Lunes
Marso 24, 2014

P-day. The power went out about midnight last night and came back on this morning about 9:00. We went walking and the streets were pretty deserted. There were some people at the athletic field. One guy sings as he runs. He sings loudly, so you can hear him across the track. He zips buy, and says, "Health good." I give him a thumbs up.

We had some fruit for breakfast and face-timed some of the kids that were home. It was good to talk to them. We tried Ryan and Amy, but no answer.

We attended church yesterday. It was a treat to have a normal church day. With traveling and District Conference, we had not taken sacrament for nearly a month. It was missed. Yesterday we took sacrament and in the meeting I had the chance to introduce us a little. Sister Sessions spoke on Visiting Teaching. An old man bore his testimony. . . I am pretty sure. He spoke native, so we understood little, but I did feel the Spirit. They don't mind emotion in their speakers, I am pleased to see. I shared 3 Nephi 5:13 and had a hard time getting though the verse. I told them Sister Sessions and I, and that they ought to be, trying to be like Mormon and become disciples of Jesus Christ. Mormon was a disciple, we want to become such.

We attended the family history class, because Sister Villavert (District President's wife) asked us too. She is working with deaf members. The deaf members (about 13 of them) have sort of taken us under their wings. They are doing family history and preparing to go to the temple in two weeks. They are trying to teach us sign language and we really enjoy their spirit and loving ways. We wish we could go with them and attend the temple with them.

It appears that we will spend a day (Saturdays) per week in the family history center at the church in San Jose. We may add a day as we find out if we are needed. We also found out that we may have more that 5 apartments to inspect for the mission, and we are finding out about that in the next few days. We are looking to be busy. I am not going to use the MTC language training as I can't commit to their time constraints. I will keep studying on my own, amat amat.

Some pictures: Here is a jeepney from Sibalom. This is an old one, but there are several of these around; sort of diesel trucks/busses. They get pretty fancy, down to very plain. This one has the side curtains on because it rained yesterday all day. This one was parked at the market in Sibalom. Most of the time these vehicles are loaded with people, produce, animals . . .  guys love to stand on the back or sit on top for the air to blow their hair back.

This is a sari sari store (referred to as a chongi). They are literally all over. This is a pretty nice one. They sell all sorts of stuff, pop in a bag, beer in a bag, balout (sp?), candy, cigarettes, noodles, chicken, little packets of everything from shampoo to little candies. We have no idea where they buy all the stuff wholesale, but these are often right next to each other along the roads.

This is the entrance to a catholic cemetery near the ocean. They put people in concrete boxes and stack them up. The more wealthy have maybe a little building and iron fences. We have no idea what happens to the non-catholic people. There are millions, so we know they die.

A strange thing, it is difficult to get to the ocean. We looked for streets that takes one to the ocean, to a peer, or docks, or a fishing village. The only places that have access are south and east of us many kilometers. Around San Jose, the ocean does not play a big role in the lives of the people. From Hamtic to Dao and on around to Iloilo, it appears that fishing is very big. I think rice farms are the big thing around here.

We are cleaning the house today and probably taking a little drive to look some more. I hope to stop by the fish market again.

Sister Sessions fixed the dorado yesterday. It was really good. We had corn and noodles too. The fish was good, the corn had an odd taste and the noodles were bland. We will have to learn to cook pinoy dishes. I do like the fish though. I may try some shrimp today.