Celebrations!

This is one of the ties that Elder Porter ordered.  He actually ordered two of each, because they were being cut from a length material and there was no extra cost for the second cut of fabric.

This one is in a pattern of the Batak tribe, and so he gave the second one to Brother Manalu who is our professional driver and the first counselor in the branch presidency. Elder Porter is obviously not starving on the local cuisine, although he insists he has not gained weight either.

Our first celebration was rejoicing that we have sister missionaries in Medan again.  About three months ago a sister had her bag stolen right in front of the church, and the president at the time decided to send those sisters to Jakarta.  Sister Mentari is from Jakarta and Sister Wu is from California, but since she is of Chinese heritage, neither of them look like bules (white foreigners).  Sister Wu was at the MTC when we were there.

Sister missionaries add so much to the branch.  They are a great example, they encourage people to go to Relief Society, and next time I teach the Young Women I will invite them to come along and help me understand the comments.

We also got a new district leader, so we printed out new books with pictures of all the members and their preferred names, so that the three new missionaries could learn about the branch members.

Our second celebration was a wedding on Saturday! One of our English students, who looks very spiffy here in batik, a jacket and the black national hat, had invited us to attend the wedding of his younger brother  It was a special experience to be there to see how things were done. (Unfortunately, the live band caused ear pain for Sister Porter.  Even with ear plugs, it was just so loud.)

And he came to church on Sunday.

Later in the afternoon we visited another family, and then stopped by a cake shop that had been highly recommended by a member.

Our last celebration was a birthday! We visited the family of Lisbet and Mart and their three children.  She is a great mom and they both serve in branch leadership.  So we brought her this birthday cake, and we shared a message about mothers from the Book of Mormon, about the young soldiers who had great faith because of the teachings of their mothers (Alma 56:47-48).

I told the children that I hoped they never had to fight a war, but perhaps they would serve a mission and be far away from their home and mother, and would remember the important lessons that she had taught them.

During our district council meeting with the missionaries last Tuesday, we played a getting-to-know-you game and we each told our scripture hero.  I said Esther from the Old Testament because she is so brave.  But Elder Porter said his scripture hero were those moms in the Book of Mormon who had such great influence on the next generation.

Lake Toba

Last Monday we were invited to drive over to Lake Toba, one of the major tourist attractions on our island.  It is the result of a supervolcano eruption about 75,000 years ago that caused a volcanic winter with the release of ~3,000 cubic kilometers of ash. The lake is really wonderful. It is about 60 miles long and there is a large island (~30 miles long) in the middle of the lake.

We were with four young missionaries, our branch president and were driven by a man who has been learning about our church.

We got up at 2 a.m. to be at church at 3 a.m. and a few hours later were rewarded with an amazing sunrise.  It looked like there were dark storm clouds mixed in with the orange sky.

We came to a place with a great lookout, our first view of the lake.  This is three of the missionaries, with our young branch president in the t-shirt.

 Down at lake level.  We hope to come back here for our 40th anniversary later in the year, but for some of the missionaries, it will be their last visit and they spent time shopping for souvenirs.

This is a view of the island of Samosir to the right with the mainland to the left.  This was also the site of the ferry disaster this past June that made international news. In spots the lake is 1,500 feet deep.

 It was impressive to look down into this valley and see the aquaculture pens in the water  When you look at the size of the buildings, you realize how large they are.

Everyone got a chance to dip their toes in the lake.

We were back in town by 4 p.m. and Elder Porter took a nap while I went to the gym.  We were planning on going to bed early, but got a call that someone in the branch was ill and needed to go to the hospital.  Our driver responded to our call, and came in to help.  We didn't get back home until after midnight.  But that is the life of a senior missionary.