We are posting a little bit early today as we are leaving soon to celebrate our Anniversary! I have been lucky enough to married to this great guy for 19 years now! My goal is to live to see 25….we got a late start on this.
Have you ever had the experience of teaching or speaking when you are just so thankful that you listened to the direction of the Spirit? That happened to me yesterday in Seminary. I was preparing a lesson from Galatians 5 where Paul is teaching about the 'temptations of the world' vs 'fruits of the Spirit'. So many lessons lose meaning in the translation for my Filipino students. I woke up one morning and knew exactly how I needed to teach this lesson. I had the kids read verses 19-23 and made sure they all understood the definition of the temptations and spiritual gifts spoken of in those verses. I then assigned a character trait or two to each kid and they obviously belonged to the good guys or the bad guys. So they all lined up on a rope with Elder/President Bell holding the rope in the center and as I described some hypothetical scenarios of a day in the life of a teenager, they had to decide which team was winning at that moment in time…..a little tug-o-war, if you will. They got so in to this little demonstration that soon Elder Bell had to start helping the Fruits of the Spirit team pull as the Temptations of the world was really over-powering them. It all dissolved in to a heap when everyone started getting rope burns on their palms!
The lesson could not have been more impactful as I explained that such is life….The temptations of the world never go away and they are powerful and they will win unless you do something everyday to strengthen those spiritual gifts! I said a grateful little prayer last night to the one who orchestrated all of this!!
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| Our spiritual Tug-O-War! |
Also, last night (after the tug-o-war), President Galotera, the director of Seminary and Institutes here on Bohol, showed up to our seminary class. He was blown away by the shear number of students we have. Most branches have 1-5 kids in seminary. We have 19 kids that come most weeks!! Sagbayan is a special place. I have said it before and I will say it again…Sagbayan youth are remarkable!!!
On Friday night we had our long overdue seminary mid-term party!! It was suppose to happen the week we left for Utah and has taken us a few weeks to fit in to our schedule. Anyway, all of the kids gathered at our apartment after school on Friday (school ends at 5:00) for dinner and movie night! It was so fun. Our apartment is very tiny but that matters not to Filipinos…..they just make room for everyone. They are not too impressed with my American ways of cooking but they really liked the dessert. The fun part was watching them watch Despicable Me! It turns out when the minions speak there is no language barrier. They understood perfectly well the plot of the movie. Then they talked me in to a second movie and so they all got home pretty late and I thought their parents would be a little upset but they all assured me the next day that no one was worried because they knew they were with the 'couples missionaries' (that is how they always refer to us).
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| Sagbayan Youth in our apartment for movie night! |
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| They loved movie night…..we may have to make it a more frequent event! |
Saturday morning we also had a CSP (community service project) which Elder Bell could not attend as he had Branch Presidents meeting in Calape. So it was left to me to be the transportation chief yesterday. The project was to install a toilet for a family that has never actually had one.
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| Building a comfort room |
The needs of some of our members are so basic. They of course have no indoor plumbing so it is a little outhouse for them and they could not be happier! It makes me wonder when we as Americans became so caught up in the world?……Most of us can not be content with a single full service bathroom in a house, right? This is a toilet that will require a bucket of water to flush it and that bucket will have to be hauled from a well. But this little family of 5 could not be happier.
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| The cute Ocabat kids…recipients of said toilet! |
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| Brother Ocabat making lunch |
I was moved to tears when I saw Brother Ocabat plucking a chicken to make the work crew lunch. This is a chicken I am sure they could not afford to feed us and yet…..they did. They gave us their all in gratitude for the new CR (comfort room)! These people are so giving. They teach us each day by their gracious and generous giving. We are so blessed to know them. We have learned so much about true Christ-like charity from our wonderful Sagbayan Saints!
Well, I will turn you over to Elder Bell for his side of this weeks story. I love you! I miss you! We are working hard every minute of every day (except tomorrow when we go snorkeling for our anniversary) to finish the work we have been sent here to do. We appreciate your love, support and prayers!
Love you forever,
Sister Bell (Mamala to all)
Malipay Domingo ta sa karon adlaw.
A week full of fun excitement, muddy trails and roads and many spiritual experiences and lessons. We are not that far from the end of our mission so we are trying to make every week count.
I will start off with the youth activity after seminary sa Sabado (Saturday). So the youth decided to go and all do missionary work together. So I loaded all the youth in the Multi Cab along with the Sister Missionaries. First stop was Sister Apple's home (newly baptized youth member). Her mother is inactive having joined the church while she was teenager. So, the whole group showed up and we told them they did not need to feed us or entertain in anyway and we just started singing (Families Can Be Together Forever). After we completed the song the Sisters told Apple's mother that they loved her and just wanted to bring some cheer to the family. She then cried and told us her story and how the church had helped her when she was young. We wished her well and went on to the next house to repeat the song of cheer. All parties that we visited were very appreciative of the youth and the sweet sprit they brought with them.
So today Apple's mother showed up at church and attended all the classes. She seemed very touched and felt the spirit she felt when she was a young girl. (I attempted to take some pictures and light would not permit.)
We are also starting the family search program to prepare names to take on our adult temple trip planned for Feb. 16-18. Sister Shamrell came to Sagbayan and assisted in training Sister Jovilyn and Joenalyn it starting their family tree.
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| Jovilyn, Joenalyn, Sister Shamrell |
This week we will start with family groups and help them prepare family names for the Temple Trip.
We also assisted Claudius in completing dental and medical requirement for his mission papers. We believe this week he can complete the papers and be ready for interviews to submit to the Mission President.
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| Claudius patiently waiting for tests at the hospital! |
In tracking Marjonilo Viodor's papers, we found that his assignment was made this last week and we are waiting for the call to come. Sometimes it could take 2-3 weeks in the Peens.
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| Rice farmers plowing and leveling the fields to plant rice. |
Well I will close for today. The work of the Lord is truly amazing and we are blessed to be part of it in these latter days. My prayer is that we can be worth of the many blessing we have and are still receiving.
Umping Mo,
Elder Bell (Tatay, LoLo and Amigo)
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