Visit to Santa Cruz Refugee Station

The Santa Cruz zone in our mission was badly flooded in much of

 the area. We attended church in Pagsanjan chapel where it was 

being used as a refuge house for flood victims. There was over 

60 families living in various areas of the building, even the chapel

  was divided up into different sections for several of the families.

  On Sunday, the ones in the chapel move outside until after 

Sunday services.  Because all the classrooms were being used, 

they only held Sacrament Meeting and Sunday School in the 

Chapel and no other meetings. As we were walking around the 

outside, people were cooking over small makeshift stoves over 

little fires.  It was inspiring to see each family just thankful to be 

together and making the most of their circumstances!  We 

saw happy faces and kind expressions all around us!  

It was wonderful to see!

This is a picture I took from inside the chapel of a sweet little

girl whose family had move outside during the services.

This cute little boy greeted us with a handshake and a smile as we

were walking up to the chapel.  He gave us many more 

handshakes throughout the time we were there before and after

the meetings.  He was always smiling with a happy "Hello!" or

"welcome!". 

So cute!

So happy!

So curious! 

Not sure which were members and which were refugees.  It didn't

matter.  They all just seemed so happy to be there.  It was a sweet

and tender experience.

Our Office Staff, August 20012

Here we are with our latest office staff...Sister Packer, Office 

Secretary; Elder Packer, Financial Secretary, Me, President, 

Elders Diaz & Navarro Assistants to the President; Elders

Delos Santos & Brown, Office Elders.

Good-bye Elders

Elder Estayo and Elder Rustia with President and me in front of the

mission office before leaving for home.  We love you Elders!  We

will miss you!

Zone Leaders Council August 2012

Zone Leaders Council was a good experience as usual. From the 

left, front row... Elders Nalesoni, Cook, Palavi, Knight, Bandiola,

Glenn, Pascua, Lacson, President, Me, Elders Basco, Navarro, 

Yost, Erye, Orro, Guyer and Eldridge.  Back row...Elders Butler,

Caubalejo, Libbuti, De Young, Naeata, Diaz and Nance.

These elders were having a good time trying to look tough while

they were gathered in the office for reimbursements, pouch and

supplies. 

Senior Missionaries Get Together August, 2012

Here is Elder & Sister Douglas cooking tacos for our 

"Senior Missionary" dinner in the Mission Home.  They took 

charge of the dinner this time.  We all had assignments for 

condiments or side dishes to go with the tacos!  It was great fun

and very delicious! (Masarap!)

Here we are finishing up our Mexican "Taco" dinner of chicken

or ground beef tacos, guacamole, chips and all the trimmings.  It is

always a good time to get together with all the senior couples and 

sisters.  At the table is President, Elder & Sister Gines, Sister

Walker, Sister Montague, Elder & Sister Douglas, Sister Packer,

Elder Packer, Elder & Sister Howell.  I am taking the picture,

Elder & Sister Campbell couldn't make it from Mindoro and Elder 

& Sister Wagner had another engagement.  We are sad when not 

everyone can make it to our gatherings.  But we are trying to get

together every 4 to 6 weeks now.

This time we got together and let them discuss and report on their

areas.  Also, we talked about the CLS (Companion Language 

Study) program. It is a program where the Philippine missionaries

have an opportunity to learn English well and earn a certificate,

 which will benefit them in there future education and career/job.  

It is a wonderful program and the couples are going to help us

with the testing as the finish each section or module so we can

make sure they are accomplishing what they need.

Missionary Setting Apart, August 10, 2012

President has the privilege of setting apart missionaries from 

Districts in our mission boundaries.  Stake Presidents are the ones

who set them apart in the Stakes, but Mission Presidents preside

over the Districts in our mission.  A District is kind of  like a Stake 

accept it is made up of Branches instead of Wards.  We have 4

Districts in our mission and 6 Stakes, so he gets to do this a lot.  

This is sweet Sister Cabrera from Mindoro.  President set her 

apart as a missionary for the Philippines Tacloban Mission Friday 

evening after Transfer day.  She came with her friend and her 

Branch President.  They had dinner with us, spent the night and

 left very early the next morning for the Manila MTC.  She was

really excited about serving a mission and seemed very well

prepared.  We feel she will do well and be a fine missionary!

Here is Sister Cabrera with her Branch President.  

Transfer Week August, 2012

  Elder Michaels, Elder Cook (our office elder) and Elder 

Shepherdson!  Good friends to the end!

Elder Miranda, Elder Dela Cruz and Elder Delos Santos 

(another one of our office elders)

This is all happening way too fast!  I can't believe it's time to say

good-bye again!  We are only loosing five this time but parting is

such "sweet sorrow".  We will miss them all, but we are so happy

and excited for them!  It is the next phase of their life.  They all

seemed ready to move on and further their service in other ways!

We love them all so much!  From the left, President, Elder 

Shepherdson, Elder Michaels, Sister Grow, Elder Miranda, 

Elder Dela Cruz and Me.

This is our beautiful new batch of missionaries for August.  Starting

from the left is Elder Lahom, Sisters Basa, Taobure, Narciso, Me

Sister Meti, President, Sister Harris and Elder Brewer.

Visit to Sariaya August, 2012

This is a cute little two year old in the Branch in Sariaya, in the 

Lucena Zone.

Here he is with his mother!

I could relate to this sister with her three boys all dressed up in

their white shirts and ties!  The one in the middle is six the other is 

five.  I loved those days when my boys were young and so easy 

to entreat! :-)  Great memories! These boys were so cute!

Here they are again with their Father included.  Doesn't he look

proud of his family?  They were a new family to the Branch!  He

is still looking for a job in the area.  I hope he finds one soon.

They can sure use this faithful family in the Branch!