YSA Conferences

Between Christmas and New Years were several Young Single Adult Conferences. One was held in Santa Ana for Tuguegarao South Stake and Ilagan Stakes. We were asked to conduct a workshop on Missionary Preparation. Since it was out of our mission we had to consult with the Area Presidency, who wholeheartedly suggested we go.

Santa Ana is located at the tip of Luzon--in other words on the China Sea! We have been here 2.5 years and never made it to the beach despite the fact that this is an island. (We did see the beach in Cebu for the Mission President's seminar.) We had a tight timeline to drive because we had to work around our Trainer/New Missionary meeting and President's relative's visit. So we left Cauayan in mid-afternoon and headed straight north. Since we would be driving much of the way in the dark President decided to bring along the assistants to help with the driving and to give part of the workshop.

President noticed one the map a shortcut and wondered why none of the priesthood leaders mentioned it when they gave him directions. We took it and soon found out why! It was pitch black over the roughest road in the Philippines. It was a very scary experience but thanks to the assistants and their good driving we made it to our destination.

 The resort--it was pitch black when we arrived but after the harrowing road trip--we were grateful to be there.

 President and I woke up before dawn and headed to the beach. The resort had a beautiful pool--we forgot our suits.

 Walking on the beach and watching the sun rise was such a treat.

 The fisherman were out in boats like this trying to catch their morning catch.

 These ugly "tents" were up and down the beach and we later found out that is where the fisherman sleep.

 It was great to see President relax a little and enjoy the beauty of the area.

 We stayed in a 2-bedroom villa. Which was actually very nice.


Our workshop was at 8 am the next morning. It was held at a delightful little beach resort (we couldn't stay there as they were completely booked with the conference.) We ended up staying at the one really nice resort in town.

 Sister Lugo met us and took us on a tour of this quaint beach resort.

 What a beautiful sight--all these great YSAs in their Sunday best on the beach. We knew many of them and it was great to see them.

 The YSA Conference was held right on the beach--we were so happy to run into one of our RMs Brother Geddes who came back to marry a girl he met here. They are awaiting the paperwork to go to the US. In the meantime they are a great help to their branch and were asked to help chaperone the conference.

 President Lugo (Ilagan Stake) greeted us upon our arrival

 The youth were gathering for the day's opening exercises.

 Our workshop was held in a charming building with a woven ceiling. The room was packed. They youth were in a great mood and eager to participate. We all had so much fun sharing our ideas with them.
(Below: A closeup of the beautiful ceiling.)

The assistants took a portion of the time and taught the youth some great tips on becoming great missionaries. (President joked wth them and said they would be the best object lesson he could have brought for the topic of becoming a great missionary!)

President shares his great counsel with the youth.

 After our workshop President proclaimed that we were going to take a few  hour P-Day. So we returned to our hotel and changed into some casual clothes.

 
 On the way back we stopped to take a picture of the unique trycies they have in Santa Ana. Instead of a side car they have this little tiny jeepney type structure that is powered by a motorcycle.




 

 Our American assistants could barely fit into the vehicle. But we saw a family of 4 comfortably riding in one.



I hadn't even thought to bring anything casual but luckily President brought a couple pairs of gym shorts and t-shirt and flip flops. Luckily he shared with me. Our resort was on a chocolate colored sandy beach. The sand was really soft. But we heard that if we drove about 10 minutes in another direction we would find several beautiful white sandy beaches. Even though the weather was overcast, it was really warm and lovely.

On the way to the beach we passed lots of homes like this that were up on stilts which 

we don't see a lot in our mission.

We stopped at a tourists office and looked at the map of Luzon and we realized we were at the very northern tip of the island.

 The white beaches were beautiful and only a handful of people were there.

 We could wade out far and had fun doing so.

 The water was so clear.

 The assistants wanted to see how far they could wade out--no swimming allowed for young missionaries. We were amazed how far they could go before it dropped off.

We found a few cool shells, this one had a hermit crab living in it so we watched it for a while and then put it back in the sea.

 There are about 20 families who live there along the beach. Most of them have little shops next to their homes selling sea shells and t-shirt.

We stopped to check out a little beach resort and one of the people vacationing there was walking up from the beach with this fish that he just caught. He said it was an Apo Apo fish. He was going to ask the chef at the resort to cook it for his dinner.

 Back at the resort for lunch we went to their Chinese restaurant which had a 30 page menu. Most of the items were things we have never even heard of--btw, this resort was owned by the Chinese and most of the people there were visiting from China. All the TV stations were in Chinese. We finally found things we could recognize and ended up having an absolutely delicious lunch!

We too a peek at one of the larger VIP villas this one had it's own swimming pool.

The next morning we got up early and headed back to Tuguegarao where we were the devotional speakers for Tuguegarao North and two districts from Laoag Mission YSA Conference. So many of the great  youth greeted us upon our arrival  at the resort in Tuguegarao

 They had a great group of YSAs and we loved spending time with them as well.

Every time we are around the youth of the church here in the Philippines we get a wonderful feeling that the church will be in good hands as these youth become the next leaders. They are dynamic, faithful and oh so good!