New Years Eve

Had a fun day preparing food and games as the Y.S.A. from both branches came over in the early afternoon. There was about 25 of them. We played (how to measure some one for a coffin) and other games we always played at home. They had so much fun! We had fun watching and listening to them laugh. We have a great bunch of Y.S.A. here. They are our Future leaders of the Church here and they will be great. They left at about six O'clock; then the four missionaries who live by us came over and had supper and played Canadian Salad. They loved it! They weren't allowed to work after 6 p.m. as the Filipinos  celebrate New Years Eve like you've never seen before. We went to bed around 10:30 and were woke up by the sounds of Torpedo's so it sounded like. Thought we were dreaming and we were at Pearl Harbor . You wouldn't believe all the explosions all over.(Fireworks) We now understand why the missionaries aren't allowed to go out past 6 p.m. It really is dangerous,700 people were injured and 12 dead, so sad what a way to bring in the New Year. But we had a fun day and evening. If we were home John would have been fixing the Skidoo and I would have been making scones (ha ha) memories. I think Kasey Gulbranson holds the record for eating the most scones ever. Twenty some I think! John and I both miss the seasons and wished we had a little snow to roll in here. We live in a Sauna every day just wished we had Emil's trough of cold water to jump into. Happy New Year to all of you! We love you and wish you all a great Year. We have every thing to look forward to as we have the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives.

Last Sunday 2012

Had a pretty good Sunday today.I had to speak again in church.On the fifth Sundays the branch presidency speaks.It went ok I guess;I spoke on setting goals and deciding before the time of decision to keep the commandments,especially keeping the Sabbath Day holy. I also had to teach combined priesthood and relief society on the spur of the moment because we had forgotten to assign it to someone so I gave it on revelation and how we can receive personal revelation.It was fun and I think they liked it.

Catch up

We didn't get home til midnight last night and all though it was temple tour day today most of the people we invited weren't able go so we stayed home and caught up on some sleep and spent most of the day just preparing talks and lessons and training etc. It's amazing how much wonderful training material there is on lds.org.

Driving and Dining

We had to go to Manila again today for a training session on driving and car maintenance.As you can imagine that brought a few groans and chuckles.There is no way anyone can receive training enough to prepare them to drive in this country. Anyway we did and it was ok. Afterwards we went to Pres. Vicencio's place for dinner; he is the 1st councilor in the mission presidency and is a wonderful man.He started out with nothing but has built up a successful paper products import business and has done really well.He has a beautiful home and yard complete with swimming pool. He invited all the senior couples and the Stucki's over for dinner to show us appreciation for our service in his country.He and his wife are very kind and gracious and it was a wonderful meal including T-bone steak and baked salmon.It was really nice; they even had a piano player there playing beautiful Christmas music throughout the evening. It was really 1st class and we had a nice time.

The Work Continues On

It's interesting to see how the work continues to move forward one precious soul at a time.President and Sister Mendoza have a nephew who has come to live and work with them.He must be around 30 years old or so. The missionaries have been teaching him and we went with them today. He's really interested  and progressing well and wants to get baptized. It's so fun to see people come to see the light of the gospel and how it blesses their lives.

Boxing Day

No Boxing Day here; its just business as usual. Got to skype with all the kids today. We sure love and miss all of our family especially at Christmas time.We had to go back to our old house to use the internet because it's not yet hooked up in our new place.The old house was locked so we just sat outside at a table close enough to pick up the wifi signal.It seemed pretty strange to sit outside on the 26th of December. Everyone back home had their sweaters on in the house!We really love all our family and hope you all had a wonderful Christmas; we especially hope you felt the Spirit of Christ and remember the wonderful blessings He has given each of us. We feel so blessed to be able to be here sharing His gospel. We have really had some wonderful experiences. Today I got to go with the the missionaries to teach a referral from one of the recent converts in the branch and they are just golden; it's really exciting. Lily stayed home because they were supposed to come and hook up the internet but never showed up so I felt bad that she missed out. 26th here but still 25th in North America so wish one and all a Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas

Well hard to believe it's Christmas already! It sure doesn't feel much like Christmas at least weather  wise.I don't think I've ever sweat this much at Christmas time unless it was while putting gifts together on Christmas Eve after Lily had me stoke up all the fires in the house! This morning we invited the missionaries over for breakfast and open their packages from home. It was kind of fun. Later this morning we delivered a few more bags of rice that we didn't finish before and then Brother and Sister Base came over to visit. He's the 1st councilor in the branch. We had delivered some rice to the former 2nd councilor earlier and he asked if he could come over too and could he bring a friend and we said sure  and then they invited another friend so we ended up with 7 people here for the afternoon. It was fun! We taught them how to play Canadian Salad and then had fed them dinner.They loved it! Later we went to Bagangans and read the Christmas story with them and showed them the Nativity video and then after that we did the same thing with the Concepcions. It was really good. We really felt the Spirit at both families. Was probably one of the best Christmas's we've ever had.There's nothing quite like sharing the pure Spirit of the Gospel and the simple  scriptural account  of the 1st Christmas in the the humble homes of new members. Teaches us again that Christmas really has almost nothing to do with presents and lights and tinsel.It's really all about the wondrous birth of the Son of God. Being in His service this Christmas is the best gift we could ever have!

Christmas Eve

As we Celebrate The Birth of Our Heavenly Fathers Son Jesus Christ we give special thanks for the greatest gift ever given to mankind! As Missionaries in this wonderful land of the Philippines we marvel at the magnitude of our Saviors love for all his Children. We feel an overwhelming love for these people here and are striving to help in some small way to lighten their load by giving them living water that they might not thirst any more. We have been out almost four months now and are feeling the urgency of our call to do more and strive harder to do all we can to help build the Kingdom here. What a great blessing it is to us to be missionaries, to be numbered among the thousands that serve all over the Earth. As we gathered as a mission recently it was wonderful to be among the valiant Elders and Sisters and Senior couples who serve diligently day after day to share the message of the Restoration of The Gospel of Jesus Christ.We miss family and friends at this special time of year. But we will be together in the near future, so for now we will keep striving to do his will and his work here in the Philippines as all of you are doing at home.
     We had twenty Missionaries here to night for Turkey Dinner including Elder and Sister Paddock another Senior couple. They helped with the dinner and of course it was a big hit with the Missionaries. We had a neat program afterwards with missionaries sharing past Christmas and the true meaning of Christmas. Reminded me of Home! We love you all and appreciate all of your support and love that you have given us. There's nothing more precious than family and friends. Let us all strive to put Jesus Christ the center of our lives through out the coming year,and share the good word of the gospel of Jesus Christ in our actions and deeds.

The Sunday Before Christmas

After all the Christmas parties and moving and everything we were pretty played out and kinda slept in this morning and were almost late for church but we made it and had a good day. Lily was asked to speak and did a good job. She shared her experience of their first Christmas in Utah when they had nothing but were helped out lots by caring church members.This evening a bunch of the YSA girls dropped by to say hi and see our new place and saw that we were trying to clean up after our move so they offered to help. We had them decorate the Christmas tree and set up the Nativity scene and they had a blast.They thought that was the neatest thing ever. After that we sat and visited with them a bit and got each one of them to share their conversion story with us. It was really a nice spiritual experience.It's inspirational to see their faithfulness to the Gospel. Every one of them is either the only member of their family that is a member of the church or they have at least one or both parents who are less active. These girls are all planning on serving missions and are just wonderful young women.

Christmas Cheer

We got up early this morning and finished moving everything over to our new apartment and then met President Balderama at the church to go get rice for our Christmas rice project.The project went really well and we are so grateful to everyone who donated to the effort. We were able to take 10 kgs. of rice to more than 70 families which should feed each family for close to a week.In addition we were able to give each family some canned fish and packages of noodles. They were all very thankful and appreciated the gift. We were really touched by the generosity of so many and want you all to know it was greatly appreciated. We still have some money left and some still coming so plan to do some longer term help to some older widows who are really destitute.After delivering the food we did some unpacking at our new house and then rushed over to the district center in Naic to watch the youth put on their roadshows.What they did is each branch was assigned to perform different scenes of the Christmas story such as the inn, the wise men, the angel and the shepherds, etc. and then they put it all together and also had singing and choreography throughout.They did a great job, it was really good. At the end they asked Paddocks and us to give some closing comments- they do that to us all the time but it was good. We then had to hurry back to the Punta branch Christmas party. We watched Mr. Krueger's Christmas, the youth put on their part of the play sang some songs and played some games and then I gave some closing remarks. It was was a busy day but was fun and had a good time.

Moving

Not much today as far as missionary work. We spent most of the day moving to our new apartment.It's pretty well done except for the lower cabinets which will likely not be finished now until after New Year's. Its pretty nice though and we are hopeful that the bug problem will be solved.This evening we went to the Carrissa branch Christmas party. We purchased a Christmas tree and decided to set it up at the Church for the two branches to use for their parties.When we got there they had all the decorations up in the room  but didn't have the lights on on the tree.We asked why and they just said "later". So  after they started the program they sang a song about Christmas and the lights of Christmas and they had all the lights in the room turned off.Then they turned the tree lights on and they all "oohed " and "aahed" and it was pretty neat. They had never had a Christmas tree before and they were all pretty excited and happy. Little things that we just take for granted. So then they played games and sang songs and ate and had a good time.It was 10:30 time we got home and midnight before we got things situated enough so we could go to bed but it was a good day.

Mission Christmas Party

We went to the Mission Christmas party today at Buendia chapel.Incidentally the Buendia chapel was where we always met for mission activities when I was here before.It used to be surrounded by open fields and is now completely surrounded by high rise buildings and is some of the most expensive property in the Philippines. Anyway we had a lot of fun at the party and had a good dinner.Each zone prepared some sort of a skit and some of them were really good- and some not so good including the one by the senior couples. Had a good time though.

Got Iron Got Grief

This morning we got up at 2:45 because we were going to pick up a lady who needed to go to the hospital in Manila because her lungs are full of fluid and she's really sick.We needed to go anyway so said we could give them a ride.At the hospitals here it's first come first serve so you have to go early to get in line to see the doctor. So on the way to her house at 3:30 we ran over something on the road in the dark and when we got to her house we had a flat tire. Well we had a different vehicle because we took our car in for service last week and they gave us a loaner for a few days.When we went to use the jack there was an extension for the handle missing so we had to lay underneath and use a wrench to operate the jack and it was really hard and slow.One of their neighbour's had just got home from work so he came and helped us. The missing tool was also what we needed to get the spare out from under the van so the friend said there was a guy in the area who could fix tires.So we loaded the tire, the friend, the lady's husband and me all on the friend's motorcycle; woke up the tire guy and he tried to fix it but he mostly fixes motorcycle and bicycle tires and didn't have the stuff to fix a tubeless car tire. We then decided to see if we could somehow get the spare out and after about a half our of struggle we got it only to discover that it was flat.Whoever had it before us had hit something really hard and the rim was broken and the hadn't reported it to the maintenance people.Then we thought we could take the good tire and put it on the good rim so we loaded all on the motor cycle again and went back to the tire guy. However he didn't enough tools for the job so we were hooped. Then the tire guy russelled up some strips of rubber and stuffed them in the hole of the tire with a screwdriver and believe it or not it was just barely leaking so we quickly put it on the car and headed for a proper tire shop. When we got out to the main road to turn left there was a jeepney in the middle of the intersection loading passengers so I turned behind him to turn left but a big truck behind us wants to turn right and there isn't room so the jeepney backs up- right into us! Nice dent in the fender. Anyhow we finally get the tire fixed and get underway about 2 1/2 hours later than we expected.Sounds like some of my lucky days at home!

New Stuff

P-day today so went to Dasmarinas SM store and picked up our mattress and washer and dryer with the Paddocks. They have a Ford Ranger pickup so worked well for hauling that stuff home.Apartment is coming along pretty well; should be able to move in by Thursday or Friday.

Another Sabbath

Not really a whole lot to say about this day. I had to speak again as well as Bro Base because the District councilman didn't show up. It happens fairly often I guess. The district clerk came after church and gave some budget training to the branch council. Kind of fun being in meetings where you don't have a clue what they're talking about. After that I went with some of the brethren to Naic for more leadership training and Lily went and visited with Sister Paddock.

Tagatay

The senior couples got together today and went on a little excursion to Tagatay. It's a little town near the Taal volcanoe.It was kind of neat to see.The volcanoe itself is out in the middle of a lake and there are about three craters on an island out in the lake. Anyway we went for dinner at a nice resort and during dinner they have some young people do a show which includes a bunch of the traditional Filipino dances. It was fun!

Another Transfer Day

Yes today was another transfer day that means the time continues to fly by.Elder record was transferred to the office to be financial secretary and Elder Burgos is training a new elder; Elder Belnap from Rupert,Idaho.He's 6'4" and plays basket ball so we get along fine. He is a really good missionary, has really learned the language well already and just wants to get to work. So we just spent most of today helping get missionaries moved around. It's always fun and exciting to see new Missionaries come.

Temple

Today we got to go to the temple with some of the members of our branch and it was really a wonderful experience. Brother and Sister Orcaz went for the first time and received their endowment and were sealed and also had their youngest daughter sealed to them. They were so excited! Also President and Sister Mendoza were also sealed and that was really nice.They are in their 70's and was special to see them finally sealed.They all really enjoyed the trip and it was really  a spiritual highlight.

Going Home Missionaries

We went to the mission home today to have dinner and testimony meeting with the going home missionaries.Nine of them were sisters and only three coming in so have to close some sister areas.There were some really great sisters and they will be missed. They gave some wonderful testimonies. Missions sure change people. one of the assistants also went home he was also a great missionary.It's always nice to be part of that.

White Christmas

Sister Stucki opening the present that all the senior couples got for them,

We had a lady make this for the Stuckis. Beautiful ,eh?

They loved it!

This is Elder and Sister Dietrich. They work in the mission office and are from from Indiana.

This is Elder and Sister Forinash They are from Logan Utah and they take care of all the Apartments for our whole Mission. 

 

(Left to Right) Back row: Elder Paddock, Sister Paddock, Elder Burt, Sister Burt, Sister Gwilliam, Elder Gwilliam, Elder Dietrich, Elder West; Front row: Sister Forinash, Elder Forinash, President Stucki, Sister Stucki, Sister Dietrich, Sister West. 

These are the Missionaries who live close to us! Left to Right Elder Burgos,Elder Record,Elder Pugmire and Elder Stephens just below our house.

Thought this cloud was beautiful! This is the view from the front door of the Chapel.

This is Elder Pugmire; he always seems to have his head in the cloulds (A visionary Elder)

This is Elder Record, Brother Joseph Sequig,his wife Wilma,daughter Fiona,Brother Orlando who was recently baptized himself in July,and Elder Burgos

(Left to Right) Louanne, MariCris, Manny Jo, Raymond, Elder Pugmire, MayAnne Borja, Elder Stephens, , President Balderama, MayAnne Armonia, . 

Elder Record, Joseph Sequig, Elder Burgos 

Sunday

Today was a good Sunday; 3 of the 4 families we visited with the branch president yesterday came to church! It was so good to see them there.One was a sister who's husband is not very supportive and won't talk to the missionaries.Another was a family where the mother has to work every day but the 3 daughters at least came.Another older couple decided to take turns coming to church because every time they both leave someone steals their chickens.I say sell the chickens but I guess that's a start.Unfortunately the RM didn't show. Tonight we watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional and really enjoyed that. Sure is different though watching that in a chapel with all the fans going and the windows open and drenched in sweat. Lily didn't need her blanket with her anyway.When we got home I checked the weather and it was 87 degrees and 89% humidity.Can't wait til summer!

Another Special Baptism

The Elders had another baptism today. Although we weren't quite as involved with teaching this man we did go with them a couple of times. He's a great guy. His wife is a member and he had met with several sets of missionaries but only now was he finally touched by the Spirit and ready to accept the Gospel. It was a special baptism and he was especially touched when his daughter sang a solo as part of a Young Women and Primary musical number. He bore a really neat testimony at the end. Satan can't keep them all away! Earlier today  the Y.S.A 's had a missionary for a day activity.The missionaries taught them for awhile and then after lunch they went out as pairs and visited some less active YSAs. It went really well and they had a great time and a lot of success.We were assigned to go with the  branch president to a couple of " tough cases". One was a returned missionary who has gone a bit wayward. We had a good talk with him and gave him a blessing. We are hopeful he will come back he is a fine young man.We also went to three other families and had good talks with all of them.Hopefully they will act.

Opposition

It is certainly true that the adversary is very aware when the people are about to make changes for the better in their lives.In almost every case the is something comes up that makes it difficult for people to make the needed commitments and changes in their lives. Our young man that is in a wheel chair has been unable to be taught for the last few weeks because his father is mad at him for letting the missionaries come and teach them. He and his wife live with his parents so they are trying to find another place to live so they can continue being taught.Another lady we were teaching got a job that is 7 days a week 14 hours a day taking care of some stroke patients. Good she has a job but she can't come to church so she can't get baptized. She still wants to but will have to wait til things change. I guess that is part of the plan; we only receive the blessings after the trial of our faith

Area Office / Manila

Went to the Area Office again today ; then Mission Office and then Mission Home. Had all the Senior Couples over for Christmas Dinner and Party. There are two couples on the island of Palawan and they fly in and out from there only a few times a year. So it was great to see Elder and Sister Burt and Elder and Sister West. I'll post some pictures of them! But had a great evening with them. Really felt a little bit like Christmas with a Tree up and decorated. Looked beautiful! Didn't waste a lot of time decorating this year ! But the work is going great and so much to be done,we never run out of work to do here! Thousands of people to visit and teach the gospel to. Heard Clayton and Rita were baptized at our home  ward that was wonderful news. They are great people! They will be an an asset to our Ward. Like the Prophet Joseph said nothing will stop this work from progressing.There is so much work to be done. We sure encourage all you senior couples out there to come and serve; there is something everyone could do. This is the greatest experience ever!

Callings

Spent most of the day going and visiting some members and extending some callings to serve in the branch and also did some encouraging with some in their responsibilities. Really not a lot to say today.

Sister Celios

Took Sister Celios to Manila again today. Had two Doctor app. one @ 10 a.m. and one @ 2:00 but in Fhilipino time means 11 and 3  so pretty well spent the whole day in Manila. She is doing pretty good baby seems to be doing fine. She gets quite tired easily but who won't when her heart skips a beat every other time.Her husband came with us; which was nice. They are such a neat young couple so greatful and kind.Got back in time to go to Pres. Mendosa for supper (Branch President) and then we taught his Nephew and Daughter in Law went really well" pretty Golden" we shall see. Elders challenged him for baptism. This was his first time being taught. PMG teaches us to let them know from the start why we are here and ask them when they come to know the Truth will they be baptised by some one who holds the Priesthood of God. Pretty Powerful! he said yes but wants to study more (of course)  The Lord prepares so many for the Gospel and puts them where they can be taught. Love this work!

P-Day with Pres.and Sister Stuckie

Sunday evening on our way home we called Pres. and Sister Stuckie to see if we would be imposing if we stayed in the Mission Home Sunday night. They said we were always welcome and they would love to have us. We didn't want to go all the way home and have to be back in @ 8:30 in the morning. As it was P-Day Monday and we wanted to go to a big Bazaar in Manila. It worked out great as they couldn't drive their car on Monday and they went with us. Over here every car has a certain day that they can't drive. We can't drive on Thursdays, we can around here but not in Manila.So we spent the day together was lots of fun. Pres. Stuckie likes to shop as much as John. But it's so fun to see all of the different hand made Filipino crafts. We have a Senior present exchange so we were able to get a little something there for them. Took Pres. to the office and had a late lunch with them,then came home.Another P-Day come and gone. Can't believe it's December ! Get a little teary eyed when we sing the Christmas Hymns in Church. Can't help but think of Home and Family.

Reunion in Tarlac

When I was here as a missionary 35 years ago I was able teach and baptize a special family in Tarlac. Ever since we got here I've wanted to see if I could find them. Finally a couple of weeks ago I got a hold of the membership record department at the P.B.O. and they were able to find their records and said they were still in Tarlac.I got permission from the Mission president to go visit them so we went there on Saturday. I was pretty excited and we texted them and let them know we were coming and they were really excited and surprised to hear from us. It was was a really nice drive and it was good to see some fields and open country again.There are huge sugarcane plantations up there. Tarlac has grown and changed a lot and I didn't recognize anything so the youngest boy, Ahmed, met us and showed us to the house which I did recognize once I got there. Ahmed was 12 when they were baptized and now he's 47.He never did marry, not sure why. Any way the Father was waiting for us when we got there and it was so good to see him. He's now 83 and has Parkinson's so is pretty frail but we had a good visit.He has not been active for quite awhile but he is still very grateful for the way the gospel has blessed his life and his family.Sister Quiballo passed away last June and I am very sorry I missed her; she was a wonderful faithful lady and they said she always loved to talk about the missionaries who taught them.After Ahmed fed us dinner the two older boys, Pol and Angel Jr. came over and some of their kids.Pol has been pretty active until lately when he's been having to work on Sundays. Angel has had a hard time though; his wife died of cancer and he drinks and smokes and stuff but we had a good visit and when he left I shook his hand, looked him in the eye and told him it's never to to late to come back.I was really pleased with the next generation though. The kids are all really active and doing well.Two of them are planning on going on missions and there are two young couples that are planning to be sealed in April.That's exciting!We encouraged Ahmed to get himself ready and go with them as he's not been to the temple and not as active as he should be either.We went to church with them on Sunday and bore our testimonies and got to meet some of the the old members or at least knew some of the old members.It was fun.Hopefully it did some good for that family for us to come I sure love them.We also met the old branch president.He later served as stake president but lately has gotten involved in some really weird stuff so that was a little disappointing but all in all it was a great trip and was great to see some of the fruits of my labours that transpired 35 years ago.

Tarlac has huge sugarcane fields and a big sugar mill.These big old trucks are loaded with sugarcane and are lined up at the mill waiting to get unloaded.

I thought the lineups were long at the sawmill waiting to get unloaded but there was probably close to 150 trucks lined up here.

It looks like a lot of these trucks are old army trucks from world war two. They appear to be the same trucks they were using when I was here 35 years ago.I don't know how they keep them running so long

This is part of the Quiballo Family from Tarlac.Unfortunately we did not write down their names and we don't remember them all but inthe yellow by me is Ahmed at the other end is Ezra, Pol's son and daughter next to him.The lady in the purple is Pol's oldest son's wife and her 4 children. Next to Lily is Angel Jr's son with wife[ in red] and baby and then his daughter.

A picture of sugar cane in the field 

Sugarcane

It was hard to get a good picture of the sugar cane fields because it was really gray and smoky because  they burn the fields after they harvest the cane. It is all harvested by hand with machetes