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.