Full Moon, Full Hearts

Pinaka Salamat to all my Pamilya (Anak and Apo) and Amigo's

Our hearts are full as we feel more and more part of the Land and the People we are going to love as our own.

1st Elder Lagahit:

This is a special Elder that we have only had the privilege of knowing for 6 weeks.  The first time we met him we could both feel the strength of his spirit and testimony.  After working with him in the field, church meetings and with the missionaries in his zone we realize how special he really is.  He inspires all who are around him to be better and achieve their full potential.  He is going home this week and we had the privilege of taking him to the ferry today.  As tears streamed down his check and ours also we sent him to the mission home from is his last area.  This is such a bitter sweet experience, we are happy he is able to be reunited with his family and friends at home.  At the same time our hearts break along with his as he leaves the land and people he has served and loved with his whole heart for 2 years.

Elder Lagahit is a special person with a very special spirit.  He was surely one of the "Nobel and Great Ones" saved for the last days.  To do the work of the Lord in the last of the eleventh hour before the Lord comes again.  If all men could have this strong of spirit the gates of ______ would shake.

Elder Lagahit

While attending District Meeting in Talibon this we had the opportunity to try out the new Multi Cab with missionaries.  We took the 10 missionaries in the Talibon District, and Sister Bell and I out to lunch.  This is just a snap shot of how 10 missionaries fit with room for more.

Great Missionary Transport

We were also able to stop by on the best restaurants on the Island.  They have great food and in US dollars it only cost about $ 8.50 for both of us to eat.  If you ever visit Bohol you have stop here.

Sister Bells favorite tree at Chellanne'

Night time dining at Chellannes

The Moon as it sparkles across the Bay from the Chellanne's (This was such a beautiful sight as the moon was full and sky pretty clear. We were eating in the open-air and the ocean breeze was blowing.  It was the only time I have been a little chilly since coming here.  Kevin however, was not chilly just for the record.)

We also have been privileged to see 2 of the young men and 1 older man be ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood.  They are part of the Sagbayan Group that is applying to become a Branch.  It is amazing to    be part of organizing a new Branch of the Church.  Two more families the missionaries and members have been working with decided to be baptized.  The struggling group of 20 we first visited when first arrived has grown to 50 or 60 and with 2 more families will grow even larger over the next few months.  This is living testimony of how members, missionaries and leaders working together can spread the truth of the gospel to all the people of the Earth.  One group, one branch and one ward at a time.  It is fantastic to be involved in the work of the Lord on the Island of Bohol.

Well time to turn this over to Sister Bell.

I Love the Lord and I am thankful to be engaged in His work. 

Pinaka Salamat (Most Thankful) to all of  you.

Elder Bell (Papalo) - Tati, LoLo, and Amigo 

Hello Dear Pamilya and Amigos,

It has been a really busy week (as they all are), but this week we had the added busy of moving to a new house.  Our Landlord built a new house right behind our other apartment.  It has two bedrooms and an unheard of, second bathroom.  I feel a little spoiled when so many people here do not even have one bathroom in their house.  But, as you can see, we are now ready for the visits to begin, so start booking your tickets now (but call and check on availability first or you may have to sleep on the hide-a-bed).  We are very comfortable here and it is a nice place to come home to at the end of the day.

We also spent Friday with the Halladays.  It was a very pleasant day and we so enjoy our time together.  They spent the day showing us all of the apartment on the other side of the Island that the missionaries live in so that when they go home in six weeks we will know where all the missionaries on the island live.  There is no other senior couple coming to replace them and so it means that we will have 30 apartments and 75 missionaries to care for when they leave.  (Did I get the count right Sister H?)  It is a little overwhelming to think about it but I am sure with the Lord's help we will be able to do it all.  But, just in case any of you out there are thinking of serving anytime soon……we would love to have you here.  You will be very much needed and be able to serve literally in Paradise.

Saturday of this week we attended a Missionary Musical Fireside in Ubay.  It was for members and non-members to just share the feeling of Christ through music.  It was well done and was spear-headed by our Elder Lagahit who just left today for home.  

Elders Kuhn, Lagahit, and Mina singing their hearts out!                                 

Well, we had to move seminary from Saturday morning to Friday night as most of the kids have to attend school on Saturdays for a few weeks.  Amazingly 15 of them showed up!  Turns out there is not much to entertain these kids on a Friday night so they were more then happy to show up for Seminary.  It takes a concerted effort on my part to get all of the homework books read and graded by the time class roles around again but, I have to say, I think this is the thing I enjoy most in my week.  I love how they love to learn and I am so impressed they do such a good job with their homework considering it is a second language for them. 

We had a really special class a couple of weeks ago that I forgot to tell you about.  I am not sure what the topic was for the class but it somehow evolved in to my sharing with them my testimony of the Atonement.  And as I spoke I looked around the class and saw tears rolling down the cheeks of most of the kids.  I was joyous because I knew they understood with their hearts what I was saying.  It was a very special moment for me and I think for them as well.  Most of these kids are pretty new members or not yet members and so they are hungry for gospel knowledge and I am so happy that we are the ones to share it with them.  Please pray for us to have the ability to teach them all they need to know at this time.  These are the future church leaders of the Philippines and I have to believe they (the members of the Philippines) will be in good hands.

I am going to close for now and want you to all know how happy I am to be serving here on Bohol with the best kauban (companion) ever.  He is so happy here I am not sure he will ever want to go home. I love you all so much and I miss you a lot some days but, when I do I just get up and go back to work so that I don't have time to mope.  The gospel of Jesus Christ is true.  We are happily engaged in the work of bringing souls to Christ.

Love you forever,

Sister Bell (Nanay, Lola, Amigo)

Crazy stuff

We see crazy stuff like this every day.  This is an 8 foot piece of plywood being moved on the motorcycle.  They move 40 foot bamboo poles, or giant pigs in crates on each side all of the time.  And 6-7 people is common place.  It is quite amazing really!

The Black Pig

Many people own pigs. Never more that one usually and they are not ever wallowing in mud.  They are usually very clean and always on a tether.  This is the only black one I have seen. Most are the pink variety.  I have trying to catch a picture of the man in our neighborhood who walks his pig on a leash down the road once in awhile.  He (the pig) is enormous and it is quite a funny sight.  I will keep working of the picture.

A little Anniversary R & R

Greetings from Paradise my Family and Friends!

Well, we actually got in a little rest and relaxation this week.  And I want to emphasize the 'little'.  It was our anniversary on the 16th and so we scheduled a night away from home at a little resort that is only about a five minute drive from our apartment.  It is called the Isla Hayahay.  This little resort is located on an island just off of Calape and is connected by a causeway, so we can just drive out there.  The resort was pretty damaged in the earthquake two years ago and so a couple purchased it and are really making it in to a nice place to stay.  The husband of the couple is from Australia and the wife from here in the Philippines.  They work really hard and are making some great progress with the place.  So we had planned this little get-away about a week ago and made the reservation.  We knew we could not get out there on our actual anniversary so we made reservations for the 14th.  And as luck would have it life got busier and busier and one emergency after another nearly derailed the whole thing.  But, we were able to get out there about 5:00 PM and have a nice dinner and an early bedtime as Elder Bell had to get up at 4:00 AM to take missionaries to the ferry.  He was so nice and let me sleep in then he came back and we were able to go snorkeling for a couple of hours.  That is the first time since we have been here that we have made it to the ocean to actually play for a while.  It was so great.  It completely and totally renews my spirit to stick my face in the water and watch colorful little fish swim around.  I just LOVE the ocean!  But, we were back at work by 10:30 AM so as I mentioned before it was a 'little' get away. All the same though, very much appreciated!

R & R at Isla Hayahay

The beautiful view from where I sat!                                           

We were able to make it out to work with a set of missionaries from Inabanga this week.  Sister Tahaafe is from Samoa and she is training a tiny little Filipina, Sister Samoya.  They are hard workers and I have watched Sister Tahaafe for a long while now as she has been here since we got here 4 1/2 months ago.  I have watched Sister Tahaafe work when she had been really sick. Her motto is, "My faith is stronger that my sickness.  God will help us if we help Him".  So not much keeps her down.  She called me for medicine the day after we had worked with them and so we ran up to their apartment to find her in bed with a fever and an ear ache.  I gave her the medicine and told her to stay in bed until the fever broke and she felt better.  She is pretty stubborn and before the day had passed she was up and dressed and out working.  We love these missionaries of ours.  They inspire us everyday by how diligently they work.

Sisters Tahaafe and Samoya with a family they are teaching.  (The family has 12 children in it!)

I was in the house yesterday preparing a talk when I heard this commotion out in front of the house.  I looked out there and saw this gaggle of boys trying to climb the new 'prison type' fence that just got installed around my yard. (Prison because it has really sharp pointy things all along the top).  They were trying to get to the large fruit tree that partly hangs over the sidewalk so that they could pick the fruit.  I opened the door to go talk to them and they all scampered down out of the tree and were about to run away.  I shouted for them to come over to the gate and they came thinking they were in trouble.  I told them they could come in and pick the fruit if they just asked me.  So they each took my hand and in turn blessed me.  (It is the custom here for children to take the hand of anyone older than them and touch it to their forehead.  They call it "bless', and all children are taught this respectful act from before they can talk).  They came in the yard and climbed the tree like monkeys and started picking the fruit.  I took them a box and they were having a great time.  Just then our landlord came along and shouted at them to leave the yard and never come back or he would call the police!  Yikes!  I had gotten them all in trouble along with myself.  I then got a 10 minute lecture on why he can't have the little boys climbing in the tree. I guess I can see his point, but talk about a party killer!

 The cute boys, so proud of their work!                                         

Sorry I have been so long winded tonight.  I can not tell you how much we look forward to writing our blog each Sunday night.  We think about it every day of the week and it keeps us motivated so that we won't disappoint all of you that read this.  Anyway, we really like to report our week to you.  It makes it  feel like we are all having this experience together.  So, as I close my part for this week, I just want to tell you all that we love you and that we would not be having this fabulous experience if it weren't for all of you.  Especially all of you that are taking care of our life back home, paying our bills, doing our taxes, taking care of our home and our cabin.  You are all wonderful and we thank you for your support!  I also want you to know that I love the Lord and His work.  I feel His hand in so many things that I do each week.  He really does care about the details of our lives and will make much more of us that we could ever possible make on our own.

Love you forever,
Sister Bell (Nanay, Lola, Amigo)

Hello to all from the Great Island of Bohol!

Well we finally were able get our Jeepney (Multi Cab).  We ordered this 2 1/2 months ago and have been waiting for its arrival.  You may ask yourself why would they need a Jeepney when the just received and new truck from the mission 2 weeks ago?  Well to answer that question you need to understand the transportation problems that exist all over the Philippines.  Most people (98%) do not own anything more than a motorcycle and 75% do not have one of those.  So they ride public transportation that exists (Bus, tricycle or back of motorcycle).  Also we sometimes need to transport missionaries for 2 hour rides to their area at 9:00 PM and public transportation is not available. That's not too bad if there are only 2 missionaries, but more times than not there are 10 or 12 Missionaries with some baggage.  With a truck or a car that sometimes means you make 2 separate trips and are driving into late hours of the night.

Well to make long story short. We can haul all the missionaries in one trip with baggage.  We also use it to help the District President and his Councilors visit the meetings and members on the other side of the Island.  There presence in the District with the members makes more difference to furthering the work of the mission than we can possibly do by ourselves.

So here is 'White Lightning' (the new ride, as named by the missionaries)

Who says that 20 Filipino's will not fit in the back of a Multi Cab

Now for story about Pilar: 

Pilar is the father-in-law of the Branch President in Calape (President Perez). He is about 75 years old.  He has been taught the missionary discussions for many years and many sets of missionaries.  Well I went to visit the Perez family about a month ago.  Pilar climbed a coconut tree to get some buko juice for us to drink.  Pilar and I hit it off very well.  He has been a hard working farmer his entire life and is still doing the same today.

We started teaching him the discussions again and for the first time he agreed to come to church.  He showed up the next week and asked where I was.  I went over to his house and explained I have to go to other Branches that are not as strong in Leadership as Calape.  To make a long story short, he has been attending church and has committed to be baptized.  I do not get to go with the Elders ever time they teach him, but I try to go 1 time every week.  I teach him the lessons I have prepared in Visayan and he helps we with the words I struggle with.  For 2 people that do not speak the same language we always enjoy the lessons and understand one another.

This week he fed us boiled Bananas and Coconut meat and milk.  He climbed the coconut trees and I was able to take some great video and pictures before the lesson.

Pilar coming down the tree

Well is has been another week in paradise.  Kathy and I had a great time on the anniversary get away and snorkel. Thousand of fish to see and we had a fantastic time together.  It is great to feel the Spirit as we work with the missionaries and the people.  That is the greatest part of paradise, for it is something that will last beyond this life.  I LOVE THE LORD AND LOVE OUR MISSION.

Salamat Kaayo to all,

Elder Bell (LoLo, Tatay & Amigo)

Baptisms Baptisms and More Baptisms

Maayong Buntag Pamilya & Amigo's

Well this was the week for Zone Training and Baptism's.

We started off the week at Zone Training Meeting with many great instructions from Zone Leader and STL's (Sister Training Leader).  These young missionaries are fantastic in filling leadership callings and bringing training back from the Mission Home to give all of us renewed direction and commitment in the work.

Saturday was the day for baptism's.  We started off with 5 baptism's in Sagbayan.  Two young men Marjunilo, 18 yrs. old, Meljun 22 yrs. old, one Lolo, Maximiano about 65 yrs, and two young mothers in there 20s Sister Mezeil and Sister Ma Lourdes.

  The Lolo (Grandfather) was the first baptism I have been asked to preform, it was great experence. 

The young man Marjunilo (18), during his testimony after the baptism accepted the challenge I gave him to him to serve a mission.  The young man Meljun was challenged to serve a mission after the confirmation today.  He sounded very positive and will let us know this week.  These are 2 young men we will be engaged in helping them prepare to serve a mission a year from now.  There is also another young man from Calape that we are helping to prepare to serve a mission.

Sagbayan Members attend baptism in groups

The Caravan of members from Sagbayan going home from supporting the members of the Group at the  baptism.

There were also 2 other baptism's in Calape.  I had an opportunity to help teach these 2 young men.  They will be great missionary prospects in 3 or 4 years from now.  We arrived so late that day from Sagbayan, we were not able to get pictures that turned out.

The Gospel is spreading in Bohol and it is great to be part of it.  We are seeing units of the Church be organized right before our eyes.  It is great to be a part of the Lords Army.

Love Ya Always,

Elder Bell  (Tatay, Lolo & Amigo) 

Komusta ka?

I am so happy to be writing to you all again.  It is crazy how fast a week flies past out here.  It is an amazing experience to serve a mission.  Every day is unique and busy and blessed. 

This week I thought I might give you an update on the seminary class we started in Sagbayan.  It is pretty fantastic!  We have had sixteen different students come and sign up in this little Sagbayan group. Every Saturday we have class at 9:30 in the morning and usually we have 12 students show up.  Each week a few don't show up but then the next week they will come and others don't make it.  But the encouraging thing is that even if they don't make it to class they send their homework with someone else to turn in for them.  This is considered 'Home Study' Seminary.  So each week the students do four lessons on their own and then we meet for a fifth lesson all together.  This would not be so amazing if it weren't for the fact that these students are Cebuano speakers and they are doing their work with English text books and turning in work with answers in English.  Amazingly their answers are pretty spot on and I can tell they are really comprehending the lesson material.  It is so rewarding to work with teenagers that are hungering and thirsting after gospel knowledge!  

This is how we do seminary.  

This is how we do seminary.  We meet in the garage that we call our church in Sagbayan.  So with no desks we improvise and use chairs as our desks, but still the learning goes on and we have a great time together!

John Mark with his new scriptures

This is John Mark showing off his mini scripture box.  We gave all of the students a new set of scriptures when they came to seminary because none of them had a Bible and this year we are studying Old Testament. If you look really close you can see that on the side of his box that is showing he chose to put a picture of himself with Elder Bell and I. He calls us Lolo and Lola because we are his 'church grandparents'.  

Sister Mamala, You are so beautiful!

Please excuse this selfie, but I had to share it.  Saturday as we waited for the rest of our Sagbayan group to arrive, we sat at the piano and sang all of the primary songs we had learned.  I could feel the little girls playing in my hair but had no idea what they were doing.  Finally they said, "Sister Mamala you are so beautiful!"  They marched me into the CR (bathroom) to see for myself.  They were so proud of their handiwork I didn't have the heart to remove the flower crown and so I attended the baptism adorned with flowers and even had to lead the singing!  The little girls beamed with pride!

Another event that we had this week was a visit to an NICU unit at a hospital.  A young teenage mother had given birth to a premature baby girl.  She was nearly full term but the baby had a few minor complications and so we went for a visit to show our support and love.  Oh my!  Be very grateful for our modernized hospitals.  It was a room that was full of babies.  None of them in isolets or even individual beds.  It was a big rack that looked like a vegetable stand and the babies lay side-by-side with bright lights shining on them.  The mothers had to squeeze in to find a place to sit and be able to hold or feed their babies.  It was not very clean and I left ever so grateful for our clean, well-equiped hospitals back in the states.  I think little baby Barbie Rose will be fine and be able to go home soon.

Well, that is about all we have for this week.  We are still busily engaged in many great things.  We still love the Lord and our opportunity to serve Him here in Bohol.  We are mindful of all of you and especially our good friends and neighbors, The Hansens, who lost their beloved husband and father this week.  Lon Hansen was a great man.  We will greatly miss him and pray for the comfort that only the Holy Ghost can bring at this time.  We love you all and pray for you each day.  

Love you forever,

Sister Bell (Nanay, Lola, Amigo)

New Year's - Rice, Rice & More Rice

Happy New Year to All

Rice, Rice and more Rice

Most people in America have no clue how to grow rice or harvest it.  That is why I am doing a rice 101 on planting rice.  At a later date I will do rice 102 on Harvesting rice.

First you get a lot of rain and create dikes to contain that rain so you can plant your crop. Last week a typhoon hit the Philippines and we were on the very corner of the storm so it just rained for 2 days straight (that is not normal).  So the farmers have a very good way of retaining the water they need to plant their rice with terraces and ditches that most people from the outside have no clue they even exist.

Second you prep the field to plant rice.

Leveling Machine #1

Leveling Machine #2 resting before leveling the next terrace. 

These terraced sections are perfectly sloped so they retain enough water and overflow to the next terrace at one end.  The next terrace does the same and drains at the opposite end on down the hill.  These terraces were designed and made by hand.

Then comes the rice planting.  Little patches are grown for seed very close to one another, then planted in the fields.

Missionaries and Members working together on the Racoma Farm

The Racoma Farm House

The Racoma Farm house.  They have 13 children and grow 10 hectares of rice (that is 24.7 acre of rice) that is leveled, planted and harvested by hand.  They are the hardest working and most faithful people you could ever hope to meet.

This is one of the most beautiful rice farms I have seen.

We will attempt at a later date to show you harvesting and sending the rice to market.

New Truck:

Not much to tell but the old temporary truck we were driving lasted just long enough to get to the port in Ubay so we could trade it for a new one.  We left at 10:00 PM on Monday night for Ubay (2 hour drive away) to meet the ferry.  We literally prayed over the truck that we would make it.  At times it would spit and sputter and blow black smoke so much that we thought at times is was rolling to a stop.  We would pray that we could make it to the next town and we did.  HOORAY!

Check out the New Ride (pretty fancy by anyones standards)

The trip to Danao:

We took the Elders from Sagbayan to Danao this week to visit a member in the far end of their area, and check on some investigators.  I walked up the road with the Elders from the member's home.  We taught lessons at 3 of the 5 houses we passed.  Many were receptive and I enjoyed teaching part of the lessons I had prepared.  We had to leave and we were not to the end of the road.  We will visit in the future teaching and testifying as we go.  Many of these people sure have pure spirits.

A very well made baby swing in one of the homes we visited.

Well I have to turn this over to Sister Bell.

We are enjoying all the rich spiritual experiences each week.  The Lord has blessed us in so many way's.  It is a miracle that I can speak and teach in another language.  I still have a long ways to go before I can understand and speak freely.  But with the Lord's help that is possible.

May you have a Happy and Prosperous New Year.  And may the Lord bless you with the righteous desires of your heart.

Amping Elder Bell (Tatay- Lolo- Amigo)   

Dear Family and Friends,

Here we are in a new year!  It hardly seems possible.  We have been here for four months already.  I have a feeling the time is going to pass much too quickly for me.  It seems like the weeks are flying past. 

All of the missionaries were told to be in early (6:00) on New Year's Eve as apparently the Philippino population celebrate all night long with unpoliced fireworks and shooting guns.  The streets are not a very safe place to be on such a night.  So we were able to have a movie night in our districts.  It had to be a Disney movie and they had to be home by 8:00.  We invited our Calape district over to our apartment for the movie and treats.

Calape District Missionaries

This is our Calape District. Four sisters and four elders and one extra young man that is preparing to go on a mission from the Calape branch.

It was a fun evening and these tech deprived young people thoroughly enjoyed "The Good Dinosaur". Surprising how easily we are amused when we never get to watch TV or go to Movies.

Another adventure we had this week was working an afternoon with our Clarin Sisters Ross and Macadangdang.  They are great missionaries and we love to go out teaching with them.  Plus Sister Ross is the only Utahan missionary we have in our whole zone right now and so sometimes we Utah girls just need to see each other.  She is training Sister Macadangdang and doing a fantastic job of it.  We were trying to catch an older couple home that had not yet been taught but told the sisters they would like them to come teach them.  Turns out they were not home but their daughter, who lives next door was.  She graciously accepted our invitation to have a short lesson.  Turns out her house is the gathering place for all the kids of the neighborhood as she has 8 kids of her own.  

Sister Ross and Sister Macadangdang

This is the pack of kids with Sister Ross and Sister Macadangdang.  They love to have their picture taken and they loved the primary songs I sang with them.  But the thing that caught their attention the most was the hair on Elder Bell's arms.  I don't know what it is, the heat or the humidity, but the hair on Elder Bell's arms has grown in so thick and long that his arms look like a persian cat.  So all of the kids kept coming up and petting his arms, fascinated by the long hair.  It was pretty distracting for the sisters as they taught but the mom of the group said that we could come back on Saturday to teach her again!

Well, that just about wraps up our week.  It is an interesting experience to serve a mission.  I feel the refining process going on within my soul.  There is no other time in my life that I have lived so removed from the things of this world and I have found this change taking place.  I can feel the Lord molding me.  I think maybe because I enjoy so much quiet time without the distraction of modern technology.  I can hear the whispering of the Holy Ghost urging me on to change and growth.  It is a remarkable thing really.  I know now why our children come home so different from when we send them out.  They too went through this change and it is so good.  I highly recommend this to all senior couples.  You will grow in ways you never thought possible and when you are old, growth and change are a good thing!

We love you all so much.  I have to be honest and tell you that I did get a little homesick these past two weeks, but, I would not want to be any place else right now.  We love our mission and we love the Lord.  It is a privilege to serve Him in this way.

Take care my loved ones.  

I love you forever!

Sister Bell (Tatay, Lola, Amigo)

Sometimes the beauty of this place just takes your breath away!