Have we been Out over a Month Now?

This week started off busy. Monday after work the President and his wife invited us to go to Piddig. 

The branch there was having their 20 year anniversary party. Yes, 20 years and they are still a branch not a ward. They DO however belong to a stake. A little different, them being a branch and belonging to a stake.

We are driving through town on our way past Sarrat on to Piddig.

This is Monday and it is a holiday here. The streets are full of venders for the holiday.

So we are driving out in the country now. Things look a little different at times with some nice homes and then we see some real shacks as well.

Oh this home is the church! Yes laundry and all.  I think our brother Keith and wife Stephanie can relate. I remember in Brazil they sometimes had church in member's homes. 

Of course there was entertainment. These people LOVE music. This is the youth singing with the sister missionaries.

Now it is the primary's turn.

This is the MOMS! They are dancing to a Mama Mia song. 
The music is always American music. In church they sing every thing in English. At this event I did hear one song that was in another language. It may have been Hawaiian.

More entertainment and lots and lots of good music.

Then of course they all want pictures and more pictures. 

Do you recognize the president and his wife? There's Elder and Sister Nelson as well as the stake and branch people.

Of course there are a lot of cute children running around.

On Sunday the president and his wife went to check on members who had been effected by the rain and mud slides.

He then went to check out some Elders who were living there in a very unsafe apartment.

This is the church in this area.

These Elders had one wall where the rain was coming inside, down the wall and coming out the electrical socket. Their window was broken so the missionaries found some cardboard and covered up the window. Well OF COURSE our President moved them out and into another apartment.

You have to understand about roof repair here. It's as if they don't know quite how to fix it. The Nelson's have a couple of holes and they won't repair them. For when they do repair the hole, the leak comes back only worse. The fix seems to be just a bandaid that is temporary. 

In our nice apartment, just outside our door we have a leak when it rains really hard. When that happens, if it goes on too long, the wall in our front room leaks. The wall has an electrical outlet on it. A couple of times I have wondered if I should plug my computer in because it was leaking. We don't plan to worry about getting the leak fixed since the Nelson's have scared us off.

Now this is our favorite picture. You ask why? This is President Peterson with a flat tire he got on this trip. He is trying to change it. Yes a grown man trying to change a tire. The irony of the story is that this man owns five car dealerships in Idaho. He hasn't changed a tire in YEARS. He just calls one of his guys when he has a flat.

The blessing came to the President when a couple of men came along and took over for him.

Happy Days! It's the "Ber"months!

But first WE ARE going to die! Yes it is official, we will die here and no one will be the wiser. 

Just so you know, it takes two days for a mosquito bite to stop itching. 

We must be ever so careful not to let food drop on the floor or we will be inundated with ants. We spray our counters about once a week.

Did you also know that you have to wash ALL fruits and vegetable in Clorox here?

Today at church they told us that we have to boil ALL our meat for 5 min. before we cook it. Why didn't someone tell us 3 weeks ago? Yep we're going to DIE! 

This sounds like work to have to prep your food before you eat or cook it.

If we go to the Open Market to buy our food the meat is fresher. Of course it is outside and there are flies all around. Sometimes the people selling don't care about the quality because they just want to sell it. Now we can wait and buy it in the market where they have bought their meat from the Open Market days before. Well at least we know it is probably not the rotten stuff.

Everything tastes different here when you cook it. I would make a ham sandwich (minus the lettuce)but I can't get used to sweet mayonnaise. We 

(like the Nelsons and Petersons) have lots of peanut butter and jelly in our homes. I never thought much of P&J but we're getting used to it.

We have found 3 candy bars from home and Oreo cookies so we stocked up on them. Vienna Sausages and spam are a staple at our house as well as corn beef in a can (they are the only American food we can find). We can make corn beef and cabbage.

Just thought I'd throw this picture in for fun.

I did tell you that we are in the "Berrr" months, Right? Happy Days!

Okay enough about us not making it out alive because we may just come home big and fat from all the sweets we live on.

At home I love to go out to eat. My thought process has changed here. It is usually too late to get a Tri-C after work and to go into town. Even if we did there is limited choices in American food. 

We did go to Pizza Hut and got excited that they had salad on the menu. Of course that was just a teaser. They did NOT have any salad (Never I think).

Well McDonalds sells a double cheese burger ( the double is that they add lettuce.) Lettuce? For Lettuce I will eat at McDonald's!

Notice the Chicken and even Spaghetti on the menu? Remember it is a sweeter spaghetti than what we have at home.

Speaking of dying, our Elder Reyes about died except Veva saved his life. He came in one day with a sore on his leg. We think it must have been a spider bite. 

Veva is good and kind. I like to play Bad Cop and let her play Good Cop. Veva tells him he will be fine, and then I tell him he is going to die. He says, "I want a family!" and I tell him he will only have baby spiders. I tell him not to worry because this is his third leg coming in!

The elders are trying to teach him to climb the wall like spiders do now that he has these super powers. It is so fun to tease him.

Friday night they got Elder Reyes on some medicine. He woke up Saturday to the leg having opened and liquid coming out. He started applying pressure to get all the infection out. Later that night he did the Tongan dance and kept slapping it. It hurts now but it is all good. It will make him manly!

That is Elder Mariket with him. The girl is another missionary. She is a Tongan who is from Las Vegas.

Can you tell we are getting ready for new missionaries? On Sept.18th, ten missionaries will leave and then the 19th, fifteen more will arrive here. Sister Snyder and I are ready. We have worked all week to make their "Leaving and Arriving" Packets.

This week they had a couple of Activity nights for the Seminary kids. Sister Snyder and I went to the Face to Face with the President and his wife. It was a question and answer night. Of course the questions soon turned to dating questions. 

So it's Saturday and we are off to our first activity today. It is the Stake Primary's 140th Anniversary Party. It is at the Bantay Chapel. The Nelsons took us by the chapel once but this is our first time going inside this famous chapel.

I thought how nice that this woman is trying to make her world look a little better.

So the Bantay Chapel was build when Elder Nelson was serving here as a young missionary. This was the first chapel built in Laoag. Elder Nelson spoke at the ground breaking. At the time Elder Nelson was here, this part of town was very nice. Now 20 or 30 years later we get to see how the neighborhood has changed.

Kind of heart breaking isn't it?

Sister Snyder and I took a Tri-C to the Chapel.

Once we got to the chapel we realized that there would be no Tri-C close to give us a ride back. We came across this problem when we went to the Seminaries Face to Face. The meeting got out late and we were NOT near a place that Tri-C hang out. At 8 pm there are few Tri-C even out.

The Bantay chapel has 81 stairs. 

Remember don't forget anything in the car and have to run back to get it! There are stairs but NO air conditioning, just fans. We had heard about this and so we were prepared to sweat it out with everyone else.

Come on Sister Snyder, 71 stairs more to go! You can do it!

Thank goodness the Nelson's were at the Primary Party. They gave us a ride but first they told us where to go next time to safely find a Tri-C.

 And if anyone is interested on the night of the Face to Face the President and his wife were there to give us a ride home. Just so you know I knew this would be a problem and I had asked a couple of people to help us get a Tri-C after the meeting. Thanks goodness we didn't need their help this time.

Not many cars but plenty of people showed up. Most people just rented a bus or car-pooled because of the distance.

The view is what we heard about also. It was wonderful.

Prizes! We never got prizes in Primary back home!

 Yes even McDonalds brought his crew to the primary activity. McDonalds provide games and then special visitors to the party.

 The kids loved the special visitors. The sad part was the Nelson's had been asked to speak at the primary activity. Yes, they had to follow the McDonald's crew. It was almost a losing battle but the Nelson's did really well with Sister Nelson getting them to sing some fun songs.  You've got to love the Nelsons! They just roll with the punches.

 Of course it is the kids' turn to entertain.

So it's on to our next activity this day, SeptemBER 1st. 

Oh look- it's my favorite building that has all the plants coming out of it.

Yes it's the, "BER" months. 

There is SeptemBER, OctoBER, NoverBER and DecemBER. So what does that mean in the Philippines? 

That's right we have started the Christmas count down. We sing Christmas songs at church. You hear Christmas music playing in the stores. People have started decorating their homes and businesses. 

Sunday I mentioned in church how happy the Philippine people are. The bishop said it may be because they are already celebrating the most special time of the year. All the music is American music, in the stores and at church. Even the elders break out singing all the time. They sing cowboy songs from home and songs from the Greatest Showman. 

At church we call the language Taglish. It is a mixture of Tagolic, Ilocono and English. That means we get an English word now and then. I love it because I never know if the prayer, talk or sacrament prayer will be in English or Taglish. It's always a surprise.

The ward party was for the kick off of Christmas in these "Ber" months. It was also a going away party for the Nelsons. What a fun afternoon!

Of course the party has entertainment and food!

And this is where the Tongan dance came in.

I am so sorry if this didn't play for you. I am sure it is our poor internet here.

                                   

This week starts out pretty slow. The President and his wife as well as the Elders have gone for a couple of days to a Zone Conference. Sister Snyder and I are left here to take care of the Mission Home. Not much happening here.

We did have these Brethren come by. They came in to fix the air conditioning. They entertained us for a little while. 

On our way to the Philippians Veva and I ate at a Chinese restaurant in the LA airport. Both of our fortune cookies spoke of us discovering our talents. Veva has started finding hers and its not the people she is trying to heal.

(which are many). 

And No this isn't her calling!

This is just another one of her patients.

Just wanted to throw this in for fun...

The last two Sundays they have asked Veva to lead the music, first in Relief Society and then in Sacrament Meeting. She was pretty frightened but she did it both times. She may have found her calling. 

Remember all the music is in English even in the primary. The wards have one of those pianos that plays the song for you, except in Relief Society where we just break out singing.

                        Christmas songs now untill January. YEA!

We both went down and observed the primary on Sunday. The Primary President is fighting cancer at the time and they are a little short handed. I was a little taken back. The rooms were cramped, the children were divided into two groups (plus the nursery) A couple of kids had balloons, one with silly putty another with a phone and children just walked in or out of the room. All in all some of them were pretty good. It was just hard to stay focused.

At the end we went up and joined Relief Society. Relief Society has always been fun. The ladies are so nice and some will translate for us once in a while. We have a great ward and we love the members. They have such sweet testimonies. 

So that's it for now. We are signing off. We are still in the office waiting for the return of the crew tomorrow. I am so bored I think I will try taking a selfie of us! 

                                             Love and miss you all.

The Sister Sisters