Small Miracles in Implementing the Lord's Work!

This week began with an exciting experience with a very low pressure Typhoon, according to the locals.  It whipped a few trees and filled many of the fields with water.  As I drive to appointments in other places in the zone, Valerie takes pictures of the environment.  Our family can see more detail on the family facebook page. 

On Monday we drove into the mission home in Naga city to see President Reeder about a program we have designed to stimulate branch unities, reactivation of less active members, missionary work, assist branch presidents in helping members work toward temple attendance and family sealings and inviting anyone to visit our church facilities.  It is a detailed program in Family History work and YES it has Valerie written all over it.  We have put together a booklet that starts with the most basic instructions for registering and working in familysearch.org.  Filipino people are curious about and proud of their family histories so it won’t be difficult to get things going.  We plan to do one branch at a time.  The missionaries we have taught with are on board and say they see the significance of this, especially with less active members who may see the value in returning to activity. 

Bato Branch Building

Some small miracles (thanks for the inspired blog name Tabitha) that have happened since this idea began to grow last week (tomorrow is our two week anniversary), have amazed us.  On Monday we coincidentally met a brother at the mission offices and discovered he is the Area Family History Specialist.  After a brief outline of what we want to accomplish he was so happy he offered his personal services to get this going properly.  Although he has been in our mission district (stake) to speak previously he couldn’t spend the time it took to really support this area.  We connected with a very valuable resource.  Miracle number 2 is this:  We have a portable, wireless, rechargeable, router we can take with us and get satellite service anywhere.  The only computers for family history work are in the district (stake) center in Iriga.  The people are very limited as to travel from one town to another so Iriga is beyond many members’ affordable reach although most live within a 30 km radius.  We plan to use our two laptops with the router in the other church facilities until the mission supplies the branches with equipment.  Our pitch to President Reeder on Monday included a request that each branch call its own Specialist and that each building get its own on-line computers.  He is very excited about the plan and agreed to both requests.  We feel very certain that with our initial support, the branch’s trained specialists and the equipment to do the work, this plan is very sustainable and will grow beyond our own present vision after we are gone.

We worked in Bato with Elders Santos and Togueron on Tuesday afternoon in the most humble homes we have seen.  A few had been torn apart by the last typhoon and were open in several places.  They were dirt floored, cardboard shanties before the typhoon and are less than inhabitable now but they were making it work.  One sister was in a one room shed with rusted corrugated metal for walls and her husband had suffered a crippling stroke several months ago and couldn’t get out of bed.  It was heart breaking but he Elders brought support and comfort and it was amazing to watch them work with the spirit.  We did several calls with them to both members and investigators, most of which were in the most impoverished circumstances we have seen. 

On Wednesday we spent the afternoon with Sisters Roderick and Ril in Iriga.  The difference from yesterday’s environment was hard to believe.  It was a new area for them so they were not familiar with the locations and addresses so we drove around a lot, often past huge mansions with secured courtyards next to shanties that had a sheet for a door.  The sisters are hard working and although we didn’t find many of the people we were looking for they got several appointment and a few street discussions asking for directions.  They were amazing to watch.

The Nabua Elders has their district training on Thursday and invited us to present some information so we spent most of the morning with them.  We have appointments to work with each set of Elders on Tuesday and Wednesday next week.  The DL is Elder Wijendran from Shri Lanka.  Elder DeLara is from the Philippines and speaks very little English, Elder Kei is from New Zealand and his companion is Elder Lapana from Tonga. 

Friday was wonderful working with a set of sisters we were with last week, Sisters Alatini (California) and San Jose from the Philippines.  We were with them until 8:00 PM which is their curfew.  We had to walk about 2 miles up a dirt road in a windstorm in the dark to get back to the highway where the car was.  It was through a few little communities and the street was very busy.  The sisters work so well together it humbles me to see their skill with the members and investigators.  They know exactly what each individual needs and they satisfy it.  We have a lot of laughs and a few tears with them as they testify.  We are so fortunate to have them help us get to know the area and the people.

Sunday was district (stake) conference and a new presidency was installed.  The new president’s wife spoke and said how she would share her husband with the 900 members but Monday and Friday night was hers with him alone.  I loved it!  Two of the investigators that we helped teach last week came to conference and we sat with one of them.  I talked with the other one, Paul who the elders brought with them.  He is 17 years old and supports his parents and 5 younger siblings.  He as moved to tears with some of the talks and wants to serve a mission and be an elder like the two Philippino elders who are teaching him.  We told him if he paid tithing it will happen.  He makes less than $40 a week but the promise is real and it will happen.

Our wifi hasn’t worked well for three days.  We hope to get it fixed tomorrow so we can communicate with you.  Shand’s family got cut off this morning on a Skype session and we haven’t had service since. 

They call it a "Brown Out"

We spent the first part of this week being lost everywhere we went.  Whether in the country or in the city, no matter where we were there was always someone to save us.   After the second day of being lost in Baao, and feeling very frustrated with the waste of time and gas, a guy on a motor bike kept waving at us and we waved back.  Finally we realized he was following us so we stopped and discovered he was the branch president.  He admitted that we looked lost and being “American looking” he realized we were the new couple missionaries.  He directed us around the town and then left us.  Valerie and I laughed about our good fortune and I said, “Do you get the feeling we are being watched?”  It was all too coincidental.   

We had a meeting with the new Elders and Sisters serving in this area since transfers were this week.  They are all from the Philippines so the all speak Tagalog and English is their second language.  Communication can be a challenge but we get by.  The branch president, President Botor showed up at the meeting and spent all day with Valerie and I showing us the district and church meeting houses.  At the end of the afternoon we discovered that he rides his family vehicle, a small Honda motorbike to Naga every night, one hour one way, to work as a night security guard for 12 hours a day.  During the day he delivers invoices for the electric company.  His daily wage is less than $8.  He and his wife have 4 children and we felt so guilty that we would take him away from his family and work schedule but he said after he left us yesterday he felt that he should be more accommodating to us and spend some time showing us around.  It cost him precious dollars and time to be with us.  We have so much to learn about true charity.

This area is not a tourist spot so to see white people is quite a novelty still.  Little children don’t always know quite how to act but often they rush out to touch our hands to their foreheads, which an act of respect.  The people are so loveable.  I wish I had more pictures of family, Canada and snow to show them. 

For the last two days we have been working with Elders Robles and Servancia, both Filipinos and Sister San Jose from the Philippines and her companion Sister Latini from California.  They serve in Baao with us.  They are remarkable teachers and although we can only guess at part of the conversations they often ask us to talk, pray or testify and the spirit is always there to translate.  The people we have taught are very humble and we have had ducks, chickens, puppies and cats walk through our teaching environment but no one seems to notice.  We have3 only been here a week but already feel an association with the people and secretly hope to stay a long time in this area.  We have a long term plan we would like to initiate next week if we have the support of the four branch presidents in our zone.  The few missionaries we have talked to about it have been excited to be a part of it even though they are already very busy teaching. 

Saturday was Valerie’s birthday but a regular day for us.  Last evening I took Valerie to a resort hotel in Nabua for dinner.  We had the place to ourselves and the food was different but good.  I will spoil her tomorrow in Naga city as we have to go to the mission home and do other business on our Pday.

Yesterday morning after our walk I did the wash in our cool little washing machine and hung the clothes on the line to dry in time for a two day rain that shut down all the churches in the district to day.  We drove to Nabua in a torrential downpour with trees and palm leaves covering the road only to find the building locked so we made our way back to Baao to find the same situation.  We received a text from the mission home saying that the Sisters in Irigua, about 7 km from us had 2 inches of water in their apartment.  My clothes are still on the line getting their 48 hour rinse. 

The power has been out since 6:00 AM which is a normal occurrence here.  They call it a “Brown Out” and it is just part of life.  We had cold showers this morning because the only hot water in the house is our shower that heats the water electrically on demand.  The faster the water travels through the heating coil the colder it gets but it takes the cold out.  Most of the missionaries don’t have it this good. 

We are happy, cared for and we love it here!! 

Elder Watson 

Without Power

Jan 18/2015
The power went off about 5.30 this morning. It has been raining out all night and quite windy. It is not bad here because we are pretty protected in our yard. 

Sis Reeder texted from Naga to see if all was well and if we had power. She said the power was out there but they have a generator. The sister missionaries here had water in their basement but could go up to the second floor. There was no church there in the Naga Branch. We got dressed and went to Nubua (10 min away) to see if there was church, but no one was around. All the fields on both sides of the road was flooded, trees down, but people were still going about their business. 

I do not know how lots of these people survive, most of the huts are thatched roof and have holes in all the walls and the roofs. There certainly does not seam that they have any where to go to get out of the rain. It is colder than normal but it amazes me how they just get along and keep going about their normal life. 

We are without power and do not know what to do because we do not have our internet. They are so resilient to everything, life goes on. We had cold water to shower in this morning but most people only have buckets of water each day to wash themselves. 

It amazes me how these kids are not sick all the time. Maybe they are, but I have not seen it. Most of the people are inside so they must have somewhere in their homes that keep them a little dry. 

The sky is clearing a bit and it is not raining as much, but still windy. We must have just caught the after math of the typhoon where ever it was! Sister Reeder just texted and said the storm has passed Naga and is over but it must be going the other way. To me it was not that bad of a storm, but then I do not have to be out in it or have a home like the natives do, to have to endure it. When we go to Naga tomorrow we will see just where the storm rated in storms as they go, we have nothing else to compare it too.  SIster Watson

Where to start...

Somewhere in the middle I guess.  

We made it through the MTC and Valerie has described that very well and the details that got us to our new home in Baao, Camarines Sur, Division 5 in the Philippines.  We are very fortunate to have such a beautiful place to stay in our first area.  We have a gated yard with locking front gate, a cement hoggery in the back yard, beautiful flowers, a coconut tree, a banana tree and my favorite, a mango tree that got beat up in the last typhoon so we won’t get any fruit this year.  The hog barn has been abandoned and cleaned out.  It has become a storage place since.  We wash our clothes in an electric washing machine that I have to turn the water into then shut it off, let it wash then take the clothes out, drain the tub and put the clothes in a separate cylinder and spin them.  We hang them on clothes lines tied to the palm trees in the back yard.  We have a neighbor, Daniel, who comes in three mornings a week to tend the yard.  He does an amazing job and we pay him 500 pesos a week which is $11 to us.  A lady, Pina, who is raising her 5 grandchildren comes in twice a week to sweep the yard…that’s correct, she sweeps the driveway the concrete, the steps and the grass lawn for 200 pesos which is about $4.50.  We haven’t met her yet but plan to give her a raise this week.

The natives here are the nicest, sweetest, most content, happy, cheerful, humble, relaxed people I have ever seen.  But when they get behind the wheel of a vehicle they are crazy!  It is full speed ahead and take any space you can.  Pedestrians have no rights.

We attended church today in the Bata branch, which as you all know is just past Nabua and about 40 minutes from Baao.  We plan to find and attend the Iriga branch next week.  We walked around our neighborhood yesterday and had a crowd of kids following us.  They are the best language tutors we have.  Everything we say is funny to them.  They happy and clean but have only one set of clothes, no space except the streets to play in and small shacks or boxes to live in.  This is truly a third world country.  The next time you don’t feel like eating your broccoli, please send it here because they only eat rice with something to put on it if they can get it.  We are so blessed to live in a country of abundance.  We can only help spiritually because they are more satisfied and content than us.  We pass by many schools and the kids come flocking out after class laughing, holding hands and arms around friends and family.   Respect and honor are still a big part of their culture.

Life is great.  Valerie and I are well cared for by people who have much less than we do.  We are learning so much about Christlike humility.   Elder Watson

It begins....

As usual I wish I had started recording sooner.  I retired in June 2014 at 62 to have time to do a mission and stay on the teacher’s group plan, only to find that it doesn't cover us outside of Alberta for more than 90 days.  I could have stayed at my school with my little guys and Becky for a couple of more years…WHO KNEW!!

We went through the application process with a desire to serve in a more physical role than proselyting and in a foreign land but still speak English.  Joel spoke so fondly of his mission in Naga and of the Filipino people that we did all we could to be called there.   The medical process took several weeks longer than we thought.  The church wants to be sure you are in good shape and the doctors left no stone unturned!!  That delayed our call but…WHO KNEW! 

Finally we got the exciting news that we both got called to the same mission and it is in Naga, Philippines.  Shortly following the festive celebration of our good luck came the news that we would be required to learn Tagalog, but…WHO KNEW!

It has been a frantic experience getting ready to leave the farm, family, livestock and home while studying a language.  Very thankfully, we have been supported by a world class family who have accommodated our needs and made it possible to get things ready for our departure.  I feel so guilty leaving Mike and Becky responsible for so much of our financial business but Mike just keeps saying, “I will do whatever you need.  I am here to help.”  We are so fortunate. 

Not everything has gone smoothly and it has been more expense than we anticipated but it will be worth it.  Just when I think I have more than I can deal with in terms of things going wrong and requiring more time, finances and patience, something miraculous happens.  Case in point:  Because our SUV has been in the body shop for hail damage repairs, we have relied on the truck and Jeep.  Our intention was to sell the truck and park the Jeep but we needed the truck to get around southern Alberta to conduct business.  We left the sale to the last week but Dan took pictures of it covered in ice and mud, listed it on Kijiji Monday morning and made a deal with a guy from Ontario before noon.  Dan did insist that the guy see better pictures (my honest son) but the money was in our account before Monday evening.  We got what we hoped to get.  I delivered our truck to a semi in Brooks who loaded it and took it to Ontario.  Is that not amazing!  It was a great truck and I will miss the Duramax power but those things are replaceable. 

Tammy Miller is leasing Valerie’s full blood flock of sheep so Valerie is relieved they will be cared for.  She also found a good home on a sheep ranch on Willow Creek near Claresholm for her two Pyrenees dogs.  It is strange having a ranch with no livestock!!  Valerie still has 7 female lamas from her herd.  They are the females she raised from birth over the years.  Chelsey’s war-torn Maverick is still here, Roycen has two 4-H sheep, a barn full of kittens and a flock of ducks and chickens so it is pretty quiet.  Valerie’s sister, Tami has taken the lama studs.  Brian and Mirium Petersen are living in the house and taking care of the yard etc.  This is just a short list of all who have helped us prepare.  We are so blessed for amazing friends and family who make this experience possible for us.  Thank you all. Elder Mark