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.
No comments:
Post a Comment