YSA Party:

These pictures are of a YSA party that we helped organize.  When we met to plan the activities, each Branch was to send a representative.  We told them we would have dinner for them.  When I checked with the YSA rep she said to plan for about 20 people at the planning meeting.  So I made spaghetti for 20.  Only about 6 showed up.  I heard nothing from the YSA rep until about two days before the planed event when I got a text saying that it was all set for 6:30 on Friday night.  Elder Weber and I were a little concerned about how many would show since we hadn't heard any announcements at Church and the planning meeting had such a poor showing.  We though may 20 to 30 kids would come.  Well, on Friday the kids just kept pouring in.  We ended up with about 100 kids there.  We played the pass the orange on the feet game.  They had a ball with that.  The we passed the orange under the chin.  That was really entertaining.  Then we taught them a round dance (which is what they wanted to do) Oh, Johnny Oh, Johnny Oh.  That was really fun also.  Elder Weber met some of the kids who were there on the street the following morning and they said they really had a good time.  Pictures of the party are below.

The one thing they didn't take care of was the refreshments.  No refreshments showed up.  We thought about going out to get something, but what do you pick up for 100 kids when no stores are open, etc.  They didn't seem to miss the food.  A good time was had anyway.

Mamonit is a small village in the Santa Ignacia Zone where Elder Weber has been supervising the renovation a home of a member of the Bishopric there that his family is no longer living in to make it suitable for the missionaries to live in.  There was a lot of work that needed to be done.  A line had to be run and a water meter put in so that running water was in the house.  Additional electricity had to be installed so they could have adequate outlets.  There was a tin roof over the house but the walls inside did not go all the way to the roof and so a ceiling had to be put in.  The CR (Philippine word for bathroom) was just a cinder block room with a cement floor and a bucket flush toilet and a hole in the wall at the floor level for a drain.  So that had to be tiled and a flush toilet  and shower put in.  Then it was all painted.  Much more was done, but too numerous to list.  Anyway these pictures are of the Church building in Mamonit with the clouds in the background and the children playing basketball.  Basketball is a favorite pass time here with all the males.

Notice that the basketball standard is held down with rocks that have been piled on the platform.  I have seen basketball standard made of bamboo and plywood for a backboard.  They are all over the area on the side of the street and they play in the street.  There are  basketball standard in every church parking lot that is used constantly.

I decided to take pictures of the Filipino children.  They are so cute and seem so happy.  It makes me said to see the condition of their teeth.  They drink so much soda (rather than water because the water here is not good) and eat carbohydrate snacks all the time and I guess they have not been educated about oral hygiene.  Anyway, most children have rotted teeth and 99% of the adults have many missing teeth.

We went for a drive when our electricity was turned off by the Filipino Gov. and we had no air conditioner nor fans and we were so hot we needed to cool down by taking a drive in our air conditioned truck.  Some Pictures of the beautiful scenery.

 These are flowers blooming in the front of someone's home.  Beautiful!

 This is a home with a thatched roof.  Most of the homes have corrugated tin for a roof.

The rice workers are using machetes to make the dykes between the rice fields.  Backbreaking work in the hot humid weather.  Notice the beautiful mountains in the distance.

These are pictures of the Branch in Cabaluyan where we visited on July 6, 2014. They do not have a building; only a rented home that has no screens on the windows or doors and no air conditioning.  No separate classrooms. They put a partition down the middle of the room, one side is the class for the adults and the other side is the youth class and the Primary meets in the small little Branch President's office.  One good thing about that Pres. office is that there is a small air conditioner in this room.

These are the young people we are helping to ear money so that they can go on a mission.  The Church requires that they earn 2500 pesos (abt. $65) themselves towards their mission and then the Church pays for the rest of their mission.  This amount of money is almost impossible for some of the young people to earn.  Elder Weber paid them to help him paint a house that was being remolded to bring it up to mission standards for Elders to live in.  They worked really hard.  The money is then given directly to the Bishop or Branch President for their missionary fund.  We are really learning to love these Filipino people.  Some of them are really hardworking.

We celebrated the 4th of July with the Sisters who live next door to us.  We had hot dogs, macaroni salad, chips and s'mores for dessert.  We roasted the marshmallows over the flame on your gas stove.  No fireworks but we had a good time anyway.