November Sights

Follow up Training of the Missionaries who came in October 23, 2013.
The new missionaries and their trainers.Aren't they awesome?

Zone Conference for 3 of the 4  Zones that we are responsible for.

Can you see the driver of the trike, a motor cycle with a side car, and his passenger. They stopped so Elder Gorringe could get a picture.
The white truck is the one we drive.

This is a close up of the trike with the baskets going to the palengke, market.

We have lizards in our apartment. We kind of like them because they eat the ants and other bugs. There are ants in the sink. Chow down Lizzy.

The Branch support for the baptism.

Olongapo 1 branch baptism
Pres. Pigao, the Branch President, on the left was the baptiser.
The Brother being baptized was the last in his family
to be baptized. In a year they can become a "Forever Family". He said he didn't know what took him so long. He had a few baptismal dates.

JEST Camp

Sister Wright

Our friend Bro. Wright.

Read the captions on the pictures starting at the bottom picture.

Even though these pictures were taken in October, Merry Christmas!!! Maligayang Pasko!!!

There are birds and other animals at JEST Camp. The one in the middle is a wild animal:)

Soap that comes from a vine

Sister Peter Pan. The hats are made from big jungle leaves to protect you from the sun.

Peter Pan

Can you see the fire? I wish you you could see how he did this. It took about 30 seconds.

More of what they use to build a fire.

This is dry bamboo. They are going to make a fire.

This is a vine where water drips out of it.

JEST Camp is a Jungle Enviromental Survival Training Camp. They train the military, but it's also a tourist attractraction. We went with some friends, Bro.and Sister Wright, for a sight seeing adventure.
The Camp showed us how to survive using bamboo and other vines and plants.
Can you see the spoon sitting on top of the "plate", and the cup? Bamboo has sections. At each section point, it is solid, so you can pour water in it.
One of those pieces was a rice cooker. You take one section which is solid on both ends. you make an opening at the top big enough to put your rice and water in. Cover it with the piece you cut off, then put it in the fire to cook. These utensils are made from green bamboo.

Refuge Camp

We went to the former refuge camp near Morong in our area. It was closed in 1995. The refuges were from Cambodia, Viet Nam, and Laos.
They didn't feel safe in their own country so the U.N. set up this refuge camp where the people stayed for up to 6 months. During that time, they were taught English and a skill.They received decent food every day and a small place to stay. The refuges liked staying here because they were safe, provided with shelter, and food.
They were shipped to different countries to start a new life. Many stayed in the Philippines.

The Jail.

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Inside the refuge boat.

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This is one of the boats the refuges used to come to the Philippines. It held as many as 65 people but looked big for only15.  I don't know how they did it.

Last Friday we went to Manila so Elder Gorringe could go to a training on on contracts, and we could go to the temple. The Doyles, one of the mission couples and Elder Cobb, a missionary, left the mission home at 4:00 a.m. so they could be to a temple session at 8:00 a.m. I was looking in the distribution center while Elder Gorringe was in his training and their they were. They changed their session to 12:00 so we went with them.

Elder Cobb baptized this couple about a year ago, and Pres. Ardern of the Area Presidency said th

Mission Presidency and their wives, and Mission Couples

Mission Presidency, their wives, and the couple missionaries. From left: Elder and Sister Levin, couple missionaries from Meridian, Idaho; President and Sister Banzon, 1st counselor in the mission presidency; Presisent and Sister Querido, Mission President; Elder and Sister Doyle, missionary couple from Washington State; President and Sister Magrata, 2nd counselor in the Mission Presidency; Elder and Sister Gorringe, couple missionary from South Jordan Utah.

Baptism in the Ocean/Tacloban Typhoon Disaster

This baptism was held at the beach in Morong. Look at those two fine missionaries and the branch support.

Pilay/rice before it is milled.

Harvesting the rice. How would you like that for a job?

                                Rice field.



After the rice is harvested they put it out on the road to dry. They do this twice for a couple of hours each time. The farmers claim their spot on the road early in the morning. This is called palay, the rice that is still in its husk. They then take the pilay to be milled.




Rice growers rent the carabao and there drivers to prepare their fields.

Carabao/water buffalo.

The missionaries who came in on September 11 and there companions at Follow-up Training

The font was out of order, so he was baptized in the ocean.

The Super Typhoon Yolanda only brought some wind, a little rain, and a couple of hours of power outages here. The devastation was way south of us in Tacloban and Cebu.

The news broadcasted that Cebu would be hit the hardest because they were hit by a typhoon a few weeks earlier. What was not predicted was the storm surge that washed away houses and people in Tacloban.

We have one missionary in our mission whose father and mother died from the storm surge in Tacloban. Several other missionaries here had damage done to their family's home. 

The mission in Tacloban is now closed and the missionaries were reassigned. We received 15 missionaries from the area. 

Maybe you read the story about the 10 Sisters in the house where they swam from the 2nd floor to the first floor and into the laundry room, where one of the Sisters punched a hole near the ceiling so her fellow missionaries could get on the roof. The water was up to their necks. That missionary is in our mission. She is from Highland, Utah. Or actually, she's from California, but her family just moved to Highland, Utah just before she left for her mission. 

President Neilson of the Area Presidency said she would be companions with her cousin who is in our mission.

The other missionaries who came here were not in life threatening situations. They feel guilty for having left the people they loved and served.

We love everyone back home. The U.S. is a blessed country.

Subic Bay

Mission Presidency, their wives, and the missionary couples. From the left: Elder and Sister Levin from Meridian, Idaho, Pres. and Sister Banzon from the Philippines, Pres. and Sister Querido (mission president) from the Philippines, Elder and Sister Doyle from Enterprise, Utah recently Seattle, Washington area, Pres.and Sister Magrata from the Philippines, and Elder and Sister Gorringe from South Jordan.

One of the shacks people live in. The roof is made from Nipa leaves and will last 1 year.

More photos of the bats we saw on the way to Morong. Elder Gorringe is such a great  photographer.

Long boat. We rode in one sort of like this when we first got here at 100 Island. Elder 

Gorringe and Elder Murray went snorkeling. Most have a small motor.

U.S. Ship. Some kind of training was going on here.

This is the vehicle we use onour mission. Ford Ranger.

Isn't he cute?

Flooding

Family being baptized. Elders Fakai and Thorpe.

September flooding after the Super Storm. This is the street outside of our apartment.

The people waked in the street because it was safer than the side of the road. On the sides of the roads are ditches and pot holes that can't be seen when covered with muddy water.

There was epidemic disease from this flooding.

Houses were washed down the mountain, and peoples homes had 2-8 inches of mud in them. Ten families stayed in the church house on the the mission home complex.

Two zones of missionaries put on their helping hands tops and help shovel out mud from houses and a museum.

Subic Bay

Fishing boat in Subic Bay. Notice the 2 men in the water.

Subic Bay