Christmas Greetings!

To our dear children and family—

Our hearts are very tender today as we yearn and long to be with you and put our arms around each of you, but we are grateful beyond measure to be able to be missionaries.  We feel the power of your prayers and love.  We are so grateful to know that because of that tiny helpless baby who grew  up to be our victorious Savior, Redeemer and King, we shall all live together after this life bound forever in love and joy!  We read this morning the beautiful words of Mormon:

“Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life.”

We felt a witness that our small gift to declare his word for this short season was accepted by our Redeemer who we can never repay except with our love and obedience .

We love you all so much!  Merry, Merry Christmas.

Mom and Dad

2011 December, First Half

Time to catch up on the last two weeks. We went to the transfer meeting and were so pleased with our dear Sister Herbolario. She has been in the mission just 12 weeks and has just completed her new missionary training and she was called to be a trainer... she is the "youngest" trainer ever! Out just 12 weeks and is now training a new missionary companion Sister Montojo. They will be a powerful missionary team!

Sister Lindsay with Sister Herbolario new trainer and Sister Montojo, brand new missionary.

Sister Allen, from the Pleasant Grove Manila Stake and her new missionary friends, Sisters Fajardo, Garnace and Ragragio.

 One of our new missionaries from Tonga, Elder Tauiliili. (pronounced Tau-ili-ili)

 Elder Mayes receives a new missionary to train, Elder Abril.

 Lots of bags to unload from one jeep and load on another. They will all be in their new apartment in the next two hours and be out teaching in the next three hours! There is a lot of people that need to learn of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

 Final pictures and good-byes and they are loaded into the jeeps with their bags and on their way 'til next transfer in six weeks.

We went to give a fireside at a small branch in Tayug, about an hour and a half away from our apartment. We drove through many small towns and a lot of rice fields like these. Today we are close to the "mountains", which adds to the beauty of the drive.  As we drive along the highway we are greeted by occasional clouds of smoke as they burn the rice fields and prepare for the next crop. 

We arrived at Tayug and were greeted by about 30 members that came early to see us before the fireside. This is a small branch with attendance of about 60 members for Sunday services.  I think most of them  showed up today. We enjoy the little children and they like to have their picture taken.

I was a big attraction for this little boy. He stroked my arm and quietly said, "lolo, lolo, lolol". Lolo means grandpa. He had adopted me and wanted me to come home with him.

 Our fireside was on the scriptures and we compared the Liahona to the scriptures. Here this sister was invited to come up and open the precious gift of her own personal Liahona. We had placed a new hard bound triple combination in the gift box. She was delighted to receive it. Others received a new copy of the Book of Mormon.

 This is half of the fireside group. All were very focused on what we were saying and understood our English very well. It was nice to have the missionaries there with us to interpret as needed. Especially helping the members respond to our questions.

 This is a home we pass as we attend the San Jacinto branch and the rocks painted orange always remind us of Halloween pumpkins.

 We invited the Sisters that work in our branch area to our home for lunch. They loved the chicken spaghetti and lettuce salad. We spent less than an hour together before they were out the door and on their way to their next teaching appointment. Sisters: Garnaces, Ragragio, Bhatti, Regodos.

 Brother and sister John Soriano and their sons John Amulek and John Melchizedek arrived early for Mangaldan district conference. Brother Soriano was just called to serve as counselor in the Mapandan branch presidency. They are both returned missionaries and have a strong testimony of the Gospel.

This started out to be a picture of Sister Lindsay and me, but our numbers grew larger by the second.

Our little home in Manaoag.

Bea is a member of our branch and she does our laundry twice a week. Hand-washed and sun dried laundry.

This is the back yard with the cloud of smoke from the burning trash. There is no garbage service to pick-up trash, so everyone burns their trash in their yard. It makes for big clouds of smoke wafting through the yard regularly. We'll miss a lot of things when we return, but I don't think we will miss all the smoke fro burning trash, burning rice and sugar cane fields. We will miss the burning witness of the Spirit we have so regularly as we teach and testify of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

A Stirring Missionary Story

Elder Sanchez Story

November 2011

 

This is Elder Sanchez (on your left) and Elder Willlie.  They have both been out about a year and are zone leaders together in Mangaldan.  Elder Sanchez has been a member for two years.  His parents were very against him being baptized.  It caused him great sorrow to disappoint them, but he knew the Church was true.  The day after he was baptized, his Bishop told him he should prepare to serve a mission in a year when he could go to the temple.  He said to the Bishop that it was impossible for him—he had no money and no support and his parents would never agree to it.  But his Bishop said the Lord would help him, so Elder Sanchez began to do everything he could to prepare.  He studied and worked and in a year he was ready to go.  Missionaries have to have at least one parents’ signature on their missionary papers to complete them.  Elder Sanchez said miraculously his mother’s heart was softened enough for her to sign the papers so he could go.  His father still is very angry.  He never gets any mail from home.  There are no addresses for many homes in the Philippines and Elder Sanchez doesn’t know how to reach them to email them like the other missionaries do on P-day.  His parents refuse to do what is necessary to set that up.

Elder Sanchez has a very good command of the English language and is a wonderful missionary.  I assumed he came from a family that was able to pay for him to go to an excellent school.  When I asked him about his education he told us that he lives in Mindanao.  This is an island south of Luzon where we are and where Manila is located.  Mindanao is an island known for being a place where life can be very hard.  He and his siblings moved to the mountains to live with their grandparents.  Every day Elder Sanchez would get up at 4:30 a.m. to eat breakfast and then leave at 5:00 a.m. to walk down the mountain to school which began at 8:00 a.m.  When school was over he went to work and then walked three hours up the mountain to get home. 

When I asked him when he did his homework, he said he did it when he got home, late in the evening.  He said they had one gas lantern to light the house, but they would also catch fireflies and use the light from the firefly-filled jars to study by.  He said without any tinge of self-pity that it is why his eyes are bad now, but he wanted to get a good education.

When I asked him to identify something special he had learned on his mission that he would take home with him, he thought about it carefully and said one thing was to have an understanding heart with others, but “even with myself”.  He said he had come know the Savior and that is one thing he had come to know about Him.  He wants to be like the Savior.

We taught, trained, testified, lifted, strengthened and cried a little this week. The daily work is challenging, but lives are changed and the rewards are forever.

The departing batch this week. We return these seven to their home and family to build the Kingdom and serve the Lord there. They each return with honor and a closer relationship with the Savior.

They will travel tonight to the Manila temple and stay in the patron housing and spend tomorrow in the temple. The local missionaries will take a bus home and the others will fly back to Canada and the States.

Elder Peterson. Time to load up the vehicles and what won't fit inside the suitcase you wear home. This is the first time I have ever seen a suit coat here. It was hung in a closet upon arrival and returned today on his way home.

Somehow it works on Elder Peterson.

 A carabou in the field.

 Dried coconuts along the road. They eat the coconut meat and burn the shells. The shells also make good tile floor buffers, I'm told.

 A Nepo hut in the middle of the rice field. Just like the Christmas tree ornaments on the mission home tree.

 Irrigation canal, fields, huts, homes, mountains and the forever heat and blue sky.

 As the last harvest is dried and shipped to the mill a new crop is planted and the circle of life begins anew.

 The last of the recent crop is dried today.

There is always a reminder of the sustaining influence of rice. It will keep the birds and chickens going for another season. It will provide a chicken in every pot along with the mountains of rice consumed every day.

Thanksgiving Dinner and Christmas Decorating

Today is Preparation Day and the day we celebrate Thanksgiving in the Baguio Mission Home. We were invited to a special turkey feast at the mission home, hosted by the mission president and his wife. They sourced parts of the dinner from all over the Philippines as they traveled for meetings. Fortunately they have a great freezer and a lot of experience to make this all possible.

 The Butterball turkeys were done to perfection... fall-off-the-bone tender!

 President Jensen is a master at carving the birds and was generous with the pre-dinner samples... to everyone's delight.

 The kitchen was filled with the aroma of freshly baked turkey and all the trimmings.

 Mashed potatoes & lots of gravy, stuffing, sweet potato pie, carrots, tossed salad and Jell-O salad, and muffins with strawberry jam!

 More mashed potatoes and gravy with the main course... Thanksgiving turkey!

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 A plate of delicious Thanksgiving bounty!

 Dig in and enjoy. The American and Canadian missionaries dug right in... the local Philippino missionaries were a little cautious, but after the first taste they were ready to clean their plates too. They especially enjoyed the sweet potato pie and turkey.

 After dinner President Jensen gave instruction to the missionaries to decorate the mission home Christmas tree and they jumped right into it.

President Jensen brought a 7.5 foot pre-lit Christmas tree from Costco with him. What a joy to see the missionaries decorate the tree while they sang and delighted in this sacred holiday season.

 Elders: Frost, DeGuzman, and Lee savor the first bites of Christmas fudge.

 The sisters get the honor of placing the little Philippine Nepo huts and bright red ornaments on the tree.

 Many hands make the decorating work go quickly.

 We all took a little time to sit and enjoy the Christmas tree... the glow of the lights and the colors of the ornaments and ponder the events of that sacred birth long ago.

Now it's time for the serious desserts: pumpkin pie, cherry pie, cakes and toppings.

It was a wonderful few hours away from the heat and noise of the day. We joined in the common bond of love of the Savior and serving Him. The food was amazingly delicious and prepared with great love, but our hearts were filled with gratitude for the most precious gift of all... the Lord Jesus Christ. We savored the sweetness of the occasion both temporally and spiritually. We are so blessed and we thank God for those blessings.

Haircut Time

Today is Monday, Preparation Day for missionaries and that means a haircut for me today. I go to Arto on main street. You can't miss it. It's where everyone that is anyone in town goes for a haircut. You see the police there and the presidents of local organizations and a lot of retired men that are all connected by friendships of years gone by. I fit into the mix mainly because I have long grey hair and need a haircut.

This is Arto's barber shop. I was standing in the traffic filled street to take this shot. I'll have to add another picture from across the street so you can get the feel of open air, traffic, marketplace and people.

 I was here this morning a minute after 10:00 and had one person ahead of me. I got the man waiting to take a picture of me in the chair. Arto uses his scissors like a true professional and keeps everything sharp and clean.

 A self-portrait in the chair. Arto keeps focused on his work.

 Tools of the trade: fan for the hot days (everyday), rubbing alcohol, baby talc and brush for a dry off after the haircut. The electric converter to power the US made electric clippers in the drawer (used very sparingly, maybe 30-45 seconds) and a sharp razor and scissors also in the drawer.

 Another great haircut from Arto! Most haircuts cost 40 pesos (94 cents), but Arto charges 60 pesos ($1.40) and it is well worth it!
 I'll really miss this experience when we return.

 A few days before this Mom got her hair cut at the chapel after a zone conference. Sister Cooper is a senior sister from Australia. She works at the Employment Resource Center in Dagupan and has offered to cut the sisters hair, so mom took advantage of the offer. She has cut mom's hair a couple of times and it has worked out just fine.

There was a lot of hair blowing around the room and I was a little nervous how mom would feel about the haircut. But not to worry... it turned out just fine. The question now is... Who will cut mom's hair when Sister Cooper goes home at the end of January?

This picture was before my haircut and after mom's. This is Sister Eldredge. She left for home, Sandy Utah, today. We will miss her. She was a very strong sister missionary.