Hari Natal and the Week Between

On Sunday, December 23, Sister Porter had the opportunity to teach the Young Women.  Because of the proximity to the holiday, she threw away the manual and taught about four ways our church is  different from other Christian faiths, although we all celebrate Christmas at the same time.  These included our lack of crucifixes (we celebrate the living Christ) and the prophecies of Christ's birth in the Book of Mormon.  We gave each girl a gift bag with an orange, a chocolate bar and a Hello Kitty pencil.  They all opened the oranges immediately and the room smelled heavenly (or like Florida?).


We promised the mission president's wife that we would organize the gift exchange for missionaries in Medan.  We ended up doing this on the morning of Christmas Day.  Most of the missionaries were calling their folks Christmas morning, which was Christmas Eve in the states, although the sisters had made their calls the day before.  We put a missionary in each bedroom with the platform of their choice (Facebook, Hangouts, Skype).  We were happy that the wifi for which we pay so much held up to multiple video calls at the same time.

We also served breakfast:  hash browns, pancakes, eggs, grapes, apples, watermelon, rolls with Smuckers jam (grape and apricot).  After everyone was done eating and calling, we did the gift exchange, which was fun.  I got a sarong that I would love to have made into a skirt.

After the gifts, we showed them the video of Taking Root: The Growth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Indonesia a presentation by BYU professor Chad Emmett, who had served back at the same time as Elder Porter's first mission.

Then Sister Porter excused herself to take a nap, as she had not been sleeping well (we found out why later in the week).

That afternoon we visited a new convert, Sister Leni.  She is the only member of our church in her family, but they are all Christian.

Some of the young elders gave her this great necklace.  She is a great cook, and we had a good time.

On Thursday, we had to cancel some commitments because Sister Porter realized she had a horrible urinary tract infection.  We walked over to the nearby hospital's walk-in clinic, and because it was the second infection in as many months, the doctor suggested doing a test this time.  That would take more than an hour, so Elder Porter left and Sister Porter managed through the language and confusion to get the test results and medications and cross the busy street to walk home.  She also stayed at the apartment on Friday.  She had a lot of lesson prep for English classes in the new year.

Forgot to mention that Mother's Day is December 22 here in Indonesia.  It makes sense, since Maria is the most perfect mother to celebrate, and it means people only have to pulang (return home) once to honor their mother and celebrate Christmas.

We saw this advertisement at the mall, where we got several photos printed for people.  Even young people seem to like having a paper photo in their hand.

For many years, Sister Porter's siblings have enjoyed a tradition of getting together for a few days the day after Christmas (Boxing Day).  This year they went to Phoenix/Scottsdale Arizona and were kind enough to send a video.  They did some hiking which Sister Porter would have loved...but Medan is where we need to be right now.