Choices

This week we faced a choice about whether to fly to Jakarta. We looked at potential buildings for the church, from which a new chapel will be chosen.  And we voted in the Primary elections back in Florida, thanks to our Supervisor of Elections' ability to send a ballot by email and accept return by fax.

There is a zone conference in Jakarta this upcoming week.  However, they wanted us to arrive there on Wednesday, leave on Saturday.  Friday is Indonesian Independence Day, and one of the big social occasions in our branch.  Since our assignment is Member & Leader Support, we felt we needed to stay here.

Decorations in red and white (the colors of the Indonesian flag) are popping up everywhere and our young missionaries even decorated their bikes.

At last week's ward council it was announced that there is a "dress code" for Friday's festivities, and people should wear red and white.  Hmmn.  I left four red shirts in the closet at home thinking that was too wild for a sister missionary.  I'll see what I can find.

Because we were looking at buildings during the day, we left home earlier than usual and had to eat lunch out, every day.  We usually have our big meal of the day before we head out, at home with lots of veggies.  This is Indonesian fast food:  This place has a limited menu, so they get food to the table quickly.  They start out immediately with soup, which calms the hunger pangs and is also poured over the rice.  The pork is wonderful.  And it is nice to have these vegetables included.

Later in the week, I also enjoyed a coconut curry sauce that was not toooo hot, and I ate the entire meal including rice with my hands.  But another day everything was covered with red and just inedible to me.  Oh well, I had an apple packed in my bag.

One day as Elder Porter was eating, he accidentally dropped a piece of chicken on the floor.  I said, "What a waste." but it wasn't because he made a new friend who was glad to get the chicken.

Eating out more meant more interactions with locals and more mistakes as I tried to use the language.

At one restaurant we had asked for a second Badak soda, and I wanted to be sure it got added to the bill.  But I said, "Dua batak" rather than "dua badak."  Batak are the predominant tribe here, while badak is the name of the popular soda, which literally means rhinoceros, as you can see from the orange picture on the label.

Another time I wanted to mention the important principle of free agency, the ability to choose that each of us enjoy.  Only I said "hal pilihan" instead of "hak pillihan."  But people are patient and this person kindly corrected me.

I was the confused one when I used Google Translate to figure out a term from the Book of Mormon.  I finally looked up the English version, which said "furnace of affliction," not the "mushroom furnace" that Google Translate had suggested.

It is really hard learning a language at this age!

We were not directly affected by the earthquakes of the last two weeks, which happened far to the east of us.  Our church is sending humanitarian relief as are many wonderful organizations.  One interesting thing is that the experts interviewed on CNN kept referring to PMI this and PMI that. PMI stands for Palang Merah Indonesia, a literal translation of "Red Cross."  And the headquarters of the PMI for our island is right down the street from us.  In fact, the name of the street where we live is "Jalan Palang Merah."