Elder Teh

We should have told you about this a while back, Elder Teh came to visit. He was a great guy ! After our meeting we all went and had pizza , we all , meaning the couples. Elder Teh is what we in the church call a General Authority, a member of the 1st quorum of the 70's. At dinner we asked what the difference was in the 1st quorum and the 2nd quorum ? He said if you are called to the 1st quorum, it is a call that lasts until you are seventy years old, and the 2nd quorum is a 3 year call. He told us about his call and how he felt, it was great. He is such a nice person, and dinner was a fun time, kind of like if you had just played a softball game and you all went out for pizza and just talked about everything, he was just one of the players,only he is a really good player.

Back to The Hard Pioneer Days

We had no idea that people still had coal burning irons. We visited this Sister and she was using one. She said that you put the hot coals in the top and iron the Levi's first and then as the iron cools you use it on the more delicate clothing. Not everyone has electricity where we are and a lot of people do not have running water. If they do have electricity it may be hanging wires with one light bulb. Some have more , many have TVs.

Happy New Year 2008

Happy New Year !! We know it's going to be a great year with lots of new learning experience.
We hope to do better with our blog... We didn't know we would be so busy.




This is the pig that Brother Catalogo cooked for the Branch Christmas Party.





For 2007 these are two of our favorite people. Brother and Sister Catalogo. Bro. Catalogo takes care of the whole compound here, he fixes everything, and he always has the smile. Sis. Catalogo is very shy, she cleans our apartment and washes our clothes and I hope she is coming with us when we come home,because I have never seen everything so clean.They have three daughters and one granddaughter. They are very faithful people and add a lot of strength to the branch.



This is Elder Kimberlin's News Years Eve toy, the shorter guy in the picture, Rommel, made it for him. It's a sulibong. Cans taped together, with holes in the cans, then you put alcohol in one end and light it. It makes a bomb like sound and blue flame shoots out the end. Great, New Years Eve toy ! On the spiritual side of the story about Rommel and his family, we love visiting them and getting to know them. They come to church every Sunday and Rommel now passes the sacrament, it always makes us think of Austin and Weston doing the same thing in Utah each Sunday.
Next blog I am going to tell you about "NQR" It was taped to my office door when I arrived, I'm not sure how long it has been here, maybe years. It's what we refer to when things are not as we thought they should be or different from what we are use to, we meaning Americans. It stands for " Not Quite Right"

The Work Goes On

Time is flying here, we do stay busy. We had 16 Missionaries return home last month, and only got 5 to replace them. We did get a new Couple, the Snows from Virginia. More work with less people, that causes all of us to step up the pace a bit.

We got to do some travelling, down towards Bataan. There are monuments built to honor those who were victims of that terrible time, along with milepost markers built where the highway and the sites of the march coincide.

It also seemed to be a time for snakes, Elder Kimberlin heard something behind him on one of his early morning walks, looked back and saw a 4 foot snake hastily slithering where he had just stepped, maybe a foot and a half away. And, needless to say, Elder Kimberlin did some hasty maneuvering of his own, putting some distance between him and it. Several days later, he found the carcass of what appeared to be the same snake in the same location, so he feels a little braver now.(Like maybe that was the only snake in the Philippines!)

As the seasons change, rainy season is about over and we're entering into the nicest part of the year, different fruits and vegetables appear in the markets. Mangoes and pineapples are about gone, palmellos(looks like a huge grapefruit, but a little sweeter) are here. And the bananas continue to appear. Everything is for sale here, snakes, lizards, crabs, you name it, they have it.

The farmers spread their rice crop out on the highway to dry, then as the clouds appear, they hurriedly gather it into bags. Traffic tries to avoid running over the rice, but sometimes it can't be helped.

And when Americans start looking toward fall(in September), here Christmas music begins to be heard in all the markets and stores. Christmas decorations appear everywhere for sale(there's no Thanksgiving here), with some Halloween masks thrown in for good measure. Halloween is celebrated in conjunction with All Saints Day(Nov.1). The cemetaries are all cleaned up, and people go to visit the gravesites of those who have gone on. Kind of like our Memorial Day, but much more celebrated.

But the good work goes on, the Missionaries keep working, keep praying, keep blessing the lives of good people everywhere. Its so exciting to be with them and watch them, they are so dedicated to their purposes. But for all the work, the sweating, Elder Kimberlin keeps gaining weight.

Two Months Went By In A Hurry !

Two Months Went By In A Hurry ! Time is flying by and things are seeming more comfortable, even the traffic. We are learning our jobs, little by little. We are having success with the people in our branch and feel a part of it now. We have felt a few times when we have been led or directed and have had some good experiences.One Sunday when we picked up the Sister's that take us visiting, they had a treat for us ! It was Cassava, A root that looks like a white carrot, they slice it and cook it in coconut milk and brown sugar. It tasted really good.
It's been a sick month for us. Sister Kimberlin picked up the flu around the 3rd week in Aug. and was sick on her birthday. It was a Sunday so the Relief Society sisters wrote on her birthday card they had for her, notes of get well. One Sister wrote ; The wind carry our voices telling you that there are Sisters sitting in an other corner of the world wishing you the best of everything , get well soonWe love you...Then Elder Kimberlin has his turn. It was just awful and lasted for ever.
Last week while in town doing our shopping for the week, it was time to eat dinner, so we picked a place we had not been to give it a try. It was a Japanese/Korean place. Brand new, very nice. We sat on the floor and our waiter grilled the meat on the table in front of us. Our waiter turned out to be an investigator . We were able to talk to him a lot because he was the one cooking the meat. He has a girlfriend and a one year old little boy ( no money to get married) He asked if he could ask us a question ? It was the one about how he had always been taught that God and Jesus were the same person. We had a good discussion.It just all makes me know that Heavenly Father really picked our restaurant that night and He is in charge.
Two couples go home tomorrow. Now there are just two couples left and the Mission President. We will get one new couple the end of Oct., until then it will just be hard.
We went on a trip up North a few weeks ago to One Hundred Island, it was beautiful.

Aug. 10, 2007

Tomorrow will be our forth Sunday. We thought we would put some pictures of the people we are working with in our branch. The San Narciso Branch is located 30 miles north of the mission home ,where we live.Sister Kimberlin is in charge of the primary and Elder Kimberlin has been the speaker for the youth. The branch President said he would have a Primary President called this week, the last one just quit coming.

Enrichment meeting was a very spiritual experience. There were five of us.

It was great those ladies just carried on like there were 50 Sisters there. Opening prayer, song( the song " As Sisters in Zion" was so touching and spiritual,we could hardly hold back the tears.) Special number by Elder Kimberlin ( on his new guitar) a personality game by the Pres. , then the demo by Grandma, on how to make cell phone carrier out of bamboo, which none of us could follow or ever do. About midway the RS Pres, disappeared for a while, came back with a dish called lupia, kind of like egg rolls.You have to understand that they are big into cooking and sharing, part of her opening, before the game was the sharing of a new recipe. So we are not supposed to eat their food but there are only 5 of us, I'm sure someone would notice if we didn't. The lupia was so good. The people do not have ovens so they cook on 2 burner hot plates.The last couple missionaries showed them how to make rice krispie treats, big hit. So I need some recipes for treats on a 2 burner strove. We got talking about how we don't know what to buy at the palenkes or markets outside. They took us downtown and helped us shop and told us what everything was, it was great. Grandma made me a purse and Elder Kimberlin a cell phone holder. Everyone here has a cell phone, they text, that's how they communicate.
Church was good the two families we visited came. That afternoon we had family home afternoon with them, Sister Kimberlin brought cookies and pickup sticks to play, it went well so we will see.

The hospital. No, the nightmare or the war zone would be more like it. It was worse than I would have ever imagined.Very few sheets, no clean sheets. Blood, filth, no nurses, no PJ's.Everyone crammed in a big room or hall ways. It was just terrible. Everything was old or rusted. If one of us gets hurt just take us to the airport and fly us out.