Whew...did we say there was no rain?

It’s been a terrific week! At least it has been a terrific week for rainy, cooler weather! Golly, I’ve been practically human and smiling. We’ve had lots of rain and it has really made a difference.

Monday we went with the Hussey’s to Tagaytay to the south of us. Was a super day with great scenery and company. There is a volcano located there in a big lake. It is the smallest active volcano in the world. The countryside is gorgeous. This is one area where there are pineapple fields that go on forever. We stopped at a local zoo and checked out some of the local beasties. Not too sure how local the camels, lions and tigers were.

The view was amazing and so Elder Smith was taking pictures. He climbed on a stack of blocks to get a better angle. He was next to a tall fence and whoops! He dropped the camera. He finally did a monkey act and climbed the fence and shimmied down the back side. It was at least a 12’ drop. He retrieved the camera then began the return trip. It was a bit of a challenge especially when the branch of the nearby tree gave way. The Husseys and I finally decided not to tell the Mission President that one of his Elders was doing dumb, dangerous stunts. On the way home we picked up some more plants for in front of the apartment. Things are looking pretty homey!

We found the VW in the back room! Our Tuko has finally been sighted. Talk about mass excitement! Our Tuko has been serenading us since we moved in and finally we saw her. Yes, it is a she. She was behind an old stove that is stored in our back laundry room. According to the natives here, the male Tuko’s have the horned heads and the females are smooth and more Gecko looking. She is about 14” long. We didn’t try to catch her and found out later it was a good thing. According to our local expert they have suckers on their hands and fingers and if they get attached to your arm or something, you can’t get them off! Very powerful. So, Aspen needs to stay away from them if they are in Hawaii. I guess there are folks with scars from Tuko encounters.

So much rain the past few days we’ve begun collecting wood for an ark. We’ve personally identified the mating calls of 27 frog species in the last few nights. Talk about noisy stinkers. They mainly come out when it rains and it is almost deafening. Ah, our Tuko just said hello and the frogs are singing and dang, this is a very busy place to live.

No baptisms this week. Guess there has to be a dry one every once in a while.
On Thursday, Pres. Howard was here for interviews and bought lunch for the Zone as a reward for having the highest number of baptisms for July. Was yummy and exciting because it will be happening again next month because we were the highest for August also! Go Elders! The numbers are looking good for this month also so no telling what’s ahead. 6 of our Elders were here for lunch today and we had a planning meeting for re-activation efforts in 2 of the Branches.

We had crock pot cooked a roast and veggies not knowing we were going to end up with a crowd so by the time we added some gravy and cream of chicken soup and shredded the roast we had created a very delicious ulam. Cooked up a batch of rice and everyone was full and happy. Ulam is the Filipino name for practically anything that can be put on rice. It really stretches a meal and is usually very tasty.