, but Sister Ezra was at her younger sisters (relative/friend), so we were able to share a gospel message in the way of the discussion about the gospel. While visiting we found out Sister Ezra has located a place to rent in the area, and she didn't need to borrow money to move into it. And there is room in back for her to build pens for her pigs. In fact she has already moved in and has a couple of wooden pens made for a couple of pigs. We (all 8 missionaries) are headed back tomorrow morning to help her move a few thing in and help around the house. While at the house a number of her new neighbors came over to see who was visiting her (a group of 6 ladies, and a number of youth) so the Elders took advantage of the opportunity and taught about the restoration, and left 2 BOMs with them and 3 others would like to read it. Then we headed for home since Elders stomach has been getting more and more upset. We decided it was some of the fish that they ate Monday night since I didn't get sick, didn't eat any of it, anymore than I usually do when eating out.
We use our window as a white board when we have district meeting at our apartment. Elder Wills is teaching the lesson and he draws really well and relates it to the lesson.
In front of Sister Ezras new house and all the people who came by to see what was going on and listened to a lesson. Sister Ezra is next to Elder Kyle.
On Wednesday we were planning to go out with Elder Wills and Martoyo but got a text saying Elder Martoyo was still ill, as is Elder Tucker. We sent our driver with two Elders and the Sisters to help Sister Ezra move this morning because the others were sick. We received the following email today:
Christopher Lawrence Donald,
Dear Elder & Sister Tucker. I am managing the visa compliment and want to inform you that your date to return to the USA will be the 13th of July. You will fly home with all the other missionaries that would have been due out 2 August. I didn’t mean to get you feeling trunky!
Thanks
President Donald
We weren't expecting this information for about another month or so, it's also a couple of weeks earlier that we expected. I think it is partly so the young missionaries can be home in time to get into schools for the fall semester, or it may be based on the date new missionaries are scheduled to come into Indonesia from the US. So we will probably leave Medan sometime near the end of June, if we decide to go to Australia and New Zealand before flying home with the young missionaries.
We spent the early afternoon of Thursday at the church. Then at 3 we were taking the sisters to visit Fenny and then Ruf, but they thought it was just a little too early to go, so they wanted to know if we were hungry (I was starved, and had already said so), so after having gotten into the car and pulling out onto the street to go to see Fenny, we changed our minds, and pulled back in the drive, and walked down the street to eat at the Batak restaurant that has been opened down there for about 8 months now. But none of us had tried it yet. They were actually pretty good, prices were reasonable and the atmosphere was nice, and the food was pretty good. After eating we drove up to Bryant City and as we got out of the car at the end of the street, Fenny saw us and came out from the restaurant she works at. So we visited for a short time, she told us Ruf was home so we headed down the street to see her, tried to get someone's attention in the kost, but couldn't so we came to the conclusion that Ruf was in the mandi (wash room) in the back of the house and couldn't hear us. So we walked back out and Bro Manalu was just starting to get some food delivered at the place Fenny worked, so Elder Tucker and I joined him but Ionly got a bottle of water. We continued to visit with Fenny when she had time. The sisters had gone out on the street to try and proselyte a little, they said it was difficult because everywhere they went they had a crowd of kids following them, sounds like our experience in this neighborhood many times. We then went back to see if Ruf was available, and one of the residents of the kost, went and found her, she was indeed in the wash room. So we went into the common room and waited for her, while we were waiting we attracted a good number (ten to fifteen) of the neighborhood kids attention, so they gathered outside & inside the house. After Ruf came out she sent one of the kids to go buy water we assumed, the girl came back with a bag and then came again back with the water, One of Ruf's friends also joined us for the discussion. As we visited for a while and shared a gospel message, Ruf put together four plates of Mie Pansit Kuah (noodles, meat, vegatables, some meat, a dumpling and a quarter of a boiled egg) Its what Elder usually gets when we go to "Nias" because it is the most flavorful thing they have. Well, having just eaten before we got there, Elder asked if Ruf and her friend were going to eat, they declined, we were hoping we could share one meal as we had already eaten, but no each missionary had a plate. Feeding us was very gracious of Ruf, and is fairly unusual in Medan, as so many don't have much to live on let alone be able to share with others. We then took the sisters home and called it a night.
Elder Tucker with some of the kids when we visited with Ruf
They love their pictures taken and love to pose, especially with a bule
Friday after doing some work at the Church and Elder taking the Hymns made Easy book to have copied for Sari so she can work on her English. I showed her in the Indonesian Hymn book how it has a list of the songs with their English names and she could look up the songs and find the corresponding one in Indonesian so she would know the tune. We then went shopping so we could feed the missionaries, Sari and Mei on Sunday. At 7:30 we picked up all the young missionaries at the church and took them to dinner at Koki Sunda. Elder had a completely different type dinner there tonight and he said his stomach appreciated it a lot, even though he did manage to eat more than he should have. While at dinner Elder tried to convince Sister Edwards that she didn't really want to go to Sibolongkit (two color waterfall) on Monday for P-day. He wasn't even close to successful.
Saturday on the way to the church we stopped at Sun Plaza, and bought a new toner cartridge for the printer at church, then Elder will use the old cartridge as a refill for our printer. The church discourages us from using refilled cartridges in the printer, but for me $60 vs. $6, I think I will try the refill. I taught 2 keyboard lessons in the afternoon. We had our weekly meeting with the BML and then I taught English, and Elder sort of had an English class, with Sari, Mei and about 6 others, who were visiting in the foyer, about Sari's mission call to Australia. After English I taught another keyboard lesson.
On Sundays the Branch leadership has committed to starting the meetings on time and are working hard to do that no matter how many people are there. They have been working hard to make it happen. I started the opening song with playing a cord since I didn't know the song and in the middle of it the Sister who was going to play came so we switched. She had gotten held up because some of the streets she usually takes were closed for something. None of my keyboard students were at church today so didn't have any lessons. We have been riding a bacek home from church the days he is available. Good neighborhood relations. We had the missionaries for dinner plus Mei who's mission papers went in last week. Sister Edwards is being transferred to Solo on Wednesday.
The Sisters with Sari, Vani, Cindi and Mei
Missionaries with Sister Ezra, Everyone loves to take pictures after church especially when a missionary is being transferred
Sisters with Asen and Sister Eva
Sisters with Asen, Sister Eva, Brother Pardede (our branch misson leader), and an investigator. I have a skirt just like the sisters that we had made for last Zone conference. The Elders all had matching ties.
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