Welcoming May!

The month of May is pronounced the same in Indonesian, but spelled differently:  Mei.

We spent our Monday preparation-day morning at the sisters' house.  They had reported that their air conditioner, which they only have in the bedroom, was not working well.  Elder Porter cleaned the filter, but that did not really help, so he arranged for a tukang to come in and perform service.  We had to provide a ladder, so there was a lot of back-and-forth picking one up from church.  The window itself had been covered by thin plastic to block out warm air from outside, but the plastic had become rotten and was ripped in places. The plastic cover had been mended with layers of plastic bags and tape.  We removed all that (it shattered and made a mess) and replaced it with a new covering.  Sister Porter figured out that a vinyl shower curtain liner from Ace was the best and most cost-effective covering; Elder Porter tacked it into place. The visit took a while because the service man cleaned the coils both outside and inside, as well as recharging the coolant. The price was reasonable and it worked really well afterward. :-)  It was good timing because the sister trainers arrived two days later on Wednesday.

We took a photo of our district on Tuesday, the last day of April, and are glad we did, because four of the young missionaries were transferred and one is headed home.

May 1 is International Workers Day but we decided to hold English class anyway.  Sometimes people who would like to come but must work can show up on such holidays. The turnout was fine, considering.


Elder Porter caught the cold Sister Porter had the week before and had a rough couple of days.  Like Sister Porter's trajectory, it seemed to get better, then got worse again :-(

Sister Porter is still going up and down the steps and swimming twice a week for exercise.  But there is no clock and the pool and she kept losing count of laps :-( So she made this elastic bracelet.  She moves a bead over after each lap to keep track.  It works pretty well.


Thursday was such fun.  When Sister Porter phoned Sister Harefa earlier in the week to arrange a visit on Thursday, Sister Harefa responded that it would be her birthday.  Sister Porter quickly responded, "Saya tahu!  Saya mau membawa kue.  Boleh?"

She agreed that we could bring cake, which turned out to be from our favorite Clover Bakeshoppe.



Then we wanted to stop by and visit a friend who has a new job as a waitress at a rooftop place with a stunning view. 

She has taken contracts in Malaysia before, so we are delighted that she was able to find a job in town.  But she works until 2 a.m. on Sunday morning and church starts at 10 a.m.  So it is really hard to make Sunday meetings.

On Saturday we visited a friend who has been ill for some weeks.  He missed the Easter program, so we played a few short videos on a laptop, with external speakers. One was the last days of Christ and His resurrection; a second was people around the world saying what the resurrection means to them.   Both of the films were translated into Indonesian and the brother and his wife seemed to appreciate the message.

On Sunday we had a wonderful surprise!  A young missionary who had gone home a year ago, about the same time that we arrived in Indonesia, returned with his parents.  What a joy for them to see people he had baptized, still attending church.  And to see the branch grow.  He is from North Carolina, so the family is used to the heat. I tried to talk the parents into coming back as a misi couple  :-)