Entrepreneurial Training

San Fernando,

La Union,

Philippines

27 April 2009

Monday we spent visiting four different mayor’s offices seeking training assistance for our members who want to improve their computer and other technical skills. We took our favorite Ward Employment Rep. from Victoria with us so we could communicate and see if we could duplicate what she was able to do in Victoria. We went to Paniqui and had reasonable success then on to Moncada , talked to the mayor and he was interested in helping his people. Over to the small city of Anao where they were very kind and willing to assist our members. An interesting product is produced by this city that is known around the world – they make perfumes, soap, laundry detergent and other things out of a tree blossom extract – Ylang Ylang. Sister MB bought some and it has a nice fragrance. The last stop was in Gerona where we visited with the vice mayor’s training coordinator and identified some opportunities. We really felt it was time well spent.

Thursday we left early to drive two hours to the ERC Volunteer Center in Dagupan to attend an Entrepreneurial training class for two days. We stopped for McDs breakfast in a small town but they didn’t serve breakfast so we had cheeseburgers and fries for breakfast. Yummy. The training was given by a non-member who started his own printing business after being a business professor for a number of years. He has grown his business into one of the largest printing shops in Dagupan. The training is for four days so next weekend we will be back.

Mr. Espiritu (the ex-professor) started with very business basics – by building the attendee up to increase self-confidence and then to motivate them to think about what their potential is to build their own business. He has taken this on as his own mission in life to help others become entrepreneurs. There are not a lot of job opportunities available to the people of the Philippines (even with a college degree) so building your own business takes on new meaning for them.

Sunday we were in San Fernando La Union (one hour north of Dagupan on the coast) to give a fireside on Prosperity. What great members were there (about 50), the fireside was well received and we enjoyed visiting with them afterwards. The country had the ocean on the west and beautiful mountains on the east. It was lush with rice, bananas, and coconuts.

Elder NB & Sister MB