August 18, 2012

The past few weeks have been full of surprises and more adventures into the unknown. 

Thursday, the 9th of August, we had 13 new missionaries come to the Naga Mission.  Two of them are from the States, the other eleven are from India, Scri Lanka, the Philippines.  Jerry and an AP (Assistant to the President) took six of them to some areas in the southern parts.  He left at about 2:45 and didn't get home until around 8:30 p.m. 

Early in the week, we received a call from our Mission President, President Bliesner, telling us that we needed to drive to a town called Guinobatan to pick up one of our Sister missionaries.  As we were backing our van out of the parking area, the engine died and we could not get it started. We borrowed the pickup, a Ford Trekker, of the office Elders so that we could get on our way.  We were to take her to the Legazpi Airport, which is 94 km away (about 63 miles).  In the States, it would be an "easy" short hour drive.  Well, it took us 2 long hours to get to Guinobatan and then another 30 minutes to go less than 16 km to the airport.  Keep in mind, we had been to the Sister's apartment in Guinobatan, but had never been anywhere near the airport.  After stopping and asking questions along the way, we finally made it there with about 20 minutes to spare, once she got her bags checked in.  This is a Sister from Sri Lanka who was having a very difficult time adjusting to the culture, temperature and food.  We flew her to the Mission counseling center in Manila.  A little stressful to say the least.

On the way to the airport, this was part of the traffic - a Caribou pulling a cart.

 And, as part of the slow moving traffic, we came upon this Filipino with his pointy hat:

 There is only ONE traffic light in all of the Philippines Naga Mission, and here it is. You can see how much they REALLY need the traffic light. This congestion is so typical, but all drivers are courteous and you hardly ever see an accident.

Every six weeks we have transfers.  Prior to transfers, all of the 72  apartments are inspected by the Zone Leaders.  They score them mostly on cleanliness.   On a scale of 1-60, and the scores from the apartments in each Zone are added together.  The Zone with the highest score gets to decide on a Zone Activity.   On the 30th of July (the date on the camera is off by a day), the Activity was a trip to a black sand beach.  It was a lot of fun.  The Elders and Sisters played football/Frisbee with a volleyball.  There were a lot of other activities, and treats.  One treat was some oatmeal/banana/raisin cookies that Carol made.  Had not ever thought of putting bananas in them before, but they were a real hit.  Below are some pictures of the area where the activity was held.

This is the group of Elders and Sisters at the entrance of the Beach area.

To get to the beach, you have to walk over a bamboo bridge that's over a small stream of water.

This is the home of the person who owns the beach resort.  Very nice!



These are the huts that are rented by tourists.  Notice the green containers in the front of each hut.  They are the national garbage receptacle that is found all over the Philippines.

The Elders and Sisters playing football/Frisbee with a volleyball.  Hard to imagine what they're doing, but it is really fun to watch.  They are trying to score goals on each end by passing the soccer ball.

These are the winners!!!!!

And here we are at the END!

It was a really fun day.  It rained off and on, and was pretty windy, but it still felt good to be out on the beach with all those Elders and Sisters.

Until next time.

Elder & Sister Campbell