Week Sixty-Six

Here are some pictures from this week in the beautiful Baguio Mission.

                                              Sunset Bay view.  Beautiful!

                                                                       District Meeting

       We were able to bring one of the Elders has Christmas Box from the States.  Exciting!!!

Look at the size of that box, and the size of his grin!  Hooray!!  We should have stayed to see what was in it.  That is a lot of chocolate!

                                   It took two of them to carry it!  Packages from home are the best!!!

We visited at the home of this cute baby.  This is a nipa hut--made of split bamboo.  There were chickens wandering around underneath the home, but it is very clean and cool.

                                                      Mom and baby--surprise!

                                 Lola (grandma), Mom, and baby on the floor of the nipa.

We enjoyed dinner with Sisters on Thursday.  These are amazing ladies!  Two of them have only been members for 2 years, but now they're on missions themselves.

                      No one at the church on Saturday for my bread class, and it's locked.  Oh well.

We eventually had the class with one sister from our branch, 2 missionaries, and another sister from another branch.  We had a good time anyway!

   These are Sister Missionaries from our branch in Agoo.  They both have been members for two years.  One speaks little English or Tagalog, and is pretty homesick.  She is from Kiribiti, and the other is from Fiji.

Two girls are being baptized--one the Branch President's daughter, and the other from a less active family.

President and Sister Ballegot and some of their children.

                                  President, missionaries, two baptism girls.

This is President's tryke.  He was sick today, so his son drove the family and some neighbors home from church.  There are 11 people in this tryke.  Only in the Philippines!

Week Sixty-five

Lots happened this week with the new missionaries coming in.  Here are some pictures we'll share:

We had a talent show with the Zone on Monday.  Here are some pictures of some of the missionaries.

I made scones (fried bread) for the missionaries as part of their activity.  They seemed to enjoy!

We had Sister missionaries Monday night.  One of the Sisters was going home the next day, so this was her good-bye party from us.

These Sisters sang a beautiful song for us.  Their voices blended so well.  The one on the left is the one going home.

New missionaries arriving!

New Sisters. . .

And Elders. . .

Kids were practicing a dance for a festival in the church parking lot.  President asked them to perform for us.  I believe their dance must have told the history of the Philippines.

                                                Batch picture for January 2014

                                Some of the missionaries at the transfer meeting on Friday.

                                                    New companions . . .

                                                    Getting ready to go. . .

Sister Balledos bought a treat that's made here in San Fernando and that is famous throughout the Philippines.  It's called tupig and is grilled rice and coconut in a brown sugar roll.  It was. . .different!  Kind of good, actually.

                                         I ate the whole thing (except for the burned part).

We had these 8 Sisters over for dinner tonight.  They all attend one ward here in Sevilla.  That's a lot of Sister power!
That sums up our week.  Hope you have a great one.  See you next week!

Week Sixty-four

Week Sixty-four found us preparing for transfers next week when we get 29 new missionaries and 6 going home.  We had 7 new apartments to find and furnish.  Elder Dinkel should have that done by Wednesday, the day the missionaries arrive in the mission.  Nothing like being down-to-the wire!

This is one of the apartments that Sisters will be moving into.  It is being changed from an Elders' apartment to Sisters.

The outside of that apartment.  The two apartments side by side will house 6 Sisters come Friday.

                                 Crew of Elders moving furniture.

                                              Putting together fans. . .

We had a Sisters' impromptu cooking class Friday where they learned to make scones and no-bake cookies, then we ate Navajo tacos for lunch.  Yum!  I opted not to go with Elder Dinkel to deliver furniture 3 hours away with 3 Elders in the truck.  Instead we did a girls' thing. . .great!

Our missionaries are so amazing!  These 10 Sisters live in our city.  Acually, there are 4 more that aren't in this picture also.  Plus we have 12 Elders.  They are all great young people and we enjoy them so much.

This Sister was baptized Saturday.  She is a waitress at the seashore restaurant we enjoy, and one of the Elders introduced her to the gospel.  What a great moment for her!