Beach's, Baptism's, Primary and much More

Maayon Buntag (Good Morning) Pamilya and Amigos

We had another whirlwind week on the Island of Bohol!

I will start with the Beaches on Thanksgiving.  Pictures are worth 1,000 words!!!

Panglao Island, where one day we will dive and swim with the Dolphins

A Cave in Panglao Island where you can swim in the fresh water.

One day in the near future we will try out some of the best diving in the world.

Panglao Beach

Now on to Primary.  Sister Bell is becoming a legend when it comes to Primary.  She has been working    with the District Primary Presidency and visited many Primaries in the District.  Agin pictures are worth a 1,000 words.

 Sister Bell teaching and singing with the Children in Ubay. (Lift up your voice and sing! They love it!)

Primary in Sagbayan Group that is going to become a Branch. (We are singing 'I will go. I will do the things the Lord Commands', hence the arm motions)

We also had great teaching experience with the Calape Sister (Sister Stanley, Sister Reyes, Sister Mendoza).  That is a ongoing story we told you about earlier.  Brother Allen actually asked what he had to do so he could become a member of the Church.  Last I heard he is more then 3/4 of the way thru the Book of Mormon in 2 weeks.  We will keep you updated on the rest of the story as it unfolds.

We also had a great teaching experience with the Clarin Sister (Sister Ross and Sister Morales) I will let Sister Bell fill you in on this one.  She does a far superior job at explaining. 

Baptisms, Baptisms and more Baptisms.  Sister Bell will also take this one.

I Love the Mission we are engaged in, I Love the Lord and the Spirt he blesses us with Daily.

Love to all 

Elder Bell  (Tatay, Lolo and Amigo) 

Ayo All!

We did have a great week here on Bohol.  We were able to celebrate Thanksgiving with our friends, The Halladays.  They gave us the grand tour of Panglao and then we stopped for a bite to eat at what we though would be the most Americanized restaurant we could find and to my great surprise and delight they had one lonely little pumpkin tart that tasted amazingly like pumpkin pie!  So I did get my pumpkin pie after all.  A tender little mercy.  Our landlord is so good to us and he had celebrated Thanksgiving once in American and so he knew it was a big deal for us Americans.  He so kindly brought over a kilo of fresh shrimp for our Thanksgiving feast!  What a great idea!  I love Shrimp!

In true Thanksgiving fashion, we ate until we were too full to move! Lami Kaayo! (Very delicious)

We also had some great teaching moment this week.  As Kevin mentioned we went out teaching with the Sisters Ross and Morales.  We visited with the Salutan Family who are members and wanting to become active again.  Elder Bell was able to share his great testimony of the power of the priesthood and how it has blessed the lives of his family.  Then Brother Salutan remembered an experience he had many years ago blessing and healing a very sick little boy.  He wants to be worthy for that priesthood again.  These two sisters are amazing and we really enjoy our work with them.

Everyone we visited that day asked if we were Sister Ross' parents.  We will claim her as our own until we have to send her home to her real parents!

All of our baptisms are usually scheduled for Saturday.  So these are the baptisms from yesterday.

These are Elders Familar and Vuetibau with Mel, his mother, Evangiline and his grandmother, Conchita!  How cool is that?  They are from our little Sagbayan Twig.

These are Sisters Bolo and Gil from Tubigon branch with their baptismal candidates Jade, Jenny and Gia. (The Elders just joined in because they like to photo bomb)

So, as we loaded up the truck to send all of the Sagbayan people away after the baptism, they all stood up and shouted "Hoorah for Israel, Hoorah!"  It brought tears to my eyes.  I love these people!!

And yes, this is a common mode of transportation here on Bohol!                           

Well, sorry to overload you on the pictures but we just narrowed it down to these few.  We had a very full week and enjoyed every minute of it.  We love you all.  We love what we are doing and just pray that in some small way we can accomplish what it is the Lord needs us to accomplish while we are here these short two years.  Thank you for all of your love and support through letters, phone calls and especially prayers.  Each one is felt.

We love you forever,
Sister Bell (Nanay, Lola, Amigo)

PS…first of the quiet bags arrived this week!! Nindot Kaayo!  (Very Awesome)