Activities

On Monday, in addition to our usual Preparation Day errands and ironing, we went to see a movie.  Don't worry about the mission rules; that is totally allowed for senior couples (some even have a date night every week).  But the Indonesians tend to like horror and action films, and the new "Fantastic Beasts" movie was the first movie that interested us at all.  Because of the time window we had available for viewing, we ended up paying more and going to the "Gold" theater.

Elder Porter is enjoying the recliner.  But we were frustrated with the table in between us, which facilitates serving food but stopped us from being able to consult about plot.  And this super-deluxe theater only cost $5 USD per person.

On Tuesday, we got up early.  The president of the branch Young Women (wearing red in the middle of this photo) offered to cook lunch for this outing.  But they live an hour from church and don't have a car, and she had all those bags and bundles to bring.  So Elder Porter left our house at 6:30 a.m. to pick up her and her three teens and the food.  I ordered a car and (after getting lost once) picked up our driver's son and daughter and headed to church.  Our car did not have enough room for the entire group, so we had to hire a bus to take us out to Berastagi, in the mountains about 2 hours from Medan.  There was a great park, a surface of rolling hills but perfectly trimmed grass.

The entrance fee included a plastic rug to roll out.  We sat on the rugs, and had a great lunch, a spiritual program and fun.  Elder Porter brought one of his parafoil kites from the Smithsonian gift shop, the one he always kept in the back of the car, just in case there was ever wind:)  Everyone had a good time.

Actually, we nearly missed the fun part...at the end of the spiritual program it started raining, so strong that the youth wanted to skip the closing hymn.  Elder Porter said the closing prayer, and asked that the rain would stop.  It did, and we enjoyed another hour in the sunshine.  But we were up so far into the mountains that it was not hot--very pleasant afternoon.

Prior to this trip, we had the young people fill out a form with contact information for themselves and their parents, so that they could be reached quickly if there was a problem.  This seems obvious but was not being done before.

When we got back to church, we got to meet the new missionaries who replaced a sister who had gone home and one who was transferred elsewhere.

On Wednesday after English class, we did the last of our Thanksgiving shopping and found decent rolls and vanilla ice cream at the nearby Hypermart, as well as a cake from Clover Bakery.  Of course the best part of the meal was having our district join us for the Thanksgiving meal, but it was also nice to provide a generous luncheon.  I made chicken thighs and legs to try to create enough of the brown bits to make a decent gravy, but then had white meat as well (which made great sandwiches as leftovers).

We worried about having enough plates to serve:  We only own 7, so one of us used a disposable plastic plate.  And we filled in with plastic silverware.  We also don't have enough serving dishes, so we borrowed a platter from church, as well as four folding chairs.

When making a big meal, I always write out a schedule, but thinking through the workflow was particularly important with only two pans, a small rice cooker and a microwave.

The night before, I prepared and washed the green beans and carrots, as well as steaming a batch of rice (because the Indonesian and Filipina missionaries do not feel that they have eaten a meal without rice on the table).  The next morning, I headed to the gym early and started cooking at 8:30 a.m. We found some genuine Campbells Cream of Mushroom Soup for only $2.35 a can, so we made a green bean casserole in the rice cooker.

I made the gravy with cornstarch and the pan drippings, as well as some chicken soup base.  It was pretty yummy over mashed potatoes.

I don't have an oven to make a pie, but we found apple tarts and bought a cake with blueberry topping, and served that with ice cream and chocolate sprinkles.

Our only expat USAmerican neighbor told us about a place that was serving a Thanksgiving buffet that night, but Elder Porter had a meeting with a church leader from Jakarta, and Sister Porter had to prepare her Sunday assignments, both a sacrament meeting talk and a Young Women lesson.

On Friday afternoon, it was our last lesson with a group of kids who live near the sister missionaries.  One of the grandmothers let us come into her house for six weeks.  These were lessons that we had prepared for other venues so it was not a lot of extra work, and good public service.