First Zone Conference

Last week we attended our first Zone Conference.  Although we are off on the island of Sumatra, we are actually part of the Jakarta Zone, so we had to fly to the island of Java for the meeting.  Transportation for the young missionaries is provided while seniors need to make their own arrangements.  We flew into Jakarta on Wednesday, to ensure that we would be there safely for a chiropractor appointment on Thursday.  The city was very smoggy as this gray picture shows. 

That night we had dinner and went shopping at the Grand Lucky store, which is noted for expat foods.  Not only do they have Amercan and Asian foods, but also German. We were able to find (1) Knorr powdered mashed potatoes and (2) dental floss.  We also bought some of the local fruits including a very yummy manggis.

We stayed in Tebet, a neighborhood of South Jakarta that is near the stake center where the Friday meeting would be held, allowing us to walk to those meetings.  We stayed at an Amaris hotel, an Indonesian two-star chain.  It had a great bed, a simple clean room, but no iron.  We hung Elder Porter's shirts in the shower to steam and they were okay (I had used spray startch ironing in preparation for the trip).  It had a great breakfast, with melon and an omelette station and vegetables and chicken, but no European pastries.  That was all to the good, since in Indonesia the pastries often look good but seldom taste as yummy, so it saved us from extra calories.  Like all good hotels, they provided bottles of water, since tap water is not safe for drinking.  Elder Porter especially enjoyed the brand of water provided.  :-)


On Thursday, we rented a car and driver for the morning and headed down toward Bogor, to the Indonesian Institute of Sciences.  When President Subandriyo found out Elder Porter's former profession, he insisted that we should meet the wife of the new stake president, who is an expert in butterflies.  Dr. Djunijanti Peggie had studied at Cornell and the British Museum, so her English was excellent.  We enjoyed seeing her butterfly enclosure and the insect collection.

He also met an ant expert and it was a very nice break from our usual concerns.

We got back to town by noon, rested a bit because Sister Porter was coming down with a cold, and then headed off to the chiropractor appointment.  When we were first considering a mission to Indonesia, we were sanguine about being able to serve in Indonesia, because it seemed that there were multiple chiropractors in every large city.  Three in Medan.  However, in late 2016 a woman died after being treated in a chiropractic clinic by someone who was not properly trained.  And a lot of expat chiropractors run into visa issues.  So we used the trip to Jakarta to see an Indonesian chiropractor who was trained in Australia but speaks perfect English with an American accent.  He seemed very good.  We had arranged our flight schedule to allow for another adjustment on Saturday morning, which he did suggest and so we were glad that all worked out.

The chiropractor was only minutes away from the Mission Office, so we walked through the city.  We arrived early for our interview appointment and were welcomed by the new mission president and his wife, Greg and Shelia Mackay (MAK-ee) who we got to meet in person for the first time.  We shared our opinions about the new church building and future of young sisters in Medan and trust that they will make the right choices.

Friday morning we got up promptly and headed out to the 8 a.m. zone conference.  It was held at the building where our daughter's English-speaking congregation met when she lived in Jakarta, but we had never visited before.

It is so well landscaped, and an oasis of greenery and flowers within the busy city.  There are four huge royal palms.  They also have a full basketball court in the back, albeit on concrete.  Basketball is increasingly popular here, and some of our Young Women play.

The meetings were a spiritual feast.  We were taught the importance of loving those we serve.  We also practiced giving short lessons and using the scriptures to teach of Christ.  The mission president and his wife also shared some of the lessons they learned at their president's seminar from the general authorities of the church.

We had Krispy Kreme donuts for morning snack and Dominoes pizza for lunch.

We were amused to see the simple answer that the Jakarta saints came up with for wheelchair access.  Instead of an elevator that needs inspections and reliable electric power, they built this metal ramp to bring people up to the chapel.

Below is a picture of those in attendance. We are on the first row on the far left.  To the right of us are the Jensens, the office couple who were so welcoming to us when we arrived an do a great job of handling routine administrative matters.  To the right of them is the new mission president and his wife, then the Grants who are in Bandung.  The elders serving with us in Medan are Suranto and Ostermiller on the top left and Harris and Smart in the middle row, second and third from the right.  The sisters above the Jensens are Sisters Daclan and Brush, the last sisters to serve in Medan, who are now in Jakarta.

Our flight home was cancelled, but they got us on another flight, and we made it back home Saturday evening in time to prepare for Sunday meetings.