Veva and Rita's Mission in the Philippines: Floods, Halloween, All Saints Day and the list just goes on and on....

We are going to start backwards this time.

We've had a busy few weeks with the internet going down again for days that left us unable to contact anyone.

Then we had the Primary Program to put on. This was followed by Sister Snyder's family (Brian's family) coming for a week.

They left Friday and we started baking food for the two Zone Conferences that began on that Monday.

At both conferences we were in charge of some of the food, the two hours of games and we also decided to do a skit along with the rest of the missionaries.

We will stop here and share our skit with you all. (I must say that they all thought the Senior Missionaries would put on a, "Book of Mormon" skit or something.) What a surprise!

It really has been several weeks of craziness.
Now let's start with the end and work ourselves forward.

At the end of a two day Zone Conference here in Laoag, we packed up and headed for the next Zone Conference at the other end of the mission in Santa Ana.

It rained on us the whole way up and it continued to rain the whole time we were there. We then found out that it had been raining for over a month.

Yes, we had heard that they had had some flooding in some parts of that area but by the time we got ready to go home, we learned that many of the roads back home and around had been washed out.

We were able to send a few missionaries home after learning their homes were fine and the roads were not to bad. The rest of us, including about 20 missionaries were stuck at the hotel for another night.

The next day, Saturday, we found out the roads were passable for the truck and we sent the office missionaries on their way home. We then had a Pow-Wow with the President about what to do with us Senior Missionaries and our cars.

We were given three options:
First...Fly to Manila then to Laoag since no flights go directly to Laoag except from Manila. The question was where to leave our cars. We had two cars, the Ward's car and ours with the four Senior Sisters.

Second... Wait it out! (The weatherman did not see any relief in sight for the week.)

or Third... Drive the long way home. President said we could take our time and yes we would be going out of our mission boundary.

We voted to make the long, long drive home.

As you see we drove from Laoag to Santa Ana for the conference and then couldn't go back the same way so we headed for Manila.

We were worn out but our poor Office Elders had it worse than us. They started home because they had a truck and were told the truck could make it through.

After driving several hours back towards home, they did make it through the washed-out road but came upon another washout that had just happened and NO one could make it through.

They then had to turn around and go back to where they started and start the long drive home like us.

First, we will see pictures of the drive home....

These people live in the rice fields and the water quickly overtook them. They packed their belongings and moved to the side on the highway.

Okay, these wires absolutely scare us to death. They are everywhere. What a MESS!

More sights along the way...

We then stumbled across missionaries from another Zone who were being evacuated. The bus had dropped them off at the mall.

As we continued on with our drive home, we passed a church that had missionaries from another mission attending Sacrament Meeting. This was the second Mission that we had been through. We were way out of bounds for our mission but remember- we had permission.

At the mall, we found Sister Robinson's Chair. The Robinson's Mall is a big chain here in the Philippines. Here in Laoag some people call Sister Robinson,"Sister Mall." Do you see her name written on the top of the chair?

We then went over a tall, tall, beautiful mountain.

We will stop here and go back to see the food, games, and skits of the Zone Conferences.

On our way up to Santa Ana, we always stop on the bridge and try to out jump the Elders.

Zone Conferences.....

Sister Robinson single handed made this puzzle. She drew it and cut it out and all.

Fort Ilocandia tug of war....

Of course the winners would be these guys with this big Elder on their team.

All are winners since the rope broke every time.

Then came the, "Water balloon fight."

Let's add a few skits here from the Zone Conferences.

And again our skit at the second Zone Conference!

Elder Ward did not really want to do this skit with us. He was against practicing but in the end do you see who was having the most fun?

Our yearly Christmas bedtime story by Sister Peterson!

Our Welcoming Committee at the hotel....

So at the second Zone Conference, it rained the whole time we were there. This did not slow the missionaries down one bit.

And this folks, is the reason we won't be home in January! We will come home the first of May because Sister Snyder can't leave the missionaries.

Before the Zone Conferences, we had the "Brian Snyder Family," come visit and spend Thanksgiving with us.

Rilee with one of our favorite fruit here. It is like a red grapefruit only its better (pomelo).

Thanksgiving dinner....

Thanksgiving activity!

While Brian's family were here, we took them to Vigan to see the light show. One day they had a children's parade out in front of our hotel. There are so many children in the Philippines!

So BEFORE the Snyders came we took a trip in October to another Zone Conference and went to our old sights (in Santa Anna and Palaui island) to show the Wards around.

With every travel, there are Mountain Dew bottles everywhere decorating the place up. I know you have seen these but if WE have to see them everywhere then you should feel our pain just a little!

Each trip is a stop at Berg Blicks to eat. Once we went on a day that they were doing things in miniature. Small tastes of his food (16 courses if you can get that far.) We got to 10 and a half and then deserts.

They had a friend from Germany there who vacations here and makes miniature things to sell.

He does not wear glasses and his hands are so steady.

The food.....

Inside the kitchen!

This is our trip back to Santa Ana and Palaui Island with the Wards.

Salt once more....

On our way to Palaui Island

The lighthouse on top of the hill that we are going to.

If you have been following our blog you may recognize these pictures. What's different you ask? It rained most of the time we were there this time.

The beehive in the tree...

Our Guide this time.

Check this solar power out. Notice the battery in the back.

Off to a waterfall they told us about.

Through the cutest village. Very few people live on this island.

The waterfall...

Lots of ants...

Those who slipped in the mud...

Our food and there are always dogs are cats when we eat......

A couple who came and caught their own food (fish) and cooked it to eat.

So back in October the day we returned from Santa Ana was "All Saints Day". We were fortunate to have Steve who said he would take us to the graveyard.

(Because of problems most the grave yard pictures on the 2nd Blog.)

Notice the patch of grass. You pay 1,000 pesos a year to keep this lawn. Most people don't have the money to do that.

Also every 10 years you need to pay for the grave spot again or else they move the dead person.

To finish off we have some random pictures.....

Our two office elders are leaving us and the one in the middle, Elder Gutay is taking over one of them. The face of the office is changing once again.

We also just found out that we lose Elder Wilson this time. He will become a traveling AP. That will be new a new thing for us.

Oh dear who will be in the office to give us a hard time?

He home pictures to some crazy ones. I then told him I would put this on the Missionary Portal of him and he is all for it. You just can't win with him!!!