Just a small load!

July 18, 2012

We are beat!!! Our weekends are non-stop.  Here is last week's rough schedule

Monday: Preparation day but we were traveling back from ILoilo (last two weekends) So we get back to the offfice and try to call the Apple Facetime family, (only reached Caleb and Jackie) went grocery shopping, did laundry, washed the car, cleaned, changed the sheets, cleaned the bathrooms, etc. Luckily we got to meet Jing's (the yard and house caretaker's) wife and 6 mo. old daughter today also.  Will post their pictures.

Tuesday: Teach or help teach "Planning for Success" in Bacolod in the morning.  Work on contacting participants and leaders before language tutoring in the afternoon.  Departure meeting  from 5:00p.m until about 8:00 pm with Mission President and departing elders and sisters who are returning home from their missions.

Wednesday: May become our Preparation day as it is the only day we have not had some big meeting or responsibility, other than our regular PEF daily responsibilities. Unfortunately, we were both exhausted today and suffered with stomach issues!

Thursday: Work in the morning but then drive the two hours to San Carlos to teach "Planning for Success" there at 2:00 p.m. Then try to get back over the mountain before dark.  It is a taxing drive due to the winding roads full of animals, people, vehicles (jeepneys, tricycles, cars and busses; most without lights on).

Friday: Always a slow start after Thusday and after work we have language training and try to meet with our service missionaries.

Saturday: Drive an hour plus to La Carlota to teach "Planning for Success" at 9:00 am. Then drive back to the house to pack for the ferry ride to Iloilo.  The ferry takes an hour.  Taxi to hotel. Walk down the street to Jolibee's for dinner (chicken and rice). Then to bed

Sunday: Picked up at hotel for smaller ferry to Guimaras Island for a branch conference in a rented home with no air-conditioning and then a one hour evaluation and training session. We did not think to bring any water so besides being hot and sweaty we were also very thirsty.  Then were driven to a actual small meeting house in Jordan (pronounced Hore-dan) and spoke in a meeting there.  Still not water.  Got back to the ferry to return to Iloilo at about 5:00p.m. Rehydrated before walking to dinner and then to sleep.

I am tired just writing it up.  We still need to meet the Priesthood leaders in Binalbagen, Sigay and Sipalay, if and when we ever reach them by telephone to arrange a time.  Otherwise we will have to try and go to visit them on free Sundays.  This Sunday we will drive to Cadiz to meet their leaders.  It is about three hours north on the worst road ever!  I will try not to complain about Tucson roads when I get home because they are wonderful.  Our poor little car will be destroyed after only three missionary couples due to the roads!

So, that was this week.  No matter how tired we feel we are still thrilled to be here.  I do miss talking and texting with our family though!!!! Love each of you so much!!!

Our outgoing Mission President, President and Sister Tobias on the left and our new Mission President, President and Sister Lopez on the left (As you may be able to tell the Lopez are from Honolulu Hawaii! Aloha

Sunday July 8,2012

This morning we are taking the ferry to Iloilo.  Just prior to the safety instructions, which is shown on a television screen, there is a power point with an angel filling the screen as a modern version of the Lord's Prayer is spoken while the words fill the screen.  This is to protect the ferry as it travels across the channel between the islands.  The first time we traveled on the ferry I thought it was a little strange.  This morning though I found it touching and sweet.  The Philippino people are simple and warn and their lives are surrounded by the serenity of nature.  The earth, sky, water, fire and people are the constant in their lives.  They live with fire to cook, warm and clean.  Water also is to cook, clean, satisfy, sustain plant life and provide travel.   Although their lives are simple they are happy and content with life.  Even the poorest people readily smile and share all that they have.  I hope they never lose their warm and spiritual nature even when the day comes when the gospel, education, and modern world comforts dispel the poverty of this land.

Yesterday as we were waiting for our meeting to begin in San Carlos we were visiting with Brother and Sister Montemayor.  They are natives of the Philippines, but went to BYU Hawaii and then BYU in Provo for graduate work.  Brother Montemayor also completed his training  in California, prior to their return to the Philippines.  As we visited Sister Montemayor was talking about the use of time and how most Philippino people are not concerned with time and thus often meetings start late.  In fact we were waiting for the presiding priesthood leader to arrive so we could begin our meeting.  Brother Montemayor was able to reach him by phone and he asked us to proceed without him as he was detained.  We laughed about the casual nature of time here and compared it to our Hispanic friends and wards in Tucson and the Mormons in general, "Mormon standard time".  No one seems to be in a hurry and things just flow along without urgency.  The Montemayor's said it was a real bother to them when they arrived as they felt when anyone is on the "Lord's errand", they are on the "Lord's time" and that time should not be wasted.

I was pondering this concept and realized that the "Lord's time" is indeed "His time", not my time! The time we have spent here has been full of "hurry up and wait". But in the quiet of the work the Lord is whispering His will and opening paths for this great work.  All that has needed to be accomplished and more is accomplished.  Often we meet even more people than we have set appointments with during this wait time.  I have decided that I will not think of this time as wasted and ponder,   and be prepared to listen to His spirit and then follow the path he has prepared and opened for us.  He is the Master, He is the way, this time is His time and I will use the Lord's time as he ordains. 

Saturday we left home at 5:00 am to travel to Escalante for a Planning for Success workshop there.  Yes, the meeting started late, but we were able to visit with two participants who are working hard to be successful  in school and in their church callings.  They have such sweet spirits and seek to do only the Lord's will.  They both served successful missions and are now in school preparing for careers that will help them and their families be financially secure. This time was not a waste of time at all.  It was a time to learn and contemplate these young men's futures and hear about their hopes and dreams. 

One of the young men joined the church as a teenager. He was the only member of his family and he worked and saved to serve a mission.  Two months after he left to serve his mission his family was baptized.  They are now preparing and saving to go to Cebu to be sealed in the temple for eternity as an eternal family.  He is the first counselor in his branch presidency, works and goes to school.  He is single yet is content with his life and knows that after he is done with school and can support a family he will find someone to build that family with.  His district president told him that as soon as he gets married he will become a branch or district president.  He said laughing, "Since then he has had no girlfriend".  But he knows he is preparing for the day he will indeed marry, raise a family and continue to serve as a leader in the church moving the church forward here in the Philippines.  He is proud of his family joining the church and his personal membership in the church.  He is proud of his preparation for the future and is moving forward a step at a time. Slowly he is becoming the man the Lord will have him be!  What a great and  humble man he is and we learned so much from his faithfulness.  What a blessing it was for us to have had the time, "the Lord's time" to learn of him and learn from him.

 The ruins in Bata

Ancestorial home.Silay

July 4th Happy Independence Day

July 4, 2012

We have had a busy week.  We traveled to San Carlos on Sunday which takes two hours to drive there.  We had to leave the house by 6:00am to get there for 8:30 am church.  We went to both branches and met six of our PEF students.  They were so happy to see us.  They  thought we were angels! They have never had a PEF couple visit them.  They smiled and smiled and hugged me.  We are going back on Saturday afternoon to help teach a class.  Saturday morning we are going to Escalante which is at the north of island.  We will meet the priesthood leaders, Institute coordinator, the service couple and many students who will be there for the "Planning for Success" workshop.  I am excited to meet more students.  Then we will drive south to San Carlos for their class.  We will not get home until late, but it will be worth it.  Today we met a sister missionary who was just transferred to Bacolod.  She is from Pakistan.  She is darling. She has a quick smile and is so friendly.  She has two brothers also serving missions currently, one in Manila and one in Pakistan.  If was cool to meet her today because her birthday is tomorrow, just like mine!  She was so excited!

Friday and Sunday of this week we will travel to Panay Island to meet all the leaders and Institute coordinator there and to attend church on Sunday.  We will have to take the ferry and then a taxi to the offices Friday. 

We taught our first workshop Tuesday.  Dan said he was a nervous wreck teaching teenagers and young adults, but he did great.  I had prepared a power point to liven up the presentation and the other teachers here loved it and so today I prepared power points for the next two sessions.  I felt so talented as now I am in demand to build other presentations. 

Our Ilongo is moving "gamay lang" (a little).  Everyone in the office want us to speak English so we only have each other to practice with.  So of course by the time we get home we do not have enough energy to practice.  The cross over between English and Ilongo is amazing.  The people here just switch back and forth when they need any vocabulary  word that is not common in Ilongo. 

Our Mission President, President Tobias will be going home to Manila on Sunday and our new Mission President, President Lopez (from Hawaii) will be coming.  President Tobias took all the senior couples to two different sights and dinner on Friday night as a goodbye.  We went to the ruins in Bata (neighboring town)The grounds are beautifully landscaped and the building is not really a ruin.  It is the block exterior walls of a large sugar plantation. During World War II to keep the Japanese from using the home as their headquarters the owners burnt the interior to the ground.  The tile floors are still there and they are beautiful.  The grounds are used as a popular wedding spot often at sunset when the exterior walls glow gold.  The tour guide said the walls glow because to the egg whites they used as a bonding agent in the concrete.  The egg whites also made the concrete feel smooth like granite instead of rough like concrete

We also went to a beautiful ancestral home in Silay. It was so beautiful and elegantly restored.  It shows how the very wealthy lived at the when Silay was the capitol. We enjoyed spending time with the other senior couples and with President and Sister Tobias.  They will be greatly missed here.