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.