National Family Week

The last week of September has been proclaimed by the Philippine Government as National Family Week to promote the filipino family.

The Alicia District of the church offered to spearhead it's community's celebration by hosting a parade, devotional and cultural event to kick off this special week. These activities were held in Angadanan.

The parade began at 8:00 am (to work around the heat). For the parade, each branch in the district marched behind a sign. Sister Breese and I joined in, we wandered up and down the streets of Angadanan. It was heart warming to see folks come out in their front yards to wave and cheer us on. (Every once in a while I could hear people say, "There are Americans!") We'd wave and smile, acting like dignitaries.

After the parade our little chapel filled up with people, packed to the brim. There must have been 500 people there. The mayor of Angadanan spoke about the importance of family values. I was also asked to speak as were a number of other people.

I had to leave to head to another district's auxiliary training meeting where I needed to teach, but the afternoon was filled with an exhibit for the community of Philippine Folk Dances, (each branch of the church perfected one or two dances, complete with authentic costumes and music). I wish we could have stayed to watch that part of the program.

Only in the Philippines...

Only in the Philippines do they dry corn and rice on the sides of the highways, every driveway, parking lot and any patch of asphalt or cement. Cars drive over the grains and people walk on them. Someone rakes it throughout the day to turn the moist kernals to the top and when it's dried they sack it up and load it onto trucks to take to be milled or stored.



Only in the Philippines do they celebrate Christmas in the "ber" months. So beginning with September you sing Christmas carols at church and see Santas and Christmas trees appearing around the town! (I guess that is what happens when you don't have Halloween and Thanksgiving to look forward to on your Fall calendar.)Here our office elders are outside of NE (one of our local grocery stores.)




Only in the Philippines can you purchase an entire branch of bananas for 100 pesos (around $2.00) There must have been 50 bananas on this branch that the Breese's bought from a roadside stand.

Zagu Runs

The Assistants to the President, the Office Elders and President Carlos all love Zagu, which are smoothie-type drinks. They serve them with a giant straw and put tapioca balls into the bottom of the drinks. I am personally not a fan of these drinks but it seems that every few days someone in the office mentions Zagu and off they run. We used to have to drive 30 minutes to Santiago but now there's a Zagu about three blocks from the mission home!

Cauayan District Conference

This weekend was Cauayan District Conference. It started with a Priesthood leader's session on Sat. Morning. Then at 1:00 we had the Auxillary Training, where I taught the leaders of the Young Women's, Primary and Relief Society organizations. I focused on Christ's methods of teaching and how we can emulate him in our teaching. At the same time the men were having leadership training with my husband. At 4:00 was the adult Saturday night session. Rudy spoke about the importance of paying tithing. On Sunday morning we started out with a chapel full of teenagers, for a special sesssion just for them. I spoke about Jonathan and David's unique friendship from the Old Testament and what we can learn about being friends from their story. President Carlos spoke about the fact that Heavenly Father knows and loves each of us. At 9:30 the general session began. The chapel and cultural hall was packed. This session I spoke about raising righteous children who will make good missionaries. Rudy referred to a favorite hymn, "Come Follow Me, the Savior Said." He encouraged each of us to follow the Savior.

I love these conferences because I am able to see a number of our missionaries. We had 16 missionaries in attendance and so we invited them over to the Mission Home for lunch before they headed back to their areas. We had a surprise from a member who went to Manila and brought us back US imported deli ham and cheese. So we made deli sandwiches, potato salad, baked beans, potato chips, chips and salsa and macaroni and cheese. I also made homemade oatmeal cookies. As you can imagine the missionaries loved the food.


We have a game that we play with our cookie jar (a gift from our dear friends, the Johnsons). Every missionary can have one cookie, but if you can lift the lid and replace it without making a sound, you can have an extra cookie. Here Elder Phipps is working hard at it and guess what? He was able to do it and earn that second cookie. Only two missionaries were able to do it--Elder Goobie and Elder Phipps!

Zone Leader Conference and District Leader Training

Every other month we bring our leaders together for a day of training. We start off with our zone leader's council and then meet in the chapel next door for training. We always learn so much and enjoy good food. This month we served chili over rice, which is the way they serve it in Hawaii. (We have one zone leader from Hawaii.) The North American elders were really excited to see chili. (Believe me, I had to search high and low for kidney beans!) The filipino elders were very good about trying something new and many of them really liked it. One elder told me that it gave him a bad stomach ache! So next time I'll try to serve a filipino dish that he loves!




After the meetings the leaders head to the Mission Office to pick up mail for their zones and other various supplies. Most bring in a suitcase so that they can handle everything they have to take back. Our Mission Office serves as a Post Office for all our missionaries. All mail comes here and we sort it and then get to the missionaries with every available opportunity.

Breese Update

The Breese are getting along fine here in our mission. They both seem to be adjusting very well and learning their many duties. We had a big celebration when they reached their 1-Month Anniversary. We ordered delicious cream puffs from our favorite little European Bakery.



About that time Sister Breese decided it was time to start driving. Let me tell you, driving here is quite an experience. Both Elder and Sister Breese can maneuver out into heavy traffic, full of thousands of trycies and motorcycles without even blinking an eye. This past weekend they were invited to speak at a Visiting Teaching Conference in Solano, about a 2.5 to 3 hour drive from here. They got there just fine, but when leaving the city the turning the wrong direction. After about an hour and half they saw a sign for Manila. That's when it dawned on them that this was all new terrain. So they headed back to Solano, another 1.5 hour drive and then headed back home. They are so positive that they said it was a lovely drive. (3 hours extra!)

Doctor, Doctor!

We have a wonderful retired physician and medical school professor and his wife, an RN, serving as our Area Medical Authorities. They are based in Manila and there is hardly a day that goes by when I don't have to get some medical advice from them. When you think about us working with close to 150 missionaries in an underdeveloped country, like the Philippines, it's no wonder that we have sick missionaries from time to time. But with Elder and Sister Jafek's help (they are available 24/7)we can solve most of the cases and avoid sending our missionaries to the doctor or hospital. (Many see the badges with the Church's logo as a bank roll. We've had many cases in the past of a hospital doing a huge battery of unneeded exams before releasing our missionaries.) Since most drugs are available without a prescription we're able to get the advice from the Jafek's and take care of our missionaries needs.
Anyway, Elder and Sister Jafek flew in for a 2-day quick visit, where they helped train me better. It's my job to handle most of these medical emergencies and I so appreciated all the things they taught me.
So you can see what it's lik--just this week we've had:
Three cases of stomach aches.
One case of constipation.
One case of sore throat and coughs.
Another one that is coughing.
One that fainted.
Two with Dengue Fever. (It's a terrible flu that comes from a mosquito bite.)
Two in-grown toe nails (one had to be operated on, another one we're watching for a few more days to see if there's improvement.)
One who needed emergency oral surgery.
One that is dizzy.
You can see how important Elder and Sister Jafek are to our mission!

Mission Tour Continued

On Thursday we headed to Tuguegarao where that zone and Illagan zones meet together for our final zone conference. Brother Pete, a retired chef from the US, prepared an absolute feast for all of us with Swordfish and Orange Chicken. We were well feed spiritually by the Edwards and well feed physically by Brother Pete and his crew of volunteers.

Mission Tour

Elder and Sister Edwards arrived in Cauayan for a Mission Tour. He is the President of the PHilippines Area Presidency. They live in Manila. The first day they spent training us on our duties--we learned so much from both Elder and Sister Edwards. That night we invited The Marcos family for Family Home Evening. She is a newly baptized member and they are newlyweds. We had a fun lesson that helped us all to think about our priorities. We sang songs, and played games and then ate dessert.



The next day we headed out to Santiago where the Nueva Viscaya and Santiago zones joined together for a Zone Conference. Elder Edwards started the day by having a one hour session with our district and zone leaders. Then we all joined together for a 4-hour block of training. It was so fascinating to listen to him share his wisdom and command for the scriptures that they time flew by. He called on several missionaries to speak on various topics and to bear their testimonies. The meeting was followed by a catered lunch.



On Wednesday we had another zone conference for Roxas and Alicia Zones. It was Sister Edwards birthday and we had a cake made for her at "Sweet Nothings," a great little European-style bakery just down the road from the Mission Home.

The Ashtons Leave

Elder and Sister Ashton have faithfully served here in the our mission for the past 23 months. They were asigned to help activate inactive members in the Bambang region. (Mountainous) They worked their hearts out and touched so many people. We went to a district conference in their area and heard so many heartwarming stories about the thousands of families that they visited and invited to come back to church. So many people will miss them and have benefitted from their service. We pray for more great couples like the Ashtons!

Manila Temple President Comes to Visit

President and Sister Mabunga came to Cauayan for a leadership meeting. They stayed with us for a couple of days. While they were here they also gave a fireside at the Cauayan building. Their topic was of course, temple service.

We had a lot of fun visiting with them. His family were some of the first pioneers to join the church here in the Philippines soon after the church was established in the PHilipppines back in 1961. (50 years ago, almost!) His father was the branch president in Manila when Rudy joined the church. President Mabunga had left to be married in the Hawaii temple and Rudy got to know his younger brothers and sisters. Many of them now live in the states and Rudy has kept in contact with his younger sister. President and Sister Mabunga raised their family in New York and retired to Salt Lake. He was called to preside over one of the missions here in the PHilippines for 3 years. They returned to Salt Lake and within a few months they were called back to preside over the Manila Temple, another 3 year commitment. So we had a lot of fun visiting with them about mutual friends.

Teaching in Solano

Sister Breese and I were asked to put on a workshop for the teachers in the Solano District. We talked about the various methods that Christ used when he taught. Then we discussed various learning styles that students may have and we gave them a sample lesson using a variety of teaching methods. It was a very special meeting. We had fun putting it together and we got great feedback from the people that came.


Solano is in the mountains and it's very beautiful. It's also cooler than the rest of our mission. While there we stayed at a new beautiful resort. This is the grounds of the resort. They had a swimming pool. Don't get me wrong, it's not like the Marriott Resorts we have stayed in but it was very nice for this area of the Philippines.


This is the foyer to the hotel.




We had a panel to answer their questions. Sister Gwanzon is in gold. She is the wife of Elder Gwanzon, the Area Authority Seventy who presided over the conference. The other sister is the District Relief Society President.



To better understand the heart of the shepherd we had a shepherd come and we interviewed him. (Some of you may recognize the shepherd aka Elder Breese.)



Sister Breese talked about a teacher who impacted her life.

Home Teaching

President and I visited a wonderful family who live out in the country. This is their home, they have 5 sons and a mother and a father. They don't have running water but a little stream runs behind their home and they go there and haul the water up to the house. The day we visited the father and two older sons were gone. The youngest son, who is five, was afraid of me and wouldn't come out of the house. I kept seeing him peek out the window (which was just a hole with a curtain hanging over it, they have no actual glass in their windows.) I had some candy in my purse so I finally enticed him out of the house with the candy and he was willing to be in the picture.





This little hut is their dining room and that is where we sat and visited. This is typical to see. It's like an outdoor room with seats all around. Some of them have a built-in table. Since they live in the mountain region there is a nice breese and it was very pleasant, although there were bugs everywhere. Lots of mosquitos near the little stream. They hadn't been to church for some time and so we talked about the reasons and invited them to come back. The next day they came back.

Only in the Philippines...

Here are a few more unique happenings in the Philippines!

Only in the Philippines do they move people in every conceivable type of vehicle. If you're lucky enough to have a truck you can really pack them in. I love all the colorful hats on these folks.

Only in the Philippines do they have little geckos everywhere and people love to have them in their homes because they eat bugs! We ate dinner at some member's home and the front room wall was crawling with these little critters.

Only in the Philippines do you see wash hanging outside every little home. Some homes have clothes lines but most just make do with the fence, trees or bushes.

Only in the Philippines are their little Sari Sari shops at every corner. They sell all kinds of snacks and soda pop. If you can't afford the bottle they pour the pop in a plastic bag and give you a straw.

Only in the Philippines (and a few other countries) do you see meat shops with slabs of meat hanging from hooks, out in the open with flies all over the meat. They also sell all kinds of meat like goat, pigs feet, etc. (There are also some nice butcher shops where we can buy meat, but those are too expensive for the general public.)

I'll keep you posted on additional only in the Philippines!

Here Come The Breese's

When we heard that we needed to recruit senior couples for our mission we immediately thought of Sid and Gloria Breese. They were ready for a change in their life and were two of the happiest, most organized people we know. Last spring, we approached them and the spirit confirmed that they should turn in their papers. They were able to request our misssion and we were able to request them for our mission, but we all knew it would depend on the inspiration received by those who make the decisions for where missionaries are to serve. In May they heard that they would indeed be coming to the Cauayan Philippines Mission to serve as the mission's office couple.
On August 13, 2010 at 10:20 am they arrived at our tiny little airport.

Our office elders and assistants joined us at the Cauayan Airport to welcome in Elder and Sister Breese. Since they arrived 3 weeks ago, our schedules have been so hectic, with mission tours, training, teaching, etc.

Sister Breese is quite the trooper. She was ready to go to the palenke (open markets) the second day she arrived. Many seasoned travelers would be afraid to enter the palenke, but there she was selecting her fruits and vegetables.

Within a few days of Sister Breese's arrival she fell in love.(Sorry Elder Breese)His name is JK (who I also love!) He is the cutest, smartest little 12 year old filipino kid you'd ever hope to meet. His mother is a member of the church but hasn't been active since she got married. JK started checking out the church and heard that we were forming a district choir for an upcoming conference. He sings tenor and is totally musically gifted. The first time he met Sister Breese he said her, "Sister Breese, you are the most beautiful Sister Breese I ever met!" I think that did it, she's been his fan ever since!



Elder Breese is learning his duties as our mission's financial secretary.

We are so lucky and excited to be able to serve with the Breese's. We pray that more of our friends will be assigned here. This area needs good strong leaders and senior couples could do so much to teach those leaders!

Upstairs the Mission Homes

This home has five indoor bathrooms, and four bedrooms along with maids quarters, which our housekeeper uses as her ironing room. There is also another bathroom with an outside only entrance that our gardener and other workers use.

This area has a nice treadmill in it. It's actually the landing at the top of the stairs. If we had kids, they would enjoy this area as a TV room. I try to use the treadmill a few times a week. I'm still trying to inspire President Carlos to use it.

This is the master bedroom, off of it is a nice dressing area, then double sinks and the bathroom area has a tub with a shower, and toilet. We are very fortunate to have a nice water heater and so we get hot showers or baths! I don't think we ever realized what a luxury that was back at home.

This is the guest room, where our visitors stay. There is a nice bathroom attached to this room.

This is our home office. We have it connected to the Internet and there are many times when it's really nice to be able to receive emails without having to run across to the office.

This is the bunk house. There are actually four sets of bunkbeds in the bunk house. We have never filled them with missionaries but we could, if we needed to. We've had several missionaries at a time come and stay with us for various reasons. The bunk house, which is just a large room at the end of the hall, has it's own nice bathroom and large shower.