Echoes from the past

We started the week on Sunday with a "Penghiburan," an informal ceremony where everyone who was available from church visited a family who had lost a loved one  for a program of music and comfort.  This was the same family with whom we attended the funeral two weeks ago.

The little girl who is walking toward us came over and felt my legs.  This happens a lot, because they are fascinated with my white legs!  Indonesians have the perfect brown coloring for their climate, but some of them use white facial powder or wear whitish stockings.

On Wednesday, we found out that one of our best English students may be leaving town.  He has no choice.  He is an immigrant from Afghanistan, under the auspices of the United Nations immigration agency, and he has to follow their rules as to where to live.

So immigration is a challenge all over the globe.  But we are glad he is safe and wish him all the best in his English studies.

A while back we got a visitor from the church offices in Jakarta.  He was here talking to the Batak tribal authorities about digitizing some of their genealogical records.  But he also works with the immigration paperwork for missionaries, and when he saw Elder Porter's name he got very excited.  He told us that Elder Porter had baptized his mother.

Elder Porter was dubious.  He didn't remember her name.  But it turns out that he didn't teach her, just performed the baptism shortly after he arrived in Solo.

This good brother provided pictorial evidence of the event.  Yes, that is definitely the young Elder Porter with his thick curly hair!  What a blessing to know that what we do has effects far into the future.

We forgot to mention that Sister Porter had the lead letter to the editor in the Gainesville Sun on USAmerican Election Day, November 6, encouraging people to vote.  We were able to mention the name of our church and where we are on mission!

We finished the week by attending a piano competition where one of the young people in our congregation was performing.  He scored well.  He already plays piano in sacrament meeting, although he is still in Primary.