Last Misi Couples Conference, in Bali

Wearing required sarong at Uluwatu Hindu temple.  

This is the last get-together for all of us; we will all be gone by September.  But a new couple is coming next week and certainly this work will continue.  At the far left are Hedy and Charles Schmid, who are from Dutch families.  They were both born in Indonesia and survived internment by the Japanese occupation here during World War II.  They are the family history experts for the mission. Above us are Lee and Cheryl Trapani, who are humanitarian missionaries in Timor Leste. They teach English 4 days a week, and supervise various wonderful  projects.  To the far right are Margo and  Robert Miller, who help with temple preparation in the Surakarta Stake and got to go to the Manila temple twice during their mission. To their left are our wonderful mission president Greg Mackay and companion Shelia.


Elder and Sister Porter had never traveled to the island of Bali before.  It is to the east of Java, so two islands over for us from Sumatera.  We took a flight that was supposed to stop in Bandung before proceeding to Bali.  But they had everyone get off, and we had to wait several hours.  We think they gave our plane away to another flight that had been cancelled.  The grounding of the Boeng 737 Max planes has put a lot of stress on fleets for various airlines, including Lion Air.  The airport in Bandung is small enough that only one plane can take off or land at a given time. We arrived in Bali after dark, having cancelled our reservations at the Boardwalk restaurant on the beach:(

But the Amnaya Kuta Resort hotel is only about 15 minutes from the airport, our friends were in the restaurant and some chicken soup made it better.  They have a good fitness center for an early morning workout and the breakfast was amazing.  They bring a plate of fruit and offer a bread tray, then one orders an appetizer (granola!) and a main dish (anything from Eggs Benedict to Chicken and Waffles) and fresh juices.  It maybe took longer to order that way than the usual buffet, but egg dishes were fresh and we perhaps ate less.

Friday we joined with the Mackays and the Millers to visit the large Garuda bird statue that has been open less than a year.  Those of us who remembered are KITAS (residence permit) got in at the residence rate.  The park ticket included a wonderful dance presentation (see video below).

Our facility in ordering a 6-seater car through Grab and BlueBird came into play with good effect.  We felt good about arriving back in time for afternoon tea and time to change when they told us that we had to be ready half an hour early.

So it was a quick shower and then we were off to the evening event:  the famous Kecak Fire Dance at Uluwatu temple on the southeast coast.  It was incredible.  The music is provided by a chorus of 70 male voices, singing the entire hour performance.

Setting on the coast is lovely but clouds marred sunset.

After the dance, our driver took us to a great little restaurant and we had an air-conditioned room almost to ourselves.  We were all in a small bus, and someone asked the driver about how he became a member of our church.  He said that he had been baptized in Medan!  We were so excited.  We asked his family name (there are a few families in the branch with that name) so Elder Porter asked if he knew someone.  It turned out to be his dad!

We had already arranged to hire the same driver the next day to take us around Ubud.  We met him again at 8 the next morning to start our adventure.  First stop: the Campuhan Ridge Walk Since he dropped us off and picked us up at the end, it was only a 45-minute hike along a ridge between two rivers. It starts with river rapids, continues through lush forest and ends in rice paddies.

Rice is so important to Indonesians that there are at least three different words: padi when growing in the field, beras when it is the grain in a bag, and nasi after it is cooked.  These people had newly harvested rice out drying in their front walk, right along the road.

It was more than an hour up there, and we had a lot of fun chatting with him about things back then, and the folks we knew.  Ironically, I had an appointment set up with his mom on Tuesday, but she cancelled so I never got to mention that I was headed to Bali.

The next priority was shopping for wood carvings, and our driver had good ideas of where to go.  We went to four different shops in the Mas Village area, and also stopped for a good lunch.

We bought probably more than we need, including a piece of art and a nice wall hanging and a lovely jewelry box for Sister Porter.

We also stopped at the Tegenungan Waterfall and hiked down to see it.

As we were leaving the waterfall to return back to the hotel, we had to stop for a funeral procession that was taking up the entire road.  The women are carrying offerings on their heads, some without a hand to steady it.

We knew that Hindus practice cremation,but didn't appreciate that most people can't afford a cremation immediately after death--too much fuel and time would be required.  Instead, a village buries it's dead in a mass grave, they wait five years and then hold the cremation ceremony for what is left (mostly bones).

We bought some durian fruit for our driver, and he offered to pick us up for church the next day, which was a delight because his children are so cute (and the grandchildren of people we know!)

Saturday night we all had dinner together in a private room, followed by a devotional where people shared about their work.  Each of our missions is so different!



This is the church in Bali!  There are only about 30 members, but lots of visitors.  One couple from Utah had served four missions, including MLS in Estonia and as temple workers in the Freiburg Germany temple.

We spent the afternoon finalizing arrangements for the branch activity this coming Friday.  More news about that next week.