Survial Crash Course

We’re back on line!

The president thought we would be without power about a week, and internet, we’d have in a couple of days. Things always change here. Power came back within a couple of days (thanks to church connections) and the internet just now came back and it's a week and half later.

Just wanted to stop and show you we DID find American made Mayonnaise! Yea we are living on sandwiches.

I thought the MTC President and staff were busy people taking care of hundreds of incoming and outgoing missionaries with firesides, lining up speakers, making accommodations for them, training meeting and solving mission problems. Now let’s take a glimpse of the work of a 
Mission President. I know this is usual circumstances, but it is a good time to see the responsibilities of a Mission President.

                                    We do have wonderful sunsets here.

Transfer for the missionaries was just days after the Super Typhoon. It usually takes the president and his Office Elders 2 to 4 hours on the computer to complete transfers schedules. In doing this they check how long a companionship has been together, how long a missionary has been in the area, who is ready to be Zone Leaders or District Leaders and which Elders can train one of the new missionaries that’s coming. Then they must plan how to make the transition, who will go where (always with a companion), what the bus schedules are and how long it will take them to get there and when and where to have training meetings. 

With the typhoon the power and the Wi-Fi went out. Transfers now had to be done without the help of a computer to check these facts. The president, luckily has a compact Wi-Fi for his phone which allowed them to slowly check some of these facts. (slow and tedious). They couldn’t check everything including bus schedules throughout the mission to see when they ran and when they would start running again following the storm.

                                                    The Calm before the storm.

The president is responsible for one hundred and thirty-two missionaries and that is a lot of souls to take care of. Every spare minute the president was working with the office elders to put this transfer together. Besides the tedious job of planning transfers, he constantly stayed in touch with area leaders for updates, he checked on weather, tried to decide hour by hour who to bring in, when to bring them in and where to put them all. He had to plan activities that would keep the missionaries busy as we began the wait and he had to make sure they had what they needed. He had no idea how long they would be here and if we would have enough supplies to go through the wait till business were up and running and they could return home (if they had a home to go to). He also informed parents now and then that their missionary was safe.

Thursday afternoon missionaries started coming in. That evening we had our first meeting (touch base and keep them busy). Friday the President and his wife put together some activities. They had skits, and watched, The Other Side of Heaven as well as some church videos. By Friday evening the rain and wind were moving in and everyone went home to hunker down. The President then went to check on the Elders in their different shelters. Here at the Mission Home we went over to the president’s home and had the leaving Sisters bear their testimonies and sang for a couple of hours.

We have a generator that runs the Mission Home when the power goes off. It was good for one night and then it began to overheat. We had problems with it from then on. It works one wall plug, a couple of lights, a cooler in the bedroom and one in the living room. The 18 sisters next door to us had fans and one cooler. They did not have a kitchen. 

Our lives changed that night. Four sisters were to sleep in our place in the living room and meals could be cooked at our place. As it got hotter and hotter the Polly’s (Polynesians) made their way to our cooler apartment.      
           
                                                     Sleeping Pollys!

That night there was howling (wind), clanking (still wind), watching out the window, laughing, giggling and lots and lots of talking.

It is so funny that we make plans and then the circumstance changed our plan all the time. We planned to feed everyone. That flew out the window with our high winds. 

We planned to have 4 extra girls in our apartment, but each morning there were bodies all over the place because we had two coolers to their one. We planned to wash but the power didn’t work in the laundry room. We planned on warm showers and we got cold ones. We then planned for cold showers and we ran out of water. We planned for food to stay good and the generator power did not include our refrigerator. There was a lot of good food thrown away. We planned for use of our bathroom but with 22 extra girls and only two bathrooms our bathroom was busy all the time. It was 2 pm before everyone was showered the first day.

Sunday the storm had passed, and showers were done quickly because of the cold water. That day we had a two-hour Sacrament Meeting with two other wards (keep those missionaries busy). Later that afternoon the missionaries packed up and we all headed back to the church to learn about the transfers.

The Transfer Meeting was a fun experience.  It was enjoyed by everyone because missionaries are out in the field and they get a text telling what they will be doing (all they know is their assignment and not who is now a Trainer, District Leader or Zone Leader). Today we could watch everyone’s reactions and excitment with the new assignments.

During the Transfer Meeting one of our friends Ruth came and told us that they were packing up food for members who where hit hardest in our area. We were able to go down and help with the project while we waited for the missionaries to finish up with transfer assignments.

We’ve learned a lot from this experience; where the leaks are in our apartments, what is not nailed down on the president’s home, how long our water lasts and that our generator is to small to supply a mission home, mission office and two apartments, we need to check money out of the bank before the storm, we need to keep mattress away from the windows and food and clothing need to be up high away from water.

                                    My bed got wet from the window!

This is out the side window by my bed. Yes I am surrounded by windows and I felt very safe. (Love that cinder block walls!) Oh don't anyone worry about Sister Snyder she is surrounded by cinder block, no windows for her!

I've learned 22 girls have a lot of hair. Our place was covered in it! So was the Mission Home. There is NO carpet in the Philippines. Sister Peterson, Veva and I are the only ones with short hair. I think long hair is a requirement for the Philippine Mission. 

Watching and waiting....

Okay those crazy Pollys have now squished into the tiny little wash room to sleep. Yep! You guessed it, they did not make it through the whole night like this.

 Okay now we are getting tired of being cooped up. We need air! Maybe this is too much air!

As for the damage in the Philippines you may have to check the news. We had no internet for over a week. It just now came on. Sunday there were a lot of television crews in Laoag. We only hear news about members. We have not heard of any members that were hurt. One church had the roof completely blown off. Another church had all the wall (sheet rock) blown away. Just the frame of the church was left. Those two chapels were in the hardest hit areas. The typhoon came over the top of us. We went through the eye and all, but I think the mountains helped us a little. I love our cinder block walls here. They make us feel safe.

Neighboring building losing signs and debris.

The missionaries are doing a lot of service because of the typhoon.

 Disclaimer: The Bantay chapel (the one way up on the hill) is NOT a safe place during a typhoon. One man was up there in a high, strong wind and as he held the baby the baby almost flew out of his arms. High places make for stronger winds!!!

Okay Girls now you are just being CRAZY! Remember Don't do anything crazy!

One of the hardest hit areas, we were told, had one half of the ward members homes were under water, but they can’t tap into the fast offerings because the banks aren’t up and running yet. 

Metal from the President's house.

The President might up the missionary’s fund from 7 or 8 to 1,000 Pecos a month. Some of our missionaries that came in traveled for 8 hours on the bus. Sister Anderson is one. Her and her 14 companions had one of the hardest hit areas. They left today to go home (8-hour bus ride), and she will come back tomorrow (another 8-hour bus ride). The round trip will cost her 700 Pecos. The bus home can only go so far and then they will need to find something to take them farther. They will try to get as close to home as they can.

Wait time or down time. Playing games at the President's house... Long, Long, Long wait.

The first thing that morning after the storm, all up and down the street people were out sweeping and cleaning up their places. In a matter of a few hours you could not tell except for the trees broken branches.

Where have all the leaves gone?

Remember we have Church Leaders coming on Wednesday. We had planned for them to stay here but now we will put them in a hotel with clean bedding, air conditioning and a restaurant because they have a big generator there. (YEP we have now ordered a BIGGER generator)!  We will put all outgoing missionaries and incoming missionaries there as well. (Always changing our plans). 

Sign going back up across the street.

Many local people here have checked into a hotel, so they can take a shower, cool off and get something good to eat since it has a restaurant. It’s hard to get a room for the missionaries because the locals have taken a lot of the rooms. The hotel means food and hot showers for them. (not so much for us, well at least the good food part.) We had to throw all of our food away and with all the coming and going no one has had time to go to the store. We have had lots of canned spam, vienna sausages and corn beef sandwiches.

Yep they are really doing that! 

What do you think Dan? Want to try it this way?

As I said plans change every time we feel we have it worked out. Now we find that Elder Walolo and Sister Bonnie Carden will not be coming at this time. It is a good thing. We have members still trying to clean up and are trying to get back to normal. Few of the members can't think about anything other than getting their homes back in order.

With transfers we lose our wonderful Elder Reyes and gain Elder Denkers. Elder Denkers is from California and he is turning out to be very good in the office.                        We will truly miss our Elder Reyes (the jokester).

Elder Reyes staging one last shot! I hope!

On the right is Elder Corpuz. He is the one I am assisting. We are grateful we will keep him a while longer.

Now we start saying good-by to some to go back home. 

No, No Elder Reyes give them back their luggage.

And we find ways to entertain the few remaining missionaries.

Yes, Yes that is Elder Reyes doing shadows on the wall outside. 

 We might as well celebrate the missionaries birthday while were here. 

Sister Snyder baked a cake.

 They sure love those hot dogs!

Yes we lose our jokester Elder Reyes Sr. but we are so glad we still have our Elder Reyes Jr.

This is Maroket. He is one of a kind and we thought we could never, never replace him. He is so smart and can fix any problem we have with our phones or computers. We love him dearly.

But life changes and Elder Maroket is training Elder Swann to replace him. Our Office Elders have been in the office for months and they are so excited to get out and hit the dirt roads again.

Elder Swann is from Fiji. He wants to go to school to be a heart doctor. I am telling you right now that if he becomes a doctor, I will fly anywhere in the world to have him treat me. He is keeping up with Maraket in brain power. We are all amazed by him and he is fitting right in.

They come and they go and then they come some more. We just get the missionaries on their way back home after the typhoon and we have 20 new missionaries arrive.

Elder Reynolds, who is from Hawaii, is a missionary who just left after the typhoon. He told us that his companion and him were studying during the storm when they felt and heard and awful thump. The neighbors ran over to them and told them that they had watched as their roof had blown straight up and then it came back down in the same place. The neighbors said that the Lord was really watching over them. 

You wonder how they didn't notice? What's a little more wind and noise in these old homes during a typhoon?

This is Sister Felt and Sister Orea. Sister Orea is from New Guinea.

This is Sister Orea's first Tri-C ride and she looks happy. With all the luggage there was no more room inside the Tri-C.

This sister is from Pigdig. It is about an hour away. She came in to pick up her new trainee. They sent a special driver and an assistant to pick them up.

Our sons, Brian and Jeremy know how to pack vehicles real good but can they pack a Tri-C?

So the missionaries are gone and it is time to pick up the next missionaries. 

This is the Kartchners. They will replace the Nelsons. They are good friends of the Petersons. In fact the Petersons requested that they come and serve with them.

Sister Kartchner has had some health problems and then a stroke. They have 9 children and 32 grandchildren.

 The President and his wife are taking them on a Tri-C ride. 

I told you that we are now teaching primary. (ages 3 to 6) Oh yes what a crew! This is our little Jamie. She wanders during Sacrament Meeting. She has now decided that she wants to sit with us.

Last Saturday about 2:00pm as we went out the door to attend the kick off of, "Family Week." Elder Maroket asked Sister Snyder and I to speak at the baptism that was at 5:00.      Stress, Stress, Stress !!!

                                      I am going to sign off. 

We have a busy week! There is a whole week of activities for the celebration of, "Family Week." Family Home evening on Monday for families. They spend one day decorating the graves. There is a Couples Dinner Night and on Saturday we will have a big, big day full of activities. 

We have pictures of last Saturday with the kick off games they played. We will be sharing them on the next blog.

I heard that the church here began Family Week. Then ten years ago they invited the Philippine government to join in. Now it is a celebration that is practiced in the Philippines.

Later!

Love you All,

The Sister Sisters