Lunes morning ang 21st ni Julio

We talked to Tommy and his family this morning. It was fun. Reece is still full of it . . .Sister S is showering and then will have to mess with her hair and we can try to contact Michael and his family and maybe Amy. As we go later in the day, the internet gets slower and more loaded up from this end and we have trouble connecting.

President Amar and I are driving up to Dao to take President Vidal information on the PEF/SELF RELIANCE information for members to receive schooling/training. We leave at 1:00. Not much goiing on yet today, but usually the Elders or Sisters need laundry and we will likely go shop for groceries.

We had a great cottage meeting with branch and district leaders last night. The missionaries reiterated the district/branches mission plan and asked for feedback on how things were going. There have been a goodly number of re-activations and baptisms from the process. The leaders seem to be very interested in growing and expanding the work. There was a suggestion of branch family evenings, temple trip preparation and family history. Sister Sessions and I are going to open the family history lab at the church from 9-noon on Saturdays starting in two weeks. The leaders will get the word out. We finally have internet service to the church, so we can assist there. Good meeting and good food. Spaghetti, garlic bread, and Chinese salad were hits. 

Brother Demata giving a thumbs up, President Gindap eating and President Guilingen looking on. Of course, that is Sister Viliami with her beautiful grin at right. Spellings may be off . . .

The Sister Missionaries brought apple crisp, and Sister Sessions made an apple cake. Many added whipped cream to the cakes and they were pretty much wiped clean.

Elder Lundgren can really put the chow away. He is a nice size man, lot large, but he can really knock down the food. It reminded me of Chancey.

Our meeting began with "Families Can Be Together Forever" and an opening prayer by Sister Dotillos. We went over what has been going on for the past 10 weeks and the success and improvements that have been made. President Gindap testified that in all his years (13 I think) in the presidencies, he had never visited. It is the Savior's way (Handbook 2 under Chapter 3 Leadership). It was touching.

I shared how Bishop Horsewood came to our house in Boise many, many years ago and invited me back. What a difference for the leaders to invite. Members expect to see the missionaries and assigned home teachers come to the door, but it is very special to have the branch president/bishop come and "minister."

Bottom line, the youth in the branch at San Jose is a great example to us in ministering and we intend to invite them to help, emulate there efforts to minister, and increase our effort one brother/sister at a time. In the Savior's way. Of course it works, He doesn't fail.

President Villavert in the foreground and Sister Villavert to Sister Sessions left (right when looking at the pic). 

We had a good meeting with "buy in" and extra commitment to move forward with the mission plan. Our vision/goal is to build a branch family and see as many as can in white at the Cebu Temple. Of course, our final vision/goal is for Antique to become a stake.