From the Mountains, to the Valleys, to the Oceans. . .

It's been two weeks since I wrote here, and we have been traveling a lot.  From the mountains, to the valleys, and even to the ocean white with foam.  God bless the Philippines, my home (for now anyway.)  Sweet home.  Well, you get the idea!

Last weekend we traveled to Baguio for a Senior Couples Retreat.  I LOVE Baguio!  The cooler temperatures and great shopping make it a paradise--for me!  We even looked at some apartments while we there for new sisters coming May 10 to the area, so it was a great trip--a little work and a lot of fun!  Here are some Baguio pictures.

On the way up, some rice terraces on the mountain side.

 

 

Pretty overlooks.

 

 

Not-so-pretty overturn!  We couldn't see anyone in it, so hopefully no one was hurt.

 

 

Interesting bread fruit or jack fruit.  We're not sure of the name because we've heard them called both.  We ate some of the fruit, though, and it is good.

 

 We finally made it to the market in Baguio.  I was in Paradise, Elder was in . . .well, not paradise!

 

 This is the Valley part of the trip, in the strawberry and vegetable fields in Baguio.  Most of the produce we buy locally comes from these fields in Baguio.  There are acres and acres of plants, and they sell the fruits and vegetables in stands outside the fields.

 

 

These are the Senior Couples from our mission in the Strawberry Fields in Baguio.  Who knew the Lord's army of missionary men would all have  grey hair?  And the ladies. . .well, that's another story!

 

 

In Baguio we went to a place called Easter Weaving where they weave cloth.  It was a fascinating process and we enjoyed watching the weavers.

 

We also enjoyed stuffing ourselves into the back of a taxi to get to our shopping places in Baguio.  The men stayed at the hotel and we women had our own adventures.

 

 A building at Baguio.  I love the hills and trees. 

 

 

I also love the ocean, and we traveled near it one day when we were making a delivery to a new apartment.

 

 

 

This is Elder making a delivery.  We do a lot of apartment finding, repairing, checking.  We enjoy visiting with the missionaries and like to get out and about the countryside.  It's a fun part of our mission.

 

 

This is a beautiful orange tree we saw as we were traveling.  I put the first picture in because of the many signs in the right hand corner of the sari-sari.  It's very typical of the Philippines.  Right now is election time, and every tree and fence is plastered with campaign posters.  Brad read that 36 out of 1800 candidates nationwide have been killed so far in this election.  In one area here the missionaries are on early curfew because one of the candidates is LDS and some people have made threats against church members. We will be glad when May 13th is over   Scary!

 

 

I got really ambitious at our scone class, and I made crepes (mango and nutella--to die for!), flour tortillas, no bake cookies, as well as scones.  I also had taco fixings and chili for Navajo tacos.  Only a handful of sisters showed up, but we had a good time anyway.  They ate or took home most of the food, so Elder is glad he doesn't have to eat leftovers forever.

 

Well, these are all the pictures for the past two weeks.  We hope you are enjoying your springtime.  We are in the middle of summer, and it is hot!  But we are really blessed to have air conditioning in our house and car, so we'd better not complain.  Have a great week, and thanks for sharing it with us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Busy Week

We invited Elders over for dinner Monday evening.  I love to have someone share our Family Home Evening and dinner with us, and missionaries are always eager to do that.  Fried chicken, mashed potatoes,  and apple crisp seemed to hit the spot.

 Elder Tung-Loong is from California and Hawaii, and Elder Mahaba is from the Philippines.

This sweet sister celebrated her 85th birthday at their family's resort with swimming pool, pancit, lumpia, and good conversation.

 

 

Elder Dinkel enjoying pancit. 

 

This fellow was lumbering down the road and we snapped a picture.

 

This one is for Craig!  Notice the name of the store!

                                                Part of the Elders in our District Meeting.

 

Our District President's wife and baby.  The District took the youth on a 3 day conference to a resort.  That's the way to do youth conference!  It seemed the whole three branches came and enjoyed the amenities at the youth conference!

                                                      One of three pools at the resort

 

We enjoyed chocolate and watermelon freezes.

                                                                          The stage.

                                                               One of the kiddie pools.

 

Smile big for the camera!

 

Maribel taught scones--her adaptation of my recipe.  She rolls the dough out in a triangle, spreads a soft cheese over it and rolls back up like for cinnamon rolls, and fries it.  Then she pours sweetened condensed milk over it and says it's masarap!  I'll have to try it!

                                       Branch members enjoying a nipa hut at the Youth Conference.

Kids coming in from a swim to get a snack of green mangoes sprinkled with vinegar, then they dip it in a fish sauce that you see--the red on the side.  They love it!

                                                             Teens in the adult pool

                                                                  One of the branch boys.

A dining area at the resort.  Besides swimming and eating, the youth had various classes throughout the day where they learned carpentry, cpr, grooming, scone making, electricity, etc. etc. One night they had a program of dancing, another a talent show, and another time they had testimony meeting.  It was a wonderful event.  Maybe next year we'll go and hang out with everyone the whole three days.

 

A beautiful cloud formation we saw on our way home.

 

I bought these tiny bananas--smaller than my fingers.  They were good, but not as good as the bananas our landlord gives us from the trees in our backyard.  Nothing is as good as they are!

Agoo Elders about to consume a halo-halo.  This is corn, beans, jello, shaved ice, rice krispies, ube ice cream, and who knows what else.

Halo-halo means stir, stir, so the first thing you do is stir all the stuff together.

 

Almost finished!  Elder Olsen was talking, so he's not quite done, but Elder Jacinto finished his rather quickly.

 

Elder wanted a picture of the vines attached to a tree outside the restaurant in Agoo.  Those are long vine roots are on the left side of the tree.

 

                                         Pretty church with many bells in the tower at Agoo.

This carnival ride was turning into an alley and blocking the road.  Notice the man riding on the top who lifted the wires so the ride could go under them.  That would not be my choice of jobs!

 

I guess that's all for this week, Folks.  We'll be in Baguio next week, so it might be two before we post pictures again.  Hope you have a great week!