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.