Farewell 2013 Welcome 2014

For Dads birthday these three girls, Herlene, Lorraine, and Ferlene, each brought him a cupcake with a candle in it. They love him and we adore them. 

On New Years Eve President and Sister Martino and all the Sr couples went to 100 Islands National Park

We rented one of these boats and toured out around the islands

It was such a calm peaceful day

The Martinos and Woodruffs snorkeled

It was so good to see President and Sister Martino relax, they seldom get to do that.

The same could be said for the Tischners, as the only office couple they never slow down.  This was kind of a farewell for them, they are now home in Payson Utah.

The next day we took these twin brothers, Aries and Emmerson Bautista, and their mother to the mission office to be set apart at missionaries. That night was a farewell party for them and the next day they went to the MTC

On my birthday this wonderful group of missionaries presented me with ,,,,,,,,,,

THIS CAKE

I was so surprised!

That night we attended a farwell party for another of our missionaries, Martin Manalang.
He is such a good young man, he will be a great missionary

The following day we took Wilbur Martinez and his mother to the mission office where he was set apart. We attended his farewell party that night. It was so hard to say good bye, we know we will not see these young men again and we got so close to them as they painted and worked with us earning the money for their missions. Even though we won't see them we will always remember them.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

On Christmas Eve President and Sister Martino invited all the couples to the mission home for the evening and to stay over

 

We had a wonderful dinner

Prepared by these two sisters

There is this beautiful nativity near the mission home that people come to see. We stood by it and sang Christmas carols and passed out cookies

Sister Tieschner showing the gift she got in our gift exchange

Sister Woodruff brought these paper hot air balloons that we lit and watched them float away. Hoping and praying we wouldn't cause a fire somewhere!!

The next morning we went to the government hospital and took gifts to the children's wing

The hospital was crowded and poor and it could be depressing but we tried to focus on the bit of cheer we could bring to them

Beautiful babies

There were about 50 children ranging from new born to teens

They all had parents with them

She never let go of her Minnie Mouse

This one wanted her orange but she was not too sure about us

The babies didn't know what to think of us but the parents were very appreciative

This one was scared to death of us.

She is so cute



I think she was wondering who these strange white people were.
 



I wish I could bring them all home.

Missionary Christmas Parties

Because our mission is large and spread out we have to divide into two groups for the Christmas party. Last year we only went to the one where we live but because we are so short on couples right now we went to both parties and it was fun to see many missionaries that used to be in our zone and are now on the "other side". It was fun to see these two "brothers" back together. Elders Blackham and Park were here when we first got here and they were the first of our "adopted family"!

They are both great guys, Elder Blackham is now an AP and Elder Park is a zone leader. We are so proud of them.

 The two sisters at the end of the table, Sister Tauiliili in red, and Sister Naldoza in the grey sweater used to live next door to us and have left us now, so good to see them again.

This large group are just half our missionaries. In this they are holding up a gift that some parent sent for every missionary.

A nice dinner was served and they love good food! Elder Heinrich ( in the red tie) is another of our favorite sons. We have sooo many "Favorites"!!

Two more, Elders Morgan and Salvania  great missionaries

Sister Martino orders "snow" from the US and everyone gets a cup full and they throw it in the air for a "white Christmas". The missionaries have a ball throwing it until it all melts

It's even slick like snow.

Each zone makes decorations for the tree.

Sister Biteriti ( in blue) is from Christmas Island. She is the sister of the family that lived right by us there and Elder Moser baptized her brother-in-law and two children. The other sister is Sister Latimer.

Sister Rose is from the same ward in Utah as my niece Rhonda.

The second group holding up their ties and necklaces sent by the same parent 

Lastly we had our zone Christmas party at our house. Elder Conrow was really happy to get a burrito and REAL cheese!

They drew names and had a gift exchange

I read the condensed book The Mansion

And of course we had a zone picture. We have lots of fun but they also work hard. They reached what seemed like an impossible goal for the year. We love these Elders and Sisters.