Sunday, December 27, 2015

Christmas 2015 in Bohol

 We started off the week with this motorcycle running into us.  We were  on our way to a district meeting in Jagna an hour and a half away.  We were stopped in the road for something and this guy was going fast I guess anyway he ran right into us.  We spent the next 2 hours at the police station.  What a drag.  We were blessed that no one was hurt.  The bike was caught under our truck and they had a hard time getting it out.  He and his wife were on the bike.  He was the nicest man and we found out he lives here in Dauis as well.  We will pay for our damages and he for his.  It kind of messed up our bumper.


And here we have the police station.  I sat in front in the truck for a LONG time. So we didn't make it to the district meeting.  We went anyway to deliver some things and got to the meeting house and no one was there.  It was that kind of day.  They were meeting together with another district.  We finally caught up with them after everything was over.
We have been to 5 different Christmas parties.  They love to party.  Each party lasts at least 4-5 hours.  Here they are dancing on the stage and everyone is trying to follow them.  I thought they had cute decorations.  They dance a lot, sing, play a lot of games, eat and start all over again.  It just goes on and on and they are so uninhibited.  They just love being together.
This girl is jumping the rope which you can't tell.  They got 4 of them in there at a time.
They have the missionaries helping out with a game.

Just having a good time!  We can never eat the food.  It is grisly pork that is impossible to chew and swallow.  There is always rice but one can only do so much rice.  There are other things we nibble on but always glad to get home and have a piece of toast maybe even with some peanut butter.
This is Elder Schnoor from Canada.The leader and everyone was blinded folded.  They had to go up and around a chair and back and pick up another person by bumping into them.  It was really quite fun.

Another party on the basketball court by the church.  We leave all of the parties early.  Usually with the excuse that we need to take missionaries home.

Thought I should share our Christmas decorations.  I tried to make something green on the bottom to resemble a tree.  The green boughs are wrapped on a pillow.  Thanks to Leanna and Julie they brought presents which is against the rules but they did it anyway.
This is Norm's Christmas Card - he is very talented.



We bought us a nativity set and used the step for our table.


This is my Christmas present from Norm - he loves to draw. We didn't spend a lot of time shopping and decorating and making candy and singing carols and all of the fun Christmas traditions.  I will be happy next year to sit on the couch around the Christmas lights watching a Christmas movie.  But we did have a very nice Christmas.  We visited several families and had a wonderful Christmas dinner with our senior couple on the island, Elder and Sister Bell.  She is a wonderful cook and it is very nice to visit and spend some time with Americans and compare notes of how we are handling life as missionaries in Bohol.

They have many parades going down the road.  We just drive through the middle of them.  This was on our way to church this morning.

Just part of the traffic.

We had a baptism from Carmen at Pilar.  The three in front of the door were baptized.  The sister in white is still investigating.  We had 14 in our truck.  6 missionaries in the very back.  6 investigators and members in the back seat and the two of us.  It took some time gathering everyone up and it was an hour and a half away.  We furnished the treats and then made the return trip home.

Another baptism that afternoon in Tagbilaran.  Such a sweet sister.  These sisters are actually singing.

When we went to church this morning these cute little goats were running ahead of us.  The church is on the left.

That is another week in the life of living in Bohol.  It is cooling down a bit which is so good but it is still plenty hot.

Hope you all had a very special Christmas day and have a very special Christmas holiday.  Love you all!






1 comment:

Kristin Wilkerson said...
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