40 years

Our wedding was on November 10.  This year it falls on a Saturday which is a busy day in the church building.  Seminary starts at 3 p.m. followed by Institute at 4, which lasts until 6 p.m.

We are not really party people, but felt strongly that we should share this day with our church family here. So the party started Saturday at 6 p.m.  We sent out invitations to folks outside of church, and two of our English class students came, as well as some non-member friends.

 The menu was eclectic.  We offered cheese and crackers, oreo cookies, and a wide variety of fruit including grapes (a big hit!), pineapple, apples, and two kinds of watermelon.  As it happened, Sister Porter cut herself while slicing  watermelon right before the party, so she had the finger wrapped tightly in a paper towel the rest of the night.  One of the young sister missionaries took over with the watermelon cutting.  We also had potato chips and Indonesian crunchy snacks at that table.  It was a big table because it was really half of the ping-pong table that Elder Porter had resurrected.

We had a second table with nuts, dried fruits and black olives.  The Indonesians loved the nuts but did not like the black olives at all.  Someone explained that they expected them to be sweet. Most had read about olives in the Bible, but had never actually eaten one.

Indonesians do not use a flat sheet as part of bedding, but we brought some along, and ended up using them as tablecloths (after washing and ironing), because we couldn't find any disposable party tablecloths.

The wood table with paper and pens was for people to write their well-wishes.  We will bind them into a book.  Although at the end of the night we received an amazing book with greetings from members of the branch!!

 Our invitations had promised cake and ice cream.  We spent a lot of time angsting over how to provide ice cream, since there is not a refrigerator at church.  We thought about renting a freezer, and found out about a service  that will deliver ice cream to a party.  It turns out that a grocer not far from church carries 8-liter containers of ice cream, and we thought that if we sent missionaries to buy it right before the party and wrap it in towels that the mass of the ice cream would keep it cold until we started serving cake, about half an hour into the program.

Our family in the U.S. were kind enough to send congratulatory videos, which we played for everyone. Then we talked about the importance of temple marriage.  We shared a slide show of photos from throughout our marriage including recent trips to Indonesia.

We had the matching skirt and tie made for us, in a common pattern of the Batak tribe.  Sister Porter brought three solid-colored shirts to Indonesia, with the intention to have batik skirts made.  But we've been so busy that I haven't had time for any clothes shopping!

We had four cakes made at our second-favorite bakery, because this bakery offers a shorter cake that was perfect for our purposes (good size to serve with ice cream).  These three were decorated with our years, our names, and the phrase "For time and all eternity" in Indonesian.

That was the term of our marriage, and is one of the doctrinal differences about our church:  We believe that a marriage can last beyond the grave into the eternities.

We also had a fourth cake with simple blue frosting, and two roll cakes--all were eaten or taken away by the end of the night.

The logistics of the party preparation had taken up much of our time and energy during the last few weeks, but it was a joy to share our day with our friends in Indonesia.

Our branch president and executive secretary prepared a special duet for us, "You Are the Reason," in English.

Everyone pitched in to clean up afterward.  They were wonderful that way, and made it very easy for us.