Nagpappasalamat. . .We are Indeed Grateful. . .

 

 

 

 

We have so much to be grateful for.  These are some of the things we experienced this week that have made us so grateful for our many blessings.

 

 

 

 

 

We decided to visit all the branch buildings in our area.  One happened to be near the beach.  These Filipinos were enjoying the Linguyen Bay of the South China Sea, and so was I.

 

These morning glories grew abundantly in the sand.

 

I wanted to eat at a seaside restaurant.  The only seafood offered were shrimp, squid, and calamari.  I ordered fried shrimp.  Imagine my shock when these full-bodied, headed,  with -shell shrimp were served.  I tried to take off head, legs, tail, and shell and was left with a piece of meat about 1/2 inch by 1/4 inch.  I gave up and ate some of the shells, but refused to eat the heads.  Brad's pork dish was much better.

 

 Two of our sweet sister missionaries in Manaoag in front of a member's nipa hut.

 

 

Same house.  The walls are bamboo, the roof is part corregated tin and part is thatched banana leaves.   Our homes in America are mansions compared to their humble homes.

 

 

Different sister missionaries and a dedicated, sweet ward sister doing missionary work.

Elder Dinkel getting ready to do missionary work.

 

 

This is the path to where two missionaries live in their primitive apartment--tin roof, bare wires, cement floor.  They really have it rough.

 

 

Hauling plywood--Filipino style!

 

 

Hauling stalks of some kind on his bicycle.

 

 

Keyboard (piano) lesson.

 

Rice fields near us.

 

 

Banana tree in our back yard.

Close-up of the bananas.

 

This greeted us when we came home from church today.  We have at least two more that live in our house, but they eat bugs so we appreciate them--kind of.

 

 

This is our Thanksgiving turkey in comparison to Brad's wallet.  It cost $39, so his wallet is much smaller than it was before we bought the turkey, but at least we have one for Thanksgiving!  It weighs about 12 pounds.  We will miss our family at Thanksgiving, but we have invited the  missionaries in our area to join us.  We have so much to be thankful for.

 

 

 The following are Grandpa's posts.

This is a typical day of traffic in our area. There are no rules. Whoever gets there first has the right-of-way  

 

 

We were going to the next town for piano lessons when we came upon a funeral procession.

They walk down the main highway in town at a slow speed. We were obviously late.

 

 

 

 

These are typical homes in our area. They have no windows or screens, just shutters.

We are so blessed to have windows, screens and air-conditoning in some of our rooms.

Nobody has hot water but we have it in our shower.

We live in Manaoag (Ma-NOW-og) with a population of 60,000 and we are the only white people.  The locals are a nice brown color ( no need for tanning salons here) and are very nice people.

 

 

 

Okay grandkids this post is from Grandpa.

Above you see a picture of a cow in the Phiippines. They are everywhere, Tied to stakes.

Sometimes we see them pulling stuff.

The other is a pictures of a goat herd. If they have a lot of goats there is a shepherd. If there is just a few they tie them to a stake. We also have a lot dogs with puppies and chickens with chicks. If they get too many of either they eat them. They also eat rats. they say the are like rabbit only tastier. I wanted one for Thanksgiving but Grandma insisted on Turkey.