Family Home Evenings

We were invited along with some of our missionaries to a family home evening at a members home. We drove way back into the country and the road got narrower and finally ended. We left the car and walked down this path that lead us through peoples yards.



Then we walked through rice fields

Finally when we reached their home the elders helped them hang a light bulb in a tree so we could see

This is the Tatay (father) and his wife who invited us to their home

This the Nanay (mother) of the family

These cute little guys are their nephews that live by them

And this is the youngest son. He was the first to join the church followed by the father. The mother has not joined yet

The home of the nephews

This week we went to another FHE with the missionaries. This was at the home of a single man about 60 years old. He was so shy I didn't try to take his picture but he was very proud of his antique house that his grandfather built in 1908. He was happy for me to take pictures of it.

If I understood right, the grandfather was Chinese and the house definately has an oriental design

It is such an honor for us to go to these different homes and be accepted as their friends. They are such kind and gracious people.

Missionaries from India

I don't know if I have ever mentioned that we have a bit of an unusual situation here in the Philippins missions.
American missionaries who are serving in India have to leave the country after one year and get a renewed visa. This takes two or three months. The church used to send them back to the states for that time but decided recently to send them to the Philippines because it is so much closer and cheaper to do so. Consequently we get one of these elders in our area every few months. The first one was Elder Tracy from the mid west (standing behind Dads left shoulder), he came just before Christmas and it was pretty hard on him at first. Missionaries to India do not have to learn a language so to come here with no language training at all and to have to leave right before Christmas I think he felt pretty alone. But it didn't take too long until he fit right in and was loving life but he still was super excited when his visa came through and he was able to go back to India.

Next came Elder Morrell from Logan. He said Elder Moser reminded him of his dad the way he talked so they got along great. He started out with a bang but was only here a couple of months. We just saw him off Tuesday. We really enjoyed him and look forward to seeing him again at home.
Yesterday we met the new one from India, Elder Cooper from Linden Utah. I don't have a picture of him yet but he seems like a fine young man.

Those we are missing

Transfer week was especially hard on us as they took so many of our special missionaries that we have become so attached to. Elder Garcia, Elder Dorosan and Sister Sharp all went home

Sister Sharp is from Brigham so we expect to see her again and often!

Elder Park is another of those we have adopted. He has promised to come and see us when he gets back to Tooele.

Sister Evangelista and Sister Gaor have lived next door to us since we got here. For the first month they were our trainers as they taught us how to get around and find things ect.

Elder Dela Cruz is such a nice guy and will finish his mission as a ZL. Elder Villazar is the life of the party.

They ordered zone T shirts with the theme Come to Zion and everyones favorite cartoon character. Many of them came too small and they couldn't even get them on.
 

I think that look says Elder Parks is too small too!
Oh we are missing all of them!!

Making Homemade Ice Cream

A couple of months ago the R S President, Bete ( the one washing dishes) ask me if I could teach them how to make homemade ice cream. I told her yes but did they have an ice cream freezer. She said yes someone in the branch had one. So I told her to find out how big it was so I would know how much to make. Finally a couple of weeks ago I pinned her down about the size and found out she is talking about the freezer in the top of a refridgerator!!  Well it does freeze ice cream so I can see why she would think that. Anyway I thought and thought and remembered the ice cream we made up camping in baggies or in tin cans so that is what we did.

The men stayed out while the message was given and then they burst on the scene and it was caous and confusion from then on but eventually everyone got a bag of ice cream.
 

Elder Tsunoda was in the thick of it! Helping and eating.

We ran out of ice before we got to the tin can method so it never did freeze to more than a slush so they drank it like a milk shake. They don't have good milk and cream like we do, just the boxed kind so I found recipes using sweetened condensed milk. I only got to taste the chocolate but it was very good..

When the ice was gone they tried putting baggies down in the icy water to freeze some more.

Two of the sisters enjoying a visit after ice cream.

Our daughter in law Lisa taught us to eat soda crackers with ice cream and we thought that was different but these people added a whole new meaning to ice cream sandwich. The RS Pres brought small dinner rolls and they would open those up and fill them with ice cream! The ice cream that melted before they could eat it was soaked up with the bread.