Working with our Sister Missionaries

One of my favorite things to do is to work with our sister missionaries. Sometimes I go observe their weekly planning meetings, other times I sit in on their companionship study or go out and teach with them. I am so very impressed with the amazing young ladies. We have over 30 serving here for 18 months. Out of the 30 only a half dozen are North Americans and the rest of filipinas from other areas of the Philippines. Like our young elders, these sister missionaries put their lives on hold for a year and half. They say goodbye to family, boyfriends and often to their schooling or careers. They approach this work very seriously. They are well organized and work very hard to share their knowledge of Jesus Christ and His gospel to those who are wanting to learn more.

Sister Tabudlong is in the middle or her 12 week New Missionary Training Program. Sister Baladjay is her great trainer. On this day I visited their training study session and was so impressed with how they were doing!

I am so impressed with our sister missionaries.

Jeepneys!

Most filipinos rely on public transportation. If they happen to own a vehicle it is most likely a motorcycle. There are buses going between cities, vans going to nearby cities, trycies (motorcycles with side cars), kuligligs (strange plow things with lawn mower moters used to work on the farms and haul people and stuff, carabao with carts, horses with carts, bikes (although the roads are super rough) and jeepneys.

There are two long benches running from the back to behind the driver. People squeeze in and some even sit in the aisle.

Whoever heard of a Mercedes Benz Jeepney!

Jeepneys are relics left from WWII. They are jeeps that have been decorated and souped up. We have seen close to 30 people in one jeep. The people stuff inside, hold onto the back and many will climb on top. From what I understand the coolest seats are up on the roof. Recently we followed a couple of fully loaded jeepney and I got a few shots of them along the way.

Convenient Meat Markets

Looks like Pigs Head is the Special for the Day (Notice that kitten in the bottom of the picture)

Look at that Face--could you eat him? I think the kitten is getting closer. If you don't like snout you can always buy the feet! (See them next to the face?)

Not sure what other meat items were available that day.

As you drive down the National Highway we often see little impromptu meat markets set up along the rode. On this day we saw one that had a fresh pork (at least that is what they claimed) ready for purchase.

A Very Special Family Visits the Mission Home

One of the first invitations we received when we first came into the mission was for dinner at the home of President and Sister Paguigan from the Angadanan Branch. President Paguigan is the branch president and has been serving there for something like 9 years.
They have three beautiful college-aged daughters and a young tag-a-long son, named A-ron. A-ron is the light of their lives. He's a very talented little boy. At a very young age he started playing the piano for church meetings. He's really quite good! He also plays the drum in his school's marching band. I think he's 10 years old. Anyway, we have invited them numerous times to come to the Mission Home for dinner and games. So finally they were able to fit it into their schedule.
President made pork chops and we couldn't believe how much A-ron ate! After dinner we played Mexican Train. It was a lot of fun and everyone enjoyed it. We love this dedicated and faithful family.

The Paguigan Family and Sister Breese during a rousing game of Mexican Train.

Gamu Branch Open House

The halls were full of members and visitors admiring the new building

Cutting the ribbon!

Elders greeted visitors outside the building

The Gamu Branch building is finally completed. We are waiting until it is dedicated but in the meantime the branch hosted a community open house and ribbon cutting ceremony. Many citizens toured the building and all were impressed with its beauty and functionality. Most visitors were surprised to see the rooms designated for the teaching of the children, teens, and parents. All agreed that the new building was a great addition to the town of Gamu.

Two Awesome New Missionaries!

Elder Alfonso will train Elder Daluman. They will be working in Tuao in Tuguegarao Stake

For a long time we had only one missionary scheduled to come in October and that was Elder Lundy from Wisconsin. We worried about how he would get to Cauayan on his own. There are a few flights each week but not on the day he was to arrive in Manila. In fact, the next one would be two days later. So when we got late word that Elder Daluman would be coming at the same time from the Manila we were thrilled. The two of them met at the Manila MTC and then boarded the all-night bus ride to Cauayan. Elder Daluman is really outgoing and speaks good English and so the two got along just fine. In fact, they were said to say goodbye the next day when it was time to head off to their first areas.

We already love and respect these two wonderful missionaries! Welcome to the best mission in the world!

Elder Daluman and Elder Lundy

Elder Lundy and his trainer Elder Schmidt are assigned to Ilagan

More Photos from Quarterly Interviews and Zone Meetings

It was taking forever to attach photos in the last post, so I will continue in this post. The best part about these quarterly interviews is that we get to see all of our wonderful, talented and loving missionaries! We love  and appreciated each one of them!

Elder Shackelford, zone leader in Alicia taught a powerful lesson using tin can phones! It was on listening to the Holy Ghost.

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Our newest elder--Elder Lundy with his trainer, Elder Schmidt

Elder Jackson and Elder Hardman are the zone leaders for Ilagan Zone

These little boys helped Elder Ward and Elder Rausa set up for their meeting in Roxas and so President treated them to some icecream.

 Working in small groups at the Roxas Zone meeting

The ice cream man came at the end of the meeting. They call this dirty icecream. The man gets up at dawn to make two flavors each day. They serve it in cones, cups or the filipino favorite--inside a bread roll.

Quarterly Interviews and Zone Meetings

In October President Carlos interview each missionary. During those interviews he asked the zone leaders to put together some specialized training for their zones. The Assistants and I were able to attend each of those meetings. Wow! They were powerful and mighty. We were so impressed with the careful planning and wonderful implementation. Each meeting was just amazing. We truly have been blessed with some fantastic mission leaders. We know that every missionary was blessed from these inspirational meetings. Here are some random shots from around the mission:

The beautiful and talented sisters of Santiago Zone

Zone Leader Elder Farley works with small group of missionaries during a fun, informative activity in Tuguegarao Zone

Elder Nielsen organized a brilliant musical number. (Elder Rostedt, Elder James, Elder Nielsen with Sister Fort and Sister Martinez)

Santiago Sisters are ready for meeting to start

Elder Riner is training Elder Landeen here they are discussing the question given by their zone leaders

Elder Valdez and Elder Thomas are the zone leaders in Santiago

Elder Griffin and Elder Wooden enjoy their zone meeting

Elder Crowley and Elder Cledera are the zone leaders in Cauayan Zone

Alicia's Zone Meeting

New Missionary 12-Week Training Program

In September we adopted a new 12-week training program for our new missionaries. This is a wonderful curriculum that each new missionary and their trainer goes through. Every morning they do a 2-hour companionship study where they go through the lessons. There are dvds and on-line courses to complement the course. We are so excited to now see the fruits of those efforts. Our new missionaries are raring to go and now they have the advanced skills to really take flight early on in their missionary career.

President and I, along with the Assistants have a goal to go and sit in on at least one of the training sessions. I've done it several times now and am so impressed with the quality of training that I'm seeing.

Sister Tabudlong (in white) with her trainer Sister Baladjay--Two amazing missionaries!

The 24th was a Very Popular Birth Date

We had four missionaries who celebrated their birthdays on October 24. One was serving far away and the other three happen to be serving within an hour of the mission home. Elder Riner approached President about the possibility of the birthday elders coming in for a special birthday lunch. Since their birthday was on P-Day, President thought that was a great idea. He asked the elders what they'd like to eat and they quickly said enchiladas. Now making enchiladas in the Philippines is no easy task. First it's very difficult to find tortillas (but we did) next there is no enchilada sauce for sale (but we found Emerils favorite on the Internet) next its hard to find good cheese (but we had recently been to Manila and brought back a suitcase full) and nobody sells refried beans (but Sister Shaner brought some dehydrated ones from home). So we didn't have any excuse to say no. President made his famous Mexican rice and I made the enchiladas. I made my mom's famous applesauce chocolate chip cake for dessert. Each birthday elder brought his companion with him so we had 6 for lunch. It was a lot of fun. I can honestly say they all left stuffed to the brim!

President Carlos with his birthday elders: Elder Riner, Elder Schmidt and Elder Hardman

Delicious birthday lunch!

Alicia Visiting Teaching Conference

Sister Breese and I were invited to speak at Alicia's annual VT Conference. For my friends and family who aren't members of the church, Visiting Teaching is a wonderful program for the women of our church. Each woman is assigned 2 visiting teachers who came into your home each month and share an uplifting message. They also are there to serve and help you depending on what your needs are at the time.

I was asked to talk about the hows and whys of VT and she was asked to focus on the blessings of VT. We had a lot of fun with these lovely ladies. At the end of my talk I talked about the lasting effects of good visiting teaching--and the end result is friendship. I have made many wonderful friends throughout my life because either they taught me or I taught them. So before we discussed what the lasting effects are I gave each woman a piece of gum and asked the they chew it up. After a couple of minutes I told them to stick out their tongue and show their number. It was paint gum which painted each of our tongues a different color depending on the kind of gum we chewed. They laughed alot and I think understood my point!

This was the group of ladies who came from Echague a town about 15 minutes from Alicia.

Sister Breese with a few of the sisters from Angadanan where she and Elder Breese serve.

We were the blue group! We all chewed blue gum.