Six months in....

Only two earthquakes in the last month. YEA! Only two!

As I've said in the past... The missionaries love to play with our phones. 

This may be why! 

Their phones are older than dirt! 

At least they work and the missionaries can text faster with their phones than I can type.

In January we had our first Nationwide Philippine Stake Conference. It was telecasted from Manila.

Elder Jeffery R. Holland, who came for the temple ground breaking, was the speaker. He said that during one of the wars an apostle had dedicated the Philippines but in 1965 President Hinkley rededicated it.

In the 80’s the Philippines was flourishing.

At that time, in Cheeto’s branch they had 88 baptisms in just one year.

Baguio (Philippines) topped the baptism in the world through the 80’s and 90’s.

More playing around!

Early morning walks....

This is a test...

What are the letters that are missing on this building? 

I find it interesting that they are adding on to this building on the left but they can't fix existing problems. Their motto is to build them and don't repair them.

Corn grows here in January!

 Real Live Rosters perched on poles before the sun comes up!

Early morning stroll with the kids. 

What are they watching?

Or the may be watching this man take his goats for an early morning walk.

This is the property that Sister Snyder and I are looking at buying at the end of our mission.

Please come visit!

This church is just up the street from us. There are times when the Tri-C drivers has tried to drop us off there.

The Elders found a young girl who attends this church. They gave her a Book of Mormon. She was so excited and is reading it. 

She told the elders that in her church (this church) the members are NOT allowed to read the Bible. The Priest is the only one who can read it. He reads it to them and then interprets it for them.

Our primary class.

Last week our President and his wife took the Office Elders and went up north 

(6 hour drive) to put on a Zone Conference.

With our area being so big we split the Zone Conference. This week the same Zone Conference was held here in Laoag for the rest of us. 

Let’s compare missions….

Presidents Peterson’s children came for a visit. In our Zone conference his daughter spoke and said that she had served her mission in Norway and that people are not very warm or friendly there. She said they do not want to talk to you at all.  (I’ve also heard that Australia is also not a very friendly place.)

President’s Peterson’s daughter said in Norway they averaged about 100 baptisms a year!

In our mission we had 100 baptisms in December. Now grant you that was December which is our, “White Christmas” time so it is different. Otherwise our mission averages about 60 baptisms a month. The Laoag mission is ranked 8^th in the Philippines.

We have a sister that will go home today. She said that she has had 22 baptisms in the 18 months that she was here.

I found it interesting that she said her favorite part of her mission is working with reactivation.

It was interesting because Elder Holland said that there are 168 hours in the week and it is only 3 of those hours that we would spend going to church. 
It all makes sense that we spend more time in the home studying the gospel.

I found it funny that he said… We used to ask if a certain person was active and we judged that by them going to church for 3 hours a week. 

 Interesting Fact: 

The Elder standing in the bottom picture is from Sri Lanka! 

I know! Look it up- I did. 

We have another sister coming from Sri Lanka in May.

 This is what Sister Snyder found in her glass of water at this dinner.

No! She didn't drink it!

A member heard this missionary would be in town and came just to give her a hug.

Here is Elder Young again! He had this tie made for him. 

It is of the Philippine flag.

This sister just got here on last transfer and is getting eaten by the mosquitoes.

Yes! Just half of the Zone.

Update on our visa waiter-

We received a call from a Churches Attorney. The attorney called the Visa Exam Center and inquired what the problem was with our Visa Waiter who had taken the test twice and failed.

Our Visa waiter had the same examiner each time. The examiner said that our missionary passed the Korean part just fine but it was his English that he failed. Now we all have talked with this missionary and his English is just fine!

When our missionary went to take the test this time, he was assigned the Supervisor of the exam center and of course he passed. 

We are so sad to be losing this wonderful missionary. He has been with us about 5 weeks and will now go to the MTC in Provo for 5 weeks before heading to Korea.

The next week we prepared for these wonderful missionaries to leave us. 

Do you see anyone you have seen before?  

We have a St. George Utah, an Austrian, Ohio and Salt Lake City represented here and others.

A day later we welcomed this batch of new missionaries.

With all there is to do with getting these new missionaries out in the field, they first must meet their companion. We bring in the Trainer (old missionary) and pair them up with the Trainee (new missionary) Here is a glimpse of how it was done.

 

After all that has been going on in the last few months our AP's were able to baptize a couple of people that were from the BIG Neighborhood Family Home Evening Group that a member sponsored.

We were told that on the average you talk and work with about 30 investigators to get one baptism. Our missionaries have been asked to try for one baptism a week. You can do the math in how many people a month they need to talk to to get those baptisms?

Now we are White Americans so of course they charge us more for Tri-C rides. Our going rate used to be 40 pesos. Now we are most always charged 50. Weekends and nights are higher.

Today coming from church we were asked to pay 60 pesos. I was not happy for the higher price and then we were stuffed inside a tiny tin can. Okay so we paid under 50 cents for the ride but could we have just a little more room? 

Tri-C's come in all different sizes.

Elder Rees and I seeing who can bench the most!

Church is out and we all line up to catch a Tri-C.

There IS a Police present at times!

 Look close and notice on the top of the cart the horse's lunch is there waiting 
                                                     for him.

 Surprise! 

They do have a Social Security System. It is only for some people. Only the people who choose to pay into it.

Remember this? They are changing it. I'm not sure yet into what it is being changed to. We'll just have to wait and see.

Okay this week we took another picture. Let's see how good and observant you are. Can you see what has been added this week?

This is the same area. The Capital Building. They have these hammocks on both sides in case you want to rest awhile.

On Sunday Sister Snyder got a bug and went to work. She made tinfoil dinners for all of us. Then she baked a cake. We all had some GOOD food.

Elder Holland made the comment that we are in the Last Dispensation. The Greatest Dispensation, the fullness of times and for some reason we get to be a part of it. Do you ever wonder why you were held back to come to earth at this time to be a part of this great dispensation?

Okay it is MY goal to have a T-Shirt that says "Pagudpud" on it.  Now I haven't ever been to Pagudpud because it is about an hour away. I still want a T-Shirt that says Pagudpud. 

The Elders offered to pick me up one sometime when they go that way, but I don't trust them to pick mine out. 

If I never make it to Pagudpud I can have a T-shirt made for me, I just have to decided what to say on it. 

This is where you come in...I'm open for suggestions and YES I know I setting myself up..Brian

How about....

(if I go)….. "I've been to Pagudpud. Have you?" 

"I went to Pagudpud and all I got was this T-Shirt".

"I went

I saw 

Nothing there

except this T-Shirt".

I'm open for suggestions from you!

Elder Holland said the story of the Philippines is one of the greatest stories to be written and we are grateful to be a part of the story.

                                  Love the Sister, Sisters