all creatures of our God and King ...

i had a great birthday, as you saw from diane's post last week.  it is definitely one i will remember!  thanks for the love and wishes!

what sounds like a cow mooing but there is no cow?  frogs ... and LOTS of them.  mostly we hear the constant drone of motorcycles, cars, jeepneys and trikes out our windows but we also get the sounds of nature daily.  we have a large pond 15 feet from our property and it is loaded with frogs.  it's fun to watch the kids 'fishing' for dinner.  since it is rainy season, the constant croaking of frogs is part of natures symphony.  there is also a rooster section across the street!  

thought i would include some of the little critters that act like they own our place too.  actually they were probably here long before we were!  there are spiders in the window when we shower and occasionally they drop in and say 'hi'.  there are the beetles that grace our stairwell (that the janitor says are delicious, by the way - taste like jerky), but apparently you don't want to eat them this time of year unless you find them in the forest.  good to know!  the cutest, most delicate, little flies i've ever seen are abundant and the head of the gecko household who doesn't bother to eat any of them!  there are several gecko offspring in the house and porch as well but they are too speedy to photograph.  and my list wouldn't be complete without mentioning the ants that are ever present.  they are little magicians as they just appear on our hands or our faces/necks/legs or computers.  

i can't think too much about all our houseguests when it's lights out or i would never be able to fall asleep.  hope they have fun crawling on us in the night!

okay ...  it started out fun (?) for me to do this blog but it has been nothing but a lesson in frustration and causes me such undo aggravation i have to stop.  adding pictures is ridiculous because i can't put them anywhere close to where i want them and who knows why it decided to underline a whole section and won't let me un-underline it - it is beyond my comprehension.  was going to add more pictures but i'm done.  sorry for how this will probably look.  we can't even preview it because it always looks different than it appears.  whatever.  table for Grumpy, party of one!  sorry!  this should be a happy place!

this is general conference weekend and since we are 14 hours ahead of salt lake, it is live for us at midnight and 4am.  we tried to watch the saturday sessions when we got home from church but could only get the audio of the saturday morning session.  i always look forward to hearing the words of our Prophet and Apostles and am anxious to hear all 10 hours soon!  there is always inspiration to be had.  hopefully we will be able to watch them this week, but if not, they will be broadcasting them next weekend at church.

hope you are all happy and healthy.  and maybe i'll give it another try in a couple weeks.  stay tuned! love you more than you know.              donna

Happy Birthday, Donna!!

How do you wish your sister a happy birthday when you live with her, shop with her and are in a foreign country??  Thank goodness she isn't big into birthdays or celebrations...especially when it's for her.  However, everyone wanted to be involved because Donna is loved by all who meet her.  This was her day...

Breakfast...not in bed...




A morning in the office...of course she had to get work done before a day of celebration.

Lunch with our favorite friend, Sister Dahle.  Lunch was at the Camayan Resort on the beach!!  It is a gorgeous location and a gorgeous day!  Then we headed next door to the Ocean Adventure Park..."the first and only open water marine theme park in Southeast Asia"...and it's in our back yard!

We got in a Dolphin show and a Sea Lion show before it started raining sooooo hard!   Even with the canvas roof covering, the rain spoiled the fun and came pouring in on everyone.

We will be coming back to this park!  It was a wonderful diversion when the need arises.  Because of time and rain, we missed out on one park activity that we were looking forward to...a fish pedicure!!  Watch for pictures from our next visit to the Ocean Adventure Park!

We weren't sure we were going to be able to drive all the way home because the rain was so strong and heavy...the streets get flooded...but we made it, and the rain slowed down before we reached our home.

We were tired and soaked!  Donna collapsed on the sofa with her birthday texts and emails while I took a shower.  THEN her next surprise came...

The Elders next door made a cake for this Sister that they love!  I had unlocked the door so that they could come in.  I told them to make LOTS of noise because it would scare her to death if they just walked in!  They had balloons, cake, and loud happy birthday wishes!!  It was a great ending to a great day.

I love this sister of mine.  I can't imagine this mission assignment without her by my side. 

Happy Birthday, Donna!!

NOW I HAVE TO GET THIS POSTED BEFORE SHE SEES WHAT I'M DOING!

and so it goes ...

another new batch!

well, time is a funny thing here.  i will be saying something to Diane like, 'last week when we ...' and she'll say, 'that was two days ago!'.  i'm not sure whether that means days are passing quickly or not but it happens to me frequently!  with that in mind, it was transfer week again!  i know you think you've seen this picture before but this is the new batch of 21 missionaries ... our biggest yet!  the ritual of the trainer/trainee match-up never gets old to me!  everyone in the room is so excited!  it's a really fun day.  but i can't believe it has been six weeks since the last batch came in.  time really is flying for me.  we've had four missionaries in the hospital with everything from a collapsed lung to amoebic dysentery.  the latter happened to one of the new fresh happy faces in the picture ... quite the welcome to your life for the next 2 years! happy to report they are all on the mend.

 
while doing deliveries yesterday, we happened on about 50 cyclists that must have been in some type of road trip.  (thought this would be a good place to remind you of what traffic on the two-lane main road looks like here -- remember, this is one lane!)  

we had a scary incident.  we were stopped in traffic and in typical fashion, motorcycles squeeze into the space of the one yellow stripe that divides the lanes to pass.  it is terrifying as buses and other vehicles are coming the opposite direction.  anyway, a cyclist decided to travel down the center stripe and had to slow down so much he lost his balance one foot from my door while an 18-wheeler was coming the opposite direction.  i screamed as he was grazed and thrown into our car and then to the ground.  we had just heard about the after-math of a trike accident that resulted in a death and horrific injuries.  i was so scared but THANKFULLY, he got right up and i helped him gather his things.  he was scraped up quite a bit and i'm sure he is hurting badly today but a fellow cyclist was on the scene quickly and helped him to the side of the road.  imagine 20 cars, trikes, jeepneys, buses, motorcycles honking for us to get out of the way.  it was awful.  everyone just wanted to be on their way.  there are many nail-biting moments on the road but this was my scariest by far.  sister epperson holds her breath and puts on her imaginary brake often as i try to squeeze by jeepneys that pulled (sort of) off the road to pickup/dropoff passengers.  i forget the side mirrors stick out another foot on either side!  haven't lost one yet though!

the last picture is just some comic relief!  these men spent two days power washing the parking lot of our complex this week ... in the rain.  one sprayed the ground while the other one scrubbed.  none of us could figure out why they were doing it but ... it's clean now!  we also have a man who comes every monday morning and washes our cars ... in the rain!  it goes along with the national past-time of sweeping (usually just the dirt on the side of the road).  these little quirks in the culture make us smile!  hope you have many many things that make you smile this week as well!  love you more than you know.

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!!

i've been thinking ...

i've been thinking a lot this week about how you measure your progression or growth, and the short answer is, 'i don't know'.  in some areas of life, it's easy ... your bank balance rises or falls, the number on the scale goes up or down, you graduate or get that promotion, you're able to run faster or further (okay, that one i'm only guessing on, but hey!), but when it comes to spiritual progression or personal growth, how do you measure that?  before coming on my mission, i felt like i was 'coasting' and lately, as i've become more comfortable in my surroundings, i've felt that i'm kind of coasting again.  we are learning and fulfilling our responsibilities with more confidence these days, even making what we feel are improvements in how things are done in some areas.  i think diane would agree that for the very most part, it just hasn't been hard.  this might be a good place to contemplate why i think for anything to 'count' it has to be hard, but that is another topic for another day!

i believe every experience we have in life is preparing us for something that lies ahead in God's grand design for us.  maybe the hard things i've done paved the way for this.  i don't know.  i'm grateful i haven't fallen apart here, but it's early yet! i'm coming to really love some of the people who cross my path.  i was concerned about my capacity to love before coming here and have been pleasantly surprised that i can, in fact, love random people!  i'm sure that sounds strange to some of you but it was a real concern of mine!  i deeply love who i love but haven't branched out a whole lot!  maybe that's one tangible way to measure progression.

we have said goodbye to 10-20 missionaries every six weeks here and it's been (mostly) sweet to see them depart but we are saying goodbye Monday night to one of the senior couples here that took us under their wing when we arrived.  although we've only seen them a couple dozen times, each time has been uplifting, inspirational and fun!  Lynne and Brent Gardner from Lehi, Utah, have made an impression on me.  i really hope she's in my life for the long haul.  they said it will get harder and harder to say goodbye to missionaries as we get to know them better and work closely with them and i am beginning to get that.  she said that missions are all about love ... love for the people, the missionaries but mostly love for the Savior.


the other day, i snapped this picture as two of the office elders were leaving to proselyte in the afternoon. they love the Savior.  they love His work.  i love their dedication.

am i doing the things that draw me closer to my Heavenly Father?  am i aware of the things i'm doing that hinder that?  diane said in her last mission, her mission president used to say to the missionaries, "if you weren't happy in your last area, you're not going to be happy in your next area.".  while being happy isn't the issue for me, i don't want to feel the same complacency here that i felt at home.  i don't want to waste this opportunity i've been given of trying to devote myself 24 hours a day for 545 days to knowing Him and understanding what He wants from/for me.  maybe the way to gauge my progression is to simply try to do the things He asks of me and then ask daily if i'm on the right path and wait upon Him for the answer.  i'll keep you posted!  love you.

through our eyes...

Elders Nelson and Hardy...one year out

This was the view out our window...but it was much more spectacular!  Earlier in the office, Elder Hardy and Nelson told us it was their one year mark!  Our Elders are on their missions for 2 years.  The tradition for the Elders in this mission is to burn a shirt at their one year mark...hump day.  I knew immediately what was happening when I saw the fire and heard the yelling.  They had a pole with a shirt hanging and burning.  

The rain finally stopped in Guagua

With all the rain we have been having, it was a miracle that they had 30 minutes of clear weather.  It started pouring soon after they finished their celebration. 



The picture on the right is the flood waters we experienced in Guagua when we were taking supplies to missionaries.  They had been in their apartment for two days because of the flooding.  Church had been cancelled and everything.

We really can't believe all the rain we have had.  It is amazing to me that there hasn't been more flooding.  The water just disappears quickly.  On the road to the Subic Bay Freeport Area we have seen several mud slides from the mountains onto the roadway.

"trash day"the roadways...including trees in most cases.

It used to concern us when we saw smoke rising.  Now, we chuckle every time we see the smoke...knowing that it is 'trash day'.  Many people just burn their trash.  I should have taken a picture of our trash day.  A big truck drives up and about 4 men hop out.  At least one hops into our trash bin (a big one like at my condo community) and he starts throwing out the trash to the next guy.  We have our trash in bags, but not all the trash in the bin is contained in bags.  They just pick it up and get it onto their truck.  It is interesting to watch.  Then one of them comes to the office door to get paid...100 pesos.  This happens about once a week and never the same day of the week.

dirty or clean...which do you want?

This is a picture of one of our water filters!  We have 3 filters that the water runs through before we use it to wash dishes, drink, wash fruits and vegetable, or brush our teeth.  This is the one we change every 3 months.  The others are changed at 6 months and a year.  In some missionary apartments that we check, they have to switch filters out more often than that because of the quality of their water.  This looked pretty gross, but the bottom of the filter was pretty white when we pulled it out.

We wash every piece of fruit and vegetable that we buy in a bleach solution.  It is washed, rinsed, put into a tub with bleach and water to sit for about 3 minutes, then put into another tub with clean water to rinse again. 

a beautiful sunset over the bay...

And saving the best for last...another beautiful sunset.  We really do have a beautiful world.  The Philippines are beautiful.  That was our first impression as we drove from the busy, crowded city of Manila three hours away to our mission area.  I am grateful every day for the beauty.  May you have a fabulous week!
Love to you,
Sister Sisters Donna and Diane

it's raining, it' pouring ...

the biggest story here this week continues to be the weather.  it has rained steadily for six days now.  sometimes it's light and sometimes torrential but it's been non-stop ... literally ... NON-STOP!  now THIS is what i expected from rainy season!  there has been some localized flooding here and there but everything eventually runs down to the sea.  it's really amazing that the whole place isn't under water with the amount of rain that has fallen.  we still continue to love hearing it on our rooftop and watching it from the windows, even being out in it is fun occasionally.  still wouldn't want to be one of the young missionaries who is soaked to the skin every single day though.

it's been a typically busy week but, of course, with different challenges (as no two days are the same!) ... two elders in the hospital who have, thankfully, gotten (almost) clean bills of health after some pretty scary diagnoses, and will be back among us soon, leadership training meeting with some pretty spectacular young people, and wearing my finance secretary hat, i completed the 2017 budget analysis for the olongapo mission and submitted our proposal to the area office (i have to give daryl the credit on that one cuz there's no way i did that on my own!).

just a thought in closing ... be extra kind to the missionaries that may cross your path.  they are young men and women called to serve the Lord with all their heart, might, mind and strength.  they love the work but could use a kind face and maybe a cold drink of water (and food every now and again is appreciated!).

and a tender mercy ... today in relief society, i turned to the lesson and this beautiful reminder of home was in the manual!  it's such a comfort to me that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the same all over the world, yesterday, today and forever.

well, i'm going to go watch the rain some more.  come what may, and love it!