Baliwag

Baliwag is the town in the Philippines where we are living.  In this post we are showing some pictures we took around Baliwag.

 This is what traffic looks like.  It's very crowded and there lots of traffic and people.

 Another crowded street around the town center.  This is a very crowded area.

 Besides cars and buses there are three modes of transportation.  Lots of motorcycles which are the best for darting around slower or stopped traffic.

 These are called tricycles.  They are motorcycles with side cares that people use like taxis for getting around.  People don't pay much attention to traffic lanes.

 This is a jeepney used for transportation.  It holds about a dozen passengers.  Most people don't have cars and they pay to ride either the tricycle or jeepney.  Surprisingly we do not see very many bicycles, just a couple now and then.

 This is the clock tower that's in the town square of Baliwag.

 War memorial in memory of World War II when the Philippines were invaded by the Japanese.  The Philippines fought side by side with Americans during the war and General Douglas MacArthur is a big hero over here.

 A large Catholic cathedral.  The majority religion here is Catholic.

 Ceiling inside the cathedral tpwer.

 Statue of Mose and the Ten Commandments.

 In the town square we each had a Bibingka.  They only cost 55 pesos, which is just about a $1.20.  It is cooking under the coals.

 The Bibingkas are like a hot custard, but are called rice cakes. It is a traditional Christmas food.  Oh, it case you didn't know the Christmas season begins September first in the Philippines and lasts through Christmas.  You can see a little of it under the green leaf. It was about 6 inches in diameter and was served with shredded coconut. I (Sister Swift) really enjoyed it.

 Here is a tiny Dunkin Donuts.

 A large number of the signs (the majority I think) are in English.  Most everyone speaks at least some English, but very little is spoken here in the province or at church during talks or prayers.  I know some of the members can speak it quite well though, and will interpret for me if I ask.  A lot must be able to read it too.

 Of course the McDonalds is in a modern building.

Church and Visits in Philippines

It's been a busy first week for us in the Philippines.  We got out to our area on a Thursday and have been to church two times now.

 This is the town where our Branch is located.  We're assigned to the San Ildefonso Branch in the Balican District in the Philippines Quezon City North Mission.  We live in the town of Baliwag.

 This is the small Branch building.  Pretty nice.  They have offices and classrooms downstairs and the chapel upstairs.

 We frequently see cows (bukas) in the fields.  This one was by the road.

 The oxen are called Carabaw.

 Here's two missionaries at their house in St. Miguel.

This is us with one of our missionaries and a sister from the church, Sister Priscilla, who seems to just love Jacquelyn.  After we visited her house she went with us to visit the rest of the people we saw that night.

 Elder Barcarse and Articulo.  Local Philippine missionaries assigned to our branch.  They took us out on Thursday to visit seven families.  Then on Saturday we went out with Elders Coombs and Salisbury from America.  We got drenched in a heavy rain and had to walk through lots of water to get to one house.

Here's all the senior missionaries ( the two on the front right are leaving.)  President and Sister Bertin are seated in the middle.

Arrive in Philippines

We got to the Philippines after two days of traveling.  A 2 hour flight from Provo to Los Angeles, a long layover, a 15 hour flight to Hong Kong, and then a 2 hour flight to Manila.

 This is the Mission President's home for the Philippine Quezon City North Mission.  We got to stay there for two nights.  Our second and third nights.

 It's really quite nice inside.  I'll add a picture of us and the mission president and his wife when they send it to us.  They're really nice.

These are a set of pictures taken of some of the local housing and streets we saw driving around Quezon City getting our immigration paperwork down.  Junior Elders took us around to get everything done.

 Two carts really loaded up.

 We saw some poor sections of town.  On the first night there we got to our hotel a little after midnight.  I went out to get some water and pop.  It was still busy out with lots of cars and people.  I saw two little children (about 4 and 6, years old) sleeping on the bare concrete of a pedestrian overpass.  They had no pillows or covers or blankets.  There were no parents or adults watching over them.  It was sad.  On the way back I saw them still there, with no adults anywhere in sight.  I wanted to do something to help but there was nothing I could do.  The gospel of Jesus Christ has the answers to the world's problems, so in a way we are doing our parts, however small, to help bring people to Christ and solve the world's problems.  I'm going to remember those children whenever I think I have it hard, because I really don't.

 A business.

 More of the town.

 The city streets are really busy with cars and jeepneys and motorcycles with side cars.

 This is the waiting room at the place we got our driver's licenses. In case you thought our DMV is bad.

 One of the city streets.

 One night we went out to dinner with the other senior couples at a big modern mall.  We ate at a TGIF and then went to Cold Stone for ice cream.  They sang and danced like back home.

This is our house in Balliwag, Philippines.  We'll put up more pictures of it in the next blog.  It's the white house in the middle of these two yellow homes.  We're in a  nice gated community.  We really attract a lot of attention though, being the only non-Filipino's there.

We're glad to be there though and we're having a good time.

Missionary Training Center and time at Nathanael's home.

We got to the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Provo, Utah on Monday. This is the front of the MTC.

 

 

  Here we are at the big map pointing to the Philippines where we are assigned to serve. 

               

 This is one of the classrooms.  We had Sister Eames for our morning instructor.

 Our afternoon instructors were Brother Jex and Brother Barney.

 This is a group picture of us with some of the other Senior Missionaries.  There were three groups about this large.

We had a lot of fun at the MTC and we learned a lot.  Now we're ready for the Philippines.

Next we headed back to Nathanael's for one last weekend before our flight on Monday.

 On Saturday we went on another hike.  It was lots of fun.

 Joshua drove down from Idaho and joined us on the hike too.

 Jacob's favorite place to ride.

Jacob and Hannah.

At the end of the hike we came up to this waterfall and hiked alongside some magnificent cliffs. You can barely see the waterfall just left of center. It was Scout Falls.

 It was really a beautiful place for hiking.

 Nathanael with Hannah on a rock.

 Jacob jumping to Nathanael off a rock.  On the next picture you can see the waterfall behind us.

 We had a wonderful time at Nathanael and Mary-Anne's house this past week.  Thank you Nathanael and Mary-Anne for your hospitality and a great time visiting with you and the grandkids.  Now we're off for the Philippines.

Last visits before MTC

     We left Puyallup on Tuesday and went to Spokane for one last visit with Tianna's family.  We brought Joshua and Caleb with us.  Wednesday morning we headed out for Pocatello, Idaho.  We left Caleb in Spokane with Tianna's family.  He will be there until he goes back to BYU Idaho in the fall.  We dropped Joshua off at his temporary place in Pocatello.  We got to look at the new house that they are having built.

     Next we drove on down to Lehi, Utah to visit with Nathanael and family.  We did a couple of days of language study.  We saw Jacob learn to ride his bike and went on a hike in the mountains.

 Here we are at the top of Buffalo Peak.  We went on a hike on Saturday.  Here we are with Jackson, Nathanael, Hannah, Mary-Anne, and Jacob.

 We started out the hike going the wrong way through a grassy field following what turned out to be a water run-off trial.

 Jacob had as lot of fun following Jackson through the grass.

 Hannah looking cute on the trail.

 We ran across a very large snake.  We think it was a Great Basin Gopher Snake.

 A view from the top of Buffalo Peak.

 We also got to spend a lot of time with Nathanael and his family.  One even Nathanael was teaching Jacob how to ride his bike.

 He did it, and he's only three years old.

 He learned so fast.

Good bye Hannah, now we're off to the MTC.