I suppose I should start with the reason we are so delayed in getting to the blog this week. Yesterday, as soon as we could get away after church, we headed to the ferry so we could be in Cebu in time for a fireside that was featuring the five young men from the "Hey Joe Show". That won't mean anything to most of you so let me explain. We have received language tutoring for the last ten months from a fabulous guy named Sumner Mahaffey. He is a returned missionary who served in the Cebu Mission a couple of years ago and is currently employed by the MTC in Provo. His job is to teach old people like us to speak Cebuano. It is a very difficult job! Anyway, our tutor is one of the 5 returned missionaries who has become quite famous here in the Philippines by posting videos on You Tube, calling it "The Hey Joe Show". The Philippinos love these guys and they are here putting on shows before live audiences all over the Philippines. Well, Sunday night they did a fireside in Cebu for the youth of several stakes. So, we went over to Cebu to meet Sumner in person at the fireside.
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Sumner and his beautiful wife we finally got to meet in person!
(He says we are his star students, but if that is the case they really should pay him more!)
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Well, I did not know it at the time we planned our trip to Cebu, but the Sisters in Cebu had planned an activity for this morning and so I crashed the party. It was pretty fun to see some Sisters that had served here and we grew to love them.
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| This is Sister Huxtable and Sister Broughton who had served in Loon for a few transfers. So good to see them. |
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| This is Sister Macadangdang who served in Clarin for a long time. |
This is Sister Macadangdang who served in Clarin for a long time. We grow to love our missionaries so much. It is so fun to see them again and even more fun when they get transferred back to us!
Last week was once again Apartment Check Week! But in the meantime we had moved to Sagbayan and so our little 3 day circle Bohol plan that we had used the last few times did not lay out the same. So this week was lots and lots of driving and we realized that we really do need help. We were barely handling it before the branch presidency call, and now we really need help. So we hatched a plan and presented it to President Maughan, who gave his stamp of approval. And then we presented it to President Galotera from the Tagbilaran Stake and he gave his stamp of approval so we now have some excellent new help. We have asked our friends Bill and Emma Smalley to be a surrogate senior couple on the other side of Bohol. So now they can do apartment checks, help with medical emergencies, repairs and other such things. So one day this week we took them with us to teach them what it is we want them to do to help us and we were able to spend a whole day with them.
The very next day we were at the Smalley's home sharing a delicious lunch with them and Bill started telling us about how he once owned gold mines in Brazil. He would spend 6 months of the year down in Brazil working his mines. All of this was quite interesting but then he said that on two occasions he nearly was killed in his crazy adventures…."like the time I was nearly killed by an Anaconda", he says with kind of a 'happens every day' tone in his voice! I said, "Wait! Did you say you were nearly killed by an Anaconda?" He laughed and shrugged and said that it was his own fault really because as he went to step out of the dug-out canoe they were in, he tipped the canoe over and he stepped on the snake who promptly began to wrap him in coils. He went on to tell that he luckily had 3 other men with him and so his brother-in-law stabbed the Anaconda in the head with a knife and held it in place while the other two got the snake uncoiled. I am pretty speechless at this point and I was not sure I really believed the story. So, Bill leaves the room for a minute and comes back with the proof…….
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| The tanned hide of the Anaconda that tried to kill him deep in the Amazon Jungle back in the 1970's. |
Bill is a national treasure! You really have to meet him to believe a guy like him really exists. He has stories that never end and he and Emma are the most welcoming hosts you could ever hope to have. We are standing in the kitchen of the beautiful home that they have built together. It is not a typical Filipino home at all. Bill is a fine craftsman and has planed every single piece of wood that has gone in to this home. Anyway, these are our new 'surrogate senior couple'. We are so thankful to have them!
Well, I am telling all the good stories tonight, so I had bettered let Elder Bell finish up. But, before I go I want to say one more thing. It is a remarkable experience to watch my husband be the branch president of this Sagbayan Branch. When you serve among the people from the interior of the island they understand very little English. I was sitting in Sacrament Meeting yesterday, watching President Elder Bell (as he is lovingly called), conduct this meeting. He was doing the very best he could in Cebuano/English, and I thought about how proud I am of him. If it were me, I would be so nervous that I am not sure I could function. But, Elder Bell, just places his trust in the Lord and knows, without hesitation, that the Lord will qualify him because He called him. And you know what, He does. It is a powerful lesson for me and I share it with you. The Lord qualifies whom He calls! So trust the promise and willingly serve where you are called. The Lord will use all whom will willingly serve to build up His kingdom in these latter days.
I sure love you all so much. I really miss you but I am happily doing all I can to serve with all of my heart these last 12 months!
Love you forever,
Sister Bell (Nanay, Lola, Amigo)
Maayong Buntag Pamilya & Amigos
Well I am going to show you some of the activities we are involved in every week. The first is bikes. We have 20 Elders and 6 Sister on the Island of Bohol that ride bikes. Some of the areas are rather flat with a few small hills and the missionaries ride about 25 to 40 miles a day on their bikes. Some other areas are in the bukid (mountains) and they ride 25 to 40 miles a day. The bikes we have are not the best quality and mountain trails are very hard on the bikes. Therefore we always have broken down bikes that are in the repair shop. Presently we have 4 extra bikes so we can drop a fixed bike off and trade the missionary and then take the broken one to the repair shop. By the time those bikes are repaired we have 4 more broken bikes to trade them, and the cycle goes on and on and on! We spend a lot of time transporting bikes!
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| Trading repaired bikes for broken bikes. |
Next, Self Reliance training. The perpetual education fund of the church is used to help members in developing countries like the Philippines upgrade theirs skills to obtain better jobs, knowledge to start a small business and improve education. We are going to start a Self Reliance program in Sagbayan in the near future. We attended at training seminar in Calape this week to get the foundation skills to start the program.
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| Mary Ann Balen the animated amazing Self Reliance specialist for Cebu |
During apartment checks this week we came across these 4 elders that had learned to make their own ties by hand. I think they did a great job. Let me know what you think.
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Four matching ties on Elders Ludbey, Lang, Martin, & Fangon of Carmen
They were pretty proud of themselves!
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Also we saw some great sights while traveling the beautiful Island of Bohol and I will include few photos.
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| Normally the seas here are as calm as a mountain lake but not this month. |
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| Nepa Huts in various stages of decay being taken over by the lush jungle. |
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| Another Nindot shot from the other side of heaven. |
Well I will wrap it up for this week. It is amazing to be in this beautiful place sa kalibutan ( of the world) and work with these amazingly humble and good people. Serving in the Philippines is not the easiest place in the world to serve but the reward out weigh the sacrifice.
I was able to stand in setting apart this week of the Primary Presidency in our Branch. Brother Gambe is my second councilor and he set apart his wife as first councilor to the Primary President. That does not seem like much to you but this is the first time he has blessed anyone and with help from my first councilor he set apart his wife. It was so sweet to be able to teach this humble man how to magnify his new priesthood calling. The tender mercies of the Lord are everywhere working with these humble people.
I Love the Lord and I Love His work.
May God bless you with the righteous desires of your heart.
Elder Bell (Tatay, LoLo and Amigo)
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