Traveling About the Mission

Today is Sunday.  We enjoyed a District Conference in Bongabon.  After the meeting it was time to dash to Gapan for another meeting with Stake Presidency and Zone Leaders.  We took full advantage of the overcast weather.  It rained a lot but it also allowed many pictures without the glare of the often present sun.  Enjoy the beauty of the Philippines that we get to experience often as we travel about the mission.

Goats are frequent flyers as they travel in packs.

Don't let the clouds fool you.  While clouds do cool things down (sort of), they also add much humidity in the process.  The air is very thick and warm during times like this. 

Sadly this is a blurry picture but it helps you see a store on wheels.

Many different forms of transportation travel the roads.

Just hanging out!

Beautiful rice fields with Mt. Arayat in the background!

Building...

Resourceful businesses on the side of the road. 

 

I love to see clothes that are hanging on lines all over the Philippines.  Most clothes are washed by hand and hung outside to dry.  People in the Philippines are generally very clean and tidy with clothes washed in buckets and sometimes streams.  

Not many Filipinos own cars.  Trike drivers are all over and allow the people to travel quite efficiently.  They hold anywhere from 2 to 5 (or more) people in each trike.

Jollibee is a very popular place to eat!

 

 

So much soda is consumed in the Philippines.

 

 There are a lot of ways to move chickens around the country.

These workers are finishing up a long and hard day planting in the rice field.  The average pay is P150-200 a day ($5) plus lunch.  They work about 8 hours.  This was a happy group finishing up and cleaning up before going home.

Rice fields are fascinating!  Rice production in the Philippines is important to the country and economy.  Rice is the most important food crop.  

Central Luzon is located in our mission area.  It produces much of the rice in the Philippines.

Plowing the fields with a kuliglig.

 

Many plow the fields with their carabao.

 Here come the ducks!

                                                                           

Mission Leadership Council - A Revelatory Experience

Another marvelous Mission Leadership Council was had on the 5th of July.  Although many of our leaders are new, our meeting was filled with revelation and power.  President Clark presented some experiences and examples that were meant just for our missionaries to become better able to get investigators to keep commitments.  The meeting was full of emotion and love.  Funny story:  Near the end of the meeting, President presented an object lesson to explain how the missionaries can help investigators understand the importance of commitments.  It involved a little role play between President and myself.  When it was over, I gave him a kiss.  The missionaries LOVED it or were shocked by it.  The next day when they taught the object lesson, the entire mission knew about the kiss.  Some even told me they recorded it in their journals for the day.  We were taught that our missionaries need to see good marriage role models.  We are happy to be an example of that.  

July represents freedom!  One time each year we spoil the leadership council with a meal that they don't get very often: sloppy joes and hot dogs.  We had plenty of mustard and catsup and they were well used!   Dessert was a fascination to many - Fruit pizza with strawberries on it.  Strawberries are only grown in one area of the Phililppines, Baguio.  Many of the missionaries have never tasted them before.  It was fun to watch them eat this new found fruit with a cookie underneath.  

I shall never get tired of having a crowd of sisters and elders filling the main room of the mission home with love, laughter, song and testimony.

Sister break out sessions are the best!  We learned, "If you want to give a light to others, you have to glow yourself!"  We discussed qualities Sister Training Leaders need.  It was a good time to talk about the new dress pants policy, safeguards again dengue fever and the harm of chicka-chicka (gossip)!

I never posted our June MLC.  Ten of the

 missionaries in this photo have returned home.  

We surely love our missionaries!