This is the scripture I have
chosen to ponderize this week. The
explanation may not mean much to you as it is an excerpt from some scripture
study Shand and I are doing on line. It
is his perspective and I find it fascinating.
Romans 8:26
Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we
should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us
with groanings which cannot be uttered" Joseph Smith commented "with
strivings that cannot be expressed".
While this scripture talks about how, sometimes we are praying on
our own agenda, and we don’t always know what we SHOULD appropriately be
praying for, to me this scripture also references a beautiful principle/scenario.
That while, none of us on this earth has any recollection of our own personal
pre-existence experience (who we were, what it was like to live with God) deep
down in each of us is an eternal soul, that DOES. That deep down within each
one of us are the desires of a soul that is not only eternally longing to go
back home (like a spiritual home sickness) but also knows who you really are.
It is a pre-existent innateness.
Naturally I did the wash on Monday. There is some air movement so it dries very
quickly. It is a light breeze but they
call it wind. In this heat it is like a
blast furnace. It gets up to about 35
degrees every afternoon but the breeze really helps. Monday evening we had a family home evening at Cotnogan with the
Oliva family. It was a special event
because their son, Aaron is home for a week’s vacation from Manila where he
works two jobs. They are such wonderful
people. President Oliva interviewed
each of his children and advised them on what he expected. It was interesting that he told Aaron that
now he had a job he must be ready for a tithing settlement in December. All the kids were very respectful of their
father. After the brief discussion
about how to recognize the Holy Ghost we had a full meal with mountains of rice
with a vegetable broth and pork adobo.
I love adobo! While we were
getting out of the car at the school yard to walk across the rice fields to the
Oliva home I got a beautiful picture of the moon. All the school yards have flags flying for all of the united
nations. Canada was number three in the
line. You can see a flag in the
picture.
On
Tuesday we had to take some supplies to President Botor’s home in Baao. It is a little trail that is just big enough
for our car but our Toyota car has no clearance so we scrape the bottom and
knock the front and rear panels off continually. I had to get a picture of the Cock Fighting Arena near the Botor
home. Cock fighting is a huge sport and
every barangay has an area. We live in
barangay La Medalla about two hundred
yards from the local arena. There are
fights there twice a week. Occasionally
we see guys carrying dead roosters home from the fights. There is a lot of heavy betting at the
fights. This sign says, “Baao Square
Garden Cock Fighting.” Two women in the
tindahon on the right think I am crazy for taking a picture of it. They don’t see white people here.
On
Wednesday we went back to Cotnogan to a family party for the first anniversary
of her father’s death. There was a lot
of family there and it was very well organized. This is sister Oliva.
She
organized a short meeting to recognize relatives for five generations of her
father’s family. I was asked to speak
and did a 3 minute reference to eternal families.
Olivas
are the only members so there was a lot of partying. The women danced and the men watched just like home.
There
was a huge speaker system and the music was loud. While we were between eating and the program I took some selfies
with the Oliva family. This is Jared
who lives in Cotnogan and is a great friend of mine. He is a priesthood leader and great father and husband.
The
women cooked constantly and fed a full meal every hour or two. This is some of the kitchen girls making
spaghetti while we were eating our way through rice and meat broth.
This
is the stove!
It was a great day and we
stayed about four hours. We are the
only white people in the whole district so we get a lot of attention and
amazing respect. These are such lovable
people. There was big group of men and
women who just stayed together and drank.
They had been drinking all day but no one ever got angry, no fighting or
yelling. They love to have fun so they
just party on.
November 29 Happy Brithday Rachel!! We haven’t been able to get on line to send
you a birthday wish but we are thinking of you today and miss you tooooo
much. Please keep taking care of your
weird parents for us! We love you.
I finally got the car washed
on Thursday morning. We spent the
morning finalizing some lessons for tonight at Buhi and tomorrow with the
Canaman zone training.
We have been running every
morning this week but my knee is getting worse. Even with the brace it hurts constantly but I resting it doesn’t
help so we will keep running 8 km every morning and working on our weights,
rocks.
Valerie woke up sick today. We leave at 5 AM in the dark and get home
about 6:45. She ran but came straight
home to bed. I can handle tonight by
myself but she has half the training class tomorrow. But life goes on so after preparing and packing for our training
tomorrow we went to Buhi at 4:00 PM to meet with the missionaries for a family
home evening with the Abordo family who lost little baby May two weeks
ago. They are doing remarkably well and
dealing with the pain thanks to the comforter, the Holy Ghost. We had a spiritual thought and a short
lesson about how to know the Holy Ghost is influencing us then we played some
games. They are young parents so they
enjoyed the games we played with the group that the kids loved. We played two Filipino games. One was where a blindfolded person in the
center of the circle is spun around then points to the outside circle and says
the name of an animal and if you the one selected you make that sound. If the person in the middle can guess who
you are, you get to be blindfolded. As
simple as it sounds it was remarkably fun.
The adults had more fun than the kids.
They love to have a good time.
We were outside on a patio on a main highway so the traffic was
distracting but it had cooled down to about 32 degrees so it wasn’t killer
hot. It gets dark at about 5:45 PM so
there isn’t much light for my tablet camera.
Because we are only a few degrees north of the equator the days are
always about the same number of hours of sunlight and darkness. This is part of the group at the Abordo FHE.
These
are cousins and other family that haven’t been up close to a white person
before.
There is no real seeding and
harvest season on the rice and corn farms here but there is a lot of rice
cutting and thrashing going on right now.
I can’t send videos but I have many collected and plan to put together a
farming presentation. We think we are
feeding the world at home but since all of Asia eats rice three meals a day,
they don’t eat beef and their population alone is three times the rest of the
world I have humbled myself to realize that Alberta is a very small part of
feeding a fraction of the world. We
just think we are big and wonderful but Asia doesn’t need us and doesn’t know
we exist. I wonder how many other
countries are the same like Africa, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. We had better keep our trading relationship
with the USA healthy because we need their business. I fear the Alberta NDP government and the Federal Liberals
platforms but there is no place to run so we stand and fight!
Friday was a full day of
training missionaries to use Family History as a finding and teaching
tool. We did a full presentation with
notes, video instruction, power point and live role plays. The missionaries are so fun to work
with. We then had a catered lunch of
mixed vegetables, fried chicken and of course, mountains of rice. This had chicken gravy so it was extra good
for 120 pesos a plate which is $2.90 CAD.
This Sister Bakly and Sister Bagio with other
sisters we have not worked yet.
This
is my little buddy, Elder De Lara who is now a Distirct Leader but worked in
Nabua with him when he was still in diapers.
He was one of the Bato district that helped us break up about two acres
of farm land for Brother LeMud who has only one eye and one leg. We tilled his farm with a pick and shovel
but got it done in two days. I had to
give Elder DeLara a tune up that day.
That is the second picture below as a reminder.
This
is what happens when you don’t listen to me.
Ask any of my past students from school! This is me helping Elder DeLara to understand instructions.
We got the business done In
the city on Friday and got Valerie home to rest but not for long. She stayed in bed while I got up Saturday
morning to deliver packages from home to two elders in Bato and Cotnogan. It is Halloween today and All Saints day
here so the traffic was crazy. It took
over an hour to go 15 km but I got the packages delivered like the UPS
service. I got home in time to pack up
for a 1 PM Family History Event for
Iriga 1 and 2 branches. No one got
there until 2 PM but that is what we expected.
The event and classes went very well.
It poured with rain while we were in sessions which is odd for this time
of year apparently.
This is the class on Indexing that was held in
the chapel after our general session on powerpoint.
The
elders helped me with the beginner’s class on getting started with your family
history on the tree chart of the My Family Booklet.
Kimie
did a very good session in the FH library on Searching in the Philippines.
The sisters did the session
with the primary kids. Naturally we ate
after the event.
Today is Halloween but that seems to be a North
American tradition. Stores decorate for
Halloween as a sales promotion but Christmas decorations have been up for a
month so it is weird. Sales staff were
dressed as witches and goblins. They do
a great job of decorating and costuming.
The Asian tradition is to have ALL SAINTS DAY. The people spend all week repainting and decorating the above
ground tombs of family. There are
hundreds of flower vendors on the streets and in tents in the centro. The people bring food and stay overnight at
the cemetery to remember loved ones. I
think It is an awesome idea. I wish
more people knew that they could not only honor their ancestors but save them
as well. That is why we are here. This is a picture of the vendors and the
above ground graves with candles on them.
Each box has the bones of loved ones in it. This was at dusk so the lighting is low. The cemetery is between Iriga and Baao.
While driving to buhi for church today we passed a few more cemeteries with the same scene and hundreds of flower and candle vendors. The cemetery is on the right side of the highway.
Transfers are on Tueday so it is a sad time for us. We have to wait who we are losing but we also say good bye to the missionaries going home. This is the STL for this district, Sister She has served so diligently and has been an example of what missionaries should accomplish. What a great kid. We will miss her.
Today in Buhi we had to say good bye to Elder Cayago who also goes home. He has done so much for this branch and had been the reason the Ibayugan group got started. I love this man. I am helping him smile. President Olivaras is with us.
We have been in the FH room
with the members from Ibayugan for the last two hours. Sister Watson is in there with another
sister right now. We had a house full
in there because they come to church on fast Sundays only. They have their own group as part of the
Buhi branch.
This is a big file. I have many more pictures but this will likely take a while to
send so this ends another week. We miss
you all and love you. Tabitha got two
more of my blogs posted this week but is still way behind. She has started a new job and is still
getting her business going. She is
doing a great job of posting this for us.
Thank you all for your sacrifices for us.
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