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!!