15 Mayo

Yesterday I taught watercolor and we had a little success. After, I went with Brother Kib to visit less active brethren. We found none at home, but we visited the wife of one. They live under a bridge in Belison, north and west of Sibalom and a long way from the branch.

They are very poor, living in a meager native hut. We sat with the lady, a member, and I gave her a little message from the Ensign that President Monson had penned, "Your Heavenly Father loves you--each of you. That love never changes . . . It is simply there" (Ensign, March 2014, page 9). I also shared Elder Causs'e's message below Pres. Monson's. "I bear witness that no one is a stranger to our Heavenly Father. There is no one whose soul is not precious to Him."

This is the message that we have been sharing, that He loves us. He knows where we are and what we are doing and he loves us and wants to bless us. We just have to do a little part in keeping the covenants we make at baptism and during Sacrament. The message is well received. I think, sometimes, that we forget, especially when we get away from the meetings, home evening, prayer, and service which are to help us remember.

We have appointments to go back and visit the brothers we missed. We will go this evening after 5:00.

Today we are to be at the branch building, volunteering with the Liahona group from BYU. They will be examining young children, for the members and non-members, to help children who are malnourished, or under weight for whatever reason. They will check their height, hearing, vision . . . may administer some medication and will make arrangements to help them get proper food. We look forward to the fun.

I carry little packs of Mentos with me to give to the kids. They seem to love it and they warm to us pretty fast. The people here are so shy, especially the children. The kids are cute little beans. We say, "Hi Guapo" or Guapa . . . meaning handsome or beautiful. Looks are very important here and when told they are good looking, they beam . . . all of them.

They had a class reunion, or are having one, across the street from the compound where we live. The music is blaring and did so for hours last night, ending around 2:30. They were drunk and rowdy. We were lucky that we have some ear plugs and we finally got a little sleep. The walls of these houses are so thin that we might as well be outside. I understand they may be going again tonight. The things that happen when you don't have your gun . . .

Found a little hole in the wall school supply store in San Jose yesterday that has some decent watercolor paper. I tried some and will go back today and buy their supply. It is the only good stuff I have seen anywhere. It is not great, but pretty good.
Pics:

Very few have cars here. But, motorcycles are everywhere. They fix some up like rat rods in USA. Here is a little hot rod motorcycle. Some are very fancy and shiny and low. They all ride in flip flops. . .

Umbrellas are big here, to keep off the sun or the rain.

We think the rainy season is starting. Every afternoon the clouds come from the north and it rains, adding to the humidity, but the temperature goes down a bit.

Cool looking old door down by the beach where they had the youth conference.

Some rich folks place out by Brother and Sister Copertino's place. That is an umbrella out in the field by the flag. No idea on either. The flag may be to scare off birds. Pretty mountains out back.