We began celebrating Christmas in September, but for us "foreigners", celebrating Christmas began after Thanksgiving. We had several Zone and District Christmas Conferences. Some were held here in Naga, and others Conferences and parties were held in cities north and south of Naga. We did a lot of traveling to be able to be part of the festivities with all of the Elders and Sisters in the mission. It is hard to really get in the mood for Christmas with the temperature in the 90's. Christmas just isn't Christmas without the cold snow. There are no pine trees for Christmas, so this is the closest we could find.
This picture was taken in the Mission Home. Here's what our little 2 foot tree looked like
A new year is about to begin. Thinking of the 2012 year, we wonder just what new adventures will be coming our way. It will be hard to top 2012, but somehow, whatever comes during the 2013 year will surely be wonderful and most likely a challenge or two, just to keep it interesting.
With the announcement by the Prophet that the ages for Elders and Sisters are being changed to eighteen for Elders and nineteen for the Sisters, our Mission President, President Bliesner announced that we are looking to receive 19 new missionaries in April, 2013, 15 of which will be Sisters - all from the United States and 4 Elders - also from the United States. At the present time, we have a total of 16 Sisters serving, of which 2 are from the United States, one from Srilanka, one from New Zealand and the rest are from the Philippines. We have 156 missionaries serving right now, and we've been told that we will have 250 by the end of 2013. This means ever so much more work for Elder Campbell, and hopefully, more Baptism/Confirmation Records for Sister Campbell to record and send to Salt Lake City so that they will become members of record of the Church.
We have been kept busy in our travels throughout the mission, and are continuing to see new sights. We are always looking for things to enlighten our day.
A typhoon brushed by us and "only" brought torrential rains. It rained heavily for 24 hours. As soon as the rain quit coming down so heavily, we drove to a city about 100 kilometers south (or a 2 1/2 hour drive). We encountered moderate rain most of the way, and even some areas that were flooded, including the roads.
This is a section of the highway with on-coming cars. At one point, we were floating with the currents. On each side of the highway are rice fields that look like lakes.
This is in the middle of one of the towns we were passing through on our way back to Naga. This lady does not seem at all humored about us taking her picture.
We've looked and looked for a place that could be rented, just in case we had family or friends visit. We found the "perfect" place. You would love it. It has lots of natural light, all the air conditioning you would ever want or need, and it's totally reasonably priced. Check it out. Oh, and by the way, the SM shopping mall is close, as well as a hospital. The train is nearby, so no need to rent a car to get around.
We've enlarged the "for rent" sign, just in case someone may be interested.
We're only joking, of course, but it makes one wonder if the owners of this structure REALLY think someone will rent it from them.
We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas, and hope this coming year will be all you want it to be.
Love to you,
Elder and Sister Campbell
