50 Years Ago Today!

Today is a pretty cool anniversary for me. It was 50 years ago today that I entered the Salt Lake Mission Home as a nineteen-year-old missionary bound for the Philippines. Now I'm serving here again, this time with my eternal companion, and life couldn't be any better or any sweeter. Here is a picture of our anniversary celebration lunch, with Sisters Abellaneda and Su'a, at one of the very good Chinese fast-food restaurants here in Dumaguete.

Yesterday was a pretty good day, too, as Sister Cutler and I finished our first round of apartment inspections. We visited fifty-five apartments in just over six weeks, with each visit comprising an inspection, an inventory, the delivery of furniture and supplies, making repairs where needed (and within our capabilities), and a few minutes to visit with the missionaries. It's a ten-hour drive from one end of the mission to the other, so we visit apartments by geographic zone, staying three to five days at local hotels while we cover an area.

The visits are time-consuming in and of themselves, but it takes even more time to purchase supplies. Look at the list of standard furnishings (remember, you can click on any picture in the blog and it will fill the entire screen) and imagine trying to shop without a Walmart, a Costco, a Target, a Home Depot, or any of the big box stores you are used to. 

We shop in small stores, each one carrying different items (but never having the same items on the next visit), only using cash as a general rule, having no place to park as a general rule, loading the truck to the gills every day so we can head out and visit four or five apartments, then doing it all again the next day. Our days are long and tiring, and it's crazy, but we love it! 

The roads are pretty good, but much of our mission is very rural, so we're always in the jungle on smaller roads. (Bonus points for spotting the dragonfly in the picture below.)

Here are some rice paddies close to the apartment in Codcod. Sugar cane and rice are the primary crops grown on Negros Island. During sugar cane harvest, which occurs several times during the year, there will be hundreds of trucks stacked full of sugar cane, heading to the refineries. The roads get covered with mud from the sugar cane fields, flung onto the road from between the big trucks' dual rear wheels after they pull out of the sugar cane fields, and driving is even harder than usual because the trucks take up so much room.

We'll easily pass 200 trucks in one day, although many of them will be parked at the side of the road in a queue, ready to pull into a refinery and unload. (On a side note, we also regularly dodge more than 20 dogs per kilometer while driving.)

Here is a picture of Sister Cutler and Sister Sapan (our new office secretary - her husband is the new financial clerk) on Siquijor Island, which is just off the coast of Dumaguete. We have four missionaries assigned there and the only access is by ferry boat. The island is (in)famous for witchcraft and voodoo, but people say that's just a story that's told to attract tourists.

Here is a picture of Sister Cutler, with Elder and Sister Beard. We just ordered dinner from a beach restaurant 100 meters from the Beard's apartment in Sipalay. They provide great support to the missionaries in their remote zone on the island, which helps us spend more time in the other six zones.

Speaking of zones, we still travel to every zone conference and one of the highlights of each conference is the catered lunch. (It's not necessarily a highlight for us, but the young missionaries can eat free food like there is no tomorrow.) This photo is from a Christmas zone conference where we served lechon, which is the Filipino word for whole roasted pig. It's very delicious, including the skin, which is crispy like a thick potato chip.

I'll end with a photo of Sister Cutler and I sitting in a human-sized bird's nest that is one of the attractions at the Abaca Cafe, high in the mountains above Cauyawan.

We love our mission and we have grown closer to the Lord and closer to each other through our experiences. We miss all of you and wish you the best!