Malipayon Pasko!

Malipayon Pasko Pamilya ug mga Amigo!

(Happy Christmas Family and Friends!)

Well, we had to hit the ground running this week.  Fortunately the jet-lag is not as bad coming back this direction as it was going back your direction.  We had to do apartment checks as soon as we got home so we hit that really hard on Tuesday and Wednesday.

This is the very dako (large), scary kaayo Santa that we came across in Sierra Bullones on our trip through the middle of the island to do apartment checks.

And the very tall tree in Carmen.  This is beautiful at night.

All the apartments were in good shape (or I was in a charitable mood) as they all got great scores.  Thursday we headed back to Cebu for a Senior Couples meeting.  It was good to see all of fellow seniors and enjoy some down time with them.

Senior couples having dinner in the Mission Home

Oh my goodness!  Look at that American food! 

Oh my goodness!  Look at that American food!  It was so delicious and the company just so amazing.  We had to say our goodbyes to the Bocks.  They are from Austrailia and will be leaving the mission for home in just three weeks.  They have served for 23 months and done so many wonderful things for the people in the Bogo area.  We will miss them but we are also happy to have friends in Austrailia to go visit. They also told us they will be visiting America next Fall so maybe we can see them then as they are going to try and go to General Conference.  We are hoping so….it made goodbyes easier hoping that this will be so.

Yesterday we had our Sagbayan Branch Christmas Party and it was quite a party!  Elder Bell will fill you in on the details.  But, I just wanted to shout out to some of our kids who helped with many gifts.  They donated and put together much of the 75 gift bags we had put together for our branch members!  We really appreciate our selfless, giving family!  The gifts were very appreciated by our members.

Today, Christmas, Elder Bell had assigned us (as in he and I) to speak in Sacrament Meeting.  So a few weeks ago I had this great idea to have a program including the scriptural reading of the nativity story from the Bible and Book of Mormon sprinkled with Christmas songs (Like 10 songs) so that I would not have to speak so long.  It was all good on paper!  Seriously, it was somewhat chaotic but all in all the members pulled it off pretty well.  And the best part is that I really did not have to speak very long.  I got brave and bore my testimony in Visayan (this is very scary for me).  I am not sure how it all sounded but I am glad it is over.  It helped me think about the true reason we celebrate this wonderful event.  The birth of this most holy child set in motion the events that lead to His ministry and eventual sacrifice for me, a weak and lowly child of God, that allows me to see Him and again!  This is why we celebrate….why we reflect…why we keep trying.

I love my Savior.  I am so grateful for His redeeming sacrifice for me.  I am so thankful for his enduring love and patience.  I know He lives and for this very reason I am here today doing what I do in Bohol, Philippines.  I love you all.  Malipayon Pasko!!

Love you forever,

Sister Bell (Mamala to all)

Maayong Pasko sa karon adlaw (Merry Christmas today)

When you receive this your Christmas day will just be starting while ours is wrapping up.  This is always a great time of the year.  This year has been a great Christmas season for us.  It was great to see our family for Thanksgiving and the week after. It was tugnaw kaayo (very cold) while in Utah and Wyoming. And very rainy upon arrival to Bohol. I am just grateful that we have such a great family and such great friends all over the world.

Well the Christmas party..... It stared for me at 5:00 AM.  Come to find out I was 2 hours late for the dressing of the pig for the party.  I arrived in time to get some great snap shots of the whole event.

Tatay Viodor dressing the pork

Brother Jandayan, Nanay Claudia and Cathleen Enad prepare meat for cooking

Lola Conchita preparing fire for cooking

Lola Conchita cooking pork 

Now on to the party.  We all gathered together at the church at 1:00 and started by watching a slide show or pictures from Sagbayan in 2016.  It was great to look back over all the memories of things that have transpired with this group of people over the last year.  At this time last year many of the leaders in our branch where not even members of the church. Now they are leading the Primary, Sunday School, Young Women's and Young Men organizations. My Branch Clerk also was not a member. It is amazing to see how the Lord has bless these people over this last year.

Then we stared the program after everyone was gathered around 2:30. Many presentations were given by members and nonmembers that were in attendance.  The missionaries had about 15 or 20 investigators present and they participated right along with the rest of us.

Nanay Claudia & Daughters

Arc Umbang on the guitar 

Then we started the minute-to-win-it games and fun was had by all.  At this time the room was just in uproar as every one competing was cheered on.

Sister Gambi and others doing the 'Cookie face off' game.

Then it came time for the Budol Budol (large feast).  Their was plenty for all and no one went home hungry.

Budol Budol

After that there was food and gifts donated by some of the members. The gifts were given to all members and investigators present at the end of the party.  For people who do not have a lot of worldly possessions they sure reached down into the bottom of their hearts and gave to each other.  No expensive toys or other item were part of the gifts. These a just the necessities of life that they are grateful to have.

Well to wrap it up for my part we have been greatly blessed to have such great family and also humble friends to share the Thanksgiving and Christmas season with.  We are truly blessed.

I know the Savior was born and died for us. This truly is the greatest event to happen in the history of mankind.  His birth truly gave hope and joy to all of us. May we always be thankful of the gift of His life and example.

Daghang Salamat (Much Thanks) to all of you.

Elder Bell (Tatay, LoLo, Amigo)

PS….

We just got finished with our Christmas celebration.  We invited our Sagbayan missionaries and our zone leaders over for Christmas Dinner!  We ate, played games and sang, celebrated Sister Andersons birthday and had a really memorable Christmas Day!

L to R:  Elders Goulding, Bell, Johnson, Susi, Santos, Crowley, Minoc

Sisters Anderson and Cook

Thanks to Sister Maughn for the donation of cans of pumpkin, we had real pumpkin pies made from scratch by me!  

Happy Birthday Sister Anderson!

Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Enjoying being Back in the Saddle again

Maayong Gabii Pamilya & Amigo's

Well its time for us to roll up our sleeves and go back to work aging.  We actually missed two different weeks with blog posts.  That is something that normally just does not happen. So after jet lag going and coming home from Utah to Bohol we need to hit the ground running this week with much to do and little time to do it.

I shared with you a couple of pictures from Thanksgiving when my children all came from out of town and visited.  So I will share a few pictures from when Kathy's children visited the next week.

Philippino game with Grand Children

The Candy Cane Game

Well we made it back after 24 hours of travel on Saturday.  The Branch had 2 baptisms on Saturday.  Our plane was delayed by 4 hours from original schedule so we missed the baptisms.  We also spent the rest of the day trying to recover from jet lag.

We had Sacrament Meeting today and it felt good to be back with the missionaries and members that we have grown to love so much.  We had 75 at church today with about 25 in Priesthood meeting today.  That was pretty good.

So in the next 2 weeks we have apartment checks to complete, couples get away to attend, Christmas party on Saturday and tithing settlement before new years.  That will keep us on our toes and will be a busy 2 weeks to finish out the year.

We love our family and we love the Lord and his work. It has been great to see our family and also to have a renewed effort to finish the work the Lord sent us to Bohol to complete.

I will leave you with a great shot of the beautiful land we are living in for 2 years as we serve the Lord.

The rolling hills of Bohol

Sister Bell and Sister Bertoldo catching a ride to heaven.

May the Lord bless all of you as you serve his children.

Elder Bell (Tatay, LoLo & Amigo) 

Ayo Family and Friends,

It was a long trip home!  We finally made it safe and sound after 24 hours of travel.  It is so exhausting to sit and sit and sit!  I guess it would not be so exhausting if I could sleep on a plane but that is not in the plan for me so it was just a really long trip!  Elder Bell, on the other hand, did a great job of sleeping and got home refreshed and ready to roll.  I am still a little tired even though I slept well last night.  

We were so happy to see all of you.  Thank you family for traveling so far to visit us for just a few days.  It is amazing how much the grandkids have all grown!  We got to meet our two new grand babies, Violet and Zealand.  Thankfully the little ones had not completely forgotten us yet.  Thank you friends, for all of the lunch and dinner invites, the visits, and hugs.  It was wonderful to see all of you.  I thought it would be hard to go home and then have to leave all of you again but it was just what I needed to head on back here to Bohol and finish the work we have started.

Please excuse our lack of pictures….We somehow did not think you would want to see a picture of our tired faces and that is about all we have for you today.  It was actually a little chilly when we got in yesterday which was a good thing because we were having an all-day brown-out again. So with no power…no air-conditioning.  We were glad for the cool breeze as we had to just open the doors and windows and pray for the breeze.

We will report in next week…in the mean time, have a glorious holiday week leading up to Christmas! Spend time with the people you love.  Don't get lost in the hustle of the holiday.  Take time to listen to wonderful music, watch sappy Christmas movies, snuggle your kids, visit your parents!  None of the hustle matters…..think of He for whom we celebrate this wonderful time of year.  

We love you and are missing you already!

Love you forever,

Sister Bell (Mamala)

Another Week Away from Paradise

Maayong Gabii Pamilya & Amigo's,

We had a great week this week connecting with family and friends at home in Utah. We love seeing all of our children and grandchildren.  At the same time we miss our Philippine family that consistts of Missionaries and Members.  We have learned that we need to enjoy the people we are with today because our days are numbered with all and we need to make the best of all the relationships in our life.  The heart is a funny thing.  You can suffer from not enough family and friends but your heart can except and love more people than you can ever imagine.  You can never have too many people to love.

I will start off by telling you of a live nativity we visited on Friday night with our family. The weather was tugnaw kaayo (very cold) with wala uwan (not rain) and mga tawo (many people). The Hunt family has held this tradition for 3 generations now and give much Christmas cheer to many.  Maayong Pasko (Merry Christmas) from the Hunt Family.

Hunt's live Nativity at Weber County Fair Grounds

Today on Sunday we traveled to American Fork to see Jason and Aly give baby Zealand Luca a name and a blessing.  There were approximately 30 or 40 family members who attended and it was great to see and hear Jason give a name and blessing to his first son.  They are such good parents and it will great to see them grow with Zealand.  You can never have too many grandchildren.  I can attest to that. They are Nindot Kaayo (very great).

Jason Aly and Zealand Luca

We have spent a lot of good quality time with family this week.  We are so glad to reconnect with all of our grandkids.  I think it will help gramma to get through the next 8 months without them.

I would like to let you know what joy we have in our hearts for all of our family.  We have a great family in the United States that we love to bottom of our hearts.  We also have family scattefred all over the Philippines and all over the world for the missionaries we have grown to call our own.  We also have Branch of People we dearly love in Sagbayan Bohol and the Calape District in Bohol.  We love you all and are so thankful to have you in our lives.  Our lives are very blessed because of you.

I love the Lord and love His work.

Many the Lord Bless you with the righteous desires of your heart.

Elder Bell (Tatay, LoLo & Amigo)