Sister Datuin, Sister Lindsay and Sister Ramos
This is Sister Datuin. She is the new Relief Society president in Mapandan. She had worked in Primary for many years so when she was called to Relief Society, she read the Handbook to learn what she should do. It said to visit the sisters and take their names so they could be remembered and nourished by the word.
She asked the Branch clerk to give her a print out of the sisters on record in RS. There were 300 names. Only 29 come to church. She has begun to visit all 300 on record to see what has happened to them. Many have moved, a common occurrence here. People move on the spur of the minute and no one knows if they will be coming back or not. Some have died. Some didn’t want to be members anymore. On a Saturday, she and her sister, the Primary president went to a large neighborhood and tried to find 30 sisters. It took them all day. Two were found who want to come back. Sister Datuin will continue until she has learned about all of them.
This is remarkable because Sis. Datuin works all week from 8:30 until 5:00. She has four little children, the oldest just turned 8. Her husband is in Saudi Arabia working. He will be there for two years and they won’t see him until then. He went because she had to have a gall bladder operation and it put them so far into debt that there was no way to get out. They counseled together and decided it would be a terrible sacrifice, but it was the only way. They told their daughter, “You are in first grade now. Daddy won’t come home until you are in third grade.” Sister Datuin said it is a sacrifice for all of them.
Sister Datuin asked if I would come with her to visit the new members. She said she felt that she could take one hour after work to see two sisters. She asked these sisters how they were doing, when was their birthday, what skills they had and told them that each month a sister would come to visit them. She expressed delight in these sisters’ experiences. One had been a chambermaid in Baguio and also packed peanut brittle. Now she washes bottles for a warehouse close to their home so she doesn’t have to be in Baguio away from her family. Sister Datuin thought perhaps she could teach the sisters how to make beds in a professional way. She says when she is doing the dishes or working, she is thinking of the sisters and what can be done to help them. She would like help teaching them to preserve food, to store it, to do useful things at home that will earn money for their families and to help them be faithful saints.
She has taken the names of the sisters and organized them by neighborhoods and she said now she is almost ready to make the visiting teaching assignments. Sister Datuin doesn’t have counselors right now. One moved away and another asked to be released. She has a quiet, lovely secretary though. And she has the Lord and her Handbook. She is a remarkable, faithful woman of God ministering to her sisters.
We had district conference for the Mapandan District in our building and it was wonderful. We had a visiting general authority, Elder Sinamban. He shared many faith promoting stories and challenged the saints to walk to church if they didn't have money for a trike ride. His often quoted phrase, "Strong faith and strong feet." resonated in the hearts and minds of the saints. We invited the Jensens and Perkins to our home for dinner after the conference. It was a wet rainy day but the rains cooled it off. Marlene made a delicious chicken dinner in the crock pot and we had brownies and ice cream for dessert!
This is part of the Lalangan family. Pres Lalangan is the branch president of the Mapandan branch and is a wonderful leader there. We went to his home to demonstrate the FHE we are sharing with members to encourage them to have family prayer, read the scriptures daily and have FHE.
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