Cuyapo Branch

Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija, Philippines

9 February 2009

The past two Sundays we have been able to assist in the creation of a new branch in the Paniqui District. A little background – a Group was established some time ago in Cuyapo, a small town out in the country about 40 minutes north and east of Paniqui. This Group has been meeting in the carport of the Elder’s rented house (see picture). These are humble circumstances to say the least but tropical as well with palm trees, beautiful plants, and birds as a backdrop of the speakers.

The mission was authorized to form the branch by the Area Authority and that was done the first week with its separation from its host branch and calling and sustaining of the new branch president. The following week the rest of the branch presidency and all of the auxiliary officers were called and sustained. They are so excited to grow this area of the church. There were 50 in attendance at both meetings with the Elders bringing 10 and 11 investigators to the meetings.

This coming Thursday we have been asked to assist in the training of the new leaders. The Paniqui District leadership will conduct a two hour session separated in half with everyone meeting as the branch leadership then breaking into specific training groups for an hour. Following a break the whole branch is invited to a Family Home Evening where they will be instructed in what a FHE is with a demonstration as to how it should function.

What great witness of the spirit has been in attendance at these meetings – we have been blessed.

Elder NB & Sister MB

'P' Day Hike

2 February 2009

Mount Pinatubo, Zambales, Phillippines

Two things that we need to report on this blog. #1- We had Sister Lant, General Primary President and her husband visit here in Tarlac on Saturday afternoon. She spoke in three consecutive meetings giving great direction to the auxiliaries. The first two were leadership and the last was a devotional meeting and we heard from her husband and Elder Ko of the Area Presidency as well. All meetings were well attended and the members thronged the group for pictures after the meeting.

#2- Was our ‘P’ day activity on February 2nd. Our mission presidency organized a senior couple’s hike to Mount Pinatubo’s crater lake. This lake was formed after the top 900 feet of the mountain blew off in a volcanic eruption in 1991. It is part of the mountain range that is close to Clark AFB and the eruption closed Clark AFB. The US turned the base over to the Philippine government for their use and they cleaned up the ash residue from most of it. Our mission home is located on the old base.

We loaded into two old Jeeps and a Dodge Ram and drove in the early morning up a river bed crossing the river a number of times. We then drove up into the mountains for an hour until we arrived at the trailhead. Fourteen of us with two guides hiked for one and a half hours criss-crossing a stream and climbing over rocks until we arrived at the lake. The view was worth it as you can tell. We rested and had our lunch in this pristine part of the world. Our hike out was a little slower because some of our group were worn out.
We had a great day, a bit of sun and would do it again.

Elder NB & Sister MB

Career Workshop - Paniqui District

Paniqui, Tarlac, Philippines

24 January 2009

This has been another week of long days and great enjoyment. We were called late last week to see if we were available to teach a Career Workshop class to a few young people who were preparing to apply for Perpetual Education Funding. We gladly found a day that would work for all and on Wednesday we were in Angeles Volunteer Center teaching five sharp young members a one day (8 hour) course. Our confidence is growing each time we teach this class.

This little class was in preparation for us to teach the Paniqui District (our ecclesiastical assignment) the very same Career Workshop on Saturday. We expected to teach as many as 50 members but when 39 came we were ready and had good interaction with them. Of the ten branches in the district all had someone in the training session. With any size group we teach there is always a couple people who love to be called on and are disappointed when you call on someone else. Then the rest of course, want to stay below the radar. Our job is to get them all involved in learning job hunting skills.

At the conclusion of each class we give out certificates to each person who completes the Career Workshop. We are able to print them on our printer near the end of the training so they are official and are signed by the local leaders and us. These certificates are prized possessions of all because it testifies of this accomplishment.

We also want you to know that we have our challenging days as well as the rewarding ones but the good ones outnumber the others by far. We do not want to use this space to emphasize the challenging times, we all have them in this life.

Elder NB & Sister MB

Another Week of Training

On the road, Philippines
19 January 2009

We had to make a trip to Manila to take care of some things with our car at the Philippines Area Office (PAO). We then went to visit with our training couple the Johnsons about the Self Employment Workshop they are tailoring to the Philippines. They have taught us so much about these beautiful people. While in Makati we just had to have lunch at Chilies – good American food.

On Friday the Johnsons came to our house in Tarlac for lunch and then we drove north to Dagupan where we met with the ERC Volunteer Center Manager. We visited with the staff and saw their new office. This office is in charge of the north-western side of Luzon and they are very active in training members in self reliance. We stayed the night then on Saturday the Johnsons trained us on how to give the Self Employment Workshop. Fifty people from Agoo District were in attendance and we learned as much as they did. We have to give this workshop in early March. This part of Luzon, Agoo, is on the western coast and is very green.

Sunday we attended meetings in Cuyapo with the Group there and were able to see a husband and wife come to church who we visited with the missionaries a few weeks ago. This Group is waiting to become a Branch anytime now. They meet in humble circumstances – the missionary’s carport – but their meetings are great. We love to attend their meetings.

We had a chance to have lunch with the Tarlac Sister missionaries at KFC – yes there are five of them and all seven of us “compressed” into our car. They use member sisters a lot for splits so they are more effective.

Elder NB & Sister MB

Visit and Training

12 January 2009

Angeles, Pampanga, Philippines

This week has been a spiritual feast. We found out a lot more about the Benson Institute. They are actually part of the Welfare Dept. of the church and they work hand in hand with the Humanitarian Dept. They explained, in our meetings, the impact the institute has had on agriculture in Central and South America communities. That impact reaches into the medial clinics, culinary water, NGO assistance, local university knowledge and application, government agricultural research institutes and international rice research organizations. The Benson Institute has the ability to identify and coordinate the best sources for help.

One requirement they have is that people have to send their children to school. They also encourage that every child should be immunized. They were on an assessment assignment here to see how they might be able to help the Philippines. We hope their project will be approved.

Last Sunday, they held a fireside in Camiling where between 250 to 300 members attended to listen to their inspirational stories and were encouraged to be self-reliant. The director who spoke was a past Angeles Mission Pres. 1994-97, so he was “coming home”. It was great.

Mon. and Tues. we taught the Career Workshop to the departing Missionaries of the Angeles Mission. There were nine returning home and they have such a sweet spirit about them and a strong testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. What a great experience that was to spend two days with them basically one on one.

Elder NB & Sister MB

Employmet Office Opens

Tarlac, Tarlac, Philippines

5 January 2009

On the 3rd of January 2009 the employment office re-opened in the Tarlac Stake Center. This has been our goal since we arrived here in Tarlac because of our specific call. The office is a Stake Employment Committee (SEC) office and is run by volunteers from the wards within the stake. The leaders are called and set apart for their responsibilities on the committee and were excited to finally have the office open. We play a support role to train the committee members to be trainers in the Career Workshop and have set up two dates for workshop training for them and members. The committee has taken the lead and developed a training calendar for the first quarter to train members in ‘lively hood’ such as cell phone repair, welding, mushroom growing, etc. These classes will be taught by local certified trainers and the participants will be given a certification upon completion.

We have also have been working on preparations for the visit of the assessment team from the Benson Institute from BYU. They are arriving later this week and will spend a week in the field evaluating the local rice growing practices, farm supplier support abilities, water sources, government, farm associations, rice processing and marketing procedures. We are working with a very capable District President who has been the spearhead in making all the arrangements with contacts for meetings that will be held. This is a community effort (not just the church) including other churches and organizations in the effort to improve agriculture yields and also to indentify where LDS Charities might be able to help local medical clinics, etc.
We have been busy as you can tell and are enjoying the activity.

Elder NB & Sister MB

New Year's Eve 2008-2009

Tarlac, Tarlac, Philippines
31 December 2008

We had a great New Years Eve day with the missionaries in our District meeting in Paniqui. We hear about their investigators and challenges they face, what the missionaries are doing to encourage members to help them find people – that is the hardest part of missionary work – finding people to teach. We were with one of the districts that has six sisters and they are the most optimistic missionaries. They are developing a plan for a “Member Missionary” fireside that will be given the last of January to the three branches of Paniqui and we will play a role in the presentation.

After the meeting most of the Zone went for lunch at a McDonald knock off called Jollibees – they both serve spaghetti, fried chicken and rice besides fries and burgers.
On New Year’s Eve all missionaries have to be off the streets by 5 p.m. so they are safe and out of harm’s way – fireworks is the reason. We were able to pick up the four Tarlac Sister Missionaries so they could spend the evening with us watching Disney movies(they were allowed) and eating pizza. One of the sisters made a traditional Filipino Fried Banana dessert that was wonderful.

Fireworks are traditional here and such a big deal that people save all year so they can buy and set off fireworks on New Year’s Eve. It is supposed to ward off evil spirits and give them protection – the Chinese helped with that. These are not all small things some of the rockets are as big as our cities in the US set off on the 4th of July. The fire crackers range from small to twice as big as M-80s. When they are set off it sounds like dynamite. We were happy when New Year’s Eve was over!

May you have a great and wonderful New Year and be blessed with your desires,

Elder NB & Sister MB