let's start with today...

Let's start with today.  The electricity went out about 30 minutes before church started and was out for an hour and a half.  What is church like with no electricity in Calapacuan?  Thank goodness the chapel has two long walls of windows, so the windows are always opened for church.  Normally we also have ceiling fans on high speed, but not today.  There were no lights except what we received through the windows on a day with no sun.  Today, there was no microphone either, which makes it hard to hear in the large room.  During our testimony meeting, it started pouring rain, which made it even harder to hear the speakers.  With the pouring rain came a very dark sky which means the room got even darker!  Donna and I sat next to a window today which gave us a little breeze until a young child decided to close the shade over the window! :(     And of course to top it all off, only one person spoke in English (so maybe 3 minutes worth).  I say all of this, but in reality, I had a fabulous Sunday.  The spirit was strong...we partook of the sacrament...and the people are so loving and welcoming!!  You can't beat that!


Yesterday there were two baptisms in our Branch.  One was Gary, a young adult, and the other was Ira, a 10 year old girl.  It was a very happy day for them.  They just beamed.  It is the tradition in this Branch to have the one being baptized bear their testimony afterwards.  This is always so powerful.


I am also amazed that the speakers at Ira's baptism (the young woman and man on each end of the group picture) spoke without one note...no paper, no electronics, nothing.  I want to be like them when I grow up!

Ira and her bright smile!

For those of you that follow Donna on Instagram, you saw another adventure we had this week...our water!  This is a picture of our Mission President holding up the water sample he got from our apartment.  He put it in the bottle to send it off to be tested!  The picture doesn't do it justice!!!!!  You can see residue at the bottom of the jar.  That black 'stuff' was thick and throughout the water.  I had showered and was in the kitchen to prepare breakfast.  When I turned on the sink water, I got the black water!  I quickly went to the shower room to let Donna know because she was getting ready to shower!  Yep, it was black there too!!  Our water comes from a pump on our property, so it was a little troubling.

Lovely water to wash and shower with!

We don't yet know what happened to the water.  We are prepared in our apartment with pure drinking water and non-potable water for emergencies.  This was an emergency in my book.  We are able to use our water now.  We are still a little leery about our water, but  we are okay!

We really do love the Philippines!  I'm not being sarcastic.  The area that we live in this part of the Philippines (Luzon--the upper island) is beautiful.  Because there was once a heavy USA military presence here with Subic Bay Naval Base and Clark Air Force Base, we can find many of our favorite American products.  So far, we cook our American recipes.  We eat Filipino food, but we haven't prepared any ourselves yet.

Oh, I almost forgot about another happening in our part of this world.  Karaoke!  Do you like karaoke?  We have had LOUD karaoke for 24 hours straight in our neighborhood!  The Filipino people love karaoke.  I understand you can buy karaoke machines OR rent karaoke machines when you want one. We can't hear the music very well in our apartment, but we can hear the loud singing that sounds like yelling into a microphone.  I'm not sure how we slept last night, but we were blessed.  We heard karaoke starting from yesterday afternoon.  We went to bed with karaoke and woke up to karaoke.  We were kind of thrilled when the power went out this morning because the singing stopped!  However, it didn't really stop until this afternoon.

 This is what happens when you hand your camera to an Elder to take a picture for you!!  We love these young men!!  This is Elder Tui'one and Elder Vaoiva.  It's a great picture of them up close.

These are just some of the things that have happened to us this week, but I wanted to give you a little flavor of our adventures in the Philippines.  We have been very busy in the Mission Office.  For some reason we keep finding things to do! Actually, they find us.  We are learning and growing...which we know is good for us!

I found my super hero!  He is a little hard to talk to, but I found him!  I knew some of you would like to know that.
I had an awakening when I got my hair cut.  I finally saw a gray-haired Diane in the mirror at the beauty shop!  Any other time I look in the mirror, I only see Diane with blonde hair.  I know that is sad, but it is a fact.

Enjoy a fabulous week!  We know that we will!!