A Year in Indonesia!

 Very quietly, unnoticed in the midst of all the ministering visits, lesson preparation and language study, we passed some important milestones.  We entered the MTC on March 19 of last year, and we arrived in Indonesia on March 28.  So this week we passed a year in Indonesia!

This picture is me and Mei getting ready for branch council meeting.  She is a recent convert who is one of the best students in our English class and serves with me as a counselor in the Young Women program.

Another milestone this week:  We were finally able to turn in the keys to our old apartment, putting that phase of our life behind us.  We noticed that they had finally replaced the fire extinguishers, and added a card with the emergency phone numbers to call.  This is still not as effective as a US-style fire alarm that goes directly to the security desk, but a step in the right direction.

However, we are still glad to be in an apartment that is safer and closer to church, although it is a longer motorcycle ride into church for our driver, since he lived closer to our old building and we had tried to find something closer to that area.

All the stoves in the old apartment used LP gas, with a tank under the sink.  In a high-rise building.  Our new building uses an electric cooktop, and it is a bit of a challenge because it takes longer to heat up and only one burner is big enough for the two cooking pans that we own.  But it seems safer.

We have noticed a lot of fires from the great view afforded by our balcony.  Since the washing machine is out there, we are out there a lot, and it has been sad to see the smoke and know that another house or business, another dream, has been destroyed by fire.  Indonesia seems modern on the surface, but the infrastructure has not kept up, especially in our fast-growing city of Medan.

One of our English students helped us to design a new card for the missionaries to hand out, to invite people to our English classes.  They turned out great.  We would not have put our own pictures on the card, nor referred to ourselves as bule, which ca be used as a somewhat negative term.  But we defer to our friend.

On Wednesday, Sister Porter had the lesson for adults well prepared, but when she plugged in the computer, it did not link to the large television screen.  She uses a very small mini computer (ASUS tablet with attached keyboard) so she really needed to connect to the television.  She guessed it was the cable (micro-HDMI to HDMI), and we had seen one at the Gramedia store not far from church.  Elder Porter valiantly offered to go buy one (it was the last one they had!) and was back within minutes after class began.  The cable worked right away. One of many small graces that we have experienced during our service.

In the last week, half of the young missionaries were swapped out, so the district is transitioning again.  Having research assistants who regularly graduated and left was good training for the pain of losing beloved young colleagues.

Sister Porter found herself with a nasty sore on her nose and realized her glasses were cutting into it.  A few months ago, Elder Porter had needed to get a pair of glasses repaired for a sister in the branch, and so we knew right where to go. Thanks to the folks at Optik Melawi in nearby Sun Plaza, the glasses were  comfortable again within minutes, at a cost of only 15.000,00 Rupiah ($1.06).  Yes, the Indonesians reverse the use of commas and points for the thousands separator.

Our building had only been open for a month when we stopped by to inquire about it and moved in a week later.  They still had not put up a sign at all until this week (although the location is mapped in all of the ride-share apps that we use to get around town).  But we have a lot of things delivered, so it is great to have a sign at last.  Apparently only 12 units have been rented thus far.  And they just put in the parking control system two weeks ago.

This week we had many opportunities to stop and buy fruits and vegetables at local street markets.  It is the only place we can find good tomatoes (the ones in grocery stores are not worth eating) and Elder Porter found some corn on the cob that we cooked on Thursday night.  Yes, corn, or jagung as it known here, is a New World crop, but perfect for this climate, although it takes a lot of nutrients out of the soil.  Indonesians love corn fritters and put corn on pizza.  On Thursday, as we were coming back from an appointment an hour away, we also bought a bunch of bananas for Rp 5,000 (35 cents).  Sister Porter is eating them every day but still not done with the bunch of excellent bananas, so that was a great find.

Yes, that is our water pump in the right side of the photo.  The tap water looks pretty clear in our building but is not safe to drink.  We have to buy and lug several large bottles of water every other week, for brushing teeth, cooking and drinking. 

From the Eyrie

a photo from the internet

On Monday we were still in Jakarta.  We had to go to the immigration office to renew our KITAS, our permission to stay in the country.  We were very fortunate to have received a full year on our initial KITAS, but it will expire near the end of March.  The mission office has an employee who takes care of such things, he went early and got our numbers in line, and a car took us right to the office.  There was a group of us going, but we left an hour after planned departure because the young missionaries from a suburb of Jakarta were late arriving.  And when we got there, it turned out that it wouldn't have made a difference--everything had stopped for a while, and there were almost 50 people ahead of us.  As the noon hour approached, and some lights in the office were turned off, we held our breath to see if they would stop work at noon, or let us all finish.  We did all complete the photo and fingerprinting process, so back to the mission home in time for lunch with Sister Mackay.  We did more shopping that afternoon, and the Mackays drove us to the airport (the in-town airport Halim).  We were home before midnight.

At our district meeting the next day, the young missionaries were worried about how to make good use of their time since there had been some restrictions on their activities following the mass shooting in nearby New Zealand.  Elder Porter suggested a test on the branch member's pictures, and although their restrictions were gradually lifted during the week, they still committed to the test on Friday.  Those who got 80% correct of 20 questions got a treat.  One got a perfect score, and 2 others got the 80%.

Our new building does not have a fitness center, but they do have a really nice fire escape, with steps outside but behind a safety grille.  So every day Sister Porter walks up to the roof, walks around the roof while she reads scriptures, and then goes down the steps and back up again.

The roof is an amazing place.  One day last week it was raining in the morning, but like Florida rain is rare in the morning, more common in late afternoon and evening.  It is interesting to see all kinds of insects and birds.  Sometimes a whole flock of birds crosses the roof.

Before leasing the apartment, we looked at the map to locate the nearest mosque.  It didn't seem any closer than the nearby mosque at our last building.  But we didn't appreciate that there are several other mosques in the neighborhood, and they set up a harmonic effect for every call to prayer.

They also seems to last a lot longer than some other places we have stayed.  The first of the day is at 4:45 a.m. and runs until well after 5.  Fortunately, we have a bedroom without windows.  But if we wake up during that time, the sound is beautiful and we need to record it before we go.  The harmonics of at least three mosques chanting amazing.

In addition to the stairs and doing handweights and stretches in the apartment, Sister Porter also swims twice a week.  Since our building is new and not completely rented, she usually has the pool to herself.  It is covered by another floor, and so it is very, very cold.

But having spent time on the roof with those stunning views, listening to the harmonics and doing a backstroke with a sweeping water-angel movement, it reminds me of the Archangel books by Sharon Shinn.  This got me re-reading some of them during breakfast and after class (I am not ambitious enough to read something new, but we are allowed to read fiction, so I am re-reading some favorites.)

We had heard that our mission president had called a counselor, and this weekend he came to visit!  He invited all the missionaries out to dinner at the JW Marriorr Cafe, an all-you-can-eat buffet including a barbecue and excellent dessert station with several flavors of ice cream and toppings.  When we first showed up, some elders were sitting right in the front near the live band.  Sister Porter decided to see if there was a quieter option, so she used her language to ask if there was a table in the back where the group could talk and listen to one another.  The staff were incredibly understanding and led us to a private glassed-in room!  It was perfect.  President Thomas Siregar is at far right, and he brought his wife and daughter (his son is serving a mission in Hong Kong).

We enjoyed having his daughter in Young Women today (in the center).  What a great group!  The young woman at far left gave a great lesson on the topic of happiness.

Another great bit of news!  The sequel to the movie THE OTHER SIDE OF HEAVEN will be out this summer.  Indonesians love that movie because it is about an island, and we think of it all the time.  We read the Book of Mormon faithfully hoping that we will also have the gift to be able to speak like that.  Here is the trailer for the sequel.

Jakarta!

Two weeks ago, the mission office in Jakarta asked us to send in our passports immediately to start the process of renewing our visas during our planned trip to Zone Conference.  They gave us the address, and recommended a reliable courier service.  We were notified of the delivery by the courier.

But the next day, I felt I should check with the mission office staff.  And they didn't know where our passports were.  So for about four days, our passports were missing--a scary thought!  Once they were found, it was too late to get our visas renewed in the original time frame, so we had to stay over until the following Monday to take care of that.


Our flight from Medan to Jakarta landed less than 72 hours before the return flight would take off.  So we sat there and took care of changing the flight home.  It turned out that Batik Air has an English operator.  (In the U.S., we often are told to press 2 for Spanish, and here it is English that is offered.)  The operator was very patient; we were on the phone for half an hour because we had to send in pictures of our passports before we could make the change.  There was a modest fee, and we were able to pay it at customer service before we left the airport.

The first two nights, we stayed at the Harris Hotel, which is in easy walking distance of the stake center and has a great fitness center.

For our Zone Conference, I had a skirt made to match one of Elder Porter's favorite blue ties.

The rest of our district was dressed in green and gold.

We had a great conference that stressed the importance of working with members and branch leadership.

We had a lot of free time on this trip because of having to stay over.  We went back to the Lebanese restaurant we like, for some wonderful mideast food.  We got to enjoy some Gado-Gado, in the Javanese style--not very spicy at all. 

Gado-gado!

We have gone shopping for Indonesian stuff to bring home later this year, and we have done a lot of scripture and language study.
Sister Porter also got in two visits to her chiropractor, which helped a lot.  She exercises every day, but having the professional adjustment makes a huge difference in the back pain.

Our mission president's wife invited us to stay at the mission home, and we moved there on Friday, which provided a great opportunity to chat with them, saved money during the extended stay, and was more convenient to the chiropractor.  We were able to walk to the Saturday morning chiropractor appointment as well as to the Grand Lucky grocery store to pick up a few non-perishable delicacies to take back with us (microwave popcorn!)

The first chiropractic appointment was 6:30 at night, so we wanted dinner right after.  I found an upscale satay place right near the doctor's office.  We had lamb and it was great.  But when we left, we realized that they were being cooked with a high-powered electric fan rather than the typical bamboo hand fans they use to boost the fire. 

On Saturday night, a big treat:  We went out to dinner with our mission president and his wife and the Schmids, the family history couple.  We made arrangements to take them to a Japanese Shabo-Shabo place that we'd been to with our daughter Rebecca and her husband Karl four years ago.  We made reservations and we showed up exactly on time.  Everyone liked it.  You cook your own food in a pot of broth. 

Today we went to church at Jakarta 2d Ward, and were astonished at how many people we knew there, including a returned missionary who had served with us, the mother of a missionary who had served with us, and our former mission president.  It was very uplifting.

User's Manuals

Our zone is finally complete, after a few weeks of being "bertiga" while waiting for Elder Mock to arrive from the Utah Missionary Training Center.  He is from Utah, although with roots in South Carolina.  Sister Onting is from the Philippines, Sister Dilianti from Eastern Java (but her family came from Timor Leste), and we have three Indonesian elders.  Elder Siahaan is from Java but has a Batak name and so everyone wants to tell him how they are related to the Siahaans.

On our Monday Preparation Day, Sister Porter had her teeth cleaned by Sister/Doctor Emma, who is a wonderful dentist.  Usually Sister Porter has her teeth cleaned every 4 months, so she stopped by the office during December after coming back from Jakarta, hoping to make an appointment, but they were closing for renovations. The renovations lasted two months, but look really spiffy. Sister Porter thought about finding another dentist or seeing one in Singapore, but we never got around to it, and Sister Emma did a great job.

Last Sunday the computer in the branch office did not want to connect to the internet.  Elder Porter did a call with church offices in Jakarta, and they suggested a USB WiFi device.  Elder Porter found one for sale, and asked Sister Porter to manage the installation because of her greater familiarity with the Windows operating system.

She had a great experience with the user's manual, holding her phone over the manual in Google translate, and seeing the translation through the camera.  Wow!  The translation was really helpful, and the installation was successful.

It also inspired Sister Porter with a theme to give a talk in sacrament meeting.  Our branch president sent a message on Tuesday night asking her to speak about the importance of reading scriptures.  So she told that story, and talked about the scriptures as a user's manual for our lives.

On Tuesday morning while Elder Porter was talking to the office in Jakarta about our computer issues, Sister Porter stopped by Clover Bakery for a cake to celebrate two birthday's during district meeting.  Unfortunately, the driver dropped her a block from the bakery and she had to ask for directions, and we don't like walking around with a computer.  But she made it safely and caught a ride back afterward, in time for the meeting.

A nice surprise that the sister training leaders were here from Jakarta.  And amazingly, we were able to get 12 slices from that little cake.

A lovely surprise on Friday night!  One of our investigators, who lives more than an hour away in the port city of Belawan, came to our English class.  We were able to introduce him to Elder Siahaan, as that is also his last name. Our friend went home more than an hour on a motorcycle without a front lamp.

Singapore!

We are almost at the 1-year mark in our mission.  For some of our regular medications, we were able to get a 1-year supply to take with us.  But now we are starting to run out.  And it turns out that there is one drug that isn't available in this country, nor anything in that class.  It isn't forbidden to have it, but it is not available for purchase. The local doctor said that patients who really wanted it should
go to Singapore.

Singapore is actually closer than Jakarta, the Indonesian capital city where we go for Zone Conferences.  Our daughter who lived in Jakarta gave us a reference for a doctor so we made an appointment.  Our mission president was entirely supportive and allowed us to leave the mission.

Sister Porter had a bad attitude about the hassle of having to leave, worried about the costs and whether or not the doctor would give us a 7-month supply.  Elder Porter, however, had a great attitude and looked forward to the visit, especially since Sister Porter made all the arrangements.

As it happened, our mission president was able to talk to the Singapore mission president, and he offered to host us since he knew Elder Porter when they served together in Indonesia many years ago.  This was wonderful in so many ways--it gave them a chance to catch up with each other, it saved us a ton of money (because hotels in Singapore are pricey!), and they took us to visit several amazing places. Their gracious hosting made the visit a delight.  Singapore provided a break from the constant wrestle with the Indonesian language.  English is the official language, although Malaysian and various Chinese dialects are widely spoken.

We left home Sunday night after all our Sabbath-day commitments were fulfilled.  Sister Porter got up from a nap, and realized her iPhone was not working.  It was stuck on the apple with an occasional red screen--not good.  So she packed a small computer to try a restore en route.  This was attempted first thing Monday morning, but was not successful.

On Monday morning, President Rowley dropped us at the Botanical Gardens, which was incredible--and free.  There is a modest cost for the orchid garden, but it is huge and we knew we did not have time.  President Rowley had provided us with passes to the subway and bus system, and it was a quick subway ride back to the mission offices, where we met him and walked to lunch.  It was fun waiting there because young missionaries were in and out.  They were having a zone conference.  The missionaries in Malaysia are there on a 90-day visas and have to leave the country to renew.  One of the missionaries had a Subway bag--it turns out that they are all over Singapore.  It smelled so good!!

With Pres. Paul Rowley, Newton Food Center

For lunch, President Rowley took us to a food court where the movie Crazy Rich Asians was filmed.  During the course of the next 24 hours, we would visit many other sites in that movie.  Now I am really looking forward to seeing it when I get home.

Monday afternoon was the real reason for our trip:  An appointment with a specialist.  He was entirely willing to provide a 7-month supply of the needed medication, and at a price much less than expected.

We did a bit of shopping at a mall next to the doctor's office.  I was sorely tempted by bagels, which I had not seen in a year.  I did buy some chili seasoning, and some diet 7-Up. Our part of Indonesia does not have much in the way of diet soda, so this was an exquisite treat.

Then we headed back to church for the devotional before their day-long Zone Conference.  President Rowley introduced us and invited the young missionaries to come back to the Singapore Mission in 40 years.   :-)

Then we went out to eat with the Rowelys and to see the light show of the super-trees at Gardens by the Bay.  It was amazing, and I have been to all the light shows at Walt Disney World. After that, we ran into some members from Idaho who were in Asia on business and saw our name tags and chatted.  They were looking for crabs and our car was parked near the food court so we walked them to that restaurant, chatting all the way.

The next morning we went into the mission offices with the president, and dropped our luggage.  We went back to Gardens by the Bay to see the trees in the daylight and visit the Cloud Forest, which was very well done.  We went to lunch at Subway, and then looked at iphones at the Apple Store.  Sister Porter had about resigned herself to getting a new phone.  She had a recent backup so hopefully it wouldn't be too painful to bring the phone back to life.

The new iPhones seemed really pricey, and before setting out for the day she had also checked out the better places to buy a used phone.  Three of them were in a mall not far from the Apple store, so we looked there.  She decided on an iPhone 7 which is certainly bigger than the 5s she had for a few years, but not as large as others.  They also had an SE 64GB, which Elder Porter had been wanting.  We asked if they would cut the price a bit if we bought 2 phones, and they did.  So we walked out of there with two phones for less than a price of one new one. Hopefully they will last at least until we return to the U.S.

We went back to the mission office to use their wifi to restore Sister Porter's  phone, which went a long way toward resuming functionality.  We left the offices at 4:14, and our flight arrived in Medan only 15 minutes after taking off, thanks to the 1-hour time difference.  No problems going through customs.

So in the end, it was a delightful trip, that provided everything we needed and some choice experiences.