Jagna and Cortez

FHE in Cortez. We have enjoyed being a part of the FHE's  here. Neighbor children come by and are included by the families. Doors are always open and families include whoever comes by.

It has gotten very hot out. Umbrellas are used for shade as much as for rain. These are the sisters that are serving in Jagna. We love them.

Children playing in a hut they made

The sweetest kindest people you could possibly find. We played "Call Harry" and we all ended up with lipstick spots on our faces. Do you know how to play "Call Harry"?

They all get a kick out of  Dad's size and like to have pictures taken next to him.

We had very lami, delicious food 

Isn't this a great rocker. The seat and back float and then these big arms. Elder Talan likes his picture to be taken.

Clean Up and Tear Down

 We have been on several projects to help people. From tearing down homes to building homes to cleaning up their lots. This project was dismantling a home so they could move their materials to another location to rebuild their home. It was a pretty dusty job and I lost my voice for almost a week as soon as they started knocking down the blocks of cement.

Mr. Frog. The little boys, lalakai, tried to catch this frog. He was pretty big.

Pulling down the woven panels. The family will reuse the panels on their new home.

Dad doing his part.

On the path back to the car, one of the Elders climbed a tree and pulled down some pods. The sisters were pealing the outer covering and as they ate the contents they pulled faces. Telling me it was really sour. I tried a taste expecting it to be reallysour. But it was very good and sour. I will have to look up the name of it. It has a stone inside and then a sticky substance around the stone. You eat the sticky substance.

 We did a clean up of a  families lot. The people do have trash collection but burn a great deal of their refuge, however everything does not burn, including cellophane wrapped snack packaging, rubber, glass bottles and plastic. Yards have several burn piles and they never are completely burned. The people also have a habit of just throwing down their food wrappers. The people are always snacking and everything is individually wrapped so as they walk around they just drop the packaging as they walk by. Every morning outside of our gate there is discarded wrappings to snacks.  Jeepneys loaded with people will drive by and you will see people throwing their garbage out the windows. It is really kind of sad.

We picked up trash and  cut all the weeds back.

Saw this old iron sitting on a ledge. It is what the mother of the family uses to iron the children's school uniforms.

This is the kitchen area. She made us boiled bananas  

Boiled saba

They are very filling. I like them better dipped in some sugar. This was very generous of the family.

The work detail.

Panglao Island

Panglao Island is connected to Bohol by two bridges. It is a small island. The southern part has beautiful beaches and many Beach Resorts with tourist.  We have two churches on Panglao one on each end of the island

We love this family. Their home is lovely and very nice.

Salli and Franco have two other children. We gave them the Book of Mormon Scripture stories for their family. They are not able to be baptized yet as they are not married. It cost quite a bit of money to get married as the fees and requirements are hard for some families to come up with. They are trying to save the money to get married.

Went to the Dauis activity out at Alona Beach. the mayor let us use her beach resort for free as she is very fond of the church. The church gave her friend a wheel chair to get around in and she is very appreciative of the help the church gave her friend. If you every want to go to the Philippines this would be a great place to come.

Dauis District Missionaries

Making S more's on the beach

It was starting to get dark so the lighting isn't very good

This is a wonderful family. In fact we haven't met any who are not wonderful. They live near the water. The father is a fisherman but has been sick for a while. We were worried about walking on their flooring as it didn't look very strong. But it held our weight and the slats and the breeze from the window kept the home cool and felt really good.

View from the window. Looking out towards Bohol Island. The two islands are very close as you can see from this picture.

Balilihan

Lots of road construction going up the mountain to the Balilihan area. Notice the sign "Stock files"instead of "Stock Piles". We try to always get down from the mountain before it gets dark because these sites are numerous and many are located on curves in the roads and are really quite dangerous.

Once we get to the area of Balilihan you have to go up a short path to the home where we are putting the missionaries. We are putting sisters into the area. The trees are different here. It is almost like a grove of trees.

This is the darling little house at the end of the path. They have beautiful flowers. We moved missionaries back into the house this transfer. We spent all day getting it ready and moving them in. On Sundays they hold church here.

 Everything is cute about it except the CR. These little stools are so short they are hard to use, and I do not squat very good, which is required.

 Dad relaxing after the move in. The arms on the chairs are so long. One of the sisters told us it was so they could rest their legs up if they wanted to.

 Children came over to play from the next lot. A favorite sport of the children. A stick and an old tire. They were  pretty good at it and ran all over the paths with their stick and tire. 

The path leading to another home we visit in Balilhan.

Once you cross this little bridge you come upon this huge home that is under construction. It will be very lovely when finished. Their son who is an accountant in Texas for one of the oil company's is building it for them. She also has beautiful flowers. 

This lovely family makes baskets for a living.

Trying my hand at basket making

Beautiful flowers everywhere. 

Did you know Banana trees have blossoms? The blossoms are used for cooking.

Another family we visit up in Balilhan.The original home was destroyed in the earth quake. Its a new construction and will be very nice when completed. The home is made by weaving bamboo stalks between the steel frames and then they will plaster the outside.