Blog 36 October 26-31, 2015

This is the scripture I have chosen to ponderize this week.  The explanation may not mean much to you as it is an excerpt from some scripture study Shand and I are doing on line.  It is his perspective and I find it fascinating.

Romans 8:26  Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered" Joseph Smith commented "with strivings that cannot be expressed". 

 While this scripture talks about how, sometimes we are praying on our own agenda, and we don’t always know what we SHOULD appropriately be praying for, to me this scripture also references a beautiful principle/scenario. That while, none of us on this earth has any recollection of our own personal pre-existence experience (who we were, what it was like to live with God) deep down in each of us is an eternal soul, that DOES. That deep down within each one of us are the desires of a soul that is not only eternally longing to go back home (like a spiritual home sickness) but also knows who you really are. It is a pre-existent innateness.

Naturally I did the wash on Monday.  There is some air movement so it dries very quickly.  It is a light breeze but they call it wind.  In this heat it is like a blast furnace.  It gets up to about 35 degrees every afternoon but the breeze really helps.  Monday evening we had a family home evening at Cotnogan with the Oliva family.  It was a special event because their son, Aaron is home for a week’s vacation from Manila where he works two jobs.  They are such wonderful people.  President Oliva interviewed each of his children and advised them on what he expected.  It was interesting that he told Aaron that now he had a job he must be ready for a tithing settlement in December.  All the kids were very respectful of their father.  After the brief discussion about how to recognize the Holy Ghost we had a full meal with mountains of rice with a vegetable broth and pork adobo.  I love adobo!  While we were getting out of the car at the school yard to walk across the rice fields to the Oliva home I got a beautiful picture of the moon.  All the school yards have flags flying for all of the united nations.  Canada was number three in the line.  You can see a flag in the picture.

On Tuesday we had to take some supplies to President Botor’s home in Baao.  It is a little trail that is just big enough for our car but our Toyota car has no clearance so we scrape the bottom and knock the front and rear panels off continually.  I had to get a picture of the Cock Fighting Arena near the Botor home.  Cock fighting is a huge sport and every barangay has an area.  We live in barangay La Medalla  about two hundred yards from the local arena.  There are fights there twice a week.  Occasionally we see guys carrying dead roosters home from the fights.  There is a lot of heavy betting at the fights.  This sign says, “Baao Square Garden Cock Fighting.”  Two women in the tindahon on the right think I am crazy for taking a picture of it.  They don’t see white people here.

On Wednesday we went back to Cotnogan to a family party for the first anniversary of her father’s death.  There was a lot of family there and it was very well organized.  This is sister Oliva.

She organized a short meeting to recognize relatives for five generations of her father’s family.  I was asked to speak and did a 3 minute reference to eternal families.

Olivas are the only members so there was a lot of partying.  The women danced and the men watched just like home. 

There was a huge speaker system and the music was loud.  While we were between eating and the program I took some selfies with the Oliva family.  This is Jared who lives in Cotnogan and is a great friend of mine.  He is a priesthood leader and great father and husband.

The women cooked constantly and fed a full meal every hour or two.  This is some of the kitchen girls making spaghetti while we were eating our way through rice and meat broth.

This is the stove!

It was a great day and we stayed about four hours.  We are the only white people in the whole district so we get a lot of attention and amazing respect.  These are such lovable people.  There was big group of men and women who just stayed together and drank.  They had been drinking all day but no one ever got angry, no fighting or yelling.  They love to have fun so they just party on.

November 29  Happy Brithday Rachel!!  We haven’t been able to get on line to send you a birthday wish but we are thinking of you today and miss you tooooo much.  Please keep taking care of your weird parents for us!  We love you.

I finally got the car washed on Thursday morning.  We spent the morning finalizing some lessons for tonight at Buhi and tomorrow with the Canaman zone training. 

We have been running every morning this week but my knee is getting worse.  Even with the brace it hurts constantly but I resting it doesn’t help so we will keep running 8 km every morning and working on our weights, rocks.

Valerie woke up sick today.  We leave at 5 AM in the dark and get home about 6:45.  She ran but came straight home to bed.  I can handle tonight by myself but she has half the training class tomorrow.  But life goes on so after preparing and packing for our training tomorrow we went to Buhi at 4:00 PM to meet with the missionaries for a family home evening with the Abordo family who lost little baby May two weeks ago.  They are doing remarkably well and dealing with the pain thanks to the comforter, the Holy Ghost.  We had a spiritual thought and a short lesson about how to know the Holy Ghost is influencing us then we played some games.  They are young parents so they enjoyed the games we played with the group that the kids loved.  We played two Filipino games.  One was where a blindfolded person in the center of the circle is spun around then points to the outside circle and says the name of an animal and if you the one selected you make that sound.  If the person in the middle can guess who you are, you get to be blindfolded.  As simple as it sounds it was remarkably fun.  The adults had more fun than the kids.  They love to have a good time.  We were outside on a patio on a main highway so the traffic was distracting but it had cooled down to about 32 degrees so it wasn’t killer hot.  It gets dark at about 5:45 PM so there isn’t much light for my tablet camera.  Because we are only a few degrees north of the equator the days are always about the same number of hours of sunlight and darkness.  This is part of the group at the Abordo FHE.

These are cousins and other family that haven’t been up close to a white person before.

There is no real seeding and harvest season on the rice and corn farms here but there is a lot of rice cutting and thrashing going on right now.  I can’t send videos but I have many collected and plan to put together a farming presentation.  We think we are feeding the world at home but since all of Asia eats rice three meals a day, they don’t eat beef and their population alone is three times the rest of the world I have humbled myself to realize that Alberta is a very small part of feeding a fraction of the world.  We just think we are big and wonderful but Asia doesn’t need us and doesn’t know we exist.  I wonder how many other countries are the same like Africa, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.  We had better keep our trading relationship with the USA healthy because we need their business.  I fear the Alberta NDP government and the Federal Liberals platforms but there is no place to run so we stand and fight!

Friday was a full day of training missionaries to use Family History as a finding and teaching tool.  We did a full presentation with notes, video instruction, power point and live role plays.  The missionaries are so fun to work with.  We then had a catered lunch of mixed vegetables, fried chicken and of course, mountains of rice.   This had chicken gravy so it was extra good for 120 pesos a plate which is $2.90 CAD. 

This Sister Bakly and Sister Bagio with other sisters we have not worked yet.

This is my little buddy, Elder De Lara who is now a Distirct Leader but worked in Nabua with him when he was still in diapers.  He was one of the Bato district that helped us break up about two acres of farm land for Brother LeMud who has only one eye and one leg.  We tilled his farm with a pick and shovel but got it done in two days.  I had to give Elder DeLara a tune up that day.  That is the second picture below as a reminder.

This is what happens when you don’t listen to me.  Ask any of my past students from school!  This is me helping Elder DeLara to understand instructions.

We got the business done In the city on Friday and got Valerie home to rest but not for long.  She stayed in bed while I got up Saturday morning to deliver packages from home to two elders in Bato and Cotnogan.  It is Halloween today and All Saints day here so the traffic was crazy.  It took over an hour to go 15 km but I got the packages delivered like the UPS service.  I got home in time to pack up for a  1 PM Family History Event for Iriga 1 and 2 branches.  No one got there until 2 PM but that is what we expected.  The event and classes went very well.  It poured with rain while we were in sessions which is odd for this time of year apparently. 

This is the class on Indexing that was held in the chapel after our general session on powerpoint.

The elders helped me with the beginner’s class on getting started with your family history on the tree chart of the My Family Booklet.

Kimie did a very good session in the FH library on Searching in the Philippines.

The sisters did the session with the primary kids.  Naturally we ate after the event.

Today is Halloween but that seems to be a North American tradition.  Stores decorate for Halloween as a sales promotion but Christmas decorations have been up for a month so it is weird.  Sales staff were dressed as witches and goblins.  They do a great job of decorating and costuming.  The Asian tradition is to have ALL SAINTS DAY.  The people spend all week repainting and decorating the above ground tombs of family.  There are hundreds of flower vendors on the streets and in tents in the centro.  The people bring food and stay overnight at the cemetery to remember loved ones.  I think It is an awesome idea.  I wish more people knew that they could not only honor their ancestors but save them as well.  That is why we are here.  This is a picture of the vendors and the above ground graves with candles on them.  Each box has the bones of loved ones in it.  This was at dusk so the lighting is low.  The cemetery is between Iriga and Baao.

While driving to buhi for church today we passed a few more cemeteries with the same scene and hundreds of flower and candle vendors.  The cemetery is on the right side of the highway. 

Transfers are on Tueday so it is a sad time for us.  We have to wait who we are losing but we also say good bye to the missionaries going home.  This is the STL for this district, Sister    She has served so diligently and has been an example of what missionaries should accomplish.  What a great kid.  We will miss her.

Today in Buhi we had to say good bye to Elder Cayago who also goes home.  He has done so much for this branch and had been the reason the Ibayugan group got started.  I love this man.  I am helping him smile.  President Olivaras is with us.

We have been in the FH room with the members from Ibayugan for the last two hours.  Sister Watson is in there with another sister right now.  We had a house full in there because they come to church on fast Sundays only.  They have their own group as part of the Buhi branch.

This is a big file.  I have many more pictures but this will likely take a while to send so this ends another week.  We miss you all and love you.  Tabitha got two more of my blogs posted this week but is still way behind.  She has started a new job and is still getting her business going.  She is doing a great job of posting this for us.  Thank you all for your sacrifices for us.

Blog 35 October 19 to 26, 2016

We begin this week with a lot of wind left over from Typhoon Landau.  It is hot but windy today.  A big wind around here is 25 kph but it sure dried our clothes in a hurry this morning.  Naturally we have no internet which is a problem on P-day.  Becky tried four times to Skype but we only had a few minutes of her time before we got cut off.  We miss the communication with family.  Because things are drying so quickly, I have finished washing a drying the clothes.  The sheets are drying on the line and the towels are in the washer as we speak.  I have just enough clothes line space left for the towels with the sheets still hanging.  It was a great day for me because I was able to get two stains out of my white shirts.  Yes this is Elder Watson!  A real man knows how to do the wash with a manual machine.  Removing stains is becoming a highlight in my life…wait…I need a break.  I am very secure in my masculinity. 

We have been able to run and work out every morning so far.  The knee brace is an answer to prayer and the blisters behind my knee have almost gone.  Everything is great.

Tuesday was…let me vent here about spell check program in Word.  When you misspell a word because you fingers are going faster than your brain when typing sometimes then you spell check the word, often there is only one suggestion for the misspelled word.  If the program is smart enough to pick up a misspelled word wouldn’t it be smart enough to realize there is only one option for that word so it would just automatically replace it with the one and only choice??   I feel better now thank you…a day of meetings.  We met with President Cheua, a councilor in the district presidency to talk about getting access to the buildings so the missionaries could do their jobs.  It went well.  He is a wonderful man.  He is a returned missionary, previously a branch president, owns a trycee and is raising his 18 year old daughter himself because his wife passed away last year from cancer.

We just discovered that Canada has elected an idiot for a prime minister.  All I can say is, “Oh Canada…what have we done?”

We met with President Oliva in Cotnogan in the afternoon to discuss how to make the primary more efficient. He is another wonder and miracle of this gospel.  He is the elected barangay chief and had been the branch president for 23 years.  His family basically staff the branch.

Wednesday morning we went back to Cotnogan to attend a district competition to locate the best barangay chief in 120 barangay.  While we were waiting for the judges to arrive we toured the school and watched some workers reparge the school wall.  The man in the blue shirt is a member of the branch and is the Sunday School president.  They shovel sand onto the screen and shake the sand out then throw the tailings in a pile next to the sand.  You would be surprised how fast they can make a pile of sand.  They make piles of sand along the wall, scoop out the middle, add bagged cement mix and water and mix it by hand right there.

We watched the kids play at recess.  They hold an elastic at shoulder height and the girls jump up and try to hook their foot over it to pull it down far enough to jump over it.  They are amazing at this skill.

This gentleman with President Oliva is the president of the agricultural society in the barangay.  He is also a retired soldier from their national peace keeping force and is now the head of the militia in the barangay as well.  President Oliva says he has a lot of impact and people listen when talks.

Last year President Oliva was awarded 4^th place.  The judges were all government officials from various departments including education.   This is President Oliva giving his 20 minute presentation with a power point.  It was very well presented and I have a copy of it.

I was asked to give an opening prayer and the judges asked me to comment on the family day presentation I gave last month.  They were quite surprised to see white people there.  I have many pictures of the event but this is the group at the end of the session.

After the meeting we took a road trip to the coast.  It was only an extra 20 minute drive from Nabua through a mountain pass and suddenly we appeared in a very poor coastal town.

In the mountain pass we saw some terracing for rice fields.

This is my favorite display of Filipino life.  There is wild chickens, ducks, geese, goats, dogs, cats and domestic livestock staked out on the main highways.  We had to wait for these geese to waddle off the highway.  Valerie and I have a saying at sights like this, “You can’t make this stuff up!”

We have learned that Canada has elected a majority liberal government.  We are going home in 9 months to a federal liberal government and a provincial NDP government.  OH CANADA, what have we done?

We raced out to Buhi to give Elder Cayago a list of people we are doing FH work for in the Ibayugan group across the lake.  We spent a few minutes with them in their district meeting then had to go back to Iriga to re-juice the router, buy fresh produce at the market, then get ice cream and root beer for the missionaries.  We met the missionaries at the district building and finished their district meeting.  While they were eating together we set up for training at the family history center and were ready for the two companionship's we trained.  We have a good training system.  Valerie gets them on the computers to print off their family tree and fan charts and I do the 45 minute training and role playing.  The sisters sang a duet for me that I taped in my ipad but can’t attach here…sorry.  I should have taken a picture of them eating the root beer floats.

On Friday we planned to train the other sisters but one is sick.  We did some homework until the internet quit then I did an apartment check at the elders place.  They did well and it was cleaned perfectly for inspection.  We did wash and raced into Pili for groceries then took a new route home.  We went through Bula and came out at Nabua.   There was some beautiful scenery and this terraced rice farm in a shallow valley.  This shows how much they value every square foot of productive land.  With all the rice production they still can’t feed their own population and have to import rice.  

There was a lot of road construction and I had to stop to take picture of the thickness of the concrete they pour for a highway.  In many places they cover the 14” of concrete with asphalt.

We hurried home to meet the sisters who needed to use our technology to print a baptismal program for tomorrow.  Of course they were late and didn’t get here until after 7:00 PM.  We expected them at 4:00.  Missionaries give me chest pains.  We did get it done and they left at 8:30 so we had oatmeal and fruit for dinner.  It was good!

Saturday morning we raced into Naga to meet with the Canaman zone leaders to make plans for zone training next Friday, hit SM Mall to buy a magnifying glass for President Oliva and drove straight to

Iriga for the baptism of the year.  The Juntialo family was found as a referral to the sisters when Siste Bakly was here.  The dad, brother Joey was playing basketball with the elders in Iriga three months ago and mentioned to Elder Balse that he had joined the church 25 years ago but had lost contact with the church.  The sisters found the family and we helped teach with them a few times and even did an administration when John     got sick.  Sister Bakly got transferred and the sisters kept teaching with the help of president Botor and whole branch.  We did family history with the boys at a FH event the branch hosted last month.  Long story short is…Brother Joey got the priesthood last month and on Saturday the 25^th he baptized his wife and four children.  The other two are too young for baptism.  They have their temple trip planned for next October.  It was a marvelous occasion to see the family together and half the branch there to support them.  I love this branch!

This is Brother Joey and his family just before he baptized them.  The three Aaronic priesthood aged boys will nearly double the young men’s group in the Baao branch.  They are amazing kids. To teach them was a privilege because of the seriousness of their natures toward spiritual things.

Finally, we got to meet Jared Oliva’s baby girl, Ophelia.  She was named and blessed today in sacrament service.  This Brother and Sister Oliva with Ophelia.  They have a two year old girl but I don’t know where she was at this time.

I snuck into primary just before priesthood meeting to see how Sister Watson was doing.  We take an extra fan with us every week because it gets so hot in that back room.  The younger kids were in another room.  This is a picture of the 9 to 11 year old class.  As you can see I caught Sister Watson’s best side!

We are now resting, catching up on homework and waiting until we can start cooking our famous tradition of crepes with lemon juice and icing sugar for dinner at 6:30.  Stop in and we will share with you.

We love you all and miss your horribly.  Because we are busy and among such incredible people in a poor yet beautiful environment we do not get home sick but do miss you all.  We are grateful for our calls to serve.  This is one of the biggest blessings in our lives.  We have noticed that we are changing our own value structure because of the people we have fallen in love with the lessons they have taught us in humility and gratitude.

Thanks again for your support and for Tabitha’s endless effort in keeping you posted on this blog.  Tabitha my darling daughter, you were inspired to call this blog, “547 Miracles”  That is the number of days we will serve here and each is a gift, a miracle.

Blog 34 October 11 to 18, 2015

We started this week with the Sunday sessions of conference.  They were amazing.  I have notes but I can’t remember who said what.  As a father and grandfather of beautiful daughters, granddaughters and daughters-in-law I was very impressed with the many references to the contributions and direction for women in their many roles.  We did Sunday sessions in Iriga.  We were told they would be in Tagalog but they were all in English.  The joke here is that if you have to listen and respond in English too long you get a nosebleed.  There were a lot of nosebleed jokes after conference.

Following conference we had a reporting meeting…hey wait…this sounds familiar…yeah I just checked and I have already reported on Sunday.  They say your mind is the second thing to go right after your hair! 

I finally found a knee brace and it seems to help.  My left knee feels like it did when we used to brand 500 calves a year and I would get kicked repeatedly in the left knee.  Without a brace I can hardly walk.  As long it lasts so I can run in the mornings and gets me home, I will deal with it then.

Monday morning we ran but didn’t have to work out on weights because President Botor brought his father, his son and Sister Dy who helped us harvest bananas, guava, sugar cane and other fruits in our yard.  We have a coconut tree but it must about 70 feet tall and no one wanted to climb it to get the coconuts.  When they fall they will really hit the ground with power.  I hope we aren’t in the yard when that happens.  I only have one picture and the rest are videos.  This is President Botor with Valerie and Sister Dy.  Kevin is hiding behind his father.  He is very shy.

On Tuesday morning we had to meet the Buhi elders at the dock at 8:00 AM.  President Botor came with us and was a big help.  We have had a most remarkable day in Buhi.  We crossed the lake early this morning and spent all morning with the members and investigators in Ibayugan.  There is internet service over there but it was not reliable enough to use.  We showed them a short video clip we took on a flash drive.   We then assigned them each a user name and password and scanned their group sheets so we can input their information on our computers using the Baao church’s internet.  We plan to return to Buhi branch on November 1, when Ibayugan returns for Fast and Testimony meeting.  We can then show each of them their information on familysearch.org

The elders found an apartment in Ibayugan but it is not in the least bit suitable for them.  There is very little chance that anything will be available for rent.  It is a different lifestyle over there.  We have to walk along narrow, wet rice field borders, over rocky ground and up cliff like climbs to get to the meeting house. 

 It was raining when we left and the path was the drainage creek bed.  It was a great day with them.  The group leader’s wife fed the whole group again.  They are so charitable.  It is so isolated over there that if you have any issues with mobility you couldn’t get out.  There is an investigator just above the hut we meet in and he is getting crippled.  There is no way he could walk out of there.  You have to pull yourself up with trees to get there.  If the missionaries did find a place it would be impossible to get appliances up to it.  These are the two groups we did FH with.

 We met the other missionaries and President Olivaras at the church at 2:00 PM for a training with the new missionaries and to plan a funeral for tomorrow.  We are doing a service for a family of less active members who lost a 5 month old baby girl to crib death this week.  The church is expected to be filled with less active members and non-members. 

Wednesday morning we went to the Buhi church early to help clean the building to get it ready for the funeral.  We were drenched with sweat before the service started but the building was clean.  It was a most heart breaking funeral for a little 5 month old crib death.  Her name is May Tadeo Abordo.  She was the youngest of four children in the family.  The oldest is about five.   She had a pouty bottom lip and a pink earring.  It was so difficult to watch her parents suffer.  This is little May at the service.

I was asked to speak and I did ten minutes on the eternal plan of happiness.  Looking into the eyes of the young mother and father I told them about being sealed as a family so husband, wife and children will always be together as one family and not just part of large group who have no connection with each other.   This is May’s family at the service.  

Elder Cayago and President Olivaras also spoke.  We went to the burial where Elder Baker dedicated the grave site.  The sister missionaries have been to the people’s home this week and have appointments to continue teaching.  The young father is a less active member as is his parents but the mother is not a member.  Her family are Catholic and did not want to come into our church so they were not present.   I know the family felt the spirit and the Sisters are well equipped to prepare them for baptism.  It was a privilege to support the Abordo family today and tell them the comforting news that they can be sealed as a family and still have the opportunity to raise May as their daughter.  The missionaries have been there since the death and have appointments to continue teaching them and preparing them for baptism and temple ordinances.  The father is a less active member as is his parents but his wife is not a member.  She couldn’t take her eyes off me when I told her about the plan of happiness and that family and marriage ties do not end “at death do we part.”  

Buhi is an amazing district and the branch is very supportive in the community.  We are so blessed to serve with them.   

On Thursday we trained all the new elders in Bato district.  It didn’t go well because the DL is leaving in three weeks and didn’t care to listen or participate.  There are some good elders in the district that include Cotnogan, Bato and Nabua and several new missionaries being trained. 

I had another apostrophe this week.  We often quote that whom the Lord calls the Lord qualifies.  That truth is so stark here it is amazing.  The branch presidents in this district are dynamic leaders of many members who have very little experience in the gospel and in the workings of the church.  They work tirelessly to help advance others and try to make leaders out of new members.  Most active members have three or four calls in the district and their home branches.  These leaders are being qualified every day for their calls. 

On Friday the typhoon Landau made landfall north of us in central and northern Luzon (the big island we live on).  It rained all day and cooled down to a chilly 27 degrees Celsius.    We had an appointment in Baao with Sister Dy but she didn’t come because of the rain and cold weather.  Her house leaks so she was busy at home.  Sister Gloria came with her son and granddaughter so they could use the church’s wifi to Skype with the granddaughter’s mother who works in Dubuy.  We texted Gloria in the morning but she is out of phone load so she couldn’t answer us.  They all have phones but no one can afford to buy load so they aren’t reliable as communication devises.  We filled our car, genny and Gerry can with gas; checked our 72 hour kit and made extra water storage in case we had to stay in or get out in a hurry.  We were on the outside of the high pressure area so we only experienced about 12 inches of rain in 36 hours and winds of only 60 kmh.  It was not too serious here but the areas and missions north of here are getting hit very hard and we are praying for them.

We drove to Pili on Saturday and witnessed the flooding from the mountain range behind our house.  I am not used to a small car with no clearance.  If I had my duramax we would have been more brave in exploring the flooding but we have to be careful in the Corolla.  Pili was still as busy as ever and all the signs of a fiesta as well as the excitement of the typhoon. 

This is a picture of some huts that are between the highway and the rice fields.  You can see the kids inside out of the rain but the flood water is up to the sleeping platform in their huts.  

The water from the rice fields was almost up to the highway.

These homes and huts are along the highway as well.  It is raining so we took the pictures from the car. 

Today in Cotnogan I was asked to speak as we walked through the door.  I spoke on the signs of the times in the last days and how blessed we are to know that Father is warning us of the coming of his Son with these typhoons.

We are preparing to finish our training in Iriga zone and hope to meet with the zone leaders in Canaman this week to teach them next week.  We wish we had more time! 

This is it for another week.  I hope you get this Tab so it can be published.  Thanks for making us look good with all else you have to do.  We love you all!!

Blog 33 October 5 to 11, 2015

Naturally Monday was wash day just in time for the weekly rain storm.  I got most of the heavy material off the line and in front of the fan in the drying room (spare bedroom).  We call the rain on Monday the extra rinse cycle.  The weather has been quite unsettled but still nothing close to a typhoon like the low pressure storm we experienced the first week we were here.  They did send the kids home from school on Thursday in Cotnogan because the it rained so heavily up there in the mountains.  I would have loved to be there for that.  We have a website called wunderground.com that is very reliable and tracks weather around the globe.  The mission president checks it daily for any signs of risk to the missionaries.  I used to check it daily but some days when there is nothing in the Western Pacific in the morning there may be a hurricane or cyclone starting on the ocean in the afternoon.  There are always warnings for ships and fishermen when it gets close.  The problem is that most housing in this area is made from bamboo wood a leaves for thatched roofs and it doesn’t take much of a wind to move things around and be quite destructive.

A sister who was baptized last month came to visit on Tuesday.  She is married with 6 kids, only one left at home, but we have only met one daughter.  She runs her own rice farm, raises pigs, sells fruits and vegetables from her garden and sells unique clothing and cosmetics.  She is very industrious and works hard.  Her name is Sister Day (pronounced Die) and she gave us a tour of our own back yard and showed us how to prepare the fruits and vegetables growing back there.  They go through a lot of work to make foods edible around here!  

Before I forget here are some stats that put things into perspective if you live here.  The area of the Philippines (which is an archipelago consisting of over 7100 island) is 116 000 square miles and houses 94 000 000 people.  The area of Canada is 3 855 102 square miles and houses 35 000 000 people.   We often talk about the crowding of the population here but we are 33 times bigger in land mass and 1/3 of the population.  They are staked on top of each other, like most of Asia. 

We went on a trycee tour of Iriga city today with a good friend, President Chuwa, the second councilor in the district presidency.  We spent three hours while he showed us the sights of the city.  You really need to trust your driver when you ride a trycee.  

Since I am on the crowding issue I will show a picture of a Catholic cemetery.  They bury their dead above ground in a concrete tomb.  The Catholic church owns most of the cemeteries and you have to pay for a tomb.  Most people can’t afford a tomb so they buy a 5 year rental tomb with an access into it.  If you can’t afford to keep the body in their after the 5 years they take the body out, which is just bones by then and give it back to the family.  We have walked through the cemetery beside our house in Baao and seen the old torn bags with bones in them.  This cemetery is probably 10 acres in the middle of the city and the tombs are stacked about 10 high in places.  Look in the back ground and see the staked tombs directly above President Chuwa’s head.  See all the “honey combed” concrete tombs in the back ground.  Valerie and President Chuwa are leaning against small tombs that house the bones of the people who were taken out of a full sized tomb because the family couldn’t afford to keep them there.  Their bones are packed into the small tombs up front.  On the right side of the picture is a private chamber owned by a rich family with their tombs locked inside.  Through the locked gate you can see the tomb markers, some flowers, some candles and other family  artifacts to decorate the room.  It is all tiled and gated.  Speaking of a gated community…don’t you wonder what type of neighborhood heaven must be in?  Think about “the Pearly Gates”.  What kind of neighborhood is heaven in that is has to be in a gated community?  I wonder…

We went to a private resort operated by a school friend of President Chuwa.  It was quiet and beautiful. There as a swimming pool, lounge area, outdoor restaurant, and hotel.  We were most impressed with the beautiful vegetation.  There was a grove of trees with hanging vines all through it.  Because I am a giant here I had to duck to get around but I am used to that now.

I have several more pictures but this file will be too big to email already so they will have to wait.  However, this is a selfie of us on the go in the trycee.  Valerie is sitting beside us but lower in the side car so we can’t see here.  I am sitting side-saddle on the bike seat with President Chuwa.  

This is what it looks like onto the street as we drive.  I had to pull my feet in sometimes so they didn’t hit a bike, car or trycee beside us.  This ride takes a lot of courage!

One of the cool things we saw on our tour was this structure on a hill in the middle of the city.  It is straight up but the gate was locked (thank goodness) so we couldn’t go up the million stairs to see the city center.  It used to be the city center but the BDO bank put up a building, a two story strip mall and a hotel/convention center in front of it and hid it away.  The only way to get to it is up a side street we would call an alley.  

Thursday was zone conference all day in Iriga.  The morning was filled with great instruction and training.  President and Sister Reeder both gave great advice and encouragement.  While the zone leaders were doing a power point Valerie and I went into a classroom and outlined what we want to do in Pamplona and the mission with the project we have.  We thought we developed it but after more study and research we found it outlined in the missionary handbook, Preach My Gospel.

The catered meal was very good.  The afternoon session was a short testimony meeting by assignment.  Valerie was asked to bear her testimony and she did a world class job on how using FH as a finding and a teaching tool can help the missionaries. 

The theme of the conference was taken from a talk in 2008 by Elder Callister called Becoming A Consecrated Missionary.  Wow was it powerful!  The missionaries were challenged to step up and be 100% obedient to the many mission rules and schedules.  President Reeder and others offered examples of missionaries who they felt were consecrated missionaries.  I thought of Shand and the story President Leo Hill told of a woman who gave back the Book of Mormon she received from a skinny missionary on a flight from New York to Calgary.  Great story but I don’t have time to tell it right now.

On another note, I was not popular when I was shaking out the freshly line dried clothes I washed on Monday and shook a spider out onto the bed Valerie was sitting on working on her laptop.  Then today we did a perimeter burn around the house with some poison we are supposed to spray around the walls of the house then leave for 4 hours.  When we got home we had flushed out this big guy from the spare room.  Yes this is a normal sized dust pan!  

We spent most of Friday waiting for people to come to the Baao church.  The elders brought two girls from a family of 11 kids they are teaching.  The power went out “brown out” so we had them come to our house and turned on the generator.  We accomplished what we hoped to do for them.  Their parents are very interested in family history work.  They were shy to be around English speaking white people but they got the job done.

Saturday and Sunday were general conference days.  We did Saturday in Naga and had lunch with Reeders in the new mission home.  It is very beautiful but I have some issues with some of the building decisions. WE went to the district center for the Sunday sessions.  Following that we had our district family history reporting meeting.  It was the end of a very busy week.

We hope this sends.  We are tired but love you all!!