Minggu 72

On Monday we had a wonderful day of resting and getting things ready for the coming week.

On Tuesday we went to District Meeting, had lunch and let Elder Barlow have Facebook time to work on the Misionari Medan site.  We spent the afternoon and evening checking out referrals with the Elders.  Unfortunately they were referrals that had been sent on a previous occasion, and visits were already made to these people.   

On Wednesday we bought a "Kembang Goyang" which is a snowflake shaped metal mold to make deep fried cookies. Then we headed to the church and spent our day there and headed home for the evening.  

On Thursday we were able to get Mei to come by the building and bring her mission papers, so we could go over what she needs to finish up to get them submitted.  Later in the day the Electrician came and did some rewiring for the building using a heavier gage wire, then started calling the government to come check out their line running to the building.  I went shopping while they were at the building waiting for the Government Electrician to check out the power.  Elder also dropped off music books that we were having copied so I can teach a couple of additional music lessons.  

Friday morning we went to the Elder's & Sister's homes for inspections.  Then over to the church, to wait for the government electrician to check out our power, he never came.  We let the elders use the computer for facebook time on the Medan missionary site, while they did that Elder finished mowing the lawn & went to  pick up music books for me.  Later we split with Elder Zollinger and we visited with Edi, and then split with Elder Barlow so the other two Elders could go to another appointment because Lucas was stuck in traffic on his way to the church so Elder Barlow, Elder, Bro Manalu and I could teach Lucas. It was quiet hot and humid as the power in the neighborhood was out.  It lasted over 5 hours.  The sisters also have a baptism scheduled for the same day, 31 January.  

On Saturday we found out that Mei had made it to immigration but found out she needs one additional piece of documentation before they will process her passport.  She also got in to see Pres. Rico for her dental checkup.  I taught 2 keyboard lessons today, and then we had an English class.  

Sunday we had Branch council after church and I taught 3 more keyboard lessons.  We are spending the evening getting ready to go to Jakarta tomorrow for Zone conference.

Minggu 71

On Monday Elder went hiking with the young missionaries in Bukit Lawan.  Elder wasn't sure if he was going to go on the hike until they got there. He ended up deciding to go along with the young missonaries. The night before it rained, a lot, in fact the river he has crossed each time before has been slow moving and clear but this time was fast and very muddy. They had a lot of fun on the hike, lots of difficulty keeping on their feet with all to water and slick mud.  They saw a number of different monkeys, and several orangutans, the last a mother and infant.  They also spent time climbing some of the vines and entertaining themselves.  For about 40 minutes or so the missionaries spent their time having her take food out of their hands, and taking photos.  I spent the day doing laundry,cleaning and such. Since we had no internet, which had gone out the night before I couldn't work on Family History or the blog.

 Rice paddies on the way to Bukit Lawan

 The missionaries during the hike.  Sister Edwards, Sister Mintono, Elder Hendro, Elder Zollinger and Elder Barlow

 There are lots and lots of monkeys in the jungle

 Mother and baby Orangutan

 Panoramic view of the jungle

 Panoramic view of the river. notice how high it is and brown and moving quickly

 After the hike with the guide and driver of this bus

On the way home, this is how they ride when the vechile is full

On Tuesday morning we had DM and then lunch with young missionaries.  The sister missionaries and I went to deliver two keyboards, one to Sara the other to Chaterine & Dearly, some of my keyboard students.  Before we went we dropped Elder off at the apartment so he could be there in case the Service Tech. came by to repair the internet connection.  In late afternoon he called and tried to use their English option on the phone with Speedy, on the 2 attempts all he got was Indonesian, so on the second we had the conversation in Indonesian, he was able to determine that they would be sending a tech. out on Friday or Saturday.   

Elder took a taxi to church this morning to get a couple of last minutes changes made to the Annual Tithing Status Report.  Then he walked to Pres. Rico's office to get it signed, and walked back to church.  At about 2 or so Samuel arrived, so they spent the next 3 hours sending the report to Senopati & through MLS.   He also showed Samuel how to do the Quarterly Report. I spent time studing and going over things for English class and Primary.   In the evening we went shopping at Brastagi for the coming week since we are planning to feed the young missionaries on Sunday night, so we can exchange SD cards and photos from Monday.  We noticed that the 4 lights were on on the modem late tonight, so we tried the internet and everything is working fine.  We really don't know why it started working, but we are grateful.

Thursday we met with Novita and Samuel, Novita needed some assistance getting documentation sent to PEF so she could sign up for the new program, and thus get the incentives associated with the new program as she pays the loan back. She graduated in August.  So we spent a few hours going over the program, and doing the computer work to get her into the new program.  We had lots of rain this afternoon, which we have been getting most afternoons.  I comes down fast and hard and floods everything.  Then for our 38th wedding anniversary I wanted to try a new restaurant, the one Edi works at, Drs. Kaffee, it was actually the best restaurant in Medan we have been to.  It has a nice atmosphere, and they brought the meal out in a timely fashion, and in the proper order, appetizers, salad then main entrée, most places here bring the items in a random order.

On Friday after lunch the Sisters came to the church with the ties and skirts they had made for the Elders and Sisters to wear to the next Zone conference next week.  On two of the ties the center was off and had almost no taper at the end, so we took it back to have him fix it.  Then, with the Sisters, we went to see the Mendrofas, from there we went to Sister Imelda's neighborhood and the sisters did some contacting without a lot of success.  We went to Ruf's a little early, because Sister Edwards couldn't remember if Ruf got home at 4 or got off work at 4, turns out she gets off work at 4, so the sisters took off to proselyte again, we stayed at the car waiting for Ruf to get home, while we were waiting, Fenny came out the door of the Kost, so we texted the sisters, and while waiting for them we went in and visited with Fenny.  So we had a good visit with Fenny and then Ruf once she got home.  We then headed to the south side of town, to go see Hotma at 6:30, we had a good visit with her and were able to visit a little with Fransisca and at least got to say hi to her husband and kids.  On the way home we bought a desert that Sister said she liked, Putu Bamboo, steamed bamboo with coconut and red sugar.  Once we got home Elder had it after dinner, it was quite different than he expected, it has a little more sugar involved than he expected, but overall he enjoyed it.  I passed because I am not a real big fan of coconut, especially that much all at once.  Today was probably what we would consider the most normal day of work we have had in some time.  Not that we haven't been working, but much of what we have been working on is just a different type of member support and missionary work.  With one small branch on the whole island there are only so many times you can visit a member in a month.  We try to keep busy with Elder being in the Branch Presidency and me being Primary President along with keyboard lessons and English but sometimes we don't feel like we are as busy as we should be and it does go in cycles.

On Saturday I had a couple of keyboard lessons.  Then we had English class, as usual there were only a few there at the start, but they continued to straggle in as usual.  They have been slower in coming since the first of the year, that and as the difficulty of the class has gotten greater I think some have stopped coming.  We headed home about 6  and I made some chicken tortilla soup, which was good, but the chili powder I used was spicier than what I usually use at home.  It had red flecks in it along with the normal look of chili powder.  I was right, while it was good, it was extremely spicy, more than I like.  Speedy never did bother contacting us again, maybe they figured out that the internet was working so they didn't bother, or possibly they just didn't bother trying.  We spend the evening preparing last minute things for church the next day.

Today Elder was the only one there from the Branch Presidency.  We actually had 6 kids in Primary and 2 in nursery.  To bad the rooms are connected and the door doesn't really close.  It is hard to keep them where they are supposed to be.  Probably the most like a normal Primary that we have ever had.  Novita was there to teach the lesson, although I get everything together and show her what lesson to teach when she comes. Progress is progress.  I stayed with the two nursery kids and a handicapped boy wandered back and forth.  The second hour we met together and they colored a picture and then we had singing time.  Loisa did singing time.  She did a good job and knows alot of the songs which really helps.  I was able to plunk out the basic tunes for the kids to hear on the keyboard.  It is hard because we have to mix the junior and Senior together and only do one lesson.  We don't have the space or people to change it right now.  The missionaries came for dinner and to exchange photos from the hike.  We had Lasagna because Sister Mintono had never had it and requested it.

We love you all and are so glad we are able to skype with our families since they are spread all over the world.

Minggu 70

Sorry this is so last but our internet went out again on Sunday and it strangely came back on today.  We have been waiting since Monday for someone to come back out.  We will see if it is still on when we get home later today.

It was a normal Monday but we stayed home waiting for Sarah and Yanti to come by the apartment.  Yanti was baptized last March and then a month or so later she moved to the village to work.  We have had a struggle keeping in contact with her.  She was a golden contact and we became quite close.  At about 10 we got a text telling us that they couldn't come by because Yanti got a call from her boss and he wanted her to come back for work early, it's a 27 hour bus ride to her home village, Jambi, and she had just gotten to Medan late Saturday night.  She asked us if we could meet her at the bus station so she could see us.  She really wanted to meet so we contacted our driver and asked him to pick us up and take us to the bus station.  We got to spend about and hour with her and Sarah, who is the one who introduced her to the church.  We quickly gathered some things to give her.  We gave her a True to the Faith book, Book of Mormon reader and a couple of Liahonas that we had at the apartment.  Also some leftover candy from Christmas.  She was really excited to get them.  She calls me Nana.  We also got to meet her mom and aunt, who she lives with in the villlage.

Us with Yanti at the bus station waiting for her bus to come.

On Tuesday the internet went out at home so we had to do some checking to find the account information and see if we had a phone number.  We found the account info but no phone number, so we will try and stop by the office and see what they know tomorrow.  We went to the church this morning because Sari was coming to do some more cleaning.  Elder set her up cleaning paint, gum and just collected grime off the folding chairs we use for our meetings.  Elder went to Ace to see if they had a "line trimmer" he thought he could afford, he saw a push mower there for about 50 dollars, but the lawn is not level any more since they did the expansion of the parking lot, so he didn't really think the mower was a good option.  He was about to give up and he noticed a couple of "Black and Decker" boxes and that they were a couple of electric line trimmers, with a power cord included for about $100. He just couldn't stand the look of the grass in front of the building any longer.  So he spent the early afternoon cutting the grass with a line trimmer.  It has only been about 3 months since it was last cut.   That afternoon we headed to Telkom (Speedy) to see about our internet, Bro. Manalu drove past the office, so it took us an extra 10 minutes to get there, but we did manage to get there before 4, when they close, only they closed before that because they had a lot of customers waiting.  We did get a phone number so we can call them.  While I was in the market Elder talked to 5 different service techs and got cut off on all the conversations.  On the 6th the tech told him he would have to call back with access to the modem.  We finished our shopping, and headed for home.  I called Telkom and they will be sending a tech tomorrow to check out the modem.

On Wednesday I stayed at home all morning while Elder went to church at 10:30 for their Presidency Meeting.  He finally gave up on any one showing up at about 2:00 and went back to the apartment and joined me to await Speedy. In the early evening I called Speedy again, and their response was well, if they didn't come today, maybe tomorrow.  Elder was not to pleased.

Thursday we stayed home waiting for Speedy to come.  They said they would call but they usually call when they are already here so it makes it hard to go anywhere.  At about 11 we were discussing giving Speedy a phone call, and before we finished our conversation Elders phone rang.  It would always be easier if the tech they sent to see us spoke a little English, and he did. "Hello Mister".  But that was the extent of his English.  So using his limited skills we were able to communicate sufficiently to understand the problem.  Headed upstairs and within an hour we had all of our devices up and working with the wi-fi again.  Elder hadn't been feeling very good, so we decided to stay home the rest of the day.

We discovered late last night that DM has been changed from Fridays to Tuesdays.  So no DM today.  We headed out and stopped by Pres Rico's office to pick up some reports that need to be finished before the 15th, for this past year.  We spent most of our day at the church building.  Elder did go and get a haircut, the guy he usually has cut it was there, and he told him to take very little off the top, "sepotong sedikit dari di atas" well he took a lot more than he was hoping he would take.  It's been really hard to get a good hair cut here, well when he was finished, he had done the best job on cutting his hair he has had since arriving here, the top is actually about right.  I am happy I don't have to finish cutting his hair again.  This evening Elder spent his time in reviewing the information for convert baptismal interviews, since we have a threesome here in Medan currently, all three Elders have been involved in teaching the family who are planning to be baptized this Sunday, so he gets to conduct the interviews. 

On Saturday I did a couple of keyboard lessons, unfortunately they were both late in showing up for their class, and needed to go join the institute class so they were very short lessons.  We had English class and I taught, and Elder directed traffic so people who showed up late would make it into the class, we started a little late with only 2 people, and finished with 17 people in class, about half of them had never attended before.  There is a group that were going to go play soccer for an activity tonight after English.  Elder Zollinger stayed with Elder so he and Elder could teach the Talambanua family one last lesson after their interviews were complete.  So as best Elder could, relying on the spirit to help him,  he conducted the baptismal interviews for the husband and wife.  Understanding the husband's responses was easier than understanding his wife, he spoke slow and clear, she spoke much faster, so he had to ask her to slow down as she spoke, and even then it was hard to understand everything.  As they were finishing he asked her if she would be willing to share her testimony, which she did and he could feel the spirit of her conviction about following the invitation to be baptized by one with the authority to do so. So they taught one more lesson, afterwhich, the Sisters returned with brother Manalu & the car, they were off buying a dress that would fit this good sister as we didn't think we had anything that would fit her well.  We then took Elder Zollinger to the soccer field so he could join the activity.  It rained really hard after English class with thunder and lightening, once that shoke the whole building and made the windows rattle very loudly,  as the rivers and streams were running much higher than we have seen them yet, also on our way home from the field the road we traveled was up to the bottom of the car doors, with some stalled out here and there.  We stopped by the bakery to get some bread a things and then went home for the night.

It is pouring down rain as I type this so it will probably be flooded as we leave the church to shop and then go home.

Sunday we had the baptism for the Talambanua Husband and wife.  Their three children are not yet old enough to be baptized.  I have the two oldest in Primary.  They are a wonderful family who was introduced to the missionaries by their nieghbors, the Nainggolans who are members.  Not all of their family is active, their youngest son was the one that was baptized two weeks ago.  We so need good strong families in this branch for it to survive well.

Brother and Sister Talambanua and Elder Hendro, Elder Zollinger and Elder Barlow

Minggu 69

On Monday morning we visited with Benjamin and his family.  He looked like a different person, he stayed home from church with Madelyn who wasn't feeling well and when the rest of the family got home he had shaved his beard off.

Not a lot of appointments this time of year, so we spent our day at the church, seeing if we could figure out any more about the electrical.   Elder replaced the breaker that kept blowing with a larger Amp breaker. Then before heading home we did our shopping for the week.

On New Years Eve we took all the missionaries over to dinner with Pres. Rico & Emma, his family was out of town.  They are hoping to move into their new home sometime in January. We got all the missionaries home before 10 pm, except us as trying to get through the traffic in the center of the city was not the easiest. It took us about 40 minutes to travel the 4 km as a crow flies to our apartment, Elder is sure he could have walked it faster.

We did have fireworks real close, they were setting them off in the street right outside our apartment window, so they would explode at about our room level to within reach of our window.

Lots of good food at Pres. Rico's and fun times.

We spent a relaxing New Years day. We gave our driver the day off.

On Friday we had District meeting and our usual lunch with the missionaries.  That night we attended a non-church sponsored FHE at Sister Imelda's home.  We saw our text message inviting us at about 4 in the afternoon. We were told they planned to have pork for dinner. which made me think it would be a standard pork dish they prepare, which we do not care for (pretty much involves most parts of the pig, which I would rather not have as part of my dinner.  We were very pleasantly surprised they grilled the pork and cut the MEAT into small pieces, instead of the standard pork dish they prepare, which we do not care for (pretty much involves most parts of the pig, which we would rather not have as part of our dinner). Then they had some nicely grilled fish, and there was also seasoned and fried tempi, a salad, which consisted of pineapple, cucumber, onion and a few other veg/fruits, Elder has enjoyed it the couple of time it has been served before, and of course rice, sambal (hot), and a hot sweet sauce that is used with Rujak (sp), of course I don't add the hot sauce but Elder does.  It was a very nice dinner. There were about 25 people who came.  We got home in time to Skype with Erin's family (their Friday morning) who was opening Christmas presents since Ben just got home the night before from his 2 week shift flying.  So the first presents they opened were things like a dog collar, leash, food, etc.  So they are getting a puppy for Christmas. Seth and family also got a dog for Christmas. 

 Some of the food we ate at Sister Imeldas.  Lots of it.

Some of the people there.  A few inactives and fairly new members.

On Saturday we did home inspections at the Elders and then the Sisters. The Sisters needed their cooking gas tank replaced.  So while we were there we had Bro. Manalu go get them a new one.  While checking the gas line it was very cracked and hard where it had been exposed to heat from the cooking element.  So Elder cut the bad part of the line off, and got everything hooked up again.   We then took a drive to Home Centra to see if they had a "weed whacker" so we can use it for cutting the lawn, since the gardener the branch employees to do the yard work around the church hasn't been doing anything for the last couple of months, and Elder hasn't seen anyone in the neighborhood to give the lawn mowing job to.  Well unfortunately they didn't have any "weed whackers" of any kind.  So we headed back to the church, because Sari was coming today to work at the building and had Samuel coming for piano.  We only had a 8 (3 of which were missionaries, 2 were Indonesian, though) for English today, because of the extended holiday everyone around here takes off, heading back to their home villages.  Then we took the missionaries and went to KFC for dinner in preparation for fast Sunday.   

Today we were at the church until about 3:30.  Mula was the only one in Primary today. After church I did 3 piano lessons while Elder had meetings and tithing, etc.  We then came home and I cooked for the missionaries to break or fast.  We had a special Mission fast.

We want to Wish Everyone a Happy New Year.  We love you all.

Minggu 68

Today we took a taxi, since we usually give our driver Monday's off, so we could get to the church building at about 9:30 this morning, Sari was scheduled to come at 10 so she could do some "deep cleaning" on the building, which in some places the building still really needs.  This is our attempt to help her put together funds so she can meet her commitment for a contribution to her mission.  She got there a little before 11, so she and Elder worked on the building until a little after 2:00.  Elder worked on repairing the wall in the RS room. Elder got a call from Pres. Donald asking if he would make arrangements for all the missionaries here to get flu shots, all of the other missionaries in Indonesia have already gotten their shots, and we are the last holdout, we would guess he is getting asked by Hong Kong what is taking so long to get them all completed.  So I contacted Sis. Emma who found a place, and gave us the location and Dr's name.  We called the missionaries asking them to come to the church so we could all go to "Columbia Asia Hospital" the hospital had vaccine enough for 6 people, so Elder was just going to wait till they got more.  We took the sisters with us and the elders rode their bikes to the hospital.  Its the hospital that is near our apartment, so we got 6 of us registered and while waiting for the shots they informed us they only had enough vaccine for 2 people, so the two sisters got their shots, they also told us they would get more vaccine in at 7 tonight, and told us we should come back then.  So that night us and the elders met at the hospital, and Elder registered to get the shot, also. We all got our shots, and reported it back to Pres. Donald. 

The Elders after their shots.  They even gave us cards with our shots recorded.

With the Christmas holiday it has been a slow week as far as scheduled meetings go.  We spent some time at the church doing things that needed to be done.

On Wednesday we had an interview with Sari and President Donald scheduled for today at noon, but last night Pres. Donald asked if we could make it for 2:30, got those arrangements made.  We decided that we would just get things ready for tomorrow's dinner, and Sari's meeting, so gave Bro. Manalu the day off.  We spent the morning doing some laundry, dusting, and cleaning the tile floor in the apartment.  I also made a German Choclate cake from scratch for dessert tomorrow since it was Elder Barlow's birthday yesterday and a potato casserole.  At noon another text from Pres Donald, asking if we could shift the skype interview to 4:00, so managed to get that change coordinated.  The Interview went well, but Sari still needs to get a TB test completed before he can forward her application.   

We were scheduled to leave the apartment at about 8:30 to go to Mickey Funland but the Elders are running late.  We finally went to go pick them up at their apartment at 9am. There was lots of traffic trying to get out of town.  The trip up to the park was a little over 2 hrs.   Went on a number of rides, similar to Lagoon in Salt Lake and then headed back home. Everyone got together for lunch in the early afternoon.  We only hit one attraction after lunch, then it started raining so we stood around waiting for it to stop, then decided it wasn't going to for a while so we just ended up waiting for our driver, then headed for home. We arrived home at about 5 pm.  The missionaries had shared a couple things their families had done over the years for Christmas, so we put a sheet up as you come in the living area so you couldn't see into the room where we had our one and a half foot Christmas tree set up.  We had it on next to the TV, and a YouTube video of a burning fire on the TV and whatever presents were available around the tree, and of course some Christmas music playing.  So we had a fun evening of opening a few presents, and eating dinner, BBQ chicken, potato casserole, vegetables, and German Chocolate Cake (from scratch) for Jesus and Elder Barlow's birthdays. And of course the most important part for the missionaries, getting to call or skype home.

 Some of the group that went.  There were about 65 people that ended up going.

 The Tsunami.  I went on it once but Elder went on it twice.  The members were amazed that I would go on it and not get sick.  Once was enough for me though.  Lots of upside down and spinning.

 View of part of the park and the area around it.  It is on hills so lots of climbing to get to everything.

 Sorry it is sideways.  This is the volcano.  It goes up and drops.  I didn't go on it but Elder did.

 Ducks on the way to market.

 The view on the drive up.  So pretty

 The view on the way up.

 On the drive home from the park.  It had rained so much we were going through water about a foot deep in some places.

 Merry Christmas, Missionaries

 In front of the fire and christmas tree

 Elder Tucker grilling the chicken

All of us just before Christmas dinner

Elder Barlow with his Birthday cake.

Friday we had District Meeting, and cleaned up around the church building.  Elder tried to use the computer, but the power kept going out and resetting the computer, so he gave up. We received an email from Pres. Donald, to all of the Senior couples, which reads in part:

2014 has been a very good year for our mission with 140 baptisms, and several families and individuals returning to church. We have seen humanitarian projects of many kinds touch hearts and bless people, young missionaries that normally would not be able to get into the mission field, serve now because of your assistance,  members learning how to research their family history and take those names to the temple, and even just go to the temple for their own endowments which was made possible because of you. Many learning English, attending Institute and Seminary, temple Prep classes, learning to play the piano, classes being taught and callings filled that otherwise would not be and much more.

On Saturday Sari spend about 4 hours continuing the cleaning of the building. I taught one keyboard lesson.  Elder then took the Elders to pick up one of their old bikes to go see if we could give it to Roni as transportation.   But they were on splits, Elder Zollinger was with Pres. Buyung, and he was the only one with keys to their house.  So we went to get them and finally off to see if Roni was home.  The house is no longer there.  There will have to be some research done to find him.  We left the Elders at the church and headed home for the night.

Today for Sunday School everyone watched the Christmas devotional.  We finally got it dubbed in Indonesian.  After church we had a Baptism for Gordon Nico Nainggolan.  He is 16.  The rest of his family is members but most were not active until a while ago.  His oldest sister has been active for about a year and his other sister has been active for about 4 or 5 months.  Mom has been active for the last month or two.  The missionaries have been working along time with him.

 Gordon and the Elders

 Gordon and his sisters and his mom with Elder Zollinger

Gordon and some of the youth in the Branch

Minggu 67

We spent Monday morning at the church having AC installed in Pres Rico's office, this was as directed by Pres. Donald.  So now Elder has to get some thick plastic or something to cover the open windows. We headed home in the early afternoon, and got laundry and other preparation day activities completed and then relaxed in the evening.

Tuesday, Pres Rico brought Sari's mission papers over so Elder could take them to Senopati with him to give to Pres. Donald.  We had a taxi pick us up then we went to get the sisters, and headed to the airport for our plane trip to Jakarta, after our 2 hr, 1979 kilometer flight we had a 2 hr taxi trip to hotel, 38 kilometer drive,  unfortunately our driver was fairly new and he didn't know exactly how to get there, so we had to help some so he could take the correct road.  We had a $20 voucher from the hotel for dinner, so we ate at Rivas, which is the Hotel restaurant that appears to attract mostly a European clientele.  Elder had a pan grilled White Snapper, and I had Teriyaki Chicken on a bed of sauteed bean sprouts and onions, and we shared a green salad, we've had less than a handful of green salads since we have been here.

The view from the plane window.  You can see Krakato (the volcano) it is between Sumatra and Java.

The view from our hotel window.  They were booked for the type of room we reserved so we got moved to the 17th floor which was the top floor.  The room was pretty much the same as we usually get.  Jakarta is huge.  Lots of tall buildings.

On Wednesday we went down stairs to the Buffet Breakfast, which is actually quite nice.  We got SMS's from Pres. Rico that Abdi died this morning, after 7 days in the hospital. The church was able to pay his hospital bill.  So after his about 8 year battle with cancer, he finally can rest.  He was extremely optimistic about life up until about the last 5 months or so, by then I think it had really taken its toll on him.  We called Ari to see when we were scheduled to go get our Kitas renewed, and if he was able to pick us up.  He gave us the address and said, just catch a cab, as he had picked up the Lucherini's and was at immigration with them.  Our visit to Immigration went very quickly, so then we went to Senopoti and delivered all of the things we had transported here for them. We went to lunch with Elder & Sister Kusumarmanto and the Sister Trainers, then went back to Senopoti. They then went to pick up a new Sister Missionary.  We had another long taxi ride with another relatively new driver back to the hotel. At 6 we went to dinner at the Lucherini's and tried to watch a Christmas movie "Home Alone" but the DVD kept freezing. It is nice to hang out with other Senior couples every once in a while.

On Thursday we again had the buffet breakfast.  The Lucherini's walked over from their apartment which is next door to our hotel and we took a taxi together.  We attended Mission Conference with Elder Funk and his Wife who have been on a mission tour with Pres & Sister Donald . He talked about early missionary experiences in Indonesia, and reviewed the Dedicatory Prayer 26 Oct 1969 by Ezra Taft Benson. The first missionaries arrived in Jan 70, Elder Funk arrived Nov 71 bring the total up to 18 missionaries in the Mission.  Currently the mission has increased from 65 and will be about 100 at this time, (I would imagine about 30 or so of those are native Indonesian).  Elder Funk asked how many in the audience were baptized at age 9 or older, of the group only 3 raised their hand.  Pres. Donald, Elder Tinggi Sinaga and myself out of about 56 people there, he was surprised that there were that many who were baptized at 8 years of age in the group (all 3 of the missionaries serving from Medan were converts).  The Area Presidency has a goal of 3 to 5 stakes in Indonesia/Malaysia in 5 years.  A convert who he helped join the church from 40 years ago also visited and participated in the discussion at the conference. At the conclusion, Elder Funk said he had never felt impressed to leave a blessing upon a collection of members or missionaries, but he felt impressed to do so on this occasion (as he said not an apostolic blessing, but that the Seventy were also authorized to leave a blessing if so inspired.  In it he encouraged the missionaries to have "a feeling of gratitude for the opportunity to serve here and now"  We were able to visit with Elder T. Sinaga while we were at the conference. Got reports on how Septi and Agus are doing in their areas. With tongue in cheek, Pres Donald said he would now come visit us since we put AC in Pres. Rico's office.  We were informed that Abdi's funeral was going to be today, so none of the missionaries would be able to attend.  There are those who claim it was a miracle that we were able to catch our plane this evening.   Usually we are told to be at the airport 2 hours before a flight, but because of the conference, and our 6:00 flight, we were told we should leave the conference for the airport at 3:30 pm and it usually takes about an hour to get there (recently lots of traffic in Jakarta).  Well we left at 3:40pm (taxi was slow) and it took us almost 2 hours to get to the airport.  Elders taxi never came, so they just flagged one down after a half hour, but they got there about the same time we did (our driver was never really very motivated to get there fast), that meant we were there 25 min before our flight was scheduled to leave, but it wasn't even listed on the departure schedule, and the tickets say check-in closes 45 min before flight.  So we stood in line to see what we could learn about our flight or if we were going to have to catch another flight out tomorrow.  We finally got to the window at 6:00 pm and they took all of our tickets and went to see what they could learn, came back in and said the plane was still here so checked us and our luggage in.  Got to the gate, and were told it would be about 25 minutes before boarding.  So we made our flight out of Jakarta.

On Friday we had lots of traffic in Medan, a regular 15 min. trip took use about 45 min. Everyone who was going to the funeral (which moved to today) were to meet at the church and leave at 2 but we didn't leave until almost 4.  Got to the cemetery just after they had lowered the casket into the grave, Pres. Rico was able to say a few words on behalf of the church.  As Pres Rico was leaving I asked if it we had his authorization to dedicate the grave, if the family agreed, he thought that would be good.  So I asked Ronald if he would see if the parents would allow him to dedicate the  grave.  On our way home we took the Sisters to try and find where Hotma Napitupulu lived with the address she gave us.  We drove around the area looking called her about 6 times to get help, asked at least 5 people on the street how to get there, and finally found the correct place, also saw her aunt, Sister Fransiska who was there.  We then dropped Elders off, and Sister Tucker and I went shopping for the coming week and Christmas dinner for the missionaries.

At the cemetary.  The people all throw a handful of the dirt into the grave.  Then the workers fill it in and everyone sprinkles a handful of flower petals over the grave.

Abdi's family

On Saturday there was lots of traffic again.  We spent the day at the church, not sure why but the lights kept flickering off.  It could be from the electrical work they did associated with the AC.  I had a couple of keyboard lessons at the church today, and then we had English class this afternoon.

We had 3 kids in primary today.  The parents of two of them have set a baptismal date. I did another keyboard lesson after church today and then a big group of members went to Abdi's parents house to visit and give comfort.  It is a tradition here to visit a few days later and give comfort and a spiritual thought.  We couldn't go because Elder had to get the tithings done and some other things since Pres. Rico had another class today.

This is how we make our tortilla chips.  We make the corn tortillas by hand and cook them and then cut them and fry them.  Will be glad when we can get big bags of chips from Midway Molinas again. 

Salamat Hari Natal  ---   Merry Christmas

The Medan, Sumatra Missionaries

Hope your holiday's are filled with family, friends and thoughts of our Savior Jesus Christ and his birth.

Minggu 66

Early Monday morning Elder got a call to keep Elder Hobbs company for the day, and then put him on a plane to Jakarta. The A/C in the living room finally stopped working, and dripped water onto the keyboard, and all over our map of the city, so we turned the AC off for the evening.   The drain is clogged.  We will see if we can get someone to unclog it.

On Tuesday we went shopping at Lotte Mart (closest thing they have to a costco here) to get all of the things to go into bags for the kids at the Christmas Activity.  I was in charge of those since I am Primary President.  First time we have been there.  Not bad. Elder picked up some plastic tubing and wire to see if he could use it to unclog the drain,  He had texted to see if he could get a service man out to do the work but never got a response.   We looked to see if they had any kind of drain cleaner at Ace or Brastagi, with no luck.  So after thinking about it he decided to try baking soda and vinegar,  He mixed the baking soda with water and filled the plastic hose with it and blew it out into the drain line, then used a plastic water bottle and the plastic line (made a hole in the lid so the plastic line barely fit so it would let him apply pressure without leaking) to pour in the vinegar, it all went in the drain line but no indication of whether it worked or not.  So then he filled the 2 liter water bottle with water, and started running water down the drain line, eventually the line started sucking the water out of the bottle so he could tell the line had finally opened up and was working, it completely emptied the bottle, even collapsing the bottle with the suction force.  So we have AC in the living room again.

On Wednesday we delivered a keyboard to Yosep in the southeast part of city, as we were visiting with Yosep we thought it would be nice if those getting keyboards had stands to put the keyboards on so it would make it much easier for them.  For Yosep in their living area the only piece of furniture is a 6 foot plastic folding table.  So we stopped at an electronic/music shop to see how much some stands would cost, we ended up getting 4 for about $12 each.  We spent an hour at the church, then took another keyboard to Samuel who lives in the northwest part of town.  For some reason there was lots of traffic in town most of the day, so it took us a while to get around.  We also had to buy water and get a refilled gas bottle for our stove this evening.

On Thursday we received a text requesting we go visit Abdi, so we made preparations to do that and then received another text telling us he went to the hospital, but they had no idea which hospital he went to, finally found out which hospital,  but it had taken so long we were already off at other assignments for the afternoon.  Pres Rico asked if Elder would be able to do tithing settlement the next couple of weeks because he would be in Dental classes both Sat & Sunday for 2 weeks, and Sunday is the only day he can do interviews. This afternoon and evening we visited Fenny & then Ruf and then drove to also visit with the Sarumaha family, and both Herefa families.  We went with the Sisters for these visits. Because Ruf was at work it gave us some time to just visit with Fenny and answer some questions she may not have asked if Ruf was home.  We talked about her being uncomfortable trying to do music with the primary, since she really doesn't have the resources to learn and thus teach the primary songs to the kids.  So we talked about whether she would prefer being able to teach a short lesson and spend time with the nursery age children during the last hour.  She thought that would be a good idea.  We thought we could then get another sister who recently moved in and who we discovered, knows the primary songs, to do music with the kids.

Friday we had District Meeting and then lunch.  Elder met with the man who will install the AC in Pres. Rico's office, so he could put together an estimate.  I had piano with Samuel and Sari.  We were supposed to practice for the Christmas program but it never materialized.  They were practicing other things.  We went shopping this evening at ACE and bought a real small Christmas tree for our apartment. We then stopped at A&W for dinner.  Finally, we went to Brestagi to get groceries so we would have what we needed to cook Mexican food for the missionaries on Sunday.

On Saturday we spent the early afternoon helping get everything set up for the Christmas activity tonight.  At 4pm we had our English Class for the one student who showed up, he also planned to attend the activity after class with his young daughter.  The announced time for the activity was 5 pm, and of course the plan was to actually start at 6 pm.  When we finally did a count we came up with 58 members 59 other guests in attendance. It would be nice to get that many members to church on a regular basis.  Pres. Rico sent a text saying he didn't think he was going to be able to come to the activity at all, so Elder was on for doing the spiritual thought.  As we started he found out that he was also doing the opening comments and welcome, but for that he cheated and did the welcome himself and the comments he used Elder Barlow to translate, since he had no time to think about what he would say.  Later in the program Elder Tucker and I had speaking parts in a drama, and a couple of choirs to sing in.  At the end we distributed boxed dinners for all the guests, and had a visit from Santa,  he handed out about 40 bags of the 50 Elder Tucker and I prepared.  Its interesting we can get 40 children to the activity, and still not have a one show up for church each Sunday.  We finished cleaning up the building about 10, the same room is our chapel so everything had to be taken down, and headed home, where we each sat down and ate a boxed dinner.

 Elder Barlow playing the guitar, Sari Sinaga (her mission paperwork is waiting to be sent in by Pres. Rico), Pres. Buyung, (the 2nd counselor in the Branch Presidency and just returned from his mission in August), and Elizabeth Nainggolan, (I think is in her last year of high school. Sings in all their programs and also plays the violin).

Santa (Elder Zollinger) he was great, did a little dance for the kids and stuff with some of the children

On Sunday we just less than 50 at church.  I guess they were all to tired to come.  We had no primary children so I was able to go to Relief Society.  After church I did a keyboard lesson with Yosep and had a girl named Sara ask if she could also take lessons.  So I wil do her on fridays before Sari.  A bunch of the members went to the hospital after church to see Abdi.  He is unconcious and the doctors say there is nothing else they can do.  That evening we had the Elders and Sisters over for mexican food.  We had tacos, chicken enchiladas, refried beans, mexican rice and homemade corn tortilla chips and salsa.  Elder Barlow also gave up our flight plans for going to Jakarta this week.  We go with the Sisters on Tuesday afternoon.  So we can get our kitas' renewed and the Elders all follow on Wednesday.  We come back on Thursday night after our meetings for the mission tour with Elder Funk.