Monday, February 24, 2014

Valentine's Day...Three Weddings and a........lot of other stuff!


Family Home Evening at our house with the Elders and the Maya Family.

Tatay Maya drives a Jeepney and he brought them all to us!



 Rick & I pretended we had ridden in the Jeepney.  It was lots of fun to host them.  
 L-R: Patrick & MaryRose Pajuayan, Saturnino & Fordeliza Tajeresas, Alex and Jennielyn Polborido
Seated in front of the Chapel Podium, those seated directly behind them were witnesses.

 
 Mercy is the grooms mother, the two smallest are the bride and grooms children the little boy is the one who is in charge of providing for them and doing the laundry. 


The best baptism picture of them I could find on the camera

Their testimonies were the best!
Elder Johnson and I with Sister Diday(left) and a new investigator family.             
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Elder Hall & Elder Argyle and Me teaching how to make French Toast!







This is what we had for dinner...ready?  Filipino Spaghetti, Rice with some kind of Ulam, French Toast with maple syrup, Something like egg rolls but they had pork and carrots in them, rice cake, coconut macaroons, fried chicken pieces, RC Cola and Sprite.  No rhyme or reason to the menu....and they eat it all!
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Sister Franks (left) and
Sister Medina eating Banana Q.

It's deep-fried bananas glazed with sugar.  Pretty good stuff.

I'm going to learn how to make them this coming Saturday.


Saturday, February 22, 2014

Oh Boy....Put a week or two between blogs and I go back to a Techo-Dweeb!

It's been difficult to get my pictures downloaded to share with you.  I hope we can do it today!
Kite Flying in the Philippines!

 The public water pump in Ondoy.
 Right outside our members house....when you gotta go, you just gotta go!
 Elder Johnson and Elder Lang Siu from New Zealand walking down the street in Ondoy.
 In the members house, notice the stack of hymn books and scriptures on the left!  It is so cool to see the most important things to them are kept in these little shacks.

Here is the other picture of the women washing their clothes in the stream.  See the wood board in the tub in front.  I bought one of those with plastic netting tied into a ball.  That's how they scrub their clothes.  I use it to clean Rick's collars and to get stains out. 
This woman is washing in the courtyard of her house.  A great deal of time is spent cleaning their clothes and preparing and cleaning up meals.  No conveniences here!


Below is Tatay Tony's place.  He and his wife are the care-takers of this property.  He is the one that just joined the church and his wife isn't sure he's changed etc.  Chickens roam the yard.  We usually sit outside under the mango tree when we teach and visit them.



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L-R:   Brother Ernesto Andres's Sister(standing with Hello Kitty), his wife Sally in yellow and two of their boys,  his 73 yr-old mother, Ernesto in the back, his eldest daughter, his brother in front seated with his sister's daughter on his lap. Jun is the cute guy in front.  He is in the Branch Presidency.
Jun is a recent convert since July 2013.  He is helping build a second story on this house Ernesto's mother's house, for the Andres to live in.  Rick is supervising the work and helping where he can.



 Here are several views of the typical homes we are trying to help build for some of the members.  The Sr. couple before us had some benefactor's in the states that helped fund them and Jun and Dexter build them with our oversight.  This particular home is for an elderly man.  It's approx. 8 ft X 12 ft.







 An absolutely beautiful view from a new members hut up on a high hill.  We hiked up and this was the treat we saw!




We rode our care on this narrow road through the rice fields.....so pretty and serene!


We are teaching this family with the Elders.  This is their home from the outside (above) and we are in their living room with them.


Again, such cute little ones....everywhere!





AND NOW....for one of the HIGHLIGHTS this week!
This is Mercy in the wheelchair and this was our service project pictures.
She was SOOOO grateful!
L-R:  Marivic, Sister Medina, Sister Franks and Sister Dudas with Mercy and her youngest daughter.
 Sister Sitoliktani scrubbing out the dish drainer.
(seated)
 Elder Lang Siu provided muscle in keeping us
supplied with water.  Mercy's 11 yr-old son that works every night 5-6 hours with Erma next door going through garbage for only about 10 pesos.
He is also in charge of the laundry.
 Elder Anderson and Marivic in the background wringing clothes out.


My job was the kitchen, dining area and livingroom.What you see in the background is all they have.  4 plates, 4 forks & spoons, no knives, about 7 cups and a dish drainer.  To the right of me they had a rice dispenser.  The only food in the house was about 1 kilo of rice and some salt.

 Sister Medina, washing windows
 Sister Jardine (the other Senior Sister is scrubbing clothes with Marivic.

 Sister Franks and Elder Jardine doing windows and yard. Elder Johnson was collecting trash and burning it, he was also making jokes and taking all these pictures!  LOL.  It took 10 of us 2 1/2 hours to clean up the yard, wash and hang all her clothes, clean the inside of the house and mop the floors.