Week Thirty-Four

We had many of our usual experiences this week that I will share with you through pictures.

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We started our week visiting members in our branch.  These two sisters were our guides.

 This is one sister we visited.  Her son was murdered a couple of years ago, and it's been really hard for her. But she is strong in the church and knows she will see him again.

 We had a Relief Society enrichment meeting at one of the sister's homes.  We are picking weeds from her bean patch to cook for our lunch.

                                                                  There we are in the weeds.

 This sister reminds me of my mom.  She just turned 85, and she always has a big smile on her face.  She is dicing squash that is similar to zuchini for lunch.

                                                         These sisters are preparing to grill fish for our lunch.

They used the banana leaves as tin foil to keep the fish from getting too charcoaled.

                      Milk fish or bangus were grilled.  We also had tilapia.  Both are raised on fish farms here and sold in the markets or the grocery stores.

This was our lunch--grilled fish, fresh tomatoes and onions, rice, grilled eggplant, boiled weeds with vinegar (tastes like spinach) and stewed zuchini-type squash.  It was very good.  They were kind enough to provide a fork and spoon for me, but most of them ate it with their hands.

                            There we are enjoying dinner.  Notice no forks.  Hands seems to work well.

 One of the sisters is showing us how to make Vicks vapo-rub.  You melt vaseline jelly in a double boiler, add eucalyptus jell and menthol oil and melt together.

Put the liquid in various containers and let harden for your menthelatum rub.

                                                                  Trying out our rub.

It was a missionary sister's birthday, so we had them come over for dinner and cookies and ice cream to celebrate.

We did apartment checks, and this is one of our favorite zone leaders.  We will miss him.

 Two cute little boys who run wild during our keyboard lesson.  They are cousins, but they are being raised as brothers by their mother who is one of my students.

 My San Jacinto girls who take keyboard lessons.  The one standing by me is getting married Saturday.  She is a RM, forty years old, and met a man on the internet.  They are being married in the Manila Temple.  We are so excited for her.

 We delivered paint to an apartment, and it poured while we were delivering it.  The missionaries and Elder Dinkel were soaked!  I stayed in the car and tried to keep dry and take pictures.

 After delivering paint, it was late, so we stayed in a hotel on the beach.  This is our hotel bed box springs.  Most Filipino beds are just the bamboo with no mattress on top.  With a mattress, this bed was just fine.

 We made scones, tortillas, and no bake cookies in one more branch before I left the area.  I have one demonstration scheduled for June 29, then I will have given all 7 of our branches demonstrations, plus demos in a couple of other areas that are not part of our area.  So fun!

These two sisters are sisters and are also my piano students.  These girls are tiny--4'9" or so, but big in spirit.  I'll miss all my girls!

Week Thirty-Three

Monday we met the Fullmers at Lingayen Bay.  The Fullmers are the other couple that will be in Baguio Mission with us.  They are being trained as the office couple.   Lingayen Bay is where General MacArthur invaded the Philippines during World War II to drive the Japanese out of these islands.  This is the War Memorial in the Bay to remember that invasion.

                                                    This is the Lingayen Beach and Bay.

 This is the Fullmers from Logan.  They will be the office couple in the new mission.  They are the only couple going with us to serve in that mission.

 Our eleventh anniversary was Tuesday.  Brad brought me two dozen red roses, then we went to dinner in Urdaneta.  I had steak, rice, and veggies and Brad had barbequed pork, rice, and veggies and our bill came to under $8 US.  Let's don't talk about the 8 cow wife, okay?

 Wednesday we checked out an apartment for sisters in our new area.  These were some of the churches and towers we saw on the way.  This area was in the northern part of our mission--very quaint and Spanish style buildings.

Evening sky as we came out of a district conference meeting Saturday night.  They have beautiful sunsets here at night.

Sorry I was short on pictures.  My camera batteries died this week, so I missed a few pictures.  But we are busy and happy.  Take care.  See you next week.

A Week of Looking. . .

We spent a lot of time this week looking for a new apartment for ourselves in San Fernando.  The good news is--we found one!  Now we're hoping the contract will go through without a problem.  Anyway, we'll show you some of the things we did this week.

It was a really hot day, and these kids were cooling off in the water as we walking to some less actives' homes.  They know how to beat the weather!  So cute!!!!

 We visited with two of the Relief Society sisters.  This is the yard of the home that missionaries might rent.

                                                     Jackfruit growing in the tree in the yard.

                                                               Man picking the jackfruit.

We looked for an apartment in Manaoag for the couple who will replace us.  This sister's sister has a home she doesn't use since she lives in America.  Her sister thought she may rent it to the church, but we haven't heard back, so we think she isn't interested in doing that.  A jackfruit tree was in the yard, and the sister had this man pick one for us.  She said it should be ripe in 3 days, so after 3 days I cut it open.  It still wasn't ripe, and its sap was like latex.  It stuck to our hands and the knife something terrible!  I ended up putting some fruit in a saucepan with water, then blending it,  and making jam out of it.  It was okay.  Ripe jackfruit taste like juicy fruit gum, I'm told.  That's where they get the flavor of the gum--from jackfruit!

We went to San Fernando for two days to look for an apartment for ourselves.  One of the apartments was on the beach.  But the house had to be remodeled, and couldn't be ready for July 1.  Wouldn't it have been great to have this as our back yard, though (except in typhoon season, that is!).

                                         This is the house we are trying to get in San Fernando.

 

 

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A beautiful kitchen with room to actually cook, and enough room to have several missionaries over for dinner.  We're hoping the contract goes through and we'll be set for moving to San Fernando.

I did another bread/scone/tortilla/no-bake cookies demonstration for two branches in San Fabian.  The overall favorite is always tortillas.  Cool!  We started out with 5 sisters, and ended up with 25 or so.  We actually ran out of food.  People kept coming to eat, but we had a good time.

I found this under my sink in a dishpan--a drowned gecko.  Yuck!  Oh well--life in the Philippines!

 It was one of our sister missionaries's birthday today, so we had them over for dinner and cake.  The cake was pretty ugly, but I decorated it the best I could, and she was happy.

 This is one of my special girls--she was supposed to be Heather's running partner, but she was sick.  Anyway, she's a sweetheart.

Well, I guess that's all for pictures.  Check out our letter for other happenings this week.  Take care and God bless!