Happy Easter

We had a lovely and busy Easter Sunday.  We went to our regular meetings in the Tanza Branch this morning and enjoyed the fast and testimony meeting.  Elder Smith taught the YSA class and then I went to YW and rounded up some volunteers for an activity we’re planning later in the month.  We met with the District Primary president during the afternoon to work on ideas for the Kids Conference on the 24^th then headed back to Tanza for a missionary fireside.  The fireside was well attended and everyone seemed excited about the suggestions to increase branch activity and encourage missionary work.  Our full time Elders were in charge and did a great job.  Elder Afaga and Elder Avincula are such a dynamic companionship and are working very hard.

Our week was hectic with Area Book checks in 3 Zones, Tuesday in Cavite, and Wednesday in DasMarinias and Thursday in Naic. 

During the next couple of weeks we will be visiting two more Zones and getting their books in order.  It is always fun to meet the missionaries and to see our Naic alumni so we look forward to this assignment.

We had a visit from Elder Tadeo (former ZL) on Thursday and he stayed with us overnight and was able to visit with some of his old converts etc. 

We were so happy to see him and proud to see how well he is doing.  We’ve been blessed to hear from several of our released Elders and we love it. 

Early Friday afternoon Elder Smith went with the Ternate Elders, Elder Homer and Elder Hart to visit inactive and recent converts in Ternate.  Their first visit was a recent convert who the Elders had been encouraging to go to the temple to do baptisms for the dead.  Somehow she thought she had to wait a year before she could go at all.  Elder Smith shared the Family History program with her and she seemed excited to start on her genealogy.  They then went with President Ramos and his recently returned missionary son to visit several other inactive families. Friday evening  we went to Trece Martires to witness Sister Jovie being set apart for her mission.  She went into the Manila MTC Saturday morning and will be serving in the Bagio Philippines Mission.  President and Sister Howard were here and after Pres. did the honors we went to King Bee (a senior couple favorite) for dinner.  The Hussey’s and Thomas’s were there also. 

After dinner we headed back to Naic and as we were going through the main intersection in Trece we got “kissed” by a speeding SUV.  Elder Smith hit the brakes with a vengeance and stopped just short of disaster. 

Our front bumper and license plate look pretty pathetic but there were no injuries and only superficial damage to the SUV.  This preceded our first experience in a Philippine police station.  Now that was interesting! 

No citations were issued and we will be forwarding the police report to the PBO once we get it on Monday afternoon.  It was fascinating to be seated next to the driver of the SUV.  She started asking where we are from and why and how long we’ve been here.  So, being a good missionary, Sister Smith OYM’ed her.  We reviewed the Articles of Faith and she has her own copy now.  She is Catholic and one of her bosses is LDS but she really didn’t know anything about the Church.  Once the accident stuff is settled we’ll be turning her name and address over to the Elders in Trece.  Saturday we attended a baptism for the Maragondon Branch.  Baptisms have been down this month for the entire Mission.  Not sure what the problem was but there are a ton scheduled for April.

               

Another new month and new fruit!  This one is Chico. 

Yes, it really is brown and has a rough leathery skin.  The inside is also brown and leathery (kind of tastes like leather too).  Actually it is juicy and sort of sweet but chewy and dare we say it again, leathery?  Once it has ripened it has an aroma like beer.  Yes, we sniffed it.  According to Sister Jean if you eat 5 or more ripe ones you’ll get pretty hammered.  No, we didn’t try it.