Blog #10 March 8 to 14, 2015

Darn, missed a week.  It has been ridiculously busy with family history work.  We put in some long days last week and had many great experiences with the members.  I met the most interesting person last week.  Her name is Dr. Dato and she is a dentist with a huge heart.  In my first consultation with her about some dental problems I am still encountering, she talked about her desire and motivation to teach young children about dental health.  Naturally that peaked my interest because schools are the target area for educating children.  Since my visit with her I have investigated the educational system to see if this is possible.  I emailed Dr. T Evans in Calgary and got a passionate and immediate response with many good ideas and suggestions.  I am meeting with Dr. Dato tomorrow morning and will evaluate what I have gathered so far.  I am very excited and blessed to have met such an altruistic individual.  To make things better, her husband is a farm manager.  I am going to get a greater perspective of agriculture here.  We live in a rice producing area.

Dr. Jeanette Dato Dentist in her clinic.

The big news here is that there is a political conflict in our district with the company that provides electicity and they are cutting the power off here tomorrow.  The last time this happened in 2013 it lasted 3 months.  Our neighbor, Brother Ropurto, is a member in government.  Tomorrow, Monday, he is going to investigate and tell us how long they anticipate this brown out to last.  We may be buying a generator or moving to the mission office complex in Naga.  We do not want to move but can’t live here or do our family history without  power.  This is a crisis on many levels for us but it will work out.

It is Tuesday afternoon and the lights are still on.  The word on the street, and I mean on the street as we pass people on our morning walk, is that the local mayor has saved us from a lengthy brown out.  We have a FH class in Baao soon so we hope the power stays on. 

On Sunday we spoke in Bato about family history work.  We arrived 10 minutes early to find the branch president and the branch waiting at the locked gate for a key to arrive.  President Tino had loaned his key to his councilor and the councilor was not there yet.  Finally I took a young RM from the branch, Jon-Jon in the car to get the key but we passed the councilor on his scooter as we drove.   The pictures are overexposed but worth seeing.  Everyone is across the street standing in the shade. 

On our way home we passed this beautiful little farm.  I loved the big net in the water.  They must be fish farming as well.

We stopped in Nabua in our rush to get back to priesthood in Baao.  They had just let out and I got a picture of Elder Kie, from New Zealand.  He is 6’4” and his Philippino companion, Elder DeLara who is 5’4”.  It is fitting they are waving from a sign that says, “Party Clown’s…”

In front of the church is a 2” galvanized metal pole about 12 feet high leaning against the “Party Clown Magician” sign to keep the electrical cables above the traffic.  I hope on one moves the sign.  It is an a small parking lot so I hope no one moves the sign or backs into it!

I spent the morning in the dentist chair getting my bridge reattached while Valerie was set up and waiting for sisters who had signed up to do family history work in the morning in Nabua.  We started at 9:30 and I was back in Nabua at noon but the sisters didn’t show up so Valerie had been there alone waiting.  My bridge feels good but won’t last.  Chorita came in the afternoon and we added her father’s family names to what she has done.  She is very faithful and adds a few more names every week.  She has no electricity and carries her water to her home from a pump to a bucket.  She has beautiful printing and works in her My Family booklet every day.  We are so blessed to know such a faithful person.  She will be back next week.

Besides the threat of a long term brown out, our internet provider has been down for two days.  I will have dozens of emails to address if we ever get service.  I will say it again, this is a third world environment.  We are waiting this morning to see if the internet service will restore or we will have to cancel our classes in Bato today.  

Acts 2: 17-18 talks about the abundance of spirit that will be poured out in the last days and how people will prophesy and dream dreams.  This week we have had two sisters who have told of dreams that affected their family search efforts.  Wednesday is Nabua day.  Last week I helped Sister Corita enter family names for about an hour and a half which included her siblings.  She comes every Wednesday and this week she said she wanted to see her family tree on line.  She is a little difficult to understand.  She told me, “My deceased sister and parents came to me in a dream last night.  She didn’t speak but it woke me up.”   As soon as we saw her family tree online we discovered that this sister had been missed.  Out of the 13 children we had only recorded 12 even though they were written in her book.  Sometimes the family search program will not record a name we input and that must have happened.                      

Sister Chorita Biones

Today in Bato Sister Magistrado came to do family history for the first time.  She said her deceased uncle came to her in a dream and she couldn’t understand why because his work has been done as well as his family.  Valerie researched it and found that the records showed that the parents had not been married so he could not be sealed to them.  She is fixing the error now so the uncle will be sealed to his parents.  Acts 2: 17-18  It shouldn’t be but it is chilling to hear these stories as the people

sit right next to us.   This is Valerie with Sister Magistrado and Elder Tinney.

The youth come in to Bato chapel on Thursday evenings and the elders help translate.

Friday morning we had to stop in to my dentist.  It is a clinic for dental, medical and a birthing clinic.  The girl in the blue is the midwife and the other girl is a receptionist.  They are very helpful and do a great job without medicines of any kind.  They took Valerie back to the nursery to see a mother and baby.  I saw three there last week.

Friday was a zone mission conference in Iriga.  We went for a few minutes and talked about our future with Pres. Reeder.  He wants to leave us here to do family history work and we are relieved.  We then went to Baao and worked with three sisters.  One is a consultant and is an amazing kid.  She is waiting for her mission call.  She told me a boy wanted to court her in high school but he wasn’t a member so she gave him a copy of “Especially for Youth” and told him to read about her standards.  He decided not to go any further.  

Saturday morning we were invited to watch Gloria’s sun perform in a group dance competition.  These people really know how to put on a show.  We know nothing about constumes and pageantry.

The bridge near Baao is being reinforced with bamboo poles.  That must be the strongest wood in this environment.

In the afternoon we went to Sister Hugo’s baptism in Bato.  Her husband is an RM and works in Saudi Arabia as an engineer, so he couldn’t be at the baptism.  We went with the elders to teach her and have done some family history work with her.  She is an RN and they have done very well for themselves.  We may get to meet her husband this Sunday in Nabua.

Busy week!  There is rumor of a tropical storm hitting this region.  It should be north of us.  No worries mate!  Thanks again Tab for doing the hard work and making us look so good!  I love you all!