New Year's Eve at the Mission Home

New Year's Eve in the Philippines is very dangerous. The day after Christmas, fireworks stands pop up all over the city and you can purchase literally any kind of fireworks. Everything is legal. And these people all seem to be pyromaniacs. They love firecrackers of all kinds. If they don't have fireworks they will shoot guns up in the air. So we have a mission rule that all missionaries are in lock-down in their apartments at 6 pm on New Year's Eve.

We started a tradition last year that missionaries who live close to the Mission Home could come and be locked down with us. So this year we had 22 elders and sisters. (The sisters all stayed with the sister missionaries a few blocks from the mission home. We drove them at the end of the night.) We had all kinds of fun foods and munchies. The missionaries enjoyed playing basketball, football, ping pong (Sister Pulu and Sister Acal ended up being the champions). One group played Mexican train. We showed the movie 17 Miracles and then went out to watch the spectacular fireworks display. Everyone was in bed soon after midnight. The next morning started with warm showers, pancakes for breakfast and then a race back to their areas for church services.

We love spending time with our beloved missionaries!

 The fireworks were spectacular. Every direction we looked the sky was filled with amazing lights.
 Thanks to our kids back home, we had wonderful pepperoni to put on our homemade pizzas!

 There was plenty of food for all.

 Most of the filipinos played basket ball in their flip flops and they were tough to beat!

 The senior couples came and enjoyed spending some time with the missionaries although it looks like they got a quiet minute or two to visit while the elders and sisters were out playing ball.

Throughout the evening there were many rousing games of ping pong.

 Elder Breese coaches players on winning Mexican Train.

 Watching 17 Miracles. There were lots of tears with this stirring movie of the Willie/Martin Handcart companies trek to the Salt Lake Valley.

Around 11:30 we all headed outside to watch the spectacular fireworks.

Happy 2012!

Look Sister Carlos--We Brought You Dinner

One afternoon our Assistants, Elder Katoa and Elder Cajumban walked into the office with dinner. It was a huge lizard about 4 feet tall. Here it is considered to be a delicacy. The only problem was that it was still alive. Guess what I did? I screamed of course! The elders took it to a woman in the area (a friend from church) who knows how to prepare it. Later they brought over a pot of it for dinner. She prepared it in a spicy sauce. We all tried it, I wasn't fond of the texture--a little chewy. But Elder Breese really liked it. He kept eating bite after bite and pretty soon out of his mouth popped a bunch of bones!

 It was wiggling around and made me quite uncomfortable.

 They purchased this from a boy who was holding it out in his hand offering it to drivers on the National Highway.

Elder Breese couldn't get enough of it!

The Palenke

The palenke is the public market. We shop there around 6 AM on Wednesday and Saturday mornings. Why that early? The trucks arrive around 5 AM those two mornings carrying beautiful, fresh produce from Baguio and Nueva Vizcaya. If you come much later all the lettuce will be gone and the smells from the wet market (the area where they sell meat) are too strong for my nose.

 One area has a long row of fruit stands. A huge rack of bananas (around 25 or so) costs around 100 pesos (or a little more than two dollars). They are the best bananas I have ever tasted.

 This is our dear friend. She is so honest. If we want to buy grapes and they aren't very good, she will tell us not to buy them. Whenever we ask her to pick out our fruit it is delicious. She and her husband own this stand. She comes to work around 4 am each morning (7 days a week) and stays until 6 pm.

 There are rows and rows of shops that sell all kinds of interesting stuff. I always feel like I'm shopping at dollar stores. Most people can't afford to pay for high quality items. Still it's amazing what fun things you can find at the palenke. This one in Cauayan probably has 1,000 shops in it. It is huge!

Finishing UP Our Christmas Celebrations

I'm sorry these posts are so late. I had a problem with this blog not letting me download photos. Finally I contacted one of my brilliant sons and daughters-in-law who were able to fix the problem. So now I can get back to making posts.

We started a tradition last Christmas thanks to the generosity of the mother of our dear missionary, Sister Banks. Her mom sent us a gingerbread house kit and so last year we made the gingerbread house on Christmas Eve with all the local missionaries. We couldn't bear to think of celebrating another Christmas with a gingerbread house. So we invited all the missionaries who live in the area to come and enjoy some good food and decorate the house. Like last year, it turned out wonderful!

 Sister Bigay loved decorating the roof and she even added icicles! Looks like Elder Kelson was dipping into the candy!

 It's always fun to have our missionaries in the Mission Home.

What a gorgeous gingerbread house!

 Look at the Snowman! I thought the cow was really great and then I realized it was borrowed from one of my nativity sets.

 One Christmas Day we all went to our respective branches and then the couples met for a gift exchange and big Christmas Dinner. Even though we all were missing our families we managed to have a lot of fun.

Elder Shaner is showing President how to use his new I-Pad.

Daddy's Souvenier

Our son recently taught a 2-week course at a university in Saudi Arabia. He brought home this native outfit for our grandson, Tyler, who is 3 years old. Ty is already very picky about his clothes and so we were surprised that he would try it on.

We love our mission but we miss our grand kids! They are quickly growing up.

December Brings Branch Parties

All throughout the mission our branches held Christmas Parties. Because of our schedule we were only able to attend a few of them, but they were so much fun! These filipinos really know how to party!!

 Sister Batara

 Some of the great families from Cauayan District

More of our favorite friends from Cauayan

It Can't Be February, I'm Still Posting December Photos!

I totally can't believe that it's February and I still am not finished with our December posts. Wow, we've been so busy this past month. The days have whizzed by. I still have some photos to include from our Christmas Zone Conferences.

 Some of the local kids heard it was snowing at the church and they came to see it!

 Elder Russell is showing the gift he just selected during the gift exchange.

 The gift excahnge brought a lot of laughs.

Elder James shows off the t-shirt he got at the gift exchange.

 Our senior couples acted as Santa's elves and gathered all the gifts for the gift exchange.

 These missionaries were eager for the training portion of our zone conference to begin.

Everyone was full of good food, good instruction and good fun!

 We LOVE our beautiful sister missionaries.

 The Ilagan Zone performed a darling dance to the Friendly Beasts. Here Elder Lundy and Sister Adino were dancing cows.

The Ilagan Zone really got into their dance.

 Elder Coleman and Elder Elgan were the perfect sheep!

 Santiago Zone gets ready for their Haka!

It was really fun to watch their dance!

 Elder Tangi led Santiago's Haka Dance

 The sisters made their leis and headdresses. What a fun dance!

These missionaries loved their stockings!

What a great Christmas Zone Conference!