People of the Philippines.... first of many posts like this!

I'm not going to bore you with a book this week, I'm going to bore you with PICTURES!! I'm late because we have had a very busy week on the road taking care of missionary apartments and attending building dedications AND attending church in very remote areas. I'll just explain the pictures and they will tell all.

Below... we were in a store finding things for apartments. Very few of the stores here have any air conditioning (so we were sweating profusely!) and this little guy was running around like a busy, normal toddler and his mother was chasing him around. He had a winter hat on ...and the temperature was in the high 90's. I was laughing at his antics and asked his Mother if I could take their picture.

Below: I saw this lovely family trying to get a picture near the century tree and asked them if I could take one for myself. Very sweet family!

Below: We attended the dedication of a new meeting house waaaaay up in the mountains outside of San Carlos, Negros Island. Small building but very faithful saints that were SO happy to have their very own building. Many of those saints walk for more than an hour, one way, in rain or shine to attend church because they have no transportation! From Left to right are Elders Dapadap, Abiera, Ardon, Frianeza; Clyde (youngest son of Fernandez') and Sis/Pres Fernandez. Outside the newly dedicated Macasilao building.

Below: One of the families of the Macasilao branch that have been members for a long time.

Below: a picture of the Macasilao Branch right after dedication:

Below: Our Filipino version of the Tabernacle Choir from San Carlos!

Below: Only one of the several dogs that attended church that day!

Below: A lovely young woman that helps her family run a monkey sanctuary. It is on the way up the mountain to the Macasilao building. It is small and they charge very little money to help them support their little business of rescuing abused or abandoned pet monkeys. One of them was found after an electrocution and they saved it. She was so sweet and complimented me on my feeble attempts at Cebuano. But we talked and understood most of what each other was saying.

Below: Her younger sister

Their crazy shy, little brother. He was soooo cute and funny!

Below: One of the beautiful Mothers and baby we saw this weekend!

Below: Some of the beautiful children that came in off the playground to talk and learn about Jesus. They were so cute! In the background, in the glasses is one of our missionary sisters that facilitated the meeting Sis Barcelona

Below: Elder Epperson playing ball with the kids on the playground before the meeting started. He was a BIG hit!

Below: Some of the little girls sitting right in front of us in the special sacrament meeting. We handed them our phones with the words to songs and they sang their little hearts out - it was GREAT!

Below: One of our favorites Elder Cary and Elder Hansen. Elder Cary was telling the story of David and Goliath with Elder Hansen acting the Goliath part and the little guy was David. Our missionary Sisters Hess and Barcelona translated into Cebuano and the kids had a LOT of fun with the story!

Below: Sis Hess. Her very blonde hair fascinates the children, and they call her "barbie" and she is a GREAT missionary! And we have matching dresses but she looks much better in it than I do!

Below: Sister Cary and some more beautiful Filipino people!

Below: I LOVED this kid!

Below: some additional random shots of beautiful Filipino kids and people!

Below: She stopped eating her crackers so she could do a "cool" pose for me. She was DARLING!!

Below: OK ... gotta say something about these guys! I was taking pictures of beautiful little kids, and they hollered out... "what about us... were Gwapo (handsome)!! We all laughed and I made them pose for their pictures as well. They were really funny! In fact we had the entire neighborhood laughing!

As a closing.... I am always amazed at the kindness and willingness to share a smile, pose for a picture and how much they appreciate even a few words in their own language. If I ask for a picture.. they ALWAYS pose and smile. They are beautiful people!

For any of you teachers out there... their schools are very, very humble! We used a school room for our meeting and this particular teacher probably had a minimum of 40 students in NO air conditioning, cement floors and a dirt playground! Her desks were broken, cracked floors and very worn-out teaching materials BUT.. you could tell she was a very dedicated teacher! I'll have to do another blog about that soon,