Minggu 14 - To a Buddist temple near a volcano

Monday we took the Elders and Sisters to one of the largest Buddhist Temples.  It was about an hour and a half away. We got there about an hour before it opened because we didn't know what the times were.  The Elders and Sisters played games while we waited for the Temple to open.  There is a big cabbage field right next to the Temple.  It was a very beautiful temple and interesting to see it.

 This is the cabbage field next to the parking lot.  In the back ground you can see some smoke coming up.  That is the volcano Sinabung.

 This is near the front entrance.

 This is the entrance to the temple itself.  They have you take your shoes off before you enter.  The doors are very large.

This is near the entrance to the temple. You can light incense and burn it in here. 

 This is inside the temple.

 This gives you an idea of just how large the doors are.

 Another shot of inside the temple.

 This is a shot of the outside of the temple with Sister Jibson and our brand new missionary, fresh from the MTC in the Philippines, Sister Hasibuan, from Indonesia.

 Elder Barrus lighting some incense.

 Another view of the temple.  It shines in the sunlight

 

 As we were leaving, we watched them harvesting the cabbage, for a while.

On the way home we stopped on the side of the road at an overlook.  The view was beautiful.  We made it home by about 1:00 PM took a nap, and had our driver pick us up so we could go and visit with the Mendrofa family, who's son is here for the week so he can visit his ill father, the son is serving in Indonesia as a missionary.  We had dinner and a FHE at their home.

Tuesday,  Had our meeting with our language coach this morning, and then called Danielle, as it was her birthday.  We were able to talk to her whole family.  At noon we went with Pres. Rico and Emma to shop for Christmas decorations for the branch.  Before we shopped we had lunch together at a Thai food restaurant in the Sun Plaza Mall.  Then we bought a tree and decorations for the branch activity.  Headed back to our apartment where we had to go down to the second basement to find a parking spot.  Well our driver took his turn a little sharper than he should have.  The end result was a damaged door panel and frame below the door on the driver side of the van, then because he was excited trying to get clear of the high curbing on his side of the car, he put the gear shifter in the wrong gear and went forward into the curbing on the other side damaging the bumper on the other side of the van.  We took some photos, and sent an email into the Mission office to see what we need to do.  They told us to get an estimate from the dealer and we will go from there.

Wednesday, Took sisters to post office, while there I had a 30 minute conversation in English and Indonesian with a gentleman who toured the US at the request of the first President Bush, as an Indonesian Minister, after this long conversation he pulls out his book which covered the  financial corruption in his previous church (he claims he was fired for bringing up a need for an accounting of the contributions) after 38 years as a pastor for the church.  He was asking contributions of Rp200,000 but would take whatever amount I was willing to give (to help cover his legal fees as he pursues action against the church for firing him) I never saw the sales pitch coming. I declined not having any money with me at the moment, but I could have gotten some from Audrey if I really wanted to.  Later it dawned on me that I missed the opportunity to buy his book and offer him one of the BOMs the sister missionaries were carrying. Elder Lisk called to visit about the new car, and that Bro Sujud would let us know when he would visit with us via Skype about the car and that they expected payment by 5 Dec.  I informed him that would be much easier if they would let us know how much we needed to pay for the vehicle, his response "oh yah, Bro Sujud hasn't talked with you yet, he then provided the amount and asked us to forward payment immediately.  I told him we would get it done when we were at home and could get to it.  He then asked about our phone bill payment which they had not seen for the past two months, I then informed him that we had not been provided any information regarding payment, he promptly provided an SMS requesting payment, cheap to say the least, about $13 per month for 2 phones calling all over the country, and many calls back to the states.  Later we dropped the sisters off for an appointment near the part of town we were going to, then we went to Sister Teng's and worked of family history for a couple of hours, without the support of any young missionaries translating,  we were successful in entering all the information she has in the computer, with our Indonesian and her English. That evening we went out to Toyo and Ronis' so the district leader could conduct baptismal interviews and to do some additional teaching.  Well we ended up teaching them, but were going to do the interviews later as Roni was away helping prepare for a neighborhood production that takes place this coming Saturday.  When we left several of us thought the baptism had been scheduled for the 22nd (English speaking missionaries), others thought for the 15th (Native Indonesian speaking Elders) which is when it had originally been planned for, but they had an aunt or uncle die this week and there was discussion whether they should do the baptism on one occasion or the other.  On our way home stopped and got dinner at Nias then went to the church and left the pump running to fill the water tank so it would be available when we needed to start filling the font on Thursday.

Thursday, Met with Scott for the last time as our tutor, he is graduating and moving back to Texas.  I was going to enter a story here about the 'Silent Treatment" I am receiving, but remembered my confidentiality agreement and will abstain.  Started filling the font this morning and as the tank was full it got the water up to about half way between the second and third step of the font.  We were planning to have our driver pick us up at 11:30 to go pick up Elder Barrus and Mendrofa to take them out to visit Elder Mendrofa's father.  So with that time we thought we would go to an ATM and try to activate a feature on our bank card that allows us to do online bill paying.  Aud had visited with their English Help Line, and they suggested we call them when we were at the ATM.  So that's what we did, well while at the ATM we had someone from their help line giving instructions, part way through the machine went back to its original start screen, which instructs "Please insert your card"  the only problem was that it kept our only bank card.  There was a queue forming behind us, and we were getting nowhere with the help line, (Aud wasn't sure if she should cry or reach through the phone and choke the bank operator, whose name as Chokie by the way) so we left and ended up calling the elders, asking to have them contact our driver to come early, and then for them to go to the bank with us so we could get a new card and get it registered so we could do additional tasks with online banking.  The bank informed us they were going to have to charge us for the card, as we wanted it replaced that day, and didn't want to wait the 3 or 4 business days for them to mail it to us. she spoke fairly good English so we didn't really need the translation help this time. We then took the elders out to the  Mendrofa family home.  Went to Medan Fair Mall and had lunch and bought a baby gift for Pres. Rico and Sister Emma's new daughter, Rebecca Wee.  That evening we again went out to Toyo and Ronis' so they could do the baptismal interviews.  While interviewing Toyo, and asking where he was born, his response to the question was a very serious "the  hospital", at which his mother reached over and slapped him on the shoulder.  As we visited it was brought up by their mother that they would be ready for the baptism which was to be held the "next week", at this point it dawned on the young Elder that indeed the baptism was to have been scheduled for the 22nd not the 15th.  So we headed home, let the Elders buy themselves some dinner, and stop by the church to pull the plug on the font.  Our driver informed us tonight that his children had school activities that would prevent him from driving for the next two days between 11:00 AM and 6:00 PM.

Friday, Well as our driver would not be available, we had him scheduled to pick us up at 10:30 AM so he could drop us off at the church and get to the school for the activity.  He showed up at 10:55 AM.  We attended DDM had lunch and then spent much of the day studying and doing some odd jobs around the church with the expectation that we would see our driver shortly after 6:00 PM.  In the afternoon, the Sisters stopped by and said they had some free time since their appointments for the afternoon had cancelled on them, so they went  with us to Indo Telkom so we could pay our internet bill, and try to set up a monthly payment program, we made the payment and they told us to work with our bank to set up the payment plan.  That evening when our driver did not show up a  little after "6:00 PM,  I finally texted him about 7:15 PM letting him know we were quite ready to go home.  His response  "Saya lupa"  a common phrase from our driver,  "I forget"  he finally showed up about 7:45 pm. 

Saturday, As we visited with our driver we had him acknowledge that we would be dropped off at the church so he could get to his school activity, and he agreed to pick us up at 6:00 PM because we had Toyo and Roni's performance to attend at 7:00 PM.  Spent the day cleaning the church, then Aud taught our English class.  At 6:20 I sent a text to our driver, letting him know we needed to be picked up.  He contacted one of the missionaries and said he would not be there until 7:00 PM so one of the young missionaries contacted him and told him that he needed to get there as soon as possible, so he borrowed a motorbike and got there about 7:40, we headed to an ATM so Aud could get us some cash as we are headed to Jakarta Monday morning, and need the cash for our expenses.  Then we headed out to the Christmas production Toyo and Roni had been involved with.  We were given seats of honor in the very front, and then spent the next couple of hours listening to a number of speakers, and because it was so late, did not get to stay for the drama production they were involved in. As it was, the young missionaries were out way later than they are supposed to be.

On Sunday we rode in the Ankot again so our driver's kids could get to church also.  We were there until about 1:30.  Rick was in meetings and the Relief Society was practicing their song for the Christmas party.  We are losing our piano player as Elders Barrus, Marsudi and Sutadiyono are all being transferred on Tuesday.  We will have only one Elder coming in so we will be down to 1 Elder and 1 Sister companionship.  I will miss these young Elders, especially Elder Barrus who has been with us for all of our trials (setting up bank accounts, getting internet, etc.)  The branch doesn't really have it's own piano player and none of the remaining or new missionaries can play.  could make for interesting Sacrament Meetings.  We took the ankot home and spent time working on the blog and getting ready to fly to Jakarta tomorrow morning.
Sorry we were not able to call you until a day late Raeleigh, But hope you have fun at the basketball game.  Also "Selamat Datang" to Dani and Jayson's newest, I don't know how to spell it, and not sure if I am authorized to use her name yet. None the less "welcome".  We are having fun, and yes we are working hard, Its interesting that even on those days where it doesn't look like we have anything scheduled, the day seems to fill in around us, and we end up with plenty to do.  It is much harder when we don't have a driver.  Now that we have been to a Christmas program in Indonesia, I see where they came up with the outline they thought we should follow for the Branches Christmas program, which by the way I am in charge of,  We are having 1/2 Indonesian food(bought) and at the request of a couple return missionaries 1/2 Lasagna & green beans(which Sister Tucker will be making, along with cookies).  We were informed Saturday afternoon that we fly to Jakarta to renew our visa/kitas to be able to stay here, on Monday, and then back to Medan on Tuesday.  So it will be a quick trip.



Minggu 13 - Lake Toba and a Pada Remaja (Youth Activity)

Monday we had permission from the Mission President to take the missionaries to Lake Toba because they really had been working hard and had had 6 baptisms in the last 2 months.  We met at about 2am at the church (we picked the Sisters up) so they could get their reports sent in and then we left about 3am and drove to Lake Toba.  It is an island that was created by a volcano in the middle of the Lake.  It is also the center for the Batak culture.  The drive took about 31/2 hours.  When we finally found where the ferry was we parked and then had to wait until the ferry came.

 The Elders getting ready for Christmas.  Elder Sutadiyono was pretty cold.  I thought it was wonderful.  It was so nice not to be sweating all the time.

The view from right where the ferry will be landing.  It was really beautiful.

This is our ferry. It docks right at this dirty place.  The cars and trucks get backed on so they can get off going forward.  The pack them on.  You can barely get between the cars and trucks. 

The ferry ride is about an hour long.  When we got off the ferry we went and found an out door museum and also went shopping.  Open stores lined the road ways. 

 We are sitting in a circle of statues.

 Sister Jibson and Elder Sutadiyono learning a traditional dance.



The Elders and Sisters along with Brother Manalu, our driver.



We then went to find another site with traditional houses and such.  It is where a king lived.

 These are the type of houses they lived in and people still live in these types of houses today.

 There is special meaning in the number of stairs the have leading to their homes.  Usually between 4 and 6 to say how many children they would like.  The small doors are so visitors have to bow down to the people who live there.

 This is where the Raja (king) lived.

A weaving loom in one of the houses.



These are some of the cloths that a woven.  They are the ones that go over the shoulder.

We then went to the top of a mountain and you could see lots of the Island from it.

 

 Some of the view from near the top of the mountain.  Those are ric padi's below.

 

Water buffalo at the top of the mountain

As we were getting ready to leave on the ferry these young boys kept asking for money to dive for.  As we drove home we saw lots of monkeys.  These came really close to the window of the car.  One sure looks like he has been in a few fights.  Because we hit lots of traffic it took us 5 1/2 hours to get home.

On Tuesday we spent some time at home doing some of the things we would have done on Monday, like laundry.  We then returned our rental car and spent the rest of the afternoon at the church. 

Wednesday we went to the Kantor Pos (post office).  An experience in it self.  You can't just buy stamps places, you have to go to the post office and get just what you need.  We went to Ace and Elder Tucker got some things so he could fix the sound system at church.  We then went to church.  Elder Tucker worked on the sound system and I ended up helping President Ronald make some food for the Youth Activity that night.  We stayed for the Activity and it was great.  It was about preparing for missions.  We had all the missionaries there, plus the Sister Trainers who were visiting.

 The youth played a game where they had to guess what word or words were being held over their heads.  They were timed.  They had fun with it.

 This is the food that they were given.  Elder got the recipe for the drink.  We will have to change it some at home as we don't have all the ingredients in the states.  Of course rice was the main part with the other put on top.

 

Sister Baunger (from Utah) was one of the Sister Trainers visiting.  She goes home in about 10 days.  In the center are Tinggi and Agus who are the young men with their mission papers almost ready to be sent in.

On Thursday, we met with our tutor and the sisters and sister trainers flew to Jakarta.  Sister Jibson is becoming a trainer and was picking up her new trainee fresh from the MTC in the Philippines.  We spent most of the day at the church.

On Friday we met with a study buddy and then went to the church for DDM (district meeting).  After that and our standard lunch on fridays we went with Elders Barrus and Sutadiyono to teach Jonathan, a member and his non member little brother.  We also stopped and visited a member who had joined the church in Australia and had come home when done with school.  Talked to him about coming to church.  We also visited a member who is here going to school and will be going home for a month for the holiday's.

Saturday we met the new Sister, Sister Hasibuan from the Jakarta stake.  We went with the Sisters to find a sister who's records had just been sent to the branch from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  She is from Medan.  She was not home but we got her phone number.  We then taught our English class and then went grocery shopping and went home.  Today we went to church.  Because we can't take anyone but missionaries in our car our driver brought his ankot with his children and we went to church in that.









Minggu 12 - Thanksgiving and a Funeral more Pictures

 The darker clouds are coming from the volcano that we had to drive by to get to the village for the funeral

 A mountain on the drive to the village

 Also on the drive,  the views and scenery were fantastic

 Another view

 Rice paddys

 And more rice paddys

 Lots of homes in the little villages had these in their front yards.  It is corn off the husk being dried

 The brown stuff by the motorcycle is cocoa beans being dried.

 The plants grow right up to the edge of the one lane road.  This road was pretty good.

 We saw lots of Durian trees with the fruit on them

 This is what alot of the villages looked like.

 At the park.  One of the many statues of bible scenes

Another of the many views

Minggu 12 - Thanksgiving and a Funeral

Because Thanksgiving was this week the President gave the Missionaries permission to change their P-day to Thursday if they wanted.  It depended on how many Buleh (white people) are in the district, to whether they changed it or not.  Our District decided they wanted to change it so on Monday we went with Elders Marsudi and Murphy to visit Bro. Abdi.  He is a return missionary and active.  He is the Young Men's President.  He is in his mid twenties.  He has a tumor in his abdomen and it is about the size of 2 basketballs.  He is a wonderful man with a strong testimony of the gospel.  We showed him the film Small and Simple Things and then talked about sharing the gospel with friends.  The video touched him because it was alot like that how he found the gospel himself.  We then went to the Sinaga house with Pres. Ronald (the 1st counselor in Branch Presidency).  Brother Sinaga is the Elders quorum Pres. and Sis. Sinaga is in the RS Presidency.  We helped them start putting their family history into the computer.  Almost no one has internet in their homes so we put it into a program and then print it for them.  At some point while we are at the church we will help them get it into family tree.  The Batak people keep records here which is great and they also have surnames.  Most people on Java only have one name.  It makes it really, really hard to do family history.  We then went back to the apartment and skyped with the director of the sminfield language training center in Provo.  They have a 6 month program where we can continue with language help.  We started this week.
On Tuesday morning we met with our language coach for an hour.  We then picked up the Sisters and went to visit Sis. Tri and her daughter Vani.  Sis. watches a corn field in a village so is normally gone during the week but because of the volcano erupting she stayed in town all week.  They feed us a great lunch. Wish I could remember what it is called.  I will have to start writing these things down when I have them I guess.  After lunch Elder helped her get what she knew of the top of her head down on the computer.

In the background you can see a cloth with lots of bananas.  She gets these from her trees.  When we left we asked if we could buy any really soft bananas so I could make banana bread.  She gave us enough bananas to make 7 loaves.

Then we went back to the apartment and made a loaf of banana bread to take with us to another family.  While the bread was cooking the Sisters and I went to the tailors to take some material we had bought the week before.  We are getting skirts made.  We then went back to the apartment to pick up Elder and the bread.  We visited Sis. Fransiska and her husband was actually home.  We had never met him before.  We are working to get them to come to church and they say they will but haven't come yet.  We then went to the Herefa family who we have visited a few times before.  We gave them the loaf of banana bread (pisang roti).  We also watched the John Tanner story.  It has Indonesian subtitles.  We also encourage them each visit to also start coming to church again.

On Wednesday morning we met with our tutor.  We get our tutor from before our mission for at least a few weeks and then he graduates from BYU and will be moving back home with his wife.  We sure like him and wish he could continue even after he moves but we understand he needs to move on.  We got a call from the branch president that morning also about a women who passed away the day before.  She is a member but was having mental issues and had been moved back to the village.  Her son is an active member of the branch and is one of our boys getting his paperwork ready for a mission.  The youth here are very special and strong.  They almost all are without member parents for support.  We went to the church that afternoon so Elder could meet with the rest of the Branch Presidency.  The funeral was the next day and they wanted to send some people from the Branch for support.  We asked the Young Missionaries if they minded moving thanksgiving to Friday so we could go and take everyone in our rental car that we still have.  They of course said yes.  That afternoon we went with one set of Elders to Sis. Ezra's house for a lesson with Agus who was introduced to the church by Sis. Ezra.  She has only been a member for a few months.  Agus cancelled after we got there so Sis. Ezra showed off her pigs behind her house.  We also gave her a small loaf of banana bread as we left.  If you don't give it to them when you are leaving they want to share it with you.  We then went home and tried to sleep.

These are her pigs. The brick wall in back is the back wall to her house.

On Thursday we met at the church a 4:30 am.  Of course it was raining.  We had our driver, Elder and myself, Pres. Ronald, Sis. Nora (Primary President and Seminary teacher), Sister Tri, Novita (a college student) and Septi Sinaga (another young man preparing to go on a mission.  I took us about 5 hours to get there.  We drove into the mountains (it was so nice and cool) and near the volcano and on to a little village.  By the time we got there the funeral had already started.  It was a traditional Batak funeral. It was on the main street in the family's home.  They take of the door and front window so everybody can see and hear.  The Medan people were given a chance to go in and say something so Pres. Ronald gave a prayer and Sis. Tri spoke.  Then Pres. Ronald asked permission to dedicate the grave.  At first the family said no but after it was explained what it was they gave permission.  I think Agus, the son, was grateful.  The casket sat on the floor open during everything.  After this part the head person (of family or village, we aren't sure invited us to his house.  We sat and visited and he practiced his english and Pres. Ronald also interpreted.  He gave Elder his family name and said if he ever visited again he would kill a chicken for him.  Elder showed him a picture of our chickens and said if he ever came to America he would kill two chickens for him.  It was quite funny.  We then went back for lunch.  They spread mats in front of the house on the street and that is where everyone sat and ate.  After lunch they did somemore talking and singing in the house and we were invited in for that.  They brought in the casket lid and put it on and nailed it shut right there in front of everyone.  It was pretty emotional for the 15 yr old daughter.  We then drove about 6 km to where she was buried on a one lane dirt road up into the mountains more.  After ward we went back to the leaders house for a short while and the were able to visit alone with Agus and his sister.  Then we had to start back.  Part way back we decided to stop at a park that over looks some of the country.  We got back to our apartment about 10pm that night.

Agus and his sister at the funeral

 

As everyone was finishing eating they brought out the rest of the pig, that wasn't in the lunch and started cutting it up and giving out to everyone.  I think they gave away everything.

 This is where we sat to eat lunch.  The women are wearing traditional sarongs and over the shoulder the have a long cloth that has to do with family.

 Walking down to where the burial took place.

 After the buriel some of the villagers posed for us.

This is at the park we stopped at on our way home.  Sis. Tri, myself, Sis. Nora, Novita, Pres. Ronald and Septi Sinaga

On Friday we had all the Elders and Sisters over for Thanksgiving dinner.  Turkey was way too expensive so we settled on Steak that we grilled on our patio.  The Elders and Sisters came over about 9 in the morning and we fed them hashbrown potatoes and bakso (which are a meatball that is served in soup among other things).  It was a pretend sausage for us.  While they were here we made rolls, a pumpkin pie, and an apple pie.  While that was all cooking the Sisters and I walked to a big mall called Sun Plaza and went to a fabric store that the branch presidents wife told us was good and was having a great sale.  I got 2 meters of two different fabrics and spent 10.00 us dollars for it all.  I am going to have two more skirts made.  Clothes get dirty and stained here so fast, especially went you are always sitting on the floor of someones home.  When we got back I cooked green beans and Elder Barrus had made mashed potatoes.  While we ate we watched 17 miracles with Indonesian subtitles.  About 4:30 the Elders all left as they had appointments.  The Sisters stayed and used my computer to make invitations for the Branch Christmas Party.  A great day.  We gave our driver the day off.

 The Elders playing a game after cooking while we were gone. The Sisters stringing and snapping the beans.

Our dinner just as we are getting ready to eat.

 

On Saturday we went to the Church and Elder did some things around there while I did some studying.  We then had English class in the afternoon.  After English we went to the store to get a few things for Monday.

Sunday we had Fast and Testimony meeting.  Even if you can't understand everything you can still feel the spirit.  It was great.  Wonderful testimonies.  Sister Hutchison is leaving for Jakarta on Thursday and will be there for a week and a half or so and then she goes home.  We will sure miss her.  She is a wonderful, hard working missionary  Sister Jibson will also go to Jakarta to pick up a new missionary to train.  That will give us 2 missionaries being trained in our district.  They had a break the fast after church.  About an hour after.  They had to make some of it and cook some.  It was Batak spaghetti with a spicy sauce over it.  We then came home to rest and hopefully get to sleep early as we have to be at the church at 2:15 am in the morning.  You will have to wait until next week to see why.  Elder took some great pictures from our trip that I will post after this post.

 Sister Sinaga, Sister Ezra and Sister Nora getting the plates ready to serve.

  Some of the Young Women waiting to eat.