Relief Society Birthday

We went to the West District Relief Society Birthday Social where of course they played games. These people have so much fun playing simple games

Then they dance.
 

Each branch did a floor show dance, this is Birbira Branch

Branch 4 with Irish Lugoa and Lorraine Martinez leading them.

In the East District the theme was Provident Living and each branch had a table of ideas to make things with what they have. These flowers were very pretty and are made from plastic drink bottles.

I thought these purses were very pretty.

The table display from Branch 6

The food we were served, it was quite good.



The District Presidency from East District,

Wedding and Transfers

Last week we rode with President and Sister Martino to Manila to attend the temple wedding of these two former missionaries from our mission. Sister Gala lived next door to us the last  three or four months of her mission

This week was transfer week. Our zone before transfers

These four sisters have been livmg next door for quite a while. Sister Fabros was taken to be a Sister Trainer Leader. She will do great but she was sad to leave.. Her companion Sister James is from Pakistan but came to us from Tacloban after the terrible typhoon there. She was one of those girls in the second story apartment with the flood waters rising and they had to break a hole through the wall to get out.

Sister Connell from Magna Utah has been with us for 4 1/2 months

Elder Fatani from New Zealand has been our zone leader, he is a great man.

Sister Nielsen from Hurricane Ut just finished her training.

Sister Cayman was trained here and then was Sister Nielsens trainer

Elder Hubbard has been called to be a zone leader 

We stopped along the road to watch them harvest sugar cane. The fields are burned before the canes are cut. Then they are cut and tied in bundles and loaded on the trucks by hand, There is a ladder dragging along at the side of the truck that the workers climb.

Baler Weekend

Since there has not been a missionary couple in Baler since November President Martino offered us a chance to go there for a weekend and stay in the house there. We were looking forward to going but then we both got bad colds. We decided to go anyway but we didn't do much while we were there except sleep.  We did do apartment checks and installed fire alarms in the missionaries apartments. These zone leaders took us around to all the apartments so as we passed the turnoff to this giant Bannion tree we stopped to show them.

We spent alot of our time just watching the ocean, It was quite rough while we were there

There were surfing classes going on and we enjoyed watching them

Elder Moser is content for hours and hours just watching the waves

Shortly after we took this picture we went for a walk along the beach. All of a sudden a wave came right up over the top of us, it knocked me down and I had our camera in my hand so this is the last picture that camera will ever take!  Sad day.

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.