Beautiful people and beautiful scenery

We did a lot of driving around the Bulacan this week.

 We often see these anti-criminality check points.  'Anti-criminality' strikes me as funny.  The police set up road blocks and stop the motorcycles and I believe they cite them if they don't have licenses, or aren't wearing helmets or shoes.

We went on a hike out at the reservoir by Angat Dam.  Here's a boy fishing.    To me every day I've been here so far has been hot and humid, with no exceptions. (Sister Swift: I like the warm days except when there is high humidity.  I will really miss the nice weather when we leave here.  It is nice all year round and I never have to wear a sweater, jacket or coat.)

 Some of the local children.  They love to pose for pictures and giggle when you show it to them on the camera.  These children kept following us down the sidewalk wanting to do high-fives and have their picture taken, until finally some of their parents caught up with them and called them back.

 This is a Filipino family we saw out for a swim.

 I found this little frog at our house outside the back door.  This shows how small he is.

 Here's a close up.  He's quite cute.

 We went to a birthday party at the home of one of the members.  This is Ferdinand, a new convert in our ward.  They love to sing videoaoke.  Little Julieanne loved sitting on Sister Swift's lap.

 Here is Joyce in the middle who turned 19, with her parents Gina and Wilson.

 Jillian (four) singing karaoke.

 We went for a drive one day and took back roads home from San Ildefonso.  It took two hours but we saw some interesting sights and got on some pretty narrow roads and even some muddy dirt roads.  Most of the roads were concrete.

 One of their majestic white cows.

 Beautiful scenery.

A farmer plowing the rice field.  Not all of them use water buffalo.

Primary Program and Transfers

Our District had a Primary Anniversary Roadshow.  We went to watch the children from our Branch and support the Primary.  The children had a really good time.

 This is Jethro and John Paul in front of the train and Erin in the back.  Sister Pricella is watching.

 Saying hello to a new missionary.  John Clyde with Erica and Eula and B-Boy in the boat.

 Two good buddies, John Clyde and John Paul.

  Here is a picture of the San Ildefonso missionaries.  Starting on the left, Elder Pelinggon from the Philippines, Elder Arcayos from the Philippines, me, Sister Swift, Elder Dizon from the Philippines who is being transferred, and Edler Uele from New Zealand who is finishing his mission.  We really liked getting to know and work with Elders Dizon and Uele.  They are great missionaries.

This is the entire Baliwag Zone, two senior couples, two sister companionships and seven elder companionships.

Spider Fighting

We had another baptism.  They are trying to have a baptism every week on Saturdays.

 Joren, who is eleven years old, got baptized.  Here he is with his family and the elders that taught him, Elder Pelinggon and Elder Uele.

One morning we noticed some children across the street playing with spiders.  They keep them in little boxes with separate containers for each spider.

 Then they fight the spiders against each other.  They put them on the same stick and let them fight. (This is an example picture off the internet.  We have seen them do it but don't have any actual fighting pictures.)

When one spider wants to give up he lets go of the stick and drops down on a silk strand but they lift him back up onto the stick to fight some more.  Once we saw some children at in the hall at church fighting their spiders.  And we've seen them with the spider boxes on more than one occasion.

Hurt Foot, Fruit and Landscape

Sometimes we go out visiting members of the Branch to encourage them to come to church and sometimes just to visit.

 A little girl in our branch got her foot caught in the spokes of a motorcycle.  She has to have her foot up like this for 4 weeks.  No crutches, no walking cast.  It has been 2 weeks now and she has the big bandages and cast-like thing off now, but she still can not walk on it and gets it cleaned at the clinic every third day or something like that.  If they find a wheel chair she can go back to school next week.  This family is not active, but we have gone to visit her about 4 times since the accident.

 At one of the members homes they gave us some of this fruit from off the trees in their yard.  It's called an atis or sugar apple.

This is what it looks like on the inside.  The white fleshy part is the fruit and it's delicious.  I really like it.  The seeds are black and you have to suck the fruit off them and then spit the seeds out.  It says on the internet that the small atis trees grow in any type of soil.  Maybe we'll bring some home and try to grow one.

Here are some pictures of the landscape around the city where we are assigned.  This area is just a few blocks off the main road.  It is so different looking than the city area where most of the people live just a couple of blocks away.

 

This is the same area, but a different angle. Now you can see a volcanic mountain in the background.

Jeepney Trip

Most of the things we do you can't take pictures of, like at church or visiting people, but we do get to take pictures of activities.

 The YW planned a birthday party for two of their members, Monica and Camile.  Sister Swift helped out.  They cooked and decorated and then had a party at the church building with food and games.  They had a lot fun.

 Every Tuesday morning we go to meetings with the missionaries.  There is usually some type of training that the missionaries do themselves.  This is Elder Uele from New Zealand teaching a workshop.

 On Sunday after church we went on a jeepney ride to a church building in the Quezon City Mission.  It was along ride but we finally made it.  This is the branch president and some of the members going into the building.

 There were lots of members there.  We thought it was going to be about Self Reliance but it turned out to be about the Pathways Education Program, which is not even being offerred in our Mission yet.

This is the jeepney that we rode up in.  There were 19 of us in addition to the driver all in this little jeepney.  Inside are two long bench seats facing inward.  This is what the drivers usually do while waiting for their passengers to come back.  Sleep.

New Family baptized

This is the Juan family. They were just baptized into the Branch last Saturday. 

 Sister Joy and four cute daughters.  She also has two sons in the photo that were too young to be baptized.  It's great when a whole family joins the church.  They were very happy.

On the phone the other day with my dad and brother I mentioned the street sweeper was outside the house.  In the Philippines street sweepers aren't large trucks with rolling brushes.  This is a Philippine street sweeper pushing a cart for the leaves and brush they sweep up.

 Here you can see the type of brooms they use, made of long stiff bristles.  They're out in the heat of the day and wear dark colors with long sleeves and usually have their heads covered from the sun and sometimes even their faces.

 We were over at the Sister Gemma's home one day.  She is the Relief Society President.  She has a small business on her front porch cooking some fried Filipino foods that people from the neighborhood stop by and buy.  She also makes some ice and jello deserts like halo-halo.

 The District had a 70's & 80's Flashback Gold and Green Ball for the adults and youth.  There was lots of dancing.  This one guy in the picture had a great 80's outfit.  Our Branch did a dance routine also, that they had been practicing for two weeks.  We like going to all the activities in our Branch and District.

Another Week in the Philippines

 We are fortunate to be able to spend our time here in the Philippines and to be serving the Lord and helping to build his Church in the city of San Ildefonso in the Bulacan Province.  The picture below is a daytime picture.  It is hard to see, but the colors in the sky above this dark cloud were beautiful.

 I could see every color of the rainbow vividly.  It is very hard to see in the picture, but there were blues, greens, reds, yellows, oranges, and purples.

  The young elders and sisters have so much enthusiasm and are such hard workers.  They are bringing the gospel of Christ to as many people as will listen.

 This is Sister Daquioag.  She is waiting for her VISA and then will be flying to America.  She has been called to serve a mission to Mesa, Arizona.  Who knows, maybe she will run across my Dad when she gets down there.  Her English is really good.

We found this strange little frog in our driveway one afternoon after a big thunderstorm.  He is quite different from the other type of frogs we see all the time.  We have been having lots of rain and thunderstorms lately and are in the middle of the rainy season.

 We went with the Branch to see Jared off on his mission.  He is the Branch President's son and is going to the Cauayan Mission on Luzon Island in the Philippines (that is the same island we are on only further north).

 We also went with Sister Romulo to get her temple endowments.  This is a picture in the waiting area with some of the other sisters in the Branch.  She is third from the right with her grand-daughter Rene Rose seated next to her.

 Saw this little leaf on top of the air conditioner unit outside out house.

On closer inspection discovered it was a strange little insect.