We started the week by seeing
new territory. There was some
miscommunication with the Elders who live near Cotnogan and serve in that
branch but we finally connected with them found our way over the mountains to
the Barangay of Cotnogan. A Barangay is
the smallest political boundary in the Philippines. They try to keep it at 1000 people who have an elected Chief and
a council of 7 members for a three year term.
The Barangay Chief in Cotnogan is also the branch president and is
serving his 3rd term. This
is his last term. Their laws allow only
three consecutive terms. President
Oliva says he has had enough and will like the time to catch up at home when
his term is finished in 2016.
He has served as Branch
President for 18 years. Elder Oaks, the
area authority for the Philippines, told him last year that he was half
finished his term as BP. We spent the
afternoon there to get them started on their family history training only to
find his wife is the consultant and is way ahead in genealogy. She is running a remarkable program and
needs no help. Our router couldn’t pick
up a signal there so they only have one computer in the office that the branch
uses but there were young people using it while we were there. The school is across the street and the kids
run into the church after school with the president’s kids. The church is small and not adequate for
their growing branch but certainly has an open door policy.
These are kids in the
building coming to visit us white people.
This
is a picture of the K to Grade 6 community school.
This
is looking down the street toward the local tindahon (store). The street is between the school yard and
the church. Our car is parked in front
of the church.
We
are next to the church at the Barangay office which is the community center and
President Oilva’s office. This is with
the missionaries who do a great job of baby-sitting us. Where ever we go there are elders or sister
waiting to assist us. It is remarkable!
With
Valerie…
These
little boys followed me around but wouldn't let me take their picture. This is the best I could do. They were pretty quick....
We didn’t want to leave this
beautiful barangay in the mountains with such faithful people, but life goes
on. We plan to go to Easter Sunday
there on April 5. I am counting the
sleeps.
We had a brown out on
Wednesday morning. It only lasted two
hours but the scare that we can’t do our family history work without technology
is there. We keep our equipment charged
and can run for about 2 hours on battery, but we need our router to work in
some buildings.
We visited Angelica today. We are so glad she is home from Manila. She is getting baptized on Saturday in Bato
and getting the gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday in Nabua. While sitting in her home a mother duck with
ducklings walked past the door and I had to take a picture.
Corito met us at the church
and did several more names on her family line.
She finally got her temple recommend interview from President
Reeder. She is making plans to get to
Manila temple in December with the branch.
Marylou, her cousin who is endowed, will be her escort for the
trip. The branches rent busses and use
welfare funds to help everyone get to the temple. Paying a generous fast offering is very helpful in this part of
the world. There is just not a way to
earn money here.
We had to hurry into Naga City for business
Friday morning. While waiting for the
mall to open so we could get supplies there was a fire and earthquake practice
drill. We caught the end of it and
heard the mayor’s address. There were
empty plastic bags of fake blood everywhere.
While taking a few pictures I caught some of the “casualties” listening
to the closing address.
While
we were waiting for Sister Jyle to get the church key from Presidnet Botor’s
home, we noticed this electrical wire being supported by a bamboo rod with a
notch on the end. The pole is attached
to the fence post in the yard with lashing.
A
guy with a young water buffalo (caribow) came past the car. He was pulling a bamboo skid. Bamboo is a very durable wood.
Saturday was amazing. I raced into Pili to meet Gardners while
Valerie sun tanned for an hour in the back yard. They delivered two packages from the mission office. Becky is my savior. I now have real clothing, drugs,
supplements…it was better than Christmas.
We will only ask to have the necessities shipped from now on. It was a big box and had some heavy treats in
it. I really enjoyed reading my little
student’s letters and will answer them tomorrow. Thank you Becky! It must
have taken hours to collect and pack.
It is ssoooooooo much
appreciated.
Chelsey also sent a box but
it had been broken into in the states and a flash drive was stolen. The box was torn and crushed. It had been packaged inside a see-through
plastic bag so the address could be seen.
There was an apology note from the US postal service expressing their
regret for the destruction of our property etc… But the treats, cloths and pictures were amazing! Thanks so much for the package and for the
one flash drive that arrived. We
haven’t reviewed it yet. We only had
time to unpack the boxes then we went to Bato to a baptism. I baptized Angelica. We were with the missionaries from the first
lesson with her and have a bond with her.
Valerie gave an excellent talk on baptism and showed how we are to lift
the burdens of others when we are baptized, Mosiah 18:8-10 Alma, at the waters of Mormon, is explaining what it means to be a member
of the church. She had rocks labeled
with each of the burdens we could help people with. She put them in a bucket to show the weight of the burdens then
talked about how to help with each burden and took each rock out to show the
weight of the empty bucket when help others with their burdens.
These are pictures of Elder
Kie (the happy giant from New Zealand), Elder DeLara, Elder Fernandez and the
DL Elder Grospe. I get to confirm
Angelica tomorrow in Nabua group sacrament meeting. She is the first of her Catholic family to join the church. As the oldest child in her family of 8
siblings, it has been difficult for her as her family don’t understand her
decision to be baptized. None of them
would sit in on our lessons. She is
another lesson about courage for me. At
home, if your family disassociates you, you can go somewhere else and live a
good life. Here, generations of
families have to live together to survive.
This type of a scenario happen all the time as the missionaries teach
and the risk to the new member is much greater here. These are the pictures of the baptism.
It is midnight and I have a
report to finish for the district (stake) family history consultant. Thanks again Tabitha for keeping the blog
going. I know it is a big job for you
to insert each picture into the text.
Thanks again so much for the packages from home. As usual, IOU!
Sleep well and know that I
love you.
Since that last entry we have
had a brown out so we had no power in the district to send. On Sunday
in Bato I took a couple of pictures of the this family of boys leaving
the church for home.
The top one is called a
trycee and it has a small motor but he bottom one is cheaper and it is called a
pudjak.
This ends the week on a busy Sunday! We love you all and thanks again for all you
do to support us. We have the best
family ever!
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