Internet
problems have kept us from adding to our blog site for a number of weeks. Today we are in Cebu
and able to use the stronger internet connection at the mission office.
The
weekend of December 9th, we spent the night in the Marriott Hotel
in Cebu allowing us to participate in the Relief Society two day temple trip of
the Toledo Temple Complex
Click this link to see the Temple slideshow previously posted on the blog. http://granddovermissionaries.blogspot.com/2011/12/rs-temple-trip-smilebox.html
The
pancake breakfast we served in November was a great success. The Elders have been hoping for another one
before transfers. We set the date for
the last P-day before transfers, December 20th. All but one companionship were able to make
it.
Elder Dover
Second
pancake breakfast for Zone Elders. These are all amazingly dedicated and hard
working but fun loving young men. We love them all!
Elder
Herbst, from distant and mountainous Lomac, had asked if he could bring the two
branch missionaries staying with him.
His companion had completed his service and was on his way home for
Christmas. His new companion wouldn’t
arrive until transfer day later in the week.
He shared some pretty amazing pictures of helping members work their
rice fields.
Means of transportation and distribution of
goods continue to be interesting as they are so varied and creative. We actually rode in a trisikel to church one
Sunday when Elder Hardin had to use the car to take Elder Culala into Cebu for a medical emergency. The seats are not very long or wide and knee
room is restrictive, so it was a little tricky for Elder Dover to squeeze in
beside Sister Dover. The driver actually
started out before he had his right leg completely in. The driver stopped when the door fell off the
trisikel because it bumped Elder Dover’s leg. Elder Dover
Check out the Philippine traffic smilebox posted previously by clicking on this link.
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| Home of our neighbors two doors down |
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| On a clear day, 100 steps from our back door will open up this view of Negros, the Island just West of Cebu |
Thursday,
December 8th, we drove into Cebu
for a Christmas Devotional prepared by President and Sister Schmutz. On the way in, I had asked Elder Dover if he
felt at all
“Christmasy”.
He said,” No, do you?” I had to
admit that I did not. After the
Devotional reading of the Nativity Story from the Gospels and passages from
Isaiah chapter 53, after singing all the Christmas Carols in the hymn book,
after a lunch of pizza and several Christmas oriented games - one of which we
had been asked to prepare - we began to feel the spirit of Christmas and were
ready for Christmas to begin.
*The ordinary panyo, a colored handkerchief,
is carried by nearly everyone to wipe sweat from their faces, but the Cebu
Mission panyo is to remind of sacred experiences and tender feelings. It is to
remind of covenants, friendships and farewells.
It is to remind that the time will surely come when the Lord will bid
his faithful to come to the marriage supper of the Lamb and be “arrayed in fine
linen, clean and white, for the fine linens is the righteousness of the
Saints.” Revelation 19:7-9
With Sisters Mitzi and Marilyn, we made
second visits to the three families we mentioned in the previous blog entry. The first contact, the LacongLacong family,
received us warmly. Brother LacongLacong
was not at home this visit. He was working,
providing transportation for people with
his trisikad. Elder Dover
The Sister at the next home refused to
let us in. She turned her back on
us. I had brought a traditional
Philippine decoration that I love, a star, for the daughter. We left it hanging on the fence.
We were well received at the third
home. Brother Ubay has found temporary
work. Sister Ubay was at home with two
cute granddaughters.
We stopped at a third members home, the
Bacalso family’s home. They are
inactive. The older Sister suffers loss
of sight from advanced glaucoma. It rained hard while we were in their humble
home. Sister Bacalso requested a
blessing from Elder Dover. We sang “I am
a Child of God” together and offered a prayer before we left. There was a good
feeling, but they said that church was just too far away for them to attend.
We were appalled to discover that
Sister Marilyn had lost her cell phone somewhere during our visits. It had been
given to her several years ago by her mission President. She was so very
worried. Backtracking, after a prayer,
we were so pleased that we found it in a field where we had parked the
car.
Here is an interesting note about
visiting. When planning a time for the
first visit, I asked if we should call the families and make an
appointment. Sister Mitzi and Sister
Marilyn both gave me a funny look, but just said that such calls weren’t
necessary. When we arrived at the rural
homes where there is often no electricity and no phone service or cell phones, I understood the quizzical looks from Sister
Mitzi and Sister Marilyn. Set an appointment? How? To
just drop by and stand outside a home or fence politely calling “Hello” until
the door is opened is very common. Generally
people have no problem taking time to visit.
The single adults asked if they could
have their Christmas party at our place.
It was fun to host them. They are
a wonderful group of young people. Some
of the fun of the party is shared in the Our Christmas Smilebox in a previous post.
We prepared Noche Buena food baskets to
take to the LacongLacong and Ubay families.
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| Sisters Mitzie and Marllyn |
I wondered what Christmas message we
could leave give and suddenly it came to me that we should make small paper nativity
scenes and tell the Christmas story. The
children at the LacongLacong home were especially attentive. After the story was told and we let them know
that the figures were for them to keep.
One of the older children quickly gathered the figures in her arms, took
them inside and began retelling the story to the younger children. We told the Lacong2x family that Branch
President Honoridez would be contacting them about the new roof they
needed.
There are many words in Cebruano that
are repeated. When that happens a shortened
form of spelling can be used by writing out the first word and then placing 2x
next to it to show that the word is repeated, hence, LacongLacong can be
written Lacong2x.
Christmas in the Philippines Philippines
See our Christmas smilebox posted previously by clicking the following link.
Transfers on December 21st
brought us a companionship of Sisters, Sister Gumayao and Sister Hansen. They
will be the second companionship, but only sisters, in Balamban.
They were supposed to arrive in Toledo Cebu
until 8:30. It was suggest by the zone
leaders that they stay with us the first night and that we take them to
Balaman the next morning. We rushed out to buy a foam sleeping mat and
sheets for it and for the couch. It worked
out just fine. They were both very
tired. This was the second day in Cebu for Sister Hansen.
She was just out of the MTC.
Sister Gumayao is Pilipino and Sister Hansen is from Arizona Brescia
It is clear that they will be great
missionaries. They were up early getting
in their personal study time before breakfast.
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| Companion study and then a breakfast of pancakes and eggs of course |
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Relief Society President Melona Alec
and Alicia Honoridez organize food for the party.
Knowing that our internet would not be
reliable for family Christmas visits, we scheduled a room at the Marriott in Cebu to use their internet for the visits. All we wanted for Christmas was this time to
visit.
The missionaries wanted a Christmas Eve
get-together. They hoped to meet at our
place. Of course, they are welcome. We treated them to dinner, and participated
in what they call Shinning Moments when they pay tribute to other
missionaries. We read the Christmas
Story and sang a few hymns. Then the
zone leaders received a call that an Elder from Lutopan was experiencing what
might be appendicitis. They wanted to bring him to our place and then to a
hospital in Toledo Cebu for better care. We drove the Sisters back to Balamban because
it was a holiday and the buses had stopped running early. While we were gone, word was received that
indeed Elder Rebojo should go to Cebu for
care. All symptoms pointed to appendicitis.
When we got back from Balamban, we headed out to the hospital in Cebu with Elder Rebojo and his companion. The Cebu
hospital is a good hospital with a surgeon who is always requested by the
mission to care for the missionaries.
Traffic was heavy, but Elder Dover prayed before leaving that the way
would be cleared before him and that he would be alert for the drive. We
arrived shortly after midnight. Elder Rebojo who was in a great deal of pain
tried hard to ease everyone’s concern for him.
His companion, who had arrived from the MTC just two days before, was
having a bit of a hard time adjusting to the idea of spending Christmas Eve and
the next few days in the hospital with his trainer. He was trying to put on a good face, but it
was hard. The APs arrived and took
over. President Schmutz was out of town
but in touch by phone. We arrived back in Toledo Dover
Elder Rebojo had surgery Christmas
Day. He is doing well. We brought him back today for a checkup. That is actually why we are in Cebu . His
companion says there must be a reason for this experience for him also. However
he was transferred out a few days ago and yes, that meant another drive for us
to Cebu to bring him and Elder Rebojo in for
the transfer.
It was such a joy to find Sister Lacong
2x and the children at church on Christmas day. Elder Dover Cebu
again to prepare for phone calls and skyping with family. We enjoyed visiting from 6:30 am our December
26th to noon. It was Christmas evening back in the States.
We are about 14 hours ahead of Utah
Wednesday we drove back to Cebu to pick up Elder Rebojo after his surgery.
Thursday we made the drive one more
time to participate in the temple sealing of Lorena and Kenny Larosa. We were happy to make the drive again and
appreciated their invitation to join them on their special day.
Rosa, who washes for our landlady,
comes by our place every Thursday morning’s to do the ironing and to mop the
floors. This is a great help.
Sister Marilyn or Sister Mars, as she
prefers to be called, is coming two morning a week to shop, prepare a couple of
meals and tutor us in Cebuano. The first
time Sister Mars came, her fingers had sores from washing clothes. Because we do have a small washing machine I
lent her the Breathing Mobil Washer our daughter Mindy provided for us to use
when we thought we would be washing clothes by hand. She is anxious to see how well it works. Several of the single adults are waiting for
their turns to try it out also. There
may soon be a run on Breathing Mobil Washers.
One
morning recently I woke early, put my glasses on, stepped out of the bedroom
and turned the light on. I wondered if I
was having a serious eye problem. A
black spot kept moving in and out of my direct line of vision. Hastily I took my glasses off, rubbed my eye
and then looked at the glasses and noticed an ant was darting back and forth
across the lens. Actually we haven’t
been as troubled by ants. I’m wondering
if it because they don’t cohabitate with
termites. Yup, we are finding terminte sawdust in many and varied places
around the house every morning. However,
we understand that termites “just are” also.
One
final special event of 2011
President Honoridez coordinated the
effort with branch members and missionaries to give the Lacong2x family their
new roof. President Honoridez had the
nipa at the Lacong2x home several days in advance. By the time members and missionaries arrived
to help, Brother Lacong had the job half finished. He had worked hard. All he had needed was the materials.
It
was fun to watch as the Lacong2x children interacted with the
missionaries. They were so happy.
Brother Lacong2x was sick Sunday, but the rest
of the family was at church the second week in a row. We need to continue
exploring solutions to their other problems with President Honoridez. It did
not rain until the roof was finished. Prayers answered for sure.
We
left after serving lunch. We had to help
with some apartment problems some Elders were having. Sister Mars sent us the
following email later that day. Lacong2x so happy coz new year, new roof, new
life. Spirituallity reborn. Nice new year. So happy to have yu here in our
place.
We dropped back to the Lacong2x home after we
helped the Elders. We took a new table covering for their table. They were so
happy and appreciative.
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| Lacong2x home with inadequate tarp covering a large part of the roof |
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| Cooking area of kitchen will receive a new boards and a new tin roof to replace the charred boards that held rusted tin roofing in place. Cooking is done with an open fire and coals on this cement platform. |
This beautiful family consented to let me take their picture. I will be getting prints of it to them to keep. I do want to get one of the whole family, though. Brother LacongLacong. Sister LacongLacong holds Eddie Junior, Jefreld is next, then Charlyn, Nina May and Wenjelyn.
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| Bath for Edwin Jr. |
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| Details of the underside of a Nipa roof |
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| Lots of instruction from the ground for one experienced missionary worker, Elder Lenoy |
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| Elder Lenoy |
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| Removing the roof |
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| Back finished |
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| AND Front finished - Brother LacongLacong's trisikad sits in front of their home |
Happy
New Year Everyone!
News from Elder Dover
Several
weeks ago I was asked by the President Rago of the Toledo 2nd Branch
if I would accept a call as a counselor in the Branch President. I told him that if President Schmutz (the
Mission President) gave his OK, that I would be happy to serve with him. President Schmutz told me that it would be
OK, but apparently the District Presidency felt like they needed to get the
word directly from him. That finally
happened this past week. On New Years
Day I was called, sustained and set apart as the 2nd Counselor in
the Toldeo 2nd Branch.
They
had scheduled a PEC meeting that evening, which I attended, but did not really
contribute anything because they spoke only Cebuano, which I do not
understand. I was beginning to wonder
what function I could serve in the Branch Presidency if I can’t speak the
language. President Rago asked me to
stay for a few minutes afterwards to meet with him and his 1st Counselor. In that meeting he told me that there could
be many times in different meetings when they would ask me for help based on my
experience in past callings. But he said
that he had a special task for me that was to be my main responsibility. He asked me to sit down with his Branch Clerk
(who is also the 1st Counselor) and get all of the Branch records
straightened out. There are lots of
problems in their records and they don’t know how to fix them. I think this is very perceptive of President
Rago – not everyone in his situation would be worried about the records. Many would just like to ignore the problem
and hope it goes away. This will work
out very well for me because the 2nd Branch meets first this year,
so I can go to work with the Clerk right after the first block while Sister
Dover attends the 1st Branch meetings.
Interestingly
enough, President Schmutz had previously asked me to serve as a sort of
“unofficial” mission auditor. There are
problems all over the mission in virtually every branch, particularly in the
financial records. He is going to be
talking to the Area Presidency in Manila to get
their approval, and then plans to send us to Manila Philippines Manila Toledo
