Yesterday we spent the day helping transport the new missionaries from the airport to the mission home. There were thirty missionaries, twenty of them sisters. They are so excited to finally be here in the Philippines. Elder Minson, (whose father grew up with Ruth Ann Beardsley) arrived with them and it was wonderful to finally meet him. I gave him a big hug and took pictures to send to his parents. They have been our Facebook friend since he received his call. Because there were so many arrivals, the Rasmussen couple and Dan and I had to split up and drive separate vehicles to get all the missionaries into Bacolod. The new missionaries spend the day in the Mission Home getting oriented and trained. The first evening they sleep in a hotel nearby and then meet their new companions in the morning. So I drove a four door truck with a shell on it to protect the luggage. The next morning we again picked the missionaries up and take them to the chapel to meet their companions. Then we also helped take the missionaries to their apartments.
I have only driven rarely, because of the crazy driving here, and was a bit nervous to drive an unfamiliar vehicle in this crazy traffic law-less city. I did great! in fact I pulled a couple of totally Philippine driver moves, like using two slow moving jeepneys in the way to turn left! Dan was impressed with that move!! So was I! I do not know how that happened except I saw the opening and went for it. No I did not get in a collision either.
The new missionaries are so special and excited to be here. Unfortunately, it rained all day, but the new missionaries were inside most of the time and thus did not get wet. Now today it was sunny so they could travel in good weather. We are so thankful for the new young missionaries and love them tremendously.
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Sister Teunaia and Palai
Sister Teunaia and Siter Palai from Kiribati. We will miss them so very much!!!
Sixth Ward Relief Society choir and their novice leader
You know the ward is in trouble when they ask me to direct them!
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Tanjay drag race
Sunday July 21, 2013
Today is our 29th wedding anniversary and we are in
Dumaguete, Philippines. We attended
church in the Dumaguete 2nd Branch and were warmly welcomed. We visited with the young missionaries there
and were so impressed with them and their enthusiasm even though they are less
fortunate than other missionaries. The
Cebu mission has two couples but not one is in Dumaguete so the Zone
leaders have to do the things that 6 senior couples do here in Bacolod Mission. They have to find
the missionaries apartments, appliances and teach them all the procedures when
the missionaries arrive. Saturday, the
day before, two new sisters arrived to Dumaguete. They have the same trainer. The zone leader
had found them an apartment, but they did not have a refrigerator or a cook
top. During church one of the members
offered a fridge and they were going to take it to the sister's apartment after
church.
There was one elder there and he did not have a companion
with him so we asked him about it. He
said he had two young men as his companions that Sunday because his companion
had to go to the small island of Sequijor, where there is only a group of
members. The first time we heard about
Sequijor we were told they had 7 members of the church there. A month later we
learned that they now have 15 members attending and many investigators. But in order to take care of the Sacrament
one of the Zone leaders has to go to the island to be the second priesthood
holder to officiate. The Cebu Mission
also had twenty sisters arrive last week and the president had to extend two
sisters time for another six weeks to help with training and all the training
sisters have two brand new companions to train at once.
The best part of this day thought came in the
afternoon. We were to meet with
President Calumpang of the Tanjay District to train on PEF at 4:00p.m. We left
Dumaguete for the 45 minute drive with time to spare, thankfully. We got to Tanjay and were directed to a
detour. We knew we were not far from the church and were hoping we
did not pass it. When we got to the
other side of the detour we were told we could not go the way we needed to go
and would have to take another detour. The other detour took us back to the
first detour. What to do? We parked the
car and text the President to tell him we were walking to the chapel. The entire city of Tanjay were lining the
streets to watch motorcycle drag racing
down the national highway. The
highway is just a two lane road and the community were lined up and down both
sides of the street. We walked about a
half a mile through the crowd of people to get to the church. I am not sure you can imagine we were the
only white people around and to stand out even more, we were in Sunday dress,
me in a dress, Dan in a white shirt and tie. Everyone we passed said,
"good afternoon". We were walking
at a good clip to get to our meeting on time and as we would pass a group of
people everyone would stare and giggle at us as we snaked our way through the
crowd toward the building. When we finally arrived the president was so
thrilled that we overcame the obstacle to meet with him. We had a lovely training and the District
president already has a couple in mind to serve as PEF church service
missionaries. We were so excited.
After the meeting was over we had to again walk back to our
car. This is when we actually saw the racing.
The race is one bike going as fast as it can through the crowds (who are
standing on the pavement along both sides of the highway). I think they must go by time as they have one
cyclist at a time drive down the street.
Talk about being a peculiar people.
We stood out so very much as we walked through the crowds back to our
car, not so fast this time. I stopped to talk to each of the children and some of the teenagers as we made our way to
the car. Everyone also called out
"good afternoon" as we
approached and then they would chuckle and comment about how beautiful I was,
being the only white woman. I just think
it is so funny that just my skin color and lack of black hair makes me
beautiful even though I am old enough to be most of the spectators grandmother.
I guess this would be the true missionary experience in the
Philippines as the young missionaries have to walk or take tricycles where ever
they go. We are so fortunate to have a
car and normally drive to every location.
I have to say the young missionaries are so faithful and energetic and a
real blessing in our lives here as they fill a large void as I miss my family
so very much. I know though that I am changing the lives of young people each
day with our PEF assignment and I feel so blessed to be able to serve during
this time in my life.
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Monday, July 15, 2013
July 2013
July, 2013
Only nine months of our mission left! It is rainy season so
it has rained most evenings. I do not
mind when it rains if we are already home for a couple of reasons. The first is we do not get wet, and the
second is for some reason the dogs next door are quiet during the rain and we
can get a complete night's sleep without the barking serenade.
We have been very busy this last month. We were in Iloilo for the Priesthood cluster
meeting and then took a few days off to stay on Boracay Island. After returning from Iloilo we began teaching
the Planning for Success Workshop again.
It is on Tuesday morning and is four weeks long.
The Employment Resource Center holds a Career and Self
Employment Workshop that lasts a week.
The founders of the program is Brother Mel and Sister Bette Gibson. They were hear from Salt Lake City and we
were able to meet them and have lunch with them. They had a bit of information for us on the
new training that is being provided for the new ERC-PEF, missionaries. They are doing one of the training sessions
at the MTC. They are a fun couple and we were excited to meet them.
We also had Franco Avencula and Elder and Sister Tenny from
Manila, and Sister Maryann from Cebu here last weekend to train our Church
Service Missionaries. After they arrived on Friday afternoon we took them to
see the ruins prior to dinner and transporting them to their hotel. The next day we had a full day of
training. At the end of the day Dan
dropped me off at the Bacolod Sixth Ward building as I am helping them with
their ward choir for Ward conference. You
know they in real trouble when they have to ask me to help. Their normal choir leader is in Cebu having
Cancer treatment and since I am a missionary even though I told them I have not
done it before they asked me to help.
Dan then showed the Tenny's, Maryann and Franco our home before taking
then to the airport to return home.
Yesterday, the young missionaries were here for their Zone
Activity. I love having them here
because is lets me feel like I am being a mom and grandma for just a little
while. I love having the opportunity to visit
with them and feed them. They are the
nicest bunch of young people. We had
about twenty missionaries here from the Bacolod Central Zone. Two of the sisters are from Kiribati, a
country I had not known anything about prior to meeting the sisters. They are closely related in culture to
Polynesia but are part of the Micronesia area of the world. Sisters Palai and Teunaia are both completing
their missions in two weeks and I will miss them so very much. Also in our Zone we have the Smoot
cousins. They are so cute and both from
Utah. It is fun to see them
together. We also have Sister Davis a
tall, fair, blond who has been having great success here. Sister Sanders is
also very special to us. Actually, we
love all the elders and sisters, but feel especially protective of the young
sisters. Tomorrow we are having lunch with Sister Martinez and her companion
since we miss her so much after he transfer. Yes we adore the elders too.
Elders Eagan, Cheney, Johnson, Mifflin and Pulsipher are all from the United
States and are leaders and office elders.
Then we have the Philippine elders, Elder Galanza, Dy, Dulam, and
Gorospe. To round out our group we also
have Sisters Manosig, Vargas and Libria all from the Philippines. We had a small lesson, lunch, and watched a
church history video. The visiting was
the best part though and is a real emotional lift for the missionaries old and
young.
Also this month we both have been fighting colds, mine
turning into a sinus infection. I am
working through the second round of antibiotics which I hope will finally turn
the tide and allow me to feel normal again.
Luckily, we are not traveling now and will be home until August. Most of our Church Service Missionaries are
ending their time of service so along with trying to get Cebu Church Service
Missionaries called, we need to train the new missionaries here in Bacolod and
Iloilo Missions. We have two new Mission
Presidents to meet also, President Aguino in the Iloilo Mission and President
Tanner in the Cebu East Mission. So
August will be full of those commitments.
Love to all. I love
you
PS. A special thank you in advance to Colleen for being substitute
grandma for Jackie and Caleb when the new baby is born. What would I do without our Sheldon family??
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