Minggu 46

We went down to the pool and gym and exercised some, then went back upstairs to visit with Benjamin and family.  Both of us did a batch of indexing, then some study time, and getting ready for the coming week.

On Tuesday we went to Brastagi to get some things we needed to make "Esbuah" for our Branch Malam Keluarga on Saturday, when we get back from PLD.  We drained the font today, since we forgot to have Steven pull the plug in the font on Sunday, Elder Tucker had thought about it but didn't want to get all wet.   We sent Elder Hedrick to purchase a camera for Septi to take on his mission, as he nor his family really have the money to buy one, his sister offered to buy one and send it to him later, but she needs to save her money so she can provide a little support for herself when she goes on her mission in several months.  I was going to help Septi sign up for his mission email account, but he hadn't shown up at the church by 5 so we left with Elders Davies and Sutarno, to visit Harefa's.  Got a call from Elder Headrick, telling us that Septi showed about 5:30, so he gave him his camera, but didn't say where it came from.  After we arrived at the Harefa's we taught Kevin, and he asked if Elder Tucker would baptize him, and he told him that of course he would be happy to do that. Then we went to Nidianus' home and took a small back pack for his daughter (Delfia) to use for school.  We then went back to Erwin's home and shared a thought with the whole family.

On Wednesday we started the day with a plane trip Jakarta,  In the taxi on the way to the airport, we had the opportunity to explained why we had not installed A/C on sisters house, since they now know they will be leaving Medan in a couple of weeks.  After getting to the Mission Office,  we spent an hour visiting with President.  He told us it would be great if we could travel to Manila to go to the temple with Septi, so we will see if we can get the arrangements made.  With all the holiday traffic it took us a little over an hour to get to "The Park Lane" our hotel for a couple of nights.  After getting situated in the hotel, we checked on the restaurant down on the basement floor, but they were still closed, on another occasion we had very good steaks there.  So we went up to the main floor restaurant and checked out their menu, and had a very enjoyable meal.  We had only our second restaurant Dinner Salad since we arrived here.

On Thursday we spent day at Mission Office and Home, Elder talked with Bishop Agus, in Facilities Management, for about 45 min about improving the security in the Medan building.  We concluded with an understanding that without improving the security they will likely have to replace the electronics we just purchased again, and they now understand that, Elder also pointed out that it is not just the dollars spent it is the 3 to 5 days spent trying to locate and install the replacement equipment.  And the month or so trying to get by in the building without a computer hooked up to MLS.  Sister Donald, Sister Lucherini and I went shopping and we each bought some material to have some things made.  Then later in the day all of us plus Sister Lewis went to the grocery store so we could get some things and Sister Lewis got a feel for what she can get here and the costs.  A new mission couple arrived on Wednesday, the Lewis', the first since we arrived here.  So President Donald asked if  we would help them get oriented to Indonesia, so we talked about getting their phones up and working, banking, housing, etc. Talked with Elder Kusarmanto, and he said we needed to buy plane tickets now in order to get exit and entrance visas processed, so once Ari came back we went online to check airfares, the fare there was only about $250, but with the Ramadan holiday travel the return trip was more like $1,500 per person.  And the fares didn't drop back down to a reasonable price until the 11th of August.  So we decided that it would have us gone way to long, and to come back earlier was just too expensive, so Septi will just have to go without us.  That evening we all (4 couples) walked to Pacific Place Mall, to find a place to eat, well every place we went had reserved signs on all of their tables, for people breaking their fasts at 6 pm (for Ramadan they fast from sunup to sundown) the fast is started and broken with the beating of a goat skin drum.  We finally located a buffet style place that had a lot of different eateries, and they each accepted a magnetic card you received and scanned you order, and you paid on your way out of the place, based on your magnetic card.  

 At the mall for dinner with Sister Lewis (Utah), Sister Lucherini (Idaho), Sister Donald (Australia) and me.

This is what the gong looks like.  This one was at our hotel were the breakfast buffet was.

The food at "The Park Lane" buffet is really good, and there are many different types of food to choose from.  Since We had not seen a lot of good salads, and they had a small Salad bar to work with, Elder had a salad for breakfast.  Once we arrived at the chapel we visited with Elder Barrus, then Elder went on a walk with Elder Panjaitan and Sinaga so they could get breakfast and they could visit before PLD started.   With so many new missionaries coming in next month, Pres asked for those who would be working as trainers to meet with him for some instruction, and Elder Tinggi Sinaga was one of those, he will finish his training as a new missionary in 2 weeks which is when the new missionaries show up.  During the lunch break President told us that the Manila MTC informed him that because Septi did not speak English and he was the only one going to Indonesia, that they would not provide a translator.  So it would be necessary to change his report date to November when more Indonesian missionaries would report.  Elder suggested that he could allow him to do as others had been allowed to do, and that is to start serving his mission and then after the 3 months go to Manila with the new group.  He decided that was a good idea, and it will only mean Septi reports on the 13th instead of the 1st of August. We are going to see if Mei Nainggolan can get her papers in and report in time for the November MTC group.  And then Elder Tucker and I can work on making a trip to Manila with them.  Our flight home from Jakarta was delayed for 2 and a half hours, so we didn't get home until after midnight.

 Us with Elder Sinaga and Elder Panjaitan at PLD

The Jakarta Zone with the Medan district

On Saturday we got to church about noon and started getting the "Esbuah" ready for the activity tonight.  I went to the store and had to get a few things like bread for sacrement tomorrow and some more fruit for the Esbuah.  We had about 16 people for English class, and 6 for the beginning class.  We then had a Family Home Evening for the branch, with about 45 people there, 10 of which were friends or family coming to learn a little more about the church.  At the end of the evening the three young missionaries were treated to a traditional Indonesian Birthday, where they have water poured over them, are egged, and then coated by flour.  I got lucky and only got a light dusting with flour and egg.  Mei informed Elder Tucker that it would be his turn on 9 August, so he corrected her and told her his birthday was on the 3rd.  And that she could do just that, so long and she met with President Rico and got her papers in by the 3rd, and if not she couldn't turn him into a birthday cake, with water, eggs and flour. 

Sorry this picture isn't very good as my battery was low so the flash didn't work but Elder Headrick was covered in flour, water and egg.  He is a really good sport.  The others weren't as excited about it.

On Sunday we had what started out to be a very small group at church but by the end of sacrement meeting we were up to about our average number.  After church we had Kevin Harefa's baptism.  He is 11 and will be 12 in october.  His parents are members who are not active and he has been coming with his sister who is almost 13 and a member.  They ride an angkot about and hour one way to get to church when they come alone.  The whole family was there today.  After that we had branch council and then about 20 people from the branch went to the house of a family member of a member of the branch (Sis. Ezra) because some one in the house had died and had been buried on friday.  I guess it is tradition where you go and give them spiritual thoughts.  It was like a short family home evening.  We finally got home about 5:30 that evening.

The Harefa family with Elder Tucker and the Elders who taught Kevin.

Minggu 45

We had a typical Monday although we did have to get a taxi and go get money and then go to the Elders house.  We set up for them to get A/C in their bedroom, at the request of the mission home, and it was being done then and we needed to pay them.  The big problem here is that most people including some stores will only take cash. We also did laundry and I went swimming while Elder worked out.
Tuesday I went to the Dentist to get my teeth cleaned.  Normally I wouldn't even attempt it.  To nervous of what we would end up getting.  I have been in to many hospitals here.  But since our Branch President and his wife are both Dentists and they are very clean and he is even alittle compulsive I was good with going.  Sister Emma cleaned my teeth.  They wouldn't let us pay them and we tried several ways to do it.  She kept saying it was her way of serving.  I feel bad though because they just opened their practice about a year ago.  We went with Elders Headrick and Sutarno (Elder Davies was ill, and Suwarsid stayed with him) to visit with the Mendrofa's, the Elders had received a letter with photographs to deliver to them from their son.  He will be back home in a few weeks from his mission.  Then we went to Daniel and Jese's new home, they moved closer into the city and Jese's school, but Jese was off at a Warnet (computer room). On the way back to the church we looked for the residence of the Bangun children, we had visited with their mother on the phone a week or so ago, she is working in Batam, Riau, the kids were all off at the Warnet, but we visited with their grandmother.  After we got home we went to dinner at Coffee Box.  Elder tried to finish up the quarterly report, but couldn't get the system to let him into the area where he could finish it.

On Wednesday President Rico didn't show up again for presidency meeting.  So Elder got on the computer at church and got the quarterly report submitted, also spent some time working on addresses and contact information in MLS.  That evening we went with Elders Headrick and Suwarsid to see Bang Eka. Then we received a SMS (text) from Sister Ezra that she would like us to stop by the hospital where her older brother was.  Her brother has been ill for the past couple of months, and went to Malaysia and was in the hospital and on medication there for a while.  Then returned to Medan, and hasn't continued to improve, so he is back in the hospital, but appears that he has given up on recovery, and has decided or has no desire to eat, so he was being tube fed.  On the way home we took the Elders to dinner at Koki Sunda.

Over the past few days we have figured out where 3 additional members of our branch live.  Each set of elders located one, and I located the other, but only one lives in Medan, another a couple hours out of town and another in Riau.  We again went to go visit Bang Eka this evening with the Elders.

On Friday was DDM, and because it was Elder Headrick's birthday this week, he bought Pizza from Pizza Hut for lunch for everyone with the money his parents had sent him.  That was nice of him to want to treat the whole district with his birthday money.  After lunch Elder took Elder Headrick and Suwarsid to visit Sister Ezra's "brother" we know of no relationship, other than they share the same last name. Turns out it was a wild goose chase. The information they had for the address put us in the wrong area, so they called and rescheduled visit for tomorrow.   Elder Tucker and I them met with a couple of YSA for another class on PEF, I did most of the teaching.  Elders had appointments with Steven (scheduled to be baptized this Sunday) and Lui (inactive member) who's address is listed (at a kost) as just across the street from the church, but in reality he lives at his parent's home, which turns out to be the house we thought Ronald Efendi Sinambela and 2 other members lived.  So while they were in the building Elder Tucker and I also took some time to visit with them.  We made a quick trip to Brastagi, but only got a few things since we are headed to Jakarta next week.

We got to the church, on Saturday, at about noon to get the water running for the font, and so if anyone showed up to help clean the building (Relief Society assignment today), some showed up but they were there for institute class which began again today.  So Elder Tucker and I swept the building, but never did get around to mopping the floor.  Elder also managed to get all of the trash gathered up and he burned what could be burned, since they haven't bothered picking up what has been out in the receptacle for the past few weeks.  Elder had Bro. Manalu take the Elders out to visit with Sister Ezra's "brother" who was at home but had taken a turn for the worse, they are trying to force feed him but not being very successful.  Then on their way back they were able to stop by and visit with Albert Lie.  The traffic was so bad it took them an hour and a half to travel the 5 or 6 kilometers from his house to the church this afternoon.  We had about 18 in our class, and 6 or so in the beginning class.  We hung around after English, so we could go visit with a former investigator who was taught a year and a half or so ago.  We got there at about 7:30 and  met a member of the branch there.  Nefi, he didn't know where the person was we were supposed to meet, but introduced us to a family who welcomed us into the house (We still don't know whose home it was).  After introducing us to the family, Nefi took off, and we didn't see him for the rest of the night.  During our hour and a half visit, we visited with the heads of at least 5 families all were born on the Island of Nias, and moved to Medan for school, employment or just to go to the big city.   About 10 minutes or so before we had to leave the person we were there to meet arrived, he was just getting home from work.  Each of the families or heads of families we spoke to were interested in learning about the church, and its teachings, and gratefully accepted information, books and or literature that we were able to leave with them.  The Elders were able to make some follow up appointments and only time will tell if it was anything more than polite interest or not. Elder said that it may be a stretch but this reminded him of some of the gatherings you read about where the Lord has prepared a people to hear the gospel, and brought them and his servants together so they could be given the opportunity to hear and learn the good word of God.  In his heart and mind that is exactly what he thinks happened there this evening.  Hopefully a number of teaching opportunities will result for the meeting.  On our way home we called an ordered food from Nias, so we could pick it up and then get the Elders to the church, and turn the water off for the font, and let them get home on time.

Today I ended up with none of my primary people there so I asked Dearly, a young single adult to teach the lesson.  She is also one of the councilors in the Young Women.  So we kind of taught together the first hour and then she left for Young Women and I had the 5 boys by myself the last hour.  They colored pages having to do with the lesson and they asked if they could see pictures of temples on my computer so we looked at them and read a story out of the July liahona.  After church we had a baptism.  Steven was baptized.  Then after that Elder had to go up stairs and finish tithing and such.  We then came home for the rest of the day.

Steven with Eders Davies and Sutarno and Pres. Rico

Minggu 44

Monday we didn't make it to the exercise room or pool as, my ear has been causing me grief so I don't want to get it  wet.  So Elder did not go down either.  We talked with some of the kids and their families and then spent the rest of the day getting ready for the week ahead.  We also spent some of the afternoon doing some research on family history.  Elder has been using my Ancestry account, since they have not sent him his invitation to get access yet. It was a nice restful day.

Tuesday we visited with more kids and family for my birthday.  We picked up a letter from President Rico's office this morning and then picked up the Elders and went out to Mandala area.  We had an appointment scheduled to teach Jonathan Hutapea at Sister Ezra's home, because his father does not want church contact in his home.  Jonathan now has a job working at the Wesley House Hotel down the street from the church and hopefully this will be a better fit for him and will last longer than his previous attempts at employment.  We then went and visited with Sister Teng and talked about doing some family history for her, and then getting together this Sunday.  We then headed back to Sister Ezra's for a scheduled appointment with Samuel, her neighbor.  He never showed up, but while we were waiting we entered additional information for her on her family history.  Spent the evening at the church, drained the font and visited with Bang Eka for a few minutes before the Elders appointment to teach him, then headed home for the evening.     

Wednesday was Election day for the Indonesian President, so it was also a National Holiday.  We had no appointments today.   Elder spent the afternoon getting information pulled together for the quarterly report, and trying to come up with a way to help young missionaries know where people live in this city, so they don't spin their wheels trying to locate someone who has already been researched and the location resolved.  We got an email asking us to get the AC installed on the Sisters house and some drapes and sheets for the Sister Trainers when they come to Medan.  Fortunately we have a man coming on Saturday to do the survey of the site for the AC, so we were ahead of the game on that one. 

Thursday we spent the day at the church and in the evening did our shopping.  We had to get some things so we can prepare dinner for the missionaries this coming Sunday, 4 of us 8 missionaries are having birthdays within a 2 week span of time.

Friday we got an early morning call from Pres. Donald asking if we had spent any money on the improvements to the Sister's house.  Which we have not.  He told us not to do any work on their house, as the number of sisters in the mission was going to be reduced from 22 to about 16 in a couple of months, and with the lease expiring on the Sister's house here in Medan, that helped him decide to pull them out of here for now.   He is also pulling them out of Manado, which is the other city in a similar situation to Medan.  We had DDM this morning, and then lunch with the young missionaries, then for the afternoon we did some PEF training for some of the Young Adults in the branch who had visited with the PEF Couple the week before.  After finishing that up in the evening we took the Sisters out to see if Lya had returned from Malaysia, but she will be gone another few days.  We then tried to figure out where Hesty Saragih lives, Sister Believe thought it was over near where Sister Desni had lived, but Bro. Manalu said it was in a village about 6 hours away from here.  After we got home I was able to locate where she lived and it is more like 2 maybe 3 hours drive away from here.

Saturday we spent the morning cleaning up at the church, then after the AC man showed up Elder went to the Elders house to see how it would be best to install AC for their bedroom only.  He then returned to the church, and we got set up for the Seminary/Institute Graduation and English Class.  After English Class we visited with a group of young branch members for the next couple of hours and then about 7:30 headed for home to get lessons and programs put together for tomorrow. 

Today I only had 3 in primary and they were all non members.  Sister Tri was at church today.  It has been many months since she has been because they have all been living in their village near the volcano Sinabung.  We had the missionaries and Sister Teng and her husband for dinner tonight.  10 people in our small apartment.  We managed but it was a tight fit.  Elder grilled steaks.  We were celebrating the 4 missionary birthdays.

 Elder Tucker grilling on our balcony.  That is also where we dry our clothes.

As you can see we really pack them in but we do have fun.  We have to use our desk as a serving table so people can use the table to actually eat at.

Minggu 43

Monday we had our usual P-day.  As a snack food we have been enjoying some thinly sliced and dried sweet potatoes called "Krupuk" (which is a generic term for crackers) that a girl in English class gave us. She told us she makes these at home and that you salt or season to taste before eating.  When the Elders and Sisters were over on Sunday, we asked how we should prepare them as we tried a couple just out of the bag and they were not all that great.  We were then instructed that you fry them in a wok, like a potato chip, and season them, once fried in oil they are actually an enjoyable snack food.
Tuesday we had 4 of our youth who just graduated come to the church and we had set up a skype meeting for them with the couple that is now doing PEF.  The youth were all about a half hour late which unfortunately is very common here.  Time doesn't always mean much.  They met for about an hour and then we got lunch for everyone.  We then helped the 2 young men, Harto and Samuel, get set up and into FamilySearch. We helped them record what they knew and showed them how to do it themselves.  It was a good productive afternoon.

Elder Sinaga (Tinggi) sent a letter to the Branch and this picture was included.  It is great because it has his trainer Elder James who served in Medan before we got here, Elder Sinaga, Elder Barrus who is now a zone leader in Jakarta but served in Medan from the time we got here until December (great missionary), and Elder Costner, our last district leader.  All but Elder Barrus are in the same house right now.

Wednesday we spent much of the day at the church.  The power has been going out each day here for about 5 hours, so it can be a little disruptive to planned activities.  The generator does provide some relief for those occasions. We were asked to take scans of the native missionaries identification cards, so they will be able to vote in the upcomming election here,July 9th for President. That evening we went to Carrefour and bought some bookshelves for our apartment, so we could get our books and English supplies up off the floor in the spare room.  Also stopped and bought a couple of additional American TV shows while we were in the mall.

Thursday we cleaned the font room.  Also had the Elders come and help Elder lift the stairs back into the font, after having it welded and Elder painting it.  That afternoon we went out to visit Nidianus Harefa and then to visit with his brother Erwin, so we could teach Kevin his older son.   Mom and dad claim to have testimonies, but with such a long distance to church, they rarely (2 times since we have been here) attend, and instead attend a local church for convenience.  They support their son being baptized, and I know that joining the church is important to him and for him, Elders concern is how this 11 year old boy is going to remain active over the years to come with his family situation. Kevin and his sister, Joyce, who is 12, came to church last Sunday and they want to keep coming.  They rode an angkot by themselves all the way to church and back home.

Friday we had DDM and found out we would be having PLD(Zone conference) in Jakarta 22 & 23 July.  We then of course had our lunch.  Steven came by the church to be taught, and also Sara Nababan came to the building with her boyfriend who has wanted to meet with the missionaries, he had meet with them before and discussed the gospel, but Elder thinks this was the first time he has had the missionary discussions.  So today he met with Elder Hedrick and Suwarsid.  Afterwards Elder Headrick said he had committed to a baptismal date.  Hopefully he was making the decision for the proper reason and not because of his relationship with Sara.  On the way home from church we stopped by Gramedia to get a couple of batteries for my "Alpha Link", and a map book for the Sister Missionaries.  We then headed home and dinner for the night.

Saturday we got to church turned and turned the water on to fill the font.  Cleaned the building a little, them went with the Elders to go see if we could visit Albert Lie.  We got there and ended up in the workshop where his dad told us he wasn't home even though his motor cycle and car were both in the garage, oh well.  So we called his number, and he rejected the call.  Elder Headrick noticed that the gate was opening where Albert's car and bike were parked so we headed back out front and his sister was just heading out, and she said that her brother was home but asleep, so she invited us in and went and woke her brother up.  It was about 1 in the afternoon.  He had been up late watching World Cup games.  We had a very good visit, and he said he would try and make it to church tomorrow.  Left there and went to Sister Ezra's house to visit with her neighbor, Samuel, and when we got there she told us she also invited Agus, while we were waiting a couple other neighbors came over and joined the discussion also, then Agus showed up, Samuel never did.  Had a discussion about the restoration, and headed back to church at 3:30.  We think traffic was heavy because of a lot of people were going out to eat as part of their Ramadan celebration, which started the 28th of June.  We ended up taking about an hour to get to the church, fortunately we sent a text to the other missionaries to start English without us.  We ended up with 20 in the intermediate class, and 12 in the beginning class.  Visited with Steven and also Pak Eca who came to the church to be taught after English.  That evening went out to visit Toyo and Roni and had a discussion with them about fasting.  Ibu Merry (their mother) was gone so we couldn't teach her.

Today we had two young men visiting who had been missionaries in Medan.  One of them, Peter Johnson, we had actually had as a study buddy when we were working on our language before we came here.  Elder Tucker had his turn again to conduct Sacrement meeting.  Primary is slowly getting better as we work on a schedule and sometimes we actually use it.  At least we keep the children for the whole time now and not let them go after the first hour.  It does help when all of my people show up to help.  Never know who will show up or if we will have no children or seven.  We had a baptism after church today. Brother Manalu's (our driver) daughter was baptized and also one of her friends.  They are both 12 and really enjoy Young Women.  They both wanted Elder to baptize them.  We tried to get at least Ririn (Brother Manaul's daughter) to have her father do it but she didn't want that.  The family dynamic if not good in that family.  They then had what they call a break the fast but it is with just cakes and other treat type foods.  The Elders were using my computer to show Finding Faith in Christ to Steven so we ended up having to get a taxi to get home.

 Elder Tucker with Sister Zabriskie, Ririn, Ribka, and Sister Believe before the Baptism

Elder Tucker with Ririn and her father, Bro. Manalu

Minggu 42

This week we were a little busier.  We have started trying to go to the pool for me and the exercise bike for Elder 3 times a week.  So this week we went on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.  On Tuesday we went to the Elders house and I did an inspection and Elder fixed one of the beds.  The slats keep falling out so the Elder in that bed had to try not to move at night or he would fall through.  Then we spent the rest of the day at the church.
We went with the Elders on Wednesday to deliver a letter to the Mendrofa family from Elder Mendrofa who is serving in Bogor from our branch.  His family doesn't have access to email so he sents his letters to us and we see that they get delivered.  He returns home in August.  We had a very good visit with his mom, dad and younger brother.  We then left to deliver a letter to Jese who was going home to the village for a few weeks as he has a break in school.  The letter is for permission for him to be baptized.  We just made it with about 2 minutes to spare as he was on the street waiting for the angkot to take him to the bus station.  It was very much a miracle that we got there in time and actually saw them.  We then went back to the church to wait for Sister Zabriskie and Sister Sheffield (one of the Sister Trainers) to go visit a referral.  When we go to her house we were told she was not home.  We have been before but have not made contact yet.  So we called Sister Believe and Sister Allred to see if they were done with their appointments.  They were so we met them for dinner.  We have wonderful Missionaries in our mission.

 Out to dinner with the Sisters and the Sister Trainers and also Mei who is almost ready to turn her mission papers in.  Sister Zabriskie, Utah, Sister Believe, Manado, Sister Sheffield, Utah, Mei, Medan, Sister Allred, Utah and Me.

Thursday we went and bought a new bed frame for the Elders apartment.  The one that Elder had to try and fix months ago finally broke again.  Poor Elder Headrick kept having the whole frame collapse on him at night.  Doesn't make for a very restful sleep.  We then went to the church to wait for the Sisters who needed to use my computer to finish something in the missionary portal for her training.  They didn't show and finally texted that they wouldn't make it so we decided to leave and go to Brastagi (the grocery store we go to) and do our weekly shopping.
Friday was DDM and lunch.  After we went with Elder Headrick and Elder Suwarsid to meet with a family, the Hutepea's,  who were having some problems.  Four out of the five kids are members and the youngest is taking lessons.  The parents just split up and it has been rough.  The parents are not members.  The mother and the 2 youngest are staying with some of her family about an hour, hour and a half away.  The two older daughters were visiting and the decided to visit a shaman(or that type of person) and he told the one girl that she had lots of ghosts in her and she was possessed.  They called the Elders about it and so we all went out to see what needed to be done. They are very superstious here and truely believe in ghosts.  As far as we could tell she really was fine so the Elders gave her a blessing and spent some time talking to her.  We think she has been really stressed and that has been manifest in some of the things that this guy told her, like not sleeping well, etc.  With her parents splitting up and just graduating from high school and here they have big tests they have to take after graduation if you want to go to college and get any kind of government help to see what you qualify for.  Most can't afford it if they don't get help.  Who wouldn't be a little stressed.  Elder Headrick is giving her information from our stress books for her to use to try and relax some.  We then dropped the Elders off at their next appointment and we went to the church so the other Elders could use my computer since we haven't yet felt ready to leave the new TV at the church yet.  They showed the restoration video to an investigator named Steven.  He has a baptismal date of 27 July.  After the lesson we headed home.

Our driver coming back from fishing while we were visiting the Hutapea family.  You can tell we are out aways from the city.

Saturday we went to the church and I did some cleaning and Elder Tucker worked on getting the steps to the Baptismal font painted and ready to use on the 6th of July.  We had English with about 12 students.  It went pretty good.  One of our Muslim students brought us these little hard wafer like things that she said you fry and sprinkle with salt or other seasonings.  I think she makes them at home.  There are lots of home businesses here.  When you fry them they kind of puff up some and expand a little.  They are pretty good for a snack.  Kind of like munching on chips.  She said they are sweet potato.  After English we met with Ali and Masi with the Elders.  The Elders struggle some to teach in English and they struggle to understand it all but it is the only semi common language there is.  Ali would like to be baptised.  Hopefully everything else will fall into place so that He eventually can.  They try to come to church every week.  We then tried to visit at Ibu Merry's and Toyo and Roni's house.  They were not there and we found out they were having family problems between the three of them.  Hopefully they can be resolved soon.  We took Elder Headrick and Elder Suwarsid out to dinner since there was not enough time to come up with another appointment.
Sunday Elder Tucker taught the 5th Sunday combined meeting with everyone except the primary.  We also had Joyce and kevin Herefa come to church by them selves by angkot.  Kevin is taking to lessons and said he wants to be baptised.  We just have to get them to keep coming for awhile before that and get them committed to keep coming.  Mom and Dad are not committed to do that yet themselves.  Stanley and Cindi Hutapea also came from where their mom and they are now staying.  So glad they made that effort.  We would love to get mom to come also.  She is much more open and receptive now that she is away from her husband.  I just hurt for so many of these people and what they have to deal with just to survive.  They are so wonderful.
We had the missionaries over for dinner.  We did Eggplant parmesean.  Eggplant is found easily here.  I also made rolls and we had fresh green beans.  They have lots of green beans here.  I also found some Philidelpia cream cheese that I bought and used the chocolate pudding that Dani sent and made that layered dessert.  I don't have a hand blender and they don't have cool whip so I found whipping cream and beat it in the regular blender.  It worked quite well and quickly also. The none Indonesian missionaries really appreciate having these kinds of meals once in a while.  Rice and noodles can get old if eaten everyday and it gives their stomachs a break from the hot, spicy food.
Tonight two of our Senior missionary couples went home.  The Lisks and the Williams.  The Lisks were our office couple and they are not being replaced any time soon.  We are down to 5 couples in the mission and the Mission President and his wife.  Three of us are doing Member support although only two were called to that.  The others are Humanitarian/Welfare and a native couple who is doing PEF which is what we were called to do.  We have many branches that could use the help and training.  We do have a couple coming in for a year next month to do Family History.  We need couples so badly.  About a year and a half ago they had at least 9 couples.  Please think about it and pray about serving.  It is so rewarding and such a wonderful experience.  We need seniors so badly all over the world.  We love you all.

Minggu 41

Well it was a really slow week.  Elder went to the church monday for about 5 hours while workers were there trying to make parts of the building more secure after we were robbed a while ago and they fixed the two places in the ceiling where the robbers went through it to get to the locked office.  I did my normal monday things like washing and some cleaning and then I made three loaves of banana bread and about a dozen muffins.  Most of the time at the places we shop they only have big bunches of bananas that are already priced so that is what you get and it is hard for us to go through all of them before they start going bad.  I ended up taking on loaf to District meeting on Friday.
We bought a new book shelf for the Elders house.  The one we are replacing is leaning sideways and they use a bottle to make it stay more upright.  Elder went over to their house on Wednesday to put it up and on his way home he stopped and got a haircut.
I spent most of the week working on my talk for Sacrament Meeting that I gave today.  It was based on a conference talk so that helped and then I had our tutor on our last week help with the translation of the parts of the talk that were not quotes.  Since it was in Indonesian I pretty much just read it.  I think it went ok.  I also spent time working on things for English class and Primary.  I never know if or how many children there will be or if we will have our two that don't speak indonesian and just a little English.  Also I never know if the Sisters who have been called to help will show up or not.
After District meeting on Friday we ate lunch of course and then we did things at the church and then we were supposed to go with the Sisters to meet with a referral who they have been trying to see.  They have spoken to her sons but she works and wasn't home during the day.  We didn't have an appointment but were just going to drop by.  While we were waiting at the church for them a member (about 24yrs) dropped by with a friend from work to meet the missionaries.  We visited with them for a while.  The friend spoke pretty good English.  She asked about us so we showed her where we live in Arizona on the computer and also some pictures of our family.  The people love to look at pictures of our family in America (and Canada). So when the Sisters showed up we decided to stay and talk to this gal since she was here and willing and we didn't even know if the other person would be home.  So we basically got to know about her and then the Sisters taught her about the restoration and the Book of Mormon.  She committed to read and pray.  She couldn't come to church today because she had to work but hopefully next time.
Saturday we met with Ali and his family before English.  They are learning but it is slow and hard for them to understand everything because they are being taught in English because they don't know Indonesian and we don't know Persian.  The wife is muslim but has lots of questions and is the one who speaks the best English.  Ali wants to be baptized but we have to wait for government things to happen first.  They have become good friends and want to keep in touch after they finally get to go to another country.  We then had English and then went grocery shopping since we were out of almost everything and we wouldn't have another chance until Tuesday.
Our numbers were really low today in Sacrament meeting.  We were at about 46.  That is not good. We will have to keep working to get them to come.  There is a flu type thing going around and I know of at least 6 who weren't there because of that so hopefully next week will be better.
Our daughter Erin and family are moving back to Arizona this weekend.  Thank you to our two sons who were able to fly to Houston and help them drive to Arizona and Thank you to our son and his family who were willing to come live in our house for about a year.  I am glad you made it back to Canada safely.  I have wonderful children and children-in-law and of course the grandchildren.  I have truely been blessed by them all.  I love you all so very much.
Of course I can't forget my parents and parents-in-law and all of our siblings and siblings-in-law.  I appreciate all of your love and support.  Thank you and I love you all also.

Minngu 40

Monday Elder Tucker took the young missionaries to Bukit Lewan or as I like to call it the Orangatang Jungle.  I did not go as last time I was in lots of pain by the end with my bad back. They were able to get one of the same guides we had before.  I stayed home and did laundry, etc. and enjoyed some quiet time.  When Elder Tucker got home we went to the resturant next to our apartment.

 Everyone in the jungle

 Our missionaries are awesome.  Even in the jungle our missionaries take time out to talk about the gospel and share pass along cards with those they meet.  With our fearless District leader leading the way.

Elder Tucker decided to climb this tree part way.  It is growing on the side of a mountain so if you went to the top you could see almost forever.  It is very tall as you can imagine from the size of the trunk.

The rest of the week was pretty normal.  Wednesday we let Sister Zabriskie us my computer at the church to work on one of the assignments on family history, for new missionaries.  We then went out with the Sisters to a couple of appointments.  Some of them were not home so we didn't have as many as we had planned.

Thursday Elder had Presidency meeting at President Rico's fathers office which is next door to his and his wife's dental office.  I waited in another room while the met.  We then went to the church for a little while.  I am speaking in Church on the 22nd so I have been working on that.  I emailed our tutor with a few paragraphs that I had translated myself and using google translate.  When we met for our last meeting on friday he helped me with them.  We will see how it goes next week. After District meeting on friday and lunch we went with out with the Sisters to see if a member was still in town.  She has been telling us for months that she is going back to Malaysia to work.  Her father said she was in Malaysia but she was moving home next month to work here.  We will check again next month.

Saturday we stopped by Pres. Rico's office to pick up the CPU that the church offices in Jakarta sent us to replace the one that was stolen.  We were really hoping for a laptop that we could just remove from the building each week but oh well.  He had also bought a new monitor, TV and projector to replace the ones stolen.  We have not left the TV or projector at the church yet, until we can make it more secure.  We then had English class.  We are using a new 16 week program that Sister Gong in Hong Kong put together.  It has been hard because it is written for intermediate level English speakers and here the commitment level to come every week is not always high.  We do have about 10 who are there most of the time.  But we do get new students just about every week.  If they all showed up we would have about 33 students and that is way to many.  We are learning from this and will make some changes next class.  After class we met with Ali and his family and one set of Elders.  Ali's wife had been told about a month and a half ago that she had cancer.  They were really upset about this as we met one day for a lesson.  They talked to Pres. Rico and he told them to get a second opinion.  I have been told here that you should always get a second opinion.  So I hadn't heard much else about it but I had heard she had started treatments.  So, anyway when they came to class today they just blurted out that the cancer was gone and it was a miracle and it helped because we had been praying for them and we were such great friends for listening to them and praying for them.  We are so happy for them.  We finally got English Books of Mormon for them and a waiting for a Persian Book of Mormon to come.  It will help with their understanding of what is being taught.  They were so happy that today they brought these cookie type things filled with dates to church for everyone after church.  They gave Elder Tucker and I our own little container of them to take home.  They were very good.

When we got home Saturday night we skyped with our granddaughter Shelby as it was her 8th birthday and she was being baptized that morning.  12 hour time difference. We are happy for our grand children that have made the decision to be baptized.  We love our family so much.

Shelby with the scriptures we gave her for her baptism and in the dress I made before we left from parts of Erin's wedding dress for all of her girls to wear on their baptism day.

Happy Fathers day to all of the wonderful fathers out there.