Welcome to Our Home

Welcome to Villas Felicidad! This is where we live. You can see me down the driveway parking the car behind locked gates.  Compared to the surrounding homes we live in a palace. We have a living room, kitchen, two bathrooms, and three bedrooms; one for food storage, one for an office and one to sleep in. We are very blessed to have a clean, safe home with a water heater on the shower, and that is a step in shower, not one that covers the whole bathroom floor. We have water filters for clean water, cupboards, tile floors, screens on the windows, air conditioning in the office and the bedroom for a good night's sleep. We have a propane stove with a small oven, a refrigerator and we bought a small microwave oven last week. There is no mail delivery to homes, so we have no junk mail, no soliciting at the door and we can share in the festivities of parties in the neighborhood when they turn up the amplifier on their karaoke machines (a big favorite around here). The streets get quiet by 8:00 PM and by 9-10 everyone is at home fast asleep. 

This is our front gate. Come on in!

This is our driveway, one of the guard dogs and entrance to our home.

Oops! You went a little too far. This is the back yard. We have goats, dogs, chickens and an occasional cat or two back here. It's nice to see a down slope from the house. That means during the rainy season the water will run off and not flood the house.

Here we are at the front gate to our courtyard. At night all gates are closed and lights are turned on. You can see we have a two story place with bedrooms up and kitchen and living room down.

Today is P-Day so we are doing the wash. We have a sister from the branch do our wash by hand and then hangs the clothes out to dry. We have a line and a portable rack. We'll use the rack to dry clothes inside when it rains.

Step inside and you are in our living room/dining room. We've had some great meals at this table thanks to the skills of Sister Lindsay. The Naugahyde furniture is durable but tough to sit on comfortably when you have heat and humidity like we have here, but we are grateful for what the mission home had in storage. We always have the option of going out and buying our own furniture.

You can see we have a few fans, one in the living room and another blowing through the kitchen. Meal time is like a picnic in the park on a windy day. We have the heat, flies and winds.

This is the kitchen area with the sink, stove and food preparation table. We rinse, wash in detergent and rinse again in bleach water. We generally let the dishes air dry. The stairs go up to the bedroom, bathroom and office.

This is a bedroom that we use for the refrigerator, microwave, pots and pans and as a food pantry. We also have a water cooler that uses 5 gallon water bottles. They only cost 50 cents to refill a bottle with filtered water. Sister Lindsay has become a big fan of Lock 'n Lock containers. They seal air tight and keep the ants out of our food. We cleaned one day and less than an hour later we came in here to find micro ants had found their way into a zip lock bag of crackers. The bag of crackers and ants went into the trash and right out to our personal burning pit in the back yard. We spray the house with high potency insecticide every 4-6 weeks and see the results of it every morning. I have been the one to come down and sweep up while Sister Lindsay is showering and getting ready for the day.

We'll walk upstairs and at the top of the stairs is a long hall to the right.

  The door at the end of the hall  is our bedroom. We have the fan in the hall to help ventilate the bathroom. It works pretty well. We only open the bathroom window when we have the fan going to keep flies and other crawly things out.

 This is the master bedroom with air conditioning that we only use at night, but we use it all night to get a good night's sleep. We have a plastic chest of drawers and two small closets to the left of the bed in this picture. We can't open the closet doors all the way because they hit the bed, but we work around it. 

 Going back down the hall we pass the bathroom. There is no hot water in the house except for the shower. The mission president authorized and water heater. We express gratitude every morning. The water is cold in the morning, but by mid-morning it is warm the rest of the day. We can shower at night without the water heater.

Sometimes we just stare out the window at the palm trees or take in the sunset while we wait for our inspiration.

 Like all good missionaries we have a map of our area and consult it before every trip. So far, so good!

 It all comes down to... a copy of Preach My Gospel, the scriptures and the phone to share our plans and ideas with others. We are blessed to have missionaries and other good people to assist us in the Lord's work.

Thanks for the visit. Hope you can stop by again soon. Have a great day and know that God loves you and all His children all over the world. Someday we will all live together again and we will be like Him. That's why Jesus came to earth and did what he did. I know its true.

Off to Meetings

June 11, 2011

I had a priesthood leadership training meeting in a town 30 minutes away, so Sister Lindsay stayed home and did things around the house in the morning and went to two baptisms in the afternoon. Since I had the car the elders stopped by the house and set her up in a trike for a quick ride to the chapel for the baptisms. You may think Mormon Standard Time (MST) is slow, but Philippine MST is even slower. The 2:00 baptism didn't start until 3:00, so I was able to get back from my meetings and be there for the two baptism services  at 3;00 and the other one at 4:00. We had 5 that were baptized today. 

Mom and her first trike ride... 10 pesos pakiusap (please).

After the last baptism the branch members posed for a picture before they all got into the truck to go home.

Squeeze.... and they all just fit.

This the next day. I took a picture of the parking lot at a chapel. These are member vehicles. One of the trikes is named, Liahona (as well as one of the girls). You can see there are no cars in the lot except our little Toyota, Corolla that I am standing in front of to take this picture. I opted to park in the shade of a big ficus tree. There are some motorcycles closer to the building and out on the street there are more trikes and jeeps waiting to give rides.

Eat Like a Philippino, Work Like a Missionary

The four elders share a very nice apartment in Mapandan, just 15 minutes from our house. We went to church with them last Sunday and they invited us over for lunch and work with them through the afternoon. We had a tour of their apartment including the fruit trees, hammocks, bamboo hut, and an array of animals out in the back. The elders cut banana leaves and washed them for use as a table cloth. A pot of rice had cooked automatically while they were out in the morning and waited for them. A hot pot of Ulam (any rice topping) was on the table along with a bottle of lemonade and orange drink. A feast fit for a king!

The locals often have their main meal at lunch time and all meals are based on a plate of rice with a different ulam. Today we learned to eat with our hands... or more exactly, with our fingers (after a thorough hand washing).

Bananas growing in the backyard. The red fruit at the end of the stem, the banana heart, is edible also.

This is a Jack fruit. It looks like big green watermelons growing on a tree. We haven't had any yet, but we'll have some soon I'm sure.

Some of the locals live in little huts like this. Others live in a hut fabricated from scrap materials with a dirt floor, but many also live in a small cinder block house (about 400 sq ft) with a cement floor.

We finished lunch and went with the elders to their first appointment... it fell through and went to visit the sister that was baptized last Saturday. She greeted us warmly. We sang a hymn, read the scriptures, talked and asked for treasures (referrals). She gave the elders many treasures and arranged for some of them to be taught in her home that night. The elders were prepared to return and teach. We went down the road a half Km to the next appointment and left our car with a kid in a nearby vacant lot.

We met with a woman that would like to be baptized, but can't right now. She has been coming to church for two years and is more faithful than many members. We sang a hymn, prayed, read the scriptures, asked for treasures and left with a prayer and a very full heart. When we got back to the car we found it was well guarded by a lot of kids.

We left the elders in Mapandan and traveled to San Jacinto to review new apartments for the elders there. Some homes have beautiful flowers growing in small flower beds around their homes.

We walked through the light rain with the elders to review the best of the three apartments. This will make six apartments we have seen with these elders and we hope it will work for them. President Jensen wants to  improve the standard of housing for the missionaries, so we have good guidelines to evaluate new apartments. Unfortunately the apartment we reviewed will not meet the standard. We'll keep on looking. This is a picture of one of many beautiful little flowers on a bush.

On The Road Again

Today we hit the road to attend missionary meetings, visit elders, review apartments and do a quick run through the grocery store to get some food on the way home. We only went 110 Km (66 miles), but it seemed to be a trip that was three times longer. We left in the morning and got back well after dark. Driving in the daytime is a fun challenge... driving in the night is a whole new experience. They drive their trikes, jeepnies, trucks and bicycles with no lights, not even a rear reflector. Some have a light that is on bright, others have lights but don't want to waste their battery by turning them on. Some look like they have brake lights, but there is a 50/50 chance they don't work. People walk down the highway and expect you to see them and drive through on-coming traffic around them. I'm surprised we don't see more accidents and funerals. I was going to take a picture of our church parking lot last Sunday as we were leaving, but I didn't. There were 6 trikes (small 90-100 cc motor bike with a covered sidecar), a jeepney (modified jeep about the size of a Suburban) with an open back with facing bench seats, and 1 car... ours! Everyone else takes public transportation - jeeps and trikes.

This is the gate on our driveway entrance to our home. Villas Filicidad - Happy Homes! Our landlord lives in the front house and we live in the red tile house behind his.

This is the flowering hedge next door facing the main road we live on. There is beauty all around, if you know where to look.

 We traveled to Mangaldan for zone meeting, on to Dagupan to meet with the zone leaders and on again to Basista, just outside of Bayambang. We made a few wrong turns, but managed to stay amazingly close to our original meeting times. This is a picture of San Carlos where we stopped at McDonald's for a burger and sundae. Not bad.

 A view of the highway we are traveling on from the balcony at the McDonald's in a "mall".

 Despite the crowded parking lot, we spotted our car quickly... It was the only car. There are always men in the parking lot that are willing to help you maneuver in and out of parking places. The trouble is they use hand signals that have a meaning that are opposite to what you would think. Tapping on the car doesn't mean stop it means to keep backing up. It's hard to explain... you just have to be here. We finished our burger and motored through the dark back to our home in Manaoag. 

Home-Sweet-Home, Manaoag. Home to "The Lady of Manaoag" shrine. It is a national landmark and people from all over the country and beyond travel here the worship and pray for a miracle. You can see the silhouette of the shrine lit up at the end of the road. We counted our blessings that we were delivered by the hand of the Lord to all the places we needed to be and accomplished all we needed to do. Delivered again today to serve another day in His service.

Our First Family Home Evening

Part of our mission plan to strengthen the members is to hold a series of Family Home Evenings. We will teach them to have family prayer, read the scriptures daily and plan to attend the temple as often as possible.

We prepared our lesson and Sister Lindsay made a pan of Krispy Treats from a box of "Cocoa Krispie" like cereal. It was 96 degrees outside and had a heat index of 130 when she fired up the propane stove to make treats for the family home evening tonight. She is truly a saint!

Tonight we arrived at the home of our members. It was the fifth and last home from the street, along a narrow path by the side of the homes. We drove along the path under laundry lines around boulders, banana trees and avoiding the dogs, cats and chickens in the yard. When we came to the last home it was not what we had expected... it was a bamboo hut with various colored sheets of corrugated steel for the roof, no door, a wood fire under an over-hanging "kitchen" roof.

We saw a man reading a newspaper... it was not until he looked up that we recognized him as our friend from church. He greeted us warmly and invited us into his home and cautioned us to duck, watch out and be careful several times along the way. The home had various pieces of wood furniture sitting on a dirt floor, one fluorescent light bulb and a single oscillating fan in the center of the room. We entered, greeting the 8 children and his wife as we went. There was a sweet spirit of love and happiness in the home that I recognized... it was the Spirit of the Lord.

The father called everyone together to meet us and begin family home evening. We invited the father to fill out the assignment wheel with the names of the family and they all gathered 'round to see what was happening. We moved to the far end of the room and some sat on chairs, others of us sat on a strong multi-purpose shelf. The eldest son, a 14 year-old, conducted the FHE and did an excellent job. I have never heard such a well conducted meeting in a home! It really took me by surprise. The eldest daughter conducted the opening hymn. She started the hymn in the traditional manner by singing the first line to give us the pitch and indicate the hymn. We sang "I am a Child of God" in that little bamboo hut with a dirt floor and a mom and a dad and eight precious little children. That was a moving moment. I knew that God loved this family and they loved him too.

There were announcements, spiritual thoughts, and reading from the scriptures, then it was time for our lesson. Sister Lindsay gave a brief lesson on family prayer with a bridge puzzle to get involvement of the kids and to demonstrate the keystone principle of family prayer. She asked them if they had a special experience with family prayer that they would like to share. They looked at each other and the children told us of the time they prayed as a family that the typhoon would not blow their house down or flood them out of their home. They told us of how their home was spared and the trees fell all around them but not on their house. Wow! We weren't teaching them anything, they were teaching us! They had family prayer everyday and it wasn't just a quick repetition, it was a thoughtful prayer from their heart. They depend on God's tender mercies everyday.

We shared our testimony of family prayer and prepared for a few family games. The family taught us one of their favorite games and then we shared one of our own. I think ours was the favorite tonight. After a reverent closing prayer, we were invited to have some soup with them. I was thinking we would have a Krispie Treat and be on our way, but no, we had a delicious hot bowl of soup in the heat of the night. I broke out in another sweat, but finished the soup. We finally got to the Krispy Treats, but they just didn't matter because the family had already filled us spiritually and temporally.

We love each member of this family and we feel connected to them because of their love and devotion to the Lord. They are faithful in their daily family prayers and weekly FHE. They do it with joy, devotion and a reverent spirit of worship of God and humble devotion to his commandments. I will never forget our first FHE in the Philippines... I felt loved, honored, and filled with the Spirit. Oh, that we could all enjoy the sweet blessings of FHE and family prayer as this family. They have done what the Lord has asked and have become a forever family!

 The father filled out the assignment chart for FHE. Notice the Krispie Treats in a Zip-Lock bag.

 Me and my new-found friends. We felt the Spirit in FHE as we heard the summer heat-thunder rolling through the evening skies. We felt safe and felt the Spirit of the Lord in their hearts and in their home.

Dinner after the home evening.

We enjoyed the lesson of love and humility in obedience to the commands of the Lord through a living prophet.

Zone Conferences

We attended all three zone conferences and met all the missionaries in the mission. Each conference had three zones attend. We were so impressed with their gospel knowledge, strength of testimony and obedience to mission rules and President Jensen. They are happy and take joy in the work in a way that invites you to join in without any pressure, just a perfect measure of Christ-like love. There was a sister companionship at each conference that brought us cookies, and even though they were hungry, the missionaries always ushered us to the front of the food line. We feel so blessed to be here with the stalwart Baguio Missionaries!

BAGUIO ZONE CONFERENCE

Rice with pork topping in gravy, mixed vegetables and lots of fresh fruit, especially pineapple and melons.

This is Bert. He has served as chief cook and bottle washer for 8 mission presidents. He is 65 and will retire this month. He will be missed.

Meat and vegetables wrapped in rice paper and topped with coconut shreds.

What's this... yes, brownies! Bless you Bert!

The long lines are soon served and every is filled.

Table #1 of sisters.

Table #2 of sisters.

We were honored to sit at the President's table with the Jensen's and Perkin's.

Army of Helaman... and thank you for the food.

Happy Birthday!

DAGUPAN ZONE CONFERENCE

 Lining up after the zone conference for a hearty lunch.

 The president's table was already set with food, but where's the president?

A closer look at the table setting. Note there are no knives. You get a fork and a larger spoon that you use as a knife and spoon.

These sisters brought special cookies for their senior sisters. They baked them in a toaster oven in a very hot apartment. These are true gifts of the heart.

 During the lunch we heard a loud pounding on the roof as about two inches of rain fell in 30 minutes! It was a hot, humid afternoon, but cooled off for an hour after the storm.

 

This is our zone, the Magaldan Zone. The four sister on the front row live in Manaoag too. 

URDANETA ZONE CONFERENCE

 After the spiritual feast, they line up for a temporal feast. "It's so great! Good food and we don't have to cook it our self!"

 The group at the Urdaneta Conference

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A look at the Urdaneta stake center. The driveway at the side goes to the back of the building and also to the new mission home and office. They will move into it mid-July.