Living in the Most Dangerous Place in the World for Natural Disasters

 During a one months's time we experienced our first earthquake which rocked our neighboring island of Bohol destroying many homes and churches and which we felt here as it shook the walls of our apartment almost shaking the TV off of its stand!  Aftershocks were felt for a few weeks following.  Then came a couple of "typhoons"  which were equivalent to a bad rain and wind storm in Oklahoma - then we geared up for Yolanda - the supertyphoon.  As we were down on the boulevard bordering the ocean, we inquired as to the preparations for it.  They do not board up windows, tie down outside furniture or any of the precautions we would take for a hurricane.  We were told that surges do not occur here.  And while they did not on our island of Negros, they certainly took the island of Leyte by surprise and devastated the town of Tacloban and many other communities on that island and others.  Below are just a couple of pics of the devastation.

Rescue efforts are much more difficult here because the airport was destroyed making it extremely difficult to get food, water and other supplies to the victims for a few days.  We were certainly worried about the LDS missionaries due to lack of communication.  They were all accounted for within about 4 or 5 days and all transported to Cebu and on to Manilla within a week.  72 hours kits became a lifesaver for some.
What impressed me the most was our local district (stake) that organized their own relief effort because so many had families there that were affected.  They took rice, water, clothing and other supplies as well as money to some of our members there.  They will return this next week with another load of supplies for those that are in less traveled areas.  Many roads are only passable by motorcycles so they load 50 kg bags of rice and other supplies onto a motorcycle to travel up into the mountains where there is such need.  The saints here truly understand what it means to bear one anothers' burdens and to comfort those in need of comfort.

Because this time of year and the recent disasters have made us miss our grandkids more than ever we have included some of our favorite pic of children here in the Philippines.  Truly the children here are some of the most beautiful we have ever seen.

Twins we saw with their dad along the road

Another senior sister with the cutest boy with a head full of black hair!!

Children preparing to perform at our Primary Roadshow.  They rarely smile for pictures without a great deal of prompting.






Below two of the prettiest primary children I have seen.  They smiled after much prodding!  They are sweethearts as I have come to know them and their mothers!

Baby bed here are mostly made of bamboo and diapers are rarely used.  There is a false tradition learned that the bulkiness of diapers between the legs causes babies to become bowlegged!  This bed is outside always on the path to one of our elders' house.

One of my favorites of Elder Anderson.  He loves making friends with the children.  This is always on the path to our elders' house.

The "Wave" of Missionaries!!

Tri-zone conference with President and Sister Schmutz.  We have 3 zones on our island with 42 missionaries.

 This is our Dumaguete zone after our first transfer.  It is amazing and wonderful to have as many sisters as elders.  I worried some before we came about the sister drama but there is really very little - they are all hard workers, obedient to the rules of the mission and focused on inviting others to Come Unto Christ.  Truly a Miracle of Mormonism to see this level of commitment and sacrifice in so many young people.

A district activity at our home for one of our dictricts.  We made sloppy joes, chips, pop, and a Filipino dessert, mango float.  The elder at bottom right ate 4 sloppy joes - the others all ate 2, including the girls.  Three of them, the 2 Filipinos and the sister from India had never eaten a sloppy joe.

 I love watching the different cultures come together and love each other immediately as they are so focused on serving.  Here we are at Pulang Bato (red rock) Falls near where we live in Valencia on a zone activity which the zone leaders schedule one time per transfer.  We had a wonderful time enjoying the marvelous creation in this part of the world.  The threesome of sisters below are incredible.  The sister on the left is one of our senior sisters which means she is a traveling trainer much like the zone leaders but only has responsibility for the sisters.  This has become much more important with the increase in the number of sisters serving.                       

 

We are beginning to have more opportunity to go out with the missionaries to teach.  When we arrived at this home the daughter that we were to teach was not home and she had told us that her mom did not like the church but this lovely woman committed to come to church on Sunday and wants to be taught the gospel.  She is 78 and works in her banana fields each day.  She also speaks no English so we could only communicate through our smiles. 

Elder Anderson and I met Jerry soon after we arrived here to purchase furniture (double decker beds) from him for all of the new apartments we were furnishing for the new missionaries coming to this island.  He is a character and agreed to wear his Elvis wig when we took another of the senior couples there to purchase furniture their first time.  We have purchased from him on several occasions but on this day Elder Anderson discussed the church and the gospel with him and he and his family are starting the discussions.  He divides his time between Dumaguete and a town on Cebu island.

Jerry's Furniture store where they mill some of their lumber in the back and build and stain their furniture.

Missions can be really fun!

Now you may be wondering if we are just on vacation when you see some of these pictures but I assure you that Elder Anderson would not wear a white shirt & tie if we were; however, we have the opportunity to drive the coastal national highway the entire length of the mission on Negros Oriental one to two times each week as we attend zone meetings and district meetings and fix apartments & secure apartments & houses for incoming missionaries as well as attend sacrament meetings each Sunday in a different branch.  On one of our trips back to our home from a zone meeting in Siaton, we saw a boy leading this carabao down the national highway.  We immediately stopped as we are so interested in their lifestyle & how they live plus those who know Elder A very well knows how he loves animals!!  We asked the young boy if Elder A could sit on the carabao's back - the entire neighborhood came out to watch & laugh.  I do not think they spoke much English as there was a lot of gesturing going on but they nodded yes so Elder A crawled up for a picture.  We then tried to visit for a minute with the people but the language was a barrier.  I held the babies which immediately makes others feel like we are ok people.

The Filipino people love basketball - there are basketball courts in every town - some more elaborate than others so we are never surprised to find a court.  I posted this one so my sons could appreciate the work that was done to prepare it.  If you notice it has been dug out carefully so the court itself is very flat and relatively level for a dirt court.
The goal posts and the fence are all made of
bamboo.  This was just so classic with the laundry on the fence & the carabao cooling in a mudhole.  This was really unique because it was just along the road with no houses around.  In the background are the mountains and between the court and the mountains is farmland.

The wave of missionaries continues - the Cebu mission was split in July with about 130 missionaries here when we arrived in August.  We are expecting 60 in the next two transfers and only losing 15 over those transfers.  That gives us an additional 45 missionaries in the next 12 weeks who are assigned by Pres. Schmutz and if they are assigned to Negros Oriental island we have the responsibility to find them a house & make certain it has everything in it to survive.

Most of the homes come furnished which means a table & chairs to eat on, maybe a bed, and a couple of chairs in the living room.  No hot water or ac.  The mission has created a list of necessary items, such as a 6 cubic foot fridge, a two burner gas stove (no oven), a couple of fans, beds, etc.  I have done more shopping within the past 6 weeks than ever before in my life.  I am finally starting to think in pesos rather than dollars and not freak out when a fridge costs 11,500 pesos!!  Even Elder Anderson does not complain about the shopping.  We now know where most of the deals are & people seem excited when we show up to shop - they know we are going to spend a lot of money.

This picture does not do justice to what was happening.  The truck is loaded to the gills and we have one more mattress to get in - they are pushing with all of their might with the sweat literally pouring off of them especially Elder Anderson.

We know that this phase of the mission won't last forever but we also know how important it is for these young elders and sisters who mostly have never lived away from home to have a place that is clean, comfortable, and has some of the conveniences of life as they have known it.

I am going to include a few random pics just for fun!!

2 isolated homes along the national highway

The carabao Elder Anderson sat on - my skirt wasn't going to let that happen so I took a pic with the family instead.

Nuns in a boat - one of the attractions along the boulevard on the sea in Dumaguette.

A very loaded Jeepney.  The guy standing on just been standing on the side.  We road one from Dumaguette to Valencia for 12 pesos each.  (44 pesos = $1)  It is about a 20 minute drive.

The Beauty of Being Lost

While trying to find our way home one late afternoon, anxious to be getting home earlier than usual, we got lost.  We knew we were driving in the right direction but kept going to a higher & higher altitude soon to be between two mountains and it is starting to get dusk.  Asking for directions and being told, "Yes this is Valencia!"was not creating a happiness within me.  Finally, we were stopped at a checkpoint (one of the few places you will see policemen) and he waved us back the way we had come with a "Not far!  Not far!" waving his hands to go toward the right.  I just want to share a few pics of what we encountered on our way to being lost.  
We see these caribou tied all along the roads but this is the first we saw with a baby.  They seem to be extremely healthy grazing on the lush grasses.                                                                          

 We had just seen a group of school kids crossing this bridge and tried to get their picture but they were too quick.  This river is flowing pretty quickly - I thought it was quite scary going out on it & certainly didn't go all the way across.

 We didn't quite know we were lost when we stopped to take this picture.  It was just such a beautiful river that we couldn't resist taking a few moments to enjoy it's tranquility.

After we passed the mountainous cliff above we saw signs that said watch out for the steam.   A woman in this family of 5 on a motorcycle lost her shoe just as we were entering the steam.  We stopped for her shoe & I snapped a pic of them and the steam.  This is naturally occurring and produces the electricity for the island of Negros as well as for most of Cebu.  A fascinating phenomena.

A large dump that doubles as a school bus - they were so excited that we took their picture.

 Couldn't resist including including the mud bathing caribou mom with her baby.  It was funny watching her plop down to roll in the mud.

We Hit the Road Running!!

We had grand plans about how to begin our experience here in Valencia - the place to be our home for the next 17 1/2 months but like we had learned in the MTC, flexibility is the key to being successful missionaries.  Our plan had been to get our things (what few clothes we had brought) hung up, get the lay of the land, stock our cabinets and fridge that is only 6 cubic feet, meet the missionaries and then begin work.  Getting the lay of the land was not easy at first as most streets are not marked and directions are given by waving one's hand in the general direction of where you want to be with them stating, "Not far, not far!  That way, that way!"  It took us a few days to be on time to the Dumaguete church buildings for the various meetings we attended and now we are able to take short cuts, recognize landmarks, and sometimes find the "Not far!"
We have now been here two weeks, experienced one transfer, attended baptisms, and I have had the opportunity to assist the sisters with a service project for a sister who needed her laundry done and by that I mean hand washed in a tub outside.  The young Pilipina sisters have done this their whole lives so they were adept - by the time we were finished with the washing my knuckles were bleeding from the abrasive soap and the scrubbing.  Each piece is then rinsed 5 times.  The elders and sisters here do their own laundry in this manner except for the few who have washers in their apartments.  (I know of one who has a nice washer and another who has one that is filled for the washing and refilled a couple of times for the drying).  Clothes are hung, draped on lines and fences along the road, between houses or anywhere they can be dried.  The sister we served was expecting her 7th baby and I was privileged to take a pic with her little boy when he awoke from his nap.

The first week we were here was spent trying to fix as many problems with the young missionaries' houses as we could get to and just trying to meet as many as possible.  Most days we were gone from home about 10 hours and so tired when we returned we sometimes were in bed by 8:30.  This is probably the time I should talk about the traffic.  For those who know us well, you know that I have always been the driver of our family and while we both got our Pilipino driver's licenses, I choose for Elder Anderson to drive.  It is very stressful and exhausting for both of us and I am doing my best to not be  too "white-knuckled" all the time.  I am not sure why they paint any lines in the streets as no one seems to understand that they divide the traffic.  Motorcycles, tricycles (a motorcycle with a covered side car), jeepneys, cars, trucks, large buses, semis all ignore the lines while pedestrians, including small children, walk along the side of the road with no apparent concern for the traffic.  Much of the time at night vehicles drive with no headlights.  IT IS TERRIFYING!!

Did I mention that there are no stop signs at the intersections?  The principle here is to go with the flow which somehow works.
Elder Anderson and I had our first ride on a tricycle and jeepney as we loaned our truck to a zone leader so they could more easily make transfers to and from the ferry late at night.  Quite the experience.


Our second Sunday here was district(stake) conference which was incredibly wonderful.  The chapel and cultural hall were packed including the stage.  The church is the same worldwide except for the air conditioning.  In the district building there is AC in the chapel & cultural hall which works well but the rest of the building is not.
We had Elder Pajarro from Manilla, a 70 who is the area President, I think, came with his wife.  They were both great speakers & teachers.  Equally as important was the opportunity to hear from Pres. and Sister Schmutz on a couple of occasions that weekend - we had some new missionary training on Friday followed by conference on Saturday & Sunday - a sweet tender mercy to be taught by our President that all love so much and now we were given the opportunity to come to love him & his wife as well.  They are incredible people who love the Lord and are helping these young missionaries to come closer to our Savior.
A word about the music - two branches were assigned to sing Saturday nite and there was a district choir on Sunday- absolutely beautiful.  They all wear matching something.  The brethren all have the same tie while the sisters either have matching scarves or blouses.  The Spirit was strong and they sang from memory.  There were 54 in the district choir.
Because the mission for us now is so much fixing and repairing and because it is difficult for us to always find what we need such as new refrigerator shelves, we have felt the hand of the Lord directing us with ideas & trashed materials that we can use to create some of the things we need.  We are seeing miracles daily as we watch these young missionaries and visit with their new converts & investigators.  We are truly blessed to be here.

Food Food Yummy Food!!

Oh how I love food!  I think I have already gained several pounds starting in the MTC.  Not only was the food delicious with a great variety - build your own wraps!!, BYU creamery ice cream!, soups, sandwiches, chicken fried chicken, cookies to die for, ice cream bars, etc. etc. but I didn't have to think about what to eat (well, maybe a little thought about what to choose) nor shop for it nor prepare it.  That all adds up to such enjoyment plus the added bonus of not doing the dishes.  Add to that the opportunity to sit with a thousand plus other missionaries while dining!!  Now for some reason the MTC has rules about taking pictures in the cafeteria so I have none.

On to Cebu, we were immediately met by President S. & his wife & two of the AP's who took us to a little cafe where we met one of the office senior couples for a yummy lunch.  Broke the first rule of eating in the Philippines & ate lettuce & no one stopped me.  It worked out fine - no bad results.  I am assuming they know all the places that are safe to eat.

They delivered us to the Quest Hotel in downtown Cebu after a harrowing drive there!

Then on to the mission home for some training & instruction from the President.  We met many of the sisters in the mission who were there on Pday making cookies with the President's granddaughter who is visiting.  This ended about 6 pm on Wednesday after arriving at 11:45 & leaving SLC at 8:45 on Monday evening.  Yes you read that right.  We left Monday nite & arrived Wednesday morning & while I dozed some on the plane (George never slept) we were like walking zombies.  We were to have dinner at our hotel with the senior couple who lunched with us but there was no way I could have eaten a bite.  I did, however, want to share a picture of the buffet we planned to eat as well as the breakfast buffet we ate the next morning.

Once in Cebu we were offered some fruit we had never eaten & when we arrived here even more.  We did eat one fruit named durian fruit which is large & spiny & stinks to high heaven before it is even opened.  One of the elders at our district meeting had the insides in a bag for a snack for himself & offered to share with us.  It looked like slimy boiled chicken but much softer & smelled much worse out of it's skin or hide would be a better word.  I decided even before Elder A that I would try it.  I had hope that the sweetness would be a surprise but NO!  It was nasty.

Here are pics of two of the fruits we've eaten & I have really enjoyed.  Don't ask me the names of them - I do not know!!

I added water to the fruit with the seeds in the glass & drank it - wonderful.  The red fruit's thick layer is hard but the white insides is yummy!!

Now you may be wondering if all we do is eat.  We had planned on taking a couple of weeks or so to find our way around, get settled, get over the jet lag & make certain we had what we needed to be effective.  For those of you who have served, that just isn't how it happens.  We have been going from 9 am to about 7 pm each day with just a short lunch break.  Our primary responsibility is to support & assist the young missionaries so we have been looking at & fixing apartments, purchasing the things they need, renting new ones, attending baptisms, district meeting & getting lost!!
We are having a great time.  All seniors should give this a try.

From the MTC to Cebu

     The map picture every missionary takes!!  The Philippines are a long way away from Broken Arrow, Ok.

                                         Our wonderful district & fabulous teachers!!

The MTC is, as Brother Kneib says, like a religious retreat!  There were "seniors" there from all over the U.S. going to places all over the world - South Africa (and they had requested Germany because of their fluent German), West Africa & Ethiopia, Cambodia, England, Los Angeles, Australia, & of course, the Philippines.  There were "seniors" of all shapes, sizes, physical abilities but we all had in common a love of our Lord & His gospel.  Many had served several missions & for many this was the first.  The more experienced missionaries assured all of us that it is addictive & we will want to serve time & again.  I realized that, like being in the temple, we knew nothing of socioeconomic status, financial means, or church callings & none of those were ever mentioned.  We did share our family situations, housing arrangements & travel plans but mostly we shared profound spiritual experiences with one another.
The most stressful part for most of us were the times we had to actually teach investigators who had a role to play - our teachers observed to critique us!  It was a fabulous experience where much was learned about ourselves, our abilities, our strengths & weaknesses.  All in all we had a wonderful time but were anxious to get on the way to Cebu.

On a lighter note, because this was the largest senior group ever to be trained - 128 of us - the church provided us lodging at the Marriott hotel.

Elder Anderson & I were constantly looking for the young missionaries coming to Cebu.  We found a couple of districts & quickly loved them.  Being in the midst of thousands of young people from all over the world, preparing to go to every nation, kindred, tongue & people was a blessing & privilege.  It is what we would call one of the "miracles of Mormonism" - where else would you find kids 18, 19 years of age leaving their lives behind to serve for 18 - 24 months at their own expense?  It is truly amazing.

We are excited to serve & grateful for our family's support & love which makes this easier for us to leave our home & family behind.

The Call Comes - April 26, 2013

We have been planning to serve a mission for the LDS Church for the past 34 years & now the time has arrived to open the long awaited call.  Although we had requested to serve in the Philippines Cebu mission we were apprehensive about where the Lord would actually need us & whether we would be serving in the bone chilling cold.  For those who know me well, know that I cannot stand to be cold & George sits in our home with a down jacket on most of the winter when the furnace is set at 70 degrees.

The family joins us both in person & by phone for the big opening & YES we are called to Cebu.  Our good friend of 25 years has a brother who is the mission president of Cebu & that is how this all started.
We are extremely excited for this new adventure in our life & overwhelmed at what has to be done to leave our home & family.  A few of the things that I think will be the hardest to leave:  missing two grandkids baptisms, missing the birth of our 11th grandchild (& who knows - maybe more), holiday events, hot water in the kitchen, brushing my teeth with water from the faucet,  & the list can go on but........I want to focus on the wonderful things we have to look forward to - the Filipino people!!  We are anxious to live among them, learn their culture, share our love of our Savior & His gospel with them & more importantly, the joy that living the gospel has brought into our lives!!

August 5 we enter the MTC in Provo for training & then on to Cebu - a 30 hour trip.

Oh yes, one thing I forgot to mention - we thought (and don't ask me why we ever thought this!) this was an English speaking mission.  The "call" didn't mention any language so we assumed.......wrong!
About a week after the "call" came, we received a telephone call from the MTC language training center about setting up our language tutoring - WHAT?  REALLY?  Oh how I wanted to say we are not interested - I have a tongue that only speaks OKIE but I did what all missionaries do - I agreed (maybe somewhat reluctantly but I did agree) & now we have a Skype tutor twice a week & are attempting to learn Cebuano.  A challenge?  Very definitely but we are learning a little & hope to learn enough to speak like a 2 year old & for them to have some understanding of us.  My tutor yesterday wants us to be able to have limited understanding in church so that we can participate in our Sunday meetings!  I wonder how long that will take.  Oh my!