The President and his wife spent a few days driving up to the worst hit areas, from the typhoon, to check on our missionaries there. They said there were places where there were miles and miles of down power lines. They expect it to be 3 months before they have power.(No fans at night for a while) In some case they still don't have running water in their apartments. One place that the president passed by was a beautiful jungle but now they said, "All the leaves are gone and it is just a bunch of brown sticks. It looks like a forest fire hit it.
Oh I forgot I wanted to show you our neighbors house after the storm.
These woman were out first thing cleaning it up.
We were told that the church paid out one and a half million pesos to help these victims. WOW so much money! That is twenty-seven thousand dollars in US money.
I also found this where the sisters were practicing a dance during their stay here. Sister Anderson, from St. George, is in it so I must show it. Sorry for going backwards in time.
Funny story....One of our brand new elders arrived in his apartment. He wasn't feeling well. He emailed his folks to let them know he arrived safely. He told his mom and dad he was sick and then he showed them some pictures of his awful apartment. Well you guessed it, the president soon got an email from the parents about the horrible conditions that their son was living in.
The president sent them a kind letter back and said that the son was better now and doing well and that the president saw the apartment. He had asked the elders to PLEASE clean up the trash left by the previous elder and then their apartment would look quite a bit better. The president then reminded the parents that the son was now living in a 3rd World Country and that his apartment was one of the better ones!
After the Typhoon came the clean up of 22 girls, the washing, the 10 missionaries leaving, the 20 missionaries coming and getting the Kartchners here and we hadn't been shopping for over a week. We finally found time to leave work early and go grocery shopping! :)
I always love to see the little ponies.
On the way back we were picked up by a decked out Tri-C. Just look at this modern day set up. And the music was blasting, American music that is!
This was our first Tri-C Cadillac ride here in the Philippines.
On the way back we were picked up by a decked out Tri-C. Just look at this modern day set up. And the music was blasting, American music that is!
This was our first Tri-C Cadillac ride here in the Philippines.
We also got behind traffic on the way to town. I think we were sitting next to this car with the exhaust pipe blowing right in our faces for about five minutes.
Yep they are trying to kill off the Americans. It's a slow and smelly death.
Hey check this out. Sister Snyder made homemade noodles! We had some good chicken noodles soup. Guess we will do this again for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Today (a couple of weeks after Veva made noodles), we bought fettucine and broke them up so we could make Chicken Noodle Soup again.
(We both have colds that the wonderful elders gave us.)
They turned out pretty darn good. Since we can't find Egg Noodles I guess this is what we will use each time. (We will survive! and we can adapt!)
Okay back to the "Family Week." It started with an afternoon full of activities. It was also the day that as we were leaving to go join the fun, the elders stopped us and asked us to talk at the baptism later in the evening. Well somehow we pulled it all off.
Her Grandfather, who is a recent convert was able to baptize her.
Then it's back to the games and the kick off of "Family Week."
First game is for the little ones.
First game is for the little ones.
Those are treats and little prizes they are trying to get.
Do you see the young man who is pulling the rope up and then letting it down.
What a tease!
Boys now...
Even big kids...
This is my favorite game. They made Veva and I try it and we had so much fun.
It's like bowling.
You must throw a flip-flop and knock the fip-flop off the empty can.
The can (short can) MUST flip over to win your prize.
This is a game that the kids would play at night in the streets of Laoag.
And of course there is always the good old sack races.
Elder Maraket and Elder Swann
Yes there are more games!
A race to the top...
And even MORE games! This one is cool.
To win they must make the longest line.
There are two groups competing to make the longest line.
a sock with a hole in it, dental floss a $100.00 Pecos. tooth paste and so on.
Now it's the tossing of the penny candy and YOU'd think this is all, Right?
But NO there was a prize given for one last thing.....
You have 10 minutes to go out and around and see who can collect the most trash!
What?
What a great idea for clean up at the church on a Saturday night!!!!
What a great idea for clean up at the church on a Saturday night!!!!
As you know the church has WiFi so you will find people charging their phone all over the church any day of the week.
Speaking of WiFi, these friends (the kids thought of it) of ours decided to NOT sell lemonade after the Typhoon. They decided to give electricity so people could charge their cell phone.
Yes they ran an extension cord from their house and gave people access to the electricity (they have a generator). Many people did not have electricity after the storm.
Okay it is the end of the week and Saturday is the last day of "Family Week".
It begins with a 5:am Stake Family, "Walk".
Dear, Dear these Philippinoes!
So here is Veva and I standing out in the dark at 4:45 to try and get a Tri-C. Well not many around at that time of the morning. About 20 minutes later we get one and when we arrive at the church there are two woman there.
What happened to the 5:am?
The woman told us that someone said they told the Philippinoes 5 so they would all be there by 6:00am. I wish we had known that! While waiting we got a text (around 5:45 ) from the president asking if we needed a ride!
Really folks?
Okay we did enjoy our visit with these ladies. I am so glad we were there early after all.
Some of us are ready to go! Where is the rest of the ward?
Six o'clock and here they all come.....
Even our Little Jamie Girl is here ready to go..
Afterwards there are exhibits. The exhibits are judged so they are a big thing.
This girl has prepared a basket of food. This is what they would take to a person who is sick.
These last three pictures or of our ward's exhibits. This is the Bishop's wife.
This is our Bishop...
Of course our exhibit won first place. The bishop was very proud.
Then there was the entertainment by each ward.
The City Mayor was invited to come speak at our celebration. This is her.
Sister Peterson told us that the sisters told her that the Mayor was, "Very Sexy". Sister Peterson later learned that to them, "Sexy " means "Skinny"!
Nope not one person here have called Veva and I "Sexy"!
After the day celebration it is our wards turn to clean the chapel. This is Veva sweeping the Rec Hall. Check out the wonderful brooms that they use here. This is a big Rec Hall and plus the chapel. This could take all night!
There is this broom if you would rather.
Mel is the lady that works at the Mission Home. She was in charge of cleaning the chapel. After we all got done we rode the Jeepney home with Mel.
An interesting Tri-C. Want to buy something?
A shoe repair store we passed by today.
The president ordered lanterns. Now when the missionaries don't have power they have a solar lantern. It can even charge one cell phone. We are excited...
Okay this picture is one of the many, many, many, pictures that was on my phone. When we ride with the Elders they are just down right crazy. Talking crazy and singing made up songs. I let them use my phone to entertain them so they would give us a rest. Elder Swann said if he starts to become insane like them that I was to flick (wait was it hit or was it slap or was it beat?) HIM.
Well tomorrow is Conference for you all. We will be asleep during Conference. (O,h but so will some of you!) It will be our Fast and Testimony Meeting tomorrow. Next weekend we will have a schedule given to us as to when we can go to the church and watch Conference.
Enjoy and keep us up to date on what's going on at Conference.
Till We Meet Again....The Sister Sisters
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