Hi Friends and Family,
Since our mission is exactly 100 weeks,
we thought we would send 20 reports;
about 1 every 5 weeks. That should be plenty.
Carolyn was asked to help create a newsletter. The first edition was mid-September. It is strictly electronic and goes to about 2000 email boxes. She is really in her element - coloring, assembling, puzzling and editing.
The Philippines is made up of islands, 7,000+ of them. They are divided into 3 sections: North - Luzon, Central - Visayas, South - Mindanao. We live on Luzon and it feels like our "continent". Occasionally, we travel to two smaller islands called Marinduque (Mare-an-dew-kay) and Mindoro.
We have taken our car on the 3 hour ferry rides, but found it easier to take the "supercat", a one hour passenger-only boat. (This trip we were treated to a DVD of open-heart surgery amid sea squalls and moaning.)
Each of these 2 islands has church congregations scattered like banana leaves in the wind, in many little towns. When you consider that the Philippines is remote, then these islands are "remoter", and their little towns, miles in, up and around tropical mountain roads are among the "remotest" places you are apt to find church members in this world.
But the members are sincere, faithful, well-studied and eager to receive visitors. Occasionally we hear people call out to us "hi Joe", an endearing nickname held over from WWII. We are real novelties.
We've decided to venture out on Sundays and visit a different congregation each week so that we can meet many of the young people in this area. We attend RS/PH, then sit in on a sunday school class. There we meet the local full-time missionaries, the ward mission leader, new converts and investigators. And always there is a tender and enlightening Sacrament mtg.
Here are highlights from our meetings:
Many times hymns are sung without accompaniment. The chorister then becomes a "singing compass". She/he starts by singing the first line as a solo, pauses and says "ready, sing." Luckily for us the hymn books are in English. Filipinos can read, sing and understand english. Thank goodness. The singing of hymns is a real unifying experience. It's conversational English that challenges many locals. They say speaking it gives them a "nose bleed"...and laugh. We reply that speaking Tagolag gives us a "brainfreeze".
Classes are most often taught in tagolag and then Elder & Sister Howell are called on to comment. This means we need to be following along in our English manuals. One day, Lane pointed at Carolyn and said, "Sister Howell will answer for us." Luckily she had been reading the lesson but she had no idea where the teacher had paused. She stood and reviewed the importance of chastity and sexual purity (lesson #39). Nuff said.
In one town on Marinduque we were privileged to visit in the home of an incredible church leader. President L is an institution in the Philippines -- a man of many firsts. He is a humble, elderly, talented and smart man, an attorney by profession, and a landowner. His grandfather was a chinese houseboy who insisted that his children all get a college education, despite living in poverty. Three generations later, President L has children who are not only faithful Christians they are also accomplished in their careers.
Pictured; dedicated church leaders who evidence by their actions that they truly love God. They make our hearts happy!
We planned one Sunday to meet a church leader at his congregation in Nasugbu. We were warmly welcomed and invited share a few words of encouragement to the congregation. In the process we shared our feelings about our church mission. Early in the meeting, a young, beautiful, sister missionary walked up and sidled next to Sis H and began whispering a translation into her ear. Very sweet. After meetings we met with the priesthood leader and were invited to his home for lunch. Very nice. Their two young children scooted next door to G'ma's house so they wouldn't have to speak english to us and we sat in their two chairs.
(pictured: The Howells attend a youth activity, sharing closing remarks)
Sunday morning in Santa Cruz Laguna. We visited the Gospel Principles class where we met Josephine, an investigator and the family of Maria, newly baptized. Again, as we enter the church we are invited to speak to the congregation. 12 fans whirl overhead. Two full-time missionaries sing a splendid version of "I Need Thee Every Hour". Congregants sing along or mouth the words. Josephine, seated on the front row bows her head and dabs at her eyes. Maria's family of 5 are welcomed as new members of the church! The chapel is full to the brim. We look out the open windows at rusted tin roofs, palm and banana trees swaying in the breeze. We think about our testimonies and how easy it is here to stand up and share our beliefs, to express love, happiness and encouragement.
The members simply shower us with greetings, and reach out everywhere to shake our hands. Parents nudge their wee little toddlers to do the same. One brother greeted us and said "welcome home!" We nearly cried.
Here is a photo taken after we spoke as part of a church conference. Members made us special name tags, hung flower-medallions on our necks and afterward gave Sis H a flower bouquet. Very sweet. Two branch choirs performed touching, inspiring numbers. We are amazed and grateful to be here.
General Conference: With a 14 hour time differential it is not advisable to participate in the 'live' sessions (meetings) at Sunday midnight, 4:00am and then PH at 8:00am on Monday morning. SO, conference weekend here occurs at normal times, but one week later. It is a world and a week away from standing on our balcony in SLC watching the crowds snaking their way to temple square. But just in case there are startling announcements, like a temple on Mindoro, we google the conference news as it happens.
Many of our days are spent traveling the highways and byways (mostly the latter) on our way to provide training, or teach English or other classes. A few days we spend at our home office, texting young people, preparing lessons or working on the newsletters.
Here's a tricycle loaded with banana leaves headed to a restaurant that will wrap them around warm rice.
When we travel, we spend between 1 - 3.5 hours to drive to our destination, several hours teaching, meeting and greeting, and then a couple of hours to get home. The traveling is usually tense and draining, especially coming home on rainy nights, so a trip consumes the better part of our time and energy on any given day. We love it!! Our pathways are getting so familiar, we can almost drive them with our eyes closed. In fact, there are many times Carolyn has to close her eyes while Lane drives.
One evening while driving through the flooded streets of Santa Cruz we ran over a submerged curb. The front bumper was torn loose so we pulled over and Lane crawled underneath to do a quick fix to get us home. Carolyn stood over him holding 2 umbrellas to semi-protect us as we knelt in puddles.
Our preparation days are segmented. We rarely get a day that is not mostly business, so our visits to the stores, or banks, or scenic sites are often intermingled with our missionary duties. Such is the blessing of a Senior Mission. You control your own schedule. It is not uncommon for us to arrive home around midnight, so our wake-up times are varied also. However, we recently found a Monday afternoon, unencumbered, and decided to just take a relaxing, wandering trip around one of the San Pablo region's 7 lakes. Lake Palakpakin. What a fun few hours. No pressure driving. We let everyone pass US! On a mountain road we looked through the jungle to see the lake below, and stopping, asked how to get down to the lake. A kind gentleman offered to escort us, so we pulled over and began a small hike. At the lakeshore, we asked if was possible to rent a boat (rowboat, canoe, or whatever) so we could go out on the lake. That was such a novel concept to him - no such possibility existed. But he offered to take us out on HIS boat for free. We were delighted.
Then we saw it - 6 or 7 long bamboo poles strapped together. No sides. Just a long, narrow raft. But it did have a seat on the end - a sitting surface of about 6 inches by 15 inches, raised off the bamboo poles by about 4 inches. He invited Lane to board and have a seat. Lane bit. And then Lane asked where Carolyn would go. He laughed and said "not 2 Americanos on one boat -- too big". But then, in broken Taglish (Tagalog mixed with English) he offered to strap his uncle's boat to his own and take us both. How could we resist? With this kind man paddling, out we went on the lake. Since these are volcanic mountains, the lakes take on the appearance of exotic crater lakes - heavenly, peaceful floating. (Please, no comments about the lake level under these two passengers).
Every such lake has fish-farms. Ernesto graciously walked us through the economics. Turns out he is the administrator of the permits for that lake. It goes something like this: (remember, 42 pesos equals one dollar) 600 pesos for an annual permit. You get about 10 meters by 10 meters of lake surface and you surround it with bamboo poles that hold the netting for your fish. The netting drops down into the water about 5 meters and keeps all your fish captive. Typically you attach your farm to neighboring farms for stability. Buy fingerlings from neighboring farms for about 2000 pesos, and bags of fish food for about 500 pesos per bag.
Then, when your fish are grown, you capture them and sell them into a local market for 80 pesos per kilo(2.2 lbs). Ernesto can produce enough fish to net (no pun intended) about 6000 pesos per month. This becomes his major family income. To keep it in perspective, Elder & Sister Howell, living in the same economy, draw 10,000 pesos from our U.S. savings every 3-4 days. But our home is not made of tin, scrap boards, a dirt floor and outdoor plumbing. And we have a diet that goes beyond fish heads and rice. Humbling.
We would have readily given $100 for a similar experience anywhere in the world. Despite his resistance Ernesto would only let us pay him p500, or about $12.50.
We love our mission. We can work as hard as we have energy, and rest when we need to. And we are living in a tropical paradise, amongst some of the kindest, gentlest people on earth. What more could you ask?
We know God loves us because He sent His own Son to guide us safely home.
Our love to you all,
Dad & Mom
Lane & Carolyn
Elder and Sister Howell
