Great week and Thanksgiving

Wednesday, November 26th, we went on a couple appointments with the Sister Missionaries and it was the best missionary day we have had.  The Sister above owns the home where Jake first lived.  She is a member and endowed but doesn't wear garments now.  Has been offended etc.  These are a couple grandchildren that live with them I think.  This is a little store they run.

This is outside of the above family.  The endowed sister Erma is in the sleeveless top and grandchildren.  She is extremely nice.  Her husband is a member and active.  By her is her daughter, Reggie, who is also a member.  Her husband is not a member and drives truck and comes home 2 days a month.  That makes it really hard to teach him and for him to go to church.  I think she would like to go to the temple. The young girl in the white shirt belongs to the family that Jake baptized and the father died.  I think she stays with this family to help them out.  She does go to church and sees her family on the weekend.

As we started to gather chairs etc outside I felt a bit uncomfortable but as we started talking about the gospel those things became secondary and there was truly a spirit of testimony.  We talked to them and bore our testimonies and it was a feeling of love and wanting to help them.  That is where they cook behind them.

Another family we visited.  The sister in the levis is a member.  She teaches Relief Society but every week the other teachers don't show up and they just tell her she is teaching.  She doesn't like it.  Her husband is newly baptized but isn't going to church and is avoiding the missionaries.  He fixes trucks and was right there behind us working.  He did shake our hands.  The mother of the three little ones left them and and this dear sister is trying to take care of the little ones.  That is their father.  He is not a member and does not have a job.

Don't be too envious of my wonderful hairdo.  It has been over 3 months since anything was done to my hair.  It is use to being cut about every 6 weeks or 2 months.  AND my curling iron is barely getting warm.  BUT tomorrow is the day, I am going in for a hair cut and I am quite nervous about it.  and I am also going after a curling iron.  I will be a new woman.  Can hardly wait.

Thanksgiving Day - and do we have a story.  The night before we were told a typhoon was headed our way.  About midnight a torrential rain came and then the wind blew and there were all kinds of terrible noises.  About 1:30 I can down and discovered a large puddle of water on the floor.  I got out some pans and positioned them around along with rags etc.  Went back to bed still torrential rain.  When we got up there was no power.  That means no water, no fan, and no cook turkey in slow cooker beings our oven only cooks at 425.  It was just not a happy morning for me.  We had invited 10 missionaries over to eat at 7:00 pm because they had to keep their appointments before then.

But about 10:30 a.m. the power came on and we appreciated it even more.  We got the fan on and put the turkey in the oven because we were a little late.  Then we transported it over to the slow cooker so I cook bake brownies and rolls.  It took me all afternoon to bake and I did a fruit salad and a cabbage salad.  The above picture I am just walking in the gate after being to the market.  That is the garbage truck.

These are 8 of our 10 missionaries that came and ate.  I love them all so much.  The zone leaders came later.  The sister missionaries all live right behind us.  Like 3 feet.  We are all in the same complex.  I am so glad to have them there.  They are a great help in helping us figure things out.  The white sister is from Logan and goes home in April.  She is a wonderful missionary and I am thinking Cody ought to look her up. The white Elder with glasses is from Logan and the Elder with the red tie is from Show Low "Elder Borrego".  (The mission where Landon is serving.)  He is just new here and is a wrestler.  Great Elder.  All of them are wonderful.  They were here for over 2 hours.  I was so tired I was sick.  They consumed our every chair.  No place to sit down but they ate and visited and laughed and then did it all over again.  It really was fun to have them here and I was so happy to be able to do that.  We were happy to find a turkey.  It was a 10 lb. turkey breast and cost us over $40 but it was worth it.  The icing on the brownies was gooey.  Set up on top but got gooey.  I suppose it has something to do with the humidity.  Cooking isn't too much fun here but I keep trying.

Our Christmas tree.  That is truly the extent of my creativity. It is rainy again today and the temperatures have cooled a bit.  It is still sticky but definitely cooler.

November Pics

Some random pics.  You can tell I am not very good at this but better than nothing.

A Catholic church that was destroyed during the earthquake.

Another Baptism in the Ocean.  There were actually 4 baptized this time.  A mother and her daughter and two other boys both from different families.  Missionaries are on each side.  It was a very lovely day.

The man in the blue shirt is our landlord Jon.  He is the nicest man.  He invited all of us for his wife's father's birthday.  They had a humongous spread of food.  I ate my first fish I liked.  These are our sister missionaries who live behind us and the Elders live in the far end of this picture.  All are owned by Jon.

This is an interesting root system.

President and Sister Tanner came to Bohol and we got to spend a couple days with them.  We are having a seminar here - lunch time with a sandwich.

Jake is in the middle singing a special musical number for our Thanksgiving Fireside.  It is so fun to be with him.

Jake and Elder Francom are in the center. The short guy is a full fledged member who does all the technical work for the meetings.  He is a great guy.

Jake and Elder Francom somehow had these weights made for them.  They were pretty happy.

We visited a weaving place.  Amazing!!

 They are coloring the straw or whatever it is they are using.

 President and Sister Tanner on top of one of our apartments.  The Elders dry their clothes up there. This is the Sagbayan apartment that has quite a story.  They are going to use part of it for a church.

These are all Sr. couples.  The couple standing by us work in the office  She is the one that fell and broke her arm a month ago.  She is healing well and has truly been blessed.  The couple standing by President and Sister Tanner are the Caycayans from Hawaii.  They are the other couple on the Bohol Island with us.  We just love them.  They go home the first of March and we are sad about that.  There is another couple that works in the office but they aren't in this picture.

 This is a service project.  We were suppose to put in a bamboo floor for this single sister who is a returned missionary.  We looked for bamboo but she had to get permission from the owner before she could chop it down.  She is thrilled to get this home.  You wouldn't believe her former home.

There is a school close by the house we were building and these children really wanted to get their picture taken.

 This is the Sister they are building the house for.  They are storing extra wood under her home.

Afterwards she treated us to a special drink made out of coconut juice. Then she dug out the coconut and added it to the juice along with sweetened condensed milk.  I have a hard time drinking chewies.  And she had only one glass.  I used a spoon and shared the glass.

While we were waiting for the drink it started to pour.  

On our way to the Branch President's home up this road.

The other Sr. couple from Hawaii, The Caycayons.  We have twin trucks.  They are wonderful people and we are so sad they leave the first of March.

Lots of roosters.  They tie them up.  Raise them to fight

Out for a walk 

Talking at a Young Womens Celebration.  The music stand held the picture of the Savior- I was holding the mike.

The girls that attended got t-shirts

McCoy is washing our truck.  They take very good care of us.

                                         The market - lots of motorcycles and some tricycles.

Great week with Jake

Heavy load - motorbikes every where!  They dart in and out like crazy.  Way more motorbikes than vehicles.  It is a family mode of transportation.  Sometimes 5 on a bike.  The scenery is beautiful!

After our District Meeting we celebrated this Elder's birthday.  Just new to our area.  The sisters furnished the food and I did the cakes.  This is in the Sister's apartment and it is also where they hold church.

Our indoor drier.  The sisters have the lines full outside so we moved inside.  Clothes are dry before we go to bed.

This is Jake's apartment.  We moved two of the Elders out to a new apartment which turned into quite a mess.  The papers were signed and when we got there they realized they didn't have a kitchen.  Can't rent an apartment without a kitchen.  It has been quite the deal but now a kitchen has been negotiated for a little more money.  These guys are making do with very little.  We have been shopping - trying to get them set up.

Well, some things definitely turn out better than others.  The bread wasn't too bad.  That other thing is a loaf of banana bread.  With truckloads of bananas around us I decided I should be making banana bread, but my oven doesn't like to do banana bread.  It was doughy in the middle and absolutely black on the outside so we just kept cooking and cooking.  It wasn't too bad after cutting off the outside.  I have since purchased smaller and silver pans and baked some more which turned out much better. The oven has 450 degree days and this happens to be one of them.  Nothing you do changes its mind.

Norm's favorite thing to do ?!?! Those at home don't see this too often.  Driving him crazy actually.  While I am baking and doing things he is writing a talk.  Spending time indoors is so hard for him and we do a lot of it.

We spent fast day with Jake.  It was their first time to meet in a building outside of their apartment and they were so happy.  There was only one problem.  When we got there Jake told us the other companionship had lost the only key they had.  They had spent the day before getting the chairs in and tables up etc. so they couldn't go back to his apartment.

The landlord next door, very skinny guy, came over and shimmied up this window and went through a very small space between the wall and the overhang on the roof.  Lowered himself down and took out a ceiling tile and then got into the room and unlocked the door.  Truly a blessing.  This is the main door they go in.  It is actually on the side but the main door in the front has curtains so when you sit in sacrament meeting you don't see the cars go by.  It was very noisy.  But they were so happy to have a place to meet.  It was a special experience I will never forget.

This is the front door with the curtains.  The two Elders on my left lost the key.  Jake's companion is from Davis High School.  He and Jake are a great companionship.  After meeting we went to their apartment and had Home Evening Dinner including rolls.  I spent considerable time cooking in my humble apartment and then I had to decide how to get everything there but it worked.  We had some sort of stew, I substituted pork for beef and it wasn't too bad.  I made a fruit salad.  Milk and cream you buy on a shelf not refrigerated.  The cream looks like cream cheese.  I whip it with condensed evaporated milk - not too bad and then I also made bread sticks, bread, and better banana bread.  So happy to leave them with a little food.

The next day was "P" day and Jake had to go to Tagbilaran to get his support money and that is where we go shopping which is about an hour away so we met up and Norm helped them buy a new door knob to replace the one they don't have a key for.

We grabbed a quick bite to eat at KFC

Great time to be together.  I just love these guys.  Love to hear about all they are doing.  They have a baptism this weekend but they don't have a place to baptize them so their next project is to go see if they can find a river some where so they can baptize and they were hoping to make a place that they could have a meeting before.  I just marvel at them.  They are doing a wonderful work!