Far North of Luzon

Laoag,

Ilocos Norte,

Philippines

18 June 2010

Wow! More than half way through the month of June and we have been traveling all over. First to Dingalan, Aurora on the east side of Luzon then to Dagupan, Pangasinan on the west side, down to Angeles, Pampanga – central, and finally to the very north – Laoag, Ilocos Norte. We are putting the kilometers on the car this month.

Our work has taken us to teach a group Self Employment in a small branch, meeting with our manager so he could give us a special assignment to help the team in Laoag prepare and launch the Volunteer Center in July, toured an Australian school under development in Angeles that will be able to house and train as many as 15,000 students for work in Australia, and we spent part of three days with the Laoag Team working on what needs to happen to have a successful launch in July. Busy, busy is what we have been and enjoying every minute of it – well except for the eight hour drive to Laoag. The country is beautiful but the traffic is a challenge.

We have been able to do a few other things as well – NB was asked to give a new little house a ‘House Blessing’ (picture above), attended another baptism with a departing missionary and his parents and the best of all, witnessed by closed circuit TV the cultural event and the dedication of the Philippines Cebu City Temple on Sunday, 13 June. What a special event to have President Monson, Pres. Eyring, Elder Oaks, Bishop Burton and others in attendance and to listen to the direction given to the Filipino people and instructions given to us all as we ‘endure to the end’.

While we were in Laoag, we drove to the northern tip of Luzon and walked on the white sand beach of the South China Sea. They are so pretty with the palm trees, warm breeze and hot sun. Honest, all we did was walk on the beach.

The work in great!

Elder NB & Sister MB