I am pretty sure that my mom never thought she would be riding a canoe or sitting on the side of a trike with water up to her seat trying to get to a chapel!
Dear Family,
How are all of you doing? It has been a while since we have heard from some of you! We think about you all the time, and hope all your activities and plans go through, like Super Sat. Daddy Daughter night. Young women plans and Primary programs, Y.M. activity, Stake plans and Ward plans, wedding plans, and I am sure much more I am not aware of.Not to mention all the games you each attend all week. We pray for you always.
This past week was like all the others, full of missionary work. We enjoyed listening to conference on Sunday Angie's Birthday. It was wonderful, and we had the DVDs so we stayed in our home, and relaxed and listened and watched. There was a festival going on outside tho-, and we had a videoke going right to the side of the mission home, from 5:30 in the morning til midnight. It is an amazing crazy tradition they have, families and friends come from all over they butcher pigs, and I don't know what else, they eat alot, and just make alot of noise. We drove to Lipa on Monday and got some grocery's, and things to get ready for our new couple. Tuesday, we went ot Cabuyao Zone for interviews. What a great Zone, they were so prepared for us, all set up, and waiting. They even had a special song the Zone practiced and sang for us. "Because I have been given much" They know it is dads favorite song. They had great interviews, and there happens to be a Burger King in that town, so Dad treated them all for lunch. They were so happy, and love it. We got home in time to welcome the new couple, The Jones from Cedar City. They are both 71, and they are delightful, tired of course, but couldn't quit asking questions. I fixed a salad and we enjoyed a meal together, and we let them go to bed around 7:30.
Wednesday we went to SanPablo Zone interviews, Dad is giving a great workshop on "Joy in the Morning" Getting up and being happy doing the Lords work. He told them there would be joy in the morning if they had 1. love for their companion. 2. love for their selves, and 3.loving relationship with God. He had so many scriptures to back it all up, and he did so well. I wish you could all hear his workshop. I told them I had been married to my companion for 44 years, and I had Joy in the Morning, when I wake up and know I have another day with him, and I confirmed that he is an early riser, and so happy getting up early, as you all know.
Wed, late afternoon a missionary came in from Alpine, Utah. I don't why he was off transfer schedule, but we are so glad to have him. He is Filipino, and his Grandparents are on a mission in Manila. They have been to our home a couple of times, and asked Dad if they could pick him up at the airport, and bring him out to us. Dad gave them permission and invited them to dinner as well. For dinner we had Elder Fobuena and his grandparents, and the Jones. What a sharp Elder. Grandpa and Grandma left, and the new couple and missionary were tired, and so were we, so we all retired early.
We felt bad because we weren't here in the morning when he woke up, so we set breakfast out, dad had interviewed him the night before, and told him where he was going, so the AP's came over and ate breakfast with him, and they took him to his new area. The Jones and us and the AP's headed for Santa Cruz zone at 6:00 A.M. This is the area of our mission that has been in the floods, and still is. When we got about 3 blocks from the church, we had to park the van, and dad and I got on a peddle trike with our bags, and headed through the flood waters. when we got in about a block, the man peddling the trike told us to put our legs up on the upper bar, and pick our bags up. As we were peddled in to the church parking lot, with water about up to where we sit, there stood our missionaries waiting for us. Dad wanted to walk on water to get to them. They were such a beautiful sight. While dad was interviewing, I walked around the Church that has 94 families living in it, over 300 people. It was an amazing experience. There were a few members living there, and a few investigators, and the rest were evacuees. They had 2 or 3 families in each class room, 30 families in the gym, with church chairs as dividers. Wash was hanging every where, they had set some dividers with tarps outside where they could use the bathroom, I didn't check those out!! Behind the church, they had little fires and brick camp stoves so they could cook their food, one area was for taking a shower and doing their wash in buckets. they have to shower in their clothes of course, and they do. A big bucket and a little bucket to rinse off. I took a picture of a lady washing her hair as she showered. Lines strung from fence to church with clothes hanging on them, people every where. I had a little girl that followed me every where, and would tell me what to take a picture of. There were children everywhere, and big kids and adult people and old people. It is a stake center, and it has 2 stories of class rooms, and they are all full. The rails have clothes hanging from them. The Chapel and the Stake Pres. office, and the Bishop office are the only rooms not used. I take that back they are used for storage, clean water and some donated food and clothes.In all my 64 years I have never seen the likes of it. They have rules, No smoking or coffee or alcohol, and they have to wear clothes, the men even have to keep their shirts on. I did see a few little naked bottoms tho-. The Missionaries go in on Mondays and have a Family Home Evening, they pray, sing, show the Restoration or other church videos, bear their testimonies, and sing and pray again. Everyone is invited. These Elders and Sisters have so many investigators. The people love the missionaries, and alot of them go to Church, because they are right there. The missionaries go back several times to teach those interested. Zone Interviews were great and it was good to feel the wonderful spirit of these awesome missionaries.When it was time to go , we left in a canoe with out riggers to keep us from tipping over, went a few blocks until we were transferred to a trike, and then to the van. The water was dirty, with garbage floating everywhere. We also spotted some fish swimming along side. People were walking around in it with water up to their waist, they all seemed happy tho and just trying to make the best of their circumstances. What a day! We will send some pictures.
We have a big week coming up with Zone Conferences for three days. We also had a great sabbath day today. We went to Batangas 1st ward because Richard had a missionary that was struggling and needed to visit. We were blessed to be there because it was their primary program. As we were waiting for the meeting to begin we noticed a man come in the chapel in a wheel chair. The Elders pointed out to us that he was one of their recent converts. They told us that he was the father to all of these children, all of which had recently joined the church. The father was baptized just this last Saturday by one of his sons, who carried him into the water, another said the baptismal prayer and he was baptized. After the meeting we went over and shock all of their hands and introduced ourselves. The father was so happy to tell us that all of his family were now members of the church except for one son who is scheduled to be baptized soon. He said that he had 7 grandchildren who sang with the primary and that he was happier that he had ever been. The primary program was so wonderful and everyone of the children said their part so well and sang the songs about Jesus. Everyone was crying and the spirit was felt so strongly. What a beautiful wonderful day and reminded all of us of how blessed we are to have the Gospel in our lives and to be here with these wonderful humble people. Made us really miss our grandchildren and we found ourselves identifying different children by how they reminded us of each of our own wonderful grandchildren. Very emotional day. We came home had dinner and then had a fireside here at our home where Dad was the speaker. The spirit carried over from the primary sacrament meeting. We had refreshment and enjoyed visiting with the young people who attended. We then had a correlation meeting with the Aps and got organized for a very exciting week ahead. What Fun!!
We Love all of you,
Richard and Nada/ Mom and Dad
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