We start out with a little bit about our two Senior Sisters. This is Sister Robinson (left) and Sister Drzayich (right) (pronounced....does-your-eye-itch?
We just call her Sister "D".
Filipino missionaries can get better jobs if their English is good. It is also important for going to college. We have a test that they take at the end of their mission to show how proficient they are in English.
They also check missionary's apartments to see if they are keeping them clean.
The baptism takes place in the river so it is quite a little walk to get there.
They go over the handbook to make sure they do it right.
One happy New Member!
The group!
Here are a couple of scary pictures. We are celebrating the April Birthdays.
Four of us have birthdays in April.
The Sisters have been asked to do "Mapping".
I'm not sure everyone uses the same term so let me explain.
The Sisters got a ward list. This ward list consisted of 35 pages of ward members. Their job is to go find these people and see if they are still around. They will clean up the church records.
YES ! More scary pictures.....
All our missionaries have been asked to do "Mapping" as well. Not only will it help the numbers for making wards and stakes but they will find in-actives and non-members along the way. This can be an easy way to find someone to teach as well as help clean up the records.
They were given permission. The Elders felt the people eating enjoyed watching the church videos.
These are our bold and brave stripling warriors.
So it is election time and we have been hammered by vehicles going up and down the road at all hours of the day and night playing their songs and talking.
The first of the week was election day so we had a curfew of 6:00p.m. for 3 nights. Everywhere you go there are signs just like at home but here you will see sometimes over eight signs of the same person. I guess if you don't see the first sign you've got about eight more chances to catch it.
So we all go out to eat one day. The other two elders are in our district now and come to our district meetings.
Elder Ballan says," Charity never faileth---so who wants to tie my shoelaces?"
When we get home this is what happens most days.....
Which is okay because a nap is scheduled into all missionaries' day.
(Hot part of the day!)
A couple of our Office Elders will be going home soon so they now want to get back into shape. They are out at 6:00a.m.doing interval exercises. We'll see how long this lasts.
So I've told you about the other Senior Sisters and what they have found for them to do to help. I think I will show you just one of Elder Kartchner's jobs. He, as you might remember, repairs the apartments. He is also collecting rent and contracts for the missionaries. He often finds new apartments when the missionaries are living in horrible conditions. Here he is with all the checks, contracts and receipts he has gathered.
Remember Sister Kartchner, his wife teaches lessons in conducting and piano.
This sister was just baptized by our Office Elders Corechea. (She is in the blue striped dress). She was so cute and so very excited. As she went into the font she says she never knew anyone else was there. Not even the two witnesses. She was so worked up.
In the font Elder Corachea explained how he would be performing the baptism. But as he got ready to put her back into the water she literally jumps backward and went under. Elder Corachea was as surprised as the rest of us. This sister really wanted to be baptized and she wasn't waiting for anyone.
She has wonderful support from the ward members.
This sister said in her sweet testimony afterward. "I now know how to read and I know how to pray and I know how to repent! I can repent of all my sins and start anew."
This is Ching-Ky (her brother's name is Anti Nephi Lehi). She sat with me through the baptism and was awestruck with it all. To entertain her I showed her what I did to my granddaughter back home.
I covered her in kisses.
Speaking of baptisms, a few months back the elders baptized a young man. The Elders took us to the store (the owner is from India) so Sister Snydner could get him a set of Sunday Clothes.
Okay, I just have to share this with you.
You might remember our Office Elder, Elder Corpuz. He had a crush on a missionary while he was here. He learned that she lived not too far from him back home. Well, she went home a couple of months ago and he just left. He sent this picture just to make us cry with joy.
Since we are talking about missionaries coming and going let me just share a couple of videos on transfer day, which is the day we lose our old and loved missionaries and gain some bright, excited, ready to work, new missionaries.
This is the crazy office as we wait for paperwork and rides to get completed.
This one is another video of them opening their letters to see who their companion will be for the next 6 weeks.
Just for your information if you see a Filipino with a tattoo that says "FBI" don't worry like I did. It stands for "Full blood Ilocano". Ilocano is the dominant language here.
What else do the Senior Missionaries do you might ask? Well, once a month we get together for a Family Home Evening. And yes we are playing cards. Senior Missionaries can play with cards, go to movies and swim.
Last night the Kartchners took us into town. We are at the Round-about there in the middle of town with the beautiful Laoag sign.
This is the light show that is here for only a month. We are so glad we didn't miss it. We need to get the Senior Sisters here before it leaves.
Have any of you missed Elder Rees? Well, we have but he is so very happy out doing the work once again. This picture was taken before he left and I can't stop laughing about it. When the man (not sure who) came to check the "Fire Alarm" he found theirs was broken. The man takes a picture of them.
So do you think this helps him remember who is not up to code or is this just for humiliation?
Anyway to me it was priceless because none of us are up to code here in the Philippines!
Does Elder Ballan look happy or what?
Yes when our proud Elder Rees showed us the banner he had made we have to ask, "WHY?"
Elder Ballan has had a couple of these banners made and when the president has him in for a special dinner (birthday) he hangs them all up in the kitchen for them to enjoy.
On this day we snuck out to do some early grocery shopping. As soon as we got home the elders came out to meet us and offer a hand taking our groceries up to our apartment. All the time they are saying, "Do you have an apple or some yogurt?"
The other day these boys came back from town so very proud of what they had for us. I just about lost it!
Really don't we have enough pictures of you guys? Where, Oh where can we put ALL those pictures of you elders? I voted we put them all in the closet!
The next day I did lose it! Remember back when Elder Ballan put his picture of him on my screen saver? I threatened them all at that time to NOT touch the computer.
Today they forgot that rule and I lost it.
With all these pictures it's enough to give you nightmares!
On Mother's Day Elder Ballan kept saying to us and to his mom,
" A shout out to the woman who gave birth to a legend."
For those of you who are worried about Elder Ballan, we did have a Psychologist (McOmbers) come to our mission this week. The doctor is meeting with missionaries that have concerns.
Elder Ballan has played with the idea of making an appointment with him to see if he is too arrogant. I asked him how the doctor would know that? Elder Ballan said he would just spend an hour talking about himself. I think that would do it.
The good doctor has found a few missionaries with problems and one has gone home already.
We had Stake Conference so we all joined the choir. This is three generations, baby, mother and grandmother coming to our choir practice.
Choir practice is at 5:00pm but we sat there waiting for everyone to show up until 6:30. (that gosh darn Filipino time) We then practiced until 9:00pm. They do have food afterward so people will come.
In between practice, the elders entertained us.
This is our trip home after choir practice. This is a quiet and mild ride home but that's not always the case. In the Philippines, driving is so different. It speeds up to 90 miles an hour then slam on your brakes to not hit a motorcycle. To top it off we have 19 to 20 year old males driving and some of them want to show their manly hood to the others.
Riding in the car with the elders is when we need your prayers.
Out walking we have met some people. This mother made us come home with her to meet her daughter who is LDS. This mother didn't speak very good English but I figured it out when we turned to go down another road and she started getting excited that we were going the wrong way.
This is Nick.
We somehow got mixed up with him and he would give us an early, sweaty (we were out walking) morning hug. He began to text and call us a lot. He has now moved but we are still trying to outrun him. I wish you could see him smile. He has one tooth left in his upper jaw. He says he is looking for our church and when he joins he will come back here to get baptized.
YUGH!
Sister Snyder now makes up Chocolate Chip Cookie dough and puts it in the freezer.
When the missionaries come in she is ready to just slice the frozen dough and throw it in the oven.
It was fun having a late night snack and lots of giggles and talks with the sisters. We had the curfew and they had come in for meetings the next day.
Tidbit information:
Gas is $4.00 a gal. We are grateful we don't have a car.
Our Mission President and his wife did 48 interviews with the missionaries in about 6 days and we are not counting the travel time.
Our President just spent a week off having a Mission Presidents Conference. While there we got a call that he had to call the temple as soon as he could. They had a family trying to go through the temple to be sealed and the one son had not lived at home most of his life.
The other case was that the family was there but all the paperwork had not been filled out. These, I'm sure, were hard lessons to learn here in the Philippines.
Poor President trying to solve all the mission problems while attending meetings.
The other day he was doing his interviews with the missionaries when he got the call from a branch who were having problems with tithing. He had to stop and solve the problem. The president sometimes wishes he could just do his job with the missionaries.
This week we have had the doctor and his wife here in the Mission Home. We've had interviews, Zone Conferences and identified and released missionaries with problems. The President has had to tell parents and the missionary why they are going home.
Pray and feel a great sympathy for any Mission President...…
"Great things never came from the Comfort Zone"
To end we'll have the Elders sing you a song..
Love the Sister, Sisters
