Success

Ralph Waldo Emerson said "To know even one life breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded ." We still continue to keep busy with the temporal welfare of the missionaries. So at times we haven't had time to write. We don't get to go with the missionaries often but we continue to help our branch members in training and lifting the down trodden and afflicted . Its been a joy for us to serve in these two branches and have grown so very close to these wonderful people here.We have been blessed so much and have received far more than what we have given. Our service to others may not be dramatic non the less its the little acts of kindness, a smile, a hug, a word of encouragement, a visit to the sick that draws us closer to the Savior. This is what he did; he showed compassion to every one! As we follow him and strive to do what he would do if he were here,we in turn are blessed ten fold. We will ever be grateful for the humble people here and what they have taught us. We acknowledge his hand in all things, its amazing we are even here. We know this is where we are suppose to be at this time. We have a strong testimony of that! Our Mission has helped us evolve into something better than we were in the beginning. We will probably be here till the end of June so we can continue to help Pres. Stucki with the split of the Mission. Every one says how beautiful Palawan is so we are excited for the change and look forward to meeting the people there.

Accidents

The other day we saw a bad accident where a tricycle hit a dump truck head on. It was bad, blood everywhere and  I'm sure no one in the tricycle survived; so sad. The traffic over here is really crazy and it is our prayer and our goal to not kill any one while we are here. Each of the senior couples has had a collision with a motorcycle except us so far. Thankfully no serious injuries but certainly scary.One pair of missionaries was on a bus the other day going down a hill when it lost it's brakes hit to cars, almost ran into a Catholic church but swerved and went through the guard rail on a bridge at the bottom of the hill and nose dived about thirty or forty feet down into a river. Missionaries are truly guarded by angels because they came out without a scratch. The two parents of a family in one of the cars were killed and there were several  others injured. The elders were able to help some of the people on the bus get out. Pretty scary!

Palawan

On April 26 we had interviews with President Stucki. It's always nice to have some time with him; he's truly an inspired man and it always gives us a boost to talk with him. In and earlier interview he had mentioned the possibility of us being transferred out to Palawan island but had not said any more about it. This time however he said that he really felt that is where we need to be but said we didn't have to go if we didn't want to and said he knew how much we loved the people in our present area. What do you say though when your  president says he feels it's what the Lord wants us to do? he asked us to pray about it and we have but we already felt that it was right and since have had that feeling confirmed so we are off  to Palawan. It's not going to happen, though, until sometime in June just before the mission split. Pres Stucki wants us to get as much done as possible before the split on the apartments because he doesn't have anyone to replace us so far. So we are going as hard as we can to refurbish existing apartments and find new ones. Busy! but it's all good!