Working in the rice fields.

We got the chance to ride some of the Philippine Water Buffalos, known as Carabao out here.

Here I am on a Carabao.  We were wearing work clothes.  This is out at the rice fields our Branch President"s dad owns. Our branch president oversees the work there.

Here is Sister Swift on a water buffalo.  She also got to ride one all the way out to the fields.  At first they wouldn't let her because they were afraid she would fall off if the carabao got wild because someone new was on it, but they gave in since she was so persistent.   She also got to walk a couple of them to the big water hole so they could cool down.

 Here is the work crew that had the water buffaloes. They had about five carabao for the job that day.

We also rode out to the rice fields in the cart. One of the times Sister Swift was the one riding this carabao and the worker walked.

Here I am helping a  worker load up the bags of newly harvested rice onto carts for the caribao to pull back out of the fields.  Each bag weighed about 135 lbs.

 Sister Swift and Sister Jones also wanted to  help load the rice bags. (We really just did it for the experience and the picture.)  I think we were really slowing the work down not helping.

  Here is a little frog we saw out between the stalks. We see frogs like this in our neighborhood sometimes also.

 This is one of the homes out there by the rice fields.  It is not unusual to see homes like this in the country.  Living in fancy homes doesn't seem to be important to people out here. It is more important to them to live by family.

 A group of the local Filipinos.  The branch president said most of the people there in the houses by the rice fields were relatives.

Some of the children climbed up on the stacked up bags of harvested rice after the water buffalo brought them in. All the children love to have their picture taken even though they are usually quite shy.  One girl was brave enough to ask us to take selfies with her.

 A truck from the processing plant came out to buy the rice.  They weighed each one.  The truck held about 60 bags.  You can see the Branch President's mother making sure they were all weighed and recorded properly.

This is how they carried bags to the truck: often on their shoulders also.

 We also took some bags to the Branch President's home.  He kept 30 bags for his family's and extended family's use. This is his mother's prize fighting cock.

Also one day we went to eat at Mang Inasal in San Ildefonso with the Elders because two of them were being transferred and it was a goodbye meal.  From right to left:  Ferdinand (investigator), Elder Gumban, Joyce (a branch member), Elder Articulo (leaving), Elder Salsbury (leaving) who is also from Washington, Elder Dapena, and Sister Swift.

Another week in the Philippines

      On Monday we had a Senior Missionaries field trip.  We went to the American Women's Bazaar, which is a charity event put on by American women living in Manila.  They had a lot of nice things and people come from all over the country to attend.  It is usually a 2 hour hour drive, but traffic was terrible and it took us 4 hours.

 

 We also went to the American Cemetery in Manila.  This is where many of the American fallen soldiers from the Pacific areas of World War II are buried.
                       


                     





                                
 They had lots of interesting murals depicting and describing all the major battles of World War II in the Pacific Theater.

 There was row after row of graves.  It was very beautiful but also extremely sad  to think so many thousands and thousands of young men had to die fighting back the Japanese and defending freedom.

 It's been said that America has given more lives to defend the freedom of other nations than any other nation in the history of mankind.



                            
We went to a funeral.  The father of the RS President, who Sister Swift knows very well, died.  He's not a member but some of his children are.  Also a granddaughter is one of Sister Swift's YW.  We marched with them in the funeral procession out to the cemetery.  It took about an hour to get there and went right down a main highway for part of the route, completely halting traffic.  The night before we went to the Funeral Service.   We really are getting to be a part of the community.


         
                      
The graves are all above ground.  Some of the coffins are in cinder block rectangles that are plastered over.  The man who died used to be in the military so they did a gun salute and folded a flag over his coffin.  Also they passed babies over the coffin so  spirits don't get them.   

       
                     
   All the streets in our neighborhood are named after places in Italy.  This one may make you think of a sandwich when you walk by.

      Here's a picture of a  Philippine dog.  There are lots of pet dogs that people have, but also many wander around that we don't think belong to anyone..  This is actually the most common animal we see here.  They tend to be long legged and are very docile, rarely barking at people, just slinking away if you come their way.

 Our branch had a convert baptism on Friday for Sister Renee Rose.

  These are the two Elders that taught her the gospel: Elder Gamban and Salisbury.  Brother Swift went with them when they taught her the final lesson before her baptism.  She is a very kind person, very humble, and has a strong testimony.

Animals All Around

We see lots of animals in the Philippines.

 Here's a Philippine water buffalo, called a caribao, plodding down this main highway, (which only has one lane going each way) at about 3 miles per hour.

 At a house just outside our gates they have a hard with small black pigs and ducks and geese.

 There are roosters running all around the area around our houses.

 A hen with her chicks.

We saw this huge pig in his pen at a house we were visiting when we were helping deliver some relief supplies after the typhoon.

 There is a weekly animal market across the main highway (from Camella where we live)  Here you see a pen of the small pigs for sale.

 They also had goats and chickens.

 Turkeys for sale.

 They even had dogs and cats for sale.

 A fighting rooster.

 A goat with two babies.

  Every six weeks there is a transfer announcement day.  This is a picture of our zone.  Two days later some missionaries were transferred to different areas, a couple of them completed their mission and went home and new missionaries arrived.  The first 4 missionary elders that were here when we arrived are now all trainers.  Two are training in different areas now.

 Elders Salisbury, Articulo, and Gumban.  These were the three Elders  assigned to San Ildefonso with us before transfer day; the all stayed and Elder Articulo is training a new elder.  Elder Salisbury is Elder Gumban's trainer (he has only been here about 7 weeks)  They are a great set of  Elders and are very hard working.  We go out on visits with them on occassion.

 All the Sisters at the meeting.

One day we went bowling with the San Ildefonso Elder's Quorum on an quorum activity.  They have American bowling but also Duck Pin, which is more popular.  The balls are real small and don't have holes in them.  The pins are smaller and squattier.  You get three rolls per turn.  And it's scored the same.  It's a lot harder.

Roadshow

Sister Swift has been busy helping the Youth organize and practice and perform in a District Roadshow.

Here are three of the youth in Lamanite costumes at practice in our building: Trinie, Camille, and Hazelle.

 Waiting for our turn at the Branch Road Show.  Trinie, Hazelle, Buti, Trinie, Jeroh, Camille,  Andrew, Chiqui, Ninio, and Sister Swift.

 One of our youth leaders, Chiqui, was conducting.

 Joseph Smith translating the gold plates.  This was in a different Branch performance, but was interesting.

 Cheeki with John William.  She played a mom and he was a boy that liked Super Heroes in comic books.

 A Lamanite mom with her daughter.

 Trinnie.

 Lamanite 2,000 stripling warriors.

 Notice how Sister Swift had their parts taped to the back of their props so they could read their lines.  They didn't get a lot of time to practice.

 Captain Heleman talking to one of the stripling warriors.

 Closing song.  Two others that weren't mentioned before, Joyce on the far right and Micalyn on the far left.

 Sister Swift  got a pedicure and they painted her cuticles with red stuff which did not come off.  It looked really odd.