Easter Week

[If you are reading this in response to an email notification, be sure to double-click on the title for full functionality including the videos.]

This week we were very busy, so much that we did not have a chance to take pictures of all that we were doing. We didn't arrive home from Bali until Monday night.  We were finally able to go to the famous beach for a bit that morning (video below).

Our wonderful branch president is also serving as a counselor for the upcoming Indonesia-wide youth conference this summer.  He had to go to Java for a meeting on Friday, which meant that the scheduled ward activity was up to Elder Porter and the other counselor.  That was a lot of stress.  Sister Porter helped by making a flyer to send to the various What'sApp groups, and also downloading some videos and playing those during the program, which was easier than trying to talk the entire time.  Elder Porter had also made arrangements for some musical numbers that turned out to be wonderful.  So the Friday program was weighing on us the entire week and we had to worry about all the details....

On Tuesday, we went over to the sister missionaries' house to try to fix some things in preparation for their return on Friday.  They used to need to plug in the water pump every time they wanted to run water into the sink or washing machine.  The power for the washer and pump was a spliced together electrical cord with a dangling wall outlet which seemed a bit unsafe. Elder Porter added a new extension cord, a wall outlet, and a switch to turn the pump off and on.  We also fixed their stove which was flaming up, and the washing machine which was stopping mid-cycle due to a blockage in the line.  Light bulbs were also replaced with more appropriate wattage.  Elder Porter also replaced a lot of screens that had been ripped.

Wednesday was a holiday due to the election.  This was highly contested race for president ad vice-president.  Nobody showed up for our Wednesday English class, first time ever.

We heard that a "quick count" would be available after the polls closed, but we didn't appreciate that it was an exit poll!  The official count will not be tallied for about two weeks after the election.

In the U.S., at church we are so careful to maintain political neutrality.  Here, the leadership were chit-chatting all night.


On Thursday, we finally had a chance to go to the local produce market, about a 10-minute walk.  This bunch of bananas is half-eaten; there was another row, and it will last for several days more.  It cost $1.06.  A whole small papaya provides four meals for us; it cost 84 cents.

It's also good to meet our neighbors.  But we were so laden down that Elder Porter hired a becak, a cart attached to a motorcycle, rather than walking home in the heat.

We found good tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, limes, cucumber...but we also tried to broaden our horizons and bought some vegetables that we had No Idea how to cook or use.  But one has to stretch sometimes.

We also visited a friend who is sick, and Elder Porter and our driver were able to use their priesthood to give a blessing of healing to the sister.

The challenges of aging continue to crop up from time to time.  Sister Porter had a sore where her glasses were rubbing the nose; it was bright red when we were in Bali, but a trip to a pharmacy there resulted in an antibiotic ointment that would only be available by prescription in the U.S.  It was amazingly fast to heal with that medcation, resolved in just a few days.

Sister Porter also did something to her RIGHT hip, not the one that had always been a problem.  Careful stretching and swimming in cold water has helped that on the path to mending.

The Friday activity started at 1 p.m., with a goal of cleaning up the church. Elder Porter took some of the children to buy plants, and they put them in the garden.  The hope is that they will be more respectful/less destructive when they have helped with the plants themselves.  The priesthood
quorums were in high gear, cleaning and painting the concrete on the outside of the fence.  The local government had also come by and mowed the lawn outside the wall, so it really looks good.  But Elder Porter was very hot and sweaty and changed clothes before the program at 5 p.m.

Harefa family singing at the Friday afternoon program.

Only one young woman was at church at 1 p.m., so Sister Porter and our driver went to pick up two more.  And when we arrived back at church, two more had also come, but the tasks they were assigned were already being done by others.  Sister Porter jumped in the car again, headed to a nearby Indomaret and bought cleaning spray, towels, sponges.  We went around cleaning the walls and doorways.  The girls were very hardworking, so Sister Porter took them out to a nearby Indomaret for ice cream afterwards (but she didn't invite Elder Porter because he was too stinky).  :-(

The program went well.  As it happened, the branch president's flight was changed, so he ended up staying in Medan and participating in his meeting through the internet.  He is always so dedicated, it must have been strange when he came down to the branch activity, to watch and sit back and let someone else handle the meeting.