Meeting a very Special Women

Hi to all Family and Friends

This week was transfer week and we spent 3 days on the road delivering missionaries to and from the ferrie.then Delivering them to and from apartments with their bags.  Our zone is one end to the other is 50 or 60 miles and we travel that 3 or more times.  The main objective is to keep the army of God's missionaries  in his service. They are great Elders and Sister.  About 80 percent are from the islands.  They are fantastic and sacrifice much to serve the Lord.

We have a lot of Elder and Sister care.  We realize that we rely 30 percent on medicine and 70 percent on Presthood Blessings. The Lord does hear and answers all of are prayers and blessings.

I am going to let Sister Bell tell you the story about one of the worthiest and purest sister I have ever meet. She is a inspiration to are lives.

Wel Love all of and We Love the Lord and his work.

Elder Bell. (Dad,Grandpa and Friend)

                                

 Special Sister Perez was transfered.

Hi all!

Last Monday we had the chance to go out with Sisters Astilla and Perez teaching for an afternoon. We were amazed by the whole experience. Their area is some distance from where we all live and so they travel each day by bus or trike to get there and then they hike into the jungle and the hills to find these people. There is no such thing as addresses here. You go into a barangay (neighborhood) and just begin asking questions and usually everyone can direct you. So, we went first to see a Sister Segovia. She is an elderly woman in her 70's. She has an amazing story. Many years ago she had a dream. In the dream she saw Jesus Christ standing at the foot of her bed. She also saw two men in white shirts with ties and she notice they had a name tag that had the name of Jesus Christ on it. She awoke and never having seen missionaries before and was confused. Just 4 days later she saw missionaries walking down the street. She ran up to them and asked who they were and could they come to her house to speak to her! Well, she was the very first baptized member in her village. She raised five children and is very poor. She takes in washing to make money having to haul the water up the hill to her home. But she told us that every week she pays her tithing. She promised the Lord that as long as she could walk she would always attend church. She told us that twice she has been sick on Sunday but she said I could still walk and so I went to church and each time as she partook of the sacrament she was healed. Two years ago her daughter and grandson were killed when her home was destroyed by the earthquake but she was unharmed even though she too was in the house. She said she chose to not be angry at God because He knows what is best. She continues to build His kingdom as she promised to do. The day we met her she took us to visit a young man that she has befriended to teach him the gospel. But she never leaves home without her temple recommend which she carries in that little purse you can see across her torso. She was the most wonderful woman. A true example of a follower of Christ. She inspired us! We are better people for having been in her presence.  This is a picture of her with our two sister missionaries, Sisters Astilla and Perez.

Sister Perez, Sister Segovia, and Sister Astilla

Carabou (car-a-bow) at work in Bohol

                            

Rice Fields and unique hills of Bohol

Well, I will let you all go. We are having internet problems so sometime you will get this. Please know that we are well and oh so happy! Miss you all! 

Love you forever.....Sister Bell/Mom/Lola(gramma)/friend

The 'ber' months and the Patron Saint!

Dear Family and Friends,

Wow! I can't believe another week has already gone by and yet it feels like we have done a month's worth of things in this one week.  They do not break new missionaries in slowly around here.  Let me start back at the beginning of this week.....

In the Philippines they celebrate Christmas through all of the 'ber' months...Septem'ber', Octo'ber', etc.
So really Christmas trees go up in September.  But the way each little village kicks off the Christmas season is with a celebration of the Patron Saint of the local Catholic Church (and there is a big Catholic Church in each town) (except Loon and Tubigon as their's collapsed two years ago when a big earth quake hit this island). Anyway, our little town of Calape celebrated with an ALL NIGHT festival last Sunday. We were unaware of this tradition but it involved amplified music with a very loud speaker blasting hard rock music just across the street from us.  It kept me awake all night as the windows rattled with each strum of a base instrument.  I was so relieved when it all fell silent at 4:00AM. But they were not finished yet. Moments later the whole group slowly paraded down the street in front of our apartment keeping the marching rhythm to the beat of a drum.  We finally abandoned the whole idea of sleep and got up to start our day.

Our days start early around here as Catholic Mass is broadcast via the loudspeaker each morning at 5:30 AM. We are finally getting used to the road noise in front of the house.  We live on the main street of the town and the Catholic church is just across the road and all community events emanate from the church.

We also had our first experience with rain this week.  Jason did not exaggerate when he told us about the rain!  It is like driving under a waterfall for the whole time you are out in it.  Wiper blades do little to help.  So wednesday night we drove in this rain for nearly an hour before we reached our home. I stepped out of the car to open the gate to our place and the usually dry gutter in front of the house had water up to my knees in it. There was no way around it...I waded right in and got the gate open. You have never seen rain until you see rain in this country!!!

The week did not slow down. Thursday morning we were up and working at a service project at 6:00 AM.  While there President Tanner called and asked us if we would fly to Manila that very day to escort a Sister Missionary that was having a mental breakdown. So we finished up our project and headed home to get ready to leave when our little Sister Lappay came over and asked us to come quickly to her apartment.  Her companion Sister Stanley had dislocated her knee, fallen and broken her arm!  So we rushed her to Tagbilaran, one hour away, where they have a hospital and handed her off to the other senior couple.  We picked up the sister who needed to go to Manila and off we went.

This missionary was in really bad shape.  She had voices in her head and was really struggling with some serious anxiety issues.  It was a long trip to the MRC.  The Philippines has a Missionary Recovery Center in Manila that takes missionaries in from any of the 21 missions in this country that are having any kind of mental or physical health problem.  There is a doctor and his wife called to serve there and now they have a Phycologist and his wife also called to serve there.  It is a pretty neat place and provides a great service to all the missionaries. We were able to stay over night there, get our fingerprinting done at the immigration office and finally are here on a legal VISA for the next two years.

Well, I am going to sign off now and let Kevin finish out the story telling.  We are adjusting well and enjoying our work here so far.  Love the missionaries and so appreciate how hard they work.  We miss you and love hearing from you. (remember this email thing works both ways)

Love you forever,  Sister Bell  (mom, lola (gramma), friend)

Hello to all from Paradise

We are have some great adventures temporally and also spiritually.  The last 2 days was district conference in Calape.  We were able to sit at the feet of one of the area 70's (Elder Augustine).  We heard from him and many other Philippine speakers that bore powerful testimony of some of the most basic principles of the Gospel.  It helps us realize how powerful humble people in humble circumstances can really be.  The basic power of the atonement in there lives is very strong and pure.

They called a new  District President today (President Nueva).  He supports his family by farming.  He has a section of rice he grows by his house and runs the old family farm miles away where he grows vegetables.  He tills the ground with a plow drawn behind a Caribou (Cara-bow).  He works from 6 am to 8 pm most days.  He seems to find time for his callings and for his family.  You can feel that he shows and bears his testimony by the way he lives his life.

The past District President was president 2 years ago when and great earthquake hit the Island of Bohol.  He watched his entire home fall to the ground but helped and corrdinated a Church Welfare effort to assist many people both from in and outside of the church to recover from the devastation.  At the same time he rebuilt his own home.

The spiritual blessings we feel from Bearing our Testimony's to member of one of the other Tribes of the  House Israel that live in islands of the sea's is humbling and priceless.  The tender mercy's of the Lord are great and the labors are few.

Love you always Elder Bell  (Grandpa (Lolo) - Dad - Friend)

                                           

 Sister Stanley with her broken arm.

                                                                                        

First District Meeting with Missionaries         

                                                                                 

 Pig Transportation System

                                 

Who needs a truck when you have trike?

Yikes! Snake!

Dear Family and Friends,

I don't even know where to begin!  This week has been so full of new adventures.  We finally arrived in Manila some 30 hours after leaving Utah. It was midnight in the Philippines and we were very tired as not much sleeping happened on the flight.  So we were supposed to look for a man holding a sign that said LDS Missionaries.  Well, we did not see any such sign and so an hour later we were still wandering around looking for the guy with all six of our very large suitcases in tow, when a man came racing down the aisle and looked very relieved to have finally found us.  So, we thought, mistakenly, that we would be very shortly at a hotel for some sleep.  Only Jason will understand the scene in the Manila streets. Holy Cow!  I thought I had seen some scary driving in different countries of the world but nothing compares to the streets of Manila.  It is beyond description (although I am sure Kevin will try).  It took 2 hours for us to get to our hotel that was 5 miles away!  So finally at 2:30 AM we were able to go to bed but had to be up at 5:30 for an appointment with Immigration!  Missionaries apparently don't sleep.

I am going to skip a couple of day....At long last we ended up on Bohol in the city of Calape (Ka-lop-a). We have settled in to a little apartment and have most of the amenities necessary for third world chic living. However, imagine my surprise when I arrived home yesterday evening to find a SNAKE slithering around on my kitchen floor!!!! You all know that I do not do snakes (right Joy Tenny?)!  Elder Bell quickly stopped the thing and got it outside. I am hoping this is not a regular occurrence but I am being very cautious about trips to the CR (comfort room i.e...bathroom) in the middle of the night.

Today was our first Sunday in the our Calape Branch and we were not that surprised when we were asked to speak just minutes before the meeting started.  We had been warned that this will be the case nearly every week so we will just get a little more prepared for future Sundays.  We later were able to accompany the Sister to a teaching appointment.  It was humbling to say the least.  The home we met in was a very tiny shack with woven mat walls and a tin roof. Two wooden benches was all the furniture in the house and a dirt floor kitchen with not running water, no refrigerator, no stove.  A family with two small girls and parents who are members but have fallen in to inactiviity. The Sisters wanted to invite them to attend church.  It was a sweet meeting and we were able to bear testimony that we knew they would be blessed if they could commit to attend church next week.

So we were about to wrap up our evening and get this post written when the Sisters called us and asked us to come help them.  They were at a teaching appointment when a 15 year old girl started having breathing problems.  So we rushed out the door to go find them.  Two hours later we had taken the poor girl to an emergency clinic and finally got the Sisters home just a couple of minutes past curfew.  Did I tell you that we live next door to two sets of Sister Missionaries?  We love having them so close and they certainly keep our lives interesting.  They are very sweet and we are hoping none of them get transfered next week as we are just learning to love them. They are all amazing missionaries.

It is very late and Kevin needs to have his time so I bid you farewell until next week.  I love you all and I am so very happy to be living the dream.

Love you forever....Sister Gramma Bell (Mom)

Hello to all!

This week has been a grand adventure.  Just to fill you in on transportation and driving on the roads. It is like a combination of being in a bumper car ride and racing the small indy like cars on the tracks they have set up. I am going to give you short version of the rules. First of all throw out all the rules you ever learned in drivers ed.

1. Flow -  means lines on the road don't count, 2 lane road could have 5 lanes of traffic if they fit or not.
2. Pick  - if you can get the front end of your car started in front of another you have the right away even if there is only 2 feet between the cars in the lane you are pulling into. Honk before entering lane to let them know they may need to move out of your way.
3.Pick and Flash - if you pass a car and another car is coming head on the one that flashes his lights first even if the flashing car is doing the passing.  You need to pull of the road or allow him right of way.
4. No see Chicken - when entering a intersection with no stop signs or lights if you do not look at other cars (like you do not see them) you have the right away.

So you drive with your right thumb on horn and be prepared to flash lights a at seconds notice.  California drivers would fit in well here.  Needless to say it is quite an experience.  The thing I worry about most is getting hit over the head by Sister Bell with her purse for being such a crazy driver.

On a spiritual note.  I have never seen a people he have so little but yet they have so much.  Many of them live in buildings we would barley call worthy of a barn for the cattle or chickens.  They have more power in their spirit and humbleness we strive our whole life to obtain. They have nothing but they have everything.

We love the work and find joy in doing the work of the Lord.  It is not always easy but it is sure worth it.

We love all of you.
Elder Grandpa Bell  (Dad)

PS.  We live in one of the most beautiful places in the world!

September 5, 2015

Hello Family and Friends!

We have completed our week of training at the MTC!  My goodness, it was such a remarkable experience.  I had no idea what a great place the Missionary Training Center is.  I think what struck me the most is that in this relatively small space, there were 2,200 missionaries (only 98 of us were seniors) and all of us were there for the same reason, to prepare to serve missions all around the world.  It was so amazing to see that many teenagers all dressed in white shirts and ties, sunday best dresses, not a single cel phone among them, all carrying scriptures and all so happy.  That many young people willing to put their lives on hold for 2 years to serve the Lord.  And that is just the people at the MTC in Prove.  There are more than 8 other MTC's in other countries of the world.  It really restores my faith in the future of this world.  There are some amazing young people that are going to be the leaders of our future.

We loved every day of training.  We found out a few things about ourselves along the way.  We found out we really do like to teach together and were pretty fair at it.  We also found out that we really are so excited to go to the Philippines and serve the Lord on this mission.  We love the gospel of Jesus Christ! And we are so happy to be able to serve together on this mission.  We really want to send a huge thank you to our kids and grandkids for supporting us in this adventure.  We realize the sacrifice you are making to let us go and we really appreciate it.  We will try to make you proud of us.

We will be heading to the Philippines on Monday morning bright and early (4:00 AM) and after a long full day of travel finally be in Manila.  So next week we will write and update you on our adventure.

We love you all and want to thank you all for attending our farewell.  We felt the love and support from all of you and really appreciate the fantastic day that was.

Love to all,  Kathy

Tender Mercy's of the Lord this week

The Power of hearing 2,200 Missionaries young and old sing many inspirational songs (Called to Serve and others) at the feet a a Apostle of the Lord (Dallin H Oaks).  The power of the spirit made me tingle from head to foot. Also was able to shake the hand of Elder Oaks.

We weep together with a volunteer coming in and helping teaching enactment's. The power of testimony in these situations is very powerful and very touching to the heat.

My thanks and Love to All
Elder Bell