Manoa

Malipayon Gabii Pamilya & Amigo's

Well another great week has passed in Paradise.  Not quite as busy as the last one (last week would be hard to top). We spent our week doing this:
1.  Helping a potential missionary make preparations to serve a mission.
2.  Line up the stainless steel to have a luggage rack installed on the Multi Cab.
3.  Preparing and teaching seminary.
4.  Helping one of our dear friends who lost a new born baby and seeing to the funeral and burial.
5.  Doing a community service project for an investigator family in Sagbayan.
And that was a not to busy week.

Well I will take 1,2 and 5 and Sister Bell will do the rest.

We are helping a young man form Calape make preparations so he can serve a mission.  Claudius was raised without a father.  He has not had the easy life.  Last week was the first time they had power in their house.  He has a great desire to serve a mission and works with the missionaries every week.  He is a great artist and also has started being our language tutor.

Claudius

 He has a job in Tagbilarin he will start in a week.  He will be saving money for a year and attending missionary preparation class to get ready.  This will be a great blessing in his life and will help him to break a cycle in his family and give him hope for bright future.

Well as far as the steel there is not much to tell other than we finally found the steel.  Pictures will follow later when the rack and Basahon ni Mormon signs are installed.

The service project was a great success.  We were informed that we would work on a garden.  Well after arriving and starting to clear the area, we were informed that it was a coconut garden we were working on.  Come to find out you just trim all the underbrush and do not remove it and it provides mulch for the growing coconut trees.  You learn new things all the time.  The sisters prepared a great meal with fish and rice.  Work was completed and great times for all with a great meal.

Sister Preparing Meal

Sister  Claudia Cooking Fish

Service Project Underway

It is always great to have some coconut milk along the way.

Well I will sum it all up by telling you a transformation I have experienced in my life.  When you go on a foreign mission, you realize that you are foreign person in a foreign land and everything is very different.  Then one day after working as hard as you can to contribute everything you can, you realize that this land has become one of your homes here on this earth. The people and places you go to are no longer foreign, they are part of you and you are a part of them.

I love my home and family in Utah and Wyoming (and all other places you, our children live).  I love you to the bottom of my heart.  I also have a gospel family that I love here in Bohol in the Philippines.  The land and the people are so dear to my heart.

I thank the Lord each day for being blessed with such great people and experiences.  We are truly blessed.  I love the Lord and know the gospel of Jesus Christ is true. I say these things in the Name of Jesus Christ our Savior and our Redeemer. Amen

Nahi Gugma as Always,

Elder Bell (Tatay, Lolo, Amigo)

Greetings Family and Friends!

How has your week been?  You hear all about ours every single week but we rarely get to hear about yours.  Feel free to share!  We love hearing from you.

It was a week for me to catch my breath!  I actually got a short nap two days in a row and I feel a little guilty for that but I took advantage anyway.

I do want to share some of the sweet story of Baby Manoa.  As we told you last week he passed away on Monday late afternoon.  The Viodor family were finally all able to go home and get some much needed rest.  They were able to take Baby Manoa's body home with them also.  They do not have much in the way of money and so the Lolo had already fashioned a tiny little coffin for him.  He was dressed in the little boy outfit that Elder Bell and I had given them a few weeks ago.  At the time we bought it I thought it ridiculous that it had a hood as it is so hot here.  But there were not that many to choose from and so the purchase was made along with a little light-weight blanket.  What a tender mercy the little hood turned out to be as his head was very misshapen and large and so the hood covered it just perfectly so he looked just like the adorable angel baby he was.

Sweet Baby Manoa Seliote Viodor                                          

So, Baby Manoa lay in state at the family home and we got word about 5:00PM Monday evening that they would be having a short funeral service at 7:00 and would Elder Bell speak.  So we rushed out the door and headed up to Sagbayan, 45 minute drive from our house in Calape.  True to the customs of this culture, we were invited to share a meal with the family and we are the honored guest so we eat first along with the missionaries.  We leave the table and they wash the few dishes they own and sit the next group down for the meal of rice and bihon (noodles).  A third group was fed and then the Elder sitting next to me leans over and whispers, "Sister Bell, will you speak?"  Oh my goodness!  This couldn't have been mentioned a couple of hours ago?  So, I swallowed hard and said yes.  My mind was whirling and I just turned it over to the Lord.  I could not really tell you what I said.  All I know is that we were all crying by the time I finished.  Elder Bell did just fabulous, as he always does.

The next day at noon we all gathered again and once again were fed well from the family giving us all that they had, rice, bihon, and this time some fish.  The multi-cab became the hearst as the tiny coffin was loaded in to place by the Lolo and cousin, John Mark.

Maximiano and John Mark carry Baby Manoa to the Multi  Cab

We lead the procession to the public cemetery where earlier that day the Lolo, Maximiano had built a tomb out of hollow block and cement.  Everyone said their last goodbyes and then Lolo Max enclosed the casket with cement.  Our Elder Vuetibau had just the day before given this little baby his own name, Manoa, and the very next day had the privilege of dedicating his grave.  It was a lot for a young man to handle and he wept big tears at the solemn occasion but he did a beautiful job.

Elder Vuetibau, one of the great ones!                                      

I think the hardest moment for me was when Manoa's tatay (daddy) knelt at the grave and his shoulders shook uncontrollably as he morned for his baby boy.  Brother Viodor is the only person of the family who is not a member of the church.  It was a hard scene to witness.

A Father's grief…..                                                  

And that my friends is why I needed a nap, two naps!  It was emotionally draining to say the least.  

The most amazing part of this whole experience though was to watch the members of this Sagbayan Group come together and help the Viodor Family through this trial.  They are truly a Zion people in every sense of the word.  I am learning so much from them of what it means to be a true disciple of Christ.  I am blessed to be a part of them.

I am really going to let you go now as I have rambled so very long.  Maybe we can catch up on Seminary another time.  I love you all.  I miss you and I think of you everyday.  Stay true and faithful to your own convictions.  Help each other and trust in God's plan for your life.  He will make way more of your life than you could possibly make on your own!

Love you forever,

Sister Bell (Nanay, Lola, Amigo)