April Zone Leader Council

Once a month our zone leaders get together and council one with another. It's also the time when they account to each other about their stewardship. I love these meetings and always come away feeling so good about our mission leadership. Every other month our zlc is longer as it doesn't piggyback onto our leadership training with the district leaders and sister trainers.

 Yummy watermelon and cinnamon rolls.

President loves to listen to the council share their ideas and concerns.

 Elder Quinto, Elder Reyes,Elder Gloria and Elder Velez--we love these great leaders.

Elder Sarignaya is serving as a zone leader in Santiago.

Elder Schackelford, Elder Miole, and Elder Deriada.

Quarterly Interivews--Alicia

Elder Huffstutler and Elder Miole planned a wonderful, inspiring lesson. At the end they played some very inspirational music and asked the missionaries to think about Christ while they shut their eyes and listened to the music. When that was done they had a football placed on a chair in the middle of the circle. They invited anyone who wanted to go up and take the football and share what they were feeling or thinking during the song. Every one in the room took their turn. It was very inspiring to hear these missionaries thoughts about their Savior. Elder Forrest was out of the room having his interview with President during the song but he said that when he entered the room he had no idea what was going on, but he was overwhelmed by the strong spirit that was in the room. There's power when we turn our hearts and thoughts to Jesus Christ.

 Elder Templado has taught himself to play the piano while on his mission. He's getting pretty good!

 Elder Forrest shares a spiritual experience.

 The zone leaders lead a powerful discussion about what missionaries have given up in order to become good missionaries. Then they discussed what Christ gave up for us.

 Members of the Alicia Zone were given many things to think about and ponder.

SisterForcades takes her turn sharing what she felt while listening to a beautiful song about Christ.

Quarterly Interviews--Ilagan Zone

 Elder Acu lead the singing. I love to watch our missionaries lead the music. Usually they are doing it  a capella and really do a good job.

 The zone leaders focused on Companionship Study, Personal Study and Nightly Planning and discussed roadblocks and how to overcome them. It was a great lesson!

 The meeting took place in the Ilagan Stake Center. I always appreciate this shiny and clean building. Not all of the buildings are kept this nice.

 Our APs (Elder Cajumban in the foreground) usually travel with us to our quarterly interviews and zone meetings.

Elder Oliver and Elder Gloria are doing a fantastic job leading the Ilagan Zone. We thoroughly enjoyed our day with them.

I looked out the window and what did I see?

I always try to keep my camera handy as we drive throughout our mission. You never know what amazing sites we will see.

 This giant moth was on a wall. It was larger than a person's hand.

 Usually we see rice, some corn, a little tobacco growing. But this day we saw sunflowers. As far as the eyes could see. In the morning when we passed by, the flowers were facing us. I mentioned that on the way home I wanted to stop and take a picture of them. But in the late afternoon they were facing away from us. Oh well, you get the idea.

Beautiful new rice. It's almost a lime green. In the background you can see the mountains. We are surrounded by mountains.

 This family of 5 was riding on 1 motorcycle.This is not an uncommon sight here.

 This is the nicest kuliglig I've ever seen. This is the back where the people sit and the front with the motor is in the next picture. Kuliglig means grasshopper and I think this vehicle does indeed, look like a grasshopper.

 These are the strangest contraptions I've ever seen.

 This sidecar was carrying two squealing pigs to market. I think they knew their destiny as they were just squealing up a storm!

Quarterly Interviews--Tuguegarao Zone

We enjoyed our visit with the Tuguegarao Zone. Elder Shackelford and Elder Reyes are the zone leaders. I appreciated how they involved everyone in their lesson. Their theme was "Becoming Who He Wants Us to Be." They did a great visual aid where they asked each district to draw a picture of the temple. Then they gave each group a magnifying glass and had them go outside and burn out the drawing. It was amazing how the sun would light the paper, but only in the spot where they wanted it to be and that literally cut out the picture. One zone even did an intricate Angel Moroni on the top of their temple and they were able to "cut" that out. When we went back inside we had quite a discussion about how we must be focused, give our efforts to make things happen in our lives. We can set goals but unless we utilize the resources we have been given and then focus our efforts we won't accomplish our goals.

 Elder McGuffin, Elder Jackson and Elder Hamblin burn out their temple picture.

 Elder Landeen and Elder Cajumban are determined to burn out the Angel Moroni at the top.

 Sister Bigay, Rafique, Saez, Roncal, Galang and Hoopes sang a beautiful hymn.

 This was a wonderful zone meeting.

 

Elder Reyes is one of our newest zone leaders and he and Elder Shackelford are doing a great job in leading this very special zone.

We love the missionaries serving in the Philippine's hottest city!

A Visit to Benito Solivan

We love visiting different branches on Sundays. When we're not participating in a District or Stake Conference we head out in a different direction. On this Sunday, President Lugo (Ilagan Stake President) asked for some missionary supplies as their stake was hosting a member missionary fireside. He was headed to Bonito Solivan, a little branch up a mountain side. We decided to bring the supplies there and visit the branch.

We have Elder Cledara and Elder Buness serving there. They are both great missionaries and love the people. On that Sunday there was around 75 people at church--that is really good for that little branch. Many were stake visitors but many were the wonderful members. After Sacrament Meeting I visited the primary and had so much fun singing with the children, and teaching them how to play "Hang Man" and "Tic Tac Toe" with words and questions all about prophets. We had a blast together. At the end the room was really messy and I asked three of the little boys to  help me clean it up. They showed me the brooms and wouldn't let me help them. They did all the work by themselves and I was so proud of them.

 Elder Cledara has been training Elder Buness. This is last month before he heads home. He has been an amazing missionary and we will surely miss him. Elder Buness is famous in the mission for having the largest shoe size! He wears size 15! We're hoping his shoes will last him through his mission because the biggest shoes we've seen here to buy are size 10!

 I loved sharing a little time with these darling primary children!

President and Sister Lugo traveled from Tumauini (about an hour) to Bonito Solivan on that red motorcycle. The dirt road is extremely bumpy and dusty. We love this faithful Stake President and his wonderful wife!

Saying Goodbye to Two Dear Missionaries

Elder Katoa and Elder Tangi were two of everyone's favorite missionaries. Elder Katoa served as one of our assistants for 6 months. Elder Tangi was a gentle giant around here. So many missionaries were trained under him.

When it was time to leave the two traveled to Manila together and then E. Tangi headed to his home in New Zealand and E. Katoa headed to St. George, Utah.

Before they left they hosted a huge P-day activity. Mission friends came from all over for volleyball, basketball, football and food. We had fun visiting the activity.

 This group was busy making a watermelon drink with coconut milk.

 Elder Malimali was the chief drink maker. Here he's squeezing the fresh coconut to extract all the milk.

 These missionaries enjoyed eating the last bits of watermelon.

 There was grilled chicken and hamburgers for everyone.

 It was a feast!

 These sisters enjoyed all the activities.

 Elder Wellman, Elgan and  Huffstutler came from the Alicia Zone.

 The Cauayan Branch put on a surprise going away party for their beloved Elder Katoa. President had to get in one last hug.

 They signed a poster they made showing a very slim E. Katoa.

 What handsome elders! We love them both and will forever remember them.

The great send-off. Elder Brown, Elder Cajumban, Elder Amoi with Elder Katoa, Elder Jackson and Elder Tangi. Our missionaries leave their suits in a closet int he mission home and don't pull them out until they are ready to go home. It seems so funny to see them in a suit.

Flowers at the Mission Home

 The grounds of the mission home are beautiful. Ranie, the gardener, does such a nice job keeping it looking like a park. I often enjoy strolling through the yard to see what's blooming. Most of the landscape is greenery but there are some flowering bushes and pots. I recently purchased a few to add to our collection. 

 I love mums and am anxious to see how they do in this humidity.

 Ranie hung this beautiful orchid from one of the palm trees.

Just look at the ruffles and the vivid colors!

The Birthday Boy--Elder Breese Turns 80!

This week Elder Breese turned 80 years old. And what did he want to do to celebrate? What else? He wanted to ride a carabao. So we arranged with our friends the Ramos' who own a farm just east of Paddad. The Shaners, Lakers and Breeses were able to go. President was attending a funeral and the Russells were under the weather and weren't able to join us. (They will have to visit the farm before they go home.)

Elder Breese on the carabao with Farmer Ramos leading the way. The carabao (who didn't have a name) was a very gentile animal.

 We all got into a cart and Elder Breese drove the carabao through a grove of coconut trees out to their rice paddies. It was beautiful and serene.

 We passed through their chicken coop, pig barns and tilapia ponds. A mother hen cuddling with her chick.

The coop had rows of these baskets. When I took this hens picture she got mad and made a lot of noise as she flew out over my head.

This mother pig had given birth to 14 piglets the week before. Two had died but 12 had chubby little bellies. This was the farmers first time to try artificial insemination and this liter was larger than any he'd seen before. He has a number of other huge pigs ready to give birth any day.

 After our ride each person got to get on the carabao for a photo shot. Now it's Elder Shaner's turn.

You can tell Sister Laker is a farm girl, she jumped right up on this guy.

Sister Breese almost feel off a few times but was able to hold on for a quick picture. (It must be her short legs.)

Sister Shaner's long legs proved useful when "boarding" this carabao.

Elder Laker insisted on looking like a missionary even at the farm.

The couple on the left are good friends of the Ramos and faithful members of the church. Farmer Ramos is in the middle of our group. As you can tell the farm is lush, green and beautiful.

Singing Happy Birthday before the merienda.
 When we were all done Sister Ramos ushered us into her home for a lovely merienda (snack) of chicken, pancit (noodles) and sticky rice dessert. She is a wonderful cook and hostess.

The festivities didn't end there! That night we had a special dinner to honor the birthday boy. Sister Breese made her delicious fried chicken and homemade pies. The rest of us filled in with a variety of side dishes.

Most people have a birthday cake, but when you're 80 you can say what you want-Elder Breese preferred pies! Sister Breese baked him an apple and cherry pie.

Wow, Elder Breese really racked in the gifts.

I think he had a grand day. We are so proud of his willingness to serve for 22 months here in the Philippines as our financial secretary. It's a tribute to him that he has been able to handle the job at his age! He's taught me that for some people 80 is young!