Sounds of the Philippines

If you look at our mission you will find that we have 5 or more missionaries who's parents passed while they were serving here. Most of them have chosen not to go home but to continue with their mission. Our hearts went out to these wonderful missionaries and we are so proud of them.

Now in the past few weeks (since transfers), we had one sister leave after a couple of months here. An elder went home to his dad's funeral and will probably not come back. Another elder came a few weeks ago with medical problems and then had to go home. Another missionary was sent home a few months early. 

This elder, in the red tie, is from Texas. He has a 5-year-old brother dying of cancer so he went home. His mission is about done anyway. 

Then we lost this wonderful Elder on the right. He is from Sir Lanka. In the tiny island of Sir Lanka, no foreigners can serve missions there. Only people from that place and then only about 12 missionaries at a time. He was assigned to us until a slot was available for him to go back home and serve. In May we will get a sister from Sir Lanka who will wait for an opening back home.

Our most recent insane experience...(insane because they just keep coming and messing with the companionships. This is a headache for the President to keep changing people around, especially if they all leaving and not coming in) was the one who was walking home one night and a drunk Tri-C driver hit him and broke his leg. (No lights on the Tri-C). Tri-C drivers are known to be drunk especially at night.

At this point, we never know who our next door neighbors will be with all the going home lately. They are usually next door until they can assign a new cowmanship for the missionary that is lef there.

Well, then there are these two that seem to know when we have food in the house. 

While we are here let's just get this over with. Elder Rees wants to be on the blog so bad. He even told me he emailed home about something I did so that somehow is pay back. I do refuse to put him on the blog just drinking a bottle of pop. I have my limits.

                                  

We do have to humor him because we're not sure when he will be leaving the office.

                              Here he is and he is so proud of himself!

Now I had to give him this one because he made the shot just as I snapped the picture.

Okay just admit it! Anyone who would let me take their picture looking like this really wants to be on our blog. 

By now some of you are wondering how Sister Snyder is doing. Well here she is. Everyone's favorite Senior Missionary. 

I was told that there is talk around that it is her name that the Missionaries call out in the middle of the night. 

"Oh, Sister Snyder my belly hurts"! Oh, Sister Snyder, a cockroach bit me"!  I was pretty upset to think no one called my name out in the middle of the night. 

"Oh Sister Cox, can I go home now"?

Pictures of our cute kids at church!

This cute little guy is being held by our past, Sweet Primary President who is battling cancer. He is not even scared of her.

These sisters are in the second ward so they are in the building when we come to church. A couple of these sisters greet us every Sunday and even helped me set up our classroom. They usually check to see that I am wearing my name tag. (I forgot it only once long, long ago.)

Sorry, I don't know how those other two snuck in the picture.

In the office on "P" days sometimes we have quite a few missionaries coming in for reimbursements. Then there are times they come for interviews with the President and his wife. The sisters like to help so I try to have things for them to do.

These sisters have come to the office quite often and we have thoroughly enjoyed them and their sweet spirit.

Here they are again! They love the candy, but we love the hugs!

Okay, there are no hugs here just lots of laughs and candy with these guys. 

Chito, the one in the middle is diabetic. We try and hide the candy before he comes. They have come to asses what needs to be fixed in the Mission Office.

Can I just tell you- Chito's daughter got called to a mission to California. It is very hard to get a visa to leave the country. The day she applied she passed but the five others were told that they looked too young to be ministers so they didn't get visas. 

(You know that's what our cards say, "Ministers of the Gospel".

Candy loves!

The Devil saw me with my head down and thought he had won until I said,  “Amen!” 

This is one of Elder Ballan's quote and he has many. Some we just call gibberish. 

Elder Ballan broke down and wore a different colored tie. Truth be told- his tie was dirty.

Well, of course, Sister Snyder went out and bought him a new BLACK tie. She used the excuse that it was his birthday. It really was his birthday and he made us celebrate for over three days. We all have it ingrained in us that long, long day in March. 

                            The Birthday Day boy in a colored tie again!

So the other day we were coming back from the store. We have so many bags of groceries that I decide to ride on the back with the driver (sidesaddle with a foot peg that is almost pointing down).

We are going around the Round-About competing with all the other traffic when we pass a couple of cars trying to see who could play the loudest music. Our driver was trying really hard to not get behind anyone so he hugs the retaining wall. My knees have nowhere to go and they almost scrape the cement wall. The thought came to me, I will be glad to sit comfortably in a car once again.

So the 2 new Senior Sisters came and we showed them the town in style.

         Sister Robinson and Sister Drzayich  (pronounced "does your eye itch"?)

We went to the new sisters' for Family Home Evening. As we came outside the place was absolutely quiet. I felt like I was back in Littlefield where the stars are bright and plentiful and the quietness is amazing.

I love our place here but quiet it is not! All hours of the day and night we have traffic, sometimes a parade, maybe a funeral, school bands, dogs barking, birds chirping and at time video Karaoke.

There was a lady across the street that would walk in the mornings. She walked like she had had a stroke. She must have passed away and this is her funeral.

With the new sisters coming we had to find them a place to stay. One sister has a bad hip so no stairs. In the end, the Kartchners moved to a new place and gave the sisters the "Mansion" as we call it. It is the Nelson's old place all fixed up. 

Sister Snyder and I took the morning off to help Sister Kartchner with the move.

Oh yes, the elders helped a little!

Our leaving missionaries. Do you see our wonderful Maraket? These were some fun missionaries.

 This is our new batch of missionaries. Elder Squires, the big guy in the back has already been bitten by a dog and is waiting to see if he needs the shots!

"P" Day for the missionaries. Two of our Office Elders do not have the same "P" Day as all the other missionaries. Their "P" Days are very lonely. 

Sister Hunt and Sister Brooks were in the MTC when Sister Snyder and I were. We attended a fireside where they offered the prayers. They now are Senior Companions and trainees. Time is just flying by! Here they are with their brand new trainees. They are a little nervous but excited.

On our last post, I showed you the worst job in the whole world, "Making Salt"!

Let's now look at the second worst job in the whole world.

He is out in the streets around 5:00am. He packs these buckets of sweet drink around all morning calling out to customers. By lunch time he is home to rest and then to start making the new drink for the next morning. My shoulders just ache every time I see him.

Another job is working in the fields. This is out our back bedroom window. 

As I watched, one of the workers walked a little ways off, dropped her drawers and relieved herself. She then pulled her pants up and went back to work. 

AND THAT IS WHY WE SOAK EVERYTHING IN CLOROX. 

(There is no restroom close by, Bless their souls.)

Find the people and see if you can find the goats as well.

This is a picture of our Office Elders and their newly baptized couple. 

Elder Prusee is replacing Elder Denkers in the Office. Elder Prusee was also in the MTC with us. At the Fireside that the sisters prayed, Elder Prusee played a wonderful piano piece. 

The interesting part of about this baptism is that this couple that lives together are not married but were baptized. Here in the Philippines where the Catholic church is so dominant, it is almost impossible to get a divorce. The cost of paper work just bleeds people dry and they can never find the end. The church allows people to get baptized if they have been together for 5 to 7 years. The sad part is is that they can't go to the temple. 

We are watching this man. 

He wants to be baptized. He has developed some wonderful friends here in our ward. He has a smoking and coffee problem though. Today the Elders came looking for Hot Chocolate mix to give him to see if they can help him with his desire to give up coffee. We have our family back home to thank for sending the hot chocolate mix. We are praying for a miracle.

 Okay please forgive me but I promised Elder Rees to put this picture in of the family they are teaching. I almost forgot to put it on the blog.

The little girl in the photo will be baptized next weekend. She is a very bright little girl. Her little sister and little brother are in the picture at the top of the blog. The little girl has come to our primary class.

Our miracle of the month was when the President made Ballesteros into a stake. These are miracles that the President had started wanting back in 1979 when he served his mission in the Philippines. 

The President said that he could see where the 3 Mission Presidents before him were trying to do this. They just couldn't make it happen. The idea came to him to move a place called Calveria over to Ballestseros. That was the key.
He then asked the bishops to go find names of 140 Melchizedek priesthood holders who were full tithe payers. They came back with 200 names.

At the Sunday meeting, they would ask a branch to stand and then they would say you are Ward (1) of the Ballesteros Stake. Then the next branch and the next until they were all done. They then said, "You now are the Ballesteros Stake". There were over a 1,000 people there. It was a spiritual high for everyone.

 We can almost see the temple coming our way!

I mentioned some of the sounds of the Philippines. Let's listen to our first sound which is the neighbors across the street. It must have been someone's birthday because the new "Video Karaoke" went on all day and into the night.

Video Karaoke is a big pass time here. People love to do this and they are not afraid to have the world here them.

The next two videos are not half bad. They usually are much worse than these two are.

So the Office Elders came up to get the Chocolate for the coffee drinker and then said they were hungry for a snack. For pay for their taking all the food, I asked them to show you all how the Filipinos call their dogs.

Elder Rees will do this call several times a day to try and get Elder Ballan to move. 

Well, we hope you got a feel for the sound we hear all day long. If not you are welcome to come and visit!

On Sunday these two wonderful sisters, who have been attending our ward for several months, invited all the office missionaries out to eat. They both were raised here in Laoag but have worked in the hospital in Chicago for many years. They have now moved to Hawaii but spend a few months out of the year back here in Laoag. They will leave to go back to Hawaii on Friday.

Okay, one last sound. It is election time so to add to all the noise the campaign is on. There are loud speakers and announcements as well as singing starting at 6:00am.  No one here has heard the term 
                                           "Silence is Golden"!

   Love and miss you all!

 The Sister Sisters