We were mostly home this week, but we did travel back to the Bicol region, of Southern Luzon to conduct literacy training sessions for two stakes: Daet and Sipocot. This brings us up to six Stakes so far! Usually, we have had the person who started this before the pandemic, Diana Cruz, with us to be the trainer. Now she is too busy, so it’s up to us! And basically, it was up to me to do the training for the two stakes on Saturday. I can tell you, it was exhausting! But very satisfying as well. As usual, it was a rush to get everything together and transported down there in time. The hold up this time was the book warehouse. We had to wait for them to get enough boxes of books ready for us to sort through. That happened on Tuesday morning. I knew we wouldn’t have much time to do this, so I recruited! We ended up having 16 of us there to find books. We boxed up 19 boxes in an hour!!!! Many hands…..I sent out a notice to all the senior missionaries as well as our close by service missionaries. I was amazed at how many were available and wanted to help. I will ask in the future!!!

After we sent the books off to the warehouse, we went back to the office to box up all the supplies we needed from the office. This took longer. Then we couldn’t get a Lalamove truck to come to the area office. My best friend, Lalamove, isn’t my best friend any more. It is kinda like an Uber, but for transporting stuff. You can choose the size of truck or vehicle you need and if a driver wants the job, they will pick it up. We have never had a problem before, but this time, we tried on Wednesday afternoon then again on Thursday morning. It was getting down to the wire! Finally, our vendor who was gathering all of our things then sending them down to Bicol, found a Transportify truck to come. Miraculously, all the goods were delivered in time to both stakes so we could sort everything for the wards on Friday.

We flew into Naga on a little prop plane, along with three sister missionaries and another member. And about 50 other people as well. I had the window seat and got great views leaving Manila and traveling down to Naga. What a beautiful country this is! We had a couple of people helping us sort the materials in Sipocot, then traveled down to Daet. A bunch of guys were outside playing basketball, so Kenneth Lee (who was the mission president here just a year ago) rallied them all and they came in and sorted and hauled boxes for us. Another record: We got everything all sorted in less than an hour! They were great!

The first training was supposed to begin at 7 am. Yup, you heard me! The bishops had another virtual meeting with the area presidency at 9 so we got an early start. As I looked over the crowd, they all seemed so tired and a bit overburdened. I was impressed by their willingness to be there and felt inspired to let them know that they would have angels to help them. I reminded them of how the early pioneers felt the presence of angels helping to push their handcarts when they felt they couldn’t go on any more. I testified to them that the angels would help them bear their burdens and they would be able to implement this literacy program. I hope they understood everything I tried to explain to them.

I also felt the inspiration of the Holy Ghost as I pondered what to say and how to best explain the program to them. It was fun to demonstrate ways to get the kids motivated and to use all modes of learning. It was also fun to be with the little ones and to see their beautiful babies! It seems that wherever we go, there are some really bright little children. This time, we were amazed at the stake president’s son who was five and spoke such excellent English, could read a bit, and played “I Am a Child of God” on the piano for us. We were accompanied by Joem, the same driver we had before, and of course, we went to a place where people can come up and sing with the band. We were intimidated by a patron who did that and had an amazing voice and stage presence. We didn’t go up (I vowed never to do that again) but Joem did. It was fun, and we had some great seafood. On Saturday evening, we reached our hotel around 6:30 and hopped into the pool for some good exercise. By the time we finished dinner (good Korean food) we were exhausted!!! But a good exhausted.

The last few pictures are from the cemetery in Naga. We were amazed at the different types of honoring the dead we saw here. From a simple grave all the way up to a large house with monuments inside. However, God is no respecter of person. It’s all for naught.