Well another whirlwind week in paradise. We had to send Jason and Aly off Wednesday on the ferry to Cebu. The ferry lines were so long Jason had to buy his tickets from a scalper. May is fiesta month in Bohol. There is a saying among the residents that in May the island of Bohol sinks lower in the ocean because so many people come for fiesta. These celebrations can rival any hometown celebration you have ever attended. In fact they announced that there would be 'dancing in the streets' on one of the posters. Little did we know that the dance lasted from sunset to sunup! With a live band and very loud amplified music….they danced and danced and danced…until 4:30 AM! These people love to party!
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| A shot form Tubigon town square during fiesta. All separate towns each have fiesta scatter throughout the month of May. |
Jason and Aly had one last snorkeling trip with us and Tanners on Monday. It was Nindot Jud (the greatest)! We then visited the Danao Adventure Park and went on the zip line and took a cable car across the canyon you zip across.
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| From the Cable Car in Danao |
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| Another shot from the Cable Car. |
Tuesday night we had a family home evening in the bukit (the hills). Jason gave the lesson in a humble home and several of the members shared testimonies. We played some games and shared some cookies. A fun time for all.
It was a fantastic experience to have Jason and Aly for a visit. Jason also gave us some insights into learning how to speak the language. We may never get it but at least we leave this place knowing we gave it our best shot.
We also attended a baptism in Pilar this week. It is a cool story…the father of the family was a missionary once. He came home early from his mission because he need to clean up some wrong doings but he just fell away from the church and has been less active for many years. He married and has a family of 4 boys. The missionaries stumbled across him and his wife really wanted to learn about the church. She progressed quite quickly and finally one day the elders suggested to the husband that he be the one to baptize his wife. At first he declined and said he could never do it. But with some gentle encouragement he finally decided he would clean up his life so that he would be worthy. He went to visit with the branch president and yesterday he had the great privilege of baptizing his wife, Regie Carang.
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The Carang Family. They have 4 boys that are 7, 6, 4 and 2 years old! (7 year old missing)
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Well I am going to turn the rest over to Sister Bell.
I am grateful for the blessing of serving a mission in this beautiful land and amongst these beautiful people. It is special to see so many enter the waters of baptism and set their feet upon the path the Lord has set to return back to his presence. We are truly blessed.
Love ya always,
Elder Bell (Tatay, LoLo and Amigo)
Ayo Family and Friends!
How are all of you doing? We are doing well. It is a little bit of a let-down to have family leave knowing it will be a really long time before you get to see them again. But this one was particularly difficult because they will have a new baby boy before we get to see them again! We are so happy to have had Jason and Aly visit. The trip was a challenge for a woman six months pregnant in such extreme heat, but she really was such a good sport to go and do things with us. We spent a lot of time at or in the ocean and that helped a lot to keep us all cool! We had some great snorkeling trips. And did we mention that while looking for dolphins one morning we got the most amazing whale watching trip ever!!! It was pretty cool.
So last week we wrote on Saturday and so I just wanted to share with you this cute picture and the story behind it….
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| My Mothers Day present from Elder Kuhn |
So, we went to church in Ubay on Mother's Day, as usual, and after sacrament meeting I was heading down to the primary room when Elder Kuhn approached me with something wrapped up in a hand towel. He said, "Happy Mothers Day Sister Bell. I didn't know what to get you so I decided to go with a classic….breakfast!" He unwrapped the two hard-boiled eggs he had in the towel with the 'Happy Mothers Day" message written on the shell. How cute is that?! It really made my day!
These missionaries take good care of us and treat us with great love and respect. It is really a joy to serve with them and we try hard to make their work and lives a little bit easier.
On Friday of this week we had to take a little mini-vacation we had planned many, many weeks ago with the Nueva Family. We travel a lot with President Nueva and his family as we go to church in the branch way up on the north end of the island. President will travel with us when he needs to visit the Ubay and Sagbayan Branches. Well, as we have traveled with them we discovered that they had not seen many of the great places that we always get to see. So, we asked them to plan a day that they could go with us to visit some of these places and May 13 was set as the date. So we took President and Sister Nueva, Sariah, and Shakira and went to Sagbayan Peak to look at the Chocolate Hills, Tarzier Monkeys, and the Butterfly enclosure. Then we drove to Carmen to also catch another view of the Chocolate Hills and then drove to Magaso Falls to finish out the day just before sunset. It was pretty fun to help them explore the beautiful island they live on.
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Beautiful 12 year-old Shakira with a butterfly on her hand!
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| All of us girls cooling off our feet in the river at Magaso Falls. |
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The Tarzier Monkeys are elusive little creatures. I think you would never see them if they were not in a cage. They are only about 4 inches tall. This little guy was just waking up.
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Well, that is a wrap for us this week! We love you all madly and really miss you but have a great week!
Love you forever,
Sister Bell (Nanay, Lola, Amigo)
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