It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas ....and we haven't even had Thanksgiving!

Sister Peterson had this made.

What do you think? Nice! Right?

We went to town and it hardly ever fails that traffic isn't held up for this.

We had District Meeting again. We are very proud of our Elders and their numbers. Check out the 26, NPBT (New People Being Taught)

 Our District lesson was taught by Elder Denkers, who showed a wonderful Church Video. 

The film was about John Tanner who lived back when the Prophet Joseph Smith did. He was well to do but when he joined the church he ended up giving all he had to get the church out of debt. He continued to give all he could. He truly was living the law of consecration. 

You may notice that we have more Elders than normal.

This is Elder Madson and Elder McLain.

On your right we have Elder McLain. He is a professional "Rock Climber". 

I asked if he planned to go to school when he got home. He said, it would be back to rock climbing for him. I asked if he could make any money at it and he said that that is how he paid for his mission. Must be some good money in it after all.

Next we have our dear Elder Madson. He has been out 15 months. A while back he passed 7 kidney stones. He now has pain that no one can figure out what it is. They thought kidney stones again but nothing has helped it. These two elder have been here at the office all week while they check out Elder Madison. 

Elder McLain is a brand new Elder who is ready to go to work and he is confined to the office most of the day. He is kind of Homeless right now. Our hearts go out to him because he wants so bad to go to work. Today I put him to work typing for Sister Snyder. It was great! Her job went faster and he was glad to be useful.

Heart breaker

The Doctors here in Laoag have checked out Elder Madson but they don't know what it is. His x-rays now went to Manila where the church doctors are checking his x-rays. 

I can't tell you how sad we all are. First, think of Elder Madson's mother and father who are just sick especially having their sick son in a Third World Country.  Today President took Elder Madson to the airport and sent him to Manila. There were lots of tears. It was a hard time for Elder Madson and for the President. They will check him out in Manila and most likely send him home. We can only pray at this point.

Can you just imagine if a miracle happened and they found the problem and fixed it in Manila. Then Elder Madson could come back to his companions and finish his mission. 

Just got word from Manila. Elder Madson will go home for sure. He has pulled a muscle in his back, he has kidney stones, he has too much acid in his stomach and his spleen is in enlarged.  Yes Heart breaker! our prayers go with him! 

As for Elder McLain, he will probably be placed with two other missionaires tomorrow. Yes he will leave us the DAY BEFORE THANKSGIVING!  That makes him pretty sad. He just can't seem to get a break.

These two beautiful girls are our latest baptisms. The one in the blue wants to serve a mission someday.

Our friend Cheto was singing the other day, "I'm dreaming of a White Christmas!" I said Cheto the Philipinnes do not have White Christmas'. He then told me that in the Philipines a WHITE CHRISTMAS is ...BAPTISMS!  

                                               Oh I love it!

In this picture Elder Swann and Elder Rees were invited to have a Family Home Evening by the gentleman in the white shirt. When they got there he had invited all his neighbors. These are two excited missionaries!

We may have a White Christmas after all!

This is an elderly man that they love to visit. He says he is too old for religion but they enjoy visiting him.

Sister Snyder and I were invited to a wonderful evening in honor of prospective missionaries and those that have returned in the last year or so.

When we got to the chapel (on time, but we're the only ones on time) we checked out what the other ward Relief Society was making in their activity. The sisters were making these Bonsai Trees for Christmas.

A couple of hours of work and this much is done. This project will take some time to complete for Christmas.

We then moved on to our evening with the missionaries that are planning a mission and those that just got home.

We got there on time and they had some of the youth working on the decorations. That was a novel idea I thought. The youth putting the decoration together. They did it right up to the time to start and then some. It is a good thing everyone comes late to these things.

What a Fun night this was!

They had a couple of short talks by a bishop and his wife.

They had dancing and when the leaders kept asking everyone to dance the young people came up with a solution. They formed a group dance and then the leaders left them alone.

We then had good food!

 Notice all the Mountain Dew drinks. For your drink it was either Mountain Dew or a Pepsi.

This sweet sister just got home from her mission somewhere here in the Philippines.  

I may have told you that here in the Philippines they have 700 different dialects. That is because this place was settled or inhabited by tribes from all over Asia. 

In the mission home they will teach Tagalog but when you get to your mission who knows what they will speak. 

Here in Laoag they speak Tagalog, Ilocano. Most children are taught English in school.

This sister knows English, Tagalog and Ilocano but when she got to her Philippine mission she had to learn five different languages.  

I guess what really added to our night was that Cheto showed videos of the missionaries and our Family Week Walk. It was fun seeing missionaries that we now know.

Can you find Elder Reyes Sr. and Elder Swann? They both are in the front but on different sides. Elder Petty, who just went home is in the front as well. On the second row there is our Elder Maroket.

Today was our Primary Program and we volunteered to do the treats. We didn't have the Mission van so we took all our stuff and caught a Tri-C to church.

 This is our Primary party after the program. 

We were so proud of our kids. We had practiced a couple of times last Sunday and that was all. They did an awesome job. I think they were so quiet because one of our rowdy boys did not come and the other one had his mother sitting next to him.

I was sitting down on the front row with the words on posters. My heart melted when I heard others (mostly the elders) sitting behind me singing the songs with the children. You could just feel the love that the members had for these beautiful songs. They all wanted to sing them.

 The sister you see here in the blue is the Past Primary President that has just been released. She just had a cancer treatment last week and she is here supporting us. What a sweet beautiful sister. She brought cookies that her husband made for the children.

So Sister Snyder had go get another load for her phone. I sat outside on the steps with the others and waited.

Outside the music is blasting and there is always movement. I thought I would just share it with you. It's like being back down on Fremont Street 

   (in the olden days) and watching people going by.

                This past week the internet came to our apartment.  :) 

We did have internet but it was church filtered. We weren't even able to get on Primary sites because of the filter. Cheto, Chris and Satur worked for days to get it up and running for us.

Cheto told us that it was Satur's birthday on Saturday. Satur told us yes it was and that it was his day every Satur-day!

Saturday we were invited to attend the Stake Young Woman's Anniversary Party! Yes I feel here in the Philippines there are parties every week.

After it was over they all went out and let their balloons go. Each balloon had their testimony stuck to it.

Here at the Mission Home we had MLC Meeting 

(Mission Leadership Conference).

We were busy cooking...

 Navajo Tacos

After the MLC the office is a Mad House.....

     

 There is the long awaited and dearly wanted mail to pick up!

 There is also reimbursements for extra expenses. Money! These missionaries are glad to have cash once again. 

 Others are here just to visit with everyone. This Elder had some of our Shepherds Pie when he was here before and now requests Funeral Potatoes for next time. Who in the world told this Filipino about Funeral Potatoes? He thinks he is in love with American food.

When everyone is gone there are the quiet times.

Many times during the day we are very quiet as the Elders pray before and after their studies

 and before going out proselyting 

Even the President goes out proselyting once in a while.

Some random pictures....

We forgot our grocery bags so they always box up groceries. 

This makes it much easier to ride a Tri-C.

Elder Corachea and Sister Kartchner playing the piano together. Elder Corachea has taught himself by listening when people play (he didn't use You Tube). He can do one hand so Sister Kartchner was doing the other hand for him.

This sister wanted her hair to be straighter so her companion told her to iron her hair. I am sure you can guess why the mark is on the side of her face. 

Don't you wish you were 19 again?

In this picture the Nelsons, that just left the Philippines, texted me and said they had seen Elder Swann and Elder Rees's Light the World on Facebook. Here the missionaries are checking out that Facebook post. The Elders then challenged the sisters to do one and beat their number of viewers. The Elders had over one thousand views!

Pictures from their Facebook, "Light the World!"

I'll bet you can't guess who made this picture.

Yes some of our missionaries have too much time on their hands!

This is the second couple that has stopped in to visit. They are from Gunnison, Utah. He served his mission in Laoag five years ago. They are here to visit his old stomping grounds. It is funny to hear about how much these past missionaries loved serving in the Philippines just as President Peterson and Brother Nelson did.

And here you have it our HEROS. 

Satur, Chris and of course Cheto holding our Christmas tree.

Sister Snyder and I went out and bought some decorations for the counter. We bought the cute little white cart. We fill it with fun little candies each day. This is Cheto filling his pockets. You do know he is diabetic right?

That is our quiet slow time in Laoag Mission. 

This weekend is Stake Conference. I told the Lord about a month ago that I willingly will sit through church every Sunday understanding very little. The problem is I just can't bring myself to sit through three hours of Tagalog and Ilocano with very little English at Stake Conference.

When Chito asked about us going to Stake Conference I had to confess to him that I just couldn't take three hours of not understanding. He then told me that Stake Conference is in English!

                                            Not sure I believe him.

It's too late though, I volunteered Sister Snyder and I to go to Vigan with the Kartchners this Sunday. Two hours of not understanding and the sacrament sounded better than Stake Conference.

This will be our first Road Trip and chance to get out of Laoag since we got here in August.  We are excited!

                                        Have a wonderful Thanksgiving....

                                           From the Sister Sisters