We started this week with a
bang. I just finished doing laundry
Monday morning and was ready to Skype with family when I got a text from the
Iriga missionaries and from Sister Reeder.
Elder Tobias had had an accident at a district PD activity and needed to
be taken to a Naga hospital. I left
Valerie talking to Shand and went to Iriga to find the hospital the
missionaries. After getting directions
from 4 different people I found the place by accident. The cities here are a maze to find an
address. I picked up Elder Tobias and
his companion and went to their apartment for supplies. He had fallen on his arm in a sack race and
dislocated his right elbow. We met
Sister Reeder at the hospital. They
know her well there as she is constantly taking missionaries for
treatments. They had to anesthetize him
and relocate his elbow. I stayed there
until he was out of surgery at 4:00 PM.
After buying supplies and doing business in the mission office I went
home to the brown out.
Tuesday was awesome. We took supplies to Elders Gapasin and
Codinera and worked with them for the afternoon. They are so amazing. The
area is mountainous and remote yet they are always the top producers in all the
positive indicators of missionary work.
They walk about 20 km a day in the mountain region of Cotnogan. I told them how much I admired their
determination. Elder Codinera said he
lived in the mountains near Cebo and walked two hours to get to church from his
home. He said he went over two mountains
and crossed two rivers. When the rivers
were flooding he would swim through the flood.
He said his family was the only members in his barangay. They tried to share the gospel with their
neighbors who were partiers. He said
they gambled, drank and had many partners.
His father suddenly decided to move the family and build a new home in
his father’s family’s land in another barangay. The place where they left was totally destroyed by fire a year
after they moved out. He said he knows
Father told his father to move his family just like Lehi who moved out of
Jerusalem which was destroyed behind them.
Wednesday is Nabua day. We worked with a single guy, a returned
missionary, named Nephi. His parents
have been temple workers but his mother passed away a few years ago. He lives with his father. Nephi was an instructor at a tech
college. A few months ago he was in a
hurry to get home to change and get ready to go to a wedding dance and
party. He rides a motorcycle. Most of the motorcycles are about
125cc. They are not big. He said he always wears a helmet but was in
a hurry to get to the dance. He was
moving at 80km and hit a dog. Naturally
he flew through the air and sustained a lot of damage. He has lost the use of his right hand and
has pins in his wrist. He is the
happiest guy ever and laughs at everything.
He said, “The reason I hit the dog was because Ilove to dance.” He said the reason his father looks so
young is because he loves dancing. The
dad is 70 and in very good shape for a 70 year old Filipino. We see him in church every week in
Nabua. This is Nephi doing his family
history work with Valerie IN AN AIR CONDITIONED ROOM!
It is hitting the mid 30s and very humid everyday so a/c is our
best friend. I hope the power does not
go off but the local news says we are being cut off indefinitely on
Sunday. Great! That is the day we get hit with the typhoon,
although the worst of it is north of us, closer to the region Elder Eric
Nielson is serving in. We are very aware of the conditions in that region and
are praying for him and the others in that area.
This is “Holy Week” and the
people take it seriously. They have
parades, public self-floggings, even voluntary crucifixions. We went to a parade in Baao last night. It was very interesting. There were floats with lighting powered by
generators. The floats began with
statues of events from the last few hours of Christ’s life up to the
crucifixion. Each float was followed by
people who were connected to that event.
After the final float about Christ on the cross there were several more
with statues of saints, mostly female. There
was a St. Susana, St. Gloria, St. Maria…each followed by crowds carrying candles. It was not what I expected but very
interesting. Because it was at night
the pictures are not the best quality but you will get the idea. I have just included a few of the clearest
pictures in this blog.
These
are the followers with their candles.
Another
float…Christ chained to a pole with wounds all over his body. They really display the brutality of the
crucifixion.
You
can see the people pulling the cart with the float on it. They were all pulled by people.
The thing I wanted to find
the most was a procession of people whipping themselves and eventually they
actually crucify someone, a volunteer, Friday evening. Missionaries have a 6:00 PM curfew to
protect them from any problems since we stick out so much. The morning news shows 7 faith healers who
were crucified at noon on Good Friday.
As extreme as it is I do respect those who want to show their faith and
dedication in any way. I am not here to
judge. I shouldn't have watched the Da
Vinci Code movie!
We did family history work in
Bato on Thursday and met the most amazing guy, Brother Santiago. He looked like an old farmer; a small man
with oversized hands. As we talked I
learned he is the youngest of five children.
His father died the day this man was born. All five of the kids were college graduates because his mother
put priority on education. I have met
him in priesthood several times and he is always very happy but quiet. Sometimes the language barrier is an
issue. I asked him if he farmed and he
surprised me by telling me he had his B.Sc degree as well as being a certified
(journeyman) welder. He did underwater
welding on drilling rig platforms off the coast of Saudi Arabia for 19 years. The money was sent home to take care of his
family and invest in local real estate.
He has a small farm and some rental property. I will get a picture of this amazing brother next week. When we started talking about drilling rigs
I brought a picture of one up from the interweb and he came to life explaining
how they work and what his function was.
We looked at underwater welding pictures and the language barrier was no
longer there. He had four generations
on paper so we put it on the familysearch website, shared and printed name and
he left with a printed fan chart, a pedigree chart and determination to find
more family names.
There was a district (stake)
Family History Consultant activity at Iriga on Friday. Kimmie, the stake consultant called the
meeting and invited all the consultants to bring a friend to help search named
for. There were several non members but
the internet connection was down so we just walked through it and made
appointments for next week. We are
praying the technology will work or we are at a standstill.
We had a Baao District
Breakfast in our house Saturday morning.
It is transfer day on Tuesday but no one from here will be leaving so we
are having a, “No one is being transferred out of Baao” breakfast, then color
Easter eggs because that is not done here.
They are all world class missionaries.
The American is Sister Killian from Washington state. She is white, 6’1” tall and has been out 6
weeks. I told her when she got here
that she would blend right in so that is our joke.
This is the process…
This
is the artistic aftermath of 2 hours of coloring 18 eggs. They took it very seriously.
These
are the finished masterpieces! We are
so proud!
Elder
Robles made me promise I would send a picture of his Ninja turtle egg to
Canada.
The typhoon is supposed to hit
sometime tomorrow but we are not in the most dangerous area. We are getting rain now but no wind. Sunday is going to be the wet day for
us. We are also rumored to start a long
term brown out on Sunday so we have been preparing.
By the way Mason, I showed
pictures of my family to these girls on Thursday at Bato and the one in the
white shirt, Mariol, is 17 and plans to marry you. The other one, Jeancent is only 12, sorry buddy!
They took my tablet and did a
dozen selfies while Valerie and I were doing family history with a sister in
the air conditioned room. This was the
last one they took before I got my tablet back.
…and that ends another week.
I would like to wait and report on tomorrow, sacrament meeting in Cotnogan, but
I had better send this tonight in case the 3 month brown out hits! I haven’t proof read this one so any
mistakes are purely intentional! I love
my family. Thanks for taking care of
each other!
Thanks again Tabitha for posting this and for
making this look so professional. This
is our mission journal as well as our blog.
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