Christmas Day 2008

Tarlac Province, West of Tarlac City

Merry Christmas to all – We have had a great day and a fun Christmas eve listening to Christmas songs we found on the internet. We had two packages from home to open and little presents from each other.

The past two days were spent with the missionaries in half mission conferences which were up lifting and fun. There were talks and testimonies and good Filipino food for lunch each day then a presentation from each zone – some were skits and other just songs. The Samoans and Tongans had the most fun and made everyone join in the action.

Today we took a drive into the country west of Tarlac and drove into the mountains and saw some beautiful country and rice paddies. As part of the harvest process they dry the rice crop on the road to get it ready for market. This process only leaves one lane open to traffic or else you have to drive over the piles of rice to avoid a crash. The first picture is of one lane covered and the second is the pickup method on Christmas Day 2008.

This evening we are having four sister missionaries from the Tarlac district over for a late dinner so they can celebrate Christmas – they had to work today. Sister MB will fuss over them and make sure they get what they want before returning home by 9:30 p.m.

We hope you had a wonderful day with family – we were able to talk to our family which made it a special day.

Elder NB and Sister MB

Merry Christmas

22 December 2008

Tarlac, Tarlac, Philippines

We are struggling trying to get in the mood for Christmas. We love this time of year but it is 80+

degrees and sunny with humidity – where is the snow (from what we are reading you guys are

getting it bad). We have a little 18” Christmas tree the previous missionaries left and Sister MB decorated it last week but it is still a little short – no pun intended.

The pictures this week are of a poinsettia tree on the way out to a little Branch of the church – Anao with Sister MB and Elder NB standing under it. The second is of a Christmas tree made of lights which stands about 20 feet tall in one of the Barangays (hamlets) on the major highway into town. As we drive through the Barangays we see many of the houses with the lights of Christmas and some decorations. These are the closest thing to Christmas we have here. Oh yes the people all wish us a Merry Christmas and that helps.

We do know the meaning of this time of year and being with each other busily working on our assignment keeps our focus where it should be. We hope the true meaning of Christmas finds you and yours this season – we love and miss you and wish you the very best.

Peace and love to you, Elder NB and Sister MB

Wheelchairs for Gerona

15 December 2008

Gerona, Tarlac, Philippines

We had a great Sunday in a little branch in the community of Anao. They have a rented house where they hold their meetings with attendance at about 40 to 50 souls. We both had to speak and answer a lot of questions during the rest of the block meetings. They believe we have all the answers so we have to continually say we are not perfect and make mistakes but we give them an opinion and then they talk about it in Tagalog. In the evening we attended the First Presidency’s Devotional, which was delayed broadcast across the Philippines and were up lifted by what they said about our Savior. We also saw and visited with one of our sister missionaries from the Provo MTC.

We spent some time last week in Manila making arrangements for a computer for Tarlac and purchasing a power point projector and support equipment. We will use the equipment as we travel to put on our training sessions. We will be in some remote areas and will need it all. While we were in Manila we attended a temple session with a small group of saints and had the reassurance one gets from attendance.

Today we went with a Humanitarian missionary couple from Manila to Gerona, a town in our District of Paniqui. They were to present the community seven new sturdy wheelchairs built to with stand a lot of abuse to needy individuals. The word they received was the ceremony was to happen early in the day but it didn’t happen until about 2:30 p.m. There was a large crowd that came and the mayor spoke and made very positive comment about the church and the wheelchairs and the Christmas season. Our local leaders – district president and branch president were both in attendance and were recognized and thanked by all. They had food for us but MB & NB were reluctant to dig in but only took small samples.
We finally got DSL into our residence so we will now be able to communicate better with all.

Be good, Elder NB & Sister MB

Out in the Sugarcane Country

8 December 2008

Ramos, Tarlac, Philippines

Monday and Tuesday of this week we were in Angeles at the Mission home. We were training six missionaries in the Career Workshop. Four Sisters – two from Tonga and two from the Philippines and two Elders from the Philippines. They all were returning home last week. What an emotional time in their lives. This workshop training is to help them recognize their talents and abilities as they return home and look for work. We team taught with another couple who have been here for one year and as we taught and bore our testimonies we had some very special moments. It was a learning experience for us because it was the first two day training we have been involved with.

The month of December in the Philippines is spent celebrating Christmas with fiestas and parades going on in each Barangay (neighborhood community). We live in Delores Barangay and there have been three parades that we have seen since the first. They are little parades with people in two or three decorated little pick-up trucks driving around tooting their horns.

We spent Sunday in a small branch at Ramos, Paniqui District – their building is very new and best building in the community and they are very humble people. They have strong testimonies of the gospel of Jesus Christ and love to bear them. This is a picture of their building out in sugarcane country.

Elder NB and Sister MB

Big Weekend in Paniqui

1 December 2008

Paniqui, Tarlac, Philippines

We had a super weekend with speaking assignments and other meetings on Saturday and Sunday, 29 and 30 November. District President Nadado, Paniqui District asked Elder NB to take a half hour Saturday morning to teach home teaching principles and its importance. We found out the first counselor was ill and would not attend so the discussion went for 40 minutes. Brethern in attendance numbered about 200 and they nodded agreement during the presentation. After the meeting the brethern above left for home on this field tractor and cart to travel 4.5 miles back to Ramos Branch and their homes. Later in the day that same tractor/cart brought the Young Women back to celebrate the Young Women's program.

Sunday was a long day with us talking in the two branches and attending the whole block schedule of each then attending the missionary correlation meeting for each - that is a minimum of eight hours of church. Elder NB had to take the priesthood hour in each branch and discuss the Home Teaching that some of the brethern missed on Saturday. We are really blessed because of it. After all the meetings we had to inspect the missionary sister's apartment before going back to our house. They are living in a humble apartment and are doing ok. We then had to drive back home in the dark - the second night in a row. Now driving on these streets is a treat but at night it is a nightmare with some vehicles without lights, pedestrians and bicycles still on the road - WOW!

We were tired when we got home made a light dinner and hit the hay early.

The Lord is blessing us each and every day by the people we meet and the commitment they make to be active members of the church of Christ. May the Lord bless you.

Love, Elder NB & MB

Welfare Field Trip

27 November 2008

Calamba - south of Manila

We have been in meetings since Tuesday with all the Welfare department located in the PAO by the temple in Manila. The three areas of the Philippines are represented beside the main office and they are Mendano, big island to the south, Cebu in the middle and Luzon to the north. Each has an ERC office with staff and great leadership. They reported the status of their areas and gave us insight of their goals for next year. We have been instructed on our callings by Elder Misalucha of the 8th quorum of the seventy who has charge of the PAO welfare office. We have also been instructed by our Area Seventy - Elder Edwards.

Today was a field trip where we visited four different places to get input for jobs and opportunities - the government fish research for preparing fish for export, the government mint, a bread factory and the IRRI (International Rice Research Institute). Each had great opportunities for our people. The ERC managers and VC Managers identified the applications right away - we are too young in the program to pick up on what will apply.

We are staying over night in a resort by a volcano in Calamba with a nice swimming pool but you know we are not going in the water.

This is a short report because we did find an Internet hook up - up in Tarlac we are still looking for our hook up.

See ya, Elder NB & Sister MB

Arrived Tarlac

Saturday, 22 November 2008

We had a virus problem with our computer as we were getting ready to transfer to Tarlac on the 19th. We finally went to a computer shop in Angeles and reformatted the hard drive to get it working again. We had to buy software – Norton and Office in order to make this old beast usable. We can use our computer but now it is hard trying to get hooked up on the internet at the church – we will get there soon.

This is an update of our activities. Wednesday we received our car a little Toyota Carrola sized car ate a Taco Bell lunch and hit the road after Sister MB was taken short at PAO. We drove north through some tough traffic then got onto a very nice limited access highway and drove to the mission home behind another couple that were returning. Spent the night getting instructions and direction from President Puzey then slept there that night. Up on Thursday and drove up the highway to Tarlac and found our house. It is a very nice place out in the country secured by high walls and a guard (about 14 years old) who mans the gate. We signed all the papers so this will be our house for the next two years.
We visited with a district President in the Paniqui District to see what he wants us to do and got two speaking assignments for tomorrow and next Saturday. We also talked with the stake president in Tarlac and got another invitation to talk but the other engagement over rode this request.

We have found most of the foods and personal things we know and like from home but we have to go the old Air Force Base in Angeles – about an hour away on a very nice road for most of the trip. The rest of the trip looks like the picture above.

We are doing great, the people live very simple lives and enjoy life. The church buildings are very nice and air conditioned so where we work and attend church is nice.

Elder NB & Sister MB