August 10, 2013

I thought there should be a blog about some of the transportation we have in our area of the Philippines.  We have shown Jeepneys and pudyaks before, but the following caught our eye.

This is a family on their way to church.

 

Believe it or not, this trycee of school kids is not loaded all of the way yet.

 

Notice the guys on top of the Jeepney, and it's raining!

 

 

 They use their motorcycles for EVERYTHING.

 

Aside from the 2 tractors we have seen, this is typical of the motorized farm equipment and they are not very plentiful. 

 

 

This is the 'workhorse' of the Philippines, a caribao pulling a drag sled loaded with rice.  

 

 

Passenger car on the train that runs through our bed room blowing it's whistle. (Actually it's across the street but seems a lot closer)

 

 

Military truck. We see soldiers quite often.

 

 Even some WW2 truck still used by farmers.

 

Life is still an adventure for us and we enjoy seeing the countryside.  It is always so green and beautiful we forget that there is supposed to be a change of season, although, at times, we do miss the fall colors and snow.

 

Please keep all of the Missionaries throughout the world in your prays.

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Finding new apartments is not an easy task for the Elders and Sisters in our Mission.  As we are experiencing the increase in numbers, we are constantly looking for newer and bigger apartments.  The picture below is of a house that our Elders in San Fernando recently found.  Bright colors are the norm, and by now, we look at it as being normal, too.  Bright pinks, yellows, blues, purple, green are the most popular colors - all on the same building!!.

 

If you look to the far left of this picture, you can see the house that is pictured above.  Hmmm, now, how about GETTING there???  This rough path is surrounded by flooded rice fields, is pretty precarious to walk along, and you really don't want to meet anyone coming from the opposite direction.

 

Here are Elder Campbell and one of the two Elders who will be living in the house - taking supplies to the house.  The path is made of old pieces of concrete that have been placed there for the comfort of those who live here.

Oops, what did I say about not wanting to meet someone coming from the opposite direction?  Fortunately, they were able to pass each other with a little bit of careful footwork.

 



 

Feel hungry?  In the front of the house is a banana tree, so if you like green bananas, help yourself.

 

A grazing "Guard Goat" is stationed just outside the house.  Just like all of the Filipinos, he loves to have his picture taken.

 

We do get to do some fun things - it's not all work and no play.  We recently attended a Zone Activity on this beautiful beach.  It was extremely hot and the humidity had to be at least 110%, but the breeze from the ocean helped to keep it tolerable.

 

Here we are on the shore with a group of Elders in the background.

 

All over the beach were tiny, tiny crabs scampering everywhere - from one hole in the sand to another.  One of the Elders picked this one up so that we could get a close-up of one of them.  Notice the two little eyes on the top. 

 

The Sisters in this zone were jumping for joy at being on the beach.  Sister Reeder is on my left.  She is the wife of our new Mission President.

 

President Reeder and the Elders enjoying one of the fun activities that was planned.

 

You can't go to the beach without searching for sea shells.  Jerry's found something that he's rinsing off.  The shells were plentiful.  It was so much fun looking for them.

 

Here's the shells we found, as well as a large piece of coral on the right.

 

On our way to one of our areas, we came upon this man dragging a huge leaf behind him down the National Highway.  He looks like he's riding "it", but he's actually on a motorcycle.

 

We recently attended a baptism at our Pamplona Branch.  This is a picture of our Branch President on the right, his son and one of his counselors.  Next to his counselor is Elder Kornegay, Jeromy, Sister Andres, Sister Sanft, Elder Ballesteros and the other counselor to the Branch President.  It was a wonderful day, and sadly, this young man had no family there to support him.  He bore a powerful testimony and was so happy to become a member of the Church.

 

 

That's it, for now.  Take care.

 

The 2 Naga Campbells

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday, June 23, 2013

We've been extremely busy lately, preparing for the division of our Mission.  We've been lucky enough to have been traveling to the southern part of our mission, but still have not seen all of it.  It looks as though we won't have a chance to see where some of the apartments are located.  The new Supply/Recorder Senior couple for the Legazpi Mission arrived on the 19th of June.  We've been busy trying to train then and show them some of the areas they'll be responsible for.

 

Sister Wilcox standing next to an owner of one of our apartments, 2 missionaries and Elder Wilcox.  Elder and Sister Wilcox are from Bountiful and have served two other proselyting missions - one in Greece and the other in Pakistan Mission, which took in India, Afghanistan and two other countries.  They are about our age and will be serving here for 23 months.

 

Relief Society sisters in our Pamplona Branch.  This is the largest attendance we've had in Relief Society since we've been in this branch.  They are always eager to have their picture taken.

 

Carol with Elder and Sister Lawhorn.  This couple will be in the Legazpi Mission, so we'll no longer have the opportunity to visit with them after July 1st.  They work in the Family History library of the Ligao Ward Building and had some spare time so they volunteered to go with us to upgrade an apartment.  They were called to serve an eighteen month mission and are going home to St. George, Utah the 2nd week of July.

 

Sister Lawhorn and Carol watching one of the outriggers leaving to fish.

 

 

Some of the 31 arriving missionaries waiting for a ride to the Mission Home in Naga.

 

Sisters watching as their luggage is being loaded on top and inside of a Jeepney, which will be heading to the Mission Home.

 

 

Well, we've got 7 days left before our Philippines Naga Mission will be half as large as it now is.  At that time, we will only have 121 Elders and Sisters here in Naga.  We will continue to receive 28 to 30 new Sisters and Elders every six weeks, with only a few going home.  Finding new apartments for them and upgrading existing apartments is a major part of what we are doing right now. 

 

Again, we thank you for your prayers and support.

 

Love,

Elder and Sister Campbell

 

 

 



 



Friday, May 10, 2013

Adding onto our last post:

 

On rare occasions, we use the office Elder's Ford Ranger pickup to make deliveries to our apartment upgrades.  Our mountain west camping skills come in handy, as we learned early in life how to pack efficiently, using every bit of space available.



 

Back of the pickup we drove with supplies.  Bunk beds on the bottom with mattress, closets, wash tubs, desks and other things for the coming missionaries.

 

 

Here is a view of the side of the pickup - cram packed when we drove to Guinobatan to "upgrade" an apartment to accommodate 4 missionaries.  As you can see, it was totally packed with supplies such as a mattress, desk fan, iron, box of Book of Mormons, etc..

 

Sisters and Elders unloading van.

 

Desk assembly

 

Two of our sweet Sisters assembling a stand fan.

 

 Two elders helping Jerry put a bunk bed together.





We always enjoy the children and they absolutely LOVE having their picture taken.

 

 More children

 

 Wooden wheeled Carabao cart.  They use Carabao more than you would think.  We see very little mechanized equipment that is used for farming.

 

 These two buckets that this young man is carrying contains a drink called "Gorp".  It is a sticky, sweet drink that you have to acquire a taste for.  We have not quite acquired that yet.

 

These white pods on this tree appear after the tree loses it's leaves.  When they open up, they have something that looks like cotton, similar to our cottonwood trees in the States.

 

 Sisters who are studying English with Sister Campbell as their tutor

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 2 more students

 

 Hope you enjoyed these additional pictures as much as we enjoyed taking them.  And life goes on.

 

Please remember the missionaries throughout the world in your prayers. 



Friday, May 10, 2013


What a busy time in the missionary world! As you recall, in General Conference they announced that due to the age change for young men and young women to serve missions, the Church is experiencing a huge increase in those responding to the "Call to Serve". All over the world, new missions have been formed and expanded to accommodate this enthusiastic response.

 

31 beautiful/handsome Sisters and Elders who arrived April 23rd. As we picked them up at the airport, it was fun to see the expressions on their faces as they took in just a minute part of the beauty of the landscape.  Then, while travelling to the Mission Home from the airport with 10 of them we heard such expressions as "We're going to die", "What is that?".  Driving on the highways in the Philippines is like nothing they have ever experienced, thus the "We're going to die". Because they had so much luggage, we had to hire a Jeepney to transport the luggage to the Mission Home.

 

 

After arriving at the Mission Home, having lunch, being instructed by Sister Bliesner of how to take care of their health, and interviewed by President Bliesner, testimonies were shared and preparations were made to take half of them to their first areas of service.  The other half of them had to spend the night in the Mission Home, since we don't have enough vehicles to accommodate them and their companions (62 in all).  Some rode in our 2 vans and a pickup, others traveled via Jeepneys, Tricees and bus to their destinations. 



Elder Campbell and I are feeling that enthusiasm, as we continue to establish new apartments and upgrade existing apartments to accommodate four missionaries. We, again, have been able to travel our entire mission, reaching the southern most point, and feel a certain sadness as we realize we will be losing this part of our mission when the new Legaspi Mission is formed - July 1st. During the next three weeks we will set up apartments every other day as we assemble the bunk beds, fans, desks, stoves, as well as purchasing refrigerators, mattresses, etc. Our little van hardly gets a chance to cool down between travels. This gives us a chance to enjoy the beauties and wonders of this part of the world.

It is so much fun to work with the Sisters and Elders as we upgrade the existing apartments.  It seems as though when we are needing to replace existing wooden beds, the apartments have been built around the beds, because it is impossible to get them out of the apartments without tearing them apart. 

 



 

 

 

 

 



If you look closely, Sister Sanft has a hammer in her right hand.  They had to dismantle this bed in the stairwell - could not get it back up the stairs and back into the bedroom because it was too heavy and awkward to handle.

 

 

Sister Sanft was SO DETERMINED to tear this old bed apart!

 

Once the old beds are out of the room, new bunks are set up.

 





No matter where the apartments are that we set up, we always receive help from neighbors, even though most of them are not members of the Church . . . . yet.



 

Our missionary "compliment" has now reached 200, with a goal of having 230 before the mission splits. Of course, this means that there are almost 200 more requests daily for supplies and the Baptism/Confirmation Records are pouring in. I currently have on my desk 40 new baptisms to record and send to Church General Headquarters. It seems as though we can never catch up.

We thank you again for being so supportive.

Elder & Sister Campbell