Thursday, March 28, 2013

Cauyan Building


This little piggy


Daily travel


The Flor Family


Kela Flor


March 28, 2013

This has been a special week for us and for one of our PEF participants.  Kela Flor graduated from La Salle University with a bachelors of Psychology.  She is a wonderful, talented young woman.  Her parents are PEF Church Service missionaries and have their own special story.  So to begin at the beginning of the journey, the Flors married after they both graduated from college. Elder Flor graduated in law enforcement and became a police officer.  Sister Flor graduated with a degree in elementary education yet her desire was to be a stay at home mom and raise her family (we have found that is an oddity here as the women are the ones with professional careers normally).  The Flors quickly had a son Prim, and a daughter Kela.  After several years they were thrilled to have twin daughters and five years later they were blessed with their youngest child, a son.  Shortly after their son's birth, Elder Flor suffered a stroke.  Although he is now able to work as a security guard for the department with only minimal wage reduction, he was unable to work for quite a while, he worked on his rehabilitation.  His balance and strength in his legs have severely suffered although he was able to eventually return to work, his wife had to go to work to support the family and once he returned to work help pay for the medical bills.  Thankfully she had an education and was able to find work as a teacher quickly.  Their children rallied around to help with their father, the meals, the cleaning, laundry, and helping care for Sister Flor's mother who also lives with them and is disabled.  

The family is such  a joy to watch and spend time with as they glow as they share each moment with each other.  Prim, the oldest son has served a mission and is in school to become a civil engineer.  He is engaged to a lovely young woman who is close to becoming a doctor.  Prim is also a teacher at the Institute of Religion.  The twins are twelve and the youngest son is seven. 

Dan and I have only been here nine months and thus have not been of any help with Prim and Kela and their PEF applications, but have grown to love them and their parents.  Surprisingly, though we were invited to Kela's college graduation party. We were thrilled to attend but could not believe we were one of those invited as the small group included family and friends and Kela's Bishop and her seminary teacher.   The party was in a private room in L' Fisher Hotel, the nicest place in town, but also the most expensive.  Tuesday evening we were even more impressed when we arrived to find out the party was also a dinner!  The family also had planned to provide a wonderful program to honor Kela.  The program began with a wonderful musical number by one of the twins and her cousin singing, with Prim and another cousin accompanying the girls on their guitars.  This was followed by dancing by Kela's youngest brother (of course he danced Psy's Gangum Style phenomina). He did a great job, but the amazing thing was to watch Prim (remember Prim is just the big brother), beam with pride as he videotaped his little brother.  If one did not know, one could easily assume Prim to be the dad, with his eyes lit up like Christmas.  After that performance, the twins and one of the girl cousins, joined the dance doing the "Harlem shuffle".  The end of the program was a ceremony where Kela's Dad placed Kela's Cum laude medal around her neck.  Now all this was wonderful, but the sweetest thing was the honor and spoken thanks expressed by every speaker and member of the family for the support Dan and I had provided.  Now, I remind you we have only been here nine months and have done little more than visit their ward, make monthly contacts with Prim and Kela, and support their parents  for their service to PEF.  I do not think I will every understand how the people here love us and treat us as if we are angels.  We are just ordinary people and at home are only the couple who were previously divorced so not really capable of any great service or importance.  Here we are angels and are loved and cherished.  I continue to be amazed by the attitudes and love of the members here.  I always feel so special and loved no matter where we go or what ward we attend.  We are kissed in greeting on our cheeks and  couple times kidded on the backs of our hands out of love and respect.  I just can't imagine how we would be greeted if we were important. 

Finally, to end this narrative, I want to tell about the most spiritual and wonderful part of the story, (right can it get any better). Kela had interviewed a couple of weeks earlier for a dream position with a great company here in Bacolod.  During the interview, Kela was asked if she would be willing to work the night shift.  She enthusiastically assured the interviewer she would work day of night.  Then she was asked if she would be willing to work on holidays, to which she replied she would.  She was asked if she would work Saturdays, again she assured the interviewer she would work Saturdays and happily give 100% on any shift, holidays and Saturday.  Then came the question Kela had worried she would be asked.  Would she work on Sunday.  Kela did not hesitate to answer that she was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and thus could not work on the Sabbath as she attended church with her family on that day and could not break her commitment to the responsibilities she performed at church on Sunday.  We were so proud of Kela and her courage, and prayed fervently with her parents that in the very competitive job market here in the Philippines, that Kela would not be eliminated from consideration for living her religion. You can imagine our joy and Kela announced that she had just earlier received the news that she had been hired to her desired position. She also thanked us for including her in our prayers and said she knew that she was hired due to the faith and prayers of her family and Dan and I.  I was so thankful for the answer to those prayers and wept for joy to be included in this wonderful family's lives, celebration and announcement of Kela's success.  I will always be thankful that our Father in Heaven is mindful of his children, that he loves us, that he answers prayers, and that we have been blessed to serve here in the Philippines among these humble, faithful, loving, happy people.  Even when their lives are so difficult and hard, they are thankful for their blessings and see good and joy in everyday events and blessings.  I hope I take home the ability to love life and family rather than physical things, as taught by these great saints. 

Monday, March 25, 2013

big haul


small ferry


Cauyayan chapel


Police outpost


Police Outpost


Cauyan


Drying rice


Philippine Fruit Stand


Sisters Arnold and Polatis


March 26, 2013


We teach English Conversation class and the Planning for Success workshop which is a requirement prior to making an application for the PEF loan. We also are responsible for contacting all the PEF participants monthly. The good news is we have three missions of participants but two of those missions have local Church Service couple missionaries to do the contacts and visits for us leaving only about 200 for us. The real difficulty is finding the ones who have dropped out of school, stopped paying their monthly commitments and as a result usually go inactive. Thankfully that number is only about 30 and we continue to search for them via ward/branch leaders, internet, Facebook, and going to their last known address. In reality there are no addresses here in the Philippines though. They live in barangays(groups of shacks) and we can just ask if anyone knows them and then try to find them. We have never found anyone that way. I hope before we go home we find one that way. The most successful way is Facebook. I am so thankful for technology. I use it daily!! Well I use it when it is working. The Internet, electricity and water, etc. often goes on the blink and we are left waiting for it to resume. That is when we do the street searching because we just can't bring ourselves to sit in the hot office (part of the Institute) and wait. Our third mission was just added to our area of responsibility in February and we will be visiting the leaders after Holy week (we are told everything closes down here then). The mission is two large islands with the second largest metropolitan area after Manila. We live in a fairly large city called Bacolod, but it is very rural. I am excited to spend time in a real city. When we have gone for training in Manila I have loved it. There are real stores, malls, transportation and a more modern landscape including high rise buildings, unlike where we live. We will train the priesthood leaders there and beg them to call church service couple missionaries to assist in the PEF locally. The Philippino couples rarely can afford to serve couple missions (I have only met two) so the couples love being called, set apart, get real badges, and serve a real mission while they live and work in their own homes. These couples visit all the wards in their stakes to keep in contact with their students and that lightens my burden some. My contacts now cover about 7 larger islands. Prior to getting the new mission we would get to those islands in rotation seems once every three or four months. We expect to spend weeks in the new mission getting the service missionaries called and trained. We are excited about the new addition to our work.

It is summer now in the Philippines so the Institute is quieter and there is less energy here as all the students are off enjoying their time off school and Institute. I have to say I love this weather. It is much less humid so we do not walk around sweating all the time. The Philippino's think it is terribly hot, but it is so nice to have a little less humidity. Of course we are desert rats, so it is not our normal to live in this humid climate.

We have many new missionaries arriving ever couple of weeks. The Philippino missionaries only go to Manila Mission Training Center for two weeks and then are sent to their missions. Due to the lowering of missionary age requirement, the other couple missionaries are finding and furnishing apartments like crazy. In fact they have set up at least twenty new apartments in the last two months alone. They expect that to slow down a bit now. We are not part of that work and do not have to do apartment checks for cleanliness or do any of the moving of missionaries luckily due to the call of PEF. Our Bacolod Mission has 4 other senior couple missionaries that do the normal senior missionary work. Iloilo Mission also have 4 senior couples other than ourselves. Since we have not been to Cebu Mission we do not know how many they have. That mission will be split in July making our mission responsibility four total missions. We are hoping we get all the service missionaries set up before that split, but do not know for sure if that will happen.

 

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Sister Martinez and Palaya from Mansungay Ward


Great traffic ticket ideas for American police


Friendly group


Bamboo load


Panay daughters Sister Molina, Gay, Sister Canimo


March 2013


We have been in the Philippines now nine months (my husband says we are in our 43rd week of missionary service) and it is now officially summer here.  I actually notice it is a little less humid (thankfully) so I am not sweating to death.  This last week our mission area was expanded to include the Cebu Mission. So...our responsibility will include the six islands: Negros (where we live), Panay and Guimarus (called the Iloilo Mission) and Cebu and Bohol and Siquijor (which are currently the Cebu Mission.  In July it will be split into the Cebu and Cebu East missions. The mission president in Iloilo (President Pacaduan) will complete his assignment in July and we will have a new mission president there and in the Cebu West Mission.  I can't believe the growth of the church here.  It is so exciting to be a small part of that history. We are excited to add the new missions because it will give us the opportunities to travel more to new places and there is a temple in Cebu that we can attend. 

Last week the church announced the creation of 58 new missions including the four in the Philippines.  Two of the wonderful priesthood brethren we love and work with, have been called to be mission presidents here.  One is President Torres, who is currently the Institute Director in Iloilo. President Balledos, is currently serving as the Employment Resource Center Director for Cebu.  We were not surprised by their calls as they are great men and will be great mission presidents. They will both be missed in their current positions though.

This last weekend we were in Iloilo to visit with the Pablero couple and attend church there.  The passage on the ferry over was so rough I spent most of the one hour trip (on the fast ferry: Supercat) in the comport room (bathroom). I was a mess. After I finally emptied my stomach the steward offered me "white flower" and a cotton ball and told me to hold the cotton ball soaked in "white flower" under my nose and I would not vomit anymore.  I wish he had given that to me previously, because it really did work and now I carry a small bottle of it in my purse for rough seas.  One the way home there were about five people sick and provided with barf bags, but thankfully I was not one of them as I now know a preventative measure. Usually when we go to Iloilo we take our car on the slow ferry and it takes two hours.  I am so thankful we were on the fast ferry as it would have been horrible to be sick for two hours.  One was bad enough.

 I am also very thankful that the travel to Cebu is by air (40 minutes) otherwise it is an two hour drive across the island, six hour ferry ride and another hour drive into the city, so Cebu Airlines will be our way of travel and we will have to rent a car.  The first few times we travel there we will probably have to stay at least a business week and two weekends to meet all the priesthood brothers and ask them to call senior service missionaries for us.  Then we will have to go again to train them all.  It is so very exciting.  The senior couples we already work with are so thankful to be able to serve missions here in the Philippines as they probably will never be able to afford to serve senior missions otherwise. As a service couple missionary the couples live and serve in their own stake or district, living in their own home and they continue to work their full time jobs. What a real blessing that is for them and their families.  They also do not have to be senior couples (they can and many do have young children).

Today we began teaching the second batch of Planning for Success for the June school start date.  We think we will only have two classes both in Bacolod (one on Tuesday morning and one on Saturday).  That will be less stressful than driving twice a week to give the classes.  We also have service missionaries starting to teach the same workshop and we will sit in on a couple of them to give the couples support. I am so grateful for the service missionaries who truly lighten our load.  They help teach the workshops, make monthly contacts for us in their areas and support the students locally.  I know there is no way I could contact all the students in our five missions without their help.  With their help I am only responsible to contacting 100 of the 400 participants we have currently.  Cebu missions have 172 participants currently and they will be mine to contact monthly until we have service missionaries there locally called and trained.  I love the interaction with the participants as many have become very close to us and are doing so well with their educations.  I bet I will have as many Philippino Facebook friends as I do American before my time is over here.