Christmas Memories

Selamat Natal dan Tahun Baru!

(Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!)

As we come to the close of 2012 we realize what an amazing year we have had, especially the last 5 months.  The new friends we have made here in Indonesia, the new culture we are experiencing, the opportunity to share the Gospel, all have contributed to memories we will cherish forever.  December has been a month of training family history consultants, refining our leadership training and going to Christmas parties here in the Surakarta Stake!

This is winter dress in Indonesia.  It's probably 85 degrees outside but jackets are worn by motor riders.  The face masks help with the exhaust problem on the streets.

 The Greenways, member support missionaries, and us prepared a Christmas Eve dinner for all the young missionaries and our driver's families.  We had the traditional feast of turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, relish tray, fruit salad, sweet potatoes and dressing with pumpkin squares and apple cake for dessert.  We even had pimento stuffed green olives, thanks to Elder Knorpp!

 Our driver Franky with wife Yami and girls Paris, Sydney and Karen.

 Greenways driver, Bono and wife Dia.

 The ward Christmas parties basically consisted of 30 minutes of a spiritual opening with talks about Christ and then the fun began!  Each organization participated with a song or dance as well as individual talents.

 Majem, Lily and I waiting for the Jebres party to begin.

 

 The Primary children danced and everyone loved them!

Our wonderful missionaries sang at every party.

The Jebress Relief Society sisters really surprised us with this jazzy dance. 

The Bangarsari Ward Relief Society was a little more traditional as they sang "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" in English!

Santa was a big hit in all the wards with a gift for every child.

Franky and family.  He made the tradional Javanese hat he is wearing.

We called this Santa the clown Santa!

These are the young men of Bangarsari Ward with another dance.  We have no idea what the ape mask had to do with it!

This dance was the highlight of the evening in Bangarsari .  The Bishop and his wife joined in as well as the missionaries.  You can tell Bishop Suparno has a fun personality!  He's the man in the long sleeved white shirt without a tie.

Treats and sometimes dinner was served.  This is Nasi Liwet, rice cooked in coconut milk and chicken broth served on a banana leaf.  Mmmm, so good.  It was served with chicken and a coconut milk sauce,  and labu siam, a kind of squash and a seasoned boiled egg.  This is a traditional dish of Solo.

 This is Rambutan, a fruit of the season.  Our friend, Yuli, gave us a bag of them.  We saw them growing out in the country on trees everywhere.  The fruit is sweet and juicy.  The name means "hairy".

We also attended another funeral this month.  An elderly man in Solo 2, Tukirin, passed away, Dec. 28.  His daughter, Tutut, had lost a daughter about a year and a half ago to a motorcycle accident, so it was especially hard to lose another family member.  We had the opportunity to visit him twice at the hospital and Elder Knorpp had blessed him, but it was apparently his time to go.  He has been to the temple so that is a blessing for him and his family.  Since there is no embalming, the funeral was held early the next day at their home.  We gathered around the simple casket in a car port of sorts and listened as church leaders spoke and we sang some hymns. We walked out to the sound of the lid being nailed onto the casket. Friends and neighbors were seated outside on folding chairs.  Many were Muslim.  The neighborhood government leader provided the chairs and gave a speech and then 6 men carried the casket down the road to a neighborhood cemetery. We watched as the neighbors manhandled the casket into the hole and covered it with dirt.  Some of the women, including me, were given a banana leaf basket full of flower petals to spread over the grave.  It was a sweet experience.

Bambang and Tutut, Tukrin's daughter.

Walking back from the cemetery.  

For all you creature loving grandchildren, this is our swimming pool snail.  He comes out on the sidewalk near the pool when it rains.  While he is pretty good size, he is not the largest we have seen.  Hopefully we will have our camera with us next time we see the big guy!

  This is an avocado smoothie with chocolate syrup.  Some people I know really like this! 

Here's to your health and happiness in the New Year!

We're dreaming of a white Christmas. . . .

We may not have snow for Christmas here in Indonesia, but we do have Santas and reindeer. Christmas decorations can be found in the malls, and some of the stores have a small collection of trees and ornaments. 

We made a quick trip to Jakarta to renew our Indonesian IDs and saw this amazing display in a mall that had 8 levels.  Merry Christmas, Indonesia!

This picture is for our grandson, Logan.  He was so concerned about where we were going to put our presents when he heard we didn't have a Christmas tree, that we went right out and bought this one.  Grandpa was quite proud of his light stringing!

While in Jakarta we stayed at the mission home which is in the same building as the mission office.  This is Ida who works in the office and also has the calling of Area Family History Advisor.  She has been so supportive of us!

Zone Training ended up being an early Christmas for the missionaries.  The zone leaders delivered the letters and Christmas packages from home.

 

One of the Jakarta wards sent white shirts to all of the Indonesian Elders. 

Everyone had fun opening their packages and indulging in goodies.  These are wonderful young people who work hard and sacrifice much to share the plan of salvation with those who are seeking truth.

We went back to Jogjakarta to do some additional training there last weekend. We had such fun with these good members!  Sister Meike is the lead Family History Consultant.  Omni and Rheza are her assistants and they are all very capable and excited to help the members of their ward find their ancestors and prepare their names for the temple!

November - A Thanksgiving to Remember

November was our month to travel! 

We went to the Medan branch on November 9 for 4 days.  It is a small branch on the island of Sumatra.  Two sister missionaries that were serving in Solo several months ago participated in one of our missionary training sessions we did in Solo.  They were transferred to Medan and determined that Family History could really help the missionaries and the members there.  They asked us to come there to train missionaries, members and branch leadership.  We got permission to go so we traveled there as part of a trip we were already planning to Jakarta.

The day we arrived we went to the home of Abdi.  He is the young man who is a returned missionary in the red shorts with his parents on both sides.  He is very ill from a huge tumor that is growing in his stomach area.  We had banana bread to deliver from the mission president's wife.  He was so cheerful with us and very interested in doing family history.  He came to the fireside the next day and started entering his family names into Family Tree on Sunday.  He was so excited to prepare his ancestors names to receive the ordinances that would allow them to partake of the fullness of the Gospel! We couldn't help but think he probably feels close to his departed family as he himself may not have long to live.

Sister Pontoan and Sister Baantjer planned a beautiful "Fireside" about family history and temple work.  About 30 people attended to see their program and our presentation.

Member and non-members alike were very interested in doing their family history. When we spoke in Sacrament meeting there were 2 investigators in the meeting. At the end of the meeting they wanted a blank family pedigree sheet. They started adding names to it while they were still in the chapel. We, like the sister missionaries, think family history will be a great draw for investigators and it will help members be more active because they will be more focused on the temple. They already have a strong cultural connection to their ancestors. Throw in the gospel and the Spirit of Elijah and it should be a powerful influence that will help the branch grow and become stronger. If they can catch the vision, it will be wonderful.

Sumatra is populated primarily by descendants of the ancient Batak people. They really revere their ancestors. They have kept meticulous genealogy records that they call a Tarombo as pictured above. It is like a pedigree chart of the descendants of the original members of the tribe. They have records back for many generations. Anyone who can figure out which of the last descendants on the Taromobo they are descended from has about 15 generations of ancestors that they can easily add to their pedigree in FamilySearch.org. It is great for family history.

These are the Medan missionaries:  Elders Xiong,  Lopis,  Ajidharma, Garnet and Sisters Baantjer & Pontoan.  We were on our way to catch an Ankot for a ride to the Medan Museum.

 This is the dilapidated little Ankot we rode across town in.  We were jammed in like sardines and there was no AC.  We have never been so hot!  Another adventure!

This is the Museum in Medan.  We paid to get in and then had to ask them to turn on the lights so we could see the displays.  We never did get the lights on in some of the rooms.

 We are continue to be amazed at the ingenuity of the people when it comes to loading a motor cycle with whatever they need transported.

Catching a ride to the local department store to buy some shelves for the sister missionaries.  They live in a nice little house, but they had only the top of their refrigerator to put their kitchen items on.  They are so content with the meager furnishings they have.  They like living out of their suitcases and they eat on the street for most of their meals.

We left Medan and traveled to Jakarta where we trained 24 missionaries and meet with the Stake President to arrange training in January.  We also had the good fortune to happen upon 11 older computers in the Mission Office that were going to be recycled that we were able to nab for Family History!  Elder is working on getting operating systems, etc. for them.

 Our leaders, the all Asia Area Family History Missionary couple from Hong Kong, participated in our Jakarta training and joined us for sight seeing.  They are the Harringtons from Blackfoot, Idaho!  We had a great time with them.  We went  to Taman Mini, a national cultural center. This was a Chinese temple.

We didn't last but a few hours because it was so hot and humid!  This is a traditional building representing the Batak in Sumatera.

We spent our Thanksgiving with the other Indonesia senior missionary couples in Jogja participating in classes and sight seeing.  We enjoyed the fellowship and the helpful training we received.  The hotel was luxurious and the dining room always had lots of yummy food, but no turkey and mashed potatoes!

One day we went to this Hindu temple, Prambanon.  All tourists had to wear these little skirts for respect of the temple.  We thought these ruins were huge until we saw the Buddist temple the next day.

This is Borobudur built during the 8th and 9th century.  The three rings going around the top represent the three levels of progression in a person's existence.  Each of the round stupas going around the rings housed a Budda.  Many were decapitated by thieves before it was protected.

It was quite breathtaking to be on the top.  The stupas with the square holes represented the highest level of existence.  Here is a link with more about this amazing ruin.

Back in Jogjakarta we went to a Javanese Ballet.  We had dinner in a lovely garden area before the presentation.

The venue certainly was less impressive than the ballet itself!  This is the orchestra and the singers in front of the stage.  The talent was amazing and the costuming and make-up were beautiful.  It was a traditional love story combined with good, evil and some fantasy.

 These were the main characters.  The couple in the center were the stars of the show.  The actor on the left was the villain and the white monkey saved the day.

The little monkeys were especially entertaining!

 You can see we had an exciting November, full of all kinds of new experiences.  What a great opportunity this is for us to serve the people of Indonesia as well as experience the interesting culture.  We  love being with the fine members of the church all over the country.  They are gentle, kind and faithful people trying to do their best to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ.