Farm Country

                          As soon as we leave our small city we are in farm country where most
                           of the work is still done by hand They lay their rice on the road to dry.
                           It doesn't matter if you run over it, we try not to but sometimes you
                           have no choice. We don't know how long it takes to dry, they just said
                          after they turn it four times. They turn it with wide tooth wooden rakes

                                        We have seen a rare few small tractors like this one

       

                                              And also a rare few horse and buggies like this one

                                  This thing is called a kaliglig which means tractor. We have nevr
                                   seen one in a field, they just go up and down the road hauling sacks of
                                   rice or people. They are often used for transpotation. It is steered by very
                                   long wooden handles like an old hand plow. They are so dangerous on
                                   the road at night because they have no lights. We about hit one the other
                                   night and just at the last minute Kent noticed a little flickering light, someone
                                   was holding a small flashlight!

                               The water buffalo are the national animal and they are everywhere
                             . They use them as work animals.

                                      There are many many of these white brama type cattle

                           We see this machine used quite often, not sure what it does as they
                            use it both on dry land and in the flooded fields

                       As well as rice they grow corn. I bought a couple of ears one day, it
                      was white but as it cooked it turned yellow and then brownish. Definately
                      not like our corn at home.

                             We aren't sure if these people were planting onions or rice, they both
                              are planted by hand.

We are in the Philippines

                    We arrived in Manila Dec 5 and was met at the airport by an assigned driver
                    who took us to several offices where we were weighed, measured drug tested,
                    eyes checked, had our pictures taken about 6 times and signed our names at
                    least ten times and finally after 2 or 3 hours we had our drivers licenses.

                             We were then taken to Angeles to the mission home. This is on what
                             used to be Clark Airfield. The upstairs is the presidents home and the
                             downstairs has the mission office and two apartments, one for the office
                             couple and one for the APs. We spent two nights here while we waited
                              for our car to be ready.

                     Elder and Sister Tischner, the office couple, took us shopping in a couple
                    of grocery stores that carry American foods.

                             The next day Dad got his first experience at driving in the Philippines!!
                             Elder and Sister Tischer drove ahead of us and guided us to Camiling
                             . On the way he stopped by and showed us the new mission home that is
                            almost complete and is in Tarlac so it will be much closer to us.

                        We finally arrived at our home in Camiling and were shocked by
                        the size of it. It is easily 4-5 times bigger than our house on Christmas Island.
                        It has a huge great room and two bedrooms and what I call a laundry room
                        though the only part of the laundry done there is the ironing.

                          When we got to the house the 4 sisters who live next door were waiting
                           for us. They had put up a Christmas tree and decorated our house. They
                         are so sweet.

                                  The zone leaders came over too so we had a great welcome                

Our new home

The MTC

                                             The  MTC

We were at the MTC with Kents cousin Ed and his
wife Connie. With two Edward Mosers there was a bit of
confusion the first day but then they got it figured out.
Connie and I think Grandma Moser is very proud!

                                                  

We had to do the traditional picture!

When we introduced ourselves we had this couple come
up and talk to us. This is Vance Hedin from Winder and
his wife Orfilia. It turns out that Orfilia used to come to
Whitney in the summers with her family as migrant workers
and they lived some of those summers in the house Kents dad had
here on the farm. She remembered Kent and his family and several
other kids from Whitney. She was not a member of our church at
that time but would go to church with friends and joined when she was 15.
Most of her family eventually joined. She was a delight, we loved them.
They are going to Finland.

Vance and Orfilia Hedin

Here we go again



Our call came August 9 2012



We are going to the Philippines Angeles Mission;
We go to the MTC November 26



Many of the family came to join us

The rest joined via skype