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.