Blog 50: February 1 to 12, 2016

That’s right…I am that far behind.  This is going to be brief but concise because I want to catch up today.  We are taking today to plan and catch up.  On Wednesday the 3^rd we did a training in Libmanan with 2 new elders, Bactad and Golez then went for ice cream.  I got Sister Watson and I each a Magnum bar and told them to get whatever they wanted.  The grabbed a carton of ice cream and went to the till so we bought it for them.  They went straight home for lunch from there.

On Thursday we trained Elder Elmario in Pasacao who Elder Gaser is training.  We set up some plans for the FH event on Saturday.  Elder Elmario is on my left.  Elder Tokoragi is the elder in the long sleeves.  He is a professional fighter like his father.  They both fight in the ring for a living.  They are MMA (Mixed martial arts) experts.  He if from French Malaysia so he speaks Tagalog and French.  He understands English but doesn’t speak it very well.  I love those men but Elder Toloragi is very special to me.  He in on the end in the green tie.

On Friday we picked up the Sisters in Pamplona on route to the zone training in Sipocot.  Both siste Watson and I presented ideas to the zone then waited for their training to end.  We ate at the church then trained Elder Villabobos from Ragay and Elders De Lara the ZL in Sipocot and Elder Taholo.  We love being with the missionaries at zone meetings and catching up with the ones we know.

We took a short cut home through Naga to miss the rush traffic.  We had to go to the mission home to borrow the projector from President Reeder.  We arrived just as a big American guy, his wife and four Filipinos were at the gate.  We visited with the group while waiting for the projector.  He served here in 1975.  It was the Philippines north mission then and he had some wild stories.  There were only 300 members south of Manila then.  We went days without a companion at transfer time so their house boy, Willy, who still works for the church was his companion.  He got a pig as collateral from a loan to a member that lived in the house with them.  They eventually butchered it and ate it.  He loved his mission experience.  The people with him were members he baptized and have since brought hundreds into the church.  They are all ward and stake leaders.  There are Three stakes and two districts with over 10000 members in Naga mission boundary now.  He couldn’t believe it.  He has been very successful working as a head hunter for Intel corp.  One of his companions is a multimillionaire from becoming the wall nut king of California.  Another became mega rich from patenting the Styrofoam egg carton.  Many missionaries from the Philippines have become extremely successful.  I am still waiting.

The FH Event in Pasacau was late starting but went very well.  We need to motivate them to do another.  Here are some pictures of that event.  This is Sister Watson beginning the videos before many people showed up.  The power was off when we got there and we made plans to do a dry run without the electronics.  The power came on for less than an hour so we could do our video presentation then use the laptops until their power ran out.  It was miraculous how the timing was perfect for power to be available.

This is a class helping members do searching.  

This was the beginners class.  They are beginning to write their family stories in the my family booklet so it can be scanned into family search.

The Pamplone sisters did a class with the primary so the parents could participate with us.

We went to church in San Fernando so we could meet the brother that makes the bolos, or etaks ro Machetes depending on your language.  He was there but doesn’t speak English so we made arrangements with the missionaries to go with us to meet him at his home and translate for us.

On Monday I spent time working on the van and making a brief talk for a funeral tomorrow in Buhi.  Sister Merly Olivaras, a cousin to President Olivaras passed away this week.  She has been failing for a while although  she was only 56 years old.  The cause of death was complications from diabetes and a kidney stones.   She left her husband and four children who are aged 22 to 30.  Her husband was very distraught.  The chapel was full but only 6 branch members were present.  The rest were Catholics who are from Sister Merly’s barangay.  Two youth missionaries and me talked.  We all said the same thing and it was a great spirit there.  The people told President Olivaras that it was so different from a Catholic funeral and it felt good.  They are mountain people and very few speak English but can understand.  I saw several nod their heads as I spoke.    It is normal here to have your picture taken like this in the chapel with the family of the deceased.  This is the missionaries, branch leaders and the family with Sister Merly.

We went to the entombment in the rain.  Each of the container on the right hold a body. 

On Wednesday we went back to Pamplona to work with the sisters.  They were on splits so there was Sister Stackhouse with a member girl named Angel who is preparing to go on a mission.  They speak Becol here, not Tagalog so Angel translated for us.  We went to visit a sister who lost her husband two weeks ago.  We took a trycee to Pamplona centro because the road is under construction and our van couldn’t make it.  There were 9 people in the trycee!  It us just a covered side car on a Honda 100 scooter.  It cost us 8 pesos each which is about $0.22

This is a new trycee behind us heading up to Pamplona.  Where do the 9 people sit/stand/squash? 

From the trycee we got on a “skate” which is a homemade, illegal motorized cart they lift on to the rail road tracks and go.  When two skates meet they stop and one lifts his skate off and let the other go by.

This the skate in front of us.

We have some videos of us on the skate.  Sister Watson loved to feel the wind on her face.  I love to feel the wind blow my…scalp!

This is Sister Stackhouse and Angel washing their legs off after we crossed a swamp to get to the member’s house.  After two meetings school had let out so the kids followed us.  They don’t see white people back into the jungle this far so we were popular.  The sisters did some action songs with the kids on the street.

This a big file to send with all the pictures so I will end it now.  We love you all!! I love to feel the wind blow my…scalp!