October 1, 2014


Here are some more pictures of some varied scenes.

They are very advanced here in the Philippines.  You can chose a toilet that fits the size of your behind.

Filipino's attempt at English.  They have a problem with verb tense.

I have never seen so many ducks!

We love the mountains here.  Maybe they remind us of home. They are different but still very beautiful.

This is a combine harvesting rice.  The rice is dried on the street.  So you not only have to dodge the other traffic and animals, now you have to try to not drive over the rice that is spread out on the streets.  That is not always possible.

You occasionally something of beauty in the midst of all the not so beautiful surroundings.

Container gardening in the Philippines.  We see things growing in bags all the time.

Came home one day and we had rice drying on our drive way and front yard.

Some more pictures of the cut children here in the Philippines.  We went to a funeral of the father of one of the YSA's in Branch 1 and these children were there.

These men are mixing cement on the street, then putting it into buckets and hoisting it by hand to the second floor.  The Filipino method of construction.  The picture was taken out of the care window.

After we did some repair work at these Elder's house, we took them to lunch.  They introduced us to a little restaurant in Paniqui.  We like it so much we went back again the last time we were in Paniqui. 

This is Elders Sorilla on the left and Elder Webster on the right.  

I noticed this shack when we first came here because we drive by it on the way to our house.  I couldn't believe anyone could live in this.  For some reason I had very tender feelings for these people.  Then one Sunday I noticed the women and little girl showed up at Sacrament meeting.  I couldn't believe it.  I asked the Sister missionaries about it and they told me they were members of the Church.  The sisters were teaching their son who I believe they said was 22 years old.  The teach him on the street. The father is also a member and he was at church also, but I didn't recognize him because I had never seen him before.  He works giving massages in the Palanke.  They have five children who at various times I guess live in this shack.  I don't know where they all sleep.  Count your blessing.

October 1, 2014

This past week was Family Week in the Philippines.  The two Districts here in Camiling had a Fun Walk which we participated in and they following the Fun Walk they had a "blood letting".  Bet you didn't know that blood letting was still being practiced in the world.  It was really a blood drive.  Anyway we thought it was kind of funny to hear it referred to as a blood letting.  Here are a few pictures from the Fun Walk.

This is President Carino.  He is the Branch President of the Camiling Branch 4, the Branch that our home is in here in Camiling.

The taller gentleman is President Tabelisma.  He is President of the San Clamente Branch.  We had a police escort and they stopped the traffic as we crossed each intersection.  There are no stop lights or stop signs at intersections.  It is just a free for all at each intersection. 

These are members of Camiling Branch 4, our home Branch.

Trying to get lined up to  go.  The Walk was supposed to begin at 6 am.  At 6:10 we woke up and wondered if we could still make it in time to walk.  We decided to get ready and go and see if they were still at the Chapel.  We got there about 30 minutes late and as you can see from the pictures, they had not started yet.  We thought that might be the case judging from other events we have been to.  There are three time elements here.  The announced time, Filipino time which is whenever they get ready to start, and Mission Time which is 10 minutes is on time, on time is late. 

I am not in any of the pictures because I am taking the pictures, but here is Elder Weber with some members and the signs that some of the members had made to carry in the Walk.

The Sister on the left is Lisa, the Branch Presidents wife and also the Sister who does our laundry.  The sister in the pink hat is Tina (don't know her last name).  She sells pork in the palanke (market).  They are both in our Branch 4.  The truck on the right in the background is our truck.

We attended a couple of baptisms on Saturday, October 20, 2014.  These are some pictures from the baptism.

The tall Elder in the back is Elder Horsburg. He is from Australia.  He served in Cabaluyan Branch. He was transferred at the last transfer.  This is a very difficult area.  They do not have a Chapel, just a rented house where they meet.  They really struggle with having active Priesthood holders.  The Sisters are Sister Brady (who was also transferred) and Sister Lamera who serve in the San Clemente Branch. All of these children are over the age of nine so they are considered convert baptisms.  The Elder next to Elder Horsburg is Elder Daplin who kids all the time that he is only 12 years old, and that is really what he looks like.  But he is really a hard working missionary.

This is Elder Kisor and Bro. Puyat (who is a short term missionary).  They were serving in the Birbira Branch. Bro Puyat does not have his call yet so he is Brother and Elder and has since gone home at the last transfer.  The mission often uses short term missionaries who are preparing to go on missions and is a means of giving them some training and an idea of what serving a mission will be like.  These short term missionaries are really an asset because sometimes for one reason or another we do not have enough missionaries to keep all the areas open.  Elder Kisor has a beautiful tenor voice and sings for us frequently.  He is from the Cincinnati area,

This is Sister Anderson who was transferred last week and her companion Sister Batican.  They had been teaching these children for about six months and their baptism was moved up to Tuesday so that Sister Anderson who felt she would be transferred could be here for it. Sister Anderson and Sister Batican live next door to us.  The little girl who was baptized is the cousin of the little girl pictured below.

This is Gwynth.  She is nine years old.  We made friends when we first got here.  She was at the Chapel and is one of the few children who speak English and speaks especially fluently.  We have become quite good friends.  She tells me that her father works in Afghanistan and is only home a few weeks each year.  This is very common here in the Philippines.  It is one of the reasons why enough Priesthood in the Church is such a problem.  Many fathers and husbands work abroad somewhere to earn money and send it home to their families.  One family in Branch 1 has a mother works on another Philippine island a long ways away from here.  There are 10 children in that family, mostly males.  Several have served missions, one just left to serve and another is preparing to serve.  One of their boys served in the Salt Lake City Mission and now he wants to go back to the US but he is need to help support his family and also he doesn't have the money to go.  These families make great sacrifices for each other.  I'm not sure how a marriage works when you are separated so much from your spouse.