2 Beach or not 2 Beach

Yes, 2 Beach today!

1st Beach -- Branch Activity -- Sibulan

Branch Leaders


Food, I mean Missionaries (they are the same)

Music



Food (really)





Fun







And EXTRA Sun (reflective lighting)


Do we really have to go home?

2nd Beach -- Branch Activity -- Bacong

Ah, Sweet is the Work!

Mohondri

Sister Parsons and I had a wonderful experience tonight. We went over to visit Edgardo Espina who had invited his grandchildren over for FHE with us tonight. We waited but all that showed up were Mojandray, 11, and Edel, 4. The picture is of Brother Espina and Mojandray. Edel is in picture with Obedencia family in last post.




Mojandray's Mother will not let him come to church. Well, Mojandray and Edel started playing marbles. I asked Mojandray if he knew about the prophet in the Book of Mormon with his same name, and he did not. I told him that he also had used marbles as he and his people were needing light in their barges to cross the ocean, that Mojandray had prayed to the Lord with his problem and the Lord told him to figure it out and come back. Mojandray then made some marbles out of molten rock and took them to the Lord and prayed that he would touch them and make them glow, thus he could put one in each end of the barge to provide light. Mojandray then saw the finger of the Lord touch the marbles and he fell down afraid. The Lord asked Mojandray why he had fallen down, and Mojandray said, because he was afraid. He did not know the Lord had a finger. The Lord then asked Mojandray if he believed in the Lord, and he said yes, I believe. The Lord then showed his whole body to Mojandray because of his great faith. The boy, Mojandray, in the picture was just grinning from ear to ear, and was so excited, especially when he heard the part about the Lord showing his whole body. It sure was neat.


We then sang, "If you chance to meet a Frown, Do not let it Stay, Quickly turn it Upside Down, and Smile that Frown Away." He wanted to sing the song over and over and asked for a copy of the words. Sister Parsons not only wrote down the words but drew the picture of the face that looks like a frown one way, but when you turn it over it looks like a smile. Edel also needed a picture.


We then asked Brother Espina if he could go to Jershon's with us. He said it is dark, are you sure. We said, yes we want to go and deliver to him bread from Sister Parsons. He said he would go, but lets take Brother Lomanog, too. We said OK. Brother Espina then left with us, but chose to be barefoot. We went to see if Brother Lomanog was available, which he was, and he brought his whole family.

This is the Lomanog family. He is the Branch Executive Secretary. Her name is Vivian and the daughter is Levi, pronounced Lev (like level) e (like Dee). So the six of us jumped in our car and went to our apartment to get the bread that Sister Parsons had baked earlier today. We invited them in and we broke bread together, with butter and/or peanut butter. Pure joy.

We then, by the way, it is now 8 PM, jumped back in the car to drive about 4 Km to the path to Jershon's house. We had gone there before, but found that Jershon is a student and does not come home until after 7 PM at night, so the pictures are from the dry run.

This is the street where we parked.

This is the stairway from the street.

This is the pathway to the beach.

Then a gentle 400 meter walk up the beach to Jershon's house. He was not at home but they sent a runner to where he was at playing pool and he soon arrived. We were able to deliver his bread and invite him to church.

Now for the rest of the story: Brother Espina had polio as a youth and drags a leg as he walks. As Sister Parsons and I discussed it after dropping everyone off, we could not see why his family cannot feel the power of his strong testimony of the church. We decided they could not look beyond his physical weakness to behold a spiritual giant. For that is what Brother Espina is! What a wonderful man. On the way back, he sat in the front seat with me and I heard him whispering to himself, which caused me to see blurry for a minute. He said, "We are so blessed to have a Missionary Couple. We are so blessed."

I saw God today.

Elder and Sister Parsons

Families in the Philippines

Families are forever. Families are strengthened through learning about eternity together. All people are sons and daughters of a loving Heavenly Father. Enjoy getting to know each of these families, even if it is to be grateful for your family and what you already have.


Family name is Obedencio. He is Marlon, a Jeepney driver, been inactive but did come to church this week after we committed him to with a loaf of bread. Her name is Edelyne and is the Gospel Essentials teacher. The son's name is Edel, 4. They said the bread was lami (pronounced la (like far), me (like eve), lami) Also said lapok kaayo, meaning literally muddy very, or very muddy as we would speak, as the bread was delivered while the typhoon was near.


Family name is Dinglasa. Mother's name is Rosa. Her two children are the younger two, Jose, 9, and Rose Marie, 7. The young girl is a non member friend named AnnAnn, 17, who came to church Sunday with Rosa. Rosa's husband recently died, we do not know how, but she has not been out to church since then, until Sunday. She was very happy to be back and so was the branch happy to see her. AnnAnn is now being taught about the church.


Family name is Antipuesto. Father name is Anescio he is inactive and unordained. Mother is Wilma and comes to church occasionally. Daughter in red is Stilla,18, and daughter in pink is Joana, 17. Sons are Renaldo, 20, in dragon t-shirt, Nelmar, 15, in white t-shirt, and Dennis, 9, in grey shirt. The lady in yellow is a neighbor who is also an inactive member whose name is Daisyrey Mesina. Daisyrey helped us find the Antipuesto home as we could not remember for sure where it was. We could remember which big tree to park by, but other than that we were lost and it was dark out as well. Plus, lapok kaayo because of the typhoon and the bread was still warm. The other girl in the back is a friend of Reynaldo who we believe lives here as well. None of the males are ordained with priesthood and Dennis is not baptised. The whole family committed to come to church, but only Stilla came. She was so excited to be there, as were her friends to see her. She has a special relationship already with Sister Parsons, like they are kindred spirits.


Family name is Cavile. Father's name is Herminigildo. We forgot to make a note of what he actually goes by. We spent a week trying to memorize names, only to find nobody goes by their given names, but each has a nick name. This brother and his children have been in the church since, December, 2006. Brother Cavile is the 2nd councilor in the Branch Presidency. He seemed to be unaware that the next step for him is to obtain a temple recommend, but now is working on that as a goal. Did not see wife, he said, "she is too shy", is not a member of church at present. Daughter is Nicca,12, who gave a very special talk on Father's Day about her father. Son is Jon Loy, 4. He is a very active boy. The first Sunday he "ran" sacrament meeting, and wrestled with Edel Obedencio during the Primary Father's Day song. During home visit, Sister Parsons offered that JonJon could sit with us during Sacrament Meeting. JonJon sought her out on Sunday with excitement and he sat and looked at the picture of Samuel the Lamanite, counting the arrows. He drew his own "five fingers" and made a face on each one.


Family name is Galvez. The grandma ("Lola" in Cebuano) is Amor. We have not officially visited this family so no further names are known by us. We have hired her to make curtains for our apartment. She is a very active lady in the church as are her adult children.


Family name is Pabayos. Mother's name is Evangaline. Son's name is Louwe. We visited her and immediately recognized Louwe from church. She is a regular at church and is married to a non member.


Family name is Bacang. His name is Luciano and has been a member for 9 months only. He is ordained as a priest. He has two sons whom we did not meet who are 14 and 13. The sons are not ordained. His wife left him several years ago. He is a farmer and had a wonderful crop of white kernal sweet corn which is behind Sister Parsons as she took the picture, so if you look behind her you can see it. He is irregular in his church attendance and was not at church this week (hopefully) because of the typhoon. We are re-visiting him later today. Here is a picture of the path to his house.


Also passed a chicken (manok) house/pig (baboy) farm. We think that people live in the house on bamboo stilts above the farm. It all smelled quite unique (really bad). We did not linger to look! There were also what Elder Parsons thought were bats flying all around through the trees.


Family name is Licerio. Father's name is Gener. His business is bug control. The sign on the highway says Pestman. He is a returned missionary who labored in Manila where he met his wife to be, Thezz. They have been married about 20 years. He is the 1st councilor in the Branch Presidency. She is the YW President also Primary Secretary. They have two sons. The one in the picture is Dallen, 19, (It was his birthday on the day of this picture. We joined them for Family Home Evening). He is the Branch Mission Leader. He is studying Resort Management and loves to cook and is preparing for a mission, probably in a year or two. The other son is GeneGene, 17, enrolled in the Military Academy. (By the way, high school is completed in the Philippines at age 16, then students enter the University at age 17.) MelMel, 15, is the oldest daughter and Dianne, 5, named after Princess Di, is the other daughter.

The preceding pictures are members of the Sibulon Branch, our 1st branch to work with. On Sunday afternoon, we traveled to scope out the Bacong Branch, our 2nd assigned branch. We found several members still at the church in the midst of "AREA ATTACK" activity. They were together in a group doing what we had been doing the whole week before. This was a very exciting discovery.


Family name is Abarido. Father's name is Nemuel. He is the Elder's Quorum President in the branch. He has recently returned from inactivity to the church. His wife, Barbara, is not a member. She says she will join in two years. (?!) She works for an American advertising company filing documents. The two daughters are named Adelstein, 5, and Sheen, 2.


These are neighbors of Nemuel, from preceding picture. The lady on the left is Francisca Argonista, a member, who is visiting her sister, name Maria, and her sister's son, Mario. Maria and Mario are non members. That is all we know. It was a quick visit and trying to beat the rain. Also needed to get back home as the power was extinguished on the whole of Negros Oriental following the typhoon; they called it a Brown Out. All church meetings were held without any power; i.e. no microphones, no air conditioning, no fans, but no lack of spirit!! With no power, there is also no street lights to illuminate the many pedestrians and bicycles in the street for the return drive. The drive normally takes about 30 minutes from Bacong to our apartment, about 20 Km.


This is the rest of the Argonista family which is also a neighbor of Nemuel. The father is Junior. Son's names are Fernando, 19+, and Jerad, 12.

Now we are asking you each to share our mission with us. As you looked at these wonderful people, I am sure one or two tugged at your heartstrings. Consider that person as you pray and we know that Heavenly Father will guide us to fulfill what that person needs while we are here in Dumaguete District. This district is made up of 9 branches. The aim of the District and Mission Presidency is to make a stake here soon. To make that happen there needs to be 5 wards with a minimum of 20 full-tithe paying, temple recommend holding, Melchizedek Priesthood holders. 3 of the branches already meet this requirement. So Melchizedek Priesthood activation is one assignment we have. Specifically, we are assigned to these two branches which are nearest to attainment.

Also, the Asian Area has pinpointed a major concern that 50% of the church youth here, ages 16 to 30, go inactive. Remember high school is over at 16 here, and that is where we believe they are being lost. So Young Single Adult follow up is another priority assignment that we have on our mission.

We love you all and feel your prayers,

Elder and Sister Parsons

Love is Blind Keep Distance

A Bumper Sticker on a Tricycle (taxi cab) in Dumaguete is what inspired the Title to this post! This is a motorcycle with a side car welded on. It not only carries passengers but all kinds of cargo, even our table was transported 6 kilometers atop a tricycle.

This is a tricycle, but not a true picture for best meaning. Will add better pictures in a later post.

For now though, let me back track to the flight to the Philippines then bring you to the present as time permits.

We left SLC on Saturday night at 9:30 PM and flew to LAX. After a three hour layover in LA we boarded a plane for Taipei, Tiawan. We found the airport in Tiawan to be very clean, so any of you planning on coming to the Olympics in China will probably also experience Taipei.
Could someone please direct me to the CR? (CR is the name used for rest rooms in the Philippines, it means Comfort Room)

Eva Airlines was what we flew from LA all the way to Manila in the Philippines. It was a very comfortable way to fly. Each seat had its own movie screen in the back of the seat in front with a wide array of movies, TV shows, and music to choose from. It is a good thing, as the first flight was 13 hours and 50 minutes long. Even though the seats were wider than a normal airplane seat both Lisa and I found it impossible to sleep. Lisa watched 4 movies, I played Zuma and watched 2 movies.


Also found these rooms at the Taipei airport. There were 3 seperate rooms to choose from, I am only including one picture. The other two were Muslim and Christian.
This was an interesting sign which was also at the Taipei airport. If you went to the side and looked out the window, it appeared that the door opened into thin air about 3 stories above the railroad track below, which gave us a chuckle. Then again after 24 hours without sleep what didn't give us a little chuckle.
From Manila airport,

our final leg to Cebu City was on Philippine Airlines. After 34 hours of travel, 19 of which was in the air we were greeted by Elder Ehorn and Elder Colina the Assistents to President Anderson who transported us to the mission home for a meal and a horizontal bed, aaaahhhhh, nighty nighty.
This picture was actually after one of our two ferry rides on our way to Dumaguete where they also picked us up. They had driven our car down from Cebu to Dumaguete, but to illustrate I add their picture here.

This is all I am putting in tonight, will add more another time got to keep a missionary schedule after all.

Love to all, and unlike the title, I wish you could all be here, there is no need to keep your distance, you know!!

Elder and Sister Parsons

P.S. Oh, there is so much more to write and show!

MTC and Counting

Lisa and I made it to Provo.

The room at the Rodeo Inn was like living with Donald Trump as compared to our room here at the MTC, but then we will only be here for two more days.


We definitely see why Sterling and Eric loved the MTC. The food is quite good. I do believe they have alternate objectives though in feeding us so well, because the first day the mission president said that Senior Couples are worth their weight in gold. I do believe I have added a few pounds and at over $900 @ounce thats a lot of kwarta! (Cebuano for money) or was that kwarto, news at 10,


and if there were not enough Elders and Sisters here already 400 more arrived on Wednesday.

They had suitcases lined up three different ways from this sidewalk intersection.

Lisa also finds a new favorite picture on the wall every day. One day this one was the one she needed a picture. It is pretty special, I think too.

There are pictures up and down all the halls, and one day Lisa asked one of the administration here how often they changed the pictures, because she keeps finding new ones. Well, the administrator said he thought they changed them about 5 years ago. We got a laugh out of that.

We start classes every day at 8 AM. Go pretty solid until noon, then have an hour and a half for lunch, then back to class at 1:30 PM until 5 PM. At 6 PM Lisa and I have a two hour language class, needless to say, between eating, learning and sleeping we have not let any moss grow between our toes here.

Still excited and still looking forward to all that is ahead.

One quote from my journal, then off to bed:

"To observe and be part of this wave of missionaries is uplifting, to say the least. What power to behold! I saw God’s Army today and I heard them sing, “We are as the army of Helaman, we have been taught in our youth, and we are NOW the Lord’s missionaries, to bring the world his truth,” was hard to take. The lump in my throat was so large that I could not sing but could only cry like a baby. I felt God today!"

Good night now,

Love ya all,

Dee and Lisa