Missionary Apartment Checks

Apartment checks are usually a very good experience for us and the missionaries. We are there to help them stay healthy through cleanliness and good food and water. The missionaries look forward to our visit and we look forward to being with them. We bring them a spray bottle and a bottle of bleach to be used daily as a disinfectant spray. We also bring them a treat! They like the Fudgie Bars, a moist, individually wrapped, chocolate cake. We have a checklist of items to review in each apartment and we let the zone leaders make the evaluations. The apartment with the best score gets recognition and a little prize.

The first apartment today is a the sisters apartment. They are usually clean and tidy. Today was no exception.

Sister Montojo and Sister Herbalario have done a great job of preparing their apartment. Sister Herbalario is a realtively new missionary, but she is a trainer of new Sister Montojo. She is teaching her the doctrines, lessons and teaching skills... and also perpetuating the tradition of a clean apartment and lots of smiles.

 What can I say... It's like it is ready for an open house! Clean floors, table, refrigerator and bathroom. There are flowers in the living room too!

 Sister Herbalario has a very orderly desk. You can tell why she is ready to be a trainer so early on in her mission.

 The bedroom reflects the same cleanliness and order.

 ...with a little touch of love from home.

 

 Time to say "well done" and move on to the next apartment.

 On the way out we notice even their shoes are all line up... neat and orderly.

 The next apartment is a sisters apartment too. It is an especially beautiful apartment and the sisters make it show well. They had a broken fan and a water filter that was not working right, so the zone leaders went to work and got the fan repaired and the water filter replaced.

 The sisters said thanks and we moved on to the next apartment.

 These are definitely not sister shoes! Oh, the stories missionary shoes could tell... of wading through knee deep water to get to an appointment, fending off aggressive dogs, slogging through the mud, stepping on spiders, roaches and other creepy things, but most importantly of waiting at the doorstep of a humble little bamboo hut while the elders teach the doctrines of the gospel of Jesus Christ and kneel with the family in humble prayer to invoke the blessings of heaven on them. The elders then rise up, shake hands and put their well-worn shoes on again and walk to their next little bamboo hut down the muddy path and teach the doctrines of the gospel of Jesus Christ again. 

We're glad the elders swept the bugs out of their house before we came, but elders... don't leave the bugs on your door step outside.

More elders shoes... more stories to tell. Notice some of the shoes are rubber. They are not overshoes, but rubber shoes. When you walk through knee-deep water all day you need rubber shoes! The water never dampens their spirits. They keep on going and live up to the mission song... commitments we will keep.

The zone leaders review the Area Book of each companionship. The Area Book is the key to the teaching and all missionary work in the area, so it has to be completed daily and according to the guidelines. The leaders take opportunity to train the missionaries in areas of need as we visit each apartment.

 A good clean apartment with all the basics in place... working fan, bleach spray bottle, iron, ironing board, laundry baskets and clean clothes and shoes.

 Healthy fruits and vegetables.

 Missionaries cook on propane burners. The American elders will return and be expert cooks on the backyard grill.

 We have recently replaced larger 3-stage filters with this Seyshel single-stage filter. Clean water is a must!

 A well stocked supply shelf. The missionaries will place 10-15 Books of Mormon a week and teach 20-24 lessons a week. Some will exceed that!

 Zone leader is reviewing the Area Book and asking questions. The elders are well prepared and have all the right answers and the book is given a perfect score of 10.

 We're almost done for the day. The last apartment to check is the zone leaders. They also have a very nice apartment on the third floor of a home. The residents are living in the US and rent their home. The elders cook on their propane burners. The electric stove would not fit into their budget.

It was a good day. We visited 9 apartments and they were all clean and orderly. We fixed a few appliances,  lifted a few hearts along the way and they definitely lifted our hearts.
It's great to be with the missionaries!

Window Grills

A couple of weeks after the break-in our landlord hired a crew to make and install steel window grills for security and our safety.
 

The crew took the measurements one week and the next week they came to install the grills upstairs one day and install the grills downstairs a few days later.

They went up within a week and we felt so much more secure.

The diamond design looks more aesthetically appealing than the upstairs windows with horizontal bars.

Aguilar District Conference

It was a "brrrrrrritht sunshiny day".  We began the day with an hour-and-a-half drive of about 35 Km/21 miles to get to district conference in Aguilar. That's about 15 miles per hour for an hour-and-a-half. It seems like you're going a lot faster... but you're not. There was the usual morning traffic with people going to the market, going to church, funeral processions, bottle-necked intersections, near misses and slow drivers, but we planned the travel time right and we arrived 30 minutes early. That gave us a little time to decompress from the stress of the road and prepare for the conference.

Along the way there were a few rural straightaways that provided a view of the countryside and the beauties of normal life in the lowlands.

The familiar statue of the farmer and his carabou in Bugallion alert us that we are getting close to Aguilar and the conference.

We spotted the chapel off the main road and pulled into the parking lot. We can tell the members were cleaning the building this morning to get ready for conference.

Conference is a great time of gathering and meeting with friends and family. This lola (grandmother) loves to hold her granddaughter. Grandma's worldwide share the same feelings of love for their children.

A faithful few arrive early to meet the visitors. We were given beautiful flowers to wear in conference as visiting participants from the mission presidency... a wonderful tradition all over the Philippines.

This is a view of a training session before it began. The room was filled with the women's auxiliary leaders by the time the meeting started.

The conference choir. Nothing like blending the voices of the YSA's in a big choir for conference.

(Upper Left) Elder Collado (former Baguio mission president before President Jensen) and President and Sister Jensen, Sister Lindsay and some of the district presidency joined the choir for this picture. The young man in the front row, second from the right is the second counselor in the district presidency and a YSA. He is a returned missionary and a school teacher... and is looking for an eternal companion.

Wonderful families with beautiful children filled the halls for conference.

After conference the branch presidents made their offices available to the mission presidency so we could do temple recommend interviews. What a great experience it was today.

When the meetings and activities are over, many of the members from distant branches climb on a jeep and ride home together. Sort of like a branch SUV.

Another jeep load of members ready to journey home with their missionaries. Some may have to ride on the top of the jeep.

Kids were pretty reverent during meetings, but were really excited to run outside after the meeting. It was a nice 90 degree/cool February day.

Another happy lola.

This is a nice looking bridge, but it is often under repair. There are several temporary joints covered with a 3 foot wide metal sheet that is just laid on the top of some kind of under-structure. As I drive over them I hope they lay flat and don't flip up or slide off to open a gaping hole to the river below.

On the way home we passed lots of carts loaded with crops from the fields; sugar cane, rice, corn, tobacco and livestock feeds.

Other carts are laden with their wares; baskets, ropes, and Mylar balloons for the town festivals.

It was a good conference, We felt the Spirit, shared our testimonies and renewed recommends and wonderful friendships with the saints. We can barely see their poverty, because their smiles are so big and their faith is so strong. These are wonderful, humble, happy saints in the Kingdom.

Tim's Philippine Medical Mission

Western Pangasinan District Hospital
Alaminos City, Pangasinan

Sponsored by the Alaminos Rotary Club.

The Philllipine Minnesota Medical Association travels regularly to serve the medical needs of the poor in the Philippines. This year a team of 70 doctors, nurses and specialists, including our son and daughter, came to help the people of West Pangasinan, located about 5 hours north of Manila on the west coast of Luzon Island. They arrived on Saturday and started on Sunday and worked through Friday. The West Pangasinan District Hospital donated their facility to the mission work for the week and the Rotary Club hosted the group with housing, transportation, food and warm Filipino hospitality.

The hospital where the medical mission was held. Sorry I didn't take pictures of the lines of people (over 500 treated) that came to receive care and treatment.

DAY ONE  FOR US

 What a special joy to be together with Tim and Marnie (our son and his wife) and see them serving others with the Philippine Minnesota Medical Association. A wonderful team of cheerful medical professionals that gave their time and talents to help hundreds of people here in the province (state) of Pangasinan, Philippines. We were given some gowns, hats and masks and Tim said, "follow me".

 Containers of medical supplies were shipped early and setup by an advance team. No small task!

 We followed Tim into the operating rooms to see him at work for the first time. Something we have never seen before. Tim is skilled in what he does and is a natural leader that others look to. He gives clear directions, handles crisis without fear and finds a creative solution to keep things running smoothly. They told us he was "unflappable",  "extremely resourceful" and "an excellent doctor who is a joy to work with".

He makes time for everyone, even walking down the halls he stopped to evaluate a patient.

 Marnie and Sue staffed the front desk, answered questions and maintained a constant flow of patients moving through the surgical rooms.  Everyone had bouffant hair for the week.

 Mom and I were dressed in blue, with hats and mask ready for any emergency... or should I say ready to observe Tim and the Docs handle any emergency.

  Here Tim is administering a spinal block.

 He was called out for a second opinion and to evaluate an unusual EKG.

Little children with cleft lips were surgically repaired and released the same day. The parents of these little children couldn't find words to express the feelings of gratitude that filled their hearts.

As we left the first day we passed through a large group of people waiting for their turn to receive the compassionate medical care of the doctors from Minnesota.

DAY TWO

We came back the next day, which was Friday - finish up and take-down day. Marnie did a great job of staging the patients and moving them into the right surgical rooms and keeping track of the patient status. Tim was in the surgical rooms administering anesthesia, evaluating patients, consulting with the doctors, solving equipment problems (McGyver came up more than once), and dealing with egos, emotions and exhaustion.

After the surgeries were completed the work of packing began. Here Tim was working with a doctor to go through a checklist of things to do and locate and pack all the equipment for shipment to Bataan for their next mission in a couple of days or box things that will stay at the hospital.

Once the direction is given the members of the mission team sprang into action.  They were exhausted, but kept at it even in the heat. 

This autoclave needs to cool down a little more before it can be packed.

This is one of the wonderful husband and wife teams that came.  He is a great doctor and she was patient and cheerful and worked with Marnie in patient status and flow.  Some great people with big hearts and expert skills.

The first bus has left and the really hard workers that endured to the end remain for the second bus that is over an hour late. Lots of smiles, hugs and tears from the team as they reap their reward for the wonderful service they have rendered to the people of the Philippines. About 500 patients were seen and treated, including over 100 life-changing surgeries.

Mom and Dad couldn't be prouder of their son and daughter. We were delighted to see them at work and serving others in such a special way. It is the coolest time of the year, but it was still hot. Long days, short nights (3-4 hours sleep), no hot showers, long drives to and from "hotel" and hospital were the discomforts, but they were all swallowed up in the friendly hospitality of their hosts, the smiles and gratitude of the patients and the joy of working together with others to serve others in need. All that I spoke with said they were addicted to the mission service experience and would be coming back on another mission.

Am I Handsome Now?
One of the patients that came was a little boy from church. He had a growth on the side of his nose that disfigured his little 7 year-old face. He was nervous about the surgery, but trusted his life to the skilled medical staff of the mission.

After the surgery, this little boy asked his mother in the recovery room, "Am I handsome now?" You know that his mother had talked with him to prepare him for the surgery. She said, "Yes, you are handsome now."

The little boy described the proceedure to his mother. "They put a mask on my face and I breathed sweet smelling air and I fell asleep. When I woke up I was happy and handsome!"

- - - - - - - - -

We were stopped in the hallway by another couple. They told us that they head about the clinic though our announcement in church and brought their baby son to the medical mission to have his cleft lip repaired. Their baby looked wonderfully normal even after only a few hours after the surgery. They were so grateful.

This may not be a part of our ecclesiastical mission, but it is certainly a part of our family's work to serve others in need. We love our family and express our love and gratitude to them for their selfless lives of giving service to others in need. A special thank you to Tim for sharing this powerful experience with us. We love you Tim!