Last October Update

This week was a milestone:  Sister Porter did not have language training.  Our church has an excellent language training program for young missionaries, as noted in an NPR report.  The U.S. Army's Intelligence Brigade, made up of linguists, is based in Utah because it draws on returned missionaries to fill its ranks.  Returned missionaries, most who are current at Brigham Young University, are also instructors at for the Missionary Training Center (MTC).  Not surprisingly, these students are also recruited by international business firms and government agencies.  

Senior missionaries can attend the in-house training at the MTC; we know one humanitarian sister who did that.  But she already lived in Utah.  So instead seniors are also offered weekly online sessions, in the months leading up to their mission, and then for six months after we are settled in our assignment.  In the beginning, I practiced numbers, formed sentences, learned the nuance of certain phrases.  In recent months I have prepared lessons and talks that I have given at church.

We didn't get as many months of pre-field training as we might have.  Our application was a bit late being submitted because I had to have a second treadmill test.  Then the MTC didn't have anyone to teach this obscure language to us; I had my interview with the coordinator on September 19th and met with the instructor the first time on October 18, 2017.  He actually served in Malaysia, rather than Indonesia, but the languages are close. We've also had volunteers join us for part of the lesson and those have all been Indonesians or served in Indonesia.  

So it has been almost exactly a year since I started with our online tutor.  Before the mission, we would meet in the late afternoon or early evening, with only a 2-hour time difference.  Here in Indonesia, we had been meeting at 7 a.m. my time, which in Utah is 6 p.m. the night before.  This worked in my favor for the final lesson, because I had one more Young Women lesson to prepare on October 20, but knew my 6-month window was up on October 19th.  Fortunately, it was still October 19 in the U.S. because of the time difference :-)

We have been fortunate to have the same instructor the entire time.  Thank you, Andrew Orr!

This week we went to a birthday party for one of the Primary kids. It was held at her school.  We got to provide the cakes.  

In other visits this week, we brought a few talks from General Conference into he home of a wonderful family who missed conference due to an ill child.  We also brought a framed family photo to a couple, and information about family history.  

Elder Porter finished the ping-pong table and had a successful Young Men activity with it.

Our chapel sound system has not been working reliably for some weeks, and it totally died two weeks ago.  Last week we had to get through sacrament meeting without a functioning microphone.

Because we  are moving into a new building in January, the church did not want to spend much on fixing it.  Fortunately, Elder Porter and Bro. Manalu found a sound technician who had it ready in just a few days.  The foam piece over the microphone, which helps prevent popping noises, was worn through right over the microphone.  We cut a double layer of black out of this sock, anchored it with a rubber band and covered it with the foam.  It looks and works well.

When we fixed the microphone, we didn't realize how important that would be.  This Sunday was the Primary sacrament meeting program, when the children present songs and talks.  They were all able to grab the microphone, pull it to whatever angle, and we could hear their little voices.  

The primary children and teachers dressed up in matching ties and skirts, which is something they do here a lot for stake conference choirs, etc.  

We were asked to speak to the Institute class about temple marriage, which went pretty well.  It got us thinking about the importance of temple marriage and after various promptings, we decided to give ourselves an anniversary party and invite the congregation and some friends that we have met here.

It is hard to believe that a year from now we will be in Florida.  Or maybe off visiting the Ohio grandkids, or on a cruise somewhere.  Tetapi tidak di Medan.  

Misi Couples Retreat, October 2018

Right after the last session of General Conference on Sunday, we ordered a car that dropped us by the apartment to pick up our bags, then off to the airport.  We flew into Jakarta's smaller airport (Halim) that was only a 30-minute ride from our hotel (another Amaris property quite close to the mission office).  I like the breakfast at the Amaris hotels because they are very nutritious, omelette station and veggies, but no Western pastries to tempt me. It was a fairly quick trip to the mission office, where the 17-seater bus was already parked.  Turns out those seat estimates were for Indonesians, who tend to be smaller.

Fewer couples were at this conference because two bule couples and a local couple had been released from their missions since our last get-together.  Our numbers were further reduced because the Lees, the humanitarian missionaries who live in Bogor, were busy coordinating our church's disaster response to the earthquake and tsunami disaster in Sulawesi.  Our church had nine large truckloads that were loaded on to an Indonesian Navy ship and delivered to the affected area around Palu.  

We arrived at the Aston Hotel on Anyer Beach, and did some walking across the coral through the low tide.  About 5:30 we headed out to a pavillion on the water.  We had it to ourselves, and before and after a wonderful dinner, we shared about what each of us are doing on on various missions, which are all so very different.  It was a very thought-provoking and helpful.  

One couple had the opportunity to take a group to the temple in Manila, and they are going again in April!  They shared a lot about the logistics and the need to start giving the temple preparation lessons six months in advance.  Elder Porter and I met with them personally on Wednesday morning and they were kind enough to share their powerpoint presentations with us.

Another sister is great friends with the sisters in her branch; they call her up to invite her out to a movie or whatever.  One couple are humanitarian missionaries in Timor Leste, another country.

 The next morning we got up early and most of us hopped back on the bus and then on a boat for a trip headed into the Sunda Straits between Java and Sumatra.  The goal was supposed to be the Anak Krakatoa island, with hiking up the side of the volcano.  The island had emerged from the ocean in 1927 in an area that had been part of the original island of Krakatoa before it erupted in 1883.  However, the Anak Krakatoa volcano had recently become active again, and so hiking was out.  We did see several large belches of smoke but no lava.  The word for volcano is gunung api, literally "fire mountain."  Also, they pronounce the last two vowels in the mountain name as one syllable:  Krak-a-tauw.

We were blessed with no rain during our day on the water.  The boat was comfortable, and with two motors going it was pretty stable.  Unfortunately, within half an hour there was a problem with one of the motors and we were occasionally stopped in the water, tossed from side to side.  We think one of the workers had to manually pump gas into the motor for the rest of the trip (and the mission president tipped him well).  As we approached the active volcano, Elder Porter and I climbed up to the very front of the boat for great views.

However, it was nice to have a cabin to get out of the sun and to lie down when sea sickness hit me, when the engines weren't working properly and we were sloshing.  Yes, there is an air conditioning unit above those windows, but it  didn't work unless the generator was turned on.  We were more worried about the motors, so we tolerated the stuffiness and only went in there now and then.  Elder Porter also took a nap on the way home.

We stopped for a picnic lunch at a beach on part of the original Krakatoa that exploded in 1883. If one consults the map, it is clearly WEST of Java and not east as the famous movie proclaims.

Indonesian volcanic eruptions played a key role in the history of our church.  When Mt. Tambora exploded on April 10, 1815, it created a major weather event, a "year without a summer."  This caused massive crop failures and the family of Joseph Smith lost their farm in Norwich, Vermont and moved to Palmyra, New York.

This is taken at our lunch spot.  Elder Porter also did some snorkeling nearby, because the delays meant that people didn't want to make a separate stop for snorkeling.

We may have used up the last of our sunscreen on that trip and it is not really sold here because the Indonesians have such perfect skin for dealing with the sun.

While we were having lunch, some fishermen landed in their traditional boats.  They were from Sumatra, our island!  But since our island is so big, we would have to had to drive continuously for 39 hours to get home from the southern tip of Sumatra.

One of the fishermen showed off this beauty, which should sell for about half a million rupiah (still not much).



After we arrived back at the hotel, we showered and got dressed for dinner.  We had all agreed to meet at 5:30 so that we could see the sunset further down the beach, which was wonderfully red.

Then we continued down the beach road to a place that would barbecue our selections from the days catch.  It was really fresh and good, and served with rice and veggies.

The next morning I got up early and walked on the beach for half an hour.  We had breakfast and boarded the bus again.

They dropped off the two of us at a mall on the way to Jakarta, at a spot on the way where Elder Porter and I could catch a car to the airport for our flight home.  They had an Ikea store there!  

Cake and Conference

We started the week still struggling to get over our colds.  People were concerned when they learned that we had not been using Minyak Kaya Putih. Everyone knows that if you use that, it will help rid the bad air from the body.  They rub it on the chest or throat or whatever is ailing, kind of like Vicks Vapo Rub. 

Out of respect for local traditions, we bought some.  In the U.S., it would be called Eucalyptis oil, and would cost a lot more than it does here.



We have six young missionaries in Medan, and they are geographically isolated from the other young missionaries.  We try to look out for them, and we keep track of birthdays.  One of our missionaries who entered the field a few weeks after we did was turning 19 on October 10th, and I had that date in my calendar for quite a while, hoping he would stay with us until then.

Well, our district meeting was on Tuesday, the 9th and he left town early in the morning on his birthday.

I wasn't sure what kind of cake to buy for him, but I knew his companion likes chocolate, and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Our tradition for missionaries who are finishing their service and going home is brownies....but up to now they have all been USAmericans.  Not sure if the Indonesians would prefer something else.

One of the Indonesian missionaries returning home to Jakarta next month wants to attend BYU Hawaii.  This means getting a score of 75 on the Michigan English test.  That companionship went with us Thursday to visit a family that has moved far away, and we talked about non-count nouns the entire way out there.


In preparation for our church's worldwide General Conference, we wanted to make sure that all our members knew about the viewing schedule. On Monday, we went over the list of people we hadn't seen in a while, and tried to stop by or send a What'sAppp message to let them know.

Yes, friends in North America might think we are a week late, but the "Saturday Morning" session would start at 11 p.m. our time if we tried to offer it as a live stream, so not practical.  Also, this gives the translators a few more days to get those recordings in place.  We recognized the voices of a few people that we had met through the MTC. 

We were asked to provide a computer for the broadcast, and that was fine on Saturday, when attendance was a bit lower and we used the television.  (Schools operate six days a week here, because they close on Friday noon so that Muslims can make it to early-afternoon worship at the mosque, then they make up the time on Saturday morning as well.) 

On Sunday, we needed to use the projector, and we could not connect the audio output into the speaker system in the building.  We couldn't even get the microphone to work (yikes, hope that is fixed by next Sunday!) and we ended up just using my little speakers, which aren't really loud enough for that large room.  I was glad that I heeded the prompting to grab them before we left the apartment.

Another treat at conference:  There were some swarming insects in the yard of the church, which Elder Porter identified as stingless bees.

Fall and Colds

This week I got a lovely note from one of my brothers who live in Michigan, including the message, "Hope everyone is enjoying the fall, my favorite time of year." It made me smile, sadly.  The colors of autumn was one of the things we gave up when we moved to Florida.  My father's last gift to me was dying in fall so that I could fly up to Michigan for his funeral and enjoy the splendid leaf display that year.

Marjorie Kinian Rawlings is a North Florida author famous for the books The Yearling and Cross Creek, both of which have been made into movies.  She wrote about the "seasonal amnesia" of Florida's year-round lush greenness.  But at least the day length changes a little bit.


Here in Medan, this close to the equator, we have very little change in weather or day length.  Currently sunrise is 6:11 and sunset 18:13.  At the summer solstice, it was sunrise 6:17, sunset 18:36.  So not much difference, and very long nights all year round.

Here is the chart for our hometown of Gainesville, FL.  Of course it is artificially manipulated by the imposition of Daylight Savings Time, but one can still see the natural variation in day length.  The curves would be even more pronounced if I showed the graph for Michigan, which is much farther north.

We had a slow week, because we were both very sick with upper respiratory infections.  On Wednesday, after a week of suffering through a nasty cold and not sleeping much due to the cough, I finally went over to the klinik at our local hospital.  The medications the doctor prescribed helped a lot.  But then Elder Porter got sick again.  We hope this upcoming week will be more productive.

Despite being sick, we managed to teach our English classes.  On Wednesday we were overwhelmed with a record-high attendance of over 15 people, with a fun topic of movies.  I showed some trailers and had them say what genre of movie and what the setting was and who the characters were--all in English, of course.

So on Friday, which is usually the larger class, we were expecting a crowd.  Except that it rained hard, and most everyone comes by motorcycle.  Someone texted the young missionaries that they would be there late, so we waited and started half an hour late, with four students.

Well, one learns to be flexible.  Being off on a different island, Medan doesn't follow the typical Indonesian pattern of dry/wet seasons they experience in Java.  But when it rains here, sometimes it really rains, and the drainage on many streets is questionable, so it does often delay meetings and affect people's lives.