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

August 4, 2012

Although we have been in the Philippines for about 6 weeks, it seems that every day is an adventure. Whether it's losing our car in the parking plaza at the SM Mall or driving to some city and trying to find an apartment of the Sisters or Elders or shopping in Naga Centro, it's so amazing that we are able to make our way back to OUR apartment above the Mission Office Building.  There is something new to learn about our jobs each day.  One of the fun parts about our mission is that we get to travel often to outlying parts of our mission.  We deliver a lot of supplies, plus, move missionaries to new locations, repair water pumps, replace locks, make apartments more secure and basically take care of the needs of the missionaries.  Jerry does all of the ordering of supplies such as Books of Mormon in Tagalog, name tags, song books in Tagalog, Daily planner books for the missionaries, as well as DVD players that the missionaries use when teaching certain lessons, pass-along cards, and the list really does go on and on.  He also purchases locally and supplies the missionaries with mattresses, pillows, kitchen equipment, desks, closets, curtains, wash basins, etc.  He's also responsible for inspecting each of the vehicles once a quarter and has to hand in monthly reports of expenses, etc. for each vehicle.  I, on the other hand, am responsible for recording each of the Baptism/Confirmation records that are handed in and transmitting the information to Salt Lake City via the Internet.  Since missionary companions are not to be separated from each other, I get to travel along with Jerry and attempt to read the road maps - which, by the way, leave a lot to be desired!

 This is a picture, taken as we traveled, of some bananas hanging on it's tree.

 This a Church that we took a picture of, but it didn't have anything close to the road to tell us what it is, or how old it is.  But you can tell by the looks of it's fence that it is very old.

 This is another church that we saw on the same day.  It is also very old, but looks like it's been recently cleaned.  Again, nothing to tell us any history on it.  Just thought it was a beautiful building.

And here's another church that we saw along the way.  We love all of the different architectures.  Some of the churches in the Philippines can date back to the late 1500's - these, probably are not that old, and could possibly have been built in the 1700's and newer. 

 We drove the coastal highway between Goa and Tabaco.  We were impressed with the housing all along the way.  This was very typical.

Picture of an island that has a house and a nice beach.  This is the view from the coastal highway to Tabaco from Goa.

 As we drove along the highway, we looked off to the side, and down there were a few homes that, again, are very typical.  Most of the houses or shacks are built right alongside the highway.  Children play right at the side of the road and it seems every family has a dog.  The dogs love to sleep on the highway, and they don't move for cars.  We have to drive out around them!

 Picture of a Jeepney - looks like a school bus, but it isn't.  Jeepney's are painted all different colors, and some look like rainbows to attract people's attention so that they will ride.  Jeepney rides cost p20 for a long distance ride, which translates to about .47 cents.

 Caribow (not sure how to spell it) along the highway.

 Couple of Caribow pulling drag carts.

 Fuzzy Fruit (forgot the name of it).  Jerry placed some keys on the plate to give some perspective as to how large they are.

 Fuzzy Fruit split open and the fruit from inside it.

Fuzzy fruit showing the pit on the left and the covering to the right of it.  That's all that there is to eat from this fuzzy fruit.  It has little to no taste, but it is fun get to. 

Carol is still a "Student Driver".  We went on Friday the 3rd of August to the Transportation Department in Naga, took a number and sat outside (rainy weather and all) for nearly 3 hours before they made an announcement that the internet connection between Naga and Manila was down.  They said to come back at 1:00 and "maybe" it would be fixed.  We came back at 1:00 and were told to come back Monday.  So, we'll try again on Monday.  It's getting a little frustrating, but we've learned that life here in the Philippines does not run on "Mountain Standard Time", or on any time.  They do it their way, and that's it.   That being said, we REALLY ARE loving it here.  The drivers license thing is just a small, little glitch and will be fixed very soon.  Nothing to get up tight about!

Transfers start August 6th, so Jerry will be doing a lot of traveling - getting the Elders and Sisters re-located and making sure that all is well with them.  Thirteen new Elders and Sisters are coming in from the Provo MTC and Manila MTC on Thursday, August 9th.  We're looking forward to getting to know each of them.  As Jerry travels for transfers, Carol stays behind in the apartment.  She's planning on baking a bunch of goodies and freezing them so that when we go to the different areas, we'll have some home-baked treats for the missionaries.  They really look forward to these treats, and Carol loves to have things for them that they'll enjoy.

Well until next time, take care.

Love,

Elder & Sister Campbell