Goal accomplished!

This week, Sister Porter finally finished reading the Book of Mormon in Indonesian.  What she really did was listen to the English audio (via Mormon Channel) while reading the Indonesian.  Since English is often faster, this means a lot of stopping and replaying.  And I mark the words that I don't know, moving them into Anki flashcards, for studying later.

As far as studying, I am still back in Helaman.  Not sure whether to read the book again, or try the New Testament?

For months, I have been doing the reading first thing in the day, while walking. At our old apartment, this was walking on the treadmill.  This building doesn't have a fitness room, but I go up to the roof and walk around there.  On Tuesday, I woke up sick...and then angry that anything would stop me finishing.  So while I missed early morning, I went up in the late afternoon.

 Last week a group of us went to visit a sister in the hospital.  She has had pulmonary issues for some time, and the air quality in town in thedays leading up to her distress did not help.

Her son is getting married in a few weeks, here in Medan, so hopefully she will be recovered and can enjoy the big day.

We are so happy that one of the young adults in the branch is preparing for a mission.  It was a lot of effort finding a klinik that would do the physical, but Sister Porter remembered that the Kimia Farma pharmacy near our old apartment also had a klinik.  That turned out to be the most reasonable price and easy to get in.

When it came to the dental exam, a dentist who is a member of the branch donated her time for the exam, but it was clear that the wisdom teeth needed to be removed--and one was horizontal..

That required specialist training, and apparently Dr. Rico did a great job, because the patient was doing well.  Of course Elder Porter enjoyed buying him ice cream, twice.

While Elder Porter was taking the young man to dentist visits Sister Porter stayed home to catch up on ironing and cooking.  Projects included poaching a bunch of chicken tenders, that were sliced thin and frozen.  It can then be used for quick sandwiches, or other recipes.

For example, we put some in broccoli puff, that had to be made in a rice cooker since we don't have an oven, and with a white sauce and fresh sauteed mushrooms since no condensed soup.

Of course this week we spent a lot of time driving around looking for a new building for the church.

It is the Muslim holy season of Ramadan.  Of course they fast during the day, and we have to be careful not to walk down the street eating an ice cream cone, etc.  But there are other wonderful traditions, including cleaning up the graves of deceased family members, and giving food to the poor.  Our Relief Society president has a friend who wanted to donate some food, and we helped make the deliveries to some folks in our branch.

This mango was a gift from the sister missionaries, thanking us for helping get their house in better shape.  Ironically, it is the same variety of green mango that gave Elder Porter such a bad allergic reaction a year ago.  So Sister Porter did all the carrying and peeling and slicing, to avoid him being exposed to the skin/oil.

We had two baptisms today, and the sister missionaries were wonderfully thorough about cleaning the font and changing the filters during the filling process.  Elder Porter had tracked down and set up a filtration system that works at reasonable price and not too much hassle.  This was the cleanest font water ever in Medan!