Selesai (Finished)

So we are finally done with our mission.  The last Monday in Medan, we did a final load of laundry and packed.  On Tuesday we attended our last District Meeting (bringing brownies, as we always did for departing missionaries.)  That afternoon we moved out of the apartment and checked into a local hotel, so that we could resolve anything that came up with the apartment, and head for the airport early the next morning.

What came up is that Colleen lost he apartment key!  during packing, she got rid of her usual bag because it was in bad shape and we were running out of room.  And sometime on Tuesday, the key fell out of her pocket.

Our flight from Medan to Jakarta was at 11 a.m.  We spent the final night in Indonesia at the mission home in Jakarta.  They served us a yummy dinner and we had a low-key devotional.  Pres. Mackay and Sister Mackay got up at 3:30 a.m. to drive us to the airport.

It took three flights to get home.  We had always been scheduled to go through Tokyo rather than Hong Kong, which was a good thing.  Missionaries with a Hong Kong connection were being rescheduled, because of civil unrest in Hong Kong that had reached the airport there.  From Tokyo we flew to Dallas Texas, where we had a long layover and taco salads at Wendy's.  While at Wendy's, a member recognized our name tags and asked our story.  Our flight arrived in Gainesville a bit after midnight early Friday morning, so about 36 hours after leaving Jakarta.  We failed to take any of the traditional returning-missionary pictures.  We saw Lois waiting for us, and then Elaine pulled up to the front of the airport.  It took two cars to lug all our stuff home.

We wandered around in a daze, trying to remember where things were, overall happy with the condition of the house.  Colleen started going through the mail, but eventually a shower and bed were in order.

On Friday, September 20, we were officially released from our mission that evening, when the stake president would meet with us.

Friday morning Colleen walked over to the 43d Street Deli for breakfast including crisp pork bacon and a biscuit, both of which we never had in Indonesia.

Then she went to the gym, to arrange for reactivation of her membership there, and to the public library to pick up some films and books on hold.

Finally, Colleen walked up to her first chiropractic appointment.  Eliza and Sanford picked her up and we went to the airport to pick up a rental car.  Our previous car had been "totalled" in an accident while we were away so finding a new car was a priority and we had to rent for the first week.

That evening Elaine cooked dinner for us, which is her new custom, and then we went to church.  Our daughter Rebecca and her husband, both returned missionaries, were hoping to come for the release, and they arrived within minutes of meeting the new stake president (the stake had been reorganized during our mission).  It turned out that our son-in-law had served in the same mission as the stake president, so they got to chatting about that.

We went home and put away the name tags as we were no longer official representatives of the Church or Jesus Christ.

Rebecca and her family stayed with us for a week or so, and Phil's family from St. Augustine arrived on Saturday and stayed through Sunday evening, so we had some fun and rowdy family dinners.

Sanford bore his testimony in Indonesian at the fast and testimony meeting.

Colleen had not been able to bake at all for the 18 months of her mission, but fortunately she found she could still bake.

She started with her favorite "marble squares" cookie recipe and it was decent, so that was encouraging.  No sourdough starter until after our vacation in November.

The following Monday, we started a blitz of medical checkups.  For Colleen, that meant riding her bike to a 7:30 mammogram appointment, and it was sweet to go past the church and see the cars parked there for early-morning seminary.  High school students have that opportunity every day, but in Medan it was only once a week on Saturday afternoon (after a morning at school).

It was no problem to be up early because our body biorhythms were messed up for a week after getting home.  Our diplomats, who were also finishing a foreign assignment, told us to allow a day per hour of time difference, and that proved to be pretty accurate.

On Thursday, October 3, we reported to the stake high council, which was fun because we know so many of them.  In particular, Sanford got to deliver a rock from Krakatoa to our friend who is a geologist.  He was thrilled to get it.  After we spoke briefly, they had us walk around the room and shake everyone's hand and received their thanks.  Colleen continued the Indonesian tradition of shaking the hand and touching her heart.

On Sunday, October 13 we spoke to our congregation about service, and told stories from our mission.  That was the final step in our official homecoming process.

Lasts

This was a week of last visits, last photos, last classes, lasts of all kinds.  Elder Porter was released as second counselor in the branch presidency on Sunday, September 8.  The mission president had to fly in from Jakarta to make that change; we are not part of a district or stake here.  The new counselor is a guy who is planning on taking his family to the temple in February.  On Thursday, we finished teaching the temple prep lessons to them.

Some of the young single adults asked for an English class on Saturday afternoons.  They are wonderful.

Our last class was on Saturday, September 7.

We had hired lady in the branch to make 30 baskets for us, and then we filled them to bring to families in the branch.  They included some foodstuffs (red rice, tuna, chocolate cookies) and a laminated photo of the branch, a magazine about the temple, a laminated copy of the Articles of Faith and a signed and dated picture of us.  Single people got a bag with the photos, chocolate cookies.

But that was a lot of baskets to deliver.  We were making up to five heart-wrenching last visits to people every day during that week.

Getting medication was a challenge especially after the first year.  We used mail-order pharmacies and a trip to Singapore to fill in gaps.  It was a relief to count them a last time and be assured there were enough.

A few weeks ago, one of the Young Women asked where Sister Porter where she had purchased these shoes (which are very comfortable Propet shoes from the USA).  I invited her to try them on and told her she could have them when I left.  So I polished them one last time, and gave them to her on Saturday.









Sister Porter hates ironing.  She is morally opposed to ironing as a waste of women's time.  However, we don't have dryers here. So it has been a necessity.  Keeping Elder Porter's shirts crisp and white has been a major effort and part of the sacrifice of serving a mission.

So it was a major milestone to iron the last shirt!

In the midst of all the intense visits, we happened across a bucket with what looked like a gator tail sticking out.  The people willingly pulled a large monitor lizard out to show us, as it was about time to butcher it and wrap it in banana leaves to cook.

They swear it is not a Komodo dragon but rather from the island of Nias.

Our party was last night.  We hired one of the best cooks in the branch to cook, and we brought fruit, including the grapes that they love.

We also served brownies (from Amanda) and ice cream.  There is no refrigerator at the church, so this involves sending out a companionship of elders to the store to pick up the ice cream right before serving.

Elder Porter gave our driver Saturday afternoon off, after our errands and visits were done.  This allowed him to pick up some people in his angkot.  An angkot is  one of the small mini-busses that ply the streets.  He offered us a ride home, and pulled up off the road, right to our lobby.  The security guard stood up to see the bus drive up, and then was very surprised to see bules hop out. People sitting out at the coffee shop actually applauded.

On Sunday we gave our final talks and said final farewells.  These are the young future missionaries that we helped get their paperwork submitted.

Below is a video from our party.  Sister Porter asked the Young Women to sing.  This is only about half the group (some of them were working).  We love this song in any language.