Minggu 57

We started early this morning and spent the day on airplanes and in airports. We ran into the Welch's from Manado at the Jakarta airport.  We had managed to schedule the same flight to Yogjakarta, so we spent a few hours visiting and waiting for our next flight.  We finally arrived about 4 in the afternoon and took a taxi to the Phoenix Hotel, which was built in 1918.  It was a very nice hotel.  We all got together and visited for awhile then went to a small family restaurant, owned and run by a member of the Ward in Jogja.  The atmosphere in the restaurant was very personal and the food was very good.  She had a special that night Sapi (beef) Rendang, she said she makes it different than they do in Medan.  She brought a sample, and Elder really liked it, while he can barely eat in Medan, so that is what he ordered.

 A picture of the pool area of our hotel

 Part of the restaurant in the hotel

 The decorations in the hotel were wonderful and most based on the time period it was built.  This was hanging in our room.  These are some of the blocks they use to make original batik material.  The patterns are stamped on.

A bird cage we really liked at the hotel.  Made of this beautiful wood.

On Tuesday we got together at 7:30 in the morning for a devotional and then went and had breakfast, again at the hotel restaurant.  The Welch's, Elder and I went to Borobudur a 9th century Buddhist Temple, identified as the largest Buddhist temple in the world.  The other Sr. couples have assignments that allow them to see many different places in Indonesia, so they had already seen it, but said we needed to go at least once.   It was fun but it was also hot, on the way out it was a lot like walking around the shops in Nogales or Tijuana and being dogged by the venders there, it was basically about a mile of walking and having chats about the product they were trying to sell.  We got through with out buying anything, but the Welch's bought a few things they couldn't live without.  We got back about 2 and had lunch out by the pool, then we ladies went out shopping for batik material and the men stayed around the pool or rested.  That evening we all had a nice dinner in the hotel restaurant. The Lucherini's were able to get the Bishops wife to come and sing for us while we were at dinner.  She has a operetic voice and is very expressive.

 Us and the Welchs at the Borobudur temple

 Once you get to the main level of the temple you have to climb up these steep and deep steps to get to the top.

 A look down from the base of the temple

 the next few are views from the top of the temple

The Bishop and his wife singing to us.

Wednesday we again had a devotional in the morning, had breakfast, and then had a couple of drivers (local members in Jogja) take us to a couple of beaches, about a 70 km (2 hour) one way drive.  The first beach was great lots of small rock formations some with bridges to walk out onto them on.  There were also the waves and tide pools to check out, although the beach is closed to swimming due the strong currents.  After wandering around for an hour or so we started back towards the cars and found a couple of guys who collect fish for the tropical fish trade.  If Elder could stock his salt tank from them it would be great, a large Naso Tang that could easily cost him $150 to $300 in the states was $10 there, I would guess everything he had would have cost about $50 and would have cost him over $2500 at home.  We then headed to another beach but only stayed a short time, it wasn't as nice so we only stayed for a short time and started back to Jogja.  That afternoon the we ladies again went out shopping for batik material and stopped at a Belgin chocolate factory, as Jogja is so close to Solo, and is one of the best place to get batik material.  I was able to get 13 pieces of material 1 1/2 meters each plus 6 meters fabric for a table runner for about $70.  I paid about $3 a meter, averaged.  If I had had more time I would have gotten more.  I may still find more here just a little more expensive.  Most of it will be taken home for quilting.  I have already had 4 skirts made here.  We went to dinner at "Nama Mia" an Italian Pizza restaurant.  The pizza and other food was good.  When we got back to the hotel Sister Donald gave all of the Sisters saryongs and a tool they use to do the original batik fabric with the wax.  While we were here we did manage to do some work on PEF applications, that needed some additional effort, but other than that it was a pretty relaxed week.  

 On the drive to the beach

 The lava rock and coral reef.  The next pictures are all of the same beach just different angles

Out side the Monggo Chocolate factory

Us Sisters after indulging in tastes of chocolate with our stash we each bought

On Thursday we had a devotional with President & Sister Donald and the rest of the senior couples, had breakfast, and caught a taxi for the airport.  We left on time, and got to Jakarta only to then wait for hours because of flight delays because of recent eruptions of Sinabung near Medan.  They were concerned about ash from the eruption being in the flight path and its effects on the jet engines, our flight was delayed a little more than 4 hours , so we got home a little after 10.

 Bacak using a bicylcle

 Sister Lewis(North Salt Lake), Sister Donald(Australia), me, Sister Lucherini ( Idaho), Sister Welch (Mesa)

 Elder Welch (MLS in Manado), President Donald (Mission President), Elder Lewis (Family History, based in Solo), Elder Tucker, Elder Lucherini ( Welfare/Humanitarian, based in Jakarta) other than President Donald we go home last.  At one time the had up to 9 or 10 couples here.  This shows how badly they are hurting for Senior couples.

On friday we had DTM, Lunch and I gave the Elders the chocolate I had gotten for them from the Monggo chocolate factoryElder picked up the 3rd Television for the Medan building, hopefully this one will stick around for a while.  Because we had given our driver off until saturday we took taxi's to and from our apartment.

On saturday we went to church early by taxi so we could set up for General Conference, and spent most of the day watching conference.  I went grocery shopping this evening while Elder got the equipment put away at the church. That evening Elders Barlow and Hansen went with Bro Manalu to try and visit Toyo & Roni, but they made excuses for why they couldn't meet with them.  I then did a bunch of preparation work for Elder Pujianto's birthday dinner tomorrow.

We had General Conference again today.  Then a new young family in our branch who just moved here from Tangerang, on Java had a party for their son who was two.  They provided lunch for everyone who was there after conference and a big cake.  We then had the Elders over for dinner for Elder Pujianto's birthday.  We did tacos and chicken enchiladas and I made a cake.

 The Elders, Us and Joseph Hinckley (2) with his parents

At our apartment with the Elders with Elder Pujianto and his birthday cake

Minggu 56

On Monday we got our laundry done and then had the Elders come over for a late breakfast and to watch a movie. We had German Pancakes (one Elder also knew them as Fluffy-cakes).  We watched "How to Train Your Dragon 2" and had popcorn. 

Tuesday we didn't have anything scheduled  so we went to the church and spent the day there.  Last Tuesday we had a new granddaughter born.  She is so sweet looking.  Maren Sonora Tucker.  Can't wait to hold her although she will be about 1 1/2 yrs by then because her family is moving to Brazil in November/December.  Great experience for them.  Our son served his mission there so he is excited to go back.

Today (Wednesday) went to the fabric pasar (fabric market) here many stores of one type all open in the same area of town, so the street has fabric stores on both sides, and branching streets also I would guess there are well over several hundred stores.  We had to get some material for the house (curtains for three windows) that used to be the sisters, currently occupied by elders, but latest information is that we will have sisters again in early November instead of a third set of elders.  I think that is a good decision, as so many of the women and girls who are taught here are single it makes it difficult for a set of elders to teach them.  Elder also checked out some material to see about getting some material to have a pair of dress pants made, in preparation to have a suit made sometime before we leave, He wanted about $30 for the material so he'll have to keep looking when the opportunity is there.

On Thursday we went to Ace to get some rods we can use for the curtains we are making to put in the one house, also got cash so we can cover our trip to Jogjakarta, and to pay our driver, while we are gone he is going to go back to his home village, and remove the remains of a fallen tree from his mother's home. 

On Friday we had our District meeting in the morning, and we took the "Es Buah" that Elder had made and then picked up Padang Chicken and rice for lunch.  In the late afternoon it rained hard for a couple of hours, so because Elder had allowed Bro. Manalu to go home and come back when we needed him, he was late by 45 minutes because he had to wait until the rain let up enough for him to ride his bike back to the church from his home.  We went with Elders Barlow and Hansen to see Toyo (15) and Roni (18), the road was a river (up to the running boards on the car) for several kilometers of the trip, but we got there and had a good visit, it was the first time they have been able to meet with them, they have tried to call, but have always tried to call the mom, and she left 3 weeks ago to go to Banda Ache which is the province north of here, they have not heard from her, and are not sure what her plans are, which explains why she hasn't answered any of the phone messages the Elder's have left.  

On Saturday we of course helped clean the church, then we helped Dearly work on information for her PEF loan application, we have been going around in circles the past few days, it has been lost, misfiled, in need of changes, and finally in need of some additional number changes, which we sent the official letter from the school to Elder Kentjana and suggested he input the numbers he thought Hong Kong wanted to see, instead of having us guess what numbers they might be interested in receiving.  Because it is a new program there seems to be a lot of portions of the computer software not working correctly and a lot of people who aren't sure how the use the program at this point.  We are just trying to make sure that the school doesn't get upset in the process of us learning our own program, and not allow Dearly to attend classes for the lack of on-time payment.  We met with our Branch Mission Leader today, and did some additional training with him.  Just before English we met with Sara Nababan and were able to finalize her PEF loan renewal, so that's one more complete.  Then we got set up for English, again today we had about 20 people there, but we have handed out 30 books, and didn't have enough for everyone who was there, so about 12 who have been there earlier weren't there today.  But we could never fit 30 people in our room for English with access to a table for writing purposes.  About a half hour before class was over, the sky opened up and rained for about an hour and a half, so everyone stayed in and around the building and visited until the rain and lightening slowed down.

Just hanging around waiting for the rain to let up.  It was pouring and the streets were all flooded.  We are in the rainy season here in Medan.

It was a normal Sunday.  We did get Joyce and Kevin Harefa to come to church today.  It has been awhile but the Elders have been visiting the family every week.  Joyce is 13 and Kevin will be 12 this month.  They ride an angkot for about an hour to get to church.  We leave early in the morning for a Senior couple conference in Jogja.  It will be good to see other couples from the mission although we are down to only 4 couples from the states, the mission President and his wife and 2 couples from indonesia that work in the office and PEF part time.

Minggu 55

Early on Monday morning we took the sisters to the airport.  After that we went over and picked up the two Elders who are moving into the house that the sisters have been living in.  That way it doesn't sit empty for the next 6 weeks or so, until we get additional Elders or Sisters here.  We don't know for sure yet.  We have heard both.  We then had a normal P-day.

On Tuesday Elder Tucker left early in the morning to go to the church because the workers wanted to finish up the door they were working. It is amazing that it has taken them about 30 hours to hang and paint a door.  I had Bro. Manalu pick me up at the apartment and take me to do our grocery shopping and then I dropped everything off at the apartment before going to the church. I arrived at the church about 2:30.  We spent a few additional hours at the building, then headed home for the evening.

I didn't feel well this morning, so we stayed home for the day.  We spent the time doing language study & some family history.  I think it was allergies that just made me not feel well. That evening Elders digestive system started heading south also, so it put activity on Thursday into question.   Elder Barlow headed to Jakarta for MLC for the rest of the week and he returns on Friday, so the others will work as a threesome.  

Elder survived the night and woke up in pretty good shape. We headed to the church and spent an hour or so with Sara Nababan, helping her renew her PEF loan for the year.  We had to research her user name and password, as she had forgotten them.  After finishing Elder took the English book over to the copy shop to get additional copies made for class.  Then went down the street to get a haircut.  He walked back to the church, where I was working with Sara since her professor didn't show up so her class was cancelled. So we worked on the rest of her PEF application update.  She is scheduled to get an interview with the Branch President completed this evening, so we can get it submitted tomorrow.  

On Friday we did not have DDM since Elder Barlow was still in Jakarta.  We had a planned meeting with Sara to work on the rest of her PEF Loan paper work, but she never showed up.  Elder went up on the roof and did a little patch work on some leaks.  Later that evening it rained, so he went out to see how well his patch jobs worked, on one he was successful, on another it turned into an very slow drip.  Elder also worked some on his lesson for priesthood this coming Sunday.  We got a call this evening saying that the Elders were going to the Harefa's to do a service project tomorrow morning and they wanted Elder to come along and they wanted to use the car to get there.

On Saturday Elder left to pick up the young Elders around 8am and they went to the Harefa's home.  They spent a couple of hours moving fill dirt so Bro. Harefa can pour concrete, giving them more usable area.  Good News. They finished at about 11 and were taking a rest and visiting when Sister Harefa brought several plates of cold watermelon, and a plate of mei fumi (noddles, egg, vegetables, and diced meat) for each of us, not that we knew exactly what it was but one of the Elders asked and that is what Bro. Manalu said as we were driving home.  Bad News. On the way home there was lots of trafic, which meant very quick starting and stopping, causing Elder Barlow to loose his lunch.  Good news. He got the window down in time.  He dropped the Elders off at home, and got cleaned up and changed clothes at the church.  I went ahead and got a taxi to go to the Church before the Elders got back.  Sara came and finished her paper work for PEF, then Dearly came and we were able to finish her new application also.  It rained hard for a couple of hours so we were not sure how many we might have for English today.  We set up the room for English and started with about 10 people, and ended up with 20 there before long. 

Sunday we had a very low attendance.  I don't know if we even made it to 40.  We took a taxi to and from Church today since Pres. Rico had a Dental class to attend.  We found out yesterday that three of the Elders had they same tie that they had all gotten from Solo.  It is known for its ties at a really good price.  So anyway they all decided to wear them today.  It was kind of funny.

 Brother and Sister Herefa with Elder Barlow, Elder Zollinger, Elder Hanson, Elder Pujianto and Bro. Manalu in front of their house.

 English class at the beginning.  This window looks into the front of the chapel.

The three Elders and their matching ties.  Elders Barlow, Pujianto and Tucker

Minggu 54

On Monday we took the missionaries to Kota Brastagi to visit the Buddhist temple there.  It looked pretty much the same this time as it did last December when we were there before.  But this time Elder and the young Elders walked down another path that they had in the garden area that went out into a fairly large valley area, which was all landscaped and cared for with water features, there was also a bridge over the valley.   I thought it was a nice addition, even if it was there the time before and we just missed finding a way to get to it.   We got the missionaries home before 2 and headed to our apartment so the AC guy could come work on the drain for the AC in our bedroom. We decided we were tired of keeping a big bowl under it to catch the condensation from it, and having to be careful opening the door, so you didn't move the bowl.  Well we got there about 5 minutes before he did, and it took them about an hour to service the unit and unclog the drain line for it.  He also poured a bunch of drain cleaner down the line, then followed with fresh water to rinse it out good.  So the system is working good again.  They only wanted Rp50,000, less than $5, so we gave him Rp100,000, cause we are sure the Condo service charge would have been more than that. We spent the rest of the day on laundry and doing some family history.

 Part of the gate to leave.

 Us getting ready to go in the temple.  Over by the crowd on the left you take off your shoes.

 By the drum.  Everyone is squinting because the sun was shining off of the white stone ground and it was really hard to see.

 Another view from back by the gardens.

 A panoramic view from one side of the temple

A wishing tree.  It is full of papers with peoples wishes.

 Some of the shrines that people worship at.

The view from the side of the road where we stopped to look.

 All of the Elders and Bro. Manalu at the over look.

In the car.  The three sisters in back and four Elders in the middle. Elder Tucker taking a selfie with Elder Barlow, Elder Hansen, myself, Sister Believe and Sister Wihanda.

On Tuesday we got to the church early so Elder could let the workers in who were working on the door, and on the ceiling that was falling down in the foyer, pretty much all we did was stay in the building while they worked. I went to Carrefour and bought the Elders a new refridgerator since theirs had stopped working and also a new water despenser that has cold water in it.  They will deliver it this evening.

This morning Bro Manalu's becak broke on his way to the apartment, so Elder told him to go get it fixed, and Elder Tucker and I spent the day at the church. We finally got Lya's address and Elder sent her records to Malaysia.  Elder also got a guy to cut the grass today, he was across the street working on the yard there.

On Thursday evening we took Elder Pujianto and Zollinger up to the north to see the Harefa families, and after we finished we finally took them the home of the Sarumahas, and got them introduced there.

On Friday we had DM, Lunch, and then we went to buy a printer for the church, but only left a down payment, and it will be sent from another store for pickup tomorrow.  We helped set up for and had a Branch Family Home Evening. We did manage to have a number of guests attend which we weren't sure about since it rained most of the afternoon.

On Saturday we of course cleaned up at the church.  Elder replaced a couple of light bulbs in the building.  He then went to Sun Plaza to pick up the printer we purchased for the branch,  the old printer jammed every 3rd page you tried to print, and took 1 extra sheet of paper for every page you tried to print.  So we got the printer that the facilities manager told us to get, the only problem is we are having a hard time finding the drivers for it, it is supposed to be plug and play with windows 7 & 8.   We had lots of rain today, we weren't sure how many we were going to have for English but ended up with about 15.  We took a photo of the whole group including the younger class, to go along with all the other classes in the mission to satisfy a request from the office of new President of Indonesia, we assume to see what type of things are being done by the missionaries they are allowing into the country.  Rick and I were suppose to go to dinner with Pres Rico and Emma, but they ended up canceling because they had to going to a family dinner at the last minute.  So we took the young missionaries out to dinner at Koki Sunda's, as both sisters are leaving this coming Monday.

 Elder Barlow with the younger english class sitting on the stairs at church.

The two english classes together for a picture to send to the Pres. of Indonesia

 Four of our seven PEF students.  Chaterine, Novita (who was graduating) Sarah and Samuel.

 Chaterine, Novita and Sister Tucker

 Novita all decked out in her graduation attire.

 This is Sister Ezra and she brought all of these children from her neighborhood.  This is what they all came on.  Her flatbed becak.

It was raining again this morning. I think we are headed into the rainy season.  Attendance at church wasn't great.  About 45.  Partly due to rain and just not as many investigators as we have had in the past. Took a taxi home also today since Elder stayed later than Pres. Rico.  I helped Dearly get part of her PEF paperwork emailed in.  The new program starts today in Indonesia.  She and her sister are going in under the new plan.  Once we got home we had a quiet evening.  I was even able to do one batch of indexing on family search.

Minggu 53

On Monday we waited for the AC repairman who never showed.  Elder called about 3:00 to see if he was coming, and he said he forgot, so we rescheduled for next Monday.

On Tuesday we went to Sister Imelda's (she is the RS Pres. and Institute teacher) school to participate in reading to 3 classes of preschool (age 3-4) students. It was alot of fun. At this school it is mostly chinese students and at the school they speak English.  So I got to read to stories in English.  The Owner was so impressed that we would volunteer that they would like us to come back.  We will see what we can work out.  Because we were going to be at the school, and needed someone at the church so the workers could work on the repairs, Elder asked a set of Elders if they could do their study time at the church.  After completing the reading we were headed to meet with Pres. Rico, but while on the way there got a text telling us that one of the workers motorcycles was stolen from the church this morning.  So we headed to the church building instead.  So many thefts in only 6 months or so. It is so sad that people do this and in broad daylight.

 At the Childrens Garden school to read to the children.  Sister Imelda's class.

On Wednesday Elder went to Pres Rico's office to take care of some reimbursement items for the branch and I went to Gramedia (the bookstore/office supply) to get paper for the church and batteries for us.  Then at 12 we went to the church building so the Elders could go out and get to work, the elders had gotten there at 10 so they could meet the workers, but the workers only dropped off some wood they needed to for working on the door upstairs, we waited but they never came back. 

Thursday we got to the building by 10  because the workers were coming back to complete installation of the door upstairs.  Elder met with Pratan, a man who stopped by the church to see about getting 2 more books he had learned about (D&C, PGP).  So he and Elder visited about the church for about 40 minutes or so.  Elder did try to call the young missionaries to see if they could come to the church to visit with him, even though it was still study time no one answered the call.  But he got his contact information for them.  Elder also gathered up all the trash in the building and burned it, getting trash collected here is quite unpredictable. 

Friday we got to the church a little before 9 to get everything setup for the PEF/Self Reliance presentation.   We only had 10 participants there for the presentations, but considering it was on a Friday, and the need for most of our members to work to survive. we had about 20% of those who are able to come to church each week.  Had a presentation/workshops in the morning and afternoon with lunch for those who were in attendance in between the presentations. Then we met with Dearly to review and update information on her application for PEF loan.  Took Elder & Sister Kentjana (the PEF couple) and Ricky (the new manager of the Indonesia self-reliance center) to their Hotel then headed home for the evening.  They were all here to give the workshops.  The missionaries had DDM with out us as we felt we should attend the workshops.

At the workshop,  some of those who attended.

On Saturday we had another early day at the church building. We got things set-up so we could start by 9 AM.  Thier were not a lot of people who were on time, but one that we needed to visit was on time so Elder Kentjana, Ricky & Elder spent about an hour visiting with Harto and trying to see what could be done to help him with education and his desire to serve a mission, in light of his mothers opposition to his going on a mission, before attending college.  The problem is that if he is unable to serve prior to school having to pay back the PEF loan essentially prevents him from serving for about 8 years if he does a 4 year program and about a 4 year payback, by the time he finishes he would be too old to be able to serve.  After visiting with him we then started the employment/business opportunities seminar.  While that was going we had our driver take Elder & Sister Kentjana & Dearly to the school she is trying to attend with the assistance of the PEF program, so far we have been unable to get details from the school as to whether they will accept the churches payment method.  They came back with a very good report, because of her previous school work they reduced the price, because of upfront payment another discount, and if she does well and keeps her commitments the total loan amount is reduced by about 40% by the church, so she could come out of this with a good education and a very small loan balance when she completes the program.  So all 4 of the loans we had been working on have been approved and the youth are starting their programs as of this coming Monday.  After having some lunch Elder took Elder Kentjana and Bro. Ricky to see if they could visit with Harto's mother and try to help her understand some of the advantages of going on a mission first and then attending school.  She was concerned because it was her understanding that a mission would cost Harto Rp10,000,000 which is high by 10x, also thought he would have to see a doctor and be circumcised before going.  We have no idea where the information came from.  She seemed a little more supportive, but not really sure she is willing to give him her blessing, because he gives her 70% of the money he earns each month now, to help with living expenses.  Had a one hour meeting with BML (branch mission leader).  Then we set up for English and we had about 20 people there today, and the class went pretty well. The Elders except for Elder Pujianto taught the childrens English class.  The Sisters also taught a young girl whose father comes to our class.  She didn't want to go with the Elders.  After class we headed for home to get things done for tomorrow.  On the way home we stopped and bought some martebak.  It is so good but it is a heart attack waiting to happen so we have only had it like this about 3 times and the thin ones about the same. The Elders and Sisters stayed to play pingpong with the members and some none members from English.  They try and do a sports activity once a week and include members (mostly the youth) and also nonmembers.

 The picture doesn't do the Martebak justice.

Sunday we had two boys in Primary. One member and one not.  Thank goodness Sister Novita was there to teach the lesson.  After church and all of Elder Tuckers activities, Pres. Rico and Sister Emma dropped us off at our apartment.  We had the Elders and Sisters over for dinner because Sister Believe goes home on the 22nd and Sister Wihanda is getting transferred to Manado.  She will be companions with Sister Jibson.  They will both be great together.  They are both really good missionaries.  We will go down to just the 4 Elders until November and then President said he was going to send another set of Elders. So we won't have Sisters.  He could change his mind.  We will have to wait and see.  The mission is losing more Sisters than it is getting coming in so that is the reasoning for losing our Sisters. We had a good dinner with Chicken Parmesean, green beans, breadsticks that I made and of course the standard tomatoes and cucumbers with brownies for dessert.

Our District for one more week.  Sister Wihanda(Semarong), Sister Believe(Manado),  Elder Barlow(district leader, Bountiful, Utah),  Elder Tucker,  Elder Zollinger (being trained, Burley, Idaho), Elder Hansen (being trained, Cache Valley, Utah and a lifesaver, he plays the piano), Elder Pujianto (Bekasi).

We hope this finds everyone happy and healthy this week.  The past couple of weeks here have been very involved in building maintenance, getting PEF loans processed, In fact  we got a call on Saturday from Hong Kong area asking about how PEF was going in Indonesia, by the couple who are replacing the previous Area PEF couple.  So Elder had to go through the discussion about the fact that we are actually serving as MLS missionaries, and have only limited involvement in PEF.  Fortunately Elder was able to put her on the phone with Bro. Ricky who was in Medan to do some workshops for Self Reliance, and employment. We are happy and healthy here, working hard much of the time, but we do have days where we get to take our time and relax some.  Looks like we have to go buy a new fridge for the Elders house, the old one quit working a couple of days age, so this coming week we get to go buy that in addition to a new printer for the church building, hope we can find the one that we are authorized to buy here in Medan.

Minggu 52

Steven, who was baptized a month ago continues to visit the building each day, fill up his water bottle and to ask for food and money.  Then hangs around the building because he has nowhere else to go.  We've told him several times he needs to spend his time during the day looking for employment, the problem is...he doesn't want to work.  Also visited with Batasi Mendrofa about the progress of his PEF loan.  Scheduled a visit to the school he is trying to attend so we can see if they will accept direct payment from the Church account, so far they haven't been very promising.  Also had him take the printer from church to see if we can get it repaired (after a year Elder is tired of fighting with it).

Thursday we met Batasi at the church building , and then we went to Microskil (his college of choice) to work on the payment process.  We met with one of the managers at the school and he said he had a meeting scheduled for 2 in the afternoon, but he didn't sound very hopeful.   We left there and dropped Batasi and Novita, who joined us to try and help explain the payment process, since she has used it for the past 4 years.  The church payment process is quite simple in my mind, but they are very process minded here, and it is difficult if you want to do anything that is not pre-programmed into their process.  We have run into that at Hotels, and stores, where it takes 4 or 5 different clerks to process a transaction, instead of one person to make the sale, collect the funds, and provide the product, enough said.  All the church wants to do is transfer the payment to the schools account for the benefit of a given individual, that way the student never touches the funds, and there is no opportunity for misuse.  After dropping them off we went to the sister missionaries home to get their AC installed.  The Sisters and I went to look for drapes/curtains for their windows for some added privacy, it was never a problem before, but now they have others living next door to them, and there are no window coverings, other than sheets, or other material.  We couldn't find any ready made so I will try and find so material and go to Sister Teng's and use her sewing machine and make them.  In the early evening we went with Elder Pujianto and Zollinger to go see both Harefa families, both had recently been ill, so one of the things we discussed was priesthood blessings, so the young Elders performed a few of those. Stopped at Nias after calling in an order, for takeout.

We had DDM on friday.  One of the new elder's digestive system isn't doing so well, so he wondered if there was some medicine he should take or if he should go see a Dr.  We suggested he watch what he eats, and give Sister Donald a call so she knows.  After DDM we spent some time driving in circles, and backing up about a half mile on a one way street, because our driver got himself lost and didn't want to have to go around again. Finally got to the Methodist University (which is only a kilometer from our apt.) to see if Batasi could get registered there and if they would accept payment in a couple of weeks, instead of the required time, which is today.  After visiting 5 different offices, we finally got to the correct place, but she had a guest in her office so we had to wait.  Just as her guest left, Elder received a call from the PEF Administrator, and he said that Microskil authorized our payment method, and it was a go for Batasi and Samuel to get registered there, which was their preferred school.  Back to the church we spent the late afternoon and early evening trying to get a hold of Samuel to let him know he should go register.  But his phone was not active for a few hours.  Finally got him the message.

On Saturday we cleaned up the building a little, got setup for a meeting with our new branch mission leader, it has only been 6  months or so since we had a (bml), more like 8 months since we had a meeting.  It may take a little training to get the meeting to cover the items that need to be discussed, and completed in a timely fashion.  After the meeting we got set up for English, we weren't sure how many to expect.  We started the class with 3, and continued to grow for the next 20 minutes until we had 13 in class, so we need to get another 10 books printed for the class, since we only had 11 printed so far.  A bunch were planning to go play basketball at the park, but when they got there the court was occupied by footsal (soccer), and they only had standards, no hoops to play basketball.  We took off before they were able to figure out what they were going to do. We headed home and had dinner and quit for the day.  The first part of this week had to be the slowest week we have had, but as the week progressed things started to improve as far as things that we needed to get accomplished.

We are starting to work on another temple trip.  Hopefully this one will actually not fall through.  We are still waiting for a family to decide if they can commit to go and have the money they need by the middle of October.  For the first time attending the temple the church will make up the difference if the family or person can contribute 3 months worth of income.  For us it seems like nothing but for these people it is really alot.  We will see how it goes.

Minggu 51

Monday we had a nice slow restful day, that evening we spent some time working on family history.

On Tuesday after we inspected the Elders house we spent the whole rest of the day working to get 4 PEF applications completed and submitted.  We had two of them previously submitted, but needed to go back into the computer to make some modifications and resubmit them for approval, and then submitted to Hong Kong for their review by the PEF committee.   

On Wednesday morning we stopped by Pres. Rico's office to pick up the forms for the two brothers who were ordained elders on Sunday.  Pres. Meyers told Pres. Rico he didn't need the forms, so he didn't bother signing them or leaving the information about himself so Elder could enter the information in the computer.  We took Sister Believe and Sister Olsen (Sister Trainer) to once again try and visit with the Gerhart family.  This was our 4th attempt to visit with this person who is a referral from her cousin in Jakarta, well she was home this evening so we sat on the large porch in front of their home, surrounded by their many plants, and an ornamental pond, with a number of small koi in it.  After about 30 or 40 minutes of visiting and establishing some rapport with her and a couple of her adult children, the Sisters started to teach the "Plan of Salvation" discussion, about 1/2 way through they asked if there were any questions, and the person we were specifically there to see said she had so many questions , she just didn't know where to start.  Her husband of many years had recently died and as a result she had a number of timely questions.  At about this point Sister Olsen shared a brief summary, in English in case there was information we missed, and asked if Elder would like to respond to her questions, so as best he could with his limited language skills, he shared his impressions.  They then asked us if we wanted to eat dinner but the sisters had an appointment scheduled for later in the evening, and had to decline. 

On Thursday we inspected the Sister's apartment in the morning, and checked to see if there was anything Elder could do to filter the water coming into their apartment.  Spent the rest of the day at the church,  President Rico stopped by the building today, so while he was there Elder told him we needed to contact the AC guy to get an air conditioner put in the Sister's apartment, at least in the bedroom so they can sleep on hot humid nights.  In the late afternoon the power went out, so we headed to Carrefour to purchase a new chair for Elder Barlow and a pillow for Elder Zollinger, the one he has is filthy, in fact it has been causing his eyes to bother him.  We then headed home for the evening.

On Friday we took a cab to the church early, because we had told our driver to take the day off and go see a Doctor because his eyes were giving him problems yesterday.  We had to be there early so a construction contractor's crew could start making security improvements to our building.   We were there on time but the contractor's crew was delayed until almost 11, so Elder got them started, and then we went to DDM, and had lunch.  Elder visited with Steven for a little while and had the Elders go get him something to eat.  We stuck around until early evening when the contractors finished making their improvements.  Another crew will be back early next week to replace the back door that was destroyed when they last broke in.

 The Security Patio

The Security door

On Saturday we dropped off the chair and pillow for the Elders, then had Bro. Manalu drop Elder off at church, so he could work on cleaning the building, and I went to the store to pick up groceries so we could feed the missionaries on Sunday evening.  Pres. Rico and his wife had seen a lot of photos on facebook of Pres. Donald, his wife and the Humanitarian missionaries going out to dinner, so they decided we needed to go out with them for dinner.  So we elected to go to a Korean BBQ buffet in the Sun Plaza Mall.  The BBQ was quite good, the soup was good but not quite as good as the BBQ, but then again it was based on the items we selected to put into the soup which you prepare at your table.  I would guess with sufficient knowledge about what to add to the soup you could come up with something quite nice. 

Korean BBQ

Sunday after Church and Branch Council we had the missionaries over for dinner.  They were so excited to have non indonesian food.  We had a good time.