Santiago Stake is Split!

What a wonderful experience, to witness the division of Santiago Stake. Elder Nielson and Elder Ardern came to attend the conference. We were fortunate to be asked to pick them up from Tuguegarao and drive them to Cauayan where they spent the night before the conference started on Saturday. With a few extra hours on Friday afternoon, they graciously accepted President Carlos' invitation to meet with some of our missionaries. Those who were serving in areas nearby were invited to come spend a couple hours. It was the most uplifting and enlightening meeting.

Elder Ardern with the New Santiago North Stake Presidency, next is the Santiago Stake Presidency and Elder Nielson

In the mission home

The Conference was held on Saturday and Sunday and it was awesome! There is now a Santiago North Stake and a Santiago Stake. After the Sunday session the Stake Relief Society President prepared a wonderful meal before there was a special meeting with the youth. Later that night we drove the elders back to Cauayan and they had dinner at the Mission Home with our senior couples. It was a wonderful evening full of great lessons and laughter!

On Monday morning we invited the Assistants to come to breakfast and enjoy spending at little time with the brethren before we drove them to the airport. This was truly a wonderful weekend. It's so thrilling to see the church grow in this part of the Philippines.

Elder Nielson with our assistants Elder Hale and Elder Katoa and Elder Ardern

Specialized Training for our District Leaders

Elder Dahlin, Kelson, Arabia, Cajumban and Castillo work on their project.

Elder Valdez, Shackelford, Quinto, Escalona and Bangal meet in the office lounge for their planning session.

Elder Rausa back row with Elder Miole and Elder Tangi get ready for the first presentation.

After our successful Zone Leader Council it was decided that we should repeat much of the activity for our district leaders. They are on the front lines, working closely with 6 to 8 missionaries and we felt they too could learn a lot using a similar approach to what we did with our zone leaders. It ended up being a fantastic training session. They were energized and full of great and useful ideas. I was so proud of all of them.

Elder Bangal and Tangi challenge Elder Miole and Elder Castillo

Now I know where the missing ball went!

Elder Arabia is a very talented musician.

Zone Leader Council Discovering the Silver Bullets of Missionary Work

We held an overnight zone leader council. The zone leaders gathered from all corners of the mission on Wednesday late afternoon. President Carlos welcomed them and they discussed a few important things about their jobs as zone leaders. Then Sister Carlos talked shared a little about Silver Bullets and how they apply to missionary work. In essence they are best solution to a problem. But the term was made famous back in the Wild West Days in the U.S.  Then the zone leaders were split into groups depending on the color of bandana they were given. They had an hour to discuss various topics that they had earlier identified as important to our work. After the hour President served grilled hamburgers and hotdogs. It was quite an undertaking to get US burgers and hot dogs here. We also served French fries, baked beans and chips. After dinner two groups reported. Wow, their job was to define the concern and get a discussion going on ways to overcome the concern. Then they were to define the Silver Bullet for that concern. The discussion was robust and insightful.

Elder Thomas, Valdez, Hardman, Jackson, Ward and Lucernas listen intently to President Carlos' opening remarks.

Elder Magsanoc, Crowley, Hardman, Lucernas and Poloai strategize at the kitchen table.

Elder Ward, Velez, Vinas and Thomas are deciding the direction they will use for their group presentation.

Chef President Carlos, grilling up the chow

Later that evening there was time for a little basketball, football and pingpong before enjoying Root Beer Floats and hitting the sack. In the morning, the mission home was quiet as a mouse as each missionary did his own personal study before breakfast. Afterwards the APs did a great demonstration on powerful companionship study and the final group had time for their topic. President Carlos wrapped it all up and our zone leaders headed back to work! It was a great zone leader council!

Elder Jackson gives the American BBQ a thumb's up. Elder Crowley and Elder Farley enjoy it as well. We were happy that the filipino elders also enjoyed it!

The Silver Bullet.

Rootbeer floats sure tasted good after a football game. If you look close you will see Elder Hardman was clawed under his eye. I guess every ftball game ends up with at least one injury--good thing it wasn't more serious!

Our great Assistants Elder Hale and Elder Katoa cooled off with a Rootbeer Float.

Santiago District Meetings with Elder Kelson and Elder Quinto



Elder Kelson leads the Villasis District

Both district leaders had activities where the missionaries were blindfolded. We'll never forget how much Sister DeCastro screamed throughout the activity.

Elder Quinto leads the Diffun District

Both of the district leaders in Santiago zone are new and so on their first district meeting we went to visit. Luckily they both meet in the Santiago Stake Center and so we were able to visit both meetings. We were so proud of both of these great new leaders. Here are a few random shots of their meetings.

Sister Eveland's Folks Arrive

Hug from Mom!

Hug from Dad--By now I was crying!!!

Sister Eveland's parents were able to fly into Cauayan to pick her up. They toured the area, went to Cebu for a couple days and had a little time in Manila before they left. It was really a treat for us to be able to have lunch with them and get to know her parents. She was a dear sister who spent much of her mission right here in the Cauayan area. The last few cycles she served as one of our sister trainers. We already miss this awesome sister missionary.

Only in the Philippines...

Sister Shaner was teaching a woman recently whose husband is a rice farmer. Sister Shaner mentioned something about the carabao and this lady said, "You mean you don't have carabao's in the U.S.?" She was so shocked to hear that Sister Shaner had never seen a carabao. She asked "Well, how do you get any work done?" Sister Shaner explained that we use John Deere--a tractor.

Here is a typical site in our mission. A carabao pulling a cart made of bamboo. When these animals aren't in the fields plowing they are hauling stuff to market or people to town. They truly are the work horse of this part of the world.

Another typical site are trycies with all kinds of sayings embroidered onto their roof covers. I often see things like "God's Gift." One of the popular sayings we have in the church is Choose the Right or CTR. This trycie obviously belonged to one of the members of the church.

Dining at Hotel Andrea with Imelda and her Friends

Imelda, the Mission Home's housekeeper, celebrated her birthday in late September. We hosted a birthday luncheon for her and some of her closest friends at the one really nice restaurant in town. Two of the friends were friends from her childhood. All of the guests were really thrilled to be at a fancy restaurant and I could tell it was a first for most of them. They giggled when I told them that they could order anything off the menu. Some were shy to pick and so we helped them decide.
I think Imelda had a grand time. She works so hard for us and keeps our clothes, and the home spic and span at all times. Sometimes our communication problems get us into trouble, but for the most part I wouldn't trade her in for anyone else.

 Imelda order beef and bitter root. The dish is called beef ampalaya. She loved it!

Celebrating with Sister Russell

We love our senior couples and so appreciate their willingness to give their all to the members and the missionaries in this part of the world. Elder and Sister Russell came to us as pros. They previously served a mission in Maine and we were so lucky to have them come to the Philippines.

They are assigned to two struggling branches and are making a huge impact. They go out many times each week with auxilary leaders and visit less active members. They are becoming a great tag team with the missionaries. Many of those less active members want to return to church and because of the Russells invitation, many are coming back. Also, many of them have family members who haven't been baptized yet and so they want to be taugh by the missionaries. So they find many investigators for the lucky missionaries assigned to those two units. Both Elder and Sister Russell have had extensive church leadership experience and are able to help lift up, teach and train the leaders.

In late September we helped Sister Russell celebrate her birthday. (Elder and Sister Breese were able to go with the Russells to Banue and had a great weekend gettaway!) It was the same weekend we were in Manila and so we all gathered back at the Mission Home for a birthday celebration. Unfortunately I didn't get a good picture of the celebration.

You will never find Sister Russell idle. She always is making something wonderful. She has just completed a hand crocheted bookmark for every missionary. Shhhh! That's a Christmas surprise! She also makes the most amazing bags crocheted out of plastic bags. She has been teaching many of the sisters in the branches where she serves how to make them and sell them. They sound so tacky but really they are beautiful! I love them!

We wish Sister Russell a wonderful new year and are so glad that most of it will be spent right here in the Philippines Cauayan Mission!

A Problem that Turned into a BLESSING!!

I found some caramels from the US and thought I'd better keep them in the refrigerator. Well, guess what? When we went to eat a few of them we found they were super hard. I tried to bite into one and a big hunk of my bottom front tooth came off with the caramel. Thank goodness it was the bottom tooth and not the top--where everyone could easily see it. About a week later I was eating something and tasted something hard and metal. It was a chunk of filling. At the last Mission President's Seminar we had talked to a couple who had some dental problems and they went to Manila to have them fixed. So we contacted our friend Boycee in Manila (who oversees all missionary health problems) and he got us an appointment with a great dentist in Manila.
About the same time we were wishing we could attend our beloved former assistant, Melvin Rondilla and our most wonderful former sister missionary, Evelyn Valdoz' wedding. We were able to fly to Manila on Thursday, get our dental work done on Friday and attend the wedding on Saturday. (President had his teeth cleaned and checked.)


Dinner the night before the wedding. These two were super excited!



Elder Rondilla had asked President Villanueva and President Carlos to be their witnesses, he served under both Mission Presidents.

The Cauayan Mission Gang!

Elder Rondilla--Hurray for Temple Marriages!

They are a gorgeous couple! We wish them much happines.

The wedding was absolutely fantastic. We love and respect that young couple. They are destined for greatness. We also had the wonderful opportunity to see many of our former missionaries (16 in all).  Elder Paco, our first assistant, organized a luncheon after the wedding for all those missionaries in the area. Unfortunately some of our returned missionaries had to work and so we didn't get to see everyone. But it was a joyous reunions to get to see so many of them.

Our Second New Batch this month!

Fresh of the overnight bus trip. 8 wonderful elders and one fantstic sister. Elders Lacambra, Meru, Guevarra, Laurente, Cruz, Dagal, Sulla and Legarde and Sister Tadbulong--Welcome to the BEST Mission in the World! (It's where our Heavenly Father has assigned you and so that makes it the best mission.) We love it!

We greeted another new batch of 9 wonderful missionaries in the wee hours of the morning. (Around 6:30 am) Feed them breakfast, oriented them and headed to the transfer meeting. We are really excited to get to know and love these missionaries. This is one of the first times that all of the missionaries coming are from the Philippines.

Two Transfers in One Month!

A beautiful new, much larger MTC is under construction behind the existing Manila MTC. In order to accomodate the MTCs move, it was decided that we would get two new batches of missionaries within 3 weeks of each other and then have a dry spell and not get any for 10 weeks after that! Generally we send home departing missionaries and welcome incoming missionaries every 6 weeks. It's like clockwork. So having two batches leave and two come within such a short period of time was a little crazy.
At the end of September we sent home some of our dearest, most wonderful missionaries. It was a very sad experience.
We have revamped our procedures. Always before we had all departing missionaries attend an all-day Career Workshop on their last day. This was sometimes painful for them as their minds and hearts were elsewhere. We wanted to shift things so that the day would be less stressful, and more enjoyable to our departing misisonaries. WIth this batch we decided to make the workshop optional and hold it the week prior to their departure. Then we asked the departing missionaries to invite friends, members, former companions who live in the area to come for a departure fireside. All of the missionaries bore their testimonies and many performed special musical numbers. It was really a special occassion. We were so touched by all the people who came to the chapel here in Cauayan for the meeting. We could tell that these missionaries had touched many lives. The music and testimonies were unforgettable. We loved it!

At the end of the fireside we had all current missionaries in attendance come up and sing the Cauayan Mission Song. I cried!

How do you say goodbye to Elder Haycock. He was an amazing missionary, trainer, and leader. Here Elder Riner, Valdez and Hardman give him one last hug!

Sister Adino, Sister Dhikao and departing missionary Sister Sajol, with her darling new hair style.

Sister Pulu came to give Sister Avenena a grand send off and they were both surprised by a wonderful couple who they taught back in Alicia.

Nanay came from Santiago. She knew most of these missionaries and they were touched that she came to their farewell fireside.

Elder Haycock and Elder Naylor found their suits in the mission home's suit closet. They parted two years ago when they arrived in Cauayan.

Oh how we will miss these amazing missionaries. Elder Blancaver, Elder Munoz, Elder Anzal, Sister Sajol, Sister Eveland, Sister Ambata, Sister Avencena and Sister Brown. Back row: Elder Naylor, Elder Haycock and Elder Goobie.

Two typhoons in one week, but third one was diverted

We did suffer through two typhoons last week. Another one was predicted for this Wednesday but it's course changed and it went south. We actually had few rain clouds that day but nothing much. Some of our missionaries are still without power, but most have it back now. It seems like the worst hit areas were around Santiago. We were there on Tuesday and surprised to see so many huge trees uprooted and the river so swollen. All of our missionaries are now back in their apartments. We are very grateful that the third typhoon missed us!!! We Feel Our Savior's Love.
This weekend is General Conference. We view it a week late since we are a day earlier than the US. We are all excited to be spiritually feed this weekend!
I'm way behind on blog updates and will try to rectify that in the next few days! It's been a very busy couple of weeks. A new wonderful batch of missionaries, zone leader council and lots more. Thanks to all for their love and concern for this mission.