FHE and Biak na Bato

Sister Prescilla and Sister Alma asked us to come to their homes and do a Family Home Evening for their families. Because we have so little time left, we combined them into one at Sister Alma's home.

Here you see Sister Swift with Sister Prescilla;  Sister Alma with her children Aiza, Eron, Erica, and Fatima; Sister Virgina, and Sister Jenny with her child Julie Ann.

 Sister Alma conducted.  After song and prayer we gave a lesson on Moroni, the children colored, we played Pass the Pigs and we ate a dinner they had prepared.   Sister Swift made some delicious cup cakes for dessert.

 We had our last Senior Outing on Monday.  We went to Biak na Bato for a hike.  The weather was perfect.  Cloudy so not to hot, and not rainy.  We hiked with the Bertins, Broadheads, Bremners, and Dicksons.

 A nice picture of the jungle and rocky cliffs.

Here is part of the river that flows into the Bahay Paniki.(house of bats or Bat Cave)

The five Sisters at the Pahingahan cave. (rest place)

A drive through the countryside

One day last week we went for a drive.  We headed west and north towards Mt. Arayat.  It was a pretty drive but we couldn't drive all the way up to the mountain because it's in a different mission and we didn't know exactly where the boundaries were.

This is what the road looks like.  The area was pretty and not as congested at in Baliwag.

Saw some herons along the way,

Workers laying out the rice to dry on the highway.  Cars just have to go around if they can.

We saw a duck farm.

Don't know why the ducks don't just fly away.  Maybe their wings are clipped.

We saw two airplanes along the road.  Their wings were off and laying alongside them.  Don't known how or why they got there.

The plant we have in front of our house has been blooming lots of bright red blossoms.

At Institute Training they had up a farewell sign for Sister Swift.  We do have a couple of weeks to go though.

Baptism, Funeral, Wedding, Festival

There's been a lot going on among the members of San Ildefonso.

We had a baptism.  This is Tina who is the youngest daughter of Sister Gloria who we were home-teachers to.  The Elders with her are Elder Abay from the Philippines and Elder Stephens from Utah.

 We also went to the wedding of our good friend Rodjun.  He got married in the municipal building is San Miguel.  His bride is not a member.  The wedding was interesting and a lot of the Branch members came to support them.  Then the reception was way out in Sipol in the far corner of the mission.

We also went to a funeral.  It was sad.  Out of respect for the family we are not posting any pictures.  It was a little baby, born pre-mature at 7 months, and she only lived 3 days.  We visited them in the hospital and attended the funeral services and the burial.  The father and mother of the young girl who's baby died, are friends.  The father asked me to dedicate the grave for them.

 One day we went down to Malolos to see the historic Barasoain Church.  This is where the first Philipine government was established after breaking from the Spanish.

We found the stairs up the tower were open.  It was in ill repair and covered with dust and dirt and bat guano.  We climbed up to the top and later were told it was not allowed.

 The Barasoain Church is a functioning Catholic church.  Also there was a government museum in a different wing on the church grounds.  Our tour guide was a LDS church member.  The museum was all about the Philippine resistance movements against the Spanish, and then against the American colonizers.

 Also this week was the San Ildefonso Bulak festival.  Each city here has it's own festival and it's a holiday with no school.  One of the highlights was a big parade down the streets.

 This is one of the YW that was in the parade, Micalyn, who is a Laurel.

 James Andrew, the Deacon's Quorum president.

 Micoh the Priest First Assistant.   Behind him you can see people watching out the window of their home.  This is right across the street from the chapel and we were watching from the church grounds.

Also the Jollibee bee was in the parade.  Jollibee is a Philippine fast food franchise that is bigger than MacDonalds out here.

Cave

 It's been a while since our last post to this blog.  That's because I locked our car keys in the trunk of our car and our computer was in the trunk so we didn't have our car or our computer for a few days.  We do not have a spare key.  We had the joy of using the local jeepneys and trikes for our transportation.  On Monday the Broadheads brought up a spare key from the Mission Office and we finally got our car and computer back.

One day we explored this cave in Bulacan near San Jose Del Monte.  Pinagrealan Cave.

 This is the entrance on the side of a hill in the jungle.

 A picture of us with Elder and Sister Bremner.  They are new Senior Missionaries from Canada that are also serving in our mission and live in a house just down the street from us.    He is recently retired as a welder from his job at a company that operates an open pit coal mine in Canada.

 Inside the cave they had formations, including stalagmites and stalactites.  We had a guide leading us through but there were no tourist paths or trails like in the caves back home.

 This cave had animals.  They had lots of bats but also these huge black spiders with long legs.  We also saw a frog and blind catfish.  They are able to live in the cave because it floods often bringing in nutrients and insects.

 A picture of us in the the cave.  Most of the time we were wading through water.  You can see how deep it was from the water line on my trousers.  We also took the Bremners to Biak na Bato and visited a different cave that we hadn't seen before, and also the Bat Cave.

 On the way home we saw workers planting rice in a rice field.

 They flood the fields then stick in the rice plants one by one.  Looks like hard work.

One day we had a farewell for the Harringtons, the couple furthest in back.  They went home after completing an 18 month mission.  They were the office couple for the mission.  We enjoyed getting to know them and becoming friends.  They are good people and did a good job.

End of 2016

We closed out the year with some Christmas socials and some new sights.  The pictures in our Blog show some fun things we've been doing, but actually most of our time has been spent helping out in the Branch.  Not the type of things you take pictures of.  Nevertheless, here are some of our activities at the end of the year.

 We had our yearly Branch Christmas Social.  Gilbert was conducting in the multi-purpose room, which serves as both Chapel and Cultural Hall.

 Some of the children.

 The Christmas social consisted of playing games and singing and eating.

 Sister Swift taught them one game where she had all the YW sit sideways in chairs in a circle.  Then they layed back on the legs of the girl next to them.

Then one by one she pulled the chairs out and they stayed up.  There was so much laughter and shrieking you would not believe it.

 We had the food outside.  Here are some of the YW in what they call a wacky picture.

 We also had a Mission Christmas Conference.  They had a pig and lots of good food and also some great talks and workshops.  Sister Swift and I gave a presentation on the importance of establishing  family traditions.

 President Dela Cruz (second councilor and his wife in the Mission Presidency) and the food tables.

 The three Elders assigned to San Ildefonso near the end of 2016.  Elder Cabalhug, Rasmussen, and Abay.

 Sister Swift and I participated in the "Light the World by following the example of Jesus Christ" program.  Each day we did something different on various topics suggested on the church website.  For each day we cut out a paper ornament.  This was our Christmas Tree for 2016, representing service to others.

 One day we went with the Bremners on a drive.  We saw this Catholic Cathedral called Grotto of the Lady of Lourdes. It is a replica of the one in France.

A Filipino women built it here after she had been healed at the original "Our Lady of Lourdes" in France.

 This is the grotto.  The water is believed (by some people) to have healing properties.

 We found this sign amusing.  They didn't want people to use the grotto as a place to take your date.

Afterwards we found this lunch place in the mall with multi-colored hamburgers.  This is the one I (Sister Swift) chose. Green hamburger anyone?  It was actually very tasty.

And for dessert, I chose an ice cream sandwich. Actually I ate it first so that it wouldn't melt.  It  came with a purple bun. Here in the Philippines an ice cream sandwich is ice cream on a bun. Elder Swift ordered a burger that came with a black bun.

 This is a typical fire works stand.  They sell the big ones to individuals, ones that you only see back home in shows by cities.  On New Years Eve there were fireworks going off all over our neighborhood.  Crazy how many.  They were everywhere.

 This is a roadside stand.  They say "It's more fun in the Philippines", but it's not fun to be a pig in the Philippines.

 One day we went to the temple with our Branch as Brother Manolito Gonzales got his endowments (in the middle).  He's a member we've got to know quite well and visited him often as he progressed through the year towards this special day at the temple.

 We saw a Filipino rice farmer preparing his rice fields with the help of his gentle, hard working carabao (water buffalo).

This kind of represents our year.  Lots of hard work but for a good cause.  Hopefully, like rice that springs up from this field as a result of the farmer's work, there will be much good for the members in our Branch resulting from our efforts.

The gospel is true.  Jesus is the Christ.  He atoned for our sins.  Heavenly Father loves and cares for us.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is his church founded by him for our benefit and to aid us in progressing towards salvation.  We love the gospel and we love being on a mission.

Elder and Sister Swift