His work shall be done!

Blog # 8  Week of February 16 to 23, 2015

…and it begins again.  Valerie’s computer has crashed, our phones don’t work and our Wifi has been down since Saturday morning.  We are off to Naga in a rush trip to see how much we can accomplish to get this fixed.  We have a family history class this evening so we really need our technology to work.

We got Valerie’s laptop working.  That was a blessing!!  The family history classes have been packed this week in Baao and yesterday in Bato.  We had too many youth in Bato yesterday.  We had 5 computers going and had several kids waiting.  They are preparing for a 10 hour bus trip to the temple in Manila in April for the youth to do baptism.  We want to get as many family names as possible from each branch for the kids to take to the temple.  We didn’t get a count yesterday at Bato Branch but we printed ordinance sheets for at least 6 people. 

One our way to Bato we had lesson with Angelica.  While we were teaching her little brothers went swimming and the ducks walked through our teaching area.  I love this place!!  We had to cross the bridge again.

  

We are in Baao branch today, Friday the 20^th and have 65 names.  Patriarch Crapo will be so pleased with these people.  That is the branch effort for two weeks.  We have only two computers, our laptops that we bring to the buildings and schedule two people for morning, afternoon and evening sessions.  They all come as scheduled and none of them have their own transportation.  The people  with us at this time came from Bula about 12 Km away on a narrow, busy road.  We have a class scheduled tomorrow as well.  We have a portable router but the church wifi is much better when there is electricity.  We had two brown outs in Bato yesterday but where we lost wifi but kept working on the computers on battery until the power was restored.

This is a picture of President Botor, the Baao branch president.  He and his wife have four kids, the oldest is 10 years old.  He works in Naga as a night security guard for an educational compound.  He drives the family vehicle, a Honda 125, into Naga city, about 30 very busy kms every day and comes home in the morning.  He also delivers invoices during the day and sleeps about 3 hours.  What an amazing man.  I asked him if he carries a gun at work.  He said, “Yes and I need it often but it is a .38 special and I prefer a Glock 9MM.”  I asked how he knows so much about firearms and he told me his story.

He was contracted by the United States Marshal’s Service to serve in Iraq.  It was his job to act as security when Saddam Husseim was being tried in court.  He told me that he carried his favorite weapon, a 9MM Glock and an AK47.  I asked if he ever had to use it and his answer was, “Frequently Elder.”  He told me of experiences when snipers had to be controlled because they were trying to take out Saddam or other witnesses.  He was there for 18 months on his first tour.  His oldest daughter was nearly a year old before he got to see her.  He signed up for another tour but got cheated out of half his contracted wage so he didn’t go back.  What a guy!  I really love this tough, humble priesthood leader.

We said good-bye to Sister Alatini who is going home to California in two days.  We are losing  6 missionaries from the Iriga zone.  Elder Servancia will be transferred out.  We had a Canadian Breakfast for them on Saturday morning.  It was fried ham, bacon and dough boys.  They each left with a Canadian flag and a county of Newell pin.  We will miss them as they are the closest and when we have time we teach with them.

The trip to Nabua is a beautiful drive with rice fields on both sides of the road.  We attended sacrament meeting there, then met with the group leader to explain our program.  We have three appointments there next week.  We hope our own router will work because their church is just a few rented rooms above a Honda shop.  They are a group that is part of the Bato branch.  Finally we raced back to Baao to catch the end of priesthood and relief society and meet with the leader. 

The church’s genealogical systems are not designed to work in third world countries.  We are having a lot of challenges trying to create log ins and input information but we have sent some suggestions to many places hoping someone will check in with us because we have the solutions if the system can be altered.

We are very busy, very happy, and miss our family tooooo much.  BIG thanks to Mike and Becky for keeping our place going and doing our tax prep and banking.  We owe you!!  Thanks again Tab for the brilliant job on this blog.  Sometimes it may sound like I am rambling but this is our mission journal as well and I want to remember these details.  I love you all!!

Blood Letting? Fiesta ideas for us at home.

Blog #7 Week of Feb 8 to 14/15

We learned a good lesson on Monday morning.  We found out the hard way that our wireless router has to be re-juiced every 30 days.  We thought it was another technological weakness here but it was our responsibility.  We didn’t get to connect with the kids on Skype.  That is two weeks in a row and I am getting homesick for conversation with my family.  Chelsey sent an email and my first blog entry for this week is an excerpt from my reply to her.  Here it is:

I miss you sooo much too but I can’t see myself being more happy anywhere else in the world than right here, for now.  I am being schooled every day.  It must have been so difficult for Joel to try to explain these people to his friends and family back home; their culture, their lifestyles, their diet, their daily routines, their love of God.  You can’t go a block without seeing symbols of praise for Christ; seeing a dad with his little kids around him; kids laughing and playing made up street games; a reason for a street fiesta every night.  I love it here.  We are getting quite busy with our home made family history workshops.  Our mission will be different than any other couple who has served here and just followed the missionaries around.  I already miss doing that but it was too easy.  They did all the work and we just followed and bore testimony.  I loved it and absolutely love the missionaries but we need to do our own mission, not someone else’s.  We have a fear that the president will ask us to take over the mission office job when the Gardiners go home in May.  I will do what I am asked and enjoy it, but I want to be in the streets and on the farms with the people not in the office.

We are just packing our mobile family history technology complete with printer, laptops, wireless router, wireless mouses…mice…mices?? Anyway you get it.  We have an evening workshop scheduled at 6:30.  We did one this morning at 10:00 and have three scheduled tomorrow in different towns so we will be on the run, just how I like it.

I am taking good care of your mom.  Her talents and abilities still amaze me.

End of email to Chelsey.

We have been crazy busy helping people with family history this week.  Every age of member and their friends have a desire to know about their families.  It is remarkable and Valerie is getting better everyday day with assisting new members on their family trees.  We started in the Baao branch and set a goal to get 20 names ready for the temple this year and they have 21 names in one week.  We did one day with Bato branch as well and had more people than we could help but we are going back for a full day this week.  We were able to finally catch up with President Tino and presented our plan for his branch. 

We spent one afternoon in Nabua with the elders and Sister Angelica.  She has a baptismal date in three weeks and we are  invited to a birthday party there as well.

I have been looking for pictures for Dr. Thom and Cheryl Evans and here are a couple of dentist office signs in two different towns.

 Every day seems to be an excuse for a fiesta.  The past week ended in Valentine’s Day and it was wild around here for four days.  There is also a festival for the most important vegetable, fruit or rice in every town.  It is like Taber Corn days but these are wild parties in the streets.  The towns are close together but since travel is so limited they seem great distances.  When we stop to watch we are the only white people around so they treat us very well.  We had two districts over for breakfast this morning and they all cooked Filipino food.  It was soooo good.  They are in their P-day clothing.  There were 12 elders and sisters here and 5 are going home next week.  We have grown very attached to them and will likely never see them again so it is like a funeral for us when they leave.

Our technology is so unpredictable that we are going to the city tomorrow to see if we can upgrade.  We didn’t get to skype home again for the second week and our phones aren’t working again.  Being from North America we expect technology to work and base our whole lives around it.  These people are quite happy in spite of it.  Crazy isn’t it! 

To end, please check out the last pictures of these street banners and see what you think of these fiesta ideas for us at home.

Thanks again Tabitha for keeping this blog alive and well.  We love you all!!

"Blood Letting".... It means blood donation.

The Bridge of life isn't always steady or straight!

WEEK of FEB 1 - 7, 2015

The time is speeding past.  We will have our four week anniversary this Friday.  We went to Naga and did shopping, bought a new scanner/printer that won’t work properly, had lunch with Gardiners and Hoopes and met several missionaries in the SM mall doing weekly chores like us on P-day Monday. 

We are getting very busy with our Family History program that will be launched this Sunday in Baao branch after we both talk on Family History work.  Running from one task to the next is getting tough to do but we keep saying that after Sunday we can concentrate on family history lessons.  We have made several booklets with forms and instructions to help get members started and we have a signup sheet that they can put their names on to reserve a two or three hour slot to work with us at the church on-line.  We met with the District (stake) consultant last Saturday and found that most of the branches have consultants called but not trained.  Only two have access to computers at home and not all the buildings have Wifi but we can use our own equipment until the branches are supplied.    So, if we are not out with the missionaries we working on that project.

However, we were out with the Nabua missionaries on Tuesday and it was amazing for so many reasons.  We got to bear testimony of tithing twice to investigators.  I still can’t believe how bold and focused they are as teachers without a script, a memorized discussion, to guide them.  They meet people and the spirit tells them their needs and the elders plan for it for the next discussion.  They haven’t missed yet.  We taught a young father with three kids but one had died.  The family is ready but he has a smoking problem.  The elders taught a lesson and read scriptures, always from the Book of Mormon and he felt so badly for missing his baptismal date.  He has another in three weeks.  Then things got crazy!  We went to an investigator’s home.  Her name is Angelica, and she is the oldest of 11 siblings and is a single mother still living at home.  Her father is a farm laborer and the rest in the family pick and bundle a crop called kangkong.  It sells at the market for 10 pesos, 27 cents a  big bundle.  The whole family do some function in picking,  gathering, bundling and packing to market and selling it.  We bought two bundles and gave one to the missionaries.  We were too late getting home to cook it last night but we had it with the first fried chicken we could find that looked edible. 

The five of us crowded the sitting area and the missionaries gave a discussion on tithing on the second visit.  She wants to pay tithing to please the Lord and the family of 14 lives on less than $25 a month.

 We had to cross this bridge to get to her house.  It is just bamboo poles tied together with plastic twine.  It was quite sturdy and flat.  Although it was definitely a swinging bridge we made if back and forth.

We then went to a farmer’s place down the river and had to cross another bamboo bridge.  This one wasn’t as long but the walking platform wasn’t so flat.  The bamboo poles were just wrapped in a ball.

The member’s name is Fermin Lamud and he owns a big patch of land although most of it is swamp.  He does work about two acres of crop land that he cultivates by hand with a huge hoe and a shovel.  The remarkable thing is that he only has one leg and one eye.  What a great guy.  He is 66, loves to work, read the Book of Mormon daily, pray continually.  We started at his place with the elders at 7:00 AM each morning doing the “cultivating” for him while he planted crop one seedling at a time on his one leg.  He has cut an acre of grass which Valerie put into a swath so he could burn it off.  He said he felt guilty having us do his work but loved to watch us laugh and goof around on his land.  It was a pleasure and an honor to get blisters on our hands just to get to know this incredible man who values his membership in the church as his most prized possession.  We didn’t get to meet his wife who is not a member but the elders are teaching.

Things got a little out of hand and I had to give a tune up to Elder DeLara.

We are ready to launch our family history plan in church in Baao on Sunday and spent the afternoon with Sister Gloria, the branch family history consultant.  We couldn’t do all we wanted with her because we are out of power again today, another “brown out” which are part of life here.  Iriga is known as the “Brown out capital of the Philippines.”

Gloria is an amazing sister with such a big heart.  Her husband had an affair and when his girlfriend had a baby he took the 3 month old boy to her to raise him.  She is babysitting two granddaughters while their parents work overseas, which is not uncommon here, and raising this 7 year old boy as her own son, like a single mother without help from the boy’s father.  She loves that boy and he loves her.  You wouldn’t believe it until you see it.  She told us that it was not the boy’s fault so she is fine with it.  The big problem is that the Catholic Church has  such a hold on the government here that divorce is illegal so she can never remarry because she is still legally married to her husband who is living with his mistress.  BIG MESS!  I asked her what she would do if she met a man she began to love and she said she would take a stone and hit herself in the head with it.  Maybe that would clear up our high divorce rates in North America!!  I am so grateful for the relationship Valerie and I have built over our 40 years together. It wasn’t without problems and there will be more to come but we have developed some very good coping and problem solving strategies that work for us.  I have a great woman!!

Friday was zone training in Iriga.  We gave a brief overview of what we want to accomplish with our family history program and dropped off supplies for the zone from Elder Gardiner. We then hurried into Naga city to use the mission office technology to scan and send some financial papers to Dan and Jess.  When we got home I stripped my computer of all 4 printers and reinstalled our new printer/scanner and it works!!  We were about to abandon it and spend another 10000 pesos to get something that the members can use to post family pictures and history onto the familysearch site.  I am so happy!!  We have another training tomorrow and hopefully the power will be available to use our technology. 

I played with 4 year old Jewel Ann Botor today while Valerie did training and helped a sister with her family history.  The power stayed on and we accomplished what we needed to although one sister broke her appointment with us. 

We have met several people here both members and nonmembers who work or have family work in the Middle East.  I suppose it is because it is closer to them and there are jobs there.  The women are home care workers, teachers, nurses and labor type jobs if they have no education.  The men are professionals, laborers, technicians etc.  Some find the jobs through programs that help them get started for a percent of their income.  They work in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Kawait.  We have met with some who are raising the children of those family members who are away making a living.  There are some in our branch who are planning to go away for work and cry when they talk about having to leave children with family here.  At home we see the opposite.  We see those who are working in North America and sending money home to family or saving enough to get family to move to Canada or the USA.  It is a very different and humbling perspective for us.

We both spoke on Sunday in Baao Branch and had members sign up for our family history tutoring at the church.  The week is about half filled already so we are grinning.  Had to make a rush trip to Naga today to the mission office to make the car payment and to the SM Mall to get our 3G router juiced up again.  You can only get 30 days at a time and it runs out to the day.  We couldn't understand why we had no internet access today.  It is fixed now.  We had another brown out today so I must send this so Tabitha can do her magic and make me look good.  I love her for doing this will all else she has to do.  Our blog is also our mission journal so it is priceless to us.  Thanks again Tab!!  I love you all.

Eat all your food because there were people in the world who didn't have anything to eat!

Week of January 25-31/2015

Monday is usually P-day…preparation day.  I did laundry first thing and later Valerie and I went to Pili, the capitol city of the Camarines Sur province but not as big or as far as Naga.  We spent $7500 pesos, $200 for food and still don’t have anything to eat!  I am trying to avoid rice for every meal as Valerie isn't a big rice fan.  We spent Tuesday helping a new mission couple, the Hoopes from Utah, connect with the local branch president to get a driver’s license but it didn't work out for them.  We then planned some strategies for our family history presentation and left for Iriga at noon.  After some business and getting some copy work done, I should have bought a printer/scanner/copier instead of a cheap printer, we met the elders at Nabua and spent the rest of the day with them.  Each home became more and more humble until we were at a cinder-block building with no roof, just a partial roof frame left where a young couple with a beautiful little 3 year old girl lives.  There are two young teenage boys that are cousins who live there too.  They are on the edge of a rice paddy and the grandfather was seeding rice.  He was too busy to stop but we watched his skill and speed at the task.  It was amazing.  One of the elders from the Philippines asked if we seeded our crops this way in Canada.  When I told him we use tractors with hundreds of horsepower and seeders that are up to 60 feet wide and more,  he couldn't understand how that is done.

You know how your mom used to tell you to eat all your food because there were people in the world who didn't have anything to eat.  

We are living with them right now and they are all around us.  

(Yesterday (Feb 3, 2015) we crossed over this bridge and went with the Elders to a fellow named Fermin Lamud, who has been a member since 2000. His Book of Mormon was well worn, he reads every day even if he has only a few min..He loves the Lord and has a strong testimony. Fermin does not go to church and the Elders are working with him and his wife who is an investigator. We found this man out in his field sitting down pulling weed to clear his land so he can replant his crop again. This fellow is only 65 but has had a hard life and has only one leg and one eye but is still farming. After talking to him a few min I ask Elder Watson if we could do a service project to help him clear his field so he could plant. We asked the missionary and we all decided we would meet at 7 am the next morning to work on his field.  - Sister Watson)

We met a single woman yesterday, Cerita, who was neglected by her family because she joined the church 20 years ago.  When she builds a business they take it from her.  The Elders told us that just last month her family took her store away and she had no income and nothing to eat for three days but still walked 6 km to church on Sunday because she had no money for a tricee ride.  They found out she had no money and bought her rice which she refused because she had water to drink but they asked her to prepare it so they could all eat together so they could see she ate something.  She now has a small outdoor shop selling homemade candles.  She is always happy and positive.  When we found out about her circumstances Valerie bought half her stock to bring home.  Until the church rented a space above a Honda shop in Nabua she would start walking at 5:00 AM from her home to be in Baao for 9:00 AM church.  It is about 20 km.  There is no one in Baao who owns any transportation to take her home but she is happy to walk back to an empty home with no food, only water.  Last night I threw together an unappetizing meal for us because we were so late getting home we didn't have energy to cook.  Instead of complaining about the plain taste I wept as I looked at what would keep Cerita alive for a week and I wanted to scrape it off my plate.  We are being so humbled!  We have so many lessons yet to learn.

Thursday we tried to get Family Search to cooperate with some plans we have for the members but the system isn't set up to accept anyone who doesn't have an email or a mobile phone.  They haven’t seen this lifestyle but we can make it happen somehow.  We worked with the Baao Elders, Savancia and Robles until 8:30.  The first was an older crippled man who joined the church a few months ago. He is very intelligent and reads in both English and Tagalog.  We left him a Liahona magazine in Tagalog.  His daughter is married to an RM and living in Manila but the mom is not a member so the missionaries taught them both.  Valerie is so good with the women here.  That mothering, fellow shipping gift really shows.  She connected with this lady and bought some whisk brooms from her that she makes for a living.  She tied them together with a pink cord and said, “This means I love you.”  We then met with a young man named Paul who has lots of questions but is very humble.  He is the oldest of 9 kids and soon to be 10.  We met his mom and half the family.  I love their yard because they have an outdoor cooking pot on a wood fire.  We sit on a plank nailed to two pieces of bamboo.  The neighborhood kids, dogs, and chickens run through the small space as we teach.  I love it.  It was dark by then and we visited two members who need motivation.  One sister is a retired teacher with a nice home for this district.  Her husband died two years ago.  Two of her daughters are living with her with their kids and she didn't have electricity because she couldn't pay the bill last month.  Finally we did some call backs and found one family with three generations living in the same house next to the rice fields.  A neighbor boy who could not speak, only sign, helped us take our shoes off and enter the home.  The young mother of 3 lost her husband a year ago and her feels were still very tenders when we talked about eternal families.  She lives with her parents so luckily she has family support.  The Elders did an amazing job of teaching her a comforting lesson on the first visit.  At one time she had her 3 year old daughter on her lap and holding a towel to her face as she cried.  Valerie got up and had to step over the grandfather who was sitting on the floor to get to Rebecca to hug her and tell her, “It alright, it’s alright.”  Elder Savencia said he wished she could be at every appointment because she know how to fellowship.  The Elders left her a pamphlet and are going back on Saturday, but we will be in Iriga.

We worked with the Baao Sisters yesterday.  We walked around rice paddy's and taught in many different settings.  They are amazing missionaries.  We can’t get enough of them.  It gets dark about 6:00 PM so we walk with them in the dark and they don’t seem to notice.  There is a danger of snakes when you are walking down a path that is only big enough for a bicycle between rice paddies.  We can only walk two by two but they are used to it.  Often we walk with them past groups of young boys partying and they handle things with ease.

Today is Saturday and we are back from the baptism and family history meeting in Iriga.  The guy being baptized was a young father with a beautiful girlfriend and daughter about 3 years old.  The girlfriend is a member and has waited for her boyfriend to gain a testimony.  He did last month and they went to Manila last week to get married so he could be baptized.  His wife spoke in Tagalog at the service.  We know enough words to follow a general outline of a talk.  She spoke of how he was worth waiting for and how proud she was that they can work toward a celestial family goal.  After the baptism he bore his testimony.  It was the classiest thing ever!!

We did some business in town then came home to fix supper before fast Sunday.  I was trying to light the oven with a lighter.  It has never been used before.  Suddenly Valerie screamed and I was sure I had blown the house up.  She had opened the kitchen garbage container and a gecko had jumped onto her arm and spring-boarded itself onto the floor.  His name is Larry and we have seen him around the house but it naturally startled her.  We herded him under the food container and I am sure he is still shaking there from his experience with a white woman!!  We like geckos around the house because they eat insects which are much more scary, dirty and poisonous.  You can’t make this stuff up!!

Had an excellent day at Nabua branch where we met the members and were asked to bear our testimony.  I tried a few Tagalog words but the language is not coming very quickly.  We then raced back to Baao for the end of the meetings and had branch council meeting.  President Botor is a great leader who tries to motivate his people but the branch is less than a yea old so they lack experience.  The new mission couple, the Hoopes from Preston Utah stayed for dinner and Valerie did branding beans and they were impressed because without rice, there isn't much else to eat here.  Another great week in the Philippines. - Elder Watson