Thursday the 24th

Good day. We got up late this morning, worn out from yesterday and the travel. I went to walk anyway and even jogged a little. It has been a good many years since I did that.

Today has been the hottest day since we arrived. We often tell people when we are visiting that we did a mission in Alabama a few years back. We tell them it was humid, but not as humid as here. We tell them it was hotter in Alabama with the relentless sun. Today was an Alabama day with Philippine humidity. 

We went to Dao and to Sibalom, two towns that are about 40-50 KM apart. We were helping Kib Berion take money and information to two of the branches for YM/YW conference in a few weeks. The leaders are to arrange for transportation and a few other items, like life skills budgeting. It ought to be a really fun conference.

President Gingery wrote a great e-mail to us this morning. Don't know when he wrote it, but we read it this morning. He described how districts become stakes and how they are often built by return missionaries as their leaders in these 3rd world countries. He described this place perfectly and it gave Sister Sessions and I a real lift and a bit of a direction to help "build leaders" here in Antique. We are thankful for his advice and encouragement.

It is nice to have an experienced church leader to contact when we need help. It is amazing that this sort of information is not readily shared to missionaries that are told to support leaders and help build stakes. We have been wondering how the heck to help build a stake and build leaders in Antique. Maybe it is common knowledge, but Sister S and I are sort of in the dark. That could very well be the case.

Brother Berion's plans/vision goes right along with the program Dave described. He and the youth leaders are working to build missionaries from the local youth, then get them to stay here when they come home to strengthen the branches and build wards. We told him about the e-mail and told him we knew he was on the right track and asked to help any way we can.

Tomorrow we are visiting Dunito and buying a bag of peanuts from him. Sister S is becoming pretty masterful at the cinnamon peanut cooking. They are a treat, and I am sure Dunito can use the pesos. Couple of pics from today:

Native hut where two ladies live that work for the landlord here in the compound. Pretty typical.

Not sure why, or when I took this. The tree is pretty cool. This is the only one I have seen. Maybe Sister S. took the pic. I'm fried.