Bayambang,

Pangasinan,

Philippines

11 May 2009

For those of you who have not heard, we in Luzon, Philippines have had Emong, a major Typhoon/ Cyclone/ Hurricane (depends where you live in the world) working us over for the better part of a week. We were not caught in the center of it but our friends up in Dagupan got hit hard with both wind and rain. In Tarlac we only got serious rain with some wind – when we say rain we mean rain. Your windshield wipers do not work fast enough, roads fill up with water, as you drive water is sprayed across the street, you just want to stay out of it because in less than one minute it is like standing in a swimming pool. We did have to drive a bit so we were able to see how the locals love to play in a lukewarm rain storm – they believe it is healthy. Note the tricycle drivers they have to put up with all kinds of weather with very little protection.

This last Sunday was Mother’s Day and we celebrated first thing in the morning because some of our children had sent greetings to MB. We had scheduled a fireside presentation in Bayambang in the afternoon so we drove an hour north to join them for their meeting schedule at 9 a.m. Their sacrament meeting program was put on by the Primary, Young Women and Young Men of the ward. It was sweet to hear the Primary songs about mother and hear the nice things they said about their own mothers. 90% of the meeting was in English so we felt almost at home. They passed out silk flowers to all the mothers as a gift on their day at the close of the meeting.

Sundays with faithful members make our week special.

Elder NB & Sister MB